"Looks like they're already done," Agnez said as she stared at Rufus and the others on their knees with sweats dripping from their faces. "It doesn't matter how strong they are if they don't have the skills to meet the requirement of the world they're going to enter,"
"Well, even with our current skill, this whole place is hot as hell. I mean, literally," Rozan replied as he nodded his head and stared at the volcanos all around them. There was nothing else but volcanos, and a vast field that led to somewhere in between volcanos.
"Mykel! My brother!" Barika shouted and waved his hand at Mykel with his newly high-tech armor.
Mykel and his team walked past Asmond's team and ignored their struggle. Barika didn't hesitate to smack Mykel's shoulder with a huge grin on his face.
"Long time no see, Barika. I saw what you did there in Bumi, I really appreciate your effort to rebuild the world," Mykel said as he shook Barika's hand.
"No, brother, it's thanks to you that my people are now living peacefully and they can't thank you enough for what you did for us," Barika said with a serious expression, and he genuinely appreciated it.
"It's nice to see you again, Mykel, Jeanne," Brynhilde appeared behind Barika's massive body with a smile on her face. "I see that you're getting used to the sword," Brynhilde continued as she stared at the sword on Jeanne's waist.
Brynhilde and Jeanne were having a deep conversation with each other while Barika and Gunnar were showing off each other's brute strength by testing their grip strength. Alberta was helping Asmond's team who were struggling with the heat, and Barika's team offered them some kind of bracelet that kept their bodies cool.
Mykel looked at the odd crowd with Gaswin. Those people were like nobles from Aersland, but all their hairs were yellow with blue eyes. Their armor was as good as Gaswin's and the other's armor. He then remembered them in the original story.
"So they're here as well?" Mykel asked as he kept staring at the crowds.
"Ah, yes, the lord's knights, they are here to serve the princess," Brynhilde answered.
"Princess? But I thought you're not a princess but a crown prince?" Barika asked as he walked toward them.
Everyone gathered around Brynhilde and they were all curious about it.
"Of course, it's not because of me they're here for, but for Jeanne," Brynhilde answered as she pointed at Jeanne with a big smile on her face. "The emperor has sent a decree to all the lord's knights to show their loyalty to the princess now. You're a princess, Jeanne, in our world, Aersland," Brynhilde explained.
Jeanne was dumbfounded while everyone was staring at her in disbelief as well.
"Here's the royal letter that the emperor himself wrote for you, Jeanne," Brynhilde said as she offered the scroll with gold ribbon and gold wax seal.
While Jeanne was busy reading the personal letter from the emperor, all the lord's knights approached her and stood right in front of her. They all bow on their knees with their weapons stabbed to the ground.
"Princess Jeanne Dvar! We the lord knights are here to serve you and will fight alongside you!" All the lord knights said.
Asmond who was standing far away from Jeanne when he heard her declaration, turned his head and stared at dozens of knights bowing their heads at her. He looked so confused, but Alberta told him about Jeanne and who she actually was, and why those people bowed their heads at her.
The lord knights were the most elite and well-trained knights that served the lords or the nobles from Aersland. Since they couldn't have a high rank like the pure breed, their highest pride would be serving the pure breeds and becoming a lord's knight.
They were all Awakeners, and they could be compared to the royal knights which were the strongest knights in Aersland. Brynhilde was a part of the royal knight, and she wasn't even the strongest in Aersland. However, she was still one of the strongest because of the swords that she inherited from the emperor.
Brynhilde explained to them that those lord's knights were the ones who cleared the first ten floors on their own, which was enough to prove to them that those knights were either equal or stronger than Asmond's new recruits.
"The lord's knights are not the only ones here," Brynhilde said as she turned around and saw a small group of people with a book and quill in their hands. "Those people are here to depict how graceful and strong you are in the battle and will tell your story back in my world after we are done here,"
"Wow, how does make you feel to be famous, Jeanne?" Gunnar asked with a huge grin on his face. "I'm so happy to be fighting alongside a princess of Aersland,"
Everyone was congratulating her and when Rozan was making fun of her, the lord's knights were furious and pointed their weapons at him instantly.
"That's enough talking, we should go and start exploring Gehenna," Mykel said as he saw a very tall tower in the far distance behind the black clouds.
"We already did some exploration and cleared out the area with Barika and his team, this whole place isn't like what we thought. This place is massive and we did investigate what kind of world Gehenna is, and it turns out this place is a literal hell," Brynhilde said as she stared at the only path to go forward in the distance.
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's get going," Gunnar said as he grabbed his shield from his back. "Oh right, Asmond's team is still struggling, huh?" Gunnar turned around and saw Asmond's team had recovered thanks to Alberta's magic and Juven World technology.
"We are good to go," Asmond said.
Asmond, Barika, Brynhilde, Agnez, Jeanne, and Nagy were at the front while the rest were walking behind them. Mykel was further back on his own because someone was watching them from above the clouds.
They walked into a dark valley where hundreds of demons hide, and they defeated them without a problem. Both Barika and Brynhilde found out the demons respawned every hour when they came to Gehenna. They were quite overwhelmed by it and decided to wait for Mykel after they had gathered enough information.
"This is so powerful," Agnez said with a smile as she stared at her sword that was covered in [Hellfire].
"Well, the demons aren't the problem here. There's a bigger problem up ahead, and you will see it soon enough," Barika said.
Agnez and Jeanne stared at each other and didn't say anything.
After an hour of walking and killing demons, they finally reached the edge and noticed that the land they were at was just one of the hundreds of islands in Gehenna. They were bewildered by the fact of how massive Gehenna's world was, and they had no idea which island Demon Lord Jael was at.
"This is what I'm talking about earlier," Barika said with his arms crossed and stared at the next island in the distance.
"We have to go to the next island, with this small and dilapidated bridge?" Rozan asked as he stared at the old small bridge that could only fit one person at a time. "Not only that, the footings are gone halfway through,"
"Yeah, that's why this is a problem. We can't use the bridge at all, and we have to do something about this. We have looked around the island and this is the only way," Barika replied as he nodded his head.
Rozan tried to create an ice path, but it melted and the water evaporated immediately because of the sea of lava below. He then created an earth floor and supported the bridge with it all the way to the other island.
"Damn I'm so good," Rozan said as he sighed.
"Good job," Agnez said as she rubbed Rozan's head like a dog, and then she walked on the bridge.
Everyone walked the bridge without any worries, and it felt like they were being burned alive because of the heat.
"I hope there's something we can eat and drink out here because we are going to be here for a very long time," Jeanne said as she stared at dozens of islands in the distance on her left.
