Chapter 1785: The Wildest West
The world around us twisted and transformed, suddenly, we found ourselves standing in the middle of a large wasteland, a desert with nothing but mountains in the distance, a cloudless, sunny sky, and a few cactuses here and there.
The weird thing here was that there were three suns, a red one, a yellow one, and a white one shining brightly in the skies. Making the entire place damn hot to be around. And now that I noticed, the cactuses weren't actually the normal kind.
They were enormous, each one at least thirty to fifty meters, towers covered with deadly spikes and holes, where I noticed many enormous, flighted creatures flew in and out, perhaps riddled with nests.
"Where the hell are we?" wondered Miranda, looking around confused. "Three suns?! The fuck is this place?"
"Despite how strong we are, it still feels so goddamn hot! Is this place hotter than Muspelheim?" wondered Benladann. "Phew! I'm already sweating all over!"
"Ugh..." Benladra groaned. "Daddy, where are we? Is this the trial? A desert with three suns?"
"That's it?" Kate wondered, looking around, she seemed unbothered by the heat.
"Dada?" Drakda wondered.
My three children were right behind me and... I, honestly, didn't knew what to even tell them! "Andromeda, you there?" Benladann called.
No response.
"I suppose she cannot come here or help us, she's the system overseeing the whole trial," I said.
"Hmm, alright then! What do we do? We move around? Explore?" wondered Miranda. "She said this might take over a day."
"We should," I nodded. "Alright, let's fly for now! Children, come with me, I'll carry you on my back."
As we were about to set off into the skies...
A big message appeared in front of all of us.
Ding!
[Welcome to the {Class Rank Up Trial: The Wildest West}!]
[You now have found yourselves stranded in the middle of an unforgiving desert with three whole suns. In this place, the night comes sporadically every few hours as the suns spin around one another. This is a place of old legends, unforgiving heat and sands, and above all, gunslingers, bounty hunters, horse racing competitions, bandits, and cowboys.]
[The purpose of why you've come here is still unknown to you, but standing around looking everywhere is not going to solve any problems either! Find people, perhaps even a train to bring you to your destination?]
[Small Tip: They say the Azure Sand Scavengers always roam around large cities or villages to feast on their trash.]
"Huh? C-cowboys?" I asked in disbelief.
"Gunslingers? Seriously?" Miranda wondered.
"Woah! What's that?" Benladra wondered, curious.
"It's... um, something from my original world," I said. "From my previous life, I mean. People that wield guns, weapons that shot bullets of steel. It is a weapon that humans invented on Earth long ago. There was a time in North America known as the Wild West where America was developing, and the industrialization was beginning to spread. Trains started connecting villages and more."
"Uh-huh!" nodded Benladra. "Weird, so what did these cowboys look like, dad?"
"Did they shot bullets with the guns?" asked Kate.
"Buwets!" Drakda said. "Bwan... bwandits?"
"Yes they killed bandits... or one another, I don't know!" I said. "But I know it has been really romanticized and turned into all sorts of films, books, and other media. I think cowboys are cool but... do they even match this weird alien world?"
As I wondered such a thing, we flew across the skies, I expanded my Divine Senses, managing to scan over a hundred kilometers of land around me.
And then...
CHOOOOHH, CHOOOHHH!!
The sound of a steam engine train echoed from a long distance, probably over fifty kilometers from where we were!
Yes, a train!
"All aboard! The Spatial Train will begin its travel across the fractured realms in five minutes! Everyone with a ticket, please show it to me!"
I heard a person, a man, announcing something as ridiculous as a "Spatial Train" was moving across "Fractured Realms"!
What in the world is happening?
"Did everyone heard that?" I asked.
"Yeah I heard some weird sound," said Benladann. "Like... a thing, a machine of sorts."
"I heard a guy screaming," said Miranda.
"Daddy, maybe we should go there!" said Benladra.
"I agree. It could give us a clue of what to do," Kate nodded.
"Right, let's go then!"
With all my strength, I flew across the skies at sonic speed, we barely had five minutes to take that Train, and my intuition already told me that must be important somehow, right?!
FLUOSH!
As I flew rapidly, I noticed something, several lifeforces approaching from below. As I passed through many giant cacti, some of them started shaking, buzzing angrily.
"Uuhh, dad?!"
Benladra called for me as I quickly glanced behind me.
BBBZZZTTTT!
The horrendous sound of hundreds of giant insect-like wings moving rapidly echoed behind
like a devilish chorus.
"The hell?!"
They were gigantic chimeric abominations, like an unholy child between vultures, blue colored beetles, and flies. Their external bodies had blue and black feathers, blueish azure colored exoskeleton, with eight giant arms and two enormous insectoid wings covered with wings. And they also had horns, massive horns on their heads, and big, fly-like red eyes. Are these things even Divine Monsters?
No...
They're aliens!
"SHIEEEEHHH!"
"SHAAAAHH!"
"SHYAAAGH!"
[A giant swarm of [Azure Sand Scavengers (Rank 10+)] have detected your presence! Because you're flying over the large territory of their colonies, they have decided to eliminate you
swiftly to protect their homes.]
[Careful! The more you kill the Azure Sand Scavengers, the more of them will emerge as their dead bodies produce special pheromones that enrage them and leave you marked!]
As I saw the notifications alerting me, I quickly noticed another swarm of hundreds fly into the skies and putting themselves right in front of us, blocking our path.
Their giant mandibles clicked constantly as they drooled and glared at us angrily, they were probably already imagining themselves eating our flesh or something.
"Hah! Fucking bastards, get off my way!"
I quickly summoned all nine of my heads, as I opened them and unleashed nine breath attacks
at once.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
"That should be it for that swarm- Huh?!"
BBZZZTTTT!
However, as the smoke dissipated, only around a tenth of the swarm died... the rest remained
alive.
Ding!
[Remember! The Difficulty of foes within the trial is equal to the strongest member of the
party!]
Are all these damn bugs as strong as I am?!