Such a statement caused silence within the carriage.
"Oh…" Sylvia broke out. "It's okay, then. You don't need to share your ability or what it does, but if you'd be willing, can you tell us what tasks in combat you feel comfortable with?"
Sayu looked down, thinking to herself. Obviously, she was 6 years old, so her brain's processing speed wasn't all that great, even if she might be deemed more "mature" due to growing up in the manner she did.
"I think… you can listen to my orders, if I have any to give. I might be able to tell you if there are any opponents nearby, but not always. Um, and you can use me to lure out enemies, since I'm human and a child still, evil enemies might be drawn to me," she said meekly, though she made sure her face had a grin on it.
However, her idea of being bait was rejected by everyone, including Arthur.
As stated many times before, Arthur had a weak heart. While that weak heart had been frozen, not strengthened, it still remained weak to the pleas of children, and especially a child he could relate to.
"No, we won't do that," said Sylvia nearly immediately. "Using a child as bait for enemies is something I will not compromise on. You can be our observer, and tell us useful information, but we shall not use you as bait. Do you understand?"
Sayu nodded her head gently. "Okay, I understand, ma'am."
With that small silence, Rugsibar spoke up. "So, you two are both from another world? What's it like?"
Raiden smiled and began to explain.
"It's this place called 'Earth,' and from what I can tell, the technology ain't too far off from this place. You guys have toilets, and so do we. Also, on Earth, it's just humans and dragons. And dragons, unlike in this world, don't have access to magic, they just have 'Dragon Arts' which are like your guys' version of Talents."
"Oh, that's fun!" Sylvia excitedly announced. "Do humans still have levelling systems on 'Earth?'"
Raiden shook his head. "Nope, actually! Humans don't have that stuff, and no magic either."
"Woah… that's so weird to imagine! I mean, here, if you didn't know, only humans have access to a levelling system, which is what makes the strongest humans really strong, since they can continue to level up and evolve their Talent, while every other race uses magic and body strengthening."
"Ah, makes sense. Yeah, I bet if humans on our world have levelling systems, they'd be a lot more annoying to deal with. Or actually, maybe not as annoying? Cause on Earth, we have things called nukes, which split atoms and lead to a whole lot of radiation, with a huge explosion."
"Atoms?"
"They're like particles or whatever that make up the entire universe. We're all made of atoms, but I don't know much else about the sciencey stuff, so sorry. Anyways, yeah, radiation poisoning can completely ruin anything hit by a nuke for years to come."
"Is it like dark magic fused with poison? On Yggsoo, if you mix dark corruption magic with poison magic, it can lead to extra destruction, and it's really hard to hear from."
"It could be like that, I guess. Does it rewrite DNA?"
"DNA?"
"Like, the genetic code that makes up living beings. Well, I guess you might not know."
"Hm… it might? It's not my area of expertise, so I truly do not know."
Then, Sylvia looked over at Arthur and Rugsibar. "What about you, Arthur? Rugsibar, aren't you curious?"
Rugsibar replied, saying, "I was just listening to what Raiden was saying. It sounds awfully interestin'. How about you, Arthur?"
Arthur was caught off guard, being expected to speak.
"Hm. Raiden got the main gist of things. I fought a dragon last night, however, so I wonder, do dragons in this world have as much of an emphasis on family?"
"Hm? Not really," Rugsibar said. "Dragons mostly just belong to a family and do whatever dragons do. But when you said you fought a dragon, what do you mean?"
"Apparently, he could still sniff me out, even in this new world. I broke the First Taboo a while back, and it's been a pain ever since. That aside, so dragons aren't related to things like fire or blood, right? They just… are?"
Both Sylvia and Rugsibar nodded their heads and said "mhm," to which the two found it quite funny.
"Are they like that on Earth?"
This time, both Raiden and Arthur nodded their heads, with Raiden speaking up.
"Yeah. I'm part of the Zeus family, a family of the Storm Dragon, Zeus. And he's part of the Assas family, a family of the Blood Dragon, Assas."
To which, everyone's eyes widened except for the two Earthlings. This made both Raiden and Arthur curious.
"What're ya looking at us like that for?"
"Zeus? And Assas? I've heard those names before. Apparently, 1,000 years ago, dragons with those same names, after being charged with attempting to usurp the Dragon King, Midas, were shown mercy, being able to take blank slate weapons with dormant enchantments and sent to another world. Presumably, Earth?"
This was, of course, new information for both Raiden and Arthur.
Raiden, despite being a dragon for his whole life, did not know much about his Head, Zeus. This seemed to be historical knowledge that could be found only on another planet.
"Wow… that's kinda cool. But does that mean that the dragons here are a whole lot stronger than on Earth?"
It was only natural. Arthur and Raiden could be seen as "dirty blooded," not pure dragons.
"Perhaps so," Sylvia answered. "Dragons here are really, really dangerous creatures. Power is practically given to them on a silver platter."
Arthur noticed Sayu, even though she was with everyone else, she didn't speak or look at anyone. This conversation was about the two worlds, and being a child, she didn't have much experience even in her own world.
He didn't do much, staying quiet while Rugsibar and Sylvia asked Raiden most of the questions.
…
A few minutes passed of conversation, with most of it just being stuff about the two worlds that wasn't all that important. Then, things became a bit more serious, with the conversation becoming about the route they were taking.
Sylvia took out a map.
In the world map of Yggsoo, it was divided into five nations. It was one giant body of land, surrounded by water. And in that body of land, were the five nations.
Four of them comprised the four directions, with there being a fifth kingdom in the middle of those four nations.
This fifth kingdom was their current kingdom, Lazar. To the east, was the nation of Miki. And to the west, was the realm of Spring. For the north, was the country of Cullin.
Finally, the destination that Arthur's party would be going to was the Empire of Desmos, the empire ruled by the demon king.
The demon king did not have an official name, at least not one known. Rather, he insisted upon being titled the Demon King, and as he was the most powerful dark magic user within the empire, he killed any who chose to disobey.
"Currently," Sylvia began to explain. "We're on our way to the Empire of Desmos. We're passing through the Great Forest of Doka, and then, we shall go through the border of Desmos. Then, we'll pass through the Mountains of Dojka, and finally, arrive at the capital, Doryu. The demon king's castle lies at the capital, which is near the sea."
"All things considered, it's not a bad trip. Assuming we're uninterrupted, which I doubt will happen, it'll take us around a week. That's not too bad, is it?" Rugsibar said.
Everyone agreed.
"Alright, thanks for the heads up," Raiden said.
"No problem. In fact, I know a good place to stop, it has delicious…"
"Hm?"
Sylvia had stopped her speaking. She looked around, to which everyone in the carriage began to seem uneasy.
"What is it?" Raiden and Rugsibar both asked. "It's… the forest seems to be troubled. I believe we should—"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Everyone jumped at the sudden screaming. They turned towards the direction of the sound, which came from Sayu, who clutched her stomach and collapsed onto the ground.
"G-guh, a-augh, h-huu, ughfa, aahh…!"
Sylvia rushed over, performing healing magic on her. However—
"She's not injured!" She exclaimed. Sayu threw up on the wooden carriage floor, which caused everyone to back off.
"Aagh! S-Sylv, ma'am, m-muh, s-stop him!" Sayu said, bawling and gripping the floor. This put everyone on alert, to which Sylvia tried to sense nature's opinion on the subject.
"The ground is uneasy," she warned, before going over to the driver of the carriage.
"Sirs!" She called out, to which the men looked at her. "What is it?" They asked.
"Be on alert. No, in fact, stop here. Danger seems to be—"
Sayu made a break for it, grabbing onto Sylvia from behind and pulling her to the ground, as a boulder was launched at the carriage, shattering the top of it near the front, where Sylvia's head would have been.
It was an impact from the side, and saved Sylvia's life.
Sylvia looked up, seeing the weeping child, who let go and crawled away, frightened.
"S-scary, there's a, a scary—"
"Damn it all, I was hoping to kill the lady. She seems like the healer type, so it'd be annoying to deal with her.
The party leapt out of the carriage, though Sylvia made sure to hide Sayu to protect her. In the middle of the trail through the forest, they stopped, with the riders opening crates which housed weapons for the party, Rugsibar equipping armor and a longsword.
Arthur looked at the man, seeing his figure. He stood with pale white skin, as in, super pale; literal chalk-white, with red eyes and two horns on his head.
He wore a brown jacket that was unzipped, without a shirt underneath, revealing a pair of abs. As for his height, he was around Arthur's.
"Who are you!?" Called out Sylvia.
"My name is Octav, and the Demon King has sent me to fight you all."
"Just you?" Asked Rugsibar. "I heard there were five members of the demon king's elite force."
"Oh, yeah, that," Octav began. "He said that he kinda wants you guys to get to his castle, so he's only sending us one at a time so that he can have a climactic battle with you guys at the end. But he also said to kill you, so he doesn't really care."
Without further questioning, hundreds of trees within the forest burst from the ground, all rushing towards Octav with their branches, attempting to dogpile him. Meanwhile, she sprouted vines from the ground to grab ahold of everyone and take them to safety.
Arthur flew up into the air from such force, his torso being grabbed to not throw him too off balance. He made an estimation of himself being about 500 feet into the air, looking down at the world below as quite literally, hundreds of trees crashed into Octav and piled up on top of him.
Arthur looked at Sylvia with a hint of admiration. He'd gotten used to seeing outlandish stuff before, but he hadn't seen anything quite like this. It truly reminded him that he was in a magical world.
That admiration lasted but a moment, as he heard a stifling scream appear from below, seeing Octav explode with blue flames, scorching the wood and launching it away. Even from up so high, Arthur felt the intensity of the heat below him.
Eventually, the demon looked up at the group.
"A nature user, huh? Alright then, let's see it."
To which, he extended his arm, and a purple, red and black flame appeared over his eyes.
"Hm. Alright then, I see now."
The demon smiled and looked at the riders Sylvia was protecting with her vines, keeping them in the air to protect them from the immediate vicinity of the demon.
Purplish black flames entered the hands of Octav, forming a large sword. Octav swung it, launching a slash of blue fire at the innocents. Sylvia did her best to protect them, keeping them close to her as she laid out commands for nature to do its thing.
Abnormal monsters stronger than normal animals all rushed at him to keep them safe, but they were quickly scorched to ash underneath blue flames.
"No good from this distance. I'll just have to bring you down to me then, won't I?"
To which, the demon cancelled out the flames over his eyes, touching all of his fingertips together, causing a giant sphere to surround him, which captured even Sylvia and her allies.
This sphere acted as a barrier, preventing them from fleeing. It began to close, making sure that they couldn't hide away from him while Sylvia made others do the hard work.
"Sir, dodge!" Yelled Sayu. Her command was given to Arthur, who looked down and saw a purple streak of flame launching up at him. Immediately, Arthur severed the vines holding him, sprouting his wings and flying away to avoid the attack.
"Hmph," said Octav. "What a nuisance."
"Sayu, what should we do?" Sylvia asked, keeping Sayu close. "U-uh, you, um, you gotta go down! If we stay up here, he'll burn the vines, so we have to go down!"
Trusting that Sayu's Talent was likely an intel gathering kind, Sylvia followed the advice and went down. Arthur went down with everyone else, so as to regroup.
Arthur created a sniper rifle knockoff with his blood, pointing it at the demon, who was standing in the middle of the trail.
"Sir! Don't shoot that, it won't work!" Sayu exclaimed, which caused Arthur to hold off on it for a moment. He requested for them to keep watch over the demon while he took cover with a tree provided by Sylvia.
He sat next to Sayu, looking at her.
"Why won't the gun work?" He asked.
"H-he's too strong, it can't pierce his skin," she said. Arthur clicked his tongue, leaning his head to the right of the tree, aiming at the unmoving demon.
—Bullshit. I just evolved to be able to use a gun, I'm using it to kill him.
And so, Arthur pulled the trigger. It was unrealistic for an amateur to be able to hit a snipe. However, consider it a stroke of luck, or perhaps intervention to prove a point.
The bullet struck the demon, who took it to the chest. Yet, he flinched, reeling slightly from the attack. But despite that, it was not enough to penetrate.
"The heck?" Arthur said.
"I told you," Sayu said in an annoying, know-it-all voice. "That weapon won't work, sir, you need something stronger."
"Oh shush," he said.
"The hell was that?" Octav said. "It hurt, but it's still kind of… eugh, whatever."
To which, Octav rushed at the tree. This was where Rugsibar stepped in, wielding a longsword. With great speed, Rugsibar flung at the demon, swinging his sword at high speeds, to which the demon blocked with the sword he'd created earlier.
The force of the clash caused Rugsibar to catapult his small body into the air, whipping overhead before doing a midair 360 spin to gain momentum for his next strike, which was sent at Octav's head.
Octav evaded, before turning around to swing at Rugsibar, who parried in midair, though the force sent him flying as he had no stable ground to press into.
Rugsibar landed on the dirt, causing a bit of dust when he pushed it back from his momentum being absorbed by it.
Rugsibar made a small grunt, rushing at the demon once more. Octav swung the giant sword at the small man, which Rugsibar parried and deflected.
Even with all of that weight, the demon attacked at an angle where Rugsibar was strong. In fact, because of his smaller, yet condensed stature, his low center of gravity made his blocks even more durable.
With the demon's blade now moved away, and needing more time to recover than Rugsibar needed to attack, the blow was dealt, with the dwarf quickly slashing the demon's face before circling back for a stab to the stomach, which went through.
The demon grunted in pain, before Rugsibar pulled out a lance, thrusting out three quick stabs, first to the shoulders, then to the kneecap, before digging it into the ground and using it as a pole vault, getting over the demon and taking a knife, arriving behind Octav and latching onto him, slitting his throat.
All of that, from the moment of the parry, occurred in less than 2 seconds.