From Another World

twenty four

I was sprinting towards the direction of the guildhouse. People were fleeing from the area while I heard another explosion occur, and I knew I was nearly approaching the guildhouse. I was worried.

I was at the front of the guildhouse, and it was in ruins. But I can't see Sylvie nor Diana anywhere, but I still continued to look for them under the ruined guildhouse and nearby the buildings surrounding it.

As I was trying to search for them Dazel then caught up with me and conveyed a message she overheard from fleeing civilians.

"I overheard when I was catching up that there were three giant horned cyclopes that ravaged the guildhouse and took two girls as hostages. Do you have any idea who those two might be?" She told me slowly while she was still catching her breath.

Are the two girls mentioned were Sylvie and Diana?! But why? There might be something behind this but I really do think it's both of them.

"H-Have you seen Diana or Sylvie around Dazel?" I had a worried look on my face, maybe something had happened to them.

"I haven't. Want me to check the perimeter?" She grinned and pointed at herself. I think she's bragging, but I don't know what.

"I would love to, but how can you that?"

"I have wings, Shane..." As she spread her wings from her back.

"Daz-Diamond! There are people!"

"Don't worry about it. That'll be quick enough for them not to notice." She then vanished out of sight, and I later realized as I looked up she was now flying above me while checking the surroundings.

After a while, she floated back down as she quickly retracted her wings.

"Did you see anything?" I asked.

"I didn't see any horned cyclopes anywhere, but I did see a suspicious wagon heading towards the north gate. At rapid speed too! Does that mean were those the cyclopes that kidnapped Sylvie and Diana?"

"North gate, huh." I haven't been to the north gate, even though this town is small. But I am sure I've heard of it last time... North gate... The Twin Mountains! Of course, that's what Miss Faye told us about in her story but we don't know anything about the Twin Mountains, we only know about the jungle behind it.

"Let's follow them Dazel. They seem suspicious, too suspicious."

"Mm-hmm! Let's go!"

"How can we catch up to them?" I asked.

"Easy, jump on!" She said in a happy tone

"H-Huh?" I was confused.

"Don't be such a baby come on!"

"Okay then." Well, I don't have a choice, do I? We need to catch up to them and I know she's going to fly there.

"All set, Shane?"

"I-I guess." I feel skeptical about this.

Before I knew it we were right behind the cart and we saw Sylvie and Diana all tied up.

"W-What happened?" I said gently so that the cyclopes wouldn't hear me.

"Uh Shane, I think you should untie them first." Dazel said confusingly.

"Oh, right. Sorry about that, I was just so worried."

We began untying them and prevented any unnecessary noise to avoid getting caught.

"There you go. Now, what happened?" I continued to speak lightly to avoid getting caught by the cyclopes.

Diana spitted out, judging from the situation the residue of rope around her mouth.

"These cyclopes ravaged the guildhouse. They had explosive magic, and didn't even knew these monsters could learn some advanced magic." Diana said quietly.

"They were also stealthy, on normal cases the guildhouse is equipped with a monster detector to prevent unexpected attacks but they were undetectable and succeeded in their attack." Sylvie added.

"Were you the only ones at the guild?" I asked.

"No, the guild was full. But, they had interest in abducting us rather than anyone else." Sylvie replied.

This is got to be one of Asmodeus' plans. What is he plotting now? Trying to capture to those close to me in order for me to come and save them and fall into his trap? Geez, he really thinks I'm going to fall for that.

"Why did they capture you two specifically? This can't be a coincidence..." Dazel said confusingly.

"I-I don't know..." Sylvie replied.

They don't know, huh. But, I'm not a hundred percent sure that Asmodeus is the one targeting me, or is it someone else? I haven't established any rivalry with anyone else except the Demon King himself... I wonder...

"Have the cyclopes said anything while you were being captured or when they threw you in here?" I asked.

"I heard them talking about succeeding in their master's mission, and then one cyclops' said that this 'Lord Asmodeus' is going to be happy." Sylvie replied.

Well this isn't a coincidence at all then. Asmodeus does want to lure me into his palms, and did it in the worst way possible. Using innocent girls as hostages.

Well, he is the Demon King. However, this is just too minor to be plotted by him, is it really Asmodeus that planned all of this? Maybe they were just manipulated to make me think Asmodeus is behind all of this? Well, thinking about it too much won't get me anywhere, I'll just have to find out where this cart is heading to...

Come to think about it, earlier I just learned that monsters can't really learn advanced magic, more specifically explosion magic, so are they all really cyclopes?

As I thought of that, one of the cyclops' said that 'We're here'. I felt a short tingle up my spine, where are we now? Are we already back at the castle or in another place?

I can't help but think what is yet to come to us... What would possibly greet us outside this cart?

As I had thought, the covers of the cart opened, we had almost no time to hide, what will greet us on the outside?