Soon after, I picked Feng Mian and Axilia both up, and headed back up to the village at the top of the mountain. The latter was acting like a baby and punching me the whole flight up, screaming about how she wanted to kill more, but I forced her to come along with me with the promise that she would be able to kill a bunch of things once we entered the portal and got sent to where-ever the hell it was going to send us to.

In any case, when we arrived, the village head was already there, waiting for us. The other villagers, however, were still nowhere to be seen, hiding like a bunch of cowards. Not that I blame them—for a group of people like them and the circumstances they live in, feeling scared of the new and being cowardly is a perfectly natural thing.

"Have you collected all the fragments?

" The village head asked, and I gave a nod before showing him the four collected fragments in my hand. The light ones, of course, were invisible, but he got the point.

"Very well. Go ahead and place them on the pillars, one each. Make sure the Light and Dark Fragments are not adjacent to each other.

"

"In other words, make sure they're diagonally across from one another?

" Feng Mian asked, and the village head nodded.

"That would be correct, yes. And while he does that… the rest of you, please prepare for combat.

"

Feng Mian, Axilia, and Qing Yue nodded firmly, while I went ahead and placed the Fragments where they were supposed to be. Upon slotting into the similarly-shaped sockets on the pillars, the Fragments of Light lit up like they were supposed to, and the Fragments of Dark also shone—just black instead of white.

As soon as I slotted in the final Fragment, four thin but concentrated rays of energy shot out from the top of the four pillars. Two were black—from the Fragments of Dark—and two were white—from the Fragments of Light.

They converged in a ball on top of the hole, growing bigger and bigger, until it was shaped like a drop of water. Then, the rays of energy stopped, and the raindrop-shaped concentration of energy fell downwards into the hole, pulled by gravity.

I peered down into the dark abyss below, wondering what was going to happen, and all of a sudden, a surging geyser of water gushed up out of nowhere.

"Woah-!

" I quickly backed away—not because of the water, but because of what was in the water.

"Careful!

" I yelled, drawing my Chaos katanas, as the weird liquid-like beings leaped out of the water and came at us.

Feng Mian and Axilia immediately leaped into battle, the former blasting them with Shadow and Curse spells while the latter used her scythe and aura of death.

I used my Chaos katanas and gun, of course, while Qing Yue supported us with buffs and healing with Blessing Magic.

It was strange, however. Axilia's scythe seemed to have no effect on it, and the only reason my Chaos katanas were able to kill them was because of the Chaos energy on the blade. Other than that, though, only magic seemed to be able to actually kill them… and Water Magic in particular didn't do anything.

Soon, though, after some effort, we managed to destroy all of the weird water beings. They didn't seem to be very strong individually, but if they came at a group… well, I didn't want to experience the hard way how getting hit by one of them would feel. They did resemble jellyfish to an extent, though, so… I can't imagine it would be very fun.

"These were the monsters you were speaking of?

" I asked the village head, who frowned and shook his head.

"This is… weird. Usually, they are… bigger than this, according to the old records. And the way they were moving… it seems unnatural. Like they were… escaping… running from something…

"

He trailed off too low to hear, so I raised an eyebrow.

"Uh… what was that? Sorry, I didn't catch it.

"

"Ah, worry not,

" the village head said, shaking his head again as he reassured me.

"It is nothing. With this, the portal has been opened. Now, you just need to…

"

Qing Yue walked towards the massive hole in the ground, now with a spiral cyclone at its bottom.

"… Jump down, I take it?

" She asked, and the village head nodded.

"Yes.

"

"I see. Let's go, then.

"

"Truly a brave soul,

" the old man said with a smile and clapped his hands.

"Jumping into this hole, no one from this village would have the guts to do so.

"

Wow, low standards.

"Good thing I'm not from your village.

"

And that was the last thing I said before hopping down the hole, followed by Axilia, Feng Mian, and Qing Yue.

*****

As the four of us entered the cyclone, we felt our heads immediately turn dizzy, but other than that, it was harmless. The dizzy effect kinda sucked, but it wasn't enough to make us lose our consciousness or anything, and after a few seconds, it was over.

Well, the dizzy part, anyway. The journey down was not yet over, as we were literally shot out of the cyclone into a waterfall, heading down.

"Oh, **-!

"

Definitely wasn't expecting that one. Hurriedly activating my wings, I caught Qing Yue and Feng Mian, but couldn't reach Axilia. Thankfully, she was alright—actually, more than alright. She seemed to be enjoying this, and slammed her scythe down towards the bottom of the waterfall to reduce the impact of her fall.

I landed beside her shortly after with the other two girls, and the four of us looked around to see the new area we were in. Slowly, the world became clear around us, and we were left utterly speechless.

This wasn't just some underground cavern or hidden chamber like I thought it would be.

This… was a whole ass city.