The Author's POV

"Haa...haaa..."

By the time I reached the top of the cliff, I was already starting to feel exhausted. It wasn't because the climb was hard. No, rather, that was the easiest part. The main problem was the constant attacks coming from the monsters in the sky.

"Kow!"

Jumping back and twisting my body in the air, my foot landed on a small ring, and I placed my hand on the sheath of the sword.

Click—!

What followed the low clicking sound was black blood that spilled toward the ground like heavy rain. Whilst this was happening, I twisted my body in the air.

"Huup!"

Placing my right leg on another ring, I propelled my body to the top of the cliff, and I rolled a couple of times.

"Haaa..."

With my back facing the ground, I took a few moments to collect my breath.

"I'm tired."

Getting up, I walked back and extended my hand toward Angelica who was still climbing up.

"Here."

My gesture seemed to have caught Angelica off-guard as she paused for a moment. After a while, she took my hand and helped herself up.

"...Thank you."

"No problem."

Letting go of Angelica's hand and massaging the back of my neck, I finally got a better view of my surroundings.

It was then that I finally spotted it.

"Looks like we're in the right place."

A large black castle at the very edge of the cliff. Above it was a large beacon that attracted the mana in the air, creating a large vortex; closely resembling a tornado.

'Seems like some part of the future is still intact.'

For the castle to be here, meant that not all of the future had changed. I was secretly relieved by this as it meant that I could still make some changes to it.

That aside.

Placing my hand over my forehead, I got a better look at the castle in the distance.

"It looks the same..."

The castle was almost identical to the castle where I first met Everblood, and it didn't bring me any good memories. Sometimes I wished I had never gone into that dungeon, but I knew that it wasn't something I could've controlled.

Leaning a bit, I looked beneath the cliff.

"Are they still following us?"

"No."

Angelica replied, also looking beneath the cliff.

"Strange…"

My brows creased.

"Was I perhaps wrong?"

Were the people really just some random people who had nothing to do with the matter? It was possible.

But I didn't think things were that simple.

"Angelica stay on high alert, there's a high chance we're going to get ambushed."

Regardless, I wasn't planning on letting my guard down.

"…yes."

"Alright, let's get going."

I turned to face the castle in the distance. Surrounding it, and behind it was a large expanse of dead trees, giving off a desolate and cold feeling. Compared to the bottom of the cliff, the trees were a lot denser, and taller, evoking a creepy and ghostly feeling.

If I had to make an estimate of how far the castle was, I would say it was about five kilometers in the distance.

It wasn't that far. In fact, it was quite close.

Even then.

likely going to be a

one thing I understood after looking at the forest, it was that it was the

guess wasn't wrong. They had most likely taken a shortcut up and were

the mana

"Let's go."

***

sped into a vast canopy of

we need to

was going, added with the fiercely

into the distance, Ava

"We're close."

even a second after her words faded, she tapped

"Stop."

wolf came to a halt

the distance, her face had a tinge

to a stop,

"Is this the place?"

"Yes."

Ava replied.

of precaution, Hein took out his shield which was still

"Burp, we stopping?"

loud burp, Leopold also got

"Wow."

off, he stumbled a couple of steps. Stabilizing his footsteps,

lot stronger

bottle away. He was already warmed up enough, and it was no longer needed. Any more and he might actually get too drunk to

her eyes, Ava adjusted the

like we can only walk

at the bottom of one of the mountains, and so, Ava realized that going up with the wolves

her flute and blew on

Tootle too~

the air, and the

tightly clenching onto the flute, Ava proceeded to head

two, we're probably going to encounter a lot of

"Finally."

his shield which was shining

"Burp…"

took out a gun-like device and rested it on his

help me

***

"Stop."

stopped Angelica

little, I squinted

something wrong

was something wrong with the place. If I had a choice, I wouldn't have entered the forest, but since it was the only way that led

sensing that something was wrong with the place, I couldn't

keeping my guard up the whole time, yet, I

That was until now.

in front of me, I extended my

"What are you doing?"

Confused by my

in

"…just checking something."

my finger at a particular point. Making sure that I wasn't sensing wrongly, I

Pluck—

of a guitar, a plucking sound reverberated throughout the air, It was then that I was finally able to catch a glimpse of an invisible string in the air. Not only one string but in fact a series of them, but, I was unfortunately unable to

"As I expected…"

my fingers together, I felt a wet sensation. It

But.

time to care about

the sheath of my sword, I got ready to attack at

get ready, it

taking out three cards from my

the cards to ignite, and once they did, I was finally able to catch

before, the area around us was filled

the fact that Angelica and I didn't notice this at all.

Feeling a hard sensation on the tip of my

"It's these fuckers…"

a nail appeared in-between my fingers. In fact, it was probably even smaller than a

managed to trap us

them. Our attention was focused elsewhere,

Rustle—! Rustle—!

from the distance, and three

"There is someone here."