Part 6
WHEN I CAME TO, I was lying in a daze on my stomach with my eyes half-open.
Where…am I? My mind still felt hazy; clouded with the confusion of unconsciousness. I couldn’t think straight. Something happened. Something…important.
Think! I defeated Lilyxila, met up with my friends, and then…oh! I went to go talk to Umukahime. And after that, I…I…
“Guoooooooo!” I sat up with a roar. That’s right! I finally met the Divine Voice! It showed up out of nowhere, said a bunch of weird and confusing stuff, got upset that I wouldn’t go along with it, and sicced four Spirit Servants on me.
Then it made itself an opening with its weird psychic skill and sent me…somewhere. I looked around. A stand of enormous, crooked trees towered nearby. They were tall, even compared to me; maybe thirty meters high or so—more than twice the height of Treant’s Tyrant Guardian form. It felt like I’d shrunk somehow.
What’s with these weird trees…?
It was nighttime, but I could see pretty well, thanks to an unnaturally bright blue moon that shone through the crooked forest and illuminated my surroundings in bewitching light. More than anything else, the strange moon spelled out for me that I was somewhere very different than I’d been before.
The strange trees and mysterious moonlight weren’t the only troubling signs, though. My intuition—honed through my travels and countless battles—prickled, warning me that I’d found myself in dangerous new surroundings.
What had happened? How in the world did I end up here? Did Baal, the most powerful Demon King of all time, kill me and send me to the afterlife or something?
If I remembered right, the Divine Voice used a skill called Otherworld Warp… Maybe it was a skill that sent its target to another dimension?
If such a skill really existed, then the whole idea of resisting the Divine Voice’s orders felt impossible. But considering how absurd its Spirit Servant skill was compared to the usual one, it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Divine Voice had other ridiculously powerful skills at its disposal. It had four Spirit Servants when the typical skill only allowed for two, even at max skill level. And on top of that, the Spirit Servants were all former Sacred Skill holders. Having lost their Sacred Skills, they shouldn’t have been able to retain their forms, and yet they seemed even more powerful than a typical Legendary-class monster.
The Divine Voice said it intended to turn its four Spirit Servants loose across the entire world, but the Spirit Servant skill I knew could only work up to a certain distance from the skill’s user. If the Divine Voice meant what it said, then either it could ignore the range limits for Spirit Servant, or its range was large enough to encapsulate the entire world.
The skill’s range, number of servant slots, and Sacred Skill restrictions were all removed for the Divine Voice. Its Spirit Servant skill was clearly very different from Lilyxila’s. Maybe all of the Divine Voice’s skills are enhanced beyond what’s possible for us?
But the more I thought about it, the more confused I got. I couldn’t rationalize the Divine Voice’s words and actions by thinking through them like I would with an ordinary creature.
If the Divine Voice was planning to send me to a different world, why’d it choose to show off its four Spirit Servants first?
As I collected my thoughts, they drifted away from the Divine Voice and its Spirit Servants, and on to the image of Allo and Treant rushing toward me.
W-wait. They might’ve been close enough to get caught up in the Divine Voice’s Otherworld Warp skill—maybe they were around here somewhere too. Enough worrying about the Divine Voice! I had to figure out what happened to Allo and Treant. And the others as well—they must’ve been left behind, with the Divine Voice right in front of them.
“Grooooooh!” I roared into the eerie forest, sending out messages with Telepathy one after the other. ‹Allo! Treant! Are you here?! If you can hear me, say something!›
There was no way of knowing what kind of creatures lurked in this forest. The knowledge I’d gathered from my adventures so far didn’t seem like it would be much use in a place like this. The Divine Voice was the one who sent me here, after all. Announcing my position out loud could be suicidal.
Even so, my main priority was to find Allo and Treant. The more dangerous this place was, the worse it would be for those two.
“M-Master…Dragon?” In the distance, I heard a small, strained voice. It was Allo! She really did come to this world with me!
I rushed forward, toward the source of the voice. It wasn’t long before I came across Allo lying on the ground, limp. I checked her status to confirm that she was still alive.
Like me, Allo seemed dazed from the shock of being sent flying by the Divine Voice’s skill. But she still had plenty of HP and didn’t have any weird status conditions.
I let out a sigh of relief. ‹Thank goodness you’re okay, Allo…› I carefully grasped her body with my front paws and rolled her onto her back.
“Ah, thank you, Master Dragon… Um, where are we?”
‹Honestly, I have no clue either. But where’s Treant? I seem to remember you both running toward me…›
Suddenly, I heard Treant’s Telepathy. ‹Ah! Master! O-over here! Please help me!›
I gasped and rushed toward it. ‹I’m coming! Just hold on, Treant!›
I was lucky to find Treant so soon after finding Allo, but it seemed like I was a little late; it must have run into the local monsters. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of enemies were hiding among these twisted trees. I resolved to do everything I could to keep Allo and Treant safe here.
Following the Telepathy message, I spotted Treant, its huge body half-buried in the ground. Its branches and trunk wriggled as it struggled to free itself.
‹Ah! There you are, Master! Pull me out!›
Treant…how the heck did you get yourself stuck in the ground?
“Why’re you goofing off at a time like this, Treant?” Allo asked, face betraying her disappointment.
‹I-I’m not! I don’t know what happened either! I tried to protect myself by using Statue, but…I think that’s what got me stuck in the ground!›
Well…I guess that’s not an impossible explanation. I had no memories from when the Divine Voice sent me here either. Maybe Treant had appeared high in the air, and its metal Statue form was so heavy that it got stuck in the ground when it fell.
I wrapped my paws around Treant’s trunk and yanked up with all my strength. I felt the ground around Treant crumble a little as I uprooted it.
‹You saved me! Thank you, Master!› Treant exclaimed.
Looking down, I noticed that Treant’s roots seemed longer and more clingy than usual. N-no wonder it seemed so heavy…
‹Forgive me, Master,› it said apologetically. ‹When I get anxious…I tend to dig my roots in.›
I turned to look at Allo riding on my back. She had her eyes half closed in equal parts exasperation and relief. I turned back to Treant and heaved a huge sigh.