My Reincarnation as a Chicken

"My queen, we managed to evacuate a great majority of our citizens before your fight turned too intense."

A wolf beast man dressed up in uniform with an eye patch over one of his eyes said. I looked around and saw a cut-off wing and tail as well as a couple of fangs about twice my size. My vision then returned to the beast man.

"It was thanks to you managing to hold yourself back from using your full power that we were able to save so many lives."

He said, as if consoling the loss I just faced.

Angrily, I sat up from my throne of rubbles then took a few steps forward. That was when I noticed just how small the wolf beast man was, in comparison to me. He followed closely behind me with both arms behind his back.

"I swear, I won't allow Fafnir to escape the next time."

I said, tightening my fists into a ball. Before I could go any further, I could hear heavy footsteps. Two soldiers came up. Both were cat people bearing spears in their hands.

"My queen! We've received word that the humans are marching on our borders."

"What!?"

Confused by the sudden news, I couldn't help but exclaim. There was no reason for the humans to march on my borders. Hadn't we warned them enough?

"Who said this?"

"General Ivalon was out monitoring the borders to keep the civilians who had fled safe from running into the human territory. He sent us to report almost immediately."

The soldiers said.

"Where is this General Ivalon?"

I had no recollection of him. I had far too many generals to be paying attention to every single one of them.

"I am here, my queen!"

On que, he appeared before me, blood soaked and panting, as if he hadn't had the time to dress up before coming here. The wolf beast man moved in front of me, with his sword at the general's neck.

"How dare you approach the queen in such a wretched state. I should have your neck."

His anger wasn't unfounded. It was about week's trip from the border to the capital. Surely, he could have found the time to at least bathe before coming.

The soldiers themselves were surprised by his sudden appearance, almost as if they'd seen a ghost.

"I apologise, but it was of the utmost importance that I report to you what I have discovered. For this reason, I did not stop running for the past five days."

He made an outrageous claim.

"Five!? Stop lying."

The wolf pressed his sword harder against the tiger's neck, but the tiger did not budge a single bit.

"Put down your sword, commander. Report to me what you discovered, general."

The wolf sheathed his blade then went back behind me. The tiger didn't even take a moment to breathe as he started.

"Immediately the humans spotted me, they attacked my platoon. We retaliated, but not without casualt-"

"Skip the boring part."

I commanded and for the first time, I noticed a change in expression. It was for a brief moment, but I could see anger, fear and resolution in his eyes at the moment. That was when I first took an interest in the tiger beast man called Ivalon.

"Members of the Holy Mexar Empire were trying to invade us while our forces were weakened. Somehow, they received word of-"

The next words of his were just meaningless rambling to me. All I could think about was how interesting this beast man was. He ran 5 days, without rest to inform me of something as meaningless as human invaders.

That interest of mine was my worst mistake.

***

'Ugh… what's happening? Another weird dream?'

I thought as I regained consciousness. My vision was lined up straight and I could see trees as black as night with eyes on the barks. There were no leaves on the trees' crooked branches, but there were familiar fruit growing on them.

I remembered them as the mutations that my devil light caused to the fruits back in Larm.

I tried to tilt my head, but that was beyond me. My body was moving on its own towards an unknown path, but one thing was certain and that was all eyes were on me. It was a creepy sensation to have devil trees focusing so intensely on me, but that was it.

<<Oh, you've regained consciousness>>

'Agent? That you?'

<<Yes>>

'What happened?'

<<After our descent into the convergence point, you fell off into the river and lost consciousness. As it was an emergency, I took control over your body and clawed back up onto the boat>>

'Eh? So where are we?'

<<According to Atlas, this is the middle circle of the 5th layer, The Haunting Woods.>>

'5th layer? How'd we end up here?'

<<Atlas claims our "sudden" movement on the boat caused a capsize that he somehow recovered from but made him lose track of the path to the 6th layer>>

'And we ended up in the 5th layer instead? Crap.'

<<Would you like to resume control over your body?>>

'Oh… uh, yeah.'

Once the agent relented control over my body, it felt like I was putting on gloves and a body suit. I stretched first before spreading my wings then taking off to the sky to get a better view.

I was immediately paralysed by the sight. It wasn't like there were several grand spectacles. As far as I could see, there were only trees.

But one tree stood out to me. Taller than the tallest mountain, glowing a brilliant white, illuminating the entire floor. It was a beautiful oak that pierced the clouds with an unseen peak. Somehow, seeing the tree irritated me. Like an itchy eye.

'You said this was the 5th layer, right? What does it represent?'

<<Wrath, ruled over by Prince Abaddon>>

'Oh? The Lord Abaddon guy they were talking about back in their base?'

What kind of good luck did Atlas have for us to get shipwrecked in the exact place he wanted to go over the place I wanted to go.

<<Cough, cough>>

'Eh? You can get sick?'

<<No>>

'Then what was that?'

<<Nothing>>

'You're really weird, you know that?'

I looked elsewhere and soon found a river bank, the andromeda laying on its side. I rushed over to inspect it, but found absolutely no one there. From the looks of things, Atlas and the fiends fell off into the river and died.

How unfortunate I guess.

'Yo, agent. You know how to navigate the river?'

<<No. The specific knowledge for actual navigation along the 5 rivers of the underworld is not known>>

'Eh? What about that statistical data crap you were telling me about earlier.'

<<The navigator was simply bragging to others about how easily he can travel in hell. Such information was never shared to anyone>>

Ah… that cheap bastard!

After hearing this, I stopped wasting my efforts into pushing the boat into the river. It fell down mightily, kicking up some dust. I dusted my hands then started to think of something else.

'So how the hell am I supposed to get to the 6th layer inner ring? I refuse to be stranded.'

<<We need to find sheols in order to return to the 6th layer. That would take an indeterminable amount of time, but it is the only way at the moment>>

'Ugh. I can't do t- sniff!'

My thoughts were halted when a delectable fragrance slipped through my nostrils. My attention was immediately drawn to the wretched boat behind me.

'What's this aroma?'

I wondered as I hopped onto the boat, moving into the lower deck. My stomach grumbled and I felt something I was happy I hadn't felt in this short period of time while I was in hell. Hunger.

I hated hunger so much. It was even worse with [World Eater] causing my lust for food to grow to an overwhelming degree. It was so bad, my eyes skipped past the mechanical marvels this boat bore and focused on the cubic object in the back.

It looked exactly like a refrigerator back on earth. As I drew closer, I noticed that it had opened just a tiny little bit. Barely a creak, but it was more than enough to allow me to sense that something delicious was in there.

I opened it up and was met with a ghostly blue buffet of souls. They immediately tried to flew, but there was no escaping me. One by one, they were all chucked down into my belly. Memories of their unfortunate lives flashed through my head comedically, almost making me die of laughter.

There was something oddly amusing about the suffering of those souls. Though, there was one soul that clearly didn't deserve to be in hell. The irony of his situation was more than enough to make me laugh.

I clasped my hands as I thanked the deceased Atlas and his fiends for the meal.

'The damned souls were far too delicious to be real. I could get addicted. Thanks for spoiling me, Atlas.'

Once I was done, I closed the refrigerator then left the boat in search of a sheol. Hopefully I would find one soon enough.