Chapter 18 - Nothing Matters

While from Zaragon's perspective the Imp simply disappeared, from the Imp's own perspective the world around him completely changed. Everything looked as if covered in a thin layer of smoke or mist, and there was no place that wasn't blurry. But at the very least it seemed to have worked properly. When the Imp held the card tightly, a small cup suddenly appeared in his hands like they story he read told him, and when he drank the black liquid inside of this, Zaragon started ignoring him while the Imp began to see the world around himself differently.

The first thing that the Imp did was to pick up the things that he dropped just know, even if he could only do so with a heavily shaking body. But even then, the Imp didn't want to leave behind the book or the wooden dagger, and even if it didn't help him this time, the Imp picked up the Dagger that Avalin dropped before she… also disappeared.

Slowly, the Imp stepped forward toward the door which had slowly opened in front of him, stepping into the blood that Avalin left behind. With an empty mind, and no idea what to do, the Imp continued on forward.

All he did was walk without a single moment of thought, simply grasping the book and Avalin's dagger tightly, after stuffing the cup, which had turned back into a card, into his bag together with the shiny stuff and the meat.

The Imp did somewhat notice that something was going on around him, even if everything seemed just so dulled. There was a little bit of heat around him sometimes, but it was never enough to hurt him. At one point, a part of a building dropped down onto the street in front of the Imp, but it missed him by a few centimeters.

And then, the Imp suddenly found himself at another place, a place that he really didn't recognize. He had no idea why he was there, but he knew one thing, which was that he didn't care either. The Imp just continued walking around the place and stepped through the large door while numerous people in shiny armor were running around, trying to fend off the monsters that were trying to invade the place as well.

Slowly, the Imp stepped up the large stairs in front of him and along the long, large hallway to the place that his feet brought him to. There were some people at the end of the hallway in a large hall, one of them holding a large blue sphere of flames above his head, while the others were surrounding something small on the other side of the room compared to the small person.

Momentarily, it seemed as if the Imp recognized that small person, but he didn't care enough about figuring out why he thought he recognized them. That person wasn't Avalin, so it didn't matter to the Imp.

But then, the Imp stopped moving, apparently having found the place that his body was looking for while his mind was absent. He looked into the basket, and for some reason felt drawn to the small creature laying inside of there. The Imp didn't know why, but he did.

Carefully, the Imp placed the metal dagger in his hand into the ring on his bag's strap for it and stuffed his book into his bag, somehow feeling rushed. Slowly, the Imp grabbed the woven basket that the small creature was laying in and grasped it tightly, involuntarily smiling as he looked at its eyes.

They seemed to be going through numerous different states of color, but every once in a while, they were red like blood, the same color that Avalin's eyes had. And although the color soon changed again to something else, in those few moments while the eyes were red, the Imp couldn't stop just staring at the small thing he was carrying.

And without him even noticing, the Imp already brought the basket with it outside of the place that he entered subconsciously, before stepping along the utterly ruined streets, through the masses of monsters that were around him that didn't spare him a moment of thought, and toward the forest outside of the town.

The Imp didn't really know how long he was walking after that, but at the very least, it already got dark when he did so. And like he was now used to, the Imp stopped when he realized that this was the case. At a safe location, surrounded by as many trees as possible, the Imp just sat down with the small creature in the basket, and held that basket as tightly as he could, not leaving a single chance for it to be stolen.

But just sitting there like that, the Imp suddenly felt quite tired. He wanted to keep watching the little thing and see what it was doing, but in the end, the exhaustion that he hadn't allowed to overthrow him over the past few days had won, and the world became dark around him.

Although that soon changed again, when the Imp noticed that the thing he had been carrying was making loud sounds. Really, really loud and obnoxious sounds.

But most importantly, the Imp noticed something else as well. The world around him had changed back to what it was supposed to be. It wasn't blurry or shifty anymore, even if the Imp still felt somewhat numb about everything that happened yesterday.

Although just when he was thinking that, an immense pain spiked in the Imp's head while numerous notifications appeared all around him.

---

[You have activated the Ace of Cups. For the next 12 hours, you will evade the world, and the world will evade you]

[Beginner Stealth Skill Learned]

[Beginner Stealth Skill Leveled Up!]

[Beginner Stealth Skill Leveled Up!]

…

[Beginner Stealth Skill Leveled Up!]

[Beginner Stealth hit Level 100 and became Apprentice Stealth]

[Apprentice Stealth Leveled Up!]

[Apprentice Stealth Leveled Up!]

…

[Apprentice Stealth Leveled Up!]

[You have evaded immense Danger. Evasion +1]

[You have evaded immense Danger. Evasion +1]

…

[You have evaded immense Danger. Evasion +1]

[You have been surrounded by a large amount of Holy Energy. Restistance +1]

[You have been surrounded by a large amount of Holy Energy. Restistance +1]

…

[You have been surrounded by a large amount of Holy Energy. Restistance +1]

[Beginner Holy Energy Resistance Skill Learned]

[Beginner Holy Energy Resistance Skill Leveled Up!]

[Beginner Holy Energy Resistance Skill Leveled Up!]

…

[Beginner Holy Energy Resistance Skill Leveled Up!]

[The Effect of the Ace of Cups has run out. As you are still in possession of the Ace of Cups even after the effect ran out, you are now the Owner of the Card]

[1/14 Cards of the Suit of Cups acquired]

[1/56 Cards of the Minor Arcana acquired]

[Aptitude with the Water Element increased]

[Beginner Water Magic Skill Learned]

[You have found . Bring it back to the Monster King.]

---

After that total onslaught of notifications, the Imp had no choice but to press his eyes shut and try to get through it until they all appeared, because right now they were really putting a lot of pressure onto his head.

But more than that, the Imp was worried about what was going on with the small creature that he brought with him from that town. It was screaming a lot, so it was probably hurt somewhere!

So, trying to fight through the pain that overcame him by ignoring the actual notifications as much as he could, the Imp tried to see if there was something wrong with the creature.

But no matter how many times he checked, he couldn't find any injuries anywhere. Other than that, maybe it was just hungry? At the very least, that's what the Imp figured, so he swiftly pushed his hand into his pocket and grabbed a chunk of the meat that he had inside of it, trying to give it to the creature.

"Eat." The Imp told it, but it just didn't react at all! If it didn't want to eat the delicious meat that he himself cooked, then it should just starve!

That was what the Imp thought only at first, though. Because after a while of trying to endure its crying, the Imp couldn't handle it anymore. He started feeling neaseous, even, so he had to try and figure something out.

And then, after looking at the basket a little bit more, the Imp soon found a few different things laying inside of it under the blanket that the creature was laying on. One of those things was a small bottle with a white liquid inside. The Imp didn't really know what it was, but the creature seemed to try and grab it when he held it up, so he figured he could try give it to the creature.

But when he actually placed it into its hands, the stupid thing just dropped the bottle! So the Imp was forced to hold it for the creature, and just did what it wanted to do, which was to press the tip of that bottle against the creature's mouth.

And before the Imp knew it, the creature stopped crying and instead just drank the white liquid. Glad that it finally shut up, the Imp started to look at the notifications floating in front of it, which he now actually understood for the most part. He didn't really know why he got so many notifications all of a sudden, but they all seemed to tell the Imp about good things. At the very least there weren't any red notifications again, so that had to be a good sign.

Slowly, when the bottle was basically completely empty, the creature closed its eyes and finally stayed quiet for a while. It seemed like this white liquid was a wonderful magic item meant to get rid of annoying things!

So, of course quite curious what it tasted like, the Imp began to sip on the liquid left inside of the bottle and then twisted his mouth a little in response. "Ehhw…" The Imp muttered to himself and slowly placed the bottle back into the basket, although he felt no effect of it at all. Maybe it wasn't a potion after all, but just the kind of thing that the creature could eat?

If that was the case, then he should probably figure out a way how to get more of it, because if the creature wouldn't eat meat and just that white liquid, then it would probably start crying just like before.

And the Imp really wanted to avoid that under any circ.u.mstances.

But for now, the Imp had to do something else, even if he didn't really know why he had to do it. He had to bring this creature back to the place where he was born, but that would probably take a really, really long time, and he only knew where to go because it felt like someone was telling him to go into a specific direction.

In the end, it didn't really matter anymore anyway. Nothing mattered anymore, not after the one kind person the Imp knew died.

The Imp just wanted to crawl up in a ball and die right there, just shrivel up and disappear to where Avalin was waiting.

"Mmng…" However, the Imp was swiftly pulled out of such thoughts by the creature laying in the basket next to him, simply turning in its sleep.