Hundreds of black corpses motionlessly lie on the ground. A pool of black blood covers the surroundings of him as his lonely back stood in the middle of the corpses.
Slowly, the corpses and the blood turned into black particles, as if they got burned by a flame. It's the characteristic of the demon world, every being that died wouldn't have their corpses intact and rots like how corpses in the human world. In the demon world, the world will consume it, and the mana contained on its flesh, its skin, its bone, and its blood will return to the air and the world.
As countless black particles float into the air, the figure in the middle of it continues to stare at the particles with a pair of emotionless eyes.
He looks like a person that lost his soul.
As the scene unfolds, I could only stare at the sight as my chest tightened, making me hard to breathe.
Looking at his robust body, his hands and legs that are filled with wounds, just how long has he been fighting?
How long has he been inside this living hell?
*Step!* *Step!* *Step!*
He started to walk forward. He didn't take a single look at his friend that has died since he knew, as the battle ended, his body would have disappeared into the same black particles.
As if he's used to farewells, he continues walking forward with big strides.
"Wait!" I called him as I ran towards him.
He stopped in his tracks and slightly turns his head back. As his gaze fell on me, his eyes widened for a moment.
"Ah. So you're real," said him.
"Eh?" (Lilith)
"Seems like you're not a hallucination. Sorry, I told you to hide, didn't I?" A small chuckle left his mouth.
A hallucination? Does he often see such things?
"I'm not! And... Where are you going? What exactly happened to the village? Where is everyone? What is happening to this world?"
Just like a broken dam, after letting out one question, the other questions that had been hanging inside my mind immediately poured out themselves.
Responding to my horde of questions, his eyes flinched as if he noticed something.
"I'll explain to you later. For now, follow me. We need to go to a safe place first," (Lyan)
Ah. He's right. We're in the middle of a ruin right now, aren't we? This is not the right place to ask for an explanation.
"You're right..."
"Seems that you still have a considerable amount of composure. Come, follow me," (Lyan)
He continued his walk.
We went outside the village, and then we went to the thing that I've seen in a magazine inside the Master's room. It's something like a horse, but it seems that it's made of iron and steel.
"This is called a motorcycle. Use these things, we're going to a rather far place," He said as he handed me some kind of a helmet and a piece of jacket.
"Hop on," He said, motioning me to ride behind him.
I obediently followed, and the steel horse suddenly vibrates and let out a big sound as it started moving.
*Vroom!!!*
It's fast!
I hug Master's body in reflex because of the unexpected speed of the motorcycle.
It's strange.
Maybe because I couldn't use my mana, and my physical body seems to get weaker, but it felt like I'm getting more nervous than I ever felt before as I hugged my master's body.
"Hold on. We're going faster," (Lyan)
Eh? We're going faster?
*VROOM!!!!!*
The speed increased by about three folds from before. I immediately hugged him more tightly than before.
I don't know how long, but we surely travel for more than four hours at such a high speed before we finally arrived at a place that looks like master's base.
"This is...?"
Rather than a base, it looks like an abandoned building. The buildings are covered with moss and other plants, some of their windows are broken, and some parts of the building were destroyed. But these buildings are definitely not a building that this world could make. It's the knowledge of Master's original world.
"These buildings were the former headquarter of the humans. Now, it's my personal base. Let's go," (Lyan)
"O-Okay..." (Lilith)
I followed master and entered the building that is located in the middle of the buildings. The building's materials are even more impressive than the materials of master's room. Walls of thin glass, soundproof walls, moving stairs, and other high-tech features.
Even though the outside looks like it had fallen to ruin, the inside is still intact and it seems that most of the features could still work.
The other buildings outside look as impressive as this building. I wonder if the inside of the buildings are as impressive or even more impressive than this building...
"The buildings here are all the presidents' and prime ministers' palaces from my former world. For some reason, all of the buildings got transported to this world. Even the underground rooms got teleported to this world as well. Well, it's a good thing since the secret high-tech devices and techs from various countries got teleported as well," (Lyan)
"Presidents? Prime ministers?"
Are they nobles like dukes and archdukes or royalties like kings that they got such impressive palaces?
"Ah... You don't know the term presidents and prime ministers, huh... They are people like kings and emperors here. They are the head of their countries," (Lyan)
We entered a room and a huge iron door blocked our way. Master went to the wall beside the iron door and tapped on a device that are stuck to it.
*Beep!* *Beep!*
The small device beeped, and the huge iron door slowly got opened by itself, revealing the inside of the room.
But the sight beneath the huge iron door, isn't the sight that I was expecting. I was expecting an even higher technology of Master's world to be displayed and used inside it, but the sight that entered my vision was some kind of a place that used to be a gathering place.
"This is..." (Lilith)
"This is our living quarter. Well, it's only mine now, though. Are you starving?" (Lyan)
"Eh?" (Lilith)
*Growl~*
As if my stomach was waiting for that question, my stomach let out a big growl, painting my face red with embarrassment.
"Looks like you are starving. Come here, I'll make something quick," Master said as he let out a small chuckle.
Master then leads me to one of the rooms. When he opened the door, a place that seems to be a decent living quarter entered my vision. Is this his room in this place?
"You can sit anywhere. I'll make something quick," (Lyan)
I replied with a nod.
Without looking behind, master went straight to the kitchen and started to put out the ingredients for the food. My butt is still kind of sore because of the hours of traveling on the motorcycle, I think I'll stand and look around for a while.
So this is master's room in the demon world, huh...
My eyes wandered around the room, and stopped at a certain place. It's the pictures on top of a shelf.
I approached it and saw a picture of dozens of people in military uniforms with smiles on their faces. Considering the red sky above them, this must be a picture of Master and his comrades here in the demon world.
"Ah... That picture, huh..." Master's voice suddenly sounded from behind, making me startled.
Did he finish preparing the food already? So fast?
"That was the old picture of me and my comrades. Here," Master handed me a bowl of hot noodle soup similar to the one I ate inside Master's room with the other spirits.
"Sorry but, this is the fastest thing to make. I hope you like it," (Lyan)
"Thank you," I accepted the bowl and ate the noodles. It's still hot, but maybe because of the hunger, I could somehow bear the hotness and eat the noodle soup. But Aren't I supposed to be unable to feel hunger?
It's strange.
Maybe because suddenly got summoned into the demon world within Master's memories shocked me, I can't seem to think clearly and make the proper judgment. Too many ruins, empty towns, and unexpected sights made me shocked to the point that I'm acting like a lost little girl.
I don't know which one surprised me the most, but maybe...
I take a peek at master that was looking at me eating the noodle soup with an emotionless face.
"About your questions from before. I'll answer you slowly, so you can continue to eat comfortably," He suddenly said. Maybe he took my glance as a signal of my curiosity about when he will reply to my questions.
I replied with a nod.
"About what happened to the village. The village got destroyed by the black monsters you've seen before, and currently the only remaining member of the tribe is me. Everyone died," (Lyan)
Eh...?
*Clatter!* *Clatter!*
I dropped the fork because of the sudden shocking news delivered to me.
"Everyone...? Died...?"
"Yes. Not even a single soul remained except for mine in our tribe. For what happened to the world, the demon world is currently being invaded by the evil dragon god, Tiamat," (Lyan)
Evil dragon god...
"The evil god devoured the South continent and made everything inside pitch black, we called it the Abyss. The black monsters you just saw, they are beasts of the abyss. There are a large variety of them, and the ones you saw before are the weakest of them," (Lyan)
Those are... The weakest...?
"My purpose here currently is to devote a plan to destroy the-" (Lyan)
*Ding!* *Ding!* *Ding!*
The sound of a bell rang, and Master widened his eyes. With a grim face, he went behind me and forcefully closed my ears.
"Eh? What is-"
!?!?!?
*ROOAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
The whole building vibrated. It felt as if the whole continent suddenly shook.
What is that?
What is that sound?
It got suppressed and muffled because of Master's hands, but I could still hear how terrifying that roar is. That roar sends shivers to my whole body, but somehow, because of the warmth in my ears, my body didn't tremble in fear.
"Mas-"
When I turn my head up, I saw master looking at me with a gentle face. But that face, it's completely different from the face that I just saw.
It's the face of the usual master in the present world.
"Lilith," The master called me with a gentle voice.
"Mas... Ter?"
At that moment, I realized something. Rather than realizing it, I guess I remembered something.
Succubus and incubus are masters in mind and illusion magic. One of the magic we possess is the ability to read memories. High-ranked ones could read the memories of a person in a very short moment.
Did he just... Read my memories...?
"This world is too harsh and too cruel for you to see. It's time for you to return to your time axis," (Lyan)
"Eh? Wait, master-"
"Seems like I'm having a lot of fun on that side. Give my regards to the other and my future self, would you? Tell him thanks. It seems that I managed to fulfill my promise well," (Lyan)
*Snap!*
Together with the snap of his fingers, suddenly my vision blacked out, and intense drowsiness assaulted me.
Please... About this dream...
Don't make me... Forget it...