Chapter 118: Cruel Nature

While they walked, the rabbit didn't go beyond the forest. It bowed a little to them as if to thank them for something, watched them as far as it could and it ran back into it's home.

The desert was very bare and scorching, the sky didn't make it better. Kiro kept his mind occupied with happy thoughts, of how much everyone who was his friend was freaking out right now. He made up scenarios in his head, funny ones to keep himself entertained.

Hubris was walking at a slower pace than usual, depressed. But Kiro ignored his feelings, he'd already said everything he wanted to say and he meant it. Hubris only needed to say his piece of mind.

So Kiro kept himself sane by making up things in his head, he didn't want to think about the possibility of being stuck here forever. Nothing even hinted to the fact that, there was a way out.

But he comforted himself in that, Hubris made it out. They made it in. Somehow, there must be a way out, even if it requires bloodshed, he was ready to fight.

The sand went as far as they could see. It was a barren land, though the further they walked the more the sand looked deathly pale. Bones of unknown monsters protruded from the bowels of the sand.

Dead, devoured and slightly buried. The sand felt like a monster of its own, it felt alive but it the same time dead, reduced to just a graveyard for bones it couldn't properly devour.

They walked with grace and caution. Neither wanted to let their guard down, they were after all, in the Underworld according to Hubris anyway.

The heat was getting unfathomably hot. The mirage told them all they needed to know about the conditions they had just set their feet on.

Kiro being mostly naked felt it the most, but he wasn't too uncomfortable thanks to his high constitution and melanin.

He looked over at Hubris. He didn't seem to be bothered by it, he looked right at home. Instead of baking, his fur flame resonated with the the sky as one.

As they walked, he felt burning coming from his shoulders, when he looked he noticed that a drop of fire had eaten through his skin, it rested comfortably on his collarbone.

He instinctively looked up, drops of flames were falling from the sky, this area was deserted, so they'd have no way to run in a shelter.

"Would've been nice for you to mention this Hubris!"

"Sorry for my incompetence master, I simply do not remember anything about this world."

Tried as he did to maneuver out of harm's way, the flame drops pierced his skin like hot knife through butter.

"Huh?"

"I don't know what monsters were these or what we should expect."

Kiro clicked his tongue, 'is this what superhuman intelligence is?'

"You didn't read my mind did you?"

"I wouldn't dare, even if I could."

Kiro was liberated for a bit without the system, but now he had Hubris who could deduce what he would ask. He felt, undeniably dumb.

"How does the rain feel for you?"

Hubris didn't cut him off this time, he wouldn't do it again, since his master didn't seem to like it very much.

"It feels like the hot spring we used back then, except, slightly hotter. It feels great for me, it's like, nourishment."

"How unfair, I thought my soul would burn to cinder."

They walked days and nights, with occasional unhelpful rests. Since it was a desert they couldn't do much to help anything, the solar rain took as many days. Hubris wasn't sure when it would end, it took a whole week.

Kiro commanded the energy that protected him, he never once ran out. But he could feel it depleting. He fainted nonetheless, his body wasn't quite used it to it. Hubris carried him most of the way.

While out of it he could feel it being replenished, seeping into his bones once again. It wasn't painful this time, just something that was foreign to him. Unlike the last time he fell into a coma, this time, he woke up after 3 hours.

"Hubris, am I going insane, or is that a shrine?" He asked in a hoarse voice, he got up to stand on top of his mount.

He used his hand to cover the sun that was blocking his view from seeing what he thought could never be in the middle of a desert.

"I, see it, too."