Where am I?

First thought that entered Kokjan Ras’s head was her low awareness of her exact location. Instead of being transported to a safe location, she ended up being transported several meters off the ground, ending with a rough landing.

Shrugging off the miniscule damage to her legs, abdomen, and shoulders, due to the way she landed, she looked around. This location was completely unfamiliar to her.

So this is the ground of the Second Trial, a world of water.

She was standing on the shore, but surrounding her were countless rivers and interconnected lakes, as well as waterfalls. The rivers however, were all flowing towards the same location, stretching further and further away.

While there were land structures, the majority of what was in sight was simply moving water.

There is water everywhere, how is this supposed to be a trial? Other than those who cannot swim, it is not even dangerous. Well, at least with my water magic specialization, I am at a clear advantage here. Might as well take a sip, the water looks so clean….

But the moment her finger touched the water, she felt an undeniable sensation of being burned. She immediately withdrew her hand off the water.

Examining her hand, she found that the tip was burned to a serious degree, almost like her hand touched a molten metal from her younger sister’s forge.

Using her mana, she immediately healed the damage.

This water…could it be…

She clipped off a single finger nail and made it touch the water in front of her, the finger nail simply dissolved into nothingness.

Holy Water

There is no mistaking it.

Along with silver, Holy Water was one of the weaknesses of the demons. Anything Holy was poisonous to demons, and the Holy water in this location seemed to be especially potent.

Landing in a pool of Holy Water is tantamount to suicide. While some stronger demons can resist and survive Holy Water, they would still be hurt in the process.

Only humans or those of human blood can be safe in Holy Water. Holy water is only deadly to those of demon blood.

I was careless; to think the grounds for the Second Trial so are dangerous to this magnitude… As expected of the Great Ones, only they could have come up with a trial this deadly.

Looking around, she saw that while she did have somewhat of a rough landing, she was luckier than the others.

Floating in water were countless demons, just from where she stood she could see at least forty bodies, their forms steadily dissolving into nothing; it was obvious they were killed on contact with the Holy Water.

This place is a death trap.

But it is perfect.

Just you wait, Ren Karatengu.

I will have my revenge.

* * *

“Ouugh…. that hurt.” Orin rubbed the back of his head, he ended up in a location with somewhat of a rocky terrain, but there was grass near him, so he was not anywhere arid.

“Lord Orin, is that you?” a demon’s voice sounded out.

A feline demon now showed his face.

He looked like a gigantic, bipedal, horned cat at least that was the way Orin perceived him. Toro was a demon with mixed blood so it was rather hard to pinpoint what type of demon he was, it was easier to call him a wild cat type demon.

“Toro. I see, so I am not alone here. Is boss with you?”

“No, Lord, I was here alone. For some reason I ended up being stranded here right after entering the portal, with none of the Tengu clan in sight, but then I heard your voice.”

“Hmmm, the others must have landed nearby, let’s have a look.”

Beetle demon and wild cat demon made their way out of the tall grass; apparently the people who lived here harvested their crops here. The grass could conceal their features almost completely.

After walking for some time, they exited the grass and now they were looking at the populace inhabiting this area.

Armed people, people wearing robes, some spearmen, and many villagers, it was a steady place with lots of folk.

But the key fact that stood out was that none of them had horns.

They were humans.

“We need to get out of here, now!”

Just as Orin and Toro were about to hide into the tall grass bushes, they ended up in a rather bad situation, with countless spears pointed at their throats.

Humans have found them, so fast.

“We have found another two!”

“Just great. Throw them in the cell with the other one, we will find what to do with them later.”

They were outnumbered, with silver spears and swords pointed at them, they had no chance to fight back.

Captured just like that, they were cuffed with mana sealing cuffs and led into a cell. But strangely, the cell was already occupied by someone else.

This someone had very strange features, his appearance was humanoid, but his entire body had stripes all over it, they were not tribal markings, they were the color of his skin. He was wearing only pants, the black and white stripes were everywhere, hands, legs, and the entire upper body, even his face was striped.

The only place that was not striped was his right hand, which seemed to be made of different substance than the rest of his body.

Orin felt like he would be spending a while with this strange fellow in this prison cell….

* * *

“Look out!” their group was falling towards the water, so Akjan quickly made a portal of darkness to teleport them somewhere safe.

Thus, a group of Tengu clanners, namely Sirinke, Sukesir, and Aijasyl, ended up unharmed as they entered the wormhole-like portal created by Akjan’s darkness magic, they were teleported to a patch of land, where they landed with a dull thud.

“Oh no, you don’t!” Karli extended her hand in front of her as she used her ice magic to freeze the water underneath her. When she and Kizilkoz landed, they ended up falling in a place covered with ice and snow.

“Thank you.” Kizilkoz mumbled to Karli, rubbing her bottom, she landed on the harder portion of ice, but at least she did not land on water, after all, she didn’t know how to swim.

With a single solid area created by ice, Karli signaled to the other Tengu clan members that they were ok, making road of ice, she and Kizilkoz proceeded to cross across towards the other Tengu clan members.

“Karli, Kizilkoz, was there anyone else near you when you were apported here?” Aijasyl asked of the two of them.

“No, come to think of it, where is Master?” Karli looked around; Ren was nowhere near in sight.

Their group consisted of only six demons, the others were simply gone.

“Come to think of it, Shaula, Orin, Toro, Lowa, and Gema are not here as well. Could it be, they were transported to a different location?” Sukesir remarked.

“That could be the case, however, didn’t we all end up in the same location on the First Trial? Something about this Second Trial feels not right, almost like we were thrown in random locations!” Sirinke pondered.

“Uhm, guys, take a look.” Kizilkoz pointed her finger at the river.

Clothes, dissolving body parts, and countless pieces of what once were demons were floating in the water. It did not seem like the demons were decomposing here for so long, it smelled recent.

“I wonder.” Akjan plucked a single strand of hair off her head and dipped it into the water, the hair was immediately dissolved.

“Everyone, stand back! The entirety of river and lakes are Holy Water!”

Filled with dread, each one took a step back, Holy Water; a deadly substance to any demon, this place was very dangerous.

“So that’s what the Second Trial has in store for us. Very well. We will just have to hope others were lucky enough not to land in Holy Water. We might be able to regroup on our way of completing the Second Trial, I believe.” Aijasyl remarked.

“But where should we go? The Great Ones were not specific where should we head to finish the Trial.” Sukesir was naturally cautious.

“Wise demons used to say, go with the flow, they must have meant we must follow the flow of the river that must be the answer. If we go where the route of the river takes us, we might be able to reach the ending point of Second Trial. I am sure; everyone else would come to the same conclusion, regardless of where they end up, so if everyone goes towards the same location, we are bound to be reunited. I just hope everyone survived the landing.”

Landing in Holy Water would be an instant death to any demon.

“Well then, let’s go!” Kizilkoz now beckoned the others to follow her.

“Akjan, are you ok?” Aijasyl found Akjan staring at the body of water with concerned gaze.

“Yeah, I…I am just praying to the Great Ones so that Ren would be all right.”

“No need to worry, he is a not a weak demon, he will be all right.”

“Yes, you are completely right, I am sure he landed in a safe place.”

* * *

Well, the view has never been better…

So many bubbles, fishes, sea creatures, and sinking corpses….

Ok, what the hell is going on?

My head feels weird…

Why can’t I breathe? Hmm, the lights seem to be fading or not, I feel like I am floating….

It feels so doozy….

I can fly, I can fly, I don’t know how, but I can fly!

Just move my arms and legs in circular motion and I seem to be floating, and move them up and down makes me body rise higher and higher…

Oh, I am reaching the light; I can almost touch it…

Ren’s head now exited the body of water; his body was unharmed, but very wet. He grasped for air.

Now that he figured out that the reason he could now breathe, he ended up finding his way to the surface, but his movements were anything but clear.

He was walking in zigzags, occasionally falling down face-first into the water, then standing up again, falling down into the mud, rolling around like a loon, and then walking up again.

It was obvious he was drunk.

Within the water, he ended up having so much water enter into his body, he was sure his stomach was filled to the brim with water.

Everything was spinning, nothing seemed to be stable, his mind was definitely not in the right place.

So many large rocks….

Ren remarked after taking a look at many tiger type demons surrounding him, but they were all unconscious. The landing was not very gentle to them, causing them to pass out on impact.

Well, might as well take a nap.

Ren ended up climbing into one of the barrels tiger demons were carrying. Tiger demons are exceptionally large; they were three meters tall at average, so their barrels were very large as well, easily fitting a small demon like Ren.

So comfy….I can sleep here forever….

Ren now proceeded to enter his drunken sleep, in a barrel filled with tiger demon’s supplies. He didn’t know at the time that the barrels they were carrying contained explosives tiger demons of Baris clan were carrying with them to give them an edge on the competition.

He simply thought that some objects felt a little uncomfortable, but in his drunken state of mind, he simply did not care.