Souta brought Cluster with him. He was afraid that she would run away once he left her in the village. He wouldn't let a valuable person like her leave easily. He would squeeze some benefits out of her before he let her go.
Souta's group arrived in the inner part of the Desolate Woods. The trees around this part were ten to twenty meters tall, and all of the trees had brown and gray color leaves. It made them looked like withered trees, but this was its natural color. This was the reason why this forest was called Desolate Woods.
"The atmosphere is different than the outer part of the woods," Souta muttered while looking around his surroundings.
"Whoa! This is the first time I see this kind of tree!" Bryan exclaimed while looking around the trees in wonder.
Cluster was also looking around quietly. It seemed that she was still holding back in front of Bryan and Souta. She didn't want them to think badly of her.
"What's with this forest, Souta?" Bryan asked Souta.
"Hmm... This forest is called Desolate Woods. A lot of powerful monsters inhabited this forest but the most dangerous was the Giant Nova Boa and the Mountain Back Crocodile." Souta paused as he turned his head and looked at Bryan. "These two monsters were the overlord of this forest. If we somehow meet these two monster then we have to run as fast as we can. With our current strength, we would not be able to defeat it, because these two monsters are monsters that already created its monster orb. In other words, these two are powerful enough to crash the four of us with the use of best feram."
"What is a monster orb?" Bryan asked with a curious expression.
"Huh...?" Souta looked at Bryan with wide eyes. He couldn't believe that Bryan didn't know the monster orb at all. He couldn't help but sigh at Bryan's ignorance. "Monster orb is the core of a powerful monster. It is also the source of strength of the monster and the reason why the monsters are powerful. The monster orb can be fetched at a high price in the market. It can be sold by a hundred thousand platinum coins. The energy inside the monster orb is more potent than the energy inside the mana stone and essence."
He patiently explained the monster orb to Bryan. "Do you know the light in Ladros City?"
"Yeah." Bryan nodded.
"The reason why those bulbs across the street light up are because of the monster orb. One monster orb is needed to light up all the lights in the whole city for one week. If a person would monopolize a single monster orb then it would take a few months even a year before that person consumed all the energy inside the monster orb." Souta explained to Bryan. The monster orb was also the reason why the human and demi hunted down the monsters.
"I see." Bryan nodded.
"I can't believe you didn't even know this." Souta sighed.
...
Souta's group walked for a few dozen minutes before they met some monster. The monster was a carnivorous plant. The plant was three meters tall. It was a powerful monster but with Souta and Bryan, it didn't look like one.
All the monsters that they met all died by the teamwork of Souta, Bryan, and Yuko.
The trees became twisted like everything around them was changing. The area around them was completely covered in brush and branches.
Souta asked Bryan to clean the area.
"We will rest here for five minutes." Souta picked up a decent place to rest. Of course, he scouted the area within it before he settled with this place.
Souta's group sat down and they leaned their back on the trees.
"This is such a weird forest," Bryan said in a low voice.
Souta ignored Bryan and he looked at Cluster. He noticed that she wasn't gasping or out of breath. It seems like she really holds some power inside her. There's also a possibility that she didn't know about this power and only those higher up of the True God's Holy Kingdom knew.
Souta shook his head and put his hand inside his bag. He took out fruit and bit it.
"This is good," Souta said as he looked at the fruit that looks like an apple on his palm.
"Gulu gulu!"
He heard a sound beside him, so he turned his head and saw Yuko was looking at the fruit on his hand with drool on her face.
"Really." Souta smiled wryly and he took out another fruit for her.
Yuko swallowed the fruit with a happy expression.
Looking at her expression, Souta smiled and patted her head.
After a few minutes, they packed their things and began to move forward. They trek towards the eastern part of the inner woods. The surroundings were dark, so their pace was quite slow.
While they were walking they heard a sound of metal clashing against each other.
Yuko's ears twitched as she looked at the direction where the sound came from.
"That's the sound of fighting," Souta muttered. Then, he turned his head and looked at Bryan and Cluster. "Don't make any noise. We're going to check it."
"Okay," Bryan replied.
Cluster just nodded her head.
"Good. Follow me." Souta nodded in satisfaction at their reply. He walked slowly towards the sound.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Souta's group saw thirty people battling each other. Those people were powerful especially the two people who were fighting in the center. Both of them were wearing a full plate of silver-colored armor. The only difference was the symbol that was engraved in their chest.
The symbol in their chest indicated that they were the knights of the nobles. The symbol represented the family they supported.
Souta turned his head and looked at his group. He slowly opened his mouth and said, "A lot of people were going to fight in this place, so we better avoid them. This time we only came to check the strength of each group, but we can see from their force that we wouldn't stand a chance if we fought them head-on. Also, their numbers were greater than us."
"Yeah, they are strong. I wanted to fight them." Bryan said while looking at the people who were fighting against each other.
"Don't worry about it, you will get a chance to fight later," Souta assured Bryan. It's true that Bryan would have a chance to fight later in the dungeon they were heading.
"Let's go now," Souta said.
The group turned around and quietly left the area, but they didn't know that a figure was hiding in the trees was looking at them.
...
Somewhere in the forest...
Two people wearing a black robe were walking leisurely. Their black robe wasn't an ordinary robe. The robe looks like the one that those priests from the church wear. The robe had red linings and a symbol of a hand holding the world was imprinted in the back. Behind them were the corpses of various monsters.
"Ah~ poor little monsters. You sacrifice your lives for the greater goods of people. Oh, God! Please guide these monsters towards the paradise!"
A man with long blonde hair said. The man has red pupils and part of his bangs covered his left eyes. He had a tattoo of red arrow pointing downwards below his left eye, and below that arrow was the "Love" word written in cursive form.
The man was looking at the corpses of the monsters with intoxicated expression.
The other figure was a woman. She has long black hair that was tied in a ponytail. Her skin was pale and her pupils were crimson in color.
She looked at the man with annoyance and said, "Stop that! We just kill them because they attack us, that's all. We wouldn't even bother them if they didn't attack us."
"What are you saying, Carmilla? All the things here were created by the Supreme Creator, so it's natural that we show them our love." The man said.
"Hais... I shouldn't have partnered with you in this mission." The woman called Carmilla sighed. She then stopped moving and turned her head on her left side.
"Hmm...? What's wrong, Carmilla?" The man asked when he saw her strange expression.
"A group of people is coming," Carmilla said.
The man also turned his head and saw more than twenty people came out of the bushes. The people were wearing a full plate armor indicating that they were knights of a noble household.
Carmilla and the man looked at the knights with a curious expression.
A young man in his twenties stepped forward and looked at the two with arrogance. He was wearing luxury clothes for nobles. He was the master of the knights.
"I'm Ransen De Rougen, the third son of the Rougen Family!" The young man introduced himself. He looked down at the two and ordered them. "You two, tell me who you are and why you are here!"
Carmilla and the man looked at each other.
"I'm asking you! Don't you know me! I'm the son of Jasvin De Rougen! I'm a noble lineage, so don't you dare ignore me! Are you also here because of the Mystical Light Cherry?!" Ransen grew angrier when he saw the two people in front of him ignored him.
Carmilla laughed at his words. She opened her mouth and said, "Mystical Light Cherry? We're not here for something as low as that fruit. We have hundreds of that in our base."
"You!! How dare you!! Draug!" He raised his voice and called his most powerful knight.
"Young master. We should not-" Draug said but Ransen interrupted him. He wanted to tell what type of monsters were behind the two unknown people. The corpses of the monster behind the two weren't ordinary at all. Every corpse of monsters was a powerful one that could even give him, a knight, some trouble.
"I'm your master, so you should just follow my instruction without saying anything!" Ransen said.
"Yes, young master!" Draug bowed and pulled out his sword.
The rest of the knights also pulled out their swords. They pointed their sword at the two people.
"Now tell me, who you are and what's your goal here?" Hansen looked at the two people with a smirk.
"Fine, I'm going to tell you. After all, I never told a lie before." Carmilla stepped forward. Her mouth curved into a smile. "Commandments of the God's Words. Representing the Truth commands, Carmilla Rybentatores."
"And I'm Julius Reanhar, representing the Love of the Supreme God." The man opened his arms widely as he turned his head to look in the sky.
"We're here to retrieve the corpse of a God." Carmilla smiled at them with a gentle expression.
"What?!" Everyone was shocked when they heard their introduction. They subconsciously took a step back. Fear started to appear in their hearts.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Their grips on their weapon loosen and it fell on the ground.
If Souta was here, he too would be shocked. It was because the God's Will was currently in the Desolate Woods.
If someone said the God's Will cult then the priest of the True God's Holy Kingdom would burn those people. The True God's Holy Kingdom target among the three Bringer of Calamity Group was the God's Will cult. The people from the True God's Holy Kingdom despised the God's Will cult. It was because of the inhumane things that God's Will did saying that it was for the Supreme God.
God's Will was one of the three Bringer's of Calamity. They were called like that because every time they appeared in public something bad happens. It was either annihilating a country or causing a strange phenomenon in the world.
If the three Great Countries were the good camp, then the three Bringer's of Calamity was the evil camp.
The Commandments, the Deadly Sins, and the Zodiacs were the most powerful terrorist group that could go toe to toe to the three Great Countries.
The Commandments of the God's Will were active in both Giza and God's Continent, while the Deadly Sins were active in the God's Continent. Lastly, the Zodiacs were active in the Giza Continent. Each of them was a powerhouse of their own that could even bring down a god.
...
Souta stopped and looked in the starry sky, "I sense something terrible."
"What's wrong, Souta?" Bryan asked him when he saw Souta stop.
"Nothing." Souta shook his head.
