Versatile: Alternate World



I thought normal piranhas were scary enough, it looks like I have not seen enough of them. I have seen plenty of freaky monsters here and there but these monsters are so quick that they almost overwhelm Akira in one go. If not for Sora who immediately fired off a blast of ice at the Piranhas, then perhaps Akira's armor would have been pierced by the armor.

"Fend them off!" I ordered as the monsters keeps on pouring in. It doesn't seem they are going to just stop attacking soon.

Everyone immediately started fighting them. They are quick and tough but they are not that strong if alone. But they became a bit of a problem once they attack in groups. It's easy to isolate and kill them but they are quick at going groups so the only thing making things hard is that they are not just going to die alone.

With our numbers and strength, the horde of walking piranhas are dealt with. I thought it would take a bit of time to kill them all but thankfully, there's no more of them coming out from the forks of the road.

"Damn, these fishes were persistent," Akira swiped off his sweat as he checks the damage done to his armor and shield. Based on the dealt damages, it seems it is still in working condition.

Almira who helped kill the fishes as well crouch down and checked the dead bodies of the walking piranhas we killed.

"These are ancient monsters... I heard they were hunted to extinction back in the day due to their danger as they easily populate and they can live in both water and land, making them very dangerous creatures if left alone. How come they are here?" Almira frowned.

"You know these kind of monsters, Miss Almira?" Pandora asked.

"Not really. I have seen them in archives before but I have not seen one in my entire life as they only exist in records nowadays as this species of piranhas are considered to be extinct already. Seeing one here means they are either living in hiding, waiting for the time they can go back out of the world or this is now their new sanctuary and we just intruded on it."

"But if they are dangerous, then shouldn't we cull them instead of letting them remain alive?" My Mother suggested.

"Indeed. They should be culled before they become a real pain to deal with and we don't want them to be running amok around now that we have removed the barrier that stopped them from going to the surface. It will be our big responsibility if we caused an outbreak of these monsters."

Almira conjures a big ball of flame and burned all of the monster remains without even letting me harvest them remains.

"Why did you burn it? We could have gotten some valuable materials out of their bodies!" I complained.

"It's best we don't bother with them. They should remain extinct and anything made from them will just reveal that they are still there somewhere. We plan to end their line of ancestors. We shouldn't be keeping them as materials. Keep them buried in the history books."

Although I don't understand the logic of Almira, if she thinks that is the best, then that should be it.

Now back to our situation. Since there are four ways, we have to decide where to go. Although we plan on visiting the others as well, we wanted to check out every individual path as all of the paths have these monsters emerge back when Akira called for them, therefore, all paths have those monsters present.

"We should head inside in chronological order. That is the best way to get there and besides, we will be scouring the other paths later on so why not just stick to the first, second, third then lastly, the fourth?" Renatta suggested.

"Yes, that should be the best. It wouldn't make us confused about which of the paths we have not taken as well compared to alternating on different paths," Pandora nodded.

"Then, it's decided. Although I wanted to divide our forces so that we can have a much more efficient time of exploration, seeing those monsters appear here, is no longer a good option. Who knows what is waiting for us there? Dividing ourselves would just cause us to weaken our ranks and defenses, making us easy to pick for monsters."

We then proceed to go to the first path. I thought it would be a big path but it was a bit tighter than expected. We can only proceed one by one lined up together due to how tight the tunnel is. But thankfully, it didn't last long enough as the tunnel was short and we emerge after walking out. As soon as we emerge from that tight tunnel, we just realized that all four pathways lead to the same destination seeing the other tunnel exits on the side of the tunnel we just went out from.

"Well, we don't need to go and check out the other pathway seeing how they all lead to the same place anyways," Almira shrugged.

Some of us are not convinced like Riko and decided to go back using the other tunnels. She dragged me along and as expected, the other tunnels were the same pathway and nothing are different from them.

"See? There's nothing new. We should move on. Come on, we are wasting daylight here," Almira grinned as she looked at Riko's disappointed face.

We continue our way in without expecting much. We even thought at first that we will be entering a big nest of monsters but soon enough, we realized we aren't going to some sort of nest but more of a place that looks similar to a city. The place is big and is very massive to the point that there is a big chance that what we are seeing is an underground city. I wouldn't be surprised if we would see a different world here. If that were true, I will not be surprised at all. I think this was also a thing in the real world as well. I think they call it Agartha though I am not too sure about it, I only saw it once.

Almira was not expecting the scenery and pulled out a journal from the bag that has a pocket dimension capable of storing multiple items in one go. She pulled it out and started reading the contents of it. I peek at her journal as I am curious. I thought Almira would be angry but she didn't mind and let us see what it was.

"I didn't know this at all... I couldn't believe it. So the path we used was the path to reach Agartha?!" Almira couldn't believe her eyes as she compares the illustration in the journal and what we are seeing. The similarities are very uncanny like it was photographed despite the photo on the journal being clearly made by hand and pencil.

"Agartha?" Riko's eyes lit up.

"You know Agartha, Riko?" Rika asked seeing how excited the former was.

"Yes, of course! I have been researching this topic many times before as I like to learn if these kinds of mysteries were real before! Agartha was one of those theories that were said to be real and some people have already reached it. But since no one told the people how to reach that place and due to how it was a hidden world, it was never been proven to be real. I didn't expect an Agartha was also present in Alternate World!" Riko is just as pumped as Almira.

"Almira, do you know the presence of Agartha before?" I asked Almira who also marveled at the view.

"No. Actually, this is the first time I heard the name. But I didn't know this would be the case here."

I turned back and looked at the place. It looked like some kind of cyberpunk world. There are some futuristic-looking things there and I even noticed some sort of Neon Lights as well. Although I am not sure whether they are really neon lights, there is a chance they are one.

"Should we push on?" I asked.

"Yes. Now that we reached this place, there is no way we will waste this chance to visit this place and never see it again."

I looked at the others to see their reaction and based on their response, it seems they are in favor of Almira and no one is objecting to her.

"Almira is right, it's going to be a big waste if we don't visit or check out this newly discovered place. Looking at everyone, most of them are in favor as well."

I don't know much but seeing how everyone is in favor of us visiting the place, I have to agree that this place is going to be a new land for us to venture out. We should check it out first.

Little did we know this will be the place that will change our destiny the most.