Fang woke up after a good sleep, Lily was still sleeping on his lap, hugging his neck with trunk . When he looked at the cute Hollyphant, a slight smile appeared on his face - he had become quite attached to Lily , who had forgotten many things. "If I can, I'll help you regain your memory . How did you appear here ? Why are you alone ?" Fang thought to himself with resolve.

Then he put Lily on next seat carefully without awaking her. He stood up , and looked at the woman lying unconscious . She looked much better than yesterday , lots of skin was exposed as he couldn't cover her with the torn robe. Image of her naked body flashed in his mind increasing his blood flow , then came the image of his frosted little brother with blue blisters and the pain he felt - the blood flow rate immediately dropped below normal. He shivered in fright and checked his little brother. He exhaled in relief, it looked fine , Lily's spells completely healed him.

He got out of infernal machine, the view of desolate wasteland brought him back to harsh reality. He was trapped in first layer of hell, the very environment was a danger to a weak mortal like him, only reason he was still himself because of Lily, his soul pet. Longer his stay here, higher the degree of corruption - he would be devilized ultimately if couldn't escape, Lily couldn't make him immune to the corruption of hell, even she had lost memories .

And time was lost here for him, he couldn't guess how long he was trapped here. There was no night and day - because there was no sun or any star in the dark red sky - filled with choking smoke and flammable gas ball, floating and randomly exploding as fireballs.

He took out a dry ration from the bag of holding and started eating . There was not much ration left, his stock was small from the beginning, as the quest he took was just a delivery job . And now there was additional mouth to feed, the sleeping beauty that he saved and must undergo daily cold burning session to keep her alive, he sighed in helplessness.

"Good morning , Fang " a greeting in sweet voice came from behind. He looked back, it was Lily, she teleported out.

"Good morning, Lily ! Though is it morning ? I can't tell "

"Just think it's morning, and we woke up after a good night sleep, he he"

"Ah, OK. Lily, have you found any bag  in the woman's possession? I didn't check before when I carried her here"

"No, she doesn't have any bag. She has storage ring though, didn't you notice it in her finger ? You spent such intimate time with her " Lily smirked 

"I didn't notice" Fang's face turned red .

"Well , can't blame you ! I can understand, you couldn't move your eyes from her bossom and bottom"

"Ok, stop it" Fang quickly interfered to stop her from going deep in the topic. "Then I'll take her storage ring, she is unconscious and can't use it. She needs clothes, and my ration stock is almost finished. I think we will find these in her storage ring, also may be medicines that can help her condition"

"Well, you won't be able to use her ring. The storage rings are attuned to the owner, and you are too weak to break the Current bond with her and establish your own"

"But I'm using the ring of weapon storing taken from that man"

"That man was dead, so the bond was naturally broken." Lily replied

"Oh, I see. Then I'll keep an eye for edible things, as for her clothes, well, she can wear her favorites when she is awake."

"Yeah, and you have to undress her everyday to dual cultivate, so it's better now, you have less work to do"

"Ah, Lily, you are too much. Are you so eager to touch and message my little brother ?"

"Humph, I only did that to save you, I have no interest in your tiny weenie" Lily blushed in embarrassment.

"I'm grateful. And I'm looking forward to many more sessions coming. Also I'll take the responsibility" Fang hugged the hollyphant and spoke in serious tone with a smirk in his lip.

"What are you talking about, you degenerate. What responsibility ?" Lily instantly teleported out of his embrace .

He laughed out loudly. "OK Lily, my dear holyphant ! Take good care of our home and our guest. I'll go to do what we have come here for"

"Ah, the boney things. I really pity you ! I think now you are traumatized of your boner too, ha ha" Lily came back to her bubbly nature.

"Yeah, but now I love my bone wrapped in your trunk, you know."

"Shu shu ! Wrapped in my trunk ! I'll make it a plump squash by wrapping around, come "

"Ahh, I'm so scared !" Fang feigned it jumping away.

"I'm coming with you, the infernal machine is quite safe . Nobody can break in easily, and we are in desolate area, it's highly unlikely that someone will come and find it."

"A group like that woman's can come . I think they will have enough means to break in" Fang tried to convince.

"Fang, Are you worried about the Infernal Machine or that woman ?" 

"Well, both ! You told yourself that the vehicle is of great help to escape. And that woman - you know, I should take care of her, specially after what we did yesterday"

"Fang, wake up ! This is hell ! There's too many ifs whether someone will find the vehicle or can break in. But there's no if that you are too weak and will be in mortal danger against the weakest creature here. What will happen to me if an accident happens to you, and that woman - his life depends on your little brother too."

"Ah, OK Lily, I was presumptuous now, I guess. You are right."

Fang then sorted out his weapons . Last night he emptied out the ring of weapon storing except the pair of daggers and the lasso. So it has enough space for his javelin, shortbow and the normal dagger, rapier. He didn't weild any weapons this time because he can readily weild any weapon stored in the ring.

He locked the hatch of the infernal machine, "Let's go"

"I'm entering your soul space like yesterday." Lily yawned and vanished into his soul space.

Fang started walking , he took a different path this time. The ancient battlefield was large , so he wouldn't miss it if slightly deviate from yesterday.

Soon half an hour passed - the scenerio and landscape so far was almost similar to yesterday. But he felt different about his stamina - he was less tired than yesterday. He remembered that his constitution was significantly improved after that hellish dual cultivation, he checked his status :

"Hmm, my constitution is increased by 1 points, that's great. My stamina is obviously increased too, that's why I'm less tired. And now that I'm thinking, my little brother looked more healthy this morning. Has it got bigger ?  Anyway, it will be clear at night during my next session of dual cultivation. And Lily can obviously tell" , Fang closed the window by mental command and continue walking , while using every cover possible.

When he was going for next cover of the stone in front of him, he heard a rattling sound . He immediately stopped moving and heightened all his senses to detect danger. 

A limbless serpent appeared from behind the stone in wavy motion. It was eight feet long, with thick , scaly body, the head was triangular, and had two short horns. It's stripped reddish yellow color matched with the ground, making it able to easily camouflage in this area if wanted. There was a rattle in its tail which was making the sound.

The serpent was not coming  in his way. He was not in danger, but still if he could kill it, he would get some experience as well as some meat to eat. He used inspection skill :

"The beast has low HP, I can easily kill it with sneak attack" Fang equipped his shortbow and aimed at the serpent stealthily.

At that moment, another creature jumped on the stone and then jumped on the reptile. It made the rattler's head almost immobile by pressing on the area behind the head by two clawed legs. 

The rattler instantly tried to constrict it by moving its tail, but the creature bit down the area repeatedly which was made immobile by two legs and beheaded the reptile. Then started eating it.

Fang took a good look of the creature and used inspection skill.

"That's a chicken ?" Fang inwardly screamed in surprise. The creature had no similarity with the regular chicken he was familiar. 

Well, it had 2 large legs which ended in feet similar to regular chickens , and each foot had three large claws, that was all the similarities he could find . The mouth - there was no sign of beak. It was large and filled with fangs, it's tongue was long. There was not a single feather on its body. Two leathery apparatus were folded above, giving it a tear-shaped appearance, he assumed that those were it's wings . The legs were well-built, that means this creature was a runner, not a flying creature, those wings might increase its balance and speed while running, and make it airborne for short period.

"It's called a chicken , I hope it will taste like a chicken too" Fang aimed his shortbow to the chicken and fired.

- 7

The fiendish chicken screeched in pain, then turned to him . It might had become very angry getting disturbed when eating or because a seemingly weak being like Fang dared to attack it, it jumped towards him and rapidly approached him. 

Fang was astonished at it's speed, if it wanted to flee, he had no way to successfully attack it again.Before he could load another arrow, the chicken reached him. 

It jumped high to claw his face .

 Fang tried to block raising the shortbow, but it was faster.

- 4

Then the chicken tried to bite him, but got blocked by the shortbow he raised.

Fang unequipped the bow, it was of no use now in such close range . And equipped the normal daggers in two hands . He wanted to eat the chicken, so didn't use the Death's kiss which would deal necrotic damage.

The chicken in the meantime landed one foot on his right shoulder and attacked him with another leg, the sharp long claws were no way inferior to his daggers.

Fang blocked it with the dagger in his left hand, he was way more proficient and agile with dagger. Then stabbed aiming the thick neck of the chicken with the dagger in right hand.

- 5

The chicken dropped dead before his leg.

You killed an abyssal chicken, xp + 50.

The blue notification appeared, confirming his kill and experience gain.

Fang quickly harvested the chicken by beheading and gutting, then stored it in bag of holding.

"We'll have meat in dinner, I wish I had brought seasoning" Fang was quite happy just ensuring fresh meat in dinner. He quickly left the area, the fresh bloody scent would surely attract other creatures, the creatures here could survive by preying on others only. He still didn't see any sign of vegetation yet in these days of travelling.

Fang continued his careful slow journey on foot towards the ancient battlefield. The claw attack of the chicken left deep bloody scars on his face, but it was not serious, blood loss was already stopped. He didn't ask Lily to heal, she could cast Healing Spell only two times a day, it would be unwise too use it now. 

Fang sent his consciousness to the soul space to check on Lily, it was surprising that she was silent for so long . There she was sleeping peacefully. Well, she was tired from exhausting so much magic energy last night to save him.

After another 30 minutes of walking, he reached the outskirt of ancient battlefield. An eerie cold energy was emitting from the ground. He guessed it was the necromantic energy Lily told before, the reason of spontaneous rise of undead skeletons.