Chapter 630 - 617: To Oz and beyond

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Pulchritudo]

Walking beside Mikoto, who had now returned to wearing his armor, Paimon could not help taking in the place they had found themselves in. Her attention wandered over the chamber as they approached the others, taking in its unusual construction. She had expected the teleportation devices to be housed somewhere practical, perhaps in a cramped facility filled with machinery and attendants. Instead, the chamber was spacious and unnervingly immaculate.

It was a large, sleek chamber, its pristine white tiles stretching beneath their feet in broad rows. Expansive red walls rose around them, their surfaces broken up by sections of black alloy infrastructure that gave the room a technological appearance.

The sound of their footsteps carried across the tiled floor as they moved farther inside.

Aside from the Heart Kingdom soldiers stationed out front, there was barely anyone else in the chamber. The guards remained near the entrance; beyond them, the room was largely empty, save for Mikoto’s rather unusual group, whose presence was difficult to overlook even without anyone making an effort to draw attention to themselves.

They stood before an odd apparatus that occupied a considerable portion of the chamber.

Its foundation consisted of a broad, flat silver disc, large enough to accommodate a group of people standing close together. The surface appeared smooth and carefully maintained, and long, black-edged points extended upward around its circumference, each one angled inward. Their dark edges formed a series of converging lines, meeting above the disc to create a hexagonal shape that enclosed the space beneath it.

The structure was unfamiliar enough to make the purpose of its design difficult to guess at a glance. It did not resemble a conventional doorway, nor did it look like any ordinary machine Paimon might have encountered.

Gretel was the first to take note of the two approaching figures.

Her gaze shifted toward them, and recognition settled over her features when she spotted the red hood.

"Paimon?"

She noticed the girl immediately. Gretel tilted her head ever so slightly, studying her with a questioning look. She had not expected Paimon to arrive alongside Mikoto.

"Have you come to say goodbye?" she asked.

"Oh, no," Paimon replied, a small but excited smile appearing on her face. "Mikoto said I could join you all."

"I said you could do what you want," Mikoto quickly corrected, his voice cutting in before Paimon could make the arrangement sound any more generous than it had been. "I also said it wouldn’t be my fault if you croak. I made it clear that whatever happens to you is your own responsibility."

Paimon’s smile remained, though Mikoto’s correction made the limits of his supposed permission rather difficult to misunderstand.

"You willingly want to go on such a dangerous journey?" Robert asked.

He looked at Paimon as though she had suddenly grown a second head. He already knew enough about Mikoto’s intentions to understand that this was not some harmless excursion.

"You do gather Mikoto’s mission here is not some heroic journey," Robert continued. "This isn’t a matter of following someone around, doing a few good deeds, and returning home with a pleasant story to tell. Whatever happens once we leave, there may not be an easy way back from it."

"I know," Paimon stated firmly. The excitement in her expression settled into a more earnest look, and she met Robert’s look without backing away. "I know this isn’t going to be easy, and I’m not pretending that I understand everything we’re going to face. But if it’s to save the world, then it would be against my beliefs to just ignore it. I couldn’t knowingly turn away from something like that when I might be able to help."

She paused only briefly before continuing, her conviction holding.

"Besides, you’re on this journey too, and you’re a normal human."

"Well, I have my less than altruistic reasons," Robert relented, giving a small shake of his head. "I’m not going to pretend that my motives are as noble as yours. But touché. I suppose I can’t question your decision too harshly when I’ve chosen to involve myself in this mess as well."

His response did little to conceal his lingering concern, but he seemed willing to leave the matter there.

"Well, I say the more the merrier," Shuten-dōji remarked, appearing perfectly open to the idea. "You can never have too many companions, after all. Having another person along may prove useful, especially when we don’t know what awaits us beyond the forest’s entrance."

Then again, there was nothing particularly odd about Shuten welcoming another companion. The oni had never seemed especially troubled by the prospect of sharing company, and Paimon’s presence did not appear to bother her in the slightest.

Paimon turned toward her and gave the oni a smile, seemingly pleased that at least one person had welcomed her without immediately questioning her judgment.

"Well, it’s one more person, but it’s no issue," Goiim cut in, bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. Her pale eyes moved over the group before she gestured toward the supposed teleportation device. "If we can all step into the device, I can set the coordinates. It should be enough to take us to the Dominion of Oz, from where we can make our way toward the Great Forest."

There was no particular enthusiasm in her voice.

The group began moving toward the silver platform.

They stepped onto it one after another, carefully finding room among the others. The available space quickly proved less generous than its size had initially suggested. Although the disc was large enough to accommodate a group, the number of people attempting to stand upon it left them with little room to spare. Shoulders and arms came close together, and each person had to make small adjustments to avoid pressing too heavily against someone else.

Mikoto found himself caught among them, the problem became particularly apparent when Echidna shifted beside him. She bumped into him, forcing him to adjust his footing within the already cramped space.

Mikoto turned his head and gave her an annoyed look.

"I don’t remember making your body’s hips this wide," he murmured. "There’s barely enough room for me as it is."

"You’re small, so it’s fine," Echidna replied with a smirk. "And I merely took some liberties with the body you bestowed. It’s hardly my fault for the most part."

Her expression suggested that Mikoto’s irritation was, in itself, a small victory. Mikoto, for his part, did not appear inclined to give her the satisfaction of a more substantial reaction.

While the two exchanged their brief remarks, Goiim occupied herself with the controls.

She stood beside a black stand supporting a flat-screened device, her attention focused on its display. Her fingers moved across the interface as she began entering the necessary information.

"The teleportation device gives off a rather odd feeling," Goiim informed them blankly. "So be advised not to lose your lunch. The transition can be unpleasant, particularly if you’re not accustomed to it."

The warning was delivered so plainly that it was difficult to tell whether she considered it a serious concern or simply another routine detail worth mentioning.

There was little time to dwell on it.

A dim blue light ignited beneath their feet.

It began as a glow across the silver disc, spreading outward beneath the group until the platform’s surface was washed in its radiance. The light crept around their feet, filling the spaces between them and climbing gradually over the lower edges of their clothing and armor.

Mikoto lowered his gaze toward the light.

For a moment, his attention settled on the shifting light beneath him, but his thoughts had already wandered elsewhere.

("Oh, right. I forgot to ask Nicholas about why that church was here.")

The realization came at an inconvenient time.

He had meant to check something at the church, and Paimon’s appearance had interrupted that line of thought. Now that he was standing on a teleportation platform, with the process already beginning, there was little point in turning back simply to ask a question that could wait until later.

Still, the thought lingered briefly.

Then the blue light intensified.

It rose around him and the others, swallowing the platform beneath their feet and obscuring the chamber beyond. In the next instant, the light engulfed Mikoto completely.

But before the transition could carry him away, he felt something else.

It was not merely the presence of mana.

There was a strange, static-like pressure that filled his body, spreading through him with an uncomfortable sensation that seemed to settle beneath his skin. It was difficult to describe precisely. The feeling was neither an ordinary physical force nor something he could dismiss as the familiar flow of magical energy. It pressed against him in a way that made the teleportation device’s operation feel distinctly unpleasant.

Mikoto’s expression shifted slightly.

("Great...")

-------------------

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: ???]

Mikoto found himself face-first in the dirt.

For a brief moment, he remained where he had landed, his body sprawled awkwardly across the ground while the impact settled through his armor. The soil was cool against his face, and a dull pressure weighed down on the back of his head. Whatever had happened during the teleportation, it had apparently decided that depositing him gently on his feet was too much to ask.

Something heavy was resting on him.

Before he could even begin to work out what it was, a small, startled sound came from above.

"Oh!"

The squeak was followed by a sudden shift in weight. The pressure vanished from his head, and whoever had been sitting on him scrambled away in a hurry.

Mikoto pushed himself up a second later. One armored hand pressed into the dirt while the other helped him steady himself, and he rose with a sharp, annoyed look on his face. He brushed at the soil clinging to his armor before turning his head to the side.

Paimon stood nearby.

The red-hooded girl had a flushed look on her face. Her posture was stiff with embarrassment, and she seemed rather uncertain about where to put her hands or where, precisely, she ought to direct her eyes. She had clearly realized what had happened—and judging by her expression, she was desperately hoping Mikoto had not.

He stared at her.

"That better not have been your ass on my head," Mikoto spat, his irritation plain. "Please tell me I didn’t just get dropped onto the ground and used as a cushion at the same time. I can tolerate a lot of things, but I’d rather not have to deal with that on top of whatever the hell that teleportation was."

"O-of course it wasn’t!" Paimon quickly defended herself.

Her response came a little too fast to sound convincing.

"Her rear was, in fact, on your head," Echidna’s amused voice drifted over from a few paces away.

The Mother of Monsters had only just begun to rise from the ground herself. She brushed the dirt from her black dress with a few movements, apparently far less troubled by the undignified arrival than Mikoto was. Her composure was intact, and the amusement in her voice suggested that she had found the entire incident considerably more entertaining than she had any right to.

Paimon seemed to die inside a little.

Her flushed expression deepened, and she looked as though she would have preferred the ground to open beneath her rather than remain there for another second.

Mikoto merely huffed.

He had little interest in pursuing the matter further. There were more pressing concerns than whether Paimon had accidentally used his head as a landing platform. He turned away from the two of them and began taking in their surroundings, allowing his annoyance to settle.

Barring the faded grass beneath his feet, the only thing that immediately stood out was the yellow trees spread about all around them.

They were scattered across the landscape in every direction, their distinct coloring making them difficult to mistake for the vegetation of an ordinary forest. The grass beneath them was worn and faded, and the surrounding land seemed quiet in a way that did not entirely reassure him. There were no obvious signs of the city they had intended to reach, nor any immediate indication that they were anywhere near the destination Goiim had supposedly selected.

Mikoto’s eyes narrowed.

("I don’t sense Gretel, Robert, or Shuten-dōji anywhere nearby. That teleportation was a fluke.")

He extended his awareness as far as he considered necessary, searching for the familiar presences that should have been close to him. Nothing answered.

The absence was enough to confirm that this was not simply a matter of the others having landed a short distance away.

Something had gone wrong.

His gaze hardened slightly.

The conclusion was difficult to avoid. Goiim had been operating the device, and the group had all stepped onto it together. They should have arrived at the same destination. Instead, Mikoto had been separated from the others, deposited in an unfamiliar stretch of land with only Paimon and Echidna for company.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I think this is Winkie Country," Paimon informed him helpfully, stepping over to his side. She seemed eager to focus on something other than the embarrassing way she had landed. "You can tell from the yellow trees. They’re a pretty distinctive feature of this region, so if I’m remembering correctly, we should be in the western part of the Dominion."

Mikoto glanced at the trees again.

"So that teleportation device sent us into the outskirts of these lands?" Echidna scoffed. She looked around with a somewhat displeased expression, her attention moving across the open landscape. "Humans truly make the most useless things. We were supposed to be transported somewhere useful, yet here we are, standing in the middle of nowhere. I gathered we’d be near a city, not dumped out in the countryside."

"We’ve been sabotaged, looks like," Mikoto informed her, huffing. "We most likely veered way off course. Unless the device has some truly pathetic idea of what counts as an acceptable destination, someone interfered with the process. We were meant to arrive together, and we didn’t."

"Huh? But who would do that?" Paimon asked, genuinely befuddled.

Her eyes moved between Mikoto and Echidna, as though she expected one of them to provide an immediate answer. The possibility of sabotage had evidently not occurred to her. She had trusted that Goiim knew how to operate the device and that the journey would proceed as planned.

Mikoto, however, had little interest in guessing at the culprit.

"I don’t care," he said, waving the question off.

His response was dismissive, but his attention did not remain idle for long. As he looked down at the ground, the disinterest in his expression gave way to a more thoughtful look. There was something about the land that had begun to catch his attention—not its scenery, nor the strange yellow trees, but the sensation beneath it all.

("The leylines are quite vigorous here.")

He could feel them.

The mana and energy coursing through the land were unusually active, moving with a strength and vitality that he had not expected. It was not simply a matter of there being a great deal of mana in the area. The leylines themselves seemed vigorous, their influence spreading through the surroundings with a persistent pressure that he could feel even without deliberately reaching for them.

("They’re even sapping my mana passively.")

That was more concerning.

The effect was small, but he could sense it: a steady drain that did not appear to require him to cast a spell or actively draw upon the surrounding mana. The land was taking something from him simply because he was there. It was not enough to leave him weakened immediately, but it was noticeable, and Mikoto had little patience for anything that interfered with his reserves without his permission.

His gaze remained lowered for another moment as he considered the sensation.

("The land’s also a lot more full of life.")

The vitality was not limited to the leylines. There was something unusually lively about the surrounding environment, as though the land carried an abundance that extended beyond what he could see. The faded grass and yellow trees might have suggested otherwise at first glance, but the impression he received through his senses told a different story.

He slowly raised his eyes again.

The circumstances were already inconvenient enough. They had been separated from their companions, their intended destination had been missed, and the very land beneath their feet was interfering with his mana.

Something told him things were going to be a lot more annoying here.