Small beautifully structured houses with pointed roofs, bustling streets, and a smell of flowers, and trees filled their noses.
Hyonsa, the border that touched the sea and faced towards the Crimson Empire's direction—Johan and the group had finally arrived.
This time it only took two hours to cross the massive seas. Johan, with his giant wings, could produce massive force, almost like a jet. While Melodis... well, he was Melodis.
But unfortunately for Melodis, Johan reached the land before him. Of course, this would've been a different story if Melodis had used even a little bit of Aether—or even just aura.
"Alright! We can split up now…" Johan whispered to the group, his eyes lost watching a brown cow eating grass leisurely.
It was 5 a.m. now, and the air at this time was… peaceful. Like it literally gave energy to them, the fresh air refreshing their entire bodies from those sleepless nights.
Melodis grinned, calling for both Orihime and Kirin, but Kirin just stared deeply at the vast green plain, lush plants dancing with the strong winds, white clouds thick in the sky.
She turned towards Johan. "...Save them, and… don't die!" She bit her lips, closing her eyes. She wanted to hug Johan, but remembering his previous reaction, she refrained herself, until—
An arm was gently wrapped around her back, rubbing it affectionately. Kirin slowly opened her eyes—Johan was standing completely attached to her, like two papers glued together.
Johan smiled. "You too. Don't get angry, stick to the script…" he whispered right in her ears, making Kirin chuckle with excitement.
The paper bird vibrated, and suddenly, it transformed into a beautiful, doll-like woman, with an emotionless face.
Orihime yawned, immediately walking closer to Johan. Then, her body shivered—and the next second, there was another Orihime standing beside her.
"I see, this will be very useful… thank you!" Johan smiled softly. He understood her plan immediately. To make the whole teleportation thing more convenient, her paper clone would do wonders.
Johan used the maskless sin on both Orihime and Kirin, turning Orihime into a tall, burly woman, who looked quite wild. Her face still looked feminine, but her muscles… they were bigger than Ronnie's. While her height—around 8 feet—even the strongest of men wouldn't open their mouths in front of a woman like this.
Orihime's real body, floating in the middle of the ocean, bit her lips, her nostrils flaring. 'Not funny, not funny at all…' she immediately started plotting revenge on James.
Kirin and Melodis were laughing their asses off while even Sebastian suppressed a laugh, all making Orihime's now muscular body red—like her whole body was blushing—making Kirin only laugh harder.
Johan then extended his right hand towards Kirin. She froze, passing a pleading glance to Melodis, Sebastian, but they both ignored it.
Her body changed—her muscles broke, her face melted—then a barely four-feet-tall, angelic, blonde-haired, and cute baby-faced girl looking around ten appeared in Kirin's stead. Her dress also changed, a long red-wine Victorian dress with elegant patterns perfectly fitted over her.
Johan patted Kirin's now-small head, playing with her soft hair with a grin. Kirin's entire body trembled, her ears turning red, but she said nothing.
'Now this is what I call a little sister.' Johan finally let go of her to not piss her off and get his upper body erased again like the last time.
Two days ago, when Kirin was testing Johan's new regenerative limits, there was no wound Johan couldn't recover from instantly—so she directly obliterated his upper body with a compressed fireball. Fortunately, he regenerated back in just five minutes.
"We all might die today… so live it to the fullest!" Johan said jokingly, but no one took it as a joke.
All of their faces grew serious. Johan waved his hand with a smile as Orihime, Kirin, and Melodis flew away in the slowly brightening sky due to sunrise.
Sebastian watched hopefully as all three of them disappeared in the clouds—towards the direction of the capital city, their goal: cause chaos.
"Johan… shouldn't we have directly stopped at Visteria? What's the point of coming here? We're still pretty far from the most probable location everyone should be imprisoned." Sebastian said thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing.
If they planned to attack the dungeon directly, Radhaan and Leor would've chosen one that was closest to them. Vexely was a giant capital with tons of forests on the corners—with only god knowing how many dungeons hidden all over.
'If Johan used his ability there… it should be easy to locate.' Sebastian rubbed his chin, sharing a glance with Orihime who seemed to have the same thought.
"...No, my guess is, the dungeon is right here, in Hyonsa…" Johan said with a calm smile. Sebastian and Orihime's pupils dilated, cautiously looking around for any signs of threat.
Johan chuckled. 'This all only makes your trap more obvious, little Leor.' His mind went back to the monsters he saw in the recording of Acier and others.
The beasts that were roaming around them, and the way Theo and the others acted—it all screamed something already shown in the game, in one of the later arcs.
"Fear of Ashura," it's a dungeon that existed for more than a million years… I think Leor conquered that place with Radhaan's help." Johan explained seriously. The air in that place had a special effect—of making anyone mad, or follow their instincts, and cause massive hallucinations.
This is also one of the reasons Johan could endure what was happening to Acier and the others… 'They will most likely only remember the pain that they felt at the time—not that they were getting raped, or eating shit. Still fucked up, and they will require my help to recover slowly, but at least… they won't die inside.' Johan sighed, feeling deep shame at himself.
'What kind of husband just lets it happen for some kind of master plan?' All the regret he felt slowly turned into deep anger and hatred for that man. His golden eyes, his brown hair, the way he walked, talked, smiled—Johan hated everything about him.
Sebastian took a deep breath, calming his racing thoughts about how Johan knew and could guess something like this. He was slowly getting used to Johan's antics. "So… should we just attack there? Probably not since Kirin and the others haven't reached Vexely yet. But I would prefer if we could watch the place in my gravitational bubble and send Orihime to search the structure of that place…"
Sebastian said seriously, analyzing everything he knew at the moment. If they didn't have to waste time searching for it, they could definitely use more preparations.
Johan shook his head. "No, I still need to confirm the location with Echoes. You both scout the area silently while I confirm it!" Johan ordered both of them with a sigh.
He wasn't a geographical genius who could pinpoint everything he saw in 3D graphics, which was mostly fast travels. He could probably identify the main parts and entrance due to his now enhanced intelligence—meaning his memory was also sharper—but he couldn't just guess everything.
Both Sebastian and Orihime nodded softly. Orihime again turned into a paper bird, while Sebastian used a gravitational bubble on himself to blend with atoms entirely—both leaving instantly to look around and locate villages and landscapes nearby, making a rough map while they were at it.
Johan's eyes twitched, waiting a moment to confirm both Sebastian and Orihime were gone. A small smile appeared on his face.
He slowly removed a golden ring with a diamond gem on top out of his finger, Johan's face growing excited while looking at it.
"Will Defuse work on this too? Having you around will definitely make it easier… Olivia."