Chapter 17: The Hydra.

"... Will you take revenge when you come back?". Yue asked as she walked beside Nader. Her crimson eyes were a bit moist.

"I really don't care, however, if I come back, I might take my time to finish them.". Nader replied and shrugged his shoulders.

"... I see." Yue nodded and rubbed the fur of the bunny that was curled up in her arms.

The topic of conversation was, of course, Nader's past in his old world.

He had revealed everything about his past to Yue: from his former personality, the days of hell he endured to the day death set him free.

Nader had thought that revealing his past, would make Yue know him better, this is despite his new personality that had replaced the old one.

However, he did not expect Yue, who had listened attentively to his story, to suddenly burst into sobs.

For Yue, living in the dark with no one accompanying her was terrifying, but after hearing what Nader had endured, she felt that it was better to live in solitude for a few hundred years than to be tortured every day for a few years.

This was true for her, who also possessed regenerative power, which even surpasses Nader's regeneration. So even if she wished to die, she could not.

On the other hand, despite hating the people who brought Nader to his death, she was extremely happy that Nader could reincarnate again, since thanks to that, she had met him.

Obviously, Nader had explained how he had been reincarnated, modifying some facts that contained Levana's existence.

He had explained to Yue that because of his reincarnation, he had gained a strange treasure that allowed him to transmigrate to other worlds, and that because of that treasure, he had managed to reach this world.

"You will go to other worlds...?" Yue suddenly added as she squeezed the bunny.

"Kyu! Kyu!" The bunny panicked and hit Yue's hand with her ears, thanks to that, Yue loosened her embrace.

Anxious and fearful.

Those were the only words that could describe Yue right now. She didn't know what she would do if Nader disappeared one day from her life, no, it would be more correct to say that she would no longer find any meaning in life to go on living.

For her, it would be far worse than when her own family had betrayed her. Just the thought of what would happen if Nader left her in this world made her heart clench.

Nader was also aware of Yue's thoughts, even so, he nodded, "Yes, I will travel to other worlds...".

The instant the answer reached Yue's ears, her emotions became turbulent. She wanted to say something, however, the words got stuck in her throat.

However, Nader's next words pulled her out of hell and threw her straight into paradise.

"If you want, you can come with me."

Yue turned her face and with a trembling but hopeful voice, she uttered, "Can I really accompany you...?".

A smile decorated Nader's face, and he replied, "Sure, I can't leave you alone, can I?".

Yue's crimson eyes moistened and a soft, cute smile appeared on her face as she nodded and hugged Nader's arm without caring about the doe that fell to the ground.

Several floating hearts appeared above Yue's head, earning a strange look from Nader.

This strange and unreal sight had begun a few days ago.

At first, Nader had been confused and thought he was delirious.

However, he had soon realized that this was not the case, so with a worried expression, he had asked Yue if she was okay, to which she had simply nodded in confirmation.

Then, he had noticed that whenever Yue was happy, was near him, or they interacted, hearts appeared out of nowhere above her head.

Indeed, Nader had completely forgotten about the [Feelings] option in his system, this was because he had not given much importance to that option.

Nader stopped thinking and simply smiled, making Yue captivated by him. This was the first time she had seen him smile without his dead expression.

"Kyu..." The bunny squealed under her breath as she hopped onto Yue's shoulder before giving Yue a judging look.

"Since you're coming with me, you should know that outside, there are many worlds which are far more dangerous than this one, but we don't have to worry about that. We'll get strong enough in this world before we go somewhere else, that way, we can live peacefully." Nader added and rubbed her face.

"Yes!" Yue nodded happily.

Soon, their gazes fell on a crack where the staircase that led them to the next floor ended.

Earlier, after Yue had sucked Nader's white blood for an hour, they had begun to resume their forays through the floors of the labyrinth.

On some floors, they had stopped to have Yue train.

Apparently, Yue's regeneration, or in this case, her near-immortal life, had a major disadvantage.

For example, if Yue ran out of mana, her body could not regenerate, which meant she was vulnerable like any other mortal.

Even though she had high regeneration, in the face of enemies who could wipe her out with their attacks, her regeneration ability would prove to be useless.

It was for that very reason that Nader had had Yue practice and increase all of her parameters. After all, Yue's stats were quite disproportionate to each other.

Initially, Nader had wanted to make Yue's parameters even and level, but he had realized that it was impossible to match Yue's stats.

Nader might be the only exception to this because of his Celestial race, for obvious reasons, his mental defense stats, along with his energy, were far above his other parameters.

Despite this, Yue's stats at the moment were much better than her previous stats, which proved that the results of her training proved fruitful.

"Apparently, this is the last floor."

"... mmm, I think so, too."

"Kyuu...".

At this moment they are standing in a rather majestic room, or would it be correct to say, a rather well-sculpted cave that made it look like a room.

The inside of the room was empty except for some grayish smooth stone pillars with spiral patterns decorating them. These majestic pillars supported the ceiling, which was located about thirty meters above the floor. At the end of the room, they could make out huge double doors.

"If this is the top floor, then perfect. I was getting bored with this place already."

Soon they would be able to leave this place and Yue could feel the warmth of the sunlight again.

With this thought, a soft smile hung on Nader's face, and he entwined his fingers with Yue's slender fingers as they walked through the quiet room.

Somehow, this floor turned out to be quite suspicious. After all, the quietest places turned out to be the most dangerous lairs.

On high alert, Nader sharpened and expanded his spiritual senses, which easily encompassed the entire room.

Although he didn't sense any monsters nearby, he could feel the outline of the space magic that was scattered around the room forming a pentagram shape, the evenly placed pillars being the supporting points.

He more or less knew it was a teleportation circle, as it looked quite familiar to the one he had seen on the bridge where he had met Shizuku.

Most likely a monster would suddenly pop out as a final trap, but he wasn't worried, he was already prepared for anything this world could throw at him. For that very reason, he doubted that a random monster that was located in the depths of the maze would cause him any trouble.

"Yue, Little Rabbit, some monster may appear by a magic circle as we approach the center, be careful," Nader reported.

"Yes!" Yue said resolutely, the depths of her eyes contained no hint of fear. She looked at Nader's captivating face and thought that nothing would happen to her when she was next to him.

Just as they thought, just as they passed by the last stone pillar, a huge magic pentagram about thirty meters long appeared a few feet off the ground in front of them and illuminated the room.

The magic circle pulsed like a heart-pumping huge amount of bloody mana through the runic inscriptions.

"Even though it looks like it's not very powerful, stay on your toes. It's not good to underestimate an enemy, we don't know its strengths or weaknesses."

"Mmm..." Yue hummed and stroked the white belly of the bunny that was curled up on her shoulders.

Even the bunny, who was understandably the more fearful between the two of them, didn't have a hint of fear reflected in her eyes, which showed how confident she was for her comrades and, at the same time, for her power.

Soon, the magic circle finished the preparation when a mowing light illuminated the entire darkroom, making it as bright as if the sun had suddenly risen in the middle of the night.

The three of them, because they had spent most of the time in the darkness of the labyrinth, instinctively closed their eyes.

The illumination gradually dimmed until it disappeared completely. They opened their eyes again and in front of them, a huge monster was revealed.

The monster was about thirty meters long. The head, which should normally be one, had six heads that were attached to long necks. Each neck and head were painted in different colors with a pair of blood dark red eyes.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrah!" The six heads twisted back and forth as they roared skyward.

The entire room shuddered to cause the walls and ceiling to crack.

An immense wave of pressure coupled with a bloodlust that would bring any normal existence to its knees was unleashed upon Nader and his companions, yet their expressions did not even flinch.

Furious, the Hydra glared coldly at them as the blue head opened its jaws wide. Several giant balls of ice materialized and headed toward them.

Yue raised her pale hands.

Seconds later, a crimson javelin that was about a meter thick and seven meters long, spun and sliced the air as it passed by and melted the ice with ease. The fiery javelin continued to trace the air and, the blue head was instantly pierced and melted.

However, the white-colored head lit up for a few seconds and the blue head, which they believed was destroyed beyond salvation, was restored.

Nader's eyes lit up. He thought that after absorbing the hydra corpse with his skill, he could get some pretty good skills.

Nader snapped out of his thoughts when the hydra's redhead spat a torrent of fire from the depths of its mouth. Nader concentrated his newly learned Wind Element and summoned a hurricane that rivaled the size of the pillar of fire.

The two elements merged and a hurricane of fire was created that swallowed the hydra inside.

"Grahhhh-!" The six heads writhed like worms inside the pillar of fire as the hurricane lifted the hydra to the ceiling.

While the yellow head used the strengthening ability to take all the damage, the white head steadily glowed, causing its damaged comrades to restore themselves.

A few seconds later, the hurricane of fire dissolved and, the hydra's giant body fell heavily to the ground.

"They are quite well-coordinated, let alone their powers, I doubt any normal being in this world could defeat them," Nader commented as Yue nodded in agreement.

The green head crumpled, and before it spat out the powers, the bunny disappeared from Yue's shoulders due to its quick speed.

In a white blur, the bunny appeared in front of the hydra's green head and delivered a spinning kick that made the wind howl.

With a popping sound, the green head was pulverized along with half of its long neck that splattered waves of green blood.

Taking advantage of the bunny being in the air, the yellow head opened its jaws wide as it tried to swallow the bunny's small body, however, the bunny kicked the head's forehead and used it as a foothold to get back on Yue's shoulders.

The white head pulsed its mana again, and the green neck began to regenerate rapidly.

The other hydra heads, in a fit of hatred and fury, launched all their powers at the same time.

Without waiting for even a second, Nader grabbed Yue's hand and teleported away, letting the different elements crash to the ground.

Without the hydra being aware, Nader had already appeared about twenty meters away, behind a huge pillar.

"Are you all right?" Nader asked with concern.

He had sensed that the hydra had mentally attacked them.

Obviously, nothing had happened to Nader and apparently even Yue and the bunny were fine as their faces were still as usual.

Even though Hydra's mental strength was quite powerful, they were not powerful enough to break through the dense barrier surrounding their minds.

"Mmm... I'm fine" Yue nodded with her expressionless face, but from her voice, it was clear that she was happy that Nader was worried about her.

"Kyuu..."

"Grahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!". The hydra roared furiously and pounded and knocked down the pillars around it as it looked around impatiently for Nader and his companions.

"Wait for me here, Yue. I'm going to kill it and come back." Nader said.

And, before Yue could respond, Nader took her small chin as he leaned down before kissing her lips.

Stunned, Yue looked at the heterochromatic eyes that were fixed on her. However, when she awoke from her state of surprise, Nader had already disappeared.

Like happy little bubbles, several pink hearts floated above Yue's head.

"Fufu..." She smiled happily and grabbed the bunny from her shoulder to hug her.

"Kyuu..."