Chapter 544 – The Forbidden Isle

After meeting with Luisfer, I headed back to meet up with Eve, my father, and Nael. The map in my hand would be what will lead us to my mother, at long last. The guards outside were, of course, surprised to see me, but I didn’t feel like greeting them. Time was limited, and we couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

I didn’t take any detours as I made my way back to the half-burnt-down love hotel building, where I had told Eve to meet with me at once I was done my business.

A keen instinct in the back of my head told me I was being spyed on, but… I couldn’t afford to worry about that now, with the goal so clear ahead of me, right in front yet so far.

*****

Soon, I met up with Eve, my father, and Nael. They appeared to be waiting for me, and were all glad to see me return.

“Kai Kai! Where have you been?” My father immediately asked, stepping closer.

“Getting some information,” I replied with a grin, and pulled out the map I obtained from Luisfer. “Take a look.”

Upon seeing the map, my father’s eyes widened.

“This is… the Forbidden Isle?”

I nodded. “In other words, the Chaos Realm’s entry point on the surface world.”

“Impossible… the exact location of it is unknown to time!” Nael exclaimed in surprise. “Young master, how did you obtain this map…?”

“Every man has his secrets,” I replied, not wanting to reveal anything related to the Infinite Realm or its Founders. “Also, don’t call me that, please. It’s awkward as hell. Just Xuan Kai is fine.”

“Oh, well, I won’t pry,” my father said with a sigh. “But… you sure this source of information is reliable?”

I nodded. “If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t bring it here. This my mother’s life we’re talking about.”

“… True enough,” my father took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for doubting you.”

“Don’t mention it,” I said. “There are more important matters to do right now.”

Looking in the direction as appointed on the map, my father narrowed his eyes.

“Yes… there are.”

*****

Immediately after getting some quick food from a restaurant that miraculously survived last night’s raid from the Void Order, the four of us set out. Luisfer had marked down Nazeroth on the map for me, so navigation was easy. The city was at the very center of Demon Territory.

The Forbidden Isle, of course, was a long ways off from here, all the way up north. As such, we opted to fly over there using Sky Magic (well, my father and I, anyway. Nael and Eve both had natural wings to begin with).

Unfortunately, north meant the exact opposite direction of where we landed our plane in when we first arrived, so there was no time to go to the girls and inform them of what happened. I did, however, send out Yami to do that job, to which he was eager to. Apparently, the poison in the air didn’t affect Soulfoxes, and he was desperate for a challenge. This would be good training for him – as long as he’s in his fox form, there shouldn’t be any danger of getting caught.

In any case, after about half an hour of flying, we finally reached what seemed like a wasteland.

We had thought we would see the ocean or a large lake. After all, the name was the Forbidden ‘Isle’. But in reality, this was not really an ‘island’. What we saw before us was a total, desolate wasteland.

There was no civilization here. The poison in the air was far stronger than any of the other areas in Demon Territory. And ahead of us, there was what looked like a drained rocky area. Some puddles of water lay on the ground elevations below, but for the most part, it looked like a drought had taken place here. All the water that once submerged this entire area was now gone.

The large rocks that stacked up together to form weird and mystic shapes were all that remained of this desolate place.

“What the hell happened here…” My father muttered.

“Be careful, Master X,” Nael said. “The air here… it is highly venomous. Even us Demons will have to struggle to withstand this…”

“Yes… this is not like the usual Demon poison elsewhere in this land,” Eve said, covering her nose and mouth. “It is far more vicious… like it wants to devour our lifeforce whole.”

Devour… Chaos…

“This is the location though, it seems,” I said. “Let’s head in. The fog’s too thick for us to see anything clearly from up here.”

Yes, there was fog. Quite a thick one at that. But unlike usual fog, which was white, this fog was dark black… with red strands of energy amongst it? It was too faint to be sure, but we would soon find out.

Dropping down into the deep abyss below, we found ourselves landing on solid ground. Although there was fog, that was limited to only near the center of this wasteland. The outer edges, where we were right now, were still perfectly visible, thankfully.

Strangely, however, the landscape here didn’t appear to be polluted by the Demon energy that spread across the rest of Demon Territory. The water was still crystal clear, and the rocks were a more normal color: orange, like many sedimentary rocks looked like under the sun.

Of course, that normality did not remain for long as we got closer and closer to the origin point of the black fog. Although this mysterious energy that was even stronger than Demoncraft didn’t seem to affect nature or the landscape, it certainly did deal an immense amount of pressure to our mentality and bodies both.

Against our will, sweat began forming on our heads, and although Eve and Nael had it worse than us since they weren’t used to Chaos energy – which was undoubtedly what this was – my father and I weren’t much better. Our footsteps slowed down, and before we even realized it, we were shrouded within the black fog.

Thankfully, I had expected something like this to happen, so I left a trail behind as we were entering. It wasn’t much – just a couple of pebbles thrown down on the ground – but there were many said pebbles around in this rocky region, so it made for a decent and easy trail to follow. Should we ever need a quick escape, this would be the method.

Unfortunately, although we still had an escape path should worst comes to worst, we had no clear way of continuing forward. We just needed to stick close together, and go in one single direction. That was our best bet right now.

Suddenly, however, we heard a growl coming from our left, and all of us stopped.

“… You three heard that?” My father asked quietly, and all of us nodded.

“Sounded like a wolf, or something similar…” Eve murmured. “But… I can’t quite place my finger on it, but something seems… ‘off’.”

“Yeah,” I said in agreement. “It sounded just like a real wolf, but something tells me it’s not actually a real one.”

“Yes. It makes no sense for a real wolf to be out her-” Nael began, but was cut off by the sound of another growl.

Then another. And another.

Soon, we were surrounded by a couple dozen growling noises simultaneously, and we instantly knew that the situation was bad.

Very bad.

One of the wolves leaped out of the black fog from seemingly nowhere, and Nael quickly put up a shield using Demoncraft. Surprisingly, however, the wolf chomped straight through it like it was nothing, causing Nael’s eyes to widen, and tackled him to the floor.

“Nael!” My father cried as the demon struggled to get the beast off of him, but the rest of us couldn’t afford to help him. Just like how we weren’t alone, neither was that wolf.

After all, wolves travelled in packs. And although these ones were definitely not normal wolves, with hollow, floating bodies and detached body parts stabilized with a strange magnetism-like force, glowing a bloody red that contrasted with their black, furless and smooth skin, they were still wolves in the end.

The rest of the wolf pack came at us together simultaneously like what any good group of attackers would do, and each one of us were left to fend for ourselves. Eve and Nael’s magic, however, seemed to have no effect on these wolves at all, meaning all they could do was dodge and try their best to survive while my father and I did the fighting.

Why? The answer was simple, of course: these wolves were made of Chaos energy. Raw, pure Chaos energy, meaning they could and would devour anything in their way. Nothing could oppose Chaos. Nothing… except for an equal power of Chaos, much like my own.

Chaoshounds – that was going to be these beasts’ name, dubbed by me.