"Ugh..."
The first thought that popped into my head as I woke up was that it was too bright. I felt that my face and whole body were burning under the hot sun, making me feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Wait... Sun?"
As I sat up and began to sober, I suddenly felt doubt and looked above. Without a doubt, it was a large and bright sun. I surveyed the surroundings and found that I was near a beach with a wide blue ocean spread before me and a thick tropical forest right to my back.
"Igni!"
As I gazed at the beautiful view, I noticed a figure a bit of a distance away. It was Igni who was getting battered slightly by the rushing waves. Her cut-off arm was still bleeding, and I noticed that her face was pale, as if she were running out of blood.
Without wasting another second, I rushed to her side, opened my [Spatial Storage], and grabbed a powerful potion. I pulled Igni's body to my lap, overturned her to face upwards, and gently slid the tip of the bottle between her lips.
I could see her throat move slightly as she gulped down the contents of the potion slowly.
"Nice. That's it... Good girl..."
I patted her head as I waited for the potion to take effect.
A few seconds later, her arm started growing back. In an instant, it was completely healed, with not even a single indication that she had lost her arm before. Seeing this, I sighed in relief.
Her face was still pale, probably from blood loss, so I lifted her up and brought her to a nearby shade. There, I let her head rest on my lap as I continued to scan the environment.
"Where are we...?"
That was the genuine question I had earlier.
Although I could faintly remember getting swallowed by the demon Shark that swam in space, I don't know how that relates to us getting thrown onto a beach.
"Wait... Is this perhaps..."
A disturbing thought passed through my head. I spread the energy around me to confirm it, and I was surprised to see it quickly dissipate as soon as it left my body.
"Damn! This place... Is that thing's God Territory?!"
This was definitely bad news!
When inside a God Territory, not only are you unable to use your energy...
"... My taming system really isn't working!"
You also get disconnected from the system.
Although passive skills like the increase in mental capacity and the others still remain, active ones like appraisal and halo can't be used at all. Furthermore, even the link to my tamed beasts, monsters, and even the contracted servants is completely cut off.
"..."
Although I knew it was a temporary thing, I couldn't help but worry about the girls. They must be even more worried, as from their perspective, it would seem like I died or something.
The contract still remains, though, and they wouldn't realize this unless they tried to get contracted again and failed. I scratched my head, stared at the still-sleeping Igni, and sighed.
"For now, let's just say I have 12 hours left to return."
The Contracted Servants need to be in my presence for an hour each day. I don't know how long we passed out, but I doubt it was more than half a day. With time pressure, I guess it would motivate us to find the exit faster.
"Hmm... Uh...?"
Igni shifted as she woke up. Her sleepy-looking red eyes stared straight at my face with a faint smile.
"... My Lord..."
She raised her hands to my cheeks, holding them in place. Then she slowly pulled on my cheeks, causing me slight discomfort.
"... ouwsh (Ouch)..."
"Am I dreaming...?"
"... hen hinsh hor howw heeksh, hoe haine (Then pinch your own cheeks, not mine)..."
As revenge, I did the same to her. However, unlike mine, her cheek was firm and hard to pinch. I had to use more force to even just pull on it, much less do the same she did with mine.
"...!"
As if the slight pain of my pinching her woke her up, she immediately let go of my cheeks and knelt before me.
"P-Pardon my rudeness, My Lord!"
"It's fine, it's fine. Don't mind it."
I dismissed her while massaging my still-stinging cheeks. Although it wasn't hurting that bad, I'll keep tabs on it for now. Fu fu fu, I'll make you feel the same pain in the near future.
Well, joking aside, I turned to the middle of the forest, where I could feel a familiar presence; I had felt it all the time since earlier.
Seeing me gazing in a certain direction, Igni copied me and looked to the center of the forest. The unknown halo on her head started spinning rapidly, like a revving engine. She squinted her eyes and focused before spreading them wide in a pleasant surprise.
"My Lord! I could feel traces of your gun from over there!"
She beamed as she pointed to where I was looking.
"You too? Then this must not be me imagining things."
Although now that we've found the gun, it's not that simple to go and get it. From all over the forest, I could feel the presence of several dangerous demons. At least they were in the 7th stage, while some were even in the 9th stage!
"But that's not all..."
The worst news was that, right beside the presence of the gun, a powerful demon's presence could be felt. It was definitely above the 9th stage, probably reaching the usual limit for the demons, the demi-god stage!
"Igni, from hereon out, fighting will be our last resort."
With how strong the demons around us were, and given that there seemed to be an infinite number of them all over the place, we can't just go to the gun's location willy-nilly.
Seeing that Igni's pale face turned paler, I guess her senses finally detected the uncountable hidden presences around us. She looked at me with an expression of horror, as if she couldn't believe her own senses.
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