Going a little back in time, before the battle between phoenix and dragon.
The subordinates and commanders of the goddess, Udea were flying around the western most part of the vast forest at a stupendous speed.
Their figures moved like a mirage. With every second, they crossed hundreds, thousands of kilometers. "This miniature world really is strange. Just how far does this forest go?"
Even after coming this far there was still no sign of the outermost reaches of the vast forest of greenery.
"This is a supreme grade miniature world. I'm not surprised… It's on another level compared to those we are more familiar with."
Towards Monica's troubled murmur, Reaper who flew at the forefront uttered those words with clear detachment.
"Hehe, shall I circle this forest, then?" Still clad in golden crackling lightning, Aratiri suggested interestedly. With his speed, he could cover a much wider area himself in an instant.
"You mustn't. Splitting up in a place like this seems very risky." Monica objected, her brow furrowing in worry.
This world was completely unknown to them, separating their forces in such a situation would only weaken their combat capabilities if battle were to arise. "Monica is right. We still don't have enough information about this place, let's not weaken our forces right now we—Hm? This is."
Reaper was about to say something but quickly stopped his train of thought.
Monica furrowed her brow when she saw the astonishment in Reaper's eyes. In the next moment, his body instantly vanished from the front like wisps of smoke being blown by intense wind and reappeared elsewhere in the forest.
A second later, Monica, Aratiri, Ethan and Charlotte also appeared silently behind him followed by the others.
"This, no way, isn't that… A collapsing star flower?" Ethan said, dumbfoundedly. Indeed, a few meters away from them intertwined within the branches of trees was a collapsing star flower. Its beautiful rosy red petals were open as magical energy could be seen sparkling on its surface.
It was a rare flower that only grew within an area abundant with the flow of mana.
Moreover, the denser the mana in the atmosphere, the faster and purer its evolution. "Considering how high its grade is, it must have been feeding off the magical energy here for who knows how long." It was giving off the presence of an abnormally high grade.
If used as an ingredient, it could make medicine with a wondrous effect. It was an ingredient that could make even the most prosperous and well renowned alchemist go to bloody war to obtain.
"Soul search." Monica recited a spell, her senses heightened and spread outward for roughly several kilometers. "This… There is more over there." She said, pointing her fingers towards the top of a cliff. When Ethan narrowed his eyes and focused his senses, his eyes widened.
"Each one of them is at an abnormally high grade."
"Hmmm… How can you see them from so far away?" Charlotte's brow furrowed as she grumbled under her breath, she stared up at the peak of the five-hundred-foot cliff as her eyes narrowed.
Although she could imbue magical energy into her eyes to enhance her perception, her lack of experience in magic power control meant her fineness was greatly diminished.
"Shouldn't we go collect them? With my speed I can gather them all in seconds." Aratiri suddenly spoke up.
"…" At this time, Reaper was unusually quiet as he stared deeper into the forest. For some reason, he had a bad feeling.
Perhaps noticing that, Monica stared at his side profile and wrinkled her brow, "Is something wrong, Reaper?"
"… No, I just thought it's abnormally quiet around here." He replied with narrowed eyes. Monica also stared deeper into the forest and extended her senses, but no matter where she looked, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
'Come to think of it… I noticed there weren't any beasts around these parts.' Monica thought to herself. While they were flying she had sensed the presence of multiple beasts dwelling within the forest.
But strangely enough, all traces of them had disappeared once they had entered the inner zone of the mountain.
'Could this place be…?' Monica was lost in thought when Aratiri interrupted.
"Well, shall I?"
"Mmm… Oh, go ahead. But don't let your guard down. There is no telling what could be hiding in this forest." She smoothed over her expression and replied with her glossy lips curled into a faint smile.
"Leave it to me." Aratiri responded eagerly, his magical energy circulated. The golden lightning flickering around his body intensified.
In an instant, the sound of thunder roared loudly as his figure flickered and flashed across the forest in a golden blur.
Over three hundred collapsing star flowers vanished like mist, barely a millisecond later.
His speed was so fast even the senses of their spiritual perception were only able to see a brief flash of golden light before he disappeared from their vision.
The trick behind his incomprehensible speed was his physique, the thunder-god body physique, an elemental physique that allows him to merge with lightning naturally rather than imbuing himself with it.
An intense wind blew and the branches of trees oscillated intensely from his acceleration. "W-Wow, so that's what it looks like when Sir Aratiri is being serious." Charlotte said, her eyes widening in awe. Even though he was moving faster than she could physically see or sense, her heart was still swayed by his impressive speed.
"We don't call him the fastest general for nothing." Ethan commented from beside her, his mouth curling into a slight smile. At this rate they would have collected enough collapsing star flower in no time at all, but—
"Hm? Is something wrong, you two?" Ethan noticed both Monica and Reaper had been quiet the entire time. When he saw the serious expression on both their faces, he couldn't help wrinkling his brow.
Both Monica and Reaper stared deeper into the forest. Although their line of sight was obscured by the thick branches of trees, their eyes were filled with wariness and uncertainty.
Monica's hand was already reaching towards the hilt of the sword, sheathed at her slim waist without her being subconsciously aware of it herself.
Ethan's expression became stern as he sensed their fighting spirits suddenly spiked, his lips moved to say something when his expression changed abruptly and in that instant, he felt a strong sense of danger.
'… This is?!' It was the intent to kill! This murderous intent was so strong that Ethan's body momentarily froze. It wasn't just Ethan, the weaker Demigods around them also seem to sense it.
"This feeling… Spiritual pressure condensed into physical form." A young man with short black hair uttered as he felt an overwhelming pressure attacking his soul.
It wasn't a physical attack created through magic or some technique, but rather it was intent.
Intent was a technique that allowed practitioners to direct their spiritual intent and manipulate the natural worldly laws into the physical world, reshaping it according to their own will. It was a technique of law alteration.
Although it was unknown who had initiated this sudden spiritual attack, it was easy to assume they had an extraordinary control over their spiritual intent.
The intensity seems to be affecting the every laws of the miniature world, altering the strength of the gravity in the vicinity that was pressing them down.
They all had pale faces as a feeling of apprehension assaulted them. "Hmph. Although I don't know who you are, but… Such an attack isn't enough to scare me away." Aratiri said, the golden lightning around him grew abruptly.
"Lightning field!" He bellowed out and golden lightning spread across the forest terrain. "By my will, I reduce all trees to ash." He said calmly.
As if his words could change the laws of the world, the towering trees that obscured their line of sight for roughly several hundred kilometers ignited into flames and withered away.
This was the power of his will, a technique that allowed someone to direct their will into the physical world. Intent and will were two of the most powerful concepts a practitioner could learn.
While intent allowed the alteration of the universal laws depending on how skilled and influence over the natural laws the user's own intent allowed, the practice of shaping one's own will into the physical world allowed the manifestation of the users own laws.
For example, a swordsman could direct their own intent into the blade of their swords, allowing it to pierced a material that would be in most cases, impossible for the blade of a sword to pierce by directly altering its laws.
On the contrary, a practitioner of will could manifest their laws into barriers, turning a fragile barrier into an impenetrable shield.
In terms of effectiveness, will was considered to be the most difficult of the two to master, one could spend their entire lifetime without making any progress in mastering their own will.
"… Whoever directs that intent towards us doesn't seem to be anywhere within several hundred kilometers." Reaper said, staring at the clearing of the forest. It was then when it happened—
"Tsk… Everyone, quickly! Take cover!!" Reaper yelled, grabbing his two scythe. The next moment, "Guh!" An intense storm-like wind erupted from the forest depths in a violent manner.
BOOOOOOOM!
Chunks of dirt and stones were sent flying and the trees that extended from behind them were uprooted and sent hurtling into the air. The wind pressure carried the force of a vacuum.
The ferocity of the wind was razor sharp, it was like countless pointed needles, stabbing straight towards them from all sides.
Reaper moved swiftly; he defended against the wind pressure with his twin scythes, releasing a mass of darkness in the form of a slash.
On the contrary, Monica promptly recited a spell, conjuring up a luminous barrier of light around herself and those closest to her.
Ethan quickly held Charlotte close to his body and materialized his spirit sword, Grim.
With a fluid motion, he slashed vertically in a straight line with his sword, splitting the air current into two halves, diverting the wind pressure off course, gouging out the soil.
But the next moment, a tremendous amount of murderous intent was released from the point where the wind pressure had erupted. This time it was several times greater.
The murderous intent is so strong that it seems to freeze the air. The presence was overwhelming, many of the weaker Demigods present became pale.
"I see… For so many high grade collapsing star flowers to be here, I had a hunch it was too good to be true, it seems we may have unintentionally wandered into someone's territory." Reaper explained, his eyes narrowing sharply as he stared at the point where the pressure was most powerful.
"So, it's something akin to the guardian of this place, then?" Monica said, her usual gentle expression became icy.
"Monica, try using advanced magic from a distance. Aratiri, we still don't know what we're up against! You attack the moment you see an opening!" Reaper suggested.
"Right!" Aratiri responded.
"Got it… I humbly beseech the miracle of the heavens, show no mercy to those who direct their hostility against the divine. Grant me the power of holy eradication—Holy ray!" As Monica recited the incantation for her holy magic, a three layer magic circle appeared before her outstretched arm humming with the rotation of the intricate runes.
In the next moment, a bright, dazzling white beam of light was spewed from the center. Everyone covered their eyes from the beam's illumination. The beam was so hot that it seemed to burn the air as it traveled, the soil blackened as the trees within its trajectory burned away before even making contact.
Within the depths of the forest, at the point where the murderous intent had been at its strongest, the loud cry of a beast resounded as if it felt an instinctual fear from the holy ray, the beasts beat its wings roughly and ascended into the sky, narrowly avoiding the holy ray.
BOOOOOM!
With a deafening rumble, the holy ray continued on its path without weakening and exploded into the distance as it struck against a vast, towering mountain a few kilometers away, the abundance of greenery was vaporized instantly in the explosion.
Fierce wind pressure wreaks havoc from the epicenter of the explosion.
However, a cloud of dust suddenly dispersed as the sound of roaring thunder erupted, Aratiri appeared from beneath the beast in a streak of gold with lightning speed, landing a knee kick from under its jaws, bones fractured as it was sent recoiling from the force.
Skeeee!
The beast let out a piercing wail-like scream.
Its body was over ten meters with a wingspan that extended for roughly five meters. It gave off a beautiful, awe-inspiring presence. With the body of an eagle. Its feathered wings glowing in luminous colors.
"Pierce through—Lightning bullet!" Aratiri pointed his finger at the eagle-like beast and fired a bullet in the form of condensed lightning, as if sensing the danger, the eagle-like beast tried to flee.
But the lightning bullet was simply too fast, it pierced through the right wing of the beast mercilessly as it plummeted towards the ground, incapacitated. Its feathers scatter in the air gracefully.
"Now… Dark shackles." As the eagle-like beast collapsed onto the soil, Reaper casted a binding spell to keep the beast stuck to its own shadow.
The shadow of the beast seems to come to life, restraining its body. The eagle-like beast furiously tried to break free from its restraint by shaking its body and beating its wings, but the binding only restrained it fiercely.
"What a beautiful creature… I've seen many magical beasts before, but…" Monica, who had her angelic wings flapping silently behind her as she flew over, trailed off, her beautiful face furrowed into a tight frown.
"Yes… This beast seems to have a very exotic feel to it. Like something mystical." Ethan murmured, as he stared at the beast's appearance.
"Whatever this place is… I have a feeling it holds many more secrets." Reaper said indifferently, he placed the blade of his scythe at the eagle-like beast head and slit its throat without hesitation.
"How about the collapsing star flower?" Monica asked, her question directed at Aratiri.
"Hahaha… No need to worry." Aratiri said, the storage ring on his finger lit up for a brief second. Over several thousands of collapsing star flowers hovered in the air by a powerful force. They each gave off the presence of an extremely high quality.
"Good, we weren't able to find any ancient artifacts or materials, but this is already a bountiful harvest." Reaper said gloatingly.
"The meat on this beast might also be exceptional, I'll store away its corpse." The space around Monica's hand was distorted for a moment as the body of the eagle-like beast disappeared.
"Let's keep going, but make sure not to let down your guard." Reaper said in a warning.
The attack from the eagle-like beast was abrupt and sudden, there could be another surprise attack waiting for them.
"I have a thought. If this area had a guardian beast, do you think the other places nearby might have one as well?" Charlotte placed a finger at her lips and voiced her question.
"Yes, I had the same thought. That beast had the ability to generate strong air pressure by beating its wings, but generally speaking, it wasn't a difficult beast to deal with." Monica added.
Monica's brow furrowed tightly into a stern frown. Like she had said, when it came to the strength of the eagle-like beast, she felt no sense of danger at all.
What she was truly concerned about was naturally its method of hiding from her senses. Even though she had used soul searching magic from a wide area, she had failed to detect its presence within her detection range.
Magic detection spells and soul searching spells were in fact very similar, but the difference between them was the effectiveness between them.
Magic detection spells allowed the caster to detect those with magical energy flowing through them. All living creatures, regardless of species, had mana which is natural life circulating through their body.
Soul searching magic allowed the caster to sense the spiritual energy of living creatures. It was only natural that everything that is alive had a soul, there shouldn't be any known method for concealing oneself from this type of spell.
'Unless… Whoever it was isn't exactly alive.' There were certain species like undeads, or golems who would fall into this category, but even so, the keen senses of Reaper, Ethan and other superior demigods would sense the mana flowing through them as long as they were within range of their senses.
Monica placed her hand beneath her chin as she sunk into deep thought. Her beautiful face twisted in confusion.
But no matter how much she thought about it, with her overwhelming lack of information she couldn't draw any conclusions.
"Hm, let me check something." Reaper's storage ring emitted a faint glow as he took out a certain artifact.
"Isn't that the compass of eterna." Ethan murmured. It was a high level artifact that could perceive an entire continent.
Furthermore, it was capable of scanning all life forms within a certain distance. However, the compass didn't seem to be detecting any life forms within the inner zone of the mountain.
Reaper poured an immense amount of his mana into the compass to increase its search range.
Finally, from roughly three hundred kilometers away from the inner zone of the mountain range, life signatures were spotted. But the only thing it detected were weak presences of beasts that weren't even worth noticing.
'… How irritating.' Reaper thought, his brow wrinkled into a sullen frown. It was hard to believe all the beasts nearby were so afraid of that eagle-like beast that they would maintain such a vast distance.
But with no clue of what was actually hiding here, they were at a loss of what they were up against. The lack of information was truly irritating.
"It seems that beasts must have been very territorial. The weaker beasts refused to come near the inner perimeters." Monica hummed to herself.
If an analogy was applied to the situation, then perhaps it was something like a lion lording over a forest? But even a hungry deer wouldn't hesitate to enter a lion's den if they were driven by the instinctual urge to hunt food.
"Perhaps so, but…. Something about that beast's sudden appearance felt off." Ethan stared at the compass in Reaper's hands closely and narrowed his eyes.
"Let's assume there are other beasts as strong as this one in other parts of the forest. Everyone, conceal your presence as we move." Reaper suggested, his voice unusually stern. He seemed to share Ethan's concern as well.
"Right, If I didn't sense its intent to kill, I doubt we all would've made it out in one piece." As if sensing the severity of the situation, Monica also nodded her head in agreement to Reaper's suggestion.
If there were other highly intelligent beasts or monsters with the capability to mask their presence, It would be troublesome if they were caught off guard unaware of their abilities.
Even with their spiritual senses spread out and engulfing several kilometers they had failed to notice it until it began emitting its intent to kill.
Reaper didn't know if the eagle-like beast had an ability to block the detection of their senses or if it was something peculiar about this miniature world, either way, the thought of entering the beasts den while blindfolded was depressing.
It wouldn't even be a surprise if they were picked off one by one by unexpecting threats, reducing their numbers. If such a scenario were to occur, it would be a huge blow to their combat potential, and the forces of the Goddess would be drastically diminished.
Moreover, there is no telling when another faction war would occur. It would be better to conserve their strength rather than taking huge risks.
"Is something else bothering you, Monica?" Ethan, who had noticed the stern look on her face inquired.
"That strong spiritual intent from earlier… I doubt this beast could have used such a high leveled intent, which means..."
"There is a likely chance that someone our senses cannot reach is observing us from a distance." Ethan finished her thought with a sullen frown.
"Indeed, although it's very hard to believe that someone could slip through our senses, like Reaper had said, this is a very unusual miniature world, who knows what else could be here." Monica uttered.
"Regardless, we will keep moving forward. If someone really is tailing us they'll have to make a move eventually." He said somewhat indifferently.
But his wariness only grew further. The others nodded their heads with a serious expression on their faces. With that settled, Reaper kicked off the ground with full force and ascended into the sky.
Monica, Aratiri, Ethan and Charlotte followed along with the others as they disappeared into the distance.
…
However, unbeknownst to them… Elsewhere in the forest someone had been observing them while concealing his presence.
Sitting on a tree was a young man dressed in black robes with slightly long black hair, his amber eyes almost appearing indifferent.
"These intruders seem highly skilled. Getting them out won't be easy." Despite his words, his lips were twisted into a slight smile as though he was enjoying himself.
At his side was a long silver greatsword that seemed rusty as though it hadn't been drawn in many years.
"How long are you going to keep being passive, Rhea? Those guys just killed one of your kind, didn't they?" The young black-haired youth asked.
Standing on a thick branch next to him was a young gorgeous woman, her long hair was shimmering in waves of light green, and dark blue. The one who had directed that intent towards Reaper and others was actually Rhea.
Her slender body also had luminous colored feathered wings that reflected sunlight, similar to the eagle-like beast. Her crimson eyes were calm, but it contained an intense amount of murderous fury.
"… This grievance will be paid a hundredfold." Her cold, bewitching voice held no warmth.
Rhea was from an ancient beast race known as the "Eaglemen" however, her race was oppressed and hunted down by the dwellers of the fifth heaven, and was driven to the verge of extinction.
It was the Prince of a certain race who had saved them and had extended his kindness and allowed them a safe home in this miniature world.
In the current era, there were only a meager amount of her kind left, so the fury she felt went without saying.
The black-haired youth shivered as he felt her murderous intent. "If you want revenge so badly, why don't you go after them? Although we haven't yet seen what these intruders are really capable of, I'd say you have a fair shot if you were to use your trump card." He said as if encouraging her.
Rhea's sharp eyes narrowed as she glanced at him, "You seem to be quite lax today, usually aren't you the first who would jump into battle?" She questioned him suspiciously.
"Heheh, as much as I'd be happy to, I cannot directly interfere or attack those who enter this place without permission, that is the oath that has been inscribed onto me." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.
He was someone who oversaw what happens in the miniature world and removed unwanted guess, however, his master had also restricted his actions by placing an oath onto him which prevented him from taking actions unless the needed requirements were fulfilled.
And as for what those requirements were…The black-haired youth narrowed his eyes. He drew back the long sleeves of his robes and stared at his skin. There were letters there written in blood.
'The seal isn't responding… Perhaps the ones who had appeared this time aren't him. His presence isn't among them.' He thought to himself. But his hands were clenched tightly into a fist.
"In any case, I'm going on ahead." Rhea said indifferently as she beat her multicolored feathered wings and flew off towards the direction Reaper and others were heading.
"Hm… That place is? I see… They are currently heading in the direction of the nine valley mountains. I wonder how they'll survive that thing." His lips spread into a knowing smile as he stared off into the mountains.