The Bretton woods was massive in size and it was only due to Astrom’s empire strict measures that Origin city wasn’t affected at all due to the mana beasts living there.

 

There were proper demarcations for the people and adventurers heading inside the woods and it was in their best interest to not cross that as mishaps could happen.

 

But right now Akira and the groups were deep inside the jungle and more than one hour had already passed but they had not reached their desired destination heck even the horse mana beasts were getting tired at this point.

 

“Mr. Ivan, how much more time is it going to take?” Calvin asked.

 

“The artifact is showing that they are somewhere nearby so it shouldn’t take that much time.” 

 

“Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?” Kazuya said.

 

“Geez, is the ladies man getting scared by a mere forest?” Brian said and laughed at him.

 

“Damn you muscle head.” Kazuya retorted.

 

“Guys I think you wanna get ready for that.” Ben being a ranger had acute senses and was the first one to notice the upcoming danger.

 

Suddenly the members of the Dark Swords got serious, two of them Kazuya and Brian moved forward to intercept the upcoming danger while Calvin and Ben formed a defensive perimeter around Ivan and Akira.

 

ROARR..

 

If listened carefully, hurried footsteps of something coming at super speeds could be heard and it didn’t take much time for the thing to arrive there.

 

It was a group of Lion mana beasts who hunted at night time and what better prey than four tired horse mana beasts and some humans who didn’t exude any significant aura.

 

“Guys try to scare them off, we don't have time to engage them.” Calvin said.

 

Brian nodded and flashed his aura in the atmosphere, the aura was only directed towards the mana beasts and not at anyone else but Akira decided to scan it while using the mana theory of deflection.

 

And boy he was speechless, it was several times denser than Richard’s or Drake’s and even the mana flow was much streamlined and regulated meaning that the user was adept at that.

 

The Lion mana beasts sure couldn’t survive against such heavy aura and quickly fled the area making Ivan sigh in relief.

 

“Thank you for that.” He said.

 

“No problem Mr.Ivan it was our job, now how far is it still showing?”

 

“We have almost reached there in just a couple of more minutes and we will be at the place.”

 

“Okay Ben go ahead and look for anything, Kazuya use your mana sense for any abnormality and Brian stay behind with these two. I will be at the front.” Calvin gave them the orders and they quickly got in that formation.

 

After riding the horses for a while they reached the opening of a cave where the artifact on Ivan’s hand was showing maximum signal. All of them stepped off their horses and got near the entrance of the cave.

 

“So this is the location?” Ben asked.

 

“Yes the artefact is showing that its other end is somewhere inside this cave.” Ivans replied.

 

“Okay but where are your guards and workers?” Calvin asked.

 

“I don’t know they should be here but there is nothing here, not a single soul.” Ivan replied.

 

“Guys something is off, so many guards and workers and yet no one is here?” Kazuya said.

 

“Why don’t we go inside and check it out?” Brian asked.

 

“Guys I don’t know if you have noticed it or not but isn’t the mana composition here more dense?” Akira noticed the abnormality pretty quick.

 

“Yeah but isn’t that because of the high numbers of mana beast here?” Ben asked.

 

“Yeah but it still feels denser than usual.”  

 

“I don’t know, it kinda feels the same to me.” Brian said.

 

“That’s because you don’t have anything other than muscle in that big head of yours.” Kazuya said.

 

Then before anything he could say the atmosphere and the ground began to change, several hidden foreign mana signatures came to the forefront and suddenly a white light blinded everyone.

 

Calvin shouted at Kazuya to implement the ‘World Shield’ but he was a second late and now all of them were teleported in an alternate dimension, a dimension made by an mythic grade artefact.

 

In this dimension everything was almost the same as outside but to go out from the inside was not possible without the approval of the user of this artefact.

 

“Everyone, are you okay?” Calvin asked them as he got up from the ground but to his dismay only two voices replied back to him back.

 

“Damn my head is spinning man, what the fuck happened?” Kazuya asked.

 

“We were teleported and as you can guess from the red sky it’s an alternate dimension.” Ben asked.

 

“Wait, where are Akira, Brian and Mr.Ivan?” 

 

“Shit they must have been teleported somewhere else.” Kazuya exclaimed.

 

“Fuck how could this happen?” 

 

“You can thank us, wielder of Kusanagi.” A deep voice came from behind them and when Calvin heard that his eyes went wide open.

 

Four figures that were shrouded in Dark robes which had intricate red geometric patterns going up and down could be seen at a distance, even their faces were covered by white masks which had the same red patterns on them.

 

“Cultists.” Kazuya murmured.

 

“Oh my! You flatter me, pretty boy.” Another figure came forward and said, it was apparently a woman under those clothes.

 

“Okay so what the hell is going on? Why have you guys pulled us into this alternate dimension?” Ben asked.

 

“And I thought you had the biggest brains out here.” It was the third guy coming out.

 

“Let’s see, our plan was to only kill Ivan Feodor and make it look like the Romanov empire was behind it and you know what will happen after that?” The lady among the cultists said that.

 

“The relations between the two nations would plummet even further.” Ben said.

 

“Yes but still it wouldn’t be enough to go on a full scale war, right?” She said making everyone from the Dark Swords look at her if she was crazy, which she was.

 

“But look here what a perfect opportunity that you guys have given us, the members of Dark Swords, a mithril ranked group right in front of us. What will happen if you guys are also killed?” She said and laughed menacingly.

 

“Are you guys insane? Trying to cause a war between two powers?” Calvin asked, still trying to make sense of this situation.

 

“Insane? Don’t you see the beauty of it, wielder of kusanagi?” The first guy said who was quiet in all of it.

 

“Beauty? If you want beauty then you should come with me. I can show you top grades beauty, there are several girls who might like someone like you.” Kazuya retorted playfully.

 

“Funny but I am not interested in material things like you, where was I? Ah right don’t you see the beauty of two rotten and corrupt people fighting each other and crumbling from both inside and outside.”

 

“We the members of Apocalypse will make a new empire born from the ashes of all the current empires, an empire where there will be no kings, no nobles, no corruption, no hunger, no poverty and where everyone shall be equal.” That was a passionate speech from the first guy.

 

“And I am sorry that for our dream some sacrifices have to be made, you being a part of it.”

 

The black robed guys started flaring their auras which were so dense that the nearby surroundings began to reverberate with that. Nature assimilation was something that only beings above tier E could do.

 

Dark Swords members were also not behind and started powering up which was followed by nature assimilation and now both of them a second away from clashing with each other.

 

Calvin was the wielder of Kusanagi, a cursed sword from the Demon empire but due to its impeccable sharpness and the ability to cut through all the demons and devils made it one of the legendary swords.

 

With its legendary status also came the curse that with time the sword would take over the user and make him an empty vessel.

 

Ben was ready with his daggers and Kazuya with his water and ice spells. A showdown was going to commence.

 

The lady who was a  twin sword wielder moved at blinding speeds and attacked Calvin who blocked it with the Kusanagi and pressed his counter attack.

 

The two were moving extremely fast and it was beyond the capabilities of naked eyes to follow them, swords clashing with each other, blood ebbing away and the extremely dense and pointed sword intent filled the atmosphere.

 

“Excellent, good, very good, give me more of that, more.. I want moreee.” The lady shouted and then licked Calvin’s blood that was on her sword.

 

“Bitch.” Calvin had several cuts on his torso but the women had even more but despite that she was fighting and laughing like a lunatic.

 

“Kirschblüten style, third stance.” The Kirschblüten style of swordsmanship was the most prevalent on the continent.

 

The Kusanagi in his hands began to vibrate furiously and turned red in color and when the women saw that she smirked under mask and said,

 

“Seriously the Kirschblüten style? Don’t you guys have something better than that old man’s style?”

 

She couldn’t complete her sentence as the Kusanagi came at her neck at lightning speeds but at the last moment she blocked it with both of her hands.

 

“That was painful.” She said with some pain in her voice.

 

“But I want moree!!” Moments later she started the fight again. 

 

Kazuya on the other hand was handling two other guys who were also mages, he was blasting ice attacks at the two of them but the combined might of them was making it a difficult task.

 

Ben was fighting a single guy who was as agile if not more agile than him and both of them had daggers as their primary weapons. 

 

“Not bad though not good as mine.” The masked guy said to Ben.

 

“We will see that.” Ben replied and began attacking him with quicker attacks and counters.

 

Some time back

 

Akira and Brian were teleported in a remote city which was situated on the other side of the place where Calvin and others were fighting, they looked around the place and determined that this was definitely not good.

 

“Where the hell are others?” Brian asked.

 

“Somewhere else in this alternate dimension.” Akira said and right now he was cursing himself to participate in this ‘simple’ escort mission.

 

He simply wanted to get some money to buy supplies for the dungeon diving and here he was in an alternate dimension, trapped by who knows and what for.

 

“Are we in an alternate dimension? But who could have done that?” Brian asked.

 

“There are many people who would do this, enemies of Mr.Ivan, enemies of you guys and the worst being Cultists.” Akira said while moving forward.

 

“Damn those, if they wanted to face us then why not show themselves.” Brian said angrily.

 

“Well someone is impatient.” A voice said and when Akira and Brian looked in that direction they immediately recognized the man by his clothes.

 

Same black robes with red geometric patterns going up and down and a white mask to hide his face, it was the trademark of the Cultist group Apocalypse.

 

“Cultists.” Akira said.

 

“Akira get behind me, this guy is dangerous.” Brian said while coming in front of him.

 

Not like Akira had any wish of fighting this cultist who has definitely ascended the 10th tier. 

 

“So good of you to protect your junior but do you think it would be that easy?” He snapped his fingers and summoned tens of humanoid puppets who were hollow and their faces were turned upside.

 

“A puppeteer skill?” Akira was shocked to see this.

 

“Isn’t this beautiful? They have been made by someone special.” The guy said and another figure draped in black clothes came forward, she was definitely a girl given her curves.

 

Brian launched himself towards the guy and then began to brawl with him, both of them were muscular and were using pure physical power to compete with each other.

 

“So much for staying behind you.” Akira said and sighed.

 

He knew that the situation was only getting worse with each passing second as first he had no clue who was the one controlling this alternate dimension, second the other members of Dark Swords were not present here.

 

Third he had no clue about Mr.Ivan and fourth since the cultists behind this some vile scheme must be hatched by them, a scheme which will be linked to destruction of the established stability and order.

 

He took out his sword from the storage ring and took a stance, the tens of puppets didn’t disappoint him and attacked him at the same time.

 

He blocked one of the attacks that was aimed at his left shoulder and used his legs to kick the upcoming puppet who crashed into another one behind it, another puppet came from his dorsal side and tried to do a sneak attack which he stopped with his sword.

 

He countered every attack of the puppet while keeping his stamina in check and he could see that the puppets were not that strong, probably around tier six or fifth.

 

But the sheer numbers of them were making trouble for him so he decided to imbue his sword with the fire element and then attack them with blazing heat to which they were naturally weak.

 

Watching her creations getting burned by the seemingly weak boy, the girl under the dress panicked but decided to be strong, strong as her father had told her. 

 

The two attendants of the girls who were in her shadow noticed this and asked,

 

“Should we do the thing?”

 

“Yes, kill him.” Ruthless, cold and dominating.

 

“Very well.” The shadows replied and went in his direction.

 

“Sacrifices are necessary for the overall good.” She said to herself but there was slight hesitation in that.

 

The two shadows which were in the first tier both leaped towards Akira who was still amidst the puppets, he sensed the impending danger but that was not enough as two sharp blades were heading towards his heart.

 

He instantly used one of his teleportation scrolls to teleport near Brian and the blades missed him by a millimeter.

 

“Oh?” The girl said.

 

Brian had noticed this and decided to intervene in his battle so first he punched the guy in front of him who wasn’t expecting that attack and from the sound of cracking bones that were heard it looked like that the masked guy was not in good health.

 

Then he quickly came in between Akira and those two blades which he stopped without exerting much power.

 

The girl who saw this now decided to pull back from the place,

 

“Shadows and X we are leaving this place.” She gave an order.

 

“But I can still continue.” The muscular masked guy argued.

 

“No arguments.” Her ruthless demeanor ended any scope of arguments.

 

Then they left the place and now only Akira and a bruised Brian were left there.

 

“Thanks for that save.” Akira genuinely thanked him.

 

“No problem but what are we supposed to do now?” Brian asked while scratching his head.

 

“Let me think, all of this has been a little too much to take in.” 

 

“Okay in the meantime let me check our surroundings.” Brian walked in front to check out the vicinity.

 

Akira now alone lifted the lower left side of his upper dress and saw that a deep cut was healing there at naked speeds. He has been trying to control the pain but now that adrenaline rush was gone it was getting difficult.

 

When the two blades were coming at him he teleported but even then one of the blades was able to afflict such a deep cut on his body. The Ror was working full time but still needed a minute or two to completely heal him.

 

“Puppets, shadows and unquestionable authority among the Cultists, if I am not wrong then it’s Amelia, daughter of the head of Cultists.”

 

“God why do I keep bumping into important people? What am I, some sort of protagonist?” 

 

He bit his tongue to divert the mind from pain and it worked somehow. He was thinking that being in academy was much better than this, at least he didn’t had to think that someone was after his life.

 

But now wasn’t the time to think anything like that, the time and space in an alternate dimension was vastly slower than the real world outside so he doesn’t have to worry about the time spent in here.

 

To get outside of this alternate dimension there were two options: first was to kill the guy who was the owner of this and second was to break the device that must be somewhere in the middle of this place.

 

Both the options were not viable for someone like him but then again he had the support of Brian and hopefully other members of Dark Swords, a plan began forming in his mind.

 

“Are you okay?” Brian who had come back, asked after seeing him

 

“Yeah and I know how to get out of this place.” Akira said.

 

“Hmm, you know they say I am a musclehead and someone who can’t think in critical situations.” Brian suddenly took a few steps backwards and began flaring his aura.

 

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Akira, who kind of got the situation asked Brian.

 

“We got teleported inside this alternate dimension, we are attacked by the cultists, Mr.Ivan and others are nowhere to be seen and do you know what’s the common link between that?” Brian said while cracking his knuckles.

 

“You are doubting me?” Akira was flabbergasted at the situation, it just felt so irrational.

 

“Yeah you Akira, it all started after you decided to volunteer so why shouldn’t I doubt you?” Brian started coming forward.

 

“Heck you might be behind that third year student taking his name back, for God knows you might be colluding with the Cultists and have decided to infiltrate our group.”

 

Akira’s mouth dropped at that point, he couldn’t believe all the nonsensical rhetoric shit Brian was spouting about but first he needed to calm the heck down of this big guy or he wouldn't be able to live long.

 

“Okay listen to me Brian this is not what it seems.”

 

“Oh I am listening, you have all of my attention.” He showed an evil smile.

 

“That’s why they call you a musclehead, you idiot.” Akira shouted and started running back when he sensed that Brian was going to attack.

 

“Why are you running? Don’t you want to talk?” Brain shouted and started his pursuit.