Though he felt disgusted by it, the motivation both to live not just for himself, but the driving force of finding his way through the foreign continent and back to his family brought him to act.historical

"Cook it for me, please," he quietly requested.

Manifesting beside him was the spherical, lesser spirit of fire that glowed in response to his asking, unleashing a small spray of fire that thoroughly cooked the wriggling millipede until it finally stopped moving.

Even after it had stopped moving around and had been thoroughly cooked, he still found himself hesitant.

'Don't think. Just do it,' he told himself.

Clenching his eyes shut, he opened his mouth and slowly lowered part of the cooked insect past his lips before—CRUNCH.

He bit down, beginning to chew as there was still, unfortunately, juices that squirted into his mouth when chewing the thousand-legged insect. Every chewing motion he made with his mouth made his expression sour out of fear of the disgusting meal.

"—"

To his surprise, once he calmed down, he found the taste of the cooked insect not to be something as abhorrent as predicted. Maybe it was his current malnourished state that led any semblance of sustenance to seem like a gourmet meal, but it tasted like chicken on his tongue.

'This..isn't bad! If it tastes like this, then I can eat!' He thought.

Almost excitedly now, he chewed as his empty stomach guided him to gobble up the rest of the roasted insect, consuming it before he wiped his mouth. It seemed having some caloric intake really made the hunger set in as he found himself setting out to find more to eat.

He had become quite adjusted to the jungle, navigating through it and finding more insects to cook.

"—"

Sitting on a fallen tree trunk as he ate, he looked up to find horned monkeys watching him, though obviously they didn't dare to mess with him. They were quite the curious creatures–perhaps even nosy, though as long as they didn't interfere with him, he didn't mind them.

After hunting down and cooking enough insects, he found himself satisfied, filled with energy again as he could almost feel the life pumping through his body again as if suppressed by his recent caloric deprivation.

While he didn't particularly mind it, as the nature of his system-enhanced body didn't make it an issue, it was surprising that the rain had continued falling so heavily without a break for days on end.

'I guess the books didn't lie. Ennage really is more "wild" in every way from the other continents–even the weather seems different,' he thought.

Now that he was properly sustained, he focused up, finally taking it into his hands to find his way out of the vast, mystical jungle. To begin with, he decided to get a good view of where he was and what was around him, prompting him to swiftly climb up one of the trees.

Even if he moved quickly, it was quite the climb to ascend one of the skyscraper-like trees, climbing the drenched bark, using the branches for leverage as he climbed.

Reaching the peak of the tree, he found himself in awe of the scenery despite the severity of his situation; a sea of green-topped trees, tall and plentiful, with some even ascending towards the clouds in their ancient height.

Winged creatures flew through the skies, neighbored by the towering trees; some resembled dinosaurs he had learned about on Earth–pterodactyls, though perhaps even larger and more daunting in appearance.

'This is Ennage..' He thought.

Focusing his sight as he put his hand over his brow, feeling the downpour of rain cascade down his body, he did find an interesting sight far north from his current position: a set of tremendously-sized, light-brown walls that seemed to surround a city.

'Bingo,' he thought.

Finding a proper destination to head towards, he slid down the length of the tree before heading north. As he marched forth, he summoned the four lesser spirits he had mastery over, having tasks for them.

"Keep a perimeter around me as I move. If any of you find anything that looks dangerous heading in my direction, come back and signal me. The same will be for if you see anything interesting," he said, "Alright, go!"

All four of the elemental spirits scattered in different directions, giving him a protective perimeter that prevented him from ever being ambushed.

Even the distraction of a goal ahead of him didn't last very long; the monotonous pitter-patter of the rainfall and the sound of his boots stomping against the mud didn't drown out the thoughts that weighed on his mind.

'If I trust what those two told me, the others are probably alright. To trust what those..despicable pieces of shit said, though? It almost makes me want to vomit in my mouth just thinking about it. Still, right now..I can't do anything from across the world. For now, I have to think optimistically, right?...If so, if their only goal was to remove me from Milligarde, they didn't need the others,' he thought.

Just the thought of those two strangers that had turned his life upside down overnight filled him with an unspeakable rage as his fingers trembled with a fiery anger, though he restrained himself.

'...I don't get it, though. A "war" is coming–that's what that man mentioned. Even if there was a war on the horizon, what do I have to do with it? Why would my presence throw a wrench in it? Those two were affiliated with the Children of Chaos, too..The same as Amon. Just what is their goal, really?' He questioned.

Perhaps most of all that left him confused was the state of his right eye–even absent of its covering, it seemed not to be automatically using the accursed authority of Veracity.

'How much of my lifespan have I run through already with this? Weeks? Months?' He thought.

Amidst his thoughts as he traveled through the dense, wet jungle, he was interrupted by the arrival of something that erupted from the ground in front of him.

He jumped back as whatever came from the mud seemed to have malicious intent, rising up quickly with a sharp lunge upward.

'...Of course. It's like you can't go ten feet without something trying to kill you in this jungle,' he thought.

Though what had risen from the mud was a surprising sight: a massive, beige-furred grizzly bear that had a build similar to a gorilla with its massive shoulders and paws. Of course, with what seemed to be a trend of particularly troublesome beasts that dwelled in the Continent of Demons were the horns that stuck up from the bear's head.

'A bear that travels..underground? A mole-devil-bear?' He thought, perplexed by the very idea of such an odd creature.

Either way, there was no doubt it was a fearsome beast in its own right, standing well over three meters tall and seeming to command some authority over the mud around it as it gathered at its feet, rippling and spiking up with vibrations resonating through the ground.

The moment he drew his sword, the muddy, apex predator suddenly dived into the mud, disappearing beneath the surface of the rainfallen-ground as if it were a deep lake.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow.

Through his own affinity with nature magic, he had a good sense for the ground he stood upon, able to detect the vibrations through the mud and soil below.

'It seems to have some sort of inherent magical ability. I bet it can travel through the ground by manipulating mud, making it quick to move–that's how something so large can be efficient below,' he guessed.

As he stood there, more in awe at the prospect of magical beasts than actually feeling threatened, he found the mud suddenly latched onto his feet before spinning him around; the ground spun like a whirlpool around him, tossing him across the clearing as he was pushed against a tree.

'That confirms it: it's manipulating the mud. Neat trick, I can do that too, though!' He thought.

With a stomp of his boot, he caused the ground in front of him to split open, creating a miniature crater as he revealed where the giant, ground-swimming bear was.

"Found you," he said.

Though he planned to finish the beast with a simple, small shot of condensed water through its head, he found himself intercepted by a magical attack from the creature itself as it roared out, seeming to conjure magecraft through its reverberating cry.

'An invocation?' He guessed.

Around him, the mud suddenly rose up, shaping into loose, sludge doppelgangers of the burly bear that each attempted to tackle the rain-slick man.

In response, feeling the need to challenge the magical beast on even footing, he used nature magic as well, causing a golem to erupt from the ground in front of him, formed of solid stone. The rocky golem was shaped like the bear as well, swiping through the mud-formed doppelgangers for its summoner.

After handling the magical clones made by the horned bear, Emilio stomped again, causing a geyser of mud to shoot up the ground-swimming creature from its hidden spot beneath the surface.

"Hate to break it to you, but that's some novice-level magic you've got there," Emilio said before swiping his sword forth.

In a single slash, he cut through the beige-furred beast's body, causing a spray of blood to meddle with the mud before he moved on. There was a part of him that was tempted to try cooking bear meat, though he didn't exactly feel like dismantling such a huge body and lugging it around.