Chapter 145: Chapter 23 Big Bird?
"Well that was one hell of a mess" I huffed as I walked through the forest that surrounded me.
"Still, at least I got something out of it" I muttered to myself while rubbing the back of my head.
(I'll still have to keep an eye on them for now but it should be fine, and if not? Well, I can always just kill them later) my eyes glanced downwards to the ground beneath my feet in contemplation.
(I still can't figure out just what was wrong with them but at least I seemed to have been somewhat right in my assumptions)
It turns out that I was somewhat right in my diagnosis, however something rather bizarre happened when the energy of the abyss entered into their body. It was as if a peace of them that I didn't even notice had been missing all this time and the black blood that flowed into them was almost eager to fill it. Kind of like the last peace of a jigsaw puzzle. I wasn't able to understand why this occurred, so I left it for now.
Some part of me wonders if maybe the person or thing that had gone through the effort to create them was actually planning for this to happen. Maybe they had planned for them to become a creature of the abyss from the very beginning or something...however, that is just a theory on my part.
Anyway, I hadn't actually learned all that much from them. Most of what they had told me was things that I already knew about beforehand, however there were a few new pieces of information that I hadn't known previously. For one thing, this angel of madness or whatever they were called had apparently amassed a large following of people who worshiped and fought for them. With this information and the fact that they apparently also had crimson wings, I am really starting to believe that they were the ones that originally formed the cult all that time ago.
They also knew several different things that I didn't know about the fragments. For one, the fact that all the fragments had never been collected by a singular entity before, apparently they had appeared throughout history but no one had managed to actually find them all. The only ones that they knew about were the two fragments that were skills, they had apparently never encountered the other fragments. Oh and that was something as well, apparently only Miseria and Baldr were skills the rest were something else entirely, what they are however they didn't know.
When I asked if they knew about the origins of the fragments all they said was that they had no idea, according to them there is very few, if anyone who has any idea about where the fragments came from. I did feel like they were holding something back so I asked about the flashes of memories I saw when I killed the Sixth but that's when things got weird...really weird.
=============Flashback=============
"What else aren't you telling me?" I asked while narrowing my eyes.
"The deep..." their voice seem to almost shift slightly.
"The what?"
"The deep...the deep can not be breached..." they sounded strange, it was almost like they were possessed or something, they were even twitching ever so slightly.
"Why? And what the hell is "the deep"?" I asked with a confused look on my face.
"It must not be breached..." that was very clear and understandable, not.
"The children must not be allowed to rise...the purge must not come to pass..." at this point they had begun to sink back into the ground all the while they continued to mutter to themselves about "the deep" and how "it can't be breached".
"Hey! Don't just sink into the ground while I'm talking to you" I hissed but at this point they had vanished into the earth completely.
"What an a-hole"
=============Flashback over=============
"Looks like I won't be getting anything else out of them for a while" I hummed with a lazy shrug.
(I could just force them to tell me but I'll leave it for now, just until I sort everything out at least) I decided with a sigh before glancing back at the forest behind me.
"Hmmm?" I simply stood there while looking at seemingly no one.
"Honestly, I was gonna leave it be but your way to bold for your own good" for a moment there was no response but the sound of loud yet steady footsteps quickly filled the silence that had fallen upon the surrounding forest.
"And what are yo-" I stop myself as the being who had been following me finally stepped out of the darkness.
"A big chicken? Big bird?" I was a little surprised by the six meter tall chicken that had what appeared to be a somewhat lizard-like tail.
"I was gonna go check out the refugee camp next, might as well bring them something as a gift. Also it gives me a chance to test something out" I muttered, I didn't care to notice the pissed off look on the creature's face at my previous comment, in fact I only started giving it some attention when it's eyes flashed a bright glowing white and the area around me turned to stone.
"Ah, a cockatrice" I smiled, noticing the look on the things face, it was probably wondering why I was not petrified.
"So...basically just a big "fancy" chicken" I chuckled at how it seemed to angrily react to my words before snapping my fingers.
In an instant an invisible chain with a jagged looking hook like tip shot out from my back at incredible speeds and straight into the cockatrice. Within the blink of an eye the creature's soul was yanked out with brutal force and devoured by the chain which then retracted back into my body. This event was unseen by anyone else but me and as such it looked as if the cockatrice simply collapsed to the ground dead without even being able to react to it's imminent death, not that there was actually anyone around to see this event unfold.
(Can you even eat these? I mean it does look like a giant chicken so maybe...) I thought as I grabbed the large corpse and began to pull it along behind me without much effort as I continued my walk. However, after walking for only a couple minutes I stopped and sighed to myself.
"What is up with people trying to sneakily follow me around today?" I muttered under my breath before turning to where the two individuals were hiding.
"Alright just come out already" I yawned lazily, mostly because I sensed no actual hostile intention from the two.
"I'm sorry ma'am" a hobgoblin wearing a hat with animal ears on top of it appeared in front of me, behind him was also a short female lycanthrope. The moment that they appeared they both bowed down on one knee.
"You're one of the guards, right? I remember seeing you with them a couple times...errm...what was your name again?" I mused thoughtfully while gesturing for them to stand up.
"Indeed I am. As for my name, I am Gobuemon"
(Why does the image of a small yellow fire breathing dinosaur come to my mind when I think of his name?) I thought while tapping my finger against one of my horns in contemplation, it had become a bit of a habit at this point.
"Why were you two following me anyway?"
"Well...we were attracted by the sounds of you dragging that around and decided to investigate" he explained while glancing at the cockatrice behind me
"Ha, fair point" I actually would have preferred to just store the thing in the abyss but I couldn't risk it transforming into an abyssal creature by accident.
"I should have expected that dragging around a giant chicken would draw attention to myself" I sighed, not really all that bothered.
"Anyway..." my eyes were drawn towards the shuffling lycanthrope, who at closer inspection had amber eyes and orange hair. Also it wasn't hard for me to figure out that she was a fox type lycanthrope considering her ears and tail.
"Who are you?" I asked, causing her to flinch slightly as a result. I think she was scared of me.
"O-oh..errm..well I'm hehe..." I chuckled, oh she was most definitely scared of me.
"Are you one of the refugees?" I guess but assumed that there was probably more to it then just that.
"Yeah! Well...kind of" she stuttered out before finally taking a second to calm down enough to function properly.
"My name is Phos, sorry for the late introduction"
"Suu"
"I...I kn-know" I whispered as her fox-like ears drooped downwards against the top of her head.
(Cute) I thought I had the sudden urge to pet her but pushed it away.
"May I ask what you're doing out here lady Suu?" Gobuemon asked respectfully.
"I was heading over to visit the refugee camp when this big guy tried to sneak up on me, it didn't end well for him as you can see. Anyway, I was planning on giving it to the refugees, as a kind of gift of sorts. I don't actually know if you can eat this thing however but considering the fact that your currently drooling I'm gonna guess that you can" I grinned as Phos blushed when she realised I noticed her interest in my catch.
"There just one problem" I grumbled in annoyance.
"What is it?" Gobuemon wondered as he crossed his arms in front of himself.
"I have absolutely no idea where it is"
"Oh..."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone