Chapter 85 - Aftermath (6)

Emersyn laughed it off and the monster turned its raging look at her. The others also heard her loud cackling and stopped on where they were.

"What's so funny, human?"

"Look, dude, you killed a lot of their people with your first attack and you said you don't have any business with them? Pfft- what the heck?! Are you dumb? You must be dumb! Ahahahaha!!!"

"You..."

"What? What? Am I wrong? I am right, yeah. You must be a very important being here in Eucarro, but you are dumb. Hahaha."

There was a visible vein on the monster's forehead as it gritted its teeth. "Human, I demand you to stop."

"Considering you are a monster and from your size, you must be alive for a couple of thousands of years. You're pretty old, you know? How can it be that you still care about any of your children being killed? You know that if they are killed, then they are weak. They aren't worth your revenge plot. Unless the one I killed back then was your only child? Ooh! It must be! And the crystal that it was protecting is one of your treasures? Sorry, but that kid is already inside me."

"Stop spouting nonsense. The crystal of eternity is not something a human can absorb. Bring it out now, human! Before I kill all of these precious bugs of yours---"

"Them? Hmm... I don't really care. Go on."

"...," the monster looked at the crowd who were shaking under its intimidating gaze. When it returned to look at the human, she was already gone.

It spread out its mana and immediately saw a lump of terrifying energy condensed into one point and the next thing it knew, half of its face were already blown into pieces. Its body collapsed on the ground lifelessly. The crowd shook with bated breath as they saw a figure suddenly appear from thin air. They watched Emersyn land on the ground before them and quickly turned to work to dismantle the humongous monster. She didn't seem to care for them at all since she just quietly cut the monster up, being covered with blood.

"Didn't you say that she is the weakest in the expedition team who only did was scout and left at the middle of the mission?"

"... we didn't get to watch her fight at all… so, we didn't know..."

Having expended almost all of the remainder of her Life Energy in that one attack, she barely had the strength to dismantle all of its body, but she persisted until she was finally done. In her process of dismantling, no one approached her or even attempted to. Flora and Elodiaren were quite fearful of the Emersyn they saw just earlier. Even her anger could be felt strongly from afar and it wasn't really directed at them, they still shivered from fear. It also looked like she didn't want anyone getting near her. When she finally finished butchering the monster, they could smell the strong scent of iron. After storing the last part, Emersyn didn't even bother cleaning up and just approached Elodiaren and Flora while the rest of them backed off a few steps away from her.

"I'll go and find water to clean up. Go back and wait for me," she said then turned back.

"..."

"..."

Sloane, who was trembling violently, muttered, "That… that was the Guardian Deity of the Water God… she- she killed it in just one attack..."

"... Cone… did you know Emersyn before this?" Dichen asked as he cautiously stepped beside Elodiaren.

"... truth to be told, I didn't know she would be this strong," then he whispered to himself, "She wasn't even this strong ever since I knew of her..."

"So, you do know her," Korbin interjected. "If you know her, you should have told us, you know. We could have finished our mission earlier than expected, and saved a lot of people."

"She revealed that she has the ability to sense living beings at a distance and even directed us to where we would be safe, right? She even made a safe area for us before she disappeared," Elodiaren glanced at Korbin.

"... well, yes… you are right. But why did she have to disappear? She even seemed like she abandoned us. We could have returned home with more people."

Elodiaren remained silent then turned his back from the direction where Emersyn disappeared.

"I will go back now. Flora, let's go."

"You humans are so disgusting," Flora growled then followed Elodiaren back to the kingdom.

***

When the mana crystal completely dissolved and the nutrients seeped through her body, she once again dropped another piece from a huge crystal and a liter of the deity's blood in the hot spring. She repeated that process until she fell asleep when her body finally felt rejuvenated. She stayed in the spring for a few hours before waking up.

She went through the clothes in her inventory and found something comfortable: a baggy sweater and sweatpants paired with a sneaker. She dried her body with a towel and quickly changed then quietly walked through the wide expanse of greenery before arriving at the Paladius Kingdom.

There was a camp of people near the gate; consisted of Flora, Elodiaren, Sloane and the three heroes. She saw them stand up from afar and Flora running up to her.

"Master!" Flora shouted as she hugged Emersyn.

"What's wrong now?"

"Wait… you grew taller… and your muscles grew firmer… what the heck happened, Master?"

"I just enjoyed a nice bath."

"... A… bath?"

"Yes. Let's go first. Aren is waiting for us."

"Understood."

"Cone, are you done with your business here?" Emersyn asked as soon as she reached Elodiaren and the others.

"The Queen is dead and there is no one alive in the royal family now. It was decided that the neighboring kingdom would take the territory of Paladius along with the heroes. I have no more business here. Let us go home."

"Understood---"

"Go home? You can go home?!" Dichen exclaimed as he stepped closer to Elodiaren.

"... Yes. Emersyn has a way to go back to our world."

"Emersyn, is it really true?!" Korbin and Reno leaned over.

"Yeah."

"Please bring us with you!" The three heroes said in chorus.

"..."

"Please! We have been here for almost three years and we just knew that we will be able to grow stronger by going into your world! Miss Flora and Sir Cone are both so strong that we envied them. So, please, take us with you!"

"Sorry, I can't. How about your responsibilities as heroes?"

"We know the truth behind the summonings, actually. I just can't bear it," Korbin muttered.

"Besides, we don't have anything to do here anymore. I don't want to die here," Reno said.

"So, please, bring us with you," Dichen begged.

Meanwhile, Emersyn was pinching the bridge of her nose as she sighed, exasperated.

"Fine. Give me your traveling fee."

The three heroes' expression brightened then brought out their bags containing coins of varying colors.

"How much are there?" Emersyn raised one of her eyebrows.

"... Not much, but around 100 gold. We earned them through quests."

"That's not enough. Creating a portal required a lot of mana and would cost more once we connected it to our world. Do you think that 100 gold will cut it? If you don't have enough, then forget it."

"How… how much?"

"Five thousand gold per person."

"That's ridiculous!!!"

"You expect us to bring out fifteen thousand?! Working for a lifetime wouldn't cut it!"

"Your loss then. We will be going now," Emersyn shrugged.

"This can't be…"

"Can't you just let us off this time?! We will pay you once we have the money!"

"How about being Flora's slave?" Emersyn smirked as he looked over at them who paled and shrank from her gaze. "Even if you all are heroes in this world, you are still weaker compared to the one living in Flora's world. They use mana as a means to attack and enhance their fighting capabilities a notch. Work for Flora and she will supply whatever you need."

Reno, Korbin and Dichen all looked at each other, their gazes wavering. Korbin smiled stiffly then nodded. The others followed suit. He turned to look at Emersyn then said, "We accept."

Emersyn nodded then looked at Sloane. "We will leave once the materials are bought and money is given to those that participated in the expedition."

Sloane's eyes went wide then nodded vigorously. "I will sell the materials as soon as possible. I still have to report to the Ruviel Empire. It will take a month or more to travel there---"

"Are you the only one coming?" Emersyn interjected.

"Well, aside from guards and Miss Flora, I am technically alone."

"Don't bother with the guards and Flora. I'll take it from here. Flora, take out all of the materials you acquired from the expedition."

"Understood," Flora said then immediately took out all the parts of the demi-dragons they hunted as Emersyn continued taking it all in her inventory. When they finished, Emersyn took a hold of Sloane.

"Pa-pardon?!"

"Hold tight."

"Miss Emersyn?!"

Pitch black wings sprouted from her back and took off to the east from where they were.

Flora, Reno, Korbin, Dichen and Elodiaren could still hear the screams of the old man.