Chapter 430 429- Forest

When Asmodeus opened her eyes, she saw Zach looking at her. She soon realized that her head was on Zach's lap, and she was hugging him.

"...!"

She immediately sat up and made some distance between herself and Zach.

"W-Wh-Why are you so close to me?!" She hugged her body and asked, "What did you do to me while I was sleeping."

"I didn't do anything. I am sitting where I was before you fell asleep. In fact, you are the one who crawled your way to me and hugged me like this."

"You are lying!" .

"Look." Zach shrugged his shoulders and pointed at the spot Asmodeus was sleeping before.

Asmodeus thought of something for a while and uttered, "You dragged me here, and now you are making it look like I—"

"Oh, come on. Why don't you just admit it? You should be aware of your habit of crawling in your sleep," Zach remarked.

"..."

"So you are aware of it, after all."

"Shut up! I didn't think I would do something… wait…" Asmodeus glanced around her and asked, "Where are the domains?"

"I dealt with that ugly monster while you were snoring."

"I don't snore!"

"That's what you emphasized," Zach sighed.

"How did you kill the general lord while being in the domain, though?"

"You should stop referring to them as general lords. Honestly, they are nothing but edgy monsters. They are not even that strong. Definitely an overstatement to call them general lords. If I was the demon lord, I would be embarrassed to have them as my general lords, not going to lie."

"Wow… you hate them a lot more than I do. And why didn't you wake me up if you were fighting?"

"Because you were used as bait."

"What?"! she exclaimed.

"I wanted him to show himself and come close enough to me, but even if that happened, I wouldn't have been able to leave the domains. The monster was obviously scared of me, so I knew he would choose to attack you as soon as you let your guard down. And he did.

When he entered your domain, I used my spatial teleportation ability to enter the domain. Our domains originated from the same source point, so they were connected to each other. I generally can't use spatial teleportation unless I have marked the spot, but it was different with the domains.

I only had to mark my domain, and I could use spatial teleportation without marking my destination as I was traveling in the same space. That was the hardest part of the battle. The rest was like watering the plants," Zach shrugged.

Asmodeus pointed her finger at the razed spot at some distance and asked, "That doesn't seem like watering the plant."

"Oh, no. That's just me blasting a few fireballs at the dead carcass of that shit to make sure he doesn't get up again. You don't know, but insects don't die that easily, so I had to remove his body from existence."

"Can we go back to where you said you used me as bait?"

"No. I didn't use you on purpose. The monster was going to kill you, which was predictable from the start. I mean, he even used a sly trick to capture us in his domain, which made him a coward at a first impression. And Obviously, I would never endanger the life of someone dear to me."

"I… am dear to you?" she asked with a slightly flushed face.

"Not in the way you are thinking. You are my sister, and as your brother, I have a sense of duty and responsibility to protect you from any possible danger. Now, if you have taken enough rest, should we continue?"

"Yes."

Thus, Zach and Asmodeus resumed their journey. However, even after several hours had passed, they hadn't left the forest.

"Is the forest truly this big, or are we lost?" Zach wondered.

"This forest is a shortcut that skips all the towns in between."

"Yes, this is my 28th time hearing this from your mouth."

"We will get out of here. Let's just keep walking. There is nothing else we can do anyway."

Zach stopped and raised his brows at Asmodeus while she walked ahead of him.

"I have had enough of this."

Zach dashed at Asmodeus and picked her up in his arms.

"What are you doing?!" she shouted.

Zach jumped in the air and started flying over the forest.

"We have wasted enough time walking when I can fly."

"But I can't!"

"Don't worry, you are not so heavy that I can't carry you around."

"Put me down! You are touching me without my permission."

"Listen, I know you don't like this. But I am not doing this because I want to. We have no other choice if we want to save time. So let me carry you, and once we have made it outside the forest, we can walk all you want."

"..." Asmodeus didn't say anything to retort, so Zach took her silence as a yes.

"Good girl. Only if you were so obedient all the time."

A while later, Asmodeus tapped on Zach's shoulder and meekly said, "I am hungry."

"I figured you would say that, but we are in the middle of nowhere, and I don't see anything till far away. If you spot any trees that have fruits, let me know. I am also hungry."

"Are you thirsty too?"

"Well, yes. All that walking made him thirsty. Let's hope there is a river nearby."

After flying for a few more minutes, Zach noticed that the colors of the trees and sky had changed.

"Is this normal in hell?" he asked.

"Uhm… actually, that means we crossed half forest."

"Half?"

"Yes. Most of the land in the middle hell is covered by this forest. Had we taken the normal routes, it would have easily taken us a week if we stopped at inns to eat and stay the night," Asmodeus stated.

"Hold me tight. I am going to increase my flying speed."