The Devil Is Real (Noir x Arifureta)

Chapter 6: A New Encounter

Arriving at the massive tree, Noir and Yue looked around. Their surroundings were extra foggy. Seems to be a defense mechanism of the labyrinth itself.

"This place is famous for being unreachable for any other being aside from beastmen. Good thing there's no fooling you, otherwise we would have gotten lost." Yue said as she kept tugging on Noir's top.

The fog scattered all around the forest distorts the senses of every living lifeform aside from beastmen themselves. Furthermore, the close you are to the giant tree, the more the fog's eeriness will psychologically plague you, thus making it virtually impossible to reach it. Even for beastmen, they can only access the giant tree on a specific hour, when the fog dissipates slightly and a path to the tree becomes apparent. Noir and Yue ignored all of that.

On the tree itself, was an entrance looking platform. There was a tablet there that listed four things.

1. Four markers of strength.

2. The power of restoration.

3. A beacon woven from bonds.

4. Only one who possesses all of these will have the path to a new trial opened to them.

"Four markers of strength... a power of restoration..." Noir put his hands on his chin, contemplating the requirements. "That seems to pertain to other ancient magics. Maybe four ancient magics and an ancient magic for restoration."

"A beacon woven from bonds... what does that mean?"

"Probably meaning we should be here because the beastmen helped us... that's just my conjecture though."

After thinking it over for a while. "This suck. We went all the way here only to go back empty handed." Noir couldn't help but scratch his head. Forcing his way through in the labyrinth is also out of the question. If the labyrinth had anything like Orcus Labyrinth's memory verifying device, they could easily be deemed unworthy of the ancient magic, resulting in the raid being in failure.

The two began to wander around the perimeter for a couple more minutes, when a rustling sound resounded in the space. A towering bear emerged from the trees. They were beastmen soldiers, given the equipment they carried.

"Don't move! Who the hell let these humans in?!" A loud and deep voice, like a roar, can be heard in front of them. They numbered around a dozen. And they seemed to be in patrol.

"We will not tolerate humans in our domain! Men, hurry up and—" Before he can finish giving the order to charge, the bear ignited in flames.

"Shut up, filth." Yue commented on the side as she lifted up her hand. That simple gesture caused the several more beastmen to ignite in flames, including the ones that stayed in hiding behind the bushes and the fog.

In less than ten seconds, more than a dozen corpse decomposed into the soil of the sea of trees. Not one outsider's soul witnessed any of the murders.

"We'll go back." Noir said as he opened up a portal to the exit of the Orcus Dungeon. Since he's been there, he can instantly obtain the coordinates. "We'll visit a human settlement first. Is that fine with you?" Noir asked Yue with a smile.

Of course, she's fine with anything as long as it's Noir.

•••

Getting out of the forest was easy as long as you have Noir. His perceptual prowess is just that superior to the point any level of illusionary or deceptive tricks are rendered useless when faced with those eyes.

That is why, they arrived rather on time to a particularly awful scene. In front of a battalion-sized army numbering a thousand, were the rabbitmen he and Yue rescued just a few hours ago. The soldiers were marching, and the rabbitmen were all chained and lined up beside them, walking barefoot with swollen bodies and leaking blood.