Encounter(1) (Revised) – A New World Arc (6)

3 weeks have passed since we arrived in this world. I will skip over the boring details, but we tried to survive during the days that passed. We busied ourselves with refurbishing the cabin since our meeting with King Wieka.

A few hours earlier:

"Hana, I almost forgot about it. I kept them in my spatial storage for a while now"- I pulled the tea, coffee, and candy box out of it and gave it to Hana.

"Thank you. I was craving some tea and coffee, I got used to waking up without it but will help my unnatural caffeine addiction. Also, why is your face red, you look like a young boy in love who just gave his crush her first gift"- Hana's lips expanded into a wide smile and laughter erupted. It's true, I look like that, I never gave any girl a gift before, despite being my sister Hana makes jokes like that from time to time.

"Well, that should keep us awake, it was pretty cheap to begin with. I know you get depressed without coffee."- Hana laughed again.

"Well, yes, I am prone to being depressed without coffee. Also, I was thinking about everything that happened in our old world. I was thinking about you mostly, you seem healthier here, your severe memory loss is mostly negated and you are coherent more than just a few hours per day. You don't know how happy this makes me. You don't need to despair just yet, everything looks tough for now, but I am sure we will find a way to push through everything."- Hana extended her hand toward me. I did the same, she dragged me in her direction, falling directly into the bed near her.

"I never thought I would say this but this world is better than our previous one, despite our current conditions, we can do something, we can grow and evolve past our limits. I am sorry that I jumped out of the rooftop back in our world, I wanted you to let go of me, I didn't want you to die with me, that didn't go as planned for me."- I moved my head down in a bow toward Hana. I did consider her feelings before throwing myself off the roof, I knew she would have been sad if I died but I should have let her live her life the way it was. But considering how my life was I couldn't live like that for long, not without being in a mental facility 24/7. The day I took myself out was the last week I could walk as a free man, I would have had to admit myself in a mental hospital.

"I get you. I know you just wanted to escape. You were suffering too much. But you are still my brother, I want to see you alive and happy, not dead in a grave. I swear, if you try to die in this life I will make sure to revive you one way or another. You won't pass away until I say so!"- Hana's voice cracked for a slight moment, a stream of tears coming down her face. I shouldn't have brought this up, but it needed to be brought up, I don't want any ill feelings later.

"I am sorry, that's all I can do for now. You have a deal."- Hana's lips formed a warm smile, one that I hadn't seen in a long time. Her smiles are usually warm and friendly but this one was special…

"I shouldn't have gotten this emotional with you. Sorry. Now, let's think about something else shall we?"- Hana smiled again. She grabbed a small pot and began heating water.

"Might as well make some coffee for the two of us"- Hana is always like this, if I make her a gift she will share it with me no questions asked, even if I don't want it. She will still try to share it with me. But I can't refuse her. She took the moral high ground in this argument although I am to blame for all of this. She could have shouted or yelled at me but she chose to stay calm through all of this.

There is something that concerns me tho. You are too kind, way too kind for this world. I don't want you to change, but if we want to be Demon Lords we might have to do that. I might sound contradictory but please, at least for now, be the Hana I know. Leave the immoral and hard decisions to me if there is ever time to make such decisions"- Hana looked away from me, staring into the cabin walls.

"I hope it never comes to us making such decisions. I don't want either of us to change, but with goddess Ifrit, it seems impossible. Her resurrection is soon to be complete. I hope a miracle happens and we don't have to do anything bad."- I pulled 2 cups out of my spatial storage, giving them to Hana. She prepared the coffee for us to drink.

"So, how does the coffee taste?"- I took a sip out of the colorless cup. The coffee had a tongue-piercing bitter aroma, we didn't have sugar but couldn't complain, I mean we had sugar but not to be wasted on coffee of all things. Resources that are as precious as sugar and salt shouldn't be wasted like this.

"It's bitter. But will do"

"Hikaru, maybe we should go into the city today again. We could pick up more quests from the guild"

"Well, we should scout the city more, see what's new, maybe we should go to the adventurer's guild and try to do more advanced quests, or we can go in the opposite way of Welcia city and maybe arrive at the Welcia Academy"

"That reminds me, Welcia Academy, the magi academy built here to train other welders or strong people or something like that. I forgot what Sia has told you exactly."

!I will reiterate. Welcia Academy is a special school for top students and otherworlders with special skills. For now, the building is used to house mostly other welders.!

"I wonder how are our classmates doing? I know that we got kicked out by the king, and they don't even know the truth, but this isn't a reason they will stop caring about us, is it? We can maybe try telling them the truth. I mean I still have some friends in the class I would like to see how they are doing. If we meet any of them either in Welcia or otherwise can we at least talk to them, Hikaru?"- It's a tough call, but maybe we can convince some, but I don't think that telling them would solve anything. Maybe the corruption of that goddess spread to them without her being alive.

"Sure. I don't see why we shouldn't, but I doubt anything will work, maybe someone else will brainwash them"- Hana looked away from me pouting.

"Don't ruin my mood, you did that once."

Well, I say, let's finish the coffee and get going. We have little time.

"Agreed"- We both nodded at each other.

5 minutes later we finished drinking our coffee.

We left the cabin, hitting the road pretty early in the day.

"We have been walking for a while. Do you know where we are exactly? Are we closer to Welcia Academy at least?"- Hana looked back and forth at the vast expanse of the forest.

"We must be close. Sia made a mental map for us, try looking at that one, we must see a forest with a big mushroom tree that is dimly lit"- We continued to walk, our steps light but quick.

"Then, it's up ahead, Welcia Academy should be in one of the clearings of the forest."- We still have a few kilometers to travel until we reach the Academy but more or less we need to head in a straight line.

"Hey, Hana, I wonder if all of our classmates would have been brainwashed by now. I hope not"- Hana didn't say anything for a while, it was like she was mute.

!I am afraid that won't be possible, after the revival of goddess Ifrit 90% of the human population here will become brainwashed and hostile against any type of monster, some people can resist control but there are only a handful that can resist, the chance is slim that your classmates will be able to resist the control of the goddess. But on a good note, people from the Kingdom of Admaris don't worship any of the current gods so they aren't under any influence of other gods!

"Well, if the worse were to happen we can always knock them out. I doubt they made as much progress as us"

"Yes. I don't know what to say anymore, Hikaru. Let's just walk in silence"- Hana looked at me again.

We continued to walk in absolute silence.

In the forest the mushroom trees have some sort of fruit, they fall from time to time, and one of them falls on my head. Those fruits were tough as hell and caused me a nasty bleed, but luckily, due to me being a monster, I could regenerate faster than a normal human.

For some reason there are still bushes growing in the forest, they look very out of place in this forest filled with mushroom trees, they almost look like the bushes were planted by someone.

A few minutes later we arrived at a strange-looking clearing, it's like a normal forest, green with a blue sky, and to no surprise, a huge building in the middle.

!That is Welcia Academy. They put the academy into a dark mushroom forest to camouflage it from intruders!

"Hana, stop. Let's hide in the bushes and wait. We can't be seen, not even with our disguise on"- I grabbed Hana's hand and dragged her into one of the bushes.

Looking around at the area in front of us, it's like a training ground, with a few training dummies, targets, arrows, and other sorts of training weapons.

After 5 minutes of waiting 10 people emerged from the building, going directly to the training grounds.

!I recommend that you don't interact with them for now. Stay put and see what they discuss and based on that interact with them!

"Let's listen to what Sia said"- We continued to look at them, it's unknown to us if they want us back or not.

"Man, things here suck. The food is very stale and we eat dried meat on most of the training exercises. Can't they give us better food?"- One of the girls complained.

"If you complain this way you will get kicked the same way Hana and Hikaru were kicked. Remember why are we meeting here right?"- One of the boys brought the girls closer together.

"Yes, we are discussing Hana and Hikaru and how we can bring them back, we already made appeals to the king to bring the 2 of them back and that he will need our skills but it had gone wrong because of multiple factors, but now we need to find a way to bring the 2 of them back"- I looked at Hana, she looked ready to burst out of there at any moment. I stopped her by grabbing her shoulder

"Yes, we need some way for them to come back or a way for us to talk to them. I don't know what will happen next, but we need to find a way"- Why do so many people want us to come there? Don't they know about goddess Ifrit and the mind control she has over humans?

"We need them back, imagine how much help they will be in saving this kingdom from demons and other monsters. Especially since Hikaru is a demon and Hana is an orc, we can use their high status and skills in training if we wish to and thus progress faster to return to our other world"- I guess this must be the lie that the followers of goddess Ifrit has been feeding them.

"They likely want us there to kill us. Our classmates might have good intentions, but not the followers of Ifrit"

"I understand, but I can't ignore them"- The telepathy skill comes in handy when I want to talk with her and have no one hear it.

So, the deal here is that the faster we defeat the demons the better it will go for them. One thing that I learned from humanity up until now is that they demonize everything that they don't like. Demons in this world are likely not born evil but driven by humans to commit evil acts to survive persecution. They couldn't survive so they took arms against the humans and then started a war because their species was so oppressed, I know a medieval and corrupt society when I see it.

!You are 90% accurate with your assertion. But now demons and other monsters are more docile!

"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, the king needs to approve it first and then we can bring them back. But with how things look it won't be any time soon"- Another one of the girls spoke.

After some time of listening to their conversations, I can hear footsteps, but it's more like a big dog walking, coming directly from where our classmates are, it's almost like they are headed for us.

"Do you guys hear that?"- Loud footsteps are coming from right behind them.

A few seconds later 2 big wolves with wings came from the forest.

"Let them fight the wolves first. We will only intervene if we need to"

"Everyone, attack!"

Our classmates got into position and each of them tried to strike down the wolves, 2 of the boys tried using enchanted swords but the wolves ended up parrying the attack and knocking them out.

The girls tried to summon something, I don't know what exactly.

"O, listen to us, the holy maidens of the land, descent upon us, holy An…"- A gust of wind rushed toward them

!Action recommended, that can tear them to sheards!

"Now!"

"Sorry, for being late"- I jumped in front of the girl and used my shadow tendrils as a wall against the wind spell, Hana dragged the unconscious bodies of the 2 boys to where I was standing.

"Hana, is that you?"- They looked at us, faces wide with surprise.

"Yeah, that's my name."- The wolves are almost ready to attack us.

"Hikaru, be ready!"- I nodded a yes to Hana.

!Creature: Magi Wolf, you can obtain the skill Air Platform from them if you predate them!

*Use skill: Shadow Tendrils*- I immobilized the wolves with my shadow tendrils and Hana, in 1 blindingly fast dash and a simple swing of her katana, the blade went through both of the wolves' necks and decapitated them.

*Use skill: Predator*- I predated the 2 wolves.

#Skill gained: Air Platform#- I gave the duplicate skill to Hana.

"They took them down in an instant!?"- Our classmates look at us, their faces white as a sheet of paper

"No time to talk, follow us and we can talk somewhere else. Somewhere where there are no prying eyes"- Hana helped everyone stand up and recover from the shock. Then, they followed us, either by fear or by their own will

10 minutes later:

"Hey, where are you guys taking us?"- One of the girls looked at me and then at Hana

"To our house. We can explain most of the things that happened to us once we arrived there"- Hana didn't bother looking at her, she looked at me a with small smile on her lips.

"Well, you can tell us on the road. We need to get back to Welcia Academy"- One of the boys in the group protested.

"You see, when we were kicked out we were told the truth about all of this. There is a goddess, probably heard her name, Ifrit, she hates monsters and wants to destroy them. Everyone will be brainwashed into disliking monsters once she revives, monsters and people who don't subscribe to her religion are not affected in most cases anyway. That's for short what is about to happen." - I try to explain to them as best as I can.

"I do understand, I know something was up with her. We refused to join the religion but we still chose to fight. The others, people from our school all chose to join the religion almost as if they were compelled to by someone"- That sounds interesting.

"So, you are the only ones that didn't join the religion? Are you treated any differently?"

"Not from what I am aware but…"

#Global Notice: The Divine Individual Ifrit is about to revive in 10 seconds#

#10…9…8#

#7.6.5.4.3#

#2.1.0#

An immeasurable force can be felt, it's compelling us to bow to our knees, Hana and I are unaffected by this but our classmates seem to not be able to hold out for long.

"Hello there, I am Goddess Ifrit, the Goddess of Human Prosperity, this is my revival, the promised flourishment of the human race. Rest easy, this is a message of joy. But first, to attain the promise of flourishment of our race we must defeat those who always tried to stop us; monsters, they are nothing but worthless vermin. I, Ifrit command you all to follow my lead and let your beautiful nations flourish" – This message echoed in our heads, Hana heard it, I heard it. That means everyone has heard it. Now we can't avoid fighting with people.

!Commencing mind Spoofing for 10 individuals!

!Mind spoofing complete, they are free from the goddesses' control but they are not immune if they are controlled again!

"Wait, you could do that Sia?"

!Yes, but it's only a temporary solution, it only works a few times!

"We must get back to the academy. You 2, take care. They are already searching for us. Run, you get it?"- One of Hana's friends hugged her before the whole group began running in the direction of the academy.

This day was rough but at least I could see Hana a little bit happier today, she tried to hide it, but I could feel it that she felt happy seeing them again. Even if the exchange between us was brief and rushed by the revival of Goddess Ifrit.