"Tuturu tutu tututuru ru! Tuturu tutu tututuru ru!"
"Shut up!"
Em covered her head at my shout as her annoying cover of some musical ended. Under the black ashen skies that had covered the world post the end, the small group of people here to retrieve the Scythe of Death had begun their mission.
We brazenly walked through the enormous ruins of the structures that once must have been filled with glory and life. The roads that seemed wide enough to fit an auditorium had broken into bits.
The corpses of the buildings around us were rather pitiful, the only reason we could still see them through the fire that burned all around was because of their size.
"What kind of beings must have lived here?" The Dryad asked, his voice slightly creaking from fear.
"Likely something huge," Noa answered his question. "Not as big as the giants we are used to though."
The ruined worlds were always a mystery like this. The chances of people being alive was rare.
Noa reached into her spatially enhanced bag and brought out a small Terrifying Teal Tablet.
It was a rather simple construct pointing toward some direction.
"This thing will tell us the location of the thing we're after. The portal we came in from is also immediately tracked in here."
"Oh, it's like a GPS," Kevin hummed.
"Right, whatever you guys call it. Anyway, we're bound northward. These portals use the energies of the Outer Gods to find the world, so we shouldn't be very far from the scythe."
"I see!" Kalanaar slapped his hands together in amusement. "What brilliant technology."
Noa simply waved her hands and started walking ahead once more. Following the Teal tablet this time.
The portal… we didn't need to worry about. The chances of it being caught up by some other Outer God were very low. And even if that happened, it was actually a welcome possibility.
Dive in and attack, or pull out an attack. The worlds association had simply taken up the policy of not being attacked but doing whatever else was needed to fuck the Outer Gods in some manner or another.
"Be careful," I muttered. "This place is likely to have a lot of remnants."
"You think?" Noa asked and I nodded. I was one of the few people who did most of these things solo. It was already tough in groups, being solo just showed the capabilities of the person.
Remnants of Outer Gods frequently remained in these worlds. People who have been forcibly injected with the Outer Gods' powers to make them change over to their side, other minor Outer Gods, clones like that of the Invasion Navy, but not ones that took away from the whole's ability.
There were many kinds of remnants in the destroyed worlds. We had classified the remnants from about Ranks C to Ranks S.
An S-rank remnant was usually just as strong as a full-fledged Outer God if not more at times.
"It feels strange to walk around in such a place, huh?" Em asked.
I agreed. Compared to our worlds where if not the sounds of people and machines, at least the wind or the animals made some kind of sound.
Rustling of leaves, howling of the wind, some kind of sound always flowed around. But a destroyed world was quiet. Way too quiet.
Our footsteps were the only sounds we heard, and with all of us being light-footed we could hear our own breathing. For more sensitive ones like Noa, it wouldn't be surprising if she could hear our blood flow or even heartbeat. Being a Ki Emperor came with those things and she had long since gone beyond it.
How unnerving would that be?
The journey relentlessly continued in the place with no sounds. When we crossed over the piles and mountains of debris, stones, and dirt would fall.
"Damn it, it seems that'll be a slightly long journey."
Though we could still track it, there was no giant scythe in our sight for now.
I peered over Noa's shoulder and looked at the teal tablet. The energy it was detecting was a little too weak. There was no measure, but I had gotten a rough sense of it.
"It would take us about three days," I said. No one here was weak enough to slow us down.
Noa sighed and patted my cheeks over her shoulder.
"That's annoying. Don't lower your guard, kids."
We weren't that younger than her.
***
The journey went on for the day before we decided to rest for now. With the black clouds covering the skies, there was no telling between night and day. The fires that were still raging in the distance were the only semblance of a light source here.
Finding a fairly strong remnant of what seemed to be a giant house, we decided to take a break there. Just to be safe, we checked everything it was standing on.
"This place seems good enough."
"I'll go make something to eat!"
"Hey Kalanaar guy," I called out. "Don't use too many ingredients. We can never be too sure of what will happen."
Kalanaar slammed his fist on his palm and nodded.
"You are wise! I'll do just that."
I helped Em and Kev with the tents while Noa rustled my hair and shot off to the skies saying she'll take a look around the perimeter.
"She's strong, huh?" Asked Kevin. "That Miss Noa, I was almost scared at many points."
"I know right? She gives the same energy as our Na-Ri does."
Em and Kevin started nodding.
Did I intimidate them or something?
By the time we finished the tents, the Dragonewt and Dryad duo had also finished cooking.
I looked at the bounty of food and kicked the dragonewt's head.
"What did I say!?"
"Any lesser and I'd starve!"
"This was less!? You used more than half of our rations!"
The dragonewt was saved from my wrath when a different voice called us out from the back.
"Kids, it seems there's remnant around."
Noa had returned. With news of one of the Outer Gods' remnants.
***
[A/N: I know this is the spot where people worry about major vibe changes in the story, but worry not! Its just a minor and short change in the narrator]
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