After an overwhelming light blinded me, I finally able to gain my sight slowly and surely. However, what greeted me on the other side is a bright vast sky, while a glaring sun caresses its warm light against my skin. I look below me and behold a world of thick jungle, high mountains, long winding rivers, and not one inch of man-made structure can be seen around.

An exact opposite of the underworld, instead of rubble and burnt ground, nature thrive in this world.

Agnes in his Falcon form fly beside me, he squawks at me, to an outsider, they may not understand what Agnes just said, but to me, I could fully understand what it is. It as if we have some sort of telepathic link that translates every squawk she mutters.

"I don't know where it is, the scroll just says it is here, somewhere."

"Squawk, squawk?"

"We look by using our eyes, isn't that obvious?" A smirk appeared on my face.

"Squawk!" He hovers above my head and pecks it with his beak.

"Ouch! Ok, ok, ok, I was just joking around."

"Squawk."

"I can see that the world is big, no need to tell me twice, I guess we could ask the local?"

"Squawk, squawk? Squawk..."

"What do you mean, you don't like the local?"

"Squawk!"

"Someone in trouble?"

"Squawk."

"Below me?" I looked down, seeing a dark blur running away as two large Saber-toothed panthers, the size of a regular jeep, chasing after the humanoid blur.

"That panther is pretty cute..."

"Squawk?"

"Yeah, I like cats, what's wrong with that? Anyway, let's go!"

The bike pitch down toward the humanoid blur, I throttle up as I bypass the Panthers, and try to catch up to the humanoid. As I get closer, I can see that it is more wolf than human, black fur, two upright ears, running on two legs, with four arms, carrying a bow and arrow while wearing some kind of short cape made out of dry hay, and a foreign-short white robe made of silk.

It looks quite young, but I can't tell from this distance. I throttle my bike again, avoiding several tree branches, and try to get closer to it.

When I'm finally able to get closer, I shout, "Get on!"

It looks at me and glanced behind it, then on the next rock, it launches itself from the large rock, and I grab its hand mid-air. With my strength, I pitch the bike up toward the sky and bring it with me.

I pull the wolf-humanoid up and help it settle on the back seat. Looking down, the panther seems to give up on the chase, and I huffed out a disappointed sigh, "Aww, I wanted to pet the cats...maybe some other time."

After a long flight, I finally land the bike near a river, and check the surrounding area for any threat and find none. The young wolf-girl rushes to the river and take a handful of water to drink. Agnes perch on the handle-bar while still remaining in his bird form.

"Why won't you change forms?" I ask Agnes.

"Squawk, squawk."

"What do you mean you are safer in that form?"

"Miss candidate… your kindness knows no bounds, please accept my humble gratitude."

I turn around and notice the young wolf girl is on her knees and bowing her head toward me. "Woah, there's no need for that. Hahaha, you making me flustered real bad."

The wolf girl stands once more, she is quite short, almost the same height as Agnes, "Forgive me for displeasing you, I accept any punishment."

I let out a sigh, "Come here."

The wolf girl hardened her heart and take a step closer until she's in my arms reach. I raise my hand and place it on her head. With ease, I start rubbing it and scratch the back of her ear, after looking behind her, I notice her bushy tail is wagging in joy.

"I-Is t-this some kind of new punishment? Should I be feeling happy right now?" The wolf girl stuttered as she snuggled her head closer to my hand.

"It's not really a punishment, I just really want to pet you. Hehehe"

Hmm, does Daisie like cats? If she does, maybe I could get a cat with her or a dog, but I prefer cats, I probably need to discuss with her first, what do cats even eat? Fish? Rice? How about a dog? Meat? Hmmm...

"You have soft fur… unlike a certain someone..." I can feel Agnes rolling his eyes at my comment. He knows I was lying, both of them have soft fur or feathers.

"I am unworthy of your praise, but it does make me happy that a candidate from the gods such as yourself, compliment me."

Moving my hand away causes the wolf girl to huff in disappointment and her tail to droop, so I continue rubbing her head and she huffs in joy again while wagging her tail. She almost like a dog, she is so cute, I can't stop.

"So, may I ask why are you out here getting chased by those Panthers?"

"OHH! I'm hunting for a crystal-horned stag." She jumped back excitedly, with a big smile on her face.

"What for?"

"It's for my people tradition when a girl like me reach the age of adulthood, she must hunt the crystal-horned stag and bring it back, as proof that herself is fit to survive on her own and become the one who must provide for their clan."

"Interesting, so did you find any?"

Her wolf ears droop down, while a frown appears, "Not yet... May I ask, why are you here, Miss?"

"It's Andre, I'm looking for a bad thing or a beast or a creature that in this world, somewhere?"

"Uhm?"

"Is there something weird happens recently?"

"Weird...Ah! Yes, there is one."

"Oh, can you show it to me?"

"Yes."

We took my bike and flew up to the sky, she was amazed by the Brutale, it as if she had never seen it before. Well, she probably never seen one in her entire life, and I don't think there any technology in this world that match my bike.

After another long ride, the wolf girl body perks up as she points at the straight line of destruction below. I pitch the bike down and land in a straight line, she jumps off and starts sniffing around.

I look at the destruction, it looks like a bulldozer just went through, knocking down trees and pushing away rock in a perfectly straight line. I try to find the end and the beginning of this line, but can't find it, it's too far.

"Yes, this is it, they say a large beast went through here a couple of nights before, our hunter found it early in the morning and report back to our chief."

"Did it hurt anyone?"

"No one was hurt, it avoided our neighboring village."

"Where is it heading?"

"It went that way." She points straight ahead.

"Is there something there?"

"Uhm, we don't know, but to our knowledge, there's nothing there, no village, no people, only thick jungle."

Agnes land on the handlebar, I look at him, "Can you see it?"

He shakes his head, "Squawk."

I look at the trail of destruction it leaves behind, "Daisie said the Darkness was a mindless creature of destruction, Hmm... it doesn't seem that way to me, because it's heading somewhere though, but to where? That's the question."

"I found it!" The wolf girl said excitedly, I turn my gaze to her.

"Hmm?"

"A fresh trail!"

"Of what?"

"Crystal-horned stag, it went that way!" She looked at the tree line.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! But...we can't go through there..."

"Why?"

"That is the guardian of the jungle territory, we would be killed if we enter it."

"Guardian what?"

"The Guardian is a powerful beast that protects a certain territory, we usually avoid it and it helps ward off the more dangerous animal away. I won't survive if I go in there."

"That's because you don't have me, come on, let me help you find this stag."

"W-What? I shouldn't trouble you with my mundane problem. Besides, Miss Andre has other priority than me."

"Don't be ridiculous, you help me find its trail, besides, I would help you even if you don't ask me too."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She jumped up and down in excitement. "But we must go on foot, the magical machine you ride is too noisy."

"Agnes, can you guard the bike while I'm away."

"Squawk."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"Squawk."

"Fine, I'll get you some berries."

"Squawk."

"Huh? Can you understand it, Miss Andre?"

"Yeah, in a way, he is my cute little brother."

"The bird?"

"Sure."

She tries to understand it, but couldn't, her shoulders sag as she gives up. I pet her head for trying and her motivation rise up again while her fluffy tail wag in joy.

"Let's go."

We enter the jungle, the wolf-girl take the lead first while I follow her from behind. We climb up the oversized root and slide down the slippery rock as we make through the jungle, her eyes never once lose sight of the trail, like a predator on the hunt.

"Oh wait, what is your name? I totally forgot to ask."

"It's Lulu the first, Miss Andre."

"Lulu the first?"

"Yes, it's because I am the first for my name."

"Is it common to hunt the stag alone?"

"No, it isn't, usually a family member will join in, and usually it's a sibling."

"Ohh, so why are you alone?"

"I don't have any siblings, but I do have a mom, she is sick though, that's why she can't accompany me."

"What about your father?"

"He is busy..." that question seem to hit a mark in her, probably something difficult to say aloud, I shouldn't pry more.

I change the subject when I spot a very large claw mark on a tree body, "Is that the Jungle guardian work?"

"Yes, it is. Hmm, that means the Guardian is very close."

"I hope we don't have to meet it."

"Me too, Miss Andre, we should move on, the stag is very close."

We continue trekking the trail until Lulu stop me as we are getting near a cliff, she whispers, "I can see it."

We ducked down, and she pointed me toward the Stag, it certainly quite large, but its horn is beautiful, it the same as how the name describes it, horns made out of crystal. When light shines upon the horn and it breaks that light into a flurry of colors. Truly a majestic animal.

She starts to climb a tree, then using her two hands, she hangs from a thick branch. Afterward, she slowly takes out her bow and two arrows. It is quite far from here, and where the stag is, but given the cliff that we are on, it gave us a pretty good spot to use. Yet, she needs to climb up to use the extra height as a distance multiplier.

I watch Lulu's face turned serious as she focuses on the stag.

Snap.

The sound of small branches break behind me, I turn my head around slowly.

Two red eyes glaring at me.

A mouth full of sharp teeth, and big enough to swallow two heads at the same time, and I forgot to mention it is dripping with saliva.

Its body is huge almost like Kraus, some of it vital part such as its chest, where its heart is located, is covered with a natural armor of exoskeleton.

I think this thing is what they dub The guardian of the jungle. To put it simply this beast is a bear with bone armor, and it is very large.

It's about to growl, "Oh no, you don't."

I run and use a rock as a jumping point to launch myself onto its snout and headlock it with my arm. My muscle bulge, while my veins start popping as I use all my strength to refrain it from letting out its growl.

If one of its growls escape its mouth, it could scare the stag, and cause it to run.

"Come on, Mama bear, work with me, give Lulu time to align her shot," I whisper to its ear.

It tries to wiggle out while clawing furiously on my arm, but none of it worked, because its claw can't even penetrate my skin, but the mama bear is slightly stronger than me. I grit my teeth while sweat begins to drip, I pull its snout down with me, trying to calm it down, but I have no idea how long I can maintain this.

"Take the shot," I muttered through my gritted teeth.

"A few more second."

I feel my feet begin to lift off the ground slowly, I literally hanging off it snout while its eye glare at me with intense rage.

"Take the shot," I whisper loudly, the mama bear points it snout toward a tree with me in front of it, then start charging toward it.

Lulu takes the shot and launch two arrows, but before I could see whether it land on the target or not. The mama bear is mere inches away from the tree, and I was about to plunge into it first.

"Mother—!"

I crash into the thick tree, breaking it in two, causing the splinter of wood to launch everywhere. The pain spread outward from my back, I grit my teeth while still hugging the mama bear's snout. The guardian didn't stop as it taking me deeper into the jungle, following its own path.

"Miss Andre!" I can hear Lulu's voice getting further and further away.