We spread out to check every wrecked and ruined stone and wooden house. Many of what remained of the buildings were the four walls, while a few still had half a roof, but I imagined one jump and it could perhaps collapse. I stepped into a broken house, the place was quite dusty, the short dark grass had taken on the gaps of the floor.

  Now that I had a closer look, if I were to guess, this place had been abandoned for a very long time. Several years, maybe more or less a decade. Normally, at that amount of time, vegetation should have covered the ruins here, but obviously, no plants survive to become that long and thick.

  If we find a decent building, we can use that as shelter.

  But considering the roof of this one was halfway destroyed, this wouldn’t be an option. I saw one earlier that looked fine, but had to check if it was alright. I walked around this ruined building for a while to make sure there were no hostile elements. You know, there could be some crawling creatures that may be hiding in the crevices.

  Like, goddamn, this place. The other day while I was laying down on my sheets, motherfucker there was a fucking snake like thing! It almost got close to me! How creepy was that?! One ugly motherfucker too. Ugh, I hated this place so much. Still gave me the shiver thinking about the possibility of what could have happened. I accidentally blasted it to smithereens by the way, no mercy for snakes! They’re rare species? Fuck do I care? Kill ‘em all. What if it had beautiful albino skin? Don’t care! Burn ‘em all!

  Ahem, anyway, this place was clear, so I headed out to the next building that looked like it was in good condition. Velar was the one to check up the place. I looked around, there were like around a couple dozen houses here. As I walked, I noticed a skull on the ground at a corner of a house. Guessing from the shape, it must be from a female, young too, around early twenties — my quick guess anyway. The rest of the body, though, I couldn’t find it.

  Unfortunate stuff. Surprisingly, this place was not filled with skeletons or any more signs of corpses. Oh, no, if it had been here for several years, I guess the bones could have been taken by whatever monstrosities this place had. At any rate, this place was pretty gloomy. The coldness of the air felt like it gave off a haunting vibe, like the ghosts of the dead roamed this place.

  But of course ghosts were not real here. It was just the empty vibe this place was exuding. It always happens whenever in an abandoned settlement or something, add to it this land full of death. Well, it didn't matter anyway, I could still sleep in a place like this. As long as there was no creepy creature that would crawl up on me, I’d be completely fine.

  When I reached the door, Velar was already moving out of the building.

  “So, how is it?” I asked.

  “It’s clear. The house is mostly intact. It shouldn’t collapse anytime soon.”

  “So we can use this to sleep in.”

  “Yes.”

  Ugh, finally. At least I got to sleep on something with a proper roof… Okay, not exactly proper, but it’s a roof.

  We checked up more of the area to ensure there was no monster hiding somewhere. Thankfully, all was clear. Some time later, everyone else had gathered.

  “Got a building there that looks livable at the very least,” Hartwin said.

  “We also got one here.” I pointed at the one Velar checked.

  Hartwin nodded. “That looks better. Guess we can use that.”

  It was still daytime, midafternoon, so not like we needed it right now. Except, I wanted to lie down. I was tired as fuck. We approached the building.

  “Dusty,” Hartwin said. “Can you do something about it?”

  I could have done it with my wind magic, but I would rather not use any kind of magic for things so minor. Would be a waste of my vitality. So I turned towards someone that could definitely do something about it. Namely, Taneva.

  “Can you use wind magic to blow the dust off in the room?”

  “Sure.”

  We stepped back, away from Taneva. Gonna be a dusty air when all dust gets blown away.

  “Just don’t overdo it, okay?” I said. “You might destroy the house with a strong wind.” And I was quite certain it wouldn’t need much firepower to destroy it all.

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  It’s a really good spot. I would not like it if the place I wanted to rest gets blown up.

  “Uh, how strong do you think the wind should be?” Taneva asked hesitantly as he turned his head at us.

  “How should we know?!” I answered. “Just, just start weak and gradually increase the intensity until the dust gets blown off!”

  “Good idea!”

  He did just that, holding out his hands and gradually exuded wind, gradually making it stronger until the dust started flying off into the air. He seemed to widen the magic spell and the dust from the inside began coming out through the windows, or any hole at all in the house. I covered my nose as the dust managed to reach where we were.

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  His eyes squinting, Taneva wrinkled his nose as he took the wave of dust head on. From the looks of it, he was holding his breath.

  A moment later, most of the dust was finally rid of. Of course, there were some that remained stuck on the surfaces that would need rubbing off, but these were negligible. Once every dust that floated in the air had settled, we immediately set up our stuff inside the house. I grabbed my soft sheets from Velar and spread them out on the floor at my special corner. Not quite right next to the window though, I didn’t want any monstrosity coming in straight towards me. Fuck that.

  I laid down on my ‘bed’ and let out a long sigh of relief. I was very tired. The weight on my shoulders had finally lightened, in a sense. The pseudo pillow on my head was alright.

  Haaaah, I miss my bed.

  I dreaded the situation I was in right now, so fucking frustrating.

  “You think this place was attacked by monsters?” Hartwin said as he stood by the door frame, looking at the scene before him. “I’m just wondering, every place has a story.”

  “Dying by monsters, humans, all the same in this place,” Taneva answered as he leaned on the window. “How you die doesn’t matter much.”

  “I see… Must be a village, huh?”

  “Could be, or could be a settlement for bandits or anything.”

  If this was once a bandit base, then the female skull I saw could be from a slave. There were a lot of houses here, but whether this was a mere civilian village, or a base of savages, we would never know.

  “Taneva,” I called as I got up and leaned my back on the wall. “How did this archipelago end up this way, exactly? Being desolate.”

  He turned to everyone, who also seemed interested in hearing about the same thing. “I only heard the story from a friend. You know demons are prevalent here, their lands are just right next to this archipelago.”

  That I was aware.

  “The God of Despair, as he is commonly called now, once ruled over that land, and from where the demons were shaped and made. It all started fine. The gods created the Mystic Race, so why not him? In fact, demons were free from going all over the place. But that only lasted for a short time.”

  “Let me guess, they turned out to be evil?” I said.

  “Heh. The God of Despair, turned out, had other plans. Eventually, fighting began. The other gods condemned the Demon God for ruining the balance and peace. As punishment, the gods cut off their blessings in his territory. And this archipelago was included. All manner of plants began to die, and the leylines were cut off.”

  “Leylines?” Hartwin asked.

  “Think of it as a vein of the world, one that gives nourishments with magical properties that help sustain this world. It nourishes the soil, enriches the grounds, causes the formation of beasts, and protects from whatever dark presence could be in the world.”

  That’s the first I heard about it.

  I nodded. “And then what happened? Continue.”

  “Both the demon lands and Shinoroa were affected by the punishment. And can you guess who had an active role in achieving this?” Taneva looked at me.

  My eyes squinted. “... Feels like I know.”

  He grinned. “The Ruling Deity of Blood. That goddess is an essential piece in the world, and so thus her authority. Once the last remnants of blessings had disappeared, and the healthy plants rotted off, dangerous monsters suddenly began appearing all over the lands. More violent, more deadly than normal.”

  I tilted my head. “I assumed leylines are needed for that.”

  “Not exactly. The birth of beasts is natural in the world, the leylines just make them more healthy, and normal. Haven’t you noticed? The monsters in Wisteria behave almost like normal animals. Territorial, and will fight back when attacked or go on a rampage when disturbed. Of course there are some exceptions, but that’s mostly the case. But here, they’re more savage, grotesque and ugly, and without balance, chaotic. They are basically defects.”

  Well, I couldn’t know exactly. I was never too deep into the monster stuff. But I guess it was the case, if it was like here in Shinoroa, the monsters back home would be on a constant rampage, always attacking the nearby villages. But that was not the case, from what I knew. We didn't exactly get daily reports about some place getting attacked by monsters. And there weren’t constant reports of monsters from the Elgion forest attacking the wall.

  Sure, sometimes knights had to be sent to hunt monsters. But that was mostly for reducing the number of monsters. The Elgion forest was a special case compared to the nearby forests. For some reason, the monsters there were just more dangerous. Thinking about that place reminded me of that voice I heard while I was there. But whatever, I must be hallucinating or something. Or maybe it was real. Or it could be a monster trying to trick me, there were a lot of monsters there.

  “Anyway, with the demons spreading, slaying humans in their wake, the Goddess of Blood personally came to face the Demon God. And eventually, she won the battle and then sealed him.”

  “Sealed? You mean locked up?” Hartwin asked. “So he’s still here somewhere? Why not just kill him?”

  Taneva chuckled. “It’s not always a good idea to kill a god, you know. Evil as he may be, the God of Despair is still part of the world’s origin. Who knows what the repercussions may be. I’m sure you guys remember, it just happened, the death of a god.”

  The four of us looked at each other. They seemed clueless. However, there was one moment that stuck out to me.

  “Estelia? You know it, don’t you?”

  I frowned. “... It was the moment the sky disappeared.”

  “Correct!”

  “Woah, that was because a god died?!” Hartwin was shocked.

  “I never thought that was ever the case,” Velar muttered.

  “...” Nira tilted her head.

  I still remembered the terrible sudden wave of pain when that happened.

  “So, Estelia, how did your body react when that happened?”

  “... Basically, I had a seizure.”

  “All the gods must have felt the wave of a god’s sudden death. The death of the Ruling Deity of the Sky. Thankfully, somehow, it fixed itself, the sky. Although I have no idea how, let’s just count ourselves lucky.”

  How did that guy even die in the first place? Gods fighting? But then, all that mattered was that everything was fine…

  “So, if the Demon God dies, what would happen?” Hartwin asked, intrigued.

  Taneva shrugged. “Who knows. The Demon God was also the God of Order.”

  “So, if he dies, order just gets thrown out of the window?” I said sarcastically.

  “I can’t say, it hasn't happened yet. Perhaps that’s why your godly mother didn’t kill him.”

  How twisted though, someone that was supposed to be a god of order just caused chaos.

  “So that’s why the demons want me. They want me to release their god.”

  “Correct.”

  “How exactly? Not like I was the one that sealed him. Somehow I feel it’s nothing good.”

  “They’ll drain your blood at the most.”

  Fuck that.

  “Is that really necessary? To drain my blood.”

  “Hey, they’ve grown impatient. It’s been millennia, you know.”

  How annoying.

  “Why does my godly mother have to be involved in everything…?” It caused me all kinds of trouble.

  “I wouldn’t know. But I heard she loved humans.”

  Well, the feeling is not mutual! I don’t give a shit about humanity.

  But perhaps the love part was true. It was pretty much what was always said about our two deities back home. Them being so compassionate and caring and stuff.

  “Speaking of which, we need to think about how to fight off the demons,” Taneva said. “We might end up fighting some on our trip here. The deeper we get, the more chance we encounter one.”

  This is gonna be rough for me.

  Thinking about how difficult it was for me to kill the demon I faced recently, it made me feel annoyed and frustrated. Nothing was just going to be easy. I would prefer not to have that level of battle again.