Zaria's PoV:

"What kinda hellhole is this!?!?" - Shiro

*SMACK!!*

"We heard you the first time, you loudmouth!!" - Akai

"*Falling scream of terror*!!!" - Shiro

Two of the people Mira fought with during the Thunder Tournament, the albino vampire and the muscular female Oni, are joking around as the rest of us are confused about our current situation. What happened again? Let's see...

After the Thunder Tournament, Blot used his silver tongue and managed to wrestle 5 airships from the Wakoku government. Old man Ling's back had recovered by then, so he decided to come along as well. We dragged with us the four adventurers + 1 more elf who was related to the tiger Therianthrope and then we prepared to head toward the Invidia continent.

Blot had finally finished his teleportation spell that would allow us to travel to Invidia despite the weird circumstances that were going on over there, whatever it was. I think Blot mentioned something about "the disturbance is gone!!" right before we teleported...!

Now I remember! 2 magic circles were appearing when Blot prepared the transfer! That explains it! We only have 2 ships here, along with the old man Ling, so the other three ships might be where the other transfer circle was connected. And Mira was on one of the other ships!! We have been separated! Again! Oh, my trauma...

"BLOT!! Why didn't you warn us that we needed to travel to two different locations!? I would have jumped on Mira's ship if that was the case!!" - Zaria

"Do not blame me for this. Someone disturbed my transportation magic." - Blot

Blot pointed downwards to a half-broken island in the middle of..., why do I recognize that pot of hellish goo of a sea? Oh, now I get what he was trying to say. A familiar spider-samurai is dancing an "I did it!!"-dance. I do those all the time whenever one of my deliveries doesn't end up in destroyed buildings, mafia hunting me down, or a giant earthworm coming chasing after me. Those dances don't happen often. Luckily, they're more frequent than the worms! 

"As part of my preparations for this war, I did a crash course regarding my transfer magic to anyone in Babel who had some degree of talent within the subject." - Blot

"And out of all creatures to choose, you included that lunatic in your class!?" - Zaria

"Believe it or not, but that lunatic was my best student." - Blot

"NO WAY!!" - Zaria

"Take this to heart, young Zaria: never underestimate an Outer One. Regardless, I suspect Lunatic must have tried to take over someone's transfer circle with the spells I taught her. Unfortunately, she happened to perform them at the same time as I, resulting in our current situation." - Blot

Gah!! Blasted ****ing bad luck!! 

"In any case, we seem to have stumbled over a lucky find here," said Blot before jumping off the ship and gliding down to one of the islands below. Hey, the captain has to go down WITH the ship! Not that I want the ship to go down. Especially not in this sea...

Hey, that's that irritating loudmouth that attacked the Damavand Mansion before! I've seen the records from the Dungeon menu. Also on the island is Grangron and...HEY!! Why are there boss monsters from Damavand here!? Oh, Onyx is here too, along with a fainted Noire. I'll go and ask him. He's the easiest to talk with. And I should help him realize that the vampire that fell on the same island isn't an enemy, despite how irritating she can be.

"Onyx!" - Zaria

"Young Zaria. A pleasure to meet you, but I do not have time for pleasantries." - Onyx

"Why the lack of chivalry?!" - Zaria

"Excuse me, but there is an even greater absence of that from the persons who should possess that quality more than anyone else currently in these Seas." - Onyx

"And those are?" - Zaria

"Over at the island with the giant tower. Please hurry! Sir Flint and his allies may be in trouble!" - Onyx

Flint is in this hellhole as well!? I can understand Noire, but Flint is all right as long as you don't push his buttons or mess with his levers. Those machines he makes are surprisingly delicate. I speak of experience. And rust. Now that I think about it, that may have been the main reason why the gizmo when out like a candlelight instead of my button pushing. Or a combination of both.

"That's saying close to nothin'! What is..., what is going on with your body!?" - Zaria

The Lich's body was starting to turn transparent, no, he's outright disappearing in front of my eyes! 

"Tch, I knew we had little time left before the World System noticed the anomaly, but for it to work so fast..., Miss Zaria, go! Do not worry about us. Master Garami will make sure we will return." - Onyx

"Oh-, uh-, ah-, alright!" - Zaria

I have no idea what I'm agreeing on, but Flint should know some stuff! Yup! As long as he isn't going berserk... Let's bring with me Akai's group. Mira's the one who hired them for this trip, not Blot, so nobody will complain if I use them as meatshields! If there is someone who thinks about saying anything funny, I'll sick the Oni at them~. Onis in, luck out~! ...Wait, that's a bad thing!! But maybe not in this case...?

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"You stupid Oni! Why did you have to come and bring your bad luck with you!!" - Zaria

"What in the world are you talking about?" - Akai

"What", she asks, "What"!! Can't she see the massive amount of destruction that has happened here!? Only the Treasure Tower is standing tall and proud!! Ahh, I am going to be blamed for this again! It always happens whenever I am close to destroyed buildings! 

*CRASH!!*

And here comes more destruction! Or rather, people whose arrival is causing even more devastation. It's a giant, golden snake, along with a knight in black armor. His helmet fell apart as he landed on the ground, revealing...a skull. Hey, this guy's a Skeleton! 

"Who are these guys?" - Zaria

"No, shouldn't knowing that be your job?" - Akai

"I can't know about people that I have never seen before." - Zaria

"You can call these guys 'people'?" - Shiro

"If Miss Wagarah does not know them, then should we consider them hostiles?" asked the black tiger Therianthrope called Artemis. She's the only one of the feline duo who can be called "active", as the other one, the Nekomata known as Sara, is sleeping in her sleeping bag, secured with ropes to the large bamboo container that Akai has on her back. 

"Hmm, let's tie them up while they're unconscious for now. Akai, you have something solid to bind them with?" - Zaria

"Hold on a moment." - Akai

Saying that Akai removed the sleeping bag with the heartless rat-eater who tried to gobble down poor Tinkletop before and started to shake the sleeping bag not that different from when someone is trying to empty a bag for dust. Is this alright? That feline terror is many times worse than Artemis, who protected Tinkletop during the assault event before, but this treatment is a little...

"No worries. Sara's got the biggest Storage in our group, but it's a pain waking her up every time, so she's commanded the skill to release the items we want when we try to shake it out of her." - Shiro

"...Is that alright? Security-wise, I mean." - Zaria

"You can try to convince that girl while she's sleeping almost all day long. It was a miracle that she could even participate in that combat tournament before." - Shiro

Wow. And I thought Alf was a sleepyhead.

After wrapping up the two (possible) enemies with giant chains that, according to Akai, are supposed to cancel out the usage of skills, a pair of figures came running up to us from the direction where the two monsters had flown from. 

"Geh!? Zombie-alert!" - Shiro

"Who are you calling a zombie!" - Regina

Oh, I know her. From the rumors, at least. She's that girl who Onyx beat black and blue so much that she returned to life as a blue-skinned Ghoul. 

"Who are you five? Allies of the knights...doesn't seem like it," asked the dragon girl who had arrived with Regina. 

"Do you know Noire?" I asked to confirm where the newbie was standing on the foe/friend scale.

"Noire? Is she alright? Why do you know her?!" asked, no, demanded the dragon girl as she grabbed me by my throat. Sh-she's too fast. I-I couldn't see her. C-c-can't breathe...

"Hey, calm down. That girl is this Noire's person's Guild mate," replied Regina in my place.

"***, is that true!? Sorry," said the dragon girl while releasing my throat. Who is this person!? She has enough speed and power to take over the yakuza underworld in Luxuria. And I know what I'm talking about. My poor luck made sure to make me acquaintance with probably 90% of the whole damn thing. Boohoo...

"Princess Blaze, please watch your language," said a new voice who appeared from the same direction as the other two. ...And what is he riding?

"They got scooters in this world!? Where did the fantasy go!?" - Shiro

"And as always, the idiot is babbling nonsense yet again..." - Akai

"Hohoho~, do not belite the young Migrant vampire too much. This is one of the 'scooters' she probably knows from her old world." - ???

It didn't even take him a minute to deduce Shiro's origin. It's not that impressive though, seeing how the vampire is acting like the archetypical brainless-, cough, like your common overeager Migrant. 

"*Cough*, my identity is that of one of Babel's four top commanders working for your grand leader, Filyn Belial, and my name is Rivert Flamel. Please call me Flamel." - Flamel

One of the top commanders?! ...What's that?

"Holy..., it's one of the four heavenly kings...!" - Shiro

"Again, what is it you are talking about?" - Akai

"Miss Akai, I fear there is no hope for her anymore." - Artemis

"I heard that!" - Shiro

"Gah, we're wasting time here! You, bat girl. Did you see Noire anywhere?" - Blaze

"Ehh...yeah? She's fainted, but we got her to safety." - Zaria

"That..., I guess it's one of the better results after facing two of her sisters at the same time..." - Blaze

"Sisters? I thought Noire was a single child." - Zaria

"I think it is safe to say Miss Noire has some complicated family circumstances. Did you not see the other two Flugels with Noire?" - Flamel

"No, not even a single divine feather." - Zaria

"Hmm, then in the worst case, they might have fled. Regina, could you be a dear and look for them?" - Flamel

"Tch, fine. But you owe me for missing out on this challenge of the century." - Regina

"One we must not be late to. Princess Blaze, you can go ahead. I will catch up to you after I have asked these fine ladies for something." - Flamel

Regina jumped over the walls after getting the go-signal and the dragon girl, Blaze, stretched her wings and took to the skies after giving a solemn nod to Flamel. Is there something going on with her and the "lucky find" Blot was talking about before? 

"Miss Zaria, I presume? Do you mind having your friends keep watch of the two prisoners? Do not try to kill them. They have resurrection effects that make them stronger if they die." - Flamel

"WHAT!? That is too OP!!" - Shiro

"...Are you sure you don't have that effect yourself?" - Artemis

"That would explain some things..." - Akai

"Don't give me that 'should I put it to the test?' look!" - Shiro

"What if they try to do suicide?" - Akai

"Don't ignore me! And suicide?! That's freaky!" - Shiro

"A reasonable worry. You can relax if you worry that they can use suicide to strengthen themselves, as their skills do not work in that fashion. But I would like to ask the two of them some questions, so having them die on me would be problematic." - Flamel

"Dark......" - Shiro

The vampire is saying her first wise sentence today. I'm getting the same vibes from this Flamel guy as I do from the many yakuza bosses I've stumbled over and survived over these many years. 

"You four, the Oni, the vampire, and the two cats, you seem like you know what you're doing. I will, in the name of the Grandmaster of the Alchemists' Union, hereby issue a quest to the four of you. Keep those two from dying on you and in chains, then I will award you four with any reward that is in my power to grant you." - Flamel

"Anything!?" - Akai

"Who are you, Shen**ng!?" - Shiro

"Then...with my Lady...!" - Artemis

"Zzz...did I hear catnip?" - Sara

She woke up!? Or rather, why are these guys getting so favorable tasks?

"As for you, Miss Zaria, I think you should go and meet up with Mr. Flint. He is in the middle of the island now and in need of help. But now I have to go. I have a civilization-ruining potion to deliver to a certain king of dragons." - Flamel

That doesn't sound good. And I mean ALL of it! Let's go and help Flint. That sounds like the least dangerous item on this shopping list of doom. Still, the gizmos in this place seem...familiar. I wonder why. 

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