In the familiar white room I was currently at...
Well, it was familiar, but way hotter than it was before. Did I go to a different place...?
Did I survive the attack? I don't think so. I am supposed to be dead.
"Why..." A voice that I was quite familiar spoke.
What?
"Why did you abandon us...?" Thevoice spoke up.
"I understood that protecting Iris-sama is important, yet she could still hold off on her own for a little while. Why did you not help us?" Another familiar voice spoke up again.
"Saki-san said you were a great party leader who would save his teammates without hesitation. Didn't Saki-san place her trust in you? Why do you have to do her like that?"
Before I realised, I found my party members grasped me with their bloodied hands.
And I was further shaken when I saw their faces. Their faces were extremely pale, they were crying, with blood in place of tears, and the look in their eyes were dead.
"This is exactly where I intend to take you, Magic Swordmaster." A black silhouette appeared as I struggled to activate the Core System.
"It is futile attempting to break free. I have inhibited the function of the Core System. Neither can you break free by force, nor can you escape using your wits." The black silhouette turned into a white haired figure.
"I once had high hopes of you, you know..." Volras sighed as he shook his head.
"But now... You disgust me. Enjoy your stay here." He continued disdainfully the white hot rocks began to dog pile me.
And my screams echoed through the dimension.
Meanwhile, at Eris' Dimension...
"Where are we?" Loby looked around in confusion.
"I would like to know as well." Alicia answered as she stared at the chair in front of her.
"I am more concerned about Saki-san than where we are." Amai spoke up as she looked around for Saki.
"Welcome, the three of you-"
"Uh, excuse me? May I ask where is Yunyun-san please?" Amai asked as she raised her hand and lowered her head at the same time.
"Yunyun-san...? Uh, how should I say it. She was still alive as the lava monsters ignored her. As if there isn't anyone or monster would like to be friends with her, I guess..." Eris' voice trailed off as she looked away, as if she was too embarrassed to say it.
"By the way, what is with the expressions on your faces? Is there anything wrong?" Eris asked as she forced the smile on her face, trying her very best to pretend that she has known nothing.
But deep down she has the perception that the reason that upset them would be the same as hers.
"Say... Let me guess the reason you are bummed out." Eris brought up the topic as she waved her right hand gently in an attempt to catch their attention.
"It is about Guardian-san, am I correct?" Eris continued.
As expected, the three of them all nodded in unison.
"Precisely, it is not like I failed to understand why he cared a lot about Iris-sama. But that was too much! The difference in the treatment we are getting are too much. I mean, it would not hurt for him to care about us a little bit more." Alicia first complained.
"I see. Thank you for telling me that. Anyone else want to share some thoughts as well?" Eris responded as she patted Alicia on the shoulder.
"I think he is different what Saki-san said. Saki-san described him as a skilled swordsman, a good-natured person who cares for his teammates with all his heart. I mean, the former description is rather accurate. Nevertheless, I could not see how good-natured he is." Amai continued.
"Is that so...?" Eris' expression stiffened when she heard the name "Saki".
"..." Loby looked like he wanted to say something, yet he doesn't.
"Let's see. Loby-san is too easy to understand." Eris let out a soft laugh.
"You seemed fine, yet your expression told me you are envy of his strength. You wanted to found out the secret of the Core System, however he kept his mouth shut and you cannot even get information about it." Eris stated Loby's reason with a smile.
"Very well. I will now tell the three of you something about the Core System. Please have a cup of tea while you were listening." Three teacups with saucers appeared after Eris snapped her fingers.
"First, do you know where Guardian-san is from?" Eris raised a question after she took a sip from the teacup.
And of course, the three of them shook their heads in response.
"Guardian-san is from another world and reincarnated into here. In the divine realm, those who reincarnated here can get to choose items with immense power as a gift reincarnating into the world."
"Is the Core System one of them?" Loby asked before he drunk all the tea abruptly and burnt his tongue.
"No. The Core System is something he imagined himself. It was created by the Goddess of Water, Aqua-senpai. The idea did not start as bad as it currently is at the moment. It was until Aqua senpai created three Systems - namely the Elemental Core System, the Core Constellation system and the Elemental Absorption System and bestowed it on Guardian-san." Eris continued as she wondered where I went.
"Aqua-senpai was dense to a certain extent where she infused too much power into the Core System. To make things even worse, she made the Core Constellations semi-sentimental, which was actually a good fail-safe to avoid the low output from the aforementioned systems. But still, he had good relationships with the Core Constellations, which they feel him and willing to go all out any time... Not to mention the fact that the power of the Core Outfit is proportional to the mood of the Core Constellations, making the package into an extremely overpowered item... Geez, Aqua-senpai is causing trouble as usual..."
Meanwhile, in Axel...
"Achoo!" Aqua sneezed.
"Well, it is up to me to clean up the mess Senpai left behind again... We need to locate where Guardian is and nerf him a little bit." Eris murmured.
"Wait... Is he not supposed to be dead as well? Why is he not appear up until now?" Eris asked as she scratched her head.
"Excuse me, I think someone is calling me." Eris apologised before she left the seat for the call.
"Yes, this is Eris. Is there anything wrong? He is dead? Yes, I am well-acknowledged about that. But where is he?" Eris chatted as the three of them had a concerned look on their faces.
"He got intercepted by an unknown force. Huh..." Eris nodded as she was briefed of the situation.
"Sadly, there is nothing I can do to save him before I receive the information needed like where he is. I will move immediately after I receive the aforementioned info." Eris spoke like some sort of receptionist before she hang up the call and returned back to her seat.
"Let us chat for a while, shall we?" Eris continued as she gave the trio a smile.
Meanwhile...
"Alright, let's take a look at this odd but unique system." Volras turned on some sort of computer as he held a small piece of the Light Core Outfit.
'But seriously, why didn't it break that easily back then?' He thought to himself as he summoned something similar to a microscope.
"It is just some pure fabric, right? It should break easily at the first place. Or is there some kind of gimmick hidden within the fabric?" Volras contemplated further as he looked carefully for the hidden matter within the outfit.
"But wait a second, that guy was called the Magic Swordmaster for a reason. Maybe the fabric has something to do with magic?" Volras muttered as he began to infuse his own mana into the fabric.
"Hey, can you try and destroy this piece of cloth? Use every means possible in doing so." Volras gave a specific command as he showed the fabric to his subordinates, which were a Swordmaster and an Archwizard respectively.
"Acknowledged. Would you please-"
"No worries. I have set Friendly Fireproof on the both of you. Your attacks will not harm anyone at the moment. However, you can still destroy things." Volras spoke as a dark purple magic circle appeared as he changed the rules, just like a player changing different rules in a certain sandbox game which involves creating and breaking blocks.
Well, if you minus the first few achievements in the game, you would find out the game is pretty much a RPG, if you ask me.
Ah right, I shouldn't get sidetracked here. Back to the story.
Back in Eris' dimension...
"I am amazed how your disappearance did not cause the uproar of the Astroraia family, Alicia-san. May I ask why is that not happening?" Eris asked.
"Because the Astroraia family thought I returned home. As you may have known, I am a Senior Assistant Commissioner of the Belzerg Police Force. I am in charge of both general law enforcement and the supervisor of the Special Operations Unit, or SOU for short. So sometimes I took part in those special operations and in order not to make my parents worry, I usually ask a subordinate that have similar looks as mine to disguise as myself. In this instance of rescuing Guardian-san, that is what I did. Therefore, my parents would have the perception of me being alive in the Astroraia House up until this moment." Alicia explained as she made a few gestures to go with her explanation.
"*Is that so..." Eris responded as she tried her best not to laugh.
*Note: The kanji for the casual form of "is that so" is "Sou(そう)", which works as a pun for the Special Operations Unit (SOU) here.
"That's right." Alicia nodded with a smile.
"I see. Amai-san...?" Eris turned her attention onto Amai.
"What is it, Eris-sama?" Amai responded to indicate she was listening.
"Saki... What kind of person is she?" Eris gritted her teeth as she tried her best not to get angry.
"Saki-san is a person who interacts with everyone with a gentle approach. She is helpful, and uses her powers for is true that she might be an undead, but she does not act like one." Amai replied with composure as she drank some tea.
To be honest sometimes I was wondering why she is heavily influenced by Japanese. I mean, she dresses and acts like one.
I am so going to look into this when I break free.
"Huh... Maybe I should contemplate whether or not I will spare her later on."
Also, don't trust her that easily, Amai! It is literally impossible for a goddess who is extremely gung-ho in exterminating the demons and the like would do an 180-degree turn and judge them by their actions instead of their race in such a short period of time!
By the way, if the deities were that passionate in killing the undead only, does that make them racist? I mean, humans killing monsters are pretty normal, since different kinds of monsters were killed during quests, which made it reasonable for them to do so. Not to mention the fact that some adventurers died at the hands of the monsters, so you can't really call adventurers killing discriminately in a negative way.
However, like how Aqua tried to get rid of the shopkeeper who sells level-locked loot in Axel, the Town of Beginners, or like how Eris did everything she could to attempt killing Saki in a brutal way, it feels like they were only against the different kinds of undead like liches, vampires and devils.
Some might argue that both goddesses also killed various kinds of monsters during their time in that world, yet they did this out of self-defence and their intent to kill is way lighter than that for the undead. On the other hand, you can see that both goddesses attacked the second they spotted an undead. To make this extremely simple, the goddesses were still level-headed when they fight against monsters, however they lost their cool whilst fighting undead.
See what I meant here? You would expect the goddesses will try and save those who became the undead, but no. They would just go and kill the undead as if they were the ones that obliterated their family.
At any rate, I will leave the question here for your contemplation. Let's return to the story.
At the Royal Castle...
'What happened a few days earlier...? My head hurts from trying to recall it.' Iris held her head as she was trying her best to recollect her memories.
"Onii-chan and the others were missing... Where would they be...?" Iris pondered as she put a finger on her lips, attempting to figure what happened to us at the moment.
"No, I should believe in their abilities. They will return, sooner or later. For now, I need to do everything I could to ensure their return." Iris murmured as she knelt facing the window, with her fingers crossed and her eyes closed.
She was praying for the success of our revival.
Never would I expect she was willing to pray for everyone she cared. I mean, it is understandable that she prayed for Alicia, Loby and Amai. But me as well? I couldn't convey my gratitude into words as I am well aware the fact I don't really deserve it.
"Because you are my Onii-chan..."
Iris...?
"Because you are my Onii-chan, who taught me a lot of things outside the castle and saved me." The familiar voice echoed within my heart as a warm sensation wrapped around it.
You know, Iris, I would like to offer my apologies if you can hear me...
At the same time...
"Finally... After all this time... I have found out the secret behind the fabric...!" Volras raised his hands dramatically as lightning flashed and thunder crackled.
His subordinates on the other hand, the Archwizard cast the Cursed Lightning while the Swordmaster hit his shield with his sword.
...
...
...Uh... I don't think I will comment on their antics.
"But still, where can I find the mana-sensitive material...? It is still pointless to learn the fact the toughness of the fabrics depends on the amount of mana channeled." Volras murmured as he made a thinking pose by putting his hand under his chin.
"Ah right... Let's go with that."
Meanwhile, back at Eris' dimension...
"Um, I am sorry, but does anyone hear something?" Alicia asked as she raised her hand.
"Yeah, I heard a girl's voice asking us to return." Loby replied and looked around, trying to found who was talking.
"Is it the Princess?"
"I don't know, but I can try and locate where the prayer is from." Eris chimed in before she concentrated and closed her eyes.
"It is from the Royal Castle. So it is from Iris." Eris continued as she opened her eyes.
"And fortunately for us, Iris' prayer has also reached Guardian-san, so we are able to locate his position right now at this moment. So we would have to summon Iris-san and Yunyun-san before we can go and rescue him from the clutches of Volras."
"We would need all the help we can get to save him." Eris spoke before she snapped her fingers and vanished, only for Chris and Saki to return a few seconds.
A/N:
My apologies for keeping you waiting for the info. of the OCs. I figured copy and paste all the info. on Wattpad is a drag, so I posted the link in the profile.
My username in Wattpad would be the same, which is Random Guy who likes Konosuba (or Namae-Wa-Nein if you could not find my account there.)
I will try my best to post the new chapter by next Wednesday.
I would still thank you for those who continue to read the story, albeit the fact I lost my touch here recently.
Please look forward for the next one.
Orz