Chapter 642: Annoyance comes for those who wait

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Dominion of Oz]

[Winkie Country]

“This is the spot.” Mikoto murmured, his voice quiet as he came to a stop, flanked by Echidna and Paimon as the three of them studied the wide plains stretching out before them.

There was little to distinguish the place from the surrounding countryside. The land rolled away beneath, broad and open, with nothing immediately standing out as a landmark or anything of particular interest. No buildings broke the horizon, nor did any obvious trail cross the grass. There was not even much movement beyond the occasional stir of vegetation beneath the wind.

Mikoto remained still for a moment, his red eyes moving slowly across the empty distance.

“One of my soldiers last spotted her here,” he added, his gaze lingering toward the western stretch of the plains. “I guess she doubled back.”

Paimon looked across the plains as well, her brows drawing together while she tried to find some indication of where Goiim might have gone. There was nothing, just open land.

“I guess it makes sense she wouldn’t stay in one place,” Paimon muttered thoughtfully. “But where do we go from here? If she already left this place, we could waste a lot of time searching in the wrong direction, and there’s nothing here that tells us where she went.”

“She last went further west,” Mikoto informed them, lifting his chin slightly toward the direction in question. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated, evidently trying to pick up something that neither of the others could perceive. “I’m closer now, so I can somewhat detect her presence. Though it’s muffled out by others.”

Echidna was the one to answer, her emerald eyes following Mikoto’s line of sight. “Those would be Deseruit Beasts. Whether they possess a Manus Dei or not, all have a rather distinct mana. It can be insignificant compared to stronger beings, but it is still odd enough to interfere with what you’re sensing when there are enough of them gathered together.”

Paimon’s expression changed almost immediately. The uncertainty in her face gave way to concern, her eyes widening slightly as she looked toward the west.

“Wait, does that mean she’s being attacked by Deseruit Beasts?” Paimon questioned, her voice shifting with worry. She glanced toward Mikoto, then back toward the distant plains as though she might somehow see Goiim from where they stood. “If there are enough of them around her to interfere with Mikoto’s detection, then there must be a lot.”

“Most likely,” Echidna said offhandedly.

There was no particular concern in her voice. Whether she cared little about Goiim or simply could not be bothered to invest herself emotionally in the situation was anyone’s guess. She merely stood there seemingly unconcerned.

That answer did little to reassure Paimon.

“Then we should hurry!” Paimon exclaimed, her eyes snapping toward Mikoto with immediate urgency. She looked at him as though expecting him to immediately lead the way, her concern plain on her face.

“Pipe down,” Mikoto said in annoyance.

He gave her a glance, clearly unimpressed by the sudden panic, before turning his attention back toward the west. There was no corresponding urgency in his movements, he merely seemed more irritated that Paimon was making the situation sound worse than it was.

“Despite how that chick wants to appear, she’s plenty strong,” Mikoto continued, his tone dismissive. “She’s not some helpless idiot. If she’s still alive, then she can probably handle herself well enough until we get there.”

Paimon hesitated, though the worry remained written across her features.

“Really? But can she beat the Deseruit Beast? The ones here are way more dangerous.” Her concerns were not lifted despite Mikoto’s words. If anything, her voice became more earnest as she tried to make him understand why she was still worried. “We’ve already seen how strange the beast here can be. They aren’t like ordinary ones, and if there are several of them surrounding her, we can’t just assume she’s completely fine just because you can still sense her.”

Mikoto stared ahead for another moment, his expression remaining flat.

“If she was croaking, I would have noticed it by now,” Mikoto stated offhandedly. “Either the Deseruit Beasts are docile, or she’s holding her own. Either way, we don’t have to rush from here.”

He finally shifted his attention away from the plains, his eyes lowering slightly as he seemed to accept that there was no immediate reason to expend more effort than necessary.

“Which is good,” he added, the annoyance returning to his voice, “because I don’t want to carry her any longer.”

Mikoto spat the last part out with irritation, his delicate chin tilting toward Echidna.

The Mother of Monsters regarded him for a moment, then her lips curled into a sickly sweet smile.

“But I quite enjoyed it,” Echidna said, her tone almost pleasant as she regarded Mikoto. “Besides, I’m quite sure I felt you touch my rear more than once.”

“That’s you getting senile,” Mikoto spat.

He turned away from her before she could draw out the exchange any further.

“Might want to get that checked out,” he added, tossing the remark back without even looking over his shoulder as he started walking.

Echidna merely shrugged.

She was completely unaffected by the insult. If anything, she had clearly gotten what she wanted from the exchange. Mikoto had reacted, and that was apparently enough. And she was pleased at having found yet another method to get under his skin.

Paimon looked between the two of them, still visibly uncertain, but with little choice except to follow Mikoto’s lead. He had already decided that there was no immediate reason to rush, and arguing with him further clearly was not going to change his mind.

So, left with little choice, Echidna and Paimon followed behind.

They had only taken a few steps.

Mikoto had barely put any distance between himself and the place where they had been standing when his eyes suddenly snapped downward.

The change was immediate; his pace stopped. His head tilted slightly, red eyes narrowing toward the ground beneath his sabatons. Echidna, walking a short distance behind him, noticed the shift in his posture before Paimon did.

Paimon was still glancing intermittently toward the western horizon, evidently trying to reconcile Mikoto’s calmness with the possibility that Goiim was somewhere ahead surrounded by Deseruit Beasts.

Then the ground cracked, a sharp sound split across the plains.

A thin fracture appeared beneath Mikoto’s feet; it was followed by another, then several more.

The cracks spread outward with startling speed, branching through the earth in thick lines as the soil began to rise and buckle beneath them. Small pieces of dirt shifted loose and rolled away from the widening fractures. The ground trembled beneath their feet.

Mikoto did not hesitate.

“Dodge.”

His voice was dry despite the sudden danger.

He stepped backward and then pushed off the ground.

The movement was graceful, his petite body rose cleanly into the air as he cleared the area.

Echidna reacted only a second later.

Her eyes dropped toward the rapidly splitting earth, and without any visible panic, she bent her knees and leapt backward. Her movement was considerably less concerned than Paimon’s.

Paimon, however, needed that extra second to understand what was happening.

“M-Mikoto—”

She looked down; the earth beneath her feet buckled.

Her eyes widened, and she immediately followed.

She pushed herself backward in a hurried leap, her body clearing the broken section of ground just as the earth finally gave way.

The surface broke apart.

A deep, muffled roar came from below.

Then something enormous erupted from the ground.

Soil and chunks of earth were thrown upward as a huge black body forced its way through the fractured plains. The creature was long and wide, its body resembling that of an enormous worm, though there was nothing natural about its proportions or appearance. Its dark hide was slick, and its thick body rose higher and higher as it forced itself completely out of the earth.

Paimon landed several paces away and immediately turned.

The creature continued rising, its body stretched upward until its upper half towered over them, and then its mouth opened.

A shrill screech ripped through the plains.

Paimon instinctively brought an arm up toward her face as the sound washed over them.

Inside the creature’s enormous mouth were rows upon rows of sharp teeth. They were numerous and packed tightly together, extending around the dark opening of its maw. Its head twisted slightly as it raised itself higher, the mass of its body coiling beneath the ground while its mouth remained open.

Another screech followed, then a roar answered it from somewhere farther away.

Paimon lowered her arm as her eyes moved across the horizon. One roar became several and growls followed, then came the beating of wings.

The sky was beginning to fill.

Deseruit Beasts emerged from all directions.

Some possessed wings resembling those of enormous birds, though their bodies were twisted into shapes that made their origins impossible to identify. Others looked more like reptiles, their elongated forms cutting through the air as they circled overhead. Some were quadrupedal beasts with broad bodies and long tails, while others possessed far stranger shapes, little more than masses of limbs and teeth moving through the sky.

They began circling above the enormous worm-like Deseruit Beast.

More appeared.

Paimon’s attention shifted toward the surrounding hills, and she immediately saw movement. Several dark figures came rushing down one of the hills. Deseruit Beasts, a lot of them.

They descended the slope in a loose mass, some running on four legs, others moving with far more limbs than seemed necessary. Their bodies varied wildly in shape and size, but all of them were moving in the same general direction.

Toward them.

For a moment, Paimon simply stared; the sight was overwhelming, but strangely, her first reaction was not fear.

It was confusion.

“What the—? Why is this suddenly happening?” Paimon questioned, her voice carrying genuine bewilderment as she looked from the approaching beasts to the enormous worm-like Deseruit Beast before them. “We were just walking a few seconds ago. There weren’t nearly this many around us before, so why are they all coming now? Did something happen? Did we somehow draw them here?”

Echidna watched them gathering around them; her expression remained almost completely unchanged.

“This seems to be an order from the Deseruit Beast Progenitor they serve,” Echidna idly noted.

Paimon looked toward her.

“Why would the Progenitor order them to do this?” Paimon questioned, her confusion deepening rather than easing. “Is it because we offended it somehow?”

Echidna’s eyes remained on the approaching Deseruit Beasts.

“I don’t know,” she said simply. “And I don’t care to know.”

Paimon stared at her.

The answer was so blunt that it left little room for further questioning.

Mikoto, meanwhile, had already landed.

He stood several paces ahead of the other two; his expression had not changed much since the first crack appeared beneath his feet.

If anything, he looked annoyed.

He had been trying to track Goiim and now this entire gathering of beasts had appeared directly in their path.

The sheer number of them might have caused another person to hesitate.

Mikoto simply seemed tired of having his time wasted.

“I don’t have time for fodder,” Mikoto murmured. “Familial Arts: Seraphic Chorus – Invincible Titan of Celestial Armies, Unrelenting Harbinger of Divine Fate, Supreme Executioner of the Heavens, and Indefatigable Champion of Order, General Magnus.”

Sorry I haven’t been updating to those few reading. I’ve recently moved and getting wifi is tedious. I only have slight connection to update once but I can’t consistently write just yet.