Chapter 353: CH.333: Short Detour.
( Yuuki's POV )
The places where I could feel the energies of the Yokais were all temples, those were far from each other so we split up to investigate, Ikaros stayed close to me, determined to fulfill her duty as a bodyguard.
Ikaros: Master, I'm detecting an energy imbalance in the temple ahead.
Yuuki: I feel it too, it seems like a portal has just opened, lucky us.
We were climbing some stairs toward a temple when we felt an inter-world phenomenon take place in the temple in front of us, At the end of the stairs I could see the air distorted and shaped like a door, there was dense fog around us and there were some civilians entering and leaving the temple completely unaware and unaffected by the phenomenon.
So far, no one had been affected, but we couldn't just wait for things to change; we had to do our job.
Yuuki: Come on, duty calls.
Ikaros: Should I send a message to the others explaining what we found?
Yuuki: yes, you do that.
Ikaros informed the others about our change in priorities and when they said they were on their way here, I told them not to bother, We needed to act quickly so after telling the others to focus on the previous mission, Ikaros and I walked to the temple.
As I expected, when we crossed the entrance to the temple, the phenomenon transported us to a different world, the place was not very extravagant, we appeared on a hill that overlooked a small town, with my enhanced vision I could see that the inhabitants were normal humans with low levels of technology.
This world didn't seem to be very dangerous but I could also feel traces of magical energy in the air but that seemed to be declining, probably things like magicians aren't very common.
Ikaros: Master, what will our next move be?
Yuuki: The phenomenon from before was created by someone trying to bring something into this world, we must track down the strongest magical signals.
Ikaros: um, I'll do that.
Ikaros closed her eyes and used special sensors to detect a wide variety of energies, something his creator may have given her to track world travelers like me, the process took a few minutes and when it was over she shared the results in her always neutral voice.
Ikaros: The only major signal is to the east, and also detecting two groups of non-human creatures, one of them is coming towards us.
Yuuki: You think they're friendly?
Ikaros: Um, that's not likely.
Yuuki: Yeah, they're probably here to collect whatever came through the portal.
We walked in the direction of the signal that Ikaros had detected, and on the horizon I saw half a dozen large muscular creatures with bull heads, In short, a group of minotaurs came to take us away.
Minotaur 1: There they are, huh? That girl isn't like the others we'd encountered.
Minotaur 2: Yeah hehe, but she's more my type, maybe we should take her for ourselves, we haven't had any fun in a while.
Minotaur 1: Why not? The guy next to her will make a good snack.
Yuuki: They're definitely not friendly.
When the minotaurs revealed their less than noble intentions I activated my Touki and Hollowfication, with my first move I shot out like a bullet, pointing up and with a knee I separated the first minotaur's head from his shoulders.
Minotaur 2: Damn, what kind of monster are you?
Yuuki: Look who's talking.
The second Minotaur swung the battle axe he had, trying to take my head from my shoulders just like I had hit his friend, but I stopped his attack with one hand, luego yo saqué mis colas hueso y corte a la mitad a tres de los minotauros, Ikaros invoco un par de cañones laser y puso un hoyo en los corazones de los dos que quedaban. Then I took out my bone tails and cut three of the minotaurs in half, Ikaros summoned a pair of laser cannons and put a hole in the hearts of the two that remained.
After dispatching the enemy, we continued following the energy signal, on our way we found a wrecked carriage, aurely they were victims of the second group of minotaurs that Ikaros had detected, there were some knights clinging to life after failing to defend themselves against the minotaurs, I approached to heal them, and when the first one regained consciousness I questioned him.
Yuuki: Hey friend, tell me, why the minotaurs attacked you?
The knight was disoriented at first, and when he recovered, he jumped to his feet in a panic.
Knight: Ahh, Princess Luceria, they took the princess!
Yuuki: They're kidnapping princesses, huh.
I guess Rias and other girls like her in their world could be classified as princesses, and the other group said that they were capturing them on the orders of a boss, that gave me some clues as to the identity of the leader.
Ikaros and I shared a look and stood up to rescue that princess but the knight stopped us.
Knight: W-wait, I can't let you go alone.
The knight showed his dedication to his duty but his legs were shaking with fear, which was understandable after being sent to death's door by a minotaur, yo I admire that dedication, but I didn't have time to deal with him.
Yuuki: Well, if you can keep up with our pace, you can come.
I ran at great speed and Ikaros flew behind me, leaving the carriage and the knights behind immediately, Within minutes we laid eyes on the kidnappers' lair, which was a tall mountain with an elevated entrance to a cave, We flew to that place that was only accessible by an elevator powered by ropes, pulleys and brute force.
The entrance was also big enough for the minotaurs so that was extra confirmation that we were in the right place.
Entering the cave we found a large multipurpose room where the minotaurs were eating and drinking, I didn't waste any time on them and just threw a bunch of implosion BIMs into the room and kept walking, focused solely on rescuing the captive princesses.