The Laughing Swordsman

Apollo's original ambitions to find and kill Willow disappeared like a puff of smoke. The current state of his body was just too horrible.

In fact, Apollo almost lost consciousness several times. However, he forced himself to stay awake.

Unfortunately, there was nothing Apollo could do, though he was conscious.

But that didn't mean he was giving up.

Apollo gathered his strength before trying to sit up.

He let out a faint grunt.

...But hardly even got up by a few centimeters.

Apollo continued struggling, not even considering how he was supposed to remain standing if he did get up.

Exerting himself like this was quite painful, almost like needles were snaking through his veins instead of blood.

Apollo was in a snowy plain, with only the occasional tree in the distance. In other words, there was nothing for him to eat.

He continued to try and push himself up.

Maybe... there would be a wolf? Or even an eagle?

...However, even if he could find something like that, it would hardly be enough for him.

Unless there was a field of a hundred or so eagle corpses, Apollo wouldn't be able to sate his hunger.

Unfortunately, it was just a bare snowy plain.

Apollo's eyes narrowed.

"...Damn."

...

"Wah, wah, wah, wah!"

Layla shot out into the real world, recklessly flailing her limbs around as she did so.

Layla smashed into an ice coating on top of a river. Her flailing sent water high into the air like miniature tidal waves, along with...

Rainbow colored fishes?

"Bwah!"

Layla burst out of the lake.

She was completely drenched in freezing water, making her look a little pitiful. Though the person in question didn't seem to care.

Layla blinked a few times to take in her surroundings. 

She was waist deep in a fairly small river.

Around her were several massive trees, reaching nearly one hundred meters in height and were over twenty meters wide.

The trees were an unassuming pale brown, almost as though they weren't giants that towered over their surroundings.

When Layla looked up, she saw that every tree seemed to coalesce around the middle of her vision. However, that was only how it looked because of how staggeringly tall they were.

The trees had few leaves or branches, but there was a little foliage that could be barely seen from the very top of the trees.

Layla stared for a few more seconds before losing interest, as though it was nothing new to her. However, her eyes lit up when she saw the flopping rainbow colored fish around her.

These fish were pretty small, about the size of the average person's palm. Their overall shape was a thick oval, almost circular. It had two tiny fins and a small tail.

They had beady black eyes, along with a cute mouth that was about as wide as a needle.

The tip of the mouth had a faint red, which eventually transitioned to the other colors of the rainbow. Until eventually, it reached the tail, which was faintly purple.

Although the rainbow colored fish were small, once they hit solid ground, they flopped around violently, jumping several meters high in the air.

Several of them shot towards the river before plunging down towards it.

Yet, before they could touch the water, they stopped in place.

Because Layla caught them.

There was a bright smile on her face.

"Wow! So many fishies!"

She held one fish in her left hand and two fish in her right.

The fishes struggled violently, flapping around like the wings of a hummingbird. They scattered a few droplets of water, some of which hit Layla's face.

"Nyah!"

Layla pouted with discontent, but returned to smiling brightly a second later. She held up the fish in her left hand close to her face, eyeing it curiously.

Perhaps to the fish, Layla was toying with it. Almost like an evil villain savoring their victory.

After a few moments, Layla pressed her lips together.

"Hmm... tasty?"

The rainbow colored fish flapped around even more violently, as though it understood what Layla meant.

Suddenly, Layla directly threw the fish inside her mouth.

"Mm..."

After a few chewing motions and a gulp, she giggled.

"Tasty!"

Layla looked towards the two fish in her right hand that seemed to tremble in fear under her gaze.

She directly took one of them and ate it as well.

A dreamy smile appeared on her face.

"So tasty!"

Layla looked at the last fish in her hand before bringing it up close to her open mouth. The fish struggled wildy, but was unable to escape.

...Yet, right before Layla was about to eat it, she stopped.

Layla held the fish out in front of her and tilted her head to the side. She looked at it as though she was seeing through the fish.

Suddenly, a small smile appeared on her face.

"...Friend would probably like this too!"

Layla spun her head around a few times.

"Friends?"

Other than towering trees, there was nothing else here. Layla pouted.

"Where did friends go?"

She let out a dissatisfied hum.

"I will find friends no matter where!"

Layla tore open the space in front of her with her free hand, before leaping through to the blue world. She tightly held onto the fish the entire time.

Layla aimlessly wandered the blue world for a few moments before coming to her senses.

"Ah, right! I need to find friend!"

Layla's expression dulled while a faint blue light shimmered from her eyes, like her soul left her body.

She remained suspended in the air for a few minutes, still in this strange state.

Until eventually...

"I found friend!"

Layla giggled to herself before speeding through the blue world, letting the valleys and hills pass by her in a blur.

...

Apollo felt a seed of despair seep into his weary heart.

He was trying unbelievably hard, but none of his efforts amounted to anything. His eyes fluttered powerlessly.

But then...

"Friend!"