PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

656 Chapter 656 A World On Fire.

(A couple of hours in the past, on the other side of the portal taken by Desmond.)

Desmond’s body was subjected to a world of pain as soon as he stepped foot on the other side of the portal. It was as if gravity was a hundred times stronger, space denser, and the natural energy around him too intense. Barely taking a couple of breaths, Desmond’s lungs began to burn from the absurd concentration of fire mana in the atmosphere.

Instinctively, Desmond released his bloodline, strengthening his body enough with the transformation to bear opening his eyes, and looking around him. A world on fire would be the best way to describe what Desmond saw.

Contrary to what one would imagine when hearing the phrase, a world on fire, the scenery in front of Desmond was not one of destruction or anything like it. On the contrary, the landscape itself was incredibly beautiful, albeit in a way that was strange and alien to a normal person.

Lava rivers, flaming flowers of various shapes and forms, a solid volcanic soil covered in a thin layer of ash, some fiery creature in the distance displaying its graceful form. Genuinely a world of fire and magma, an incredibly beautiful place, but just as dangerous.

Desmond might have enjoyed the sight more if it weren’t for the fact that his body simply couldn’t tolerate the absurd temperatures as well as the other forces that seemed about to tear him to pieces.

Surprisingly, as Desmond was wondering what the hell went wrong and how he ended up in this place, a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. “Desmond, is that you? What are you doing here?”

With reddish skin and streaks of magma, it was none other than the beautiful and fiery Aisha who found Desmond on the ground of her home planet.

“Aisha?” Before he could ask anything else, Desmond’s voice died due to massive damage to his vocal cords, causing him to vomit blood in the process.

.....

Seeing Desmond’s state, Aisha hurriedly took out a token identical to the one she had given Desmond. Aisha touched a rune on it before placing it on Desmond’s forehead, causing a magic circle to cover his body in an instant.

In just a couple of breaths, Desmond felt his body begin to regenerate at high speed, no longer being subjected to all the external forces that were killing him a second ago. At the same time, Aisha couldn’t help but ask a few questions. “Desmond, how did you get here without using the token I gave you?”

True to her modus operandi very similar to that of the fairy queen, the newly appeared Myrilla answered that question as if it had been asked of her in the first place. “That’s probably my fault.”

Aisha blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of a girl with wings, quickly recognizing her as a Celestial, though that didn’t do much to clear her doubts.

Feeling Aisha’s curious gaze as well as Desmond’s resentful gaze, Myrilla felt compelled to justify the accident. “Very good afternoon, lovely young lady, my name is Myrilla, the angel of love, the most beautiful, adorable, and brilliant Celestial in the entire cosmos. I’m so sorry for our sudden intrusion, I’m afraid this is my fault. I was supposed to lead Desmond to his loved ones, so I simply took one of the many strings of affection tied to him and opened a portal following the string; It never occurred to me that I might have picked up the wrong thread.”

Although she didn’t put it verbally, there was a little hint in what Myrilla said, where she was basically blaming Desmond for having too many affairs, making it hard to distinguish between the ties of affection tied to him. Yet, neither Aisha nor Desmond were in the mood to point out the way the childish-looking Celestial was trying to shake the guilt off of herself.

Ignoring Myrilla, who was now looking around with interest, Aisha focused on Desmond. “I never thought you’d find a way to get here without using the token I gave you; that was too dangerous. Desmond, my world is quite a peculiar place, the atmosphere here is too harmful to others, part of the token’s function is to protect its holders from the environmental hazards here.”

“She’s right, you’re lucky she has something like that token; otherwise, even in a world less dangerous than this, the laws of a higher dimension would have been enough to slowly kill you off.” Added Myrilla as if the matter had nothing to do with her and her mistake.

Shooting a death glare at Myrilla, who expertly ignored it, Desmond turned to Aisha. “Thanks for the help, I wasn’t expecting to die after entering the portal that Celestial made; Also… It’s good to see you, Aisha, it feels like we haven’t seen each other in years.”

Aisha noted the heaviness of Desmond’s last words, as well as the gloomy atmosphere around him, but she decided not to say anything since Desmond didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it. “It’s good to see you too, Desmond, who’s your little friend?”

Following Aisha’s gaze, Desmond found Kyuru still sitting on his shoulder, only now the faerie was acting strange, almost like she had a fever or something. “Kyuru, are you alright?”

“Yes, sorry for not helping you Desmond, the fire mana is too intense in this place, it’s taking my body some work to adjust.” Kyuru explained, with a bit of a blush on her cheeks.

Although she didn’t explain anything else, Desmond felt that it wasn’t that simple as he could see small red mana particles being absorbed almost imperceptibly by Kyuru’s wings. However, aside from adding some pigmentation to the fairy’s wings, nothing else happened.

Feeling that there was a certain amount of calm and security, Aisha could no longer contain herself, leaping directly at Desmond to kiss him very intensely. Just like in the past, Desmond could only remain passive before the burning girl, meanwhile, Kyuru and Myrilla were forced to watch.

Satisfied after almost a minute, Aisha released Desmond, and with a smile exclaimed. “I had missed doing that, I hadn’t realized until now since I had been too busy in my workshop. Oh right, Desmond; come on to my workshop, I have some surprises for you.”

Before continuing, Aisha paused, finally noticing Desmond’s red eyes and white hair, as well as the slightly predatory way he was looking at her. “Desmond, is everything okay?”

With one hand on his chest, Desmond used pulses of water mana to calm his mood, managing to quench his thirst and the lust that Aisha had just provoked in him.

Only now that he hadn’t been feeding at will, Desmond realized that it wasn’t so easy to restrain his urges once they awoke. That was especially the case when his blood energy was already being spent on accelerating his regeneration since in that state his instincts and urges were intensified.

Finally having calmed down, Desmond answered. “Don’t worry, I’m just a little exhausted from what I just experienced. I’ll gladly accompany you to your workshop, Aisha, but I can’t stay too long, I still have to go to my original destination, assuming my transportation doesn’t go wrong again.”

Cough *cough* Even Myrilla had to cough in embarrassment when Desmond pointed out her mistakes so directly. As prideful as she was by nature, the angel of love didn’t enjoy it at all when someone embarrassed her like that.

Ignoring the angel of love, Desmond followed the excited and incredibly vivacious Aisha. Meanwhile, Kyuru remained as comfortable as possible trying not to make any effort at all. It seemed her body was going through some kind of adaptation process.

With more time to observe his surroundings, Desmond noticed the things that he had missed earlier due to his situation, and among the things that now became apparent were the stone buildings around. Being made of the same volcanic rock as the ground, these buildings were incredibly inconspicuous, especially with the thin layer of ash that was always falling like snow blocking visibility.

Only now did Desmond realize that he was in the middle of what looked like a small town. Following Aisha to her house, Desmond noted that there didn’t seem to be a single other soul as far as he could see, something that caught his attention.

Upon asking, Aisha’s reply was as follows: “It’s not weird at all. To begin with, in this village only my family lives, aunts, cousins, nieces, and others, besides my mother and me of course. On top of that, they and I usually spend most of our time either in a workshop working on a project, or outside somewhere collecting materials. Outside of our hobbies, we are quite homely people, we rarely leave the house. You won’t believe this place is silent if you ever enter any of these houses; we can be quite noisy and passionate.”

Hearing Aisha’s explanation, Desmond thought she made quite a sense given how she had behaved towards him ever since he met her. Aisha was incredibly passionate and outspoken in her manner. Yet, she became silent and focused when she worked at the smithy.

Putting all unnecessary thoughts aside, Desmond was now quite curious about the surprises that Aisha mentioned. Given how useful the ring Aisha had made for him had been, Desmond couldn’t wait to see what she had done with the gems they both obtained from that place.