Chapter 549 - Behind The Fluff
*Several days ago*
(Akari POV)
Uuuu… Why did this have to happen to meeee…
Sister is also missing too and I got dumped on this stupid volcano of all places…
I want to look for Master but I can't smell nor sense him at all… This stupid volcanic smell is blocking my nose…
I started to make my way out of the crater, grumbling as I did so.
Lava spewed upwards as a giant snake-like monster appeared from the depths of the volcano, its scales looked to be hardened magma stuck to it.
"Who dares intrude on my domain?!" The snake monster roared, glaring down at me with his burning red eyes.
I sniffed at his direction, sensing that he was clearly inferior to me by his significantly lower concentration of innate Quarks.
Bleugh, the Orc generals back at Sanctuary have higher Quark concentration than he does and they don't even use any Techniques.
Thus, I ignored the upstart and continued my climb out of the volcano while trying to send a telepathic message to my sister.
"I'm talking to you, pipsqueak!"
He thrashed his tail into the lava, sending a wave of it crashing towards me.
There's no way some lava could hurt me of course, so I just ignored it.
The loud-mouthed youngster roared triumphantly when he saw the lava wash over me, already assuming me to be burned alive.
I merely shook myself a little to shrug off the molten liquid before continuing my ascent, completely ignoring the idiot.
It took a few seconds before he realised that I was completely unscathed.
"You! How are you still alive?!"
I looked at him with a cold stare, "You seem young and innocent. I would recommend you to learn how to gauge your opponent's strength before acting all arrogant, trash."
Those words seemed to anger him as he roared aloud, rising further out of the lava to try and make himself bigger.
"You dare?! Something as small as you dare to act high and mighty to me?! ME?! I am Lasioth! King of the Ever Burning Mountains! This whole domain is under my rule! Who do you think you are to strut into my domain?!"
Red orbs appeared all around him before spears of fire shot out from them, flying straight towards me.
"Die in agony!" He roared.
The spears bounced off my fur without me needing to do anything, merely tickling me.
This guy is so noisy… How dare he keep trying to prevent me from going to find Master?
I extended one of my tails to reach forward faster than he could react, wrapping it around his neck tightly.
He gasped as I raised him higher into the air until his entire body was floating above the lava pool, his size at least fifty times of my current form. He thrashed around in the air, trying and failing to shake himself free.
"You are an eyesore," I stated simply before twisting his neck and breaking it with a loud snap.
I then dumped his dead body back into the pool unceremoniously, allowing me to leap out of the volcano unhindered.
Several more monsters were waiting for me at the top, all of them looking similar to the youngster I just killed.
"She killed our king! She killed our king! Revenge for our king!"
"Troublesome…" I muttered, before flaring my tails to summon spheres of glowing, red orbs.
Beams of fire burst forth from the orbs, consuming those in front of me and burning them all into ashes instantly.
As though they were tired of existing, even more of them showed up to try and attack me, all of them demanding vengeance for their dead king.
Of course, I just killed all of these pieces of trash, letting my flames devour them completely without mercy. There was no reason for me to spare any of these insignificant beings that were beneath my notice.
It wasn't until I killed half of them did they realise the futility of their actions, the smarter ones quickly abandoning the fight to run away.
But since they were such a bother to me, I continued to incinerated them until they were all nothing but ash.
Without any more hindrances, I leapt away from the volcano to land a few kilometers away from it, clearing my nose of that acrid sulphur smell.
I sniffed the air again, hoping to catch any familiar smells in the air.
Ah! It's sister's scent!
I immediately dashed towards the source of it, covering miles within seconds and finally spotting a familiar white fox standing at the edge of a cliff.
"SIIIISSSTEEEERR!" I cheered, dashing straight towards her.
Her tails wrapped around me mid-flight and stopped me before I could reach her, leaving me dangling in the air.
"Muuuu!! At least let me hug you, sister! I thought I lost you too!" I whined.
She smacked me on the head with her paw, "And what would happen if you had done that? That was the edge of a cliff I was standing on, you know?"
I looked down and indeed, it was a really long fall.
I gave my sister an innocent smile, "Teehee?"
She smacked me on the head again.
I whined out in pain while she got closer to sniff at me.
"Did you… Did you burn a group of people?"
I pouted, "They deserved it. They were bothering me."
She sighed, "Akari… You really need to keep that murderous side of you under control. Have you forgotten that you serve Divine One now?"
"They were obstructing me from finding Master. It is entirely reasonable for me to kill them."
"Did you at least talk to them?"
"Eh? Why would I talk to such inferior beings? Of course not, I just burned them since they were standing in my way--"
Shiori smacked me for the third time.
"Owwwieee! That hurts, sister!"
"It's meant to," She growled at me. "Ugh, if only Divine One was here. Then you would at least keep that murderous side of you under control. Why is it that only in front of Divine One do you act so meek?"
"Mmm? Because it's Master, sister. If Master doesn't feel the need to kill them, then I won't of course~" I told her.
"Haa… I suppose I should be glad you weren't like the past you who would burn down entire continents just because you didn't like the shape of it."
I puffed my cheeks, "I grew up ok?! Besides, Master is more important now! How are we going to find him when even his disciples are separated? Should we find them first?"
"No, I have a better idea."
Shiori moved back to the edge and nodded to the forest below the cliff, "I was thinking we could get some help. There's bound to be monsters in this world as well, we can just start another group here and get them to obtain information about Divine One and create a base of operations in case the others come through the portal. I need you to go in there and make contact with any monster group you find. Since we're finding allies this time, don't kill them."
"Ehh… That sounds so troublesome… Can I just burn down the forest?"
She glared at me, "No."
"Please?"
"It's to find Divine One. Do you want to disappoint him?"
"Buuu… If it's for Master's sake… Fine. But I call first dibs on cuddling his face when we find him."
"... Fine."
"Yayyyy~~"
Time for me to get to work and establish another monster group here! Wait for me Master! We're coming to find you!