‘What to do? What to do? Um… is there another way to find answers faster?’
I kept contemplating on Amethyst’s back, searching for an answer. Zana was tuckered out, but said she would try again. I wondered if I could perform such a spell myself, but the Agent told me not as of yet. I actually wanted to use [Remorse] to copy that magic spell, but the agent advised against it. I didn’t know anyone that could help me in a situation like this.
I was at a complete loss as to what to do. Time seemed to have slowed to a halt, making this feeling of confusion and desperation even more miserable.
“Oi, lunch.”
I heard Yokino’s voice. Quickly, I sat up and saw her standing on one of the trees, looking at me. She jumped down onto Amethyst’s back lightly, then took out a parasol she made out of webs. Her hair was currently with streaks of hot pink and had been tied at the back into a ponytail with a bun pinned with a golden stick, with her bangs falling to her side with a clip keeping them in place. For some reason, she suddenly looked like one of those Chinese women I'd see in some cultivation manhua.
‘Y-Yokino…?’
I sounded unsure. I didn’t know why I did. Maybe since I wasn’t expecting her to reach out to me.
“You see any other beauties allergic to the sun here?”
‘I don’t see any.’
“Yeah, yeah, tell yourself that. You know, I’m hot.”
I tried looking away, but having a 360 view of my surroundings didn’t help me out.
‘What do you want?’
I straight up asked her. Her loyalty points on the system were, non-existent. Not even a zero or dash, she had question marks across her name.
“Relax, Birdbrain. I just thought you’d need company at a time like this.”
‘The master’s got me.’
Amethyst cried out, making me pat her on the head for being adorable.
“Ugh, so now you have a thing for lizards?”
‘Eh?’
“You have a beautiful cool babe at your side, and all you can do is pay attention to this overgrown lizard? You’re pathetic.”
‘I’m not some overgrown lizard, ya shit!’
Amethyst wagged her tail at Yokino, but the spider grabbed the tail and flicked it away with ease, like it were barely worth her time.
“Overgrown lizards seem to be unable to tell who is better than them.”
‘C-Calm dow-‘
‘I will incinerate this spider this instant. You like kebabs, right?’
Amethyst posed a question to me.
“Oh? Then I’m sure he’d love some overgrown lizard kebab.”
Yokino replied. The tension growing between both of them was starting to burn hotter than the sun.
‘Both of you, stop with this trifle argument.’
I ordered and together, they “humphed” leaving us to be in silence.
‘I really appreciate you trying to be here for me, Yokino. But, I’m not really in the best state of min-‘
“I came here to offer help.”
‘How so?’
“I may know someone who could help you.”
She just dropped a bombshell and stood up. With a wink, she said,
“Catch me if you can.”
Then she jumped off of Amethyst, into the trees. For a moment, I was left sitting on Amethyst’s back, confused. But after processing what she said, I finally realized.
‘Oi! Amethyst! Speed it up! Catch that spider!’
‘Yes, Master!’
Upon receiving my orders, Amethyst quickly turned around and ran after Yokino who was jumping about the trees and laughing wildly. Her voice echoed in the forest that seemed empty. The creatures were still probably hiding, even though the incident was over.
Amethyst whizzed past the trees, their leaves rustled and the wind whistled. Although to me, this speed was nothing much. I jumped off and flew after Yokino in the forest. It wasn’t easy avoiding the tree branches given how large I had become, so I only had to use [Size Manipulation] to shrink myself.
To my left, I heard Yokino’s voice come again.
“Too slow! Too slow!”
I flapped my wings faster and activated [Hyper Mobility].
[Your speed stat has gone up by 30%]
Feeling the bit of energy in my body, I went in faster. Up ahead, standing in one of the trees, I could make out Yokino’s figure.
‘Gotcha.’
I increased my size and readied my claws for her back. Quietly, with my [Stealth] on, I swooped in from behind and grabbed her… it? It wasn’t Yokino. It was a pile of threads.
“Pfft! You like my [Thread Clone Jutsu]?”
She asked. Then I noticed her on one of the branches with the parasol in hands. It was the actual Yokino, because I threw a fireball and she used a water spear to cancel out my attack and attempt to decapitate me. I managed to dodge it though, but now my vision was clouded with steam. A bit of wind magic and it was cleared. However, Yokino was nowhere to be found.
“You’re going to have to try harder than that, little bird.”
Her mocking voice echoed throughout the entire forest. I couldn’t pinpoint on the exact place it was coming from, so I tested out the other functions of my unique skill [God’s Wisdom] to scour a wide area in the forest for Yokino. I managed to get a 500-meter radius with this function. All around me, there was basically no life, but I identified 50 illusion clones moving about the forest, 30 decoy thread clones just standing there and waiting for me, 1 actual clone made to be just like Yokino in the sense that it could fight as well, and Yokino. But she quickly ran out of my range, as if she knew I was searching for her.
‘Gotcha!’
I flew in the direction in which Yokino ran.
An illusion Yokino came up in front of me and giggled, trying to distract me. I flew past it, but what I saw in its eyes made me stop. There was a cunning light in it. Something that made me feel like chasing the actual Yokino would be bad for me. I went to the illusion clone and it spread its hand out to me.
“Why are you stopping? Aren’t you chasing after the real Yokino?”
It asked me.
‘How’d you know?’
“An assassin knows when they’ve been found out.”
I rested on the branch it stood on. The shadow clone crouched and looked at me with a different light in its eyes. It was smiling as well as blushing.
‘W-What’s with your expression?’
“You can find me in Blossoming Fields.”
‘Blossoming Fields?’
“Well, yes. To the northwest. A portion where anything planted grows at an absurd rate. It’s said any plant life can grow there. But it’s currently a flower field. Only Dox Flowers grow there now.”
‘Dox Flowers?’
“Yep. A bunch of beautiful red flowers. Nothing really special about them.”
She was slowly fading away, as were the other illusions in the forest.
“You can follow my clone to get there.”
Were her final words, before completely disappearing and leaving me alone. I sighed then flew off towards the clone. When I got there, I saw the clone standing there. It was looking towards the distance, not moving even a single inch.
‘Yo. Clone.’
When I called out to it, it glared at me from the corner of its eye. I flinched and settled down on a branch, confused by the cold gaze.
‘W-Why are you looking at me like that?’
“I may be a clone, but I possess emotions similar to the original, you know?”
It growled at me then continued jumping away. I kept following it, but then it got angry after I did that.
“Stop following me!”
‘Eh? But I’m supposed to follow you to find Yokino, no?’
“Only if I feel like allowing you to find her.”
It told me.
‘Eh? Then what’s the point of telling me that the only way to find her is by following you.’
“Don’t know, don’t care. I just don’t feel like helping you out.”
‘Seriously? Fine. I’ll find her myself. I even forgot I could find any of my servants with the system.’
The clone clicked its tongue and jumped off into the forest.
When I checked the map, Yokino was no where to be found on it.
‘Ah… that’s right. She sometimes doesn’t exist in the system. Whatever. Agent, take me to The Blossoming Fields.’
<<Blossoming Fields? There’s no record of a place like that.>>
‘Eh? W-What do you mean?’
<<There’s no record of a place called The Blossoming Fields. Most likely a self-named location by the servant Yokino>>
‘Ah… fuck. Can you at least get me close to somewhere with the description that the illusion gave me?’
<<The target, Dox Flowers also does not exist in this forest.>>
‘E-Eh?!’
I thought about it all over again. That Yokino, she must have observed me to the point of knowing that I had other means of finding whatever I wanted. She had used false terms for things so my "other means" wouldn’t work here. Were her observation skills so good that she now had an inkling of the fact that I had the agent with me?
I looked around and saw the clone running off into the distance.
Quickly, I charged at it with [Hyper Mobility] and [Flash Boost]. I noticed Amethyst was running towards me, but from the direction in which the clone was moving.
‘A pincer attack! Amethyst, Yokino’s clone is coming your way. Try to stop it!’
‘Yes, Master!’
I summoned two shadow demon generals to help me go after Yokino as well. They understood their purpose for being here and charged immediately.
I shot off some light rays at the clone to make it stop. The clone noticed what I was doing, but it was too late. She couldn’t avoid something coming at her at the speed of the light. My attacks hit her leg and hand, causing her to fall off the tree she was jumping to.
‘She’s down! Pin her.’
“YES!”
We all went down on the clone. Even if it wasn’t as strong as Yokino, this thing was still B- in rank. I failed to see how that was weaker than Yokino.
Both demons hit the ground, but she wasn’t there. She had already gotten up and was facing us with her legs arched up.
‘You really want to do this?’
I asked her with my wings raised for her to look at the shadows again. It hissed at us, slowly backing away. However, from the forest, Amethyst came with her fangs ready to tear apart Yokino. The clone flipped over Amethyst, then used her body as a surface to get higher. It shot webs at my legs and wings, pinning me to the ground. The shadow to my right went right after her, but she was ready for that. In the air, she twisted her body to avoid it’s black blade.
Her legs glowed red then stabbed the shadow’s head, causing it dissipate. Upon landing on the ground, the clone shot of myriad of lightning and water magic attacks at me. I desperately tried to free myself, but the threads made by the King was completely different from normal threads.
The shadow to my side jumped in front of me and defended against the attacks, swinging and swiping his sword like a jedi. However, some of the attacks landed and he eventually dissipated into nothing but shadows.
'Holy sh-'
The spider slammed down on the ground and a massive wall appeared before us. This wall then fell down over me.
I tried using [Shadow Travel] to get out, but then.
<<The threads are laced with a magic spell to dispel any gathering mana particles. Hence, you cannot perform the magic [Shadow Travel]>>
‘How convenient.’
I tried burning the threads with my fire breath, but the thread wasn’t being cut and I couldn’t summon soldiers to help me here this time. The massive wall loomed over me. There was an impending sense of doom as it slowly descended.
I considered lacing my body with poisons to melt the thread, but upon thinking about the pain and possibility of it not working, I threw away that idea.
‘This… this is going to hurt like a bitch.’
I closed my eyes and winced, preparing for the impact.
<A/N: Please leave a comment or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
