Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

So, Xiaoyan, having given up on herself, began to explore this world.

However, she hadn't taken more than a few steps when she felt something huge running through the sewer, causing the water to ripple.

She quickly moved away from the middle of the sewer, leaned against the wall, and looked in the direction from which the vibration came.

The first thing that catches the eye is a petite girl with long, messy brown hair flying behind her. Her face is covered in mud and dust, and her school uniform is now tattered.

Asahina was running ahead, holding a hand axe in her right hand and a wooden shield in her left. But what followed behind her was what truly stunned Homura.

No matter how you look at it, it looks like a fat pig, right? And it's not a wild boar, but a plump, white domestic pig. Although it's huge and runs with a menacing air, it's still a bit too strange for such a thing to appear in a world that gives her and the World of Fire the same sense of crisis.

Xiaoyan, with her long, deadpan eyes that she hadn't worn in a long time, placed her longsword across the fat pig's path as Asahina ran past her in surprise.

The obese creature clearly hadn't expected such a sudden attack. As it tried to dodge, its short, thick forelimb collided with the sharp blade. Amidst the splatter of blood, it instantly flipped over like a truck that had lost its front wheel.

The filthy sewer was pushed into a pool of sludge by its sliding motion. It grunted and tried to get up, but the longsword had already pierced its neck. With a sharp pull, the huge pig's head was swiftly removed by Little Flame.

The running girl stopped when she heard a loud noise behind her, and stared in disbelief as Xiaoyan threw the pig's head aside.

Carefully avoiding the splattering pig's blood, Xiaoyan turned and waved to the girl.

"Yo, it's been a long time, Mikuru Asahina."

The girl just stared blankly at her, because in the girl's eyes, there were three arms that she swung out. The other two arms, which looked like dolls, were making all sorts of strange movements. Combined with her longsword that was still dripping blood, she looked like a bizarre-looking Naga.

It turns out that even if you keep naughty kids at home, they will always find ways to play pranks on their owners.

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Where's Chapter Six, the promised tutorial?

"Huh? What's wrong with this world? We've only been gone for such a short time, and there are already some things we don't understand. When did invasion become such a grand event?"

It's no wonder that Zhi felt this way, because following the three guards of Fran, a large group of red dark spirits invaded her world.

Looking around, there must have been more than ten people. It was the first time she had ever seen so many of her kind present, except that these people looked rather...shabby.

Please forgive my arrogant description, but those malevolent dark spirits were all uniformly dressed, and she found the uniforms very familiar. The domed helmets had no visors, and the gleaming chainmail covered a shawl. If this outfit were any more tattered, wouldn't it look exactly like that of an ordinary soldier from Lothric?

Their behavior was just like that of soldiers. Some carried shields, some held guns, and some held swords. They formed a formation and stood in order, slowly advancing towards them. In fact, the guys hiding at the very back had crossbow bolts hidden behind their shields.

It was very strange. Although the Mystic Eyes of the Orihime confirmed that they were both Ashes, her intuition as a former Exorcist made her feel that what was in front of her was some kind of monster she had heard so much about.

"It seems we don't have time to explain in detail, miss. Are you heading to Farron Fortress? Then please follow us closely, and we will escort you there!"

"No problem! Rather, I'd like to ask the three of you to protect this weak woman!"

The boy, who had drawn his twin swords, once again suppressed his urge to complain, gathered his teammates, and faced the hostile invaders head-on.

"Misaka, those guys with crossbows behind you are yours."

"OK! Misaka receives the order."

"Kaneki, let's go!"

The boy, who was the captain, quickly assigned tasks. He and the silent, white-haired boy he called Kaneki, one on the left and one on the right, launched a surprise attack on the Dark Spirits.

However, the first to launch an attack was the tea-haired girl who was at the back. Azure currents gathered in her left hand, which held the sun amulet. As she murmured, gold instantly permeated the azure, and the randomly spreading currents transformed into a lightning spear.

She twisted her waist to gather her strength, and in the next moment, the lightning swallowed the distance between the two groups, striking one of the Ashes wielding a crossbow in the blink of an eye.

While Zhi was still marveling at the fierce attack, she caught a glimpse of the moment the lightning spear struck. The soldier had actually reacted, slightly raising his shield. Although he was still shocked by what looked like magic... no, it should be a mixture of miracle and supernatural power, he had at least avoided a direct hit and was able to barely pull out an elemental bottle to heal his injuries.

Sure enough, even these guys who seem like mass-produced soldiers, Ash is still Ash, and you can't underestimate them at all.

"You're not really planning to just stand by and do nothing, are you?" Misaka asked provocatively.

The lightning spears were fired at an incredibly fast speed. As the girl spoke, her hands never stopped, and golden spears instantly materialized and shot out, targeting each of the ranged crossbowmen one by one, disrupting their output. The few crossbow bolts that managed to escape were cut down by the twin swords and a familiar-looking meat cleaver before they could hit the two advancing figures.

"Haha, I think the three of you are all very capable. You should have no problem dealing with these soldiers, right?"

Zhi scratched her head, laughing heartily, but her demonic eyes never left the battlefield before her. To be honest, everyone in front of her was a bastard who had invaded her world, and she didn't want to interfere in this battle before she could figure out their true intentions.

The tea-haired girl stared at her with unfocused eyes, shield in hand, expressionless as she gulped down a mouthful of elemental ash. Seeing that the two charging figures had already engaged, she switched to her shield, wielding a long spear in her right hand while still using her throwing lightning spear to suppress them with her left, and charged forward as well.

Wielding her katana to deflect the crossbow bolts, Zhi, who was slightly behind, also arrived at the battlefield.

With the long-range suppression phase over, the two sides finally clashed head-on.

The Ash Soldiers, armed with knight shields and longswords, charged forward, unleashing a series of swift leaping slashes. The two Farron guards, instead of retreating, advanced in the face of these slashes. A young man wielding two longswords lunged forward, crashing into a soldier before the swords could fall. Dodging the other leaping slashes, he unleashed a flurry of sword strikes, instantly engulfing the soldier.

Two longswords sliced ​​through the soldier's neck, limbs, chest, and abdomen, dismembering him in an instant. As he retreated, the other soldiers just pulled their swords from the ground.

The silent, white-haired boy displayed a fighting style far more reckless than his appearance suggested. With a flick of his left hand across the meat cleaver, he brandished the gleaming weapon, ignoring the leaping slashes that landed on him, and with wide, sweeping movements, he instantly drew three or four people into his attack range.

Blood splattered everywhere, some of his own, and some of his enemies'. He completely abandoned his defenses, yet he managed to withstand the soldiers' attacks and violently slaughter the enemies before him.

Weaving's demonic eyes gleamed. She noticed that as this white-haired fellow attacked, each time he struck an enemy, a hazy white light emanated from his body, and his wounds healed rapidly. Rather than a human, this method of fighting to sustain himself was more like that of a bloodthirsty monster.

It seems my previous idea of ​​taking on three opponents at once was suicidal. These three complement each other perfectly: a tank, a ranged attacker, a damage dealer, and with a healer, they could probably clear dungeons.

However, the Ash Soldiers on the other side were not to be trifled with. Their initial defeat did not dampen their spirits. After leaving behind two or three corpses that turned into flames and disappeared, they completed their encirclement of the group. The humans' steady and methodical formation suddenly transformed into wolf pack tactics. They ran around the four of them, leaping and slashing in turn. If they missed, they would immediately roll backward. If they hit or were blocked, a companion would immediately leap and slash to follow up.

All around were figures moving about, soldiers transformed into a wolf pack, cautiously and patiently provoking their prey until the four surrounded people showed a weakness, at which point they tore off pieces of flesh from their bodies.

The Fran guards were not to be outdone. Since the soldiers' attacks were like a recurring wave, they would simply turn into reefs. The white-haired youth endured the continuous leaping strikes and pushed the group to the edge of the wolf pack's encirclement. His reckless fighting style even managed to cut the cautious wolves a few times.

The young captain followed behind him. Whenever a soldier was stabbed, he would rush forward immediately, swinging his twin swords to form a large net that would pull the stray wolves into it. Only when the prey in the net breathed its last, or when the next soldier aimed at him and leaped out to strike, could the prey caught in his net fall out of the sword net.

The radiance of the elemental bottle shimmered among the wolves, and unless a soldier was killed on the spot, those who retreated could always find a chance to recover.

The tea-haired girl stopped wasting her energy on suppressing enemies with her lightning spear and started targeting those who were drinking from the elemental potions. She protected herself with a long spear, and whenever someone targeted her, she would immediately move towards Zhi.

When the Ash Soldiers began their wolf pack tactics, Zhi had already engaged the enemy. She noticed that the brown-haired girl was leading the enemy towards her without any hesitation, so she could only wave her katana to help drive away the annoying wolf pack.

Even so, she was the most relaxed-looking person on the entire battlefield. Although the soldiers' leaping attacks were truly like those of hungry wolves, fierce and swift, they also had a keen sense of smell and were skilled at rolling and sliding, so they could always escape unscathed from the wave-like attacks.

However, Zhi indicated that any attack she could see was not a threat to her after her awakening. She didn't even use the "Dragonfly Eight Forms" stance she had just figured out. She simply held her katana casually, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground, and maintained a distance that was neither too close nor too far from the brown-haired girl. Whenever she was attacked by the wolf pack, she would just gently move aside and leave a few knife wounds on the soldiers.

The direct confrontation was immediately suppressed by the wolf pack after the white-haired boy's cleaver lost its luster. It seemed that his ability to sustain himself through battle was only useful when that large cleaver had special effects. He no longer directly confronted the soldiers' attacks; instead, the captain with short black hair took over the task of tanking the monsters, wielding his two longswords with impenetrable force, repelling any enemy that attempted to enter his defensive range.

He seemed to have an extraordinary ability to react, always managing to slash the longsword away just as the attack was about to land on him.

However, without a strong meat shield, their pressure continued to increase, simply because the wolf pack seemed to know their abilities very well. As soon as the white-haired boy's sharpening effect on his meat-cutting knife wore off, he immediately became the target of concentrated fire. Some of the wolves wielding spears even used charged thrusting techniques to bite him, not giving him time to drink an elemental potion or refresh the sharpening effect.

"If you don't do something soon, we'll all have to go back to the campfire," Do Misaka angrily accused.

The tea-haired girl spoke angrily, but her voice remained as calm as an inorganic substance. After saying this, she stopped trying to lure monsters to her. She took out a golden resin and applied lightning to her spear. With her left hand, she drew a silver eagle-shaped shield, charged up her spear, and charged forward, cutting into the front line of the melee.

"Well, if I just stand by and do nothing, these guys will stop taking me seriously."

The wolf pack tightened their encirclement, seemingly intending to exclude her. Meanwhile, the three people in front of them faced increased pressure, with wounds appearing on their bodies one after another, and they had no time to drink the elemental potions.

The Ash Soldiers seemed to see victory in their favor. Their recent hunts and battles with the Farron Guards had been evenly matched, and the two sides had long been enemies. Now, they showed no mercy, making the most of the remaining energy they had after turning to ash. The wolf pack evolved into demon wolves, their attacks became ghostly, and their fighting became fierce. Relying on their special physique and the advantage of having time to recover, they also began to abandon defense and launch reckless attacks.

Finally, the white-haired boy's meat cleaver was deflected by a soldier's desperate, lucky shield. The next moment, another soldier, who was eyeing him menacingly, raised his longsword to deliver a fatal blow.

The white-haired youth's previously expressionless face now contorted with rage, his left eye strangely turning red. He desperately suppressed the murderous intent surging within him, forcing himself to prevent something from appearing at his waist, watching helplessly as the soldier grinned and prepared to plunge his longsword into his heart.

At that moment, a clear glint of light flashed across the blade.

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Chapter Seven: Commission

"...That's it. I'm sorry I startled you. I apologize on behalf of my familiar."

It took a lot of effort for Homura to explain her situation to Asahina, and at the same time, she set rules for her familiars: if they played any more scary pranks, she would forcibly lock them in her shadow.

"No...it's okay, I think Akemi-san's familiar was just playing a joke on me."

The petite girl still stuttered a bit when she spoke, indicating that the shock had a significant impact on her.

"Speaking of which, why are you here, Asahina?"

"Ah...this...this is forbidden...um, actually I don't know how it happened, I...after I died again, I ended up here..."

Xiao Yan raised an eyebrow. This time, the girl's intermittent speech didn't seem to be due to being frightened.

"I see. I also accidentally died once and ended up here. I even killed a black humanoid before."

"Huh?... Ah! I also encountered a black humanoid. She summoned many monsters to chase me. It was really... really hard for me to shake her off."

"Oh? And then after you got rid of her, you were chased by that... uh, fat pig?"

Asahina's experience is somewhat different from Homura's. Apart from both encountering humanoids, they seem to have no other similarities. Looking at the wounds on her body, which are still bleeding, she doesn't seem to be an awakened ash. Moreover, this girl is still refusing to communicate, which makes her somewhat troubled.

"Yes, after I shook her off, the thick fog cleared up, and I don't know when I got to the vicinity of the underpass, and then that... Mr. Pig suddenly rushed out."

So, the dolls must have pulled her into another world before, not the place she is in now?

Xiao Yan managed to deduce some fragmented information, but found that this question-and-answer approach was inefficient. She thought it would be better to find a way back first, and perhaps she could get more information from the timid girl on the way.

"Alright, it seems we need to find a way back. If you don't mind, would you like to travel with me?"

"Good... good!"

This time, Xiaoyan finally accepted Xiaoyan's outstretched hand. The girl vigorously wiped the mud off her hands on her tattered dress, and then tremblingly grasped Xiaoyan's hand.

With a firm grip, Xiao Yan grasped the hand, which was even more delicate than she had expected. She gave the girl a gentle smile, which made her pause for a moment before returning an embarrassed smile.

Great, the initial communication has been successful. The next step is to find a way to open the girl's heart.

Perhaps trying to get close to a girl under these circumstances seems like a waste of time, since she has new wishes to fulfill. But searching for a way to truly save the gods is too absurd. She has decided to summon the patience she has accumulated through countless failed cycles and slowly search for a feasible method. Whether it's the World of the Flame or the Intermittent World, surely there must be a place where a way to save Madoka exists?

Initially, Homura wanted to approach the girl simply because she was so similar to her past self at the beginning of her time travel—lacking even the courage to pick up a weapon. Furthermore, Asahina's comforting words at the shrine prevented her from falling into the abyss and revealed that Asahina was also a traveler with a profound understanding of time travel. All of this gave Homura a strong sense of identification, making her want to help her embark on her true path, just as Madoka had done for her.

At this moment, Xiaoyan's thoughts were mixed with some other factors. Since each ash has its own original world and intermittent world, as long as she has the opportunity to sign a vow with her, Xiaoyan will have two more worlds to explore, and thus two more opportunities to find a way to save Xiaoyuan.

Therefore, she felt somewhat guilty, as she could no longer be the one to change Asahina, just as Madoka had changed her.

The petite girl was clearly unaware that the girl in front of her, who seemed very handsome to her, was having very complicated thoughts swirling in her mind; she was just a little distracted, following behind Xiaoyan, watching her skillfully clean up the water ghosts and rats in the sewers, but her thoughts were drifting far away, and something dark was flowing in those chestnut eyes that were as beautiful as her chestnut hair.

"It seems there's nothing of value in this sewer."

The monsters in this unknown world were not as dense as those in the world created by humanoids. Xiaoyan easily cleaned up the sewers and led Asahina to a long staircase.

“When we were chasing the humanoid, I didn’t remember the way. I think we can go up to a block from here. There might be local residents there. I think we can go and ask them for some information. What do you think?”

"Oh...oh, okay."

The petite girl finally snapped out of her reverie, but she still had no desire to communicate and hastily agreed to Xiaoyan's question.

Xiao Yan sighed and began to climb the long ladder.