Chapter 638: Exchanging Information
"Come on, this guy’s already got a fiancée. Other women don’t even enter his line of sight."
At Arthur’s words, Evan, still utterly lost, looked between them, trying to figure out what had just happened.
"What are you guys even talking about?"
His confusion was plain to see but Arthur just waved him off with a chuckle.
"Don’t worry about it. Just Hibiki being weird."
Evan, still unconvinced but choosing to let it go, rolled his eyes and slumped back into his chair.
"I swear, sometimes you all make less sense than our current situation."
Arthur just chuckled upon hearing Evan’s comment, before clapping to attract everyone’s attention.
"Anyway, since five of us have gathered, it’s about time we find the sixth—Crim, who doesn’t seem to have moved since yesterday."
His mention of Crim caused Hibiki’s expression to darken. She cast a glance in Crim’s general direction before speaking.
"Maybe she’s injured. Even if we were pulled out before the explosion could kill us, it doesn’t mean we came out unscathed. I was hurt a little myself."
The others nodded in agreement, each recalling their own injuries.
Evan trailed off with a shrug. "As was I, but thankfully I’ve got my Flames of Life, so..."
Artemisia added. "I can regenerate."
Beatrix grinned and chimed in last. "And I can rewind my wounds, so we’re all good."
Hibiki stared at them in disbelief before asking.
"Are you guys really legendries, just like me?"
Without hesitation, Evan, Artemisia, and Beatrix all answered in unison.
"Yeah, we are."
Arthur laughed at Hibiki’s incredulous expression and patted her shoulder.
"The three of them are non-standard, Hibiki. You’re a normal person—don’t compare yourself to them."
With that, he vaulted over the ravine he’d created earlier, landing on the other side.
"There’s no point theorizing about Crim’s condition. Let’s just go over there and find out ourselves."
After saying that, Arthur paused, his gaze drifting toward the horizon where distant mountains rose. He turned towards Beatrix who had originally been displaced in that direction before asking.
"So, Beatrix, any idea why there’s such an absurd amount of energy coming from those mountains in the distance?"
Beatrix frowned, her playful demeanour briefly fading.
"Yeah, I sensed that. Decided it was the wisest choice NOT to go anywhere near that place. I mean, we just got shipwrecked, yeeted through space to some unknown location. I’m not about to explore a mountain exuding transcendent-level energy on my own."
Arthur laughed, appreciating her bluntness. Evan chuckled too, remembering how Beatrix had mentioned the same thing earlier—it still hit just as funny the second time around.
Deciding to put the strange mountains on the back burner for now, Arthur turned his gaze to a nearby hilltop and flattened it with his gravity powers, creating an elevated surface where they could settle down to eat.
Hibiki, however, remained visibly worried about Crim and noticing this, Arthur tapped her shoulder and spoke.
"Look, we’ve burned through a lot of energy just getting here. We need to rest up first, but don’t worry—Crim will be fine."
Though Hibiki still seemed troubled, she nodded. There was no use pushing forward while they were all drained. The journey would continue soon enough.
Arthur had created a lot of spatial gates repeatedly on their way here, and now he needed to recover the lost energy before continuing. Resting up would ensure he was at full capacity if a fight broke out.
◇ ◇ ◇
After finishing their meal, Evan looked over to Arthur, instantly switching to his rare ’serious mode’.
"So, Arthur, there’s something I need to inform you about. While Artemisia and I were alone before we met Beatrix, we had a little encounter."
He raised his hand, and a hologram flickered into view, displaying the image of something that made both Arthur and Hibiki’s eyes widen in recognition—a reaction Evan didn’t miss.
"We had one of those watching us too, I captured it, but we couldn’t get any information. Whoever was controlling it removed its ability to speak, so it couldn’t spill anything. Then they killed it remotely."
Arthur revealed his own encounter with the devil bird in Evan’s hologram and the Rogue Hero was a bit surprised; he hadn’t known about its inability to speak.
"Well, unlike you guys, I did something a little different. I may have mentioned before, but I have a skill called Track Down. It lets me mark people or objects with my magic, and then I can follow that mark to find their exact location."
Evan snapped his fingers and a tiny golden light appeared on Beatrix’s shoulder. Her eyes widened in shock, and even Artemisia turned sharply towards Evan, her expression unusually animated.
Before Artemisia could speak, Evan smirked and answered her unspoken question.
"I was able to pinpoint your exact location, even though the tokens only gave general directions. Didn’t you find that fishy?"
He let the implication sink in before continuing.
"I used my skill on all of you. That’s how I found your locations.
Anyway, when I captured the monster bird that was watching us, I got attacked by flying monsters.
So I made a split-second decision—I used my Track Down skill on the bird before letting it go in favour of dealing with the attackers."
Evan raised two fingers as he listed the results of that decision.
"First, the monsters gave me a ton of experience, so I levelled up from that. And second, whoever was behind that familiar didn’t kill it."
Arthur’s eyes narrowed, quickly piecing it together.
"Because they thought it escaped, they didn’t need to kill it. They just called it back to them."
Evan confirmed his words with a nod. Since it wasn’t dead and had returned to its master, Evan could use his skill to track it down and figure out who was behind it.
"Well, well, looks like we’re going to have to pay our watchers a little visit."
Arthur spoke while cracking his fingers, and Evan chuckled at Arthur’s tone before adding.
"Let’s find Crim first. Then we’ll go pay our watchers a visit."
◇ ◇ ◇
The group continued their westward journey, navigating through the mountainous terrain until they found themselves approaching volcanic peaks.
Some of the mountains belched ash and sulphur into the air, painting the sky a smoky grey. Seeing this, Hibiki clicked her tongue in frustration, prompting Arthur to glance her way.
"This volcanic terrain... ashes and sulphur, It’s exactly the kind of place Infernal Devils love. We need to be careful.
Don’t forget, this place is in the Infernal Dimension. If there are natives here, they’re likely devils. And if we’re going to encounter any of them, it’ll be in places like this."
Arthur nodded and retrieved his token, glancing ahead as he spoke.
"And that’s exactly where Crim is."
With a heightened sense of caution, they pressed on. The air grew hotter as they neared the volatile peaks, and soon Evan chimed in.
"Crim is close—just one or two mountains ahead."
As they approached the first mountain, Beatrix spoke up.
"We’re getting very close to the source of that energy Arthur mentioned earlier."
The closer they got, the more apparent it became that something violent had happened.
The ground was gouged out, blood spattered across the earth, and broken weapons littered the area. Corpses of Infernal Devils lay scattered, their wings severed, tails sliced off, and one particularly gruesome sight caught their attention—a devil’s tail tip sticking straight through its own eye socket.
At the sight, Hibiki let out a sigh, a wry smile tugging at her lips.
"It’s Crim."
The others turned to her, and she nodded, reaffirming.
"It’s definitely Crim."
Pointing to the devil whose tail had been severed and used as a weapon, Hibiki continued.
"She always does that when she runs into Infernal Devils. Also, I can sense her residual energy on this severed tail."
Arthur and Evan exchanged a glance, a mix of bemusement and disbelief crossing their faces. Though they thought Crim’s methods were rather...unique, they chose to keep their thoughts to themselves.
They continued toward the mountain, passing some natural caves until Evan stopped and pointed at a particular one.
"The signal’s coming from inside."
They headed towards it and just before stepping in, Arthur paused and looked away. He sensed distant presences—sentient humanoids, likely surviving cultivators, clustered together.
But his focus remained on Crim, so he ignored them and followed the group into the cave.
At the cave’s end, they entered an open-air clearing bathed in soft, natural light from above.
In the centre, Crim sat in a lotus position, her body absorbing the ambient energies swirling around her.
Arthur wasn’t surprised to see her in the midst of cultivation.
Being a vampire—a race on the negative side of the polarity spectrum by default—Crim benefited a lot from the abundance of negative attributed ambient energies in this place.
Hibiki let out a sigh of relief, noticing Crim seemed uninjured apart from a few scratches on her face.
She stepped forward, ready to approach, but Arthur grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. At the same time, Evan pulled Beatrix back by the arm.
"Don’t," Arthur warned.
Evan added, "You’ll get stabbed."
Both Hibiki and Beatrix blinked in confusion, unsure what the two meant. Arthur gestured toward Crim, still seated about ten meters away, her body unmoving, eyes closed.
"She’s not conscious. Her body’s on autopilot right now. If you get too close to her..."
To demonstrate, he picked up a stone and threw it toward Crim. It barely travelled a meter before a spear of blood erupted from the ground, impaling the stone mid-air.
