The Gamer's POV-Chapter 268: Journey to Bhujanga-Dwipa

Two days later...

——

The journey from the Home of the Hollow Ones to Bhujanga-Dwipa was a monotonous one through what felt like a very quiet desert. There was nothing but darkness, shadow, and the endless crunch of desert sand on the way.

From time to time, a streak of lightning would crack across the sky, lighting up the barren wasteland, and in that brief moment the cadets could see that on the sand, there was nothing but a few bleached bones. After the lightning, the darkness would return heavier than before.

This did little to help the group’s mood.

But regardless, the cadets marched on relentlessly. During the trek, they stopped twice to rest and fill their stomachs with lots of food. And those who had the capacity to draw in mana did so during these opportunities.

By the end of the second day and on the morning of the third, they suddenly burst out of the wall of darkness onto a beautiful shore that awed them, leaving them breathless.

Beyond the wall of darkness, the sun shone brilliantly on a crystal-clear blue lake that seemed to stretch forever.

Despite it being a lake, it did not start gradually from the shore. Instead, it plunged into an immediate, bottomless drop right at the water’s edge. There were no shallows, and one step off the sand meant falling into a deep and almost endless void of blue. The worst part was that no matter how clear the water appeared, one couldn’t really see much past the surface.

There was, however, a massive and incredibly wide bridge that led as far as the eye could see into the horizon.

The bridge appeared to be low-slung, with only the smooth, paved walking surface visible just inches above the water. It also seemed to widen the further into the distance it went, as if expanding to embrace the destination.

When the cadets arrived here, they stopped and began to murmur amongst themselves in dread. Now that they knew that this bridge was a structure built on the tail of a massive serpent, they were hesitant to cross it.

The Hollow Ones were the first to step onto the bridge, followed by their statues. After that, Aurora and the members of her party, along with Cedric’s group, followed suit. When the other cadets saw this, they tentatively pushed aside their fear and, one by one, began the long trek into the horizon.

’I can’t believe this is really the tail of a serpent,’ Cedric thought as he scanned the vast expanse. He tried to imagine the true scale of the beast, Bhujanga-Dwipa, but the sheer magnitude of it was beyond his comprehension. If this was merely the tail, the creature itself was less of an animal and more of a continent.

’I wonder just what grade a beast like this is?’ he mused. ’Maybe a Grade Six?’

He shook his head, and a cold shiver ran down his spine. ’No. It’s got to be much higher. Maybe even a Seven.’

The moment he had that thought, he heard Alicia’s voice:

"I never thought the day would come when Dominants of the first year would raid the King’s Paradise."

Cedric lifted his head and looked to his right to see Alicia talking to Leon. She was riding on a horse too, just like Cedric and the members of his party were. A few other members of Aurora’s party were given horses and they were all riding behind the Hollow Ones as the vanguard of the cadets.

Leon smiled and sighed, his eyes fixed on the horizon. "It certainly beats the history books, doesn’t it? Though I’d feel a lot better if the ’ground’ we were riding on didn’t have scales."

"Yeah. Me too."

"..."

As their conversation continued, Cedric zoned out and looked away from them to the side where he could hear heavy, rhythmic thumps.

Some meters in front of him to the side was a massive creature that looked like an ice tiger. It had two massive tusks that curved down from the sides of its mouth like jagged icicles, and its skin was like a coat of shimmering, frozen armor.

This scary-looking beast, which was emitting a constant, chilling mist from its nostrils, was Aurora’s summon. According to her, it was called a Frostfang Saber. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Atop the back of the predator, Aurora sat imperiously with her gaze fixed on the distance, like a queen leading her army into battle.

Turning away from the princess and her beast, Cedric looked to his left where he could see his sister muttering something to herself some meters away. Her head was twitching in small, jagged movements, shaking back and forth as if she were trying to physically throw off a voice... or voices only she could hear.

Walking silently beside her with a cold and imposing presence was a male demon. He had ashen-grey skin, and his well-sculpted frame was etched with stripes of jagged obsidian. Two sleek, black horns swept back from his temples like dark scythes, and strapped to his broad back was a massive, notched greatsword that looked heavy enough to cleave a horse in two.

The other cadets avoided him, staying at least five meters away because he seemed to despise Dominants. He had even once almost attacked Evelyn when he was first summoned for getting too close to Celeste.

However, despite his lethal appearance, he cradled a small white ferret in his large hands, holding the creature with the most gentle care as it slept against his chest.

When he felt Cedric staring, he shot him a look of utter disdain. It was the kind of look a prideful being gave to a lesser being.

"What are you looking at, mortal?" he sneered in a reverberating voice.

The moment he spoke, Celeste snapped out of her head and cast him a cold look. "You will mind how you speak to my brother, Asmodeus!"

Asmodeus’ eyes grew even more scornful. But after a few seconds, he scoffed and looked away, while muttering under his breath, "Forgive me, my queen."

’What a bipolar fellow,’ Cedric thought as he looked away. ’Are all demons like that?’

He had watched a few anime in his previous life and in the majority of them, demons didn’t have a good relationship with humans whatsoever.

The plot was always either the hero speed-running a quest to delete the demon king or the demons trying to turn the entire human race into a buffet. Something like that.

’It looks like their beef with humans is kind of on a multiversal level.’ Cedric mused, shaking his head.

That aside, there were a few beings flying above, casting shadows across the bridge. For one, he had more than twenty ravens circling at different heights and at different distances, all the way to the back of the bridge.

Aside from the ravens, directly above him and Leon were Athena and Goldie. Athena had a look of determination etched across her face, while Goldie’s face lacked any emotion and was as blank as a porcelain doll.

Flying some meters behind the two otherworldly creatures was Audrey, and as usual, her mouth was busy as she stuffed in tiny bits of jerky. She kept talking to Toki who flew beside her to break the tension she was currently feeling.

A few more cadets were also in the air. It seemed Audrey wasn’t the only one with a flight-based ability. Cedric counted at least thirteen others trailing behind her and the majority of them had body transformations like wings.

Cedric continued to observe the tense cadets around him until he felt someone settle in behind him, followed by arms that slipped around his waist and pulled close.

He smiled, leaning into the touch. "You alright, Aika?"

"Mm?" Aika’s voice was muffled against his back. "Why do you ask?"

Cedric was quiet for a moment, watching the ravens circle above before he finally replied. "It’s just... you’ve been especially quiet lately. I know that’s your way, but I feel like something is weighing on you. If there’s anything worrying you, you know you can tell me."

It was quiet after he spoke. Even after a minute, Aika didn’t say anything.

A deep frown creased his brow. After a minute, he sighed and placed a hand over hers.

The journey continued on in silence. As Cedric grew more on edge with every passing second, he began to count from one to a hundred as he usually did to calm his anxiety.

An hour passed, then another... and then, the hazy horizon began to sharpen. The far end of the bridge finally met its mark as the white shore of Ophidia came into view.

And for someone like Cedric, who had his raven already ahead of the vanguard, he could see the nightmare of over a thousand horrible creatures who were waiting for them not too far from the shore.