Hopping Celestial Fox

Looking at it again, this time without being in a rush, the fancy stones surrounding the secret entrance teleporter of the castle were engraved with various symbols.

“Do you even know what’s written on them?” I asked.

“I… do, actually,” Casey said, her brows creasing. “Even though I hadn’t come up with the language…”

“The heck? Then who did, if not you?” our pack bull questioned.

“Well… I came up with some random symbols and words without thinking about it much… but now I can tell that there’s a whole ancient language these runes are using…”

“Ah, perks of being a goddess, I see.”

Casey looked at him with a mixture of exasperation and mild horror.

“Don’t say that! It’s weird! I just know things about this world! Like it’s obvious! Like I came up with it, even though I didn’t! The worst part is that I didn’t even realize it before you called me out! And the more I think about things, the more things I realize I somehow magically know! It’s almost like I’m omniscient here!”

Everyone sans Elyssa gaped at her.

“Is that really such a bad thing, though?” Elyssa wondered. “If you are omniscient in this world, our quest should go without a hitch. Not to mention, helping prevent the ragnarok should also be that much easier.”

“I… That’s true, I guess…” Casey finally conceded with a sigh. “Alright, let’s get going then. I know exactly where this teleportation circle leads and the exact path we need to take from there to reach the laboratory.”

She set her jaw and walked into the magical formation. Her entire body blurred for a moment before fading into a mist, floating upward, and disappearing by phasing through the ceiling. The rest of us followed after her and our party soon found itself in the middle of a forest.

I looked around and my lips thinned as I faintly remembered the first time I’d been here.

“Right… This way is the shortest route to the mountain, but if we take it, we’ll run into another Mana Gorger. If we want to be safe, we can go around here instead,” Casey explained while pointing in various directions.

“What do you mean, safe or not safe? Can’t you just tell if we’ll be fine going this way or not with your goddess powers?” Frank asked, apparently already accepting that Casey was omniscient.

“No, I can’t. I…” Casey’s frown intensified. “Huh… I can’t… see myself…”

“Need a mirror?”

Casey gave him a deadpan look.

“No, I mean, I’m my own blind spot… I can’t tell what consequences my actions will have and… Oh… I can’t see Renee either. I can’t tell what either one of us will do or what effects we will have on anything.”

I blinked in surprise.

“Huh. So gods are your blind spots? Makes sense, I guess.” Frank nodded to himself.

Casey shot him a tired glare.

“It does…” Elyssa agreed. “Gods aren’t supposed to walk among mortals, after all. Descending into this world will inevitably have unforeseen consequences.”

Casey groaned.

I could sympathize. I’d been called a goddess many times already and it never felt right.

“Right… Well, I can tell that if you went this way without the two of us, you would fight the Mana Gorger and Frank would end up injured. With us here as well, I think we should be fine.”

“I don’t know about this,” Mom interjected. “Since you can’t see either one of you, it means that you can’t tell if you get hurt, right?”

“We have healing potions,” Frank said with a shrug before reaching up to his neck and cradling the amulet. “And these phoenix thingies too.”

Wi and I grimaced.

“I would rather not die again…” I mumbled.

Wi grunted in agreement.

“I concur. As much as we need to hurry, I still think it would be prudent to avoid unnecessary danger,” Elyssa added.

“Let’s… take the safe path then,” Casey concluded as she turned around and began walking. “Follow me.”

“Wait, hold up,” Frank interjected before she could walk away. “Why are we walking? Can’t Mrs. Chrona and Wi just fly there?”

Mom and Wi exchanged a look before Wi lightly flexed her wings with a few flaps. “We could…”

“Bad idea.” Casey was shaking her head.

“What? Why?”

“Well, first of all, it’s still a secret lab, so you would have a hard time finding it… unless you have someone who knows exactly how to get there,” Casey said, giving us a wry smile. “You could carry some of us, I guess, but it would still mean some of us will be left behind. Not to mention, if some of the monsters in the forest were to ambush us, we would be much more vulnerable.”

I frowned.

“How would they even ambush us? Mom and Wi could just fly very high up where nothing can reach us.”

“Then we would be seen.” Casey grimaced. “Both the human and the demon countries have outposts on the opposite sides of the forest, watching for any invaders. They would spot us and then send troops into the forest to investigate…”

“And the war might resume sooner,” Wi finished, mirroring Casey’s grimace.

Casey gave a grim nod.

“Aww, man…” Frank deflated with a disappointed sigh. “I thought we could just fast-travel… Ah, well, I guess we have to walk then.”

With that, Casey turned around and began walking again. The rest of us followed.

Now that I wasn’t running for my life, I could take a moment to look at our surroundings as we marched on. The trees and plants were different from what I’d seen on Earth, but not hugely so. None of them looked utterly alien like fantasy worlds often wont to do. A professional biologist would probably be baffled by everything, but to me, nothing seemed all too strange or unnatural. Just… a little different.

The greenery aside, the animals were much stranger. There were some squirrel-like creatures with six legs and big eyes on top of their heads that hung from tree stumps, a brown canine with bark-like fur that blended in with the trees, and of course, the familiar mace-tailed boars – who were called Growsers, according to Casey.

About an hour into our journey, two of said Growsers suddenly ambushed us from both sides, just as Casey had warned us a few minutes prior.

By the time my palm touched the handle of my katana, Wi and Casey had already fired off a bolt of flame and a bolt of light respectively from their weapons, nailing one of them right in its face, while Mom smashed the other one with her right hook, producing a small boom and sending it flying off in a bloody heap.

The first Growser immediately aborted mission and ran away with a squeal even as its face burned. The other one didn’t get up from where it had landed and continued to leak blood everywhere.

“Uh…” I said, my mouth hanging open.

“Jesus Christ, Mrs. Chrona! That was brutal!”

Everyone looked dumbly between Mom and the mutilated corpse of the  Growser for a moment.

“I… didn’t expect it to be this effective…” she admitted. “I think I’m a bit stronger than I thought.”

“Is this the power of a dragon…?” Wi mumbled.

After the initial shock passed, we continued our journey with confidence. If Mom’s true form was that powerful, then maybe we could have gone the other way instead. The damn giant spiders were resilient, sure, but if we had Elyssa’s magic and Mom’s sheer brute strength, surely even a Mana Gorger wouldn’t stand a chance, right?

Well, going back now would just take more time in the end, so we stuck with what we had already planned.

And then, a little over two hours into our expedition, Casey abruptly stopped in her tracks, staring out into the distance.

“What’s up? Are your bunny senses tingling?”

Casey shot Frank a withering stare before replying.

“I’m not sure how or why, but things have changed. The lab was supposed to be abandoned… but it won’t be, once we get there.”

Everyone exchanged a glance.

“Uh oh…”

“Didn’t you say it was going to be a… draconic lab? Are we going to meet a dragon?” I briefly glanced at Mom. “A full-size one, I mean?”

Casey went quiet for a moment before giving a slow nod.

“A Storm Dragon… His name is Cradence.” Her lips thinned. “He’s actually one of the Truth Seekers. That’s not good…”

“Ah crap, a dragon time traveler? As cool as that sounds, that’s probably not good for us…”

“Should we turn back? Try to find another solution to our problem…?” Elyssa suggested.

Casey shook her head.

“No… I… He’s waiting for us. Expecting us, somehow. But… Then why…? Oh… If you were to go without me and Renee, he would be mildly disappointed and then would take Wi to train under him in the arts of the Truth Seekers,” Casey explained as she glanced at the surprised Wi. “That would have happened eventually anyway, but this is way sooner than in the story… and with a different mentor too.” She shook her head. “Anyway, as I was saying, he would be disappointed. I’m guessing that’s because he’s expecting me or Renee specifically.”

There was a moment of silence as we took that in.

“That’s… uh, kinda ominous. What does he want with you two?”

“I’m… not sure.” Casey fell silent for a second, frowning at the ground. “Oh… He noticed that the mana surrounding this area has been getting thinner… which hasn’t happened in the previous timeline before the Truth Seekers came from the future, so he came to investigate.” She nodded to herself. “And he would be disappointed if he didn’t get to meet the ones responsible for it even if you told him about us.”

“Thinner mana…” I mumbled, realizing that all the mana flooding Earth had to have come from somewhere.

Ugh, leaving that portal open had caused issues on both sides of the portal.

“Hold on, but that portal’s been open for days now! How come you didn’t see the dragon man coming with your omniscience sooner?”

“I don’t know! I… I guess something else must have happened? Something either I or Renee did…?” Casey gave a shrug, still frowning in thought.

“Okaaay… So, what do we do? Is he gonna smoke us if we walk into his lab unannounced?”

“He… shouldn’t…” Casey said, uncertain. “Truth Seekers can be violent, but Cradence is a pacifist… But I have no idea how he will react to me and the fact that I made this world…”

“Eh, why not say we’re just some random adventurers? No need to flaunt your goddess status.”

Casey glared at him.

“I’m not flaunting it. And he’s a Truth Seeker, it’s impossible to lie to him. He would know.”

“Oh… Is that how it works…? Right… It’s in the name… Makes sense…”

“So what do we do, then?” I asked.

A giant spider was one thing, but if we had to fight a dragon…

Casey stayed silent, clearly torn on what to do.

“Let’s just go,” Wi declared, to Casey’s surprise.

“But…”

“Let’s go,” Wi repeated, while giving Casey a sharp glare. “If we want to save your world, we need to hurry. This is already going to take an entire day. Just how long would it take for us to go back, you creating another secret laboratory even further away, and for us to go there again? By the time we bring back a solution, people could have completely turned into zombies!”

Casey’s lips thinned.

“But it’s dangerous. We don’t know what Cradence will do…”

Wi’s glower intensified.

“You’ve had your omniscience for a couple of hours and you’ve already forgotten how to be a human? Normal people don’t know their exact fate! We don’t know what will happen! That’s how it is with us mortals! And we still take risks! We still do what’s right!”

Casey was floored by Wi’s sudden callout.

As much as it pained me to admit it, we had kind of instantly become reliant on Casey’s supposed omniscience. I hadn’t even realized it, but we definitely had.

“Dragon or not, you said that he shouldn’t be violent, right? You said that the Truth Seekers want to prevent the ragnarok, and that’s exactly what we want to do as well, isn’t it? Then what’s the issue? Why would the dragon be anything but an ally?”

“I…” Casey took a deep breath and sighed. “You’re right. I know him. He wouldn’t try to kill us.” She met Wi’s eyes and gave her a nod. “Let’s keep going then.”

And so we did.

Glancing at Wi, I once again couldn’t help but see why she was the protagonist.