Asmodeus told me that we should hurry as he can feel that the demon lord is getting impatient.
I asked him on how he communicates with his boss as I didn't hear him talking to anybody.
He looked surprised, as if he didn't expect my question.
With a slight tilt on his head, he asked me if I wanted to see and though I'm a bit apprehensive, curiousity got the best of me.
He wrote a symbol in the air in which it glowed then instantly removed it.
Um. Did he just hang up on him? The demon king won't like it at all.
Of course, I don't want to see the demon king yet it doesn't bother me if the demon king punishes him.
Asmodeus murmured all sorts of expletives as he kept saying that he didn't expect the dark lord to be available and immediately tried to think some sort of an excuse to give to him.
He'll be in trouble, I guarantee it.
He seemed agitated so I asked him if he also communicates with his boss through telepathy.
Of course, though he needs more improvement with that as he gets distracted with all sorts of.. thoughts that the demon king eventually ended up being furious with him.
Listening to more descriptions of the demon king made me realize that he's a big pain in the butt that acts like he's a vip but to be fair, he IS the vip.
Asmodeus admitted that he has a lot of underlings working for him, but since most of them don't know how to do their job properly, he can't rely on them to pass along messages between him and the dark lord. Subus is passable but she gets distracted on trying to satisfy her own "hunger".
Suddenly, he became silent and signaled for me to be quiet as he closed his eyes.
Uh-oh.
I can feel that the demon king is extremely pissed at him as Asmodeus scrunched up his face like he is in deep pain.
It seems that a lot of time passed by but they haven't finished talking yet so being bored, I kept walking towards the direction that Asmodeus said that either Lion or Alpha might be.
He didn't notice me walking away as his conversation with the demon lord seems to be getting intense.
I definitely don't want to know what they are talking about but yeah.. it wasn't nice when Asmodeus hang up on him.
As soon as Asmodeus is done talking with the demon lord, I will ask him a lot of questions as I feel like he will answer anything I ask of him.
There are a lot of things I want to know, questions I need answers to...
A sudden howl interrupted my thoughts in which I immediately ran towards the direction where it came from.
It's a good thing that I'm in a higher ground as below me, Alpha on his ultimate form, is surrounded by dozens and dozens of manticores. To be honest, I didn't count properly as they were too many but they are not endless.
A manticore has similar appearance with a sphinx but it has a scorpion tail and doesn't have any wings at all.
I regretted not waiting for Asmodeus after seeing the manticore opening its mouth.
Oh, my gosh.
It has several rows of sharp teeth.
Definitely a predator and obviously wild.
Ooohh I should keep my presence hidden or I would be in trouble. Huge trouble.
And seeing their movements, I can't outrun them.
I'm confident that Alpha can defend himself from them as his movement speed is exceptional and has great regeneration speed in case he gets wounded from the manticore's attacks.
Ah! Alpha landed a huge blow on the face of a manticore!
Ehhh.. the face looks... squashed into pieces..
Not lovely to look at.
But since I'm so curious despite the... horrible sight before me, I continued to look as if I'm just watching a relaxing kid's cartoon...
With blood and guts spraying everywhere.
Yikes! I nearly got hit by a spike from a manticore!
Still, I should not move or else those freaks will chase me.
Oh, where is Asmodeus?! Is he still not done talking with the demon king?
The manticores kept spraying their spikes everywhere, hitting even their companions though it doesn't seem to hurt them that much. Alpha managed to avoid getting hit by the spikes as he used his outstanding leaping ability then landed on the...
Ew!
The way he landed on several manticores seemed like he was casually stepping on bugs.
Gross!
I shuddered in disgust upon hearing the sounds. Of course, I tried not to puke at the sight before me.
Alpha got jabbed by the scorpion's tail but it's not really a problem to him as like I said before, his regeneration speed is great.
But he was being jabbed by so many times that it looks like the poison is starting to affect him. Of course he won't die but his movement will be diminished.
Seeing that he made his nails a bit longer and is jumping towards the manti...
EW!
At this point, there are no pretty words to describe what I just saw.
I have a feeling that I'll get nightmares after this. I suddenly felt queasy, like I'm about to puke that I immediately huddled while sitting.
I should not puke, I should not puke...
I ended up puking after hearing several splattering sounds. It's my fault of being too curious earlier.
Then the image of what I saw earlier made me puke again.. and again.. AND again until my stomach feels like it hasn't digested any food for a month.
Does Asmodeus have some mouth cleaning potion in his bag? I hope he has as my mouth feels like I ate something rotten.
Suddenly, I heard several sounds of wings flapping towards me. To my horror, I forgot that there are manticores that have wings!
But to be fair, all the manticores that I saw earlier have no wings!
AHHHHH!
ASMODEUS WHERE ARE YOU?!
Stupid me! I'm too far away from Asmodeus to consider him saving me!
I don't know if Alpha is on his right mind but I have to try.
In my desperation, I screamed Alpha's name while running away from the flying manticores, who are too close to me for comfort. Using my Buddhist staff, I made a sorry effort of trying to whack them everywhere.
I'M GOING TO DIE! I'M DEFINITELY GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF MY STUPIDITY AGAIN!
AHHH!!! I CAN SEE THEIR TEETH!!!
ALPHAAAA!!!!
I screamed his name desperately as I felt eventual pain on my arm. If I hadn't tried hitting the manticore, my arm would've been sliced off.
With my blood spurting, the rest of the flying manticores got crazy, especially when they smelled it. It's as if the smell of my blood is aphrodisiac to them.
Maybe it is.
A sudden earthshaking crash landed near me, spraying debris everywhere that I got knocked off by the impact. Then a strong blast of wind flew towards the flying manticores and me, swept off all the flying manticores while I nearly got blown away if it weren't for Alpha holding my uninjured arm.
Yes, it was Alpha who crash landed.
Also he was the one who used a wind spell to get rid of the flying manticores.
He immediately transformed into his regular form and yelled at me, asking me if I want to die or that I must've expected to have unlimited lives because of my actions.
THAT'S NOT FAIR! I DID NOT CALL THE FLYING MANTICORES TOWARDS ME!
Also, he's definitely lying when he said that he won't get angry with me no matter what I do!
I was about to argue with him when the sounds of more manticores are running towards us, attracted by the smell of my blood.
Alpha gave a huge roar while transforming back to his ultimate form. He angrily growled towards me, as if he is telling me not to move then immediately attacked the manticores that is coming towards us.
I never seen him being that angry towards me before.
I clenched my teeth in anger while I tried to tear off the hem of my clothes to make some sort of bandage on my arm.
It's as if I wanted the manticores to chase me! That overgrown dog.. yelling at me as if I... Arghhhhh!!!
My bandage is too tight, but I have to stop the bleeding or I might attract more predators.
I wonder what's his problem? He's such a liar! Liar! Liar! He told me that he never gets angry with me!
I kept murmuring all sorts of expletives as I tore off more of my clothes as the bleeding on my arm got worse. I pulled the tie on the makeshift bandage, tying it too tightly that I cried out in pain.
Alpha, you're such a dummy! A dummy! A dum...
I'm the dummy.
It's my fault.
I already knew that it isn't safe yet I strayed away from Asmodeus. I was just lucky that Alpha is there fighting with the manticores or I would end up being eaten alive if he wasn't there.
It's not only this time but I have several instances of roaming around by myself, not thinking about the danger or how everyone would be worried.
Yeah.. I deserved to be yelled at.
I'm already old.. yet I acted like I have no common sense. What's wrong with me? I wasn't like this before...
Um.. yeah.. I'm in denial. I'm like this a lot.. especially after being used to this world.
But I got worse.. it's as if YOLO is my motto.
I'm sorry Alpha for thinking bad things about you.
I really do deserve it, your anger towards me.. there's no excuse at all.
In fact, I shouldn't make any excuse at all.
Also, I should not cry at all.
....
But I did.
Despite trying hard not to cry, tears fell down my face like a waterfall. I didn't make any sound though.
After killing all the manticores, Alpha transformed back into his regular form, cheerfully whistling as he walked towards me when he saw my face.
And the bandage on my arm.
He immediately went towards me, nuzzling me all over while asking me why I'm crying and that he's glad to see me after trying to find me for quite sometime.
Huh? Does he have memory loss?
I didn't make any sound as I continued to bury my face in my knees, huddled while sitting down on the ground.
Alpha continued to nuzzle me while trying to use all sorts of stuff to heal my arm as he tried to ask me if it hurts and that i shouldn't worry as he already killed the ones who tried to harm me.
Now I didn't say anything not because I am sulking but because I'm quite ashamed of my stupidity.
And also since I puked earlier, my breath smells horrible.
Not to mention that I'm getting dizzy because of hunger and blood loss.
I definitely am not sulking. I'm too old for that kind of behavior.
But Alpha must've thought that I'm sulking at him in which he kept on whining while nudging and nuzzling me all over, licking the wound on my arm as it began to heal...
I'm glad he has no rabies. Especially the manticore who wounded me.
Hmm.. Sly's blood is definitely much better as I can still feel pain in my arm. It's not completely healed yet.
Alpha placed me on his lap as he tried asking me all sorts of questions, if he said anything that might hurt me....
Suddenly, he stopped talking.
He placed his forehead on my shoulder as he told me that he just realized about his behavior towards me earlier and that it was shameful of him. No excuse at all according to him.
No, no! It's me who was wrong! I deserved to be scolded!
Of course I didn't say anything as his face is near me and I don't want him smelling my breath.
He kept on apologizing to me while crying, saying that he's definitely ashamed of his behavior and also, he didn't manage to control his emotions as he should since he's supposed to know better.
And being in a rut from time to time is supposed to be normal for him, he admitted.
Say what?!
He's in a rut?
He continued to try to heal my wound while murmuring that Sly's blood is definitely more effective than the potions and salve that he used.
Hold on.
The reason why he spoke harshly at me is because he is on a rut?!
I have no words for it.
Soon, he began to annoy me with his apologies as I know for a fact that I'm the one who did wrong, not him and that he was just worried about me.
I'm sorry Alpha but unless you have some mouth cleaning potion with you, my mouth stays closed.
Seeing that the wound I have on my arm is taking so long to heal that he tried to spill everything that is inside his magic bag, looking for something that might heal my wounds faster when I saw several potions that seemed familiar to me.
Nice! He has a lot of mouth cleaning potion!
While he wasn't looking, I took several of it and drank everything to my heart's content.
Now my mouth smells fresh! Though my body isn't but good thing that I didn't sweat that much at all except for the blood that stained my clothes.
I should change...
Argh! I don't have my bag with me! It's with Asmodeus!
And he's still not here... I think? Or maybe he must be hiding from Alpha?
Alpha gave a cry when he saw a vial of what seems to be another type of healing potion and poured it on my wound. Thankfully, it healed a little faster but Sly's blood is definitely more effective.
Tearfully, he looked at me before apologizing once more, saying that there are no excuses for his behavior and that it wasn't my fault as I was roaming around by myself and had no one with me because of an unexplained phenomenon that caused him and the rest of our companions to run from me without an explanation.
I see. I was curious about that.
Being in a rut or not is not an excuse for yelling at me despite being worried and it's also not a reason for growling at me as it's not as if I'm calling the manticores to intentionally harm me, he admitted.
Finally, I had enough of his apologies and was about to tell him everything when...
Wait. I shouldn't tell him about Asmodeus.
I ended up telling him about the time they all ran like someone is chasing them and how I tried to find them in this desolate place despite the danger.
Asmodeus might be listening so I should be careful what I say to Alpha.
Alpha sobbed again then told me between sobs that he cannot recall why he tried to ran away from me and left me facing danger all by myself.
Again, he apologized for losing his temper as it was stupid of him as obviously I had no choice at all and where should I hide then?
I felt guilty of not telling him the entire story but his safety is my priority as I don't want him to end up like Ghost.
Ghost is still alive but ended up with awful looking bruises all over his body.
Thankfully, he has good regenerative ability or his entire body would look like... er... a puzzle.. to put it nicely.
A disassembled puzzle inside a box.
You get the picture.
But I still apologized to him for not being careful and told him that he doesn't need to apologize for being worried about me though I'm surprised at him yelling at me and for him to growl at me.
It took awhile for the two of us settling things down as he kept apologizing for his actions while I apologized for my stupidity which he kept insisting that it's not my fault for roaming around by myself.
I'm not really alone though..
The guilt is killing me!
Finally, we settled things down in which Alpha carried me in his arms as he tried to find a safe place for us to rest.
Before we left, he looked surprised at seeing the empty bottles in his bag and exclaimed that he must be stupid for placing it all back in his bag and not disposing them.
Sorry, Alpha.
He finally found a safe place for us to rest, a small den to be exact, just enough for the both of us to fit in.
After making sure that the inside is a bit comfortable, he placed me on his lap and embraced me in silence.