Chapter 96 - Forked Roads, Divided Feelings

Somewhere at the innermost and darkest part of the abyss, a strange entity watched over the movements of the intruders through a special mirror floating in the air as he comfortably sat on his throne. The entity meticulously examined each of the intruders' special abilities and their potential for growth, as they fight against the mobs placed at the dark corridors.

"Master, you've been watching those humans for hours now. Are you not hungry yet?" a servant asked the entity, looking quite worried and perplexed by his master's actions.

"Let's leave the meal for later," the entity replied, his eyes glued at the image shown on the mirror. "I'm more interested about these young people who dared encroach in our realm."

Dismayed, the servant said, "Hmph. What's so special about them? There are so many others before that had even more extraordinary qualities than them and yet all of those people didn't succeed in getting out of here alive. I'm sure those humans will die faster than what you expect."

"Hah," the entity grunted. For once, the servant standing behind him finally spoke his opinion without reserve, something that surprised the entity. Though such impudence will certainly mean death for the servant, the entity choose to let the offense slide as he believed that even the lowest of servants also have rights to say what they wanted.

Resting his chin on his fist, he spoke: "You might be right about that. However, there are something about those humans that I find very different from the ones in the past. Very different, as if they're not from this world."

Meanwhile, the mirror showed that the human intruders have finally succeeded in killing the guard placed in the first level of the corridor, a feat only a few have managed to accomplish.

"'I'm sure those humans will die faster than what you expect'. That line of yours didn't age well. Well then, what are you going to say about this matter?"

Clicking his tongue, the servant answered: "They...they're just lucky, Master."

"Hm-mm," the entity sleepy nodded. He never expected to find out that his servant has so much grudge against humans, perhaps even more than what he has. Even he was disappointed by the result he saw, but never in his dreams he wanted to be salty over a group of humans that showed how powerful they are in the midst of danger. That, in itself, has garnered his respect for them.

"I...I want to face them."

"M-Master?!"

"I have already decided. I want to fight them as soon as possible!" the entity declared.

The servant was extremely shocked by his words. His master never expressed to anyone his desire to fight the ones he seem worthy of his attention, even to his closest confidants. 'Just what in the abyss is special about these humans?' he asked himself. 'it's as if they're gods or something...'

On the other hand, the entity intently looked at one of the humans sleep on the mirror. A young, handsome man, wielding a weapon that shone against the dark. A sacred weapon, he assumed, for his instincts tell him to seize and destroy it as soon as possible.

'I see. So there's a hero among them, huh? That's even more interesting...'

Standing up from his throne, the entity asked the servant to hurry and prepare his best weapons and armor for him. Still bewildered by the recent turn of events, the servant stood frozen for a moment before replying--

"Y-Yes, Master!"

As the servant left, the entity returned his gaze at the mirror. He couldn't stop grinning, as the moment he spent thousands of years waiting for has finally arrived.

"Just you wait, Hero. I'll give you a fight you won't ever forget," the entity said with a thunderous voice.

-----

Relying on Karen's orbs of light, the group traversed the dark and narrow corridor leading further down the abyss. With Rin leading the way, they cautiously looked around for any traps or enemies lurking, waiting for the right moment to ambush them.

"Woooh," James sighed as he carried Mari on his back. "Guys, can we take a break just for a minute? It's very hard for me to go on like this."

The reason why he wanted to rest, was not because carrying a person on his back for a long period of time was taking a toll on his strength, but to vent some of his frustrations out of his system. Having suffered a series of unfortunate events at a time when they shouldn't be doing anything, his patience was about to run into an all time low.

"Oh, we will take a break no worries, but not in this place," Kai replied. "This way is to narrow for us to use as a place for rest without hassle."

"Also, we're not familiar with the interior of this abyss, so we should not let our guards down even for a moment," Karen added.

"Wait, are you saying that Mama Mari is heavy?! How dare you say that?!!" Iza shouted at him.

"W-What?! I'm not saying anything like that..."

"Guys, can you please be quiet?" Rin scolded them. "I know that everyone's tired, but please hold on for a little longer while we find the way out of this hell of a place. Save your bickering for something else."

With Rin acting as their deputy leader, the two immediately became quiet as they resorted instead into dagger stares and such. Karen, who's watching her two friends quarrel with interest, chuckled faintly.

After a few more minutes of walking, they found that the corridor splits into two, with strange symbols written on the walls. Karen tried to decipher what the symbols meant, but her limited knowledge in the other world's languages proved to be a major disadvantage for the whole group. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #'t-have-any-abilities-!_%!d(string=12421071605419605)/forked-roads-divided-feelings_%!d(string=51567975358065440) for visiting.

"Hmm...what should we do at this point? Shall we pick a path and hope that we won't regret our decisions in the end, or split into two groups and hope that either half won't regret their decisions in the end?" Rin asked her classmates.

Raising her hand, Karen spoke: "I think it's better for us not to divide our strength, considering that one of us can't fight. We should go as a whole, and act accordingly depending on the situation."

'Nn, she has a point,' James and Iza nodded their heads after listening to her argument. Both of them are indecisive on the matter, hence they tried to weigh in the options of their classmates before making one themselves.

"But, just as what Rin said, there might be a chance that the route we choose will be a bad one. I say, we could afford splitting in two groups, and go in separate ways. At least, there will be one group that will be able to find an easy way out of this place," Kai said his counterargument to everyone.

'Nn, he also has a point,' the two also nodded in agreement with his reasoning.

Feeling the tension rising between the two sides, Rin said, "Okay. Those who agree with Karen, say aye."

""Aye,"" Karen and Iza gave their immediate response.

"Hmm," scratching her cheek, Rin continued. "Those who agree with Kai, say aye."

""Aye,"" both Kai and James answered.

"Ugh," Rin grimaced at the results of the survey. Excluding Mari, the final decision lies in her hands. She pondered for a moment, then--

"Alrighty then. Let's go with Kai's idea."

""Hell yeah!"" the two boys have each other a high five. The girls on the other hand felt depressed by the results but the voting is done in a fair way, so they can't complain about it.

"Okay, the next problem is who will compose each group? To compensate for Mari, one group will be made up of only two people. Who will volunteer for that?"

"I will," Kai quickly raised his hand.

"Weh?!"

"Alright. He's the [Hero] after all, so let him be," Rin said while nodding. "Then, who's the other one?"

At that moment, Karen noticed that everyone's gazes are aimed at her. Fl.u.s.tered, she asked: "W-Why me? I-I mean, I don't have any problems being paired up with Kai, but..."

"Each group should have at least one support to increase both groups' chances of survival. Therefore, it's between you and Iza who will be paired with that guy," Rin replied.

"T-Then, Iza..."

"Nah, don't wanna," Iza flatly refused, her arms crossed. "That jerk always teases me because I'm small, that's why I really hate being paired up with him."

'Also, I don't want to ruin such a wonderful tandem, you know?' she snarkily added. As a longtime friend of the two, she knew that Kai's advances towards Karen are becoming more and more apparent with each passing day, and the only thing she can do with it is to support him. Sadly for her, the girl in question has some other things in mind, hence she couldn't go on with her plans smoothly.

"Let's see...if none of you wants to pair up with Kai, then--"

"Okay, I'll do it!" Karen spoke, her raised hand trembling slightly.

'Yes!' Iza almost flipped in delight after successfully forcing Karen to go with Kai.

"Karen..." Kai looked at her in worry as reluctance clearly reflected in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Rin couldn't help but to worry as she watched the scene from not too far away. With a sigh, she muttered:

'Haah. I just hope that nothing bad happens to them.'

-----

"Karen, you don't need to force yourself into pairing up with me, you know?"

Traversing the left path with only the two of them, Kai felt guilty that Karen seems to be forcing herself in a situation she doesn't want to be in. Though hesitant, he mustered his courage and finally confronted her after a few minutes.

"It's fine even if you said no just like Iza--I mean, I already expected that kinda response from the start. Even if that's the case, I can still manage surviving on my own," he said while looking at the walls of their way, trying not to meet Karen's gaze.

Karen, feeling also guilty from her actions, replied: "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything like that. It's just that...I feel uneasy whenever I'm alone with a guy."

Even if that guy is one of her friends the thought of a boy and a girl being together, alone, in such a dark and dreary place, makes her defenses run frantic. Kai is also aware of that, hence he doesn't want to force himself onto her as much as possible despite all the doors being opened up for him.

"Strangely enough, when we were kids you would always hide in my back whenever we encounter any scary things on our way home back in the province."

"H-Huh...?"

Looking at her, he continued: "You remember that day, right? It was Halloween, and in the province people would line scarecrows dressed in various scary costumes along the farm road. When we went home that night after playing in the fields, you clung on my back tightly because you didn't want to see the scarecrows staring at you. At that time I found your behavior very funny, but then I realized...this girl is really cute too when she acts like that."

Hearing him recollect the memories of the past, Karen felt an uncertain feeling in her heart. For many years the two have become close friends, but their memories together aren't as vivid to her than Kai's. 'Perhaps,' she thought, 'there really is a disconnect between the two of us.'

"That's why," sleeping his bright smile at her, he said, "even if you push me away, I will still stay by your side and protect you. Even if you hated me for it, I will still uphold the pledge I made on that day."

With the uncertain feeling in her heart growing, Karen--

'Kai, please...--'

"Wait, something's coming," he warned her suddenly. Readying his sword, he turned to their front and a few seconds later, a huge wave of bat-like creatures came flying towards them by the thousands.

"Don't worry, I'm on it!"

Charging his sacred blade with mana, Kai made a huge downward swing and from his sword, a cleaver of white light burst forth and decimated every flying creature on its path.

"We should hurry up before other monsters could reach us," he said as he grabbed her hand and started running together.

"K-Kai?! Hey, wait--"

On the way, they encountered various monsters and large demons, but they were all instantly cut down by the Hero's Sacre Realis. At the same time Karen also showed her display of fighting skills she got from Rin with the use of her staff, while providing healing magic to Kai. They kept on with their progress until...

"Look, there's a door over there!" Kai exclaimed.

"Nn."

After arriving, they immediately checked the place for traps lying around. When they confirmed that the place is safe, Karen slumped on the floor and said:

"I'm hungry."

"I still have some rice cakes in my bag for us to eat. Let's take a break here for a while," Kai said as he sat beside her.

From his satchel he took four rice cakes, and a gourd filled with cold, refreshing water. His bag also contained a magic self-heating pot that could brew the tea leaves already placed in it, something that he knows Karen would extremely love.

"These leaves...aren't this variety very expensive?" she said while looking very surprised.

"Yeah, but that's still cheap compared to the efforts you've done to keep us all alive. No amount of tea leaves could equal the value of our friendship," he replied.

Trying not to show her feelings of embarrassment to him, Karen smiled and said, "You're right. Since we're already here, we might as well try it since they tend to go bitter fast."

Kai watched her in silent devotion as she brewed the delicate tea leaves using the pot he brought. Even in such a dark setting, seeing her move in a graceful way makes his heart flutter with joy.

"Sorry for the wait," she said as she handed over a cup of fresh tea to him.

"Oh? Thanks."

Just as he thought, her mood brightened up when she saw the tea leaves. If only he had his camera with him, he thought, he might've already took a picture of her radiant smile.

"It's strange, isn't it? Just a while ago we were fighting monsters, but now we're eating rice cakes and drinking tea. It's been a while since we did something like this, that's why I'm very happy right now."

Hearing his words, Karen abruptly stopped her hand as she was about to pour another serving into her cup. Although she felt the same way about their current situation, there's still an amount of uneasiness building up within her.

"Kai..."

"Hmm?"

Tapping her cheeks a few times, Karen looked at him and spoke: "Kai, listen to me. You see...--"

CRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!

"Let's leave that talk for later!" Kai quickly stood up and brandished his sword as he faced the door.

With the large door in front of them opening all of a sudden, they knew that break time's already over. Standing side by side with each other, the two held on to their weapons as they witness what lies ahead behind the door.

"I apologize for my late appearance. You might not know it, but I've been waiting for you bunch to come here...especially you, young Hero."

"W-Wha--?!"

Kai unconsciously took a step back upon meeting the strange person. For the first time in his experience as the Hero, he has finally met someone who can make him feel cautious at first glance.

Perhaps, all of this wasn't just them accidentally entering the abyss, but a deliberate attempt to get him, the Hero. Now that the mastermind had finally presented himself, everything has become clear to him.

"Well then, let's start getting to know each other well," the person said to them in an arrogant way, while pointing his finger at Kai.