PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Looking at the storm outside, Desmond asked Kyuru, who was still sitting on his shoulder. Kyuru had been a bit smitten with Desmond ever since he woke up. Even now, she was rubbing her cute little face against Desmond’s. But after hearing Desmond’s question, Kyuru pulled away from him and answered.

“You shouldn’t overthink it. I know it might seem like something that transcends anything you’ve seen so far, but even for a creature like that, this kind of move is a kill or be killed. You’ve seen it yourself; that thing had to gather mana for hours to form that storm. At this point, that storm is feeding on itself, and it is unlikely that it is still under the control of its creator.”

As always, when it came to mana control, Kyuru had a profound understanding, and her answer brought some relief to Desmond. Thinking about what Kyuru said, Desmond had yet another doubt.

“Wait, you said that thing is no longer under his control. Why the hell would he create something like that if he’s not going to control it?”

Kyuru showed a gesture she learned from her beloved hunter as she shrugged her shoulders before replying.

“I guess he was preparing the battlefield. You’ve seen the creature before; that thing is very comfortable in storms. Its strength is likely to increase a lot within one.”

This time it was Cecilia’s turn to intervene in the conversation. “From the way they say it, that storm was summoned by someone; I had never heard of anything powerful enough to do that. Also, it seems that you guys know the storm’s source.”

As the storm seemed to have begun to contract, Desmond’s attention was diverted for a moment, but he still responded to Cecilia.

.....

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t have the best of luck. On my first trip to this world, when I had barely come into contact with mana, I saw the creature responsible for this. From another point of view, it could be said that I am quite lucky as I was too far away from the beast to be noticed by it. Whatever the case, that was the first time I had seen a three-star class entity... and it was quite impressive.”

Noticing that the storm seemed to be condensing in a distant point faster and faster, Desmond decided it was time to head to his destination before something else happened. As they left the cave, Cecilia couldn’t help but ask.

“What kind of creature was that?”

Desmond kept his eyes on the sky, watching the storm grow more violent as its size diminished, and he responded. “Skaylos, The Stormbringer.”

Several kilometers away, in a sky surrounded by dark clouds and gale-force winds, lightning flashed steadily as if trying to increase the creature’s presence at the storm’s epicenter.

With a gigantic wingspan nearly a hundred meters long, four wings stretched almost forty meters from its body. A body covered in emerald green scales and a serpentine head surrounded by a feathered mane; this majestic beast was none other than Skaylos.

For a moment, the gigantic feathered serpent looked exhausted from its efforts as it gathered a storm of this magnitude around it. Yet each bolt of lightning that found its way into the serpent’s body seemed to fill it with new vigor. Electric currents flowed naturally along with its beautiful scales and gathered and condensed in the serpent’s feathers. This was his territory, where Skaylos was strongest, and only a fool would try to face him in a storm.

“How dare you? We had a deal; I had thought your race was trustworthy.”

The words roared out of Skaylos’s jaws, a primal fury filled his voice, and were it not for the storm, every creature in the forest would have heard his complaint.

From a golden glow that was still breaking through the wall of wind and dark clouds came an answer to the calls of the feathered serpent. There weren’t emotions in the voice that answered, as if this was nothing more than an unimportant event for its owner.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Skaylos. It’s nothing personal, but I have a debt to pay, and given the efforts that boy made for me, I felt it necessary to give him a proper reward. Also, I could use a new feather fan.”

Even when there was clear mockery in words, the tone of voice did not change. Perhaps the only peculiar thing about the figure’s voice that refused to reveal itself was that it seemed composed of many female voices layered in a perfect melody.

Others would have found such a voice charming, but that was not the case with Skaylos. As the figure passed through the sea of ??dark clouds, Skaylos could see two eyes like suns staring back at him, sending shivers down his spine.

For the first time in his long life, the four-winged serpent felt fear, and an idea that had never crossed his mind before came; perhaps, he was not invincible within this storm.

Skaylos understood where that thought was coming from once the figure revealed itself. As Kyuru had pointed out, the feathered serpent had no control over the storm at this point, which was why he didn’t notice the phenomenon now unfolding in front of his eyes. That little six-winged figure made it through the worst of the storm without being touched in the slightest. Dark clouds, winds, rain, and lightning seemed to elude the figure as if this entity could not be reached by the storm.

And so, high above, hidden from the world’s view, a titanic battle began between two beings whose individual strengths were enough to annihilate entire cities.

A fight with no one present to witness the power wielded by both entities, a brief battle with a proud and intact winner.

As the battle in the sky began, Desmond’s trio, Cecilia and Kyuru, finally found what they were looking for. Well, at least Kyuru said it was.

Seeing the strange clearing before them, Desmond and Cecilia hesitated a bit. Although it was true that this was one of the most beautiful places they had seen, one that, by the way, did not seem the least bit affected by the storm that just passed, the place was barely a dozen meters wide and long.

The clearing was full of flowers of all colors that gave off a beautiful glow and fragrance, but there was nothing else in the place besides that. Kyuru might be small, but she wasn’t small enough to live under those flowers, so Desmond found it strange that the fairy would point to this empty place as her home.

Cecilia had a similar opinion to Desmond’s, at least she did until she felt that there was something strange about the environment. For Cecilia, who was particularly sensitive to light, she felt as if there was some kind of light disturbance within the clearing.

In fact, with his sensitivity to wind currents, Desmond felt something similar a second later, a small void within the clearing. This place seemed beyond the reach of the outside elements. However, Desmond preferred to wait for Kyuru to explain the phenomenon.

Kyuru Felt those doubts pointed like daggers at her back. Then Kyuru showed an adorably arrogant attitude as she explained.

“It is normal for you to feel that there is something strange in the clearing. After all, this place is just a door. My home is connected to many places through many doors, but this is the only one I can use. She didn’t bother to explain much about it, so I don’t know how this thing works. I just know that you cross it and show up at home.”

Finishing her explanation, Kyuru extended her hand, pointing to the center of the clearing. At that moment, the air rippled like a churning water surface. Then, an ancient-looking stone arch materialized in front of the group.

It was bizarre; the stone door was clearly there for Desmond and Cecilia to see, but that strange feeling of emptiness hadn’t gone away. For the hunter and the priestess, it was as if the stone door was not there even when they could see it.

Kyuru could not understand that feeling as she had passed through that stone gate multiple times and possessed a spiritual nature that made her sensitive to this kind of thing.

Without a care in the world, Kyuru flew toward the door, stopping only a few feet from it before signaling for Desmond and Cecilia to follow her.

As he moved forward, the strange feeling around the door grew more intense, but Desmond began to get a vibe of familiarity that he couldn’t place. As Desmond was about to put his finger on that sentiment, a tremor interrupted Desmond’s thoughts.

Showing his almost bestial instincts, Desmond reached out to grab Cecilia around the waist before backing away at full speed. In just a fraction of a second, Desmond not only grabbed Cecilia out of her place; he also managed to identify the source of the tremor right in front of him. One could only marvel at how ridiculous Desmond’s reflexes were.