Chapter 84 - Aftermath (5)

Emersyn continued eating right after the crowd dispersed in the spacious ground in front of the castle. Though she couldn't see more food in the already empty pot. She turned to look at Flora's apologetic face then shrugged. She took out a table from her inventory and started taking out ingredients for her next meal.

"... My Lady, why are you going to cook?" Elodiaren carefully asked.

"I am still hungry. I need more food, or maybe you could buy some sweets for me? Three whole cakes might do the trick. What do you say?"

"Master... please, refrain from eating too much."

"I am still stressed, Flora… give me a break just this once…."

"My Lady, how about we run around the city?"

"Oh! But that would make me more hungry."

"Flora will cook some for you during our run. Right, Flora?"

Flora rolled her eyes, but nodded at the next instance. "Of course I will. Who do you think I am?"

"That settles it then. Come, My Lady."

"You should really drop the 'My Lady' thing, Aren."

"I can't really call you by your real name, right?"

"Ah yes, of course. You know my real name. Just call me Emersyn like how you had been doing before you realized it was me."

"... Emersyn."

"Great. Now, we should go."

"Aye!"

"Flora, I want a variety of curry."

"... curry again?"

"... okay, surprise me with anything."

"Alright."

"We'll be off now," Emersyn said as she waved at Flora.

"Please don't run that hard."

"..."

Emersyn smiled stiffly then turned around to leave. Elodiaren quickly followed Emersyn then offered his elbow to her. The latter only looked at him, one of her eyebrows raised.

"... you don't want to take my arm?"

"I would rather cut it off."

"Well, damn," Elodiaren dejectedly walked one step behind Emersyn.

When they were finally out of the noble's district of the kingdom, they breathed a constrained sigh then proceeded to greet those in the commoner's district. Emersyn watched the people greet them with a smile, but the most who were looking at them were that of contempt. She could understand their behavior. After all, they were persecuted and even their dead loved ones weren't given the respect they deserved. Those that risked their lives for the kingdom could only come back in a dead body. Those that were poorer were left to die on their own as they barely scr.a.p.ed money for the minimum of their living expenses.

"My---I mean, Emersyn. What's wrong?"

"I am getting angry..."

"...," Elodiaren smiled weakly then continued, "We don't have anything we could do here."

Emersyn exhaled then nodded, "Yes. I understand."

"We should run now."

"Mhm…," then she took off on her own.

"..." Elodiaren could only stammer as he ran faster to catch up to Emersyn.

Suddenly, there was a dust storm coming from behind and a figure passed by him. "My Lady?!"

When she passed by him again, "My Lady! Stop!"

"My Lady!!! Stop! Agh! She's just ignoring me!" He bellowed as he tried keeping up with Emersyn's speed. To no avail, he couldn't catch up. He wheezed as he collapsed on the ground, letting the female just do her thing. There, he fell asleep.

Emersyn stopped when she felt that her mind was calm enough. She was heaving as she tried catching her breath. She could feel her legs shaking from overwork, but she tried to go for one last round. There, she found Elodiaren lying down on the ground. She picked him up then returned to the castle grounds. Though, once she entered through the main gate, there was a commotion. Something like that Hero Cone was attacked and was brought over by the weakest of the expedition team, who was unscathed; though the woman seemed exhausted.

"Miss Emersyn!" Sloane ran over, panting as he settled his hands on his knees.

"Did you finally decide about the Water God matter?"

"No, not yet. But! More importantly, what happened to you and Hero Cone?! Is there an attack? There was a gust of dust around the territory of the kingdom, so I was worried!"

"..."

"Miss Emersyn!"

"No… he just collapsed in exhaustion, so I brought him over. Here, take care of him," she tried handing over Elodiaren, but she was incessantly rejected.

"I am weak, Miss Emersyn. Please, have mercy on this old bone."

"... okay. Where is his room?"

"Please follow me."

"If I may insist, what really happened?" Sloane asked as he guided Emersyn to the second floor of the castle.

"We ran around the kingdom."

"You what-?"

"We had a light exercise, sir Sloane."

"Oh! You mean around the castle? That's good."

Emersyn smiled weakly and just left it be. When they arrived in the spacious room of Elodiaren, she settled the man on his king sized bed. However, just as she settled him, Elodiaren's eyes opened abruptly and their eyes met. Elodiaren could feel her warm breath as he gulped.

"You're awake. Great. I am planning to get a light meal before dinner. Do you want to come?"

"... yes."

"Alright."

Suddenly, Emersyn's eyes went wide as she spun around to look outside the window. There was a blinding light that struck the place where she was. She managed to save Sloane and Elodiaren from the blast by going inside that light's strong shadow. Her heartbeat was strong as she tried calming herself down. The blast turned the castle into a ruin, killing all of those who were currently inside the castle.

"What- what is this?" Sloane muttered as he looked around the blackened version of Paladius. However, when he saw how serious Hero Cone's and Miss Emersyn's expressions, he shut his mouth.

Then, they came out of the shadows and their feet met the powdered stone. Emersyn let them down and immediately took off towards the source of the attack. Its body was humongous, twice of thrice the size of the Leviathan. Her heart shook once again, but she was smiling so wide. She ran and ran towards that monster and it wasn't even moving as its eyes focused solely on her. There, she knew that the monster's true purpose was to kill her.

When she arrived in front of the creature, a black sphere coalesced in front of its maw in only a second before firing it directly at her. The fire range was so wide that she wouldn't be able to block or run away. The blackened sphere was eating all light and shadows in its wake.

Emersyn didn't know what to do since her strongest element was being overpowered. So, she did her best gathering all of the silver oceanic Life Energy in her body to coat a thick membrane on her body. It took her one fourth of the Life Energy to fully form one that could only resist the power it released. It lasted for a few seconds and Emersyn's coat was being shaved away and reconstructed repeatedly.

Once its first attack shaved away almost half of its prey's strength, it smiled seeing its attack also destroyed the surrounding area. However, when the smoke died down, its huge eyes went wide when it saw the target was still alive after its strongest attack.

"..."

"Hm? Oh? That was your strongest attack?"

"..."

"I have to commend you though. You managed to halve my Life Energy in a single attack."

"..."

"Damn… then I still have a chance to fight. That's great news," Emersyn sighed in relief.

"..."

"Why are you so mute? Is it really that surprising? Yes, I know. I managed to survive your strongest attack. So, you came to kill me to avenge your child or whatsoever."

The monster shook its head then glared at Emersyn. It opened its mouth once again and a shrill scream came after, enough to destroy the eardrum of a human. Emersyn covered her ears, and once she did that, the monster brandished its claws at her. She jumped back, but she could still feel the alarm bells in her body go off. Her intuition was right since the aftermath of the claws cleaved through the earth to the walls of the kingdom. Her eyes were so wide as she glanced at the monstrosity of the effect of its attack. She could see the knights, adventurers and mercenaries running towards here. There were the four heroes and Flora at the front.

"... fck no," she muttered as she turned back and defended against one of its attacks.

They should have realized that their help would only get in the way of her fighting, but these people still came. After all, the person who did nothing but scout was fighting against that being higher than the common demi-dragons they encountered and killed. It was way too humongous and its wingspan was over a kilometer. They gulped as they approached this raging creature. They didn't know why that woman was holding on while she fought this otherworldly being that might destroy the whole planet.

Suddenly, when they were near the ground turned desolate and ruined, the creature spoke in a loud and deep voice, "I have no business with you weak bugs. This human is the one I am after. Leave immediately if you don't want to die."