Chapter 254 Future Plans

Elaina found Luna thanks to a report from Issac who was barely alive and yet still managed to somehow regain consciousness. Many demons were injured and needed immediate attention, so there was no time to waste.

"I-it isn't what it looks like." Luna felt sweat bead down her face unsure if she was in trouble and knowing that if so there was no easy way out.

"No need to be so stiff, I knew you were locked down here, what I'm more curious about is the fact you are with some of my guests." Elaina knew from Freja that she sent some people that had come for some training, but it looked as if they had been doing fine as they just cleared the dungeon.

"Oh, that was by accident, when I was thrown down here I bumped into them, so instead of wasting time I helped them go through the dungeon." Luna instantly relaxed upon hearing that she wasn't in trouble, relieved that Elaina came back alive.

"Good to see you were productive. Now come along with me everyone." Elaina lowered herself into the volcano. When her feet touched the ground a red magic circle lit up underneath everyone's feet.

The circle glowed brighter until everyone was engulfed, finally teleporting them out of the dungeon.

**

<Demon queen's throne room>

Appearing in the middle of the room, the group half expected to appear in mid-air, but to their surprise, they landed on solid ground in the same exact position as before they got teleported.

"Ara~ look at this cut-." Freja, who was already there, was flirting with one of the demon maids only to be rudely interrupted. Her hand was underneath the maid's chin as she almost kissed the maid, but she froze in place when she noticed her new audience.

"Stop playing with my servants." Elaina forcibly teleported the maid away, saving them all from the very embarrassing situation.

"Tch." Freja was rather annoyed as she hasn't tried demons before and thought now would be a great chance to seduce one.

"Wait! why are you here?" Shaman thought Freja was unable to come hence why they were sent to the Demon Lands instead.

"I won't be here much longer, the situation was much more dire than I thought, so I stopped what I was doing to come help my dear mentor." Freja winked at Elaina causing her to fake vomit.

"Wait, mentor? The demon queen?" Elysia looked back and forth between the two wondering where the connection was.

"Regretful as it was, I was the one to teach her the black flames. It was years ago when I just inherited the throne from the runaway rulers." Elaina sat down on her throne while explaining how they knew each other. However, what she said at the end piqued the interest of Clara as the answer she was looking for may be right in front of her.

"W-." Clara wanted to ask, but before she could say a word, a voice echoed in her head.

'I recommend you don't mention your parents Clara. I will explain later before I leave, but let's say she holds a lot of resentment towards them and most likely you as well.' Freja had communicated to Clara telepathically, warning her of the consequences.

Clara felt frustrated, but there was no reason to doubt Freja, so for their own safety she gritted her teeth not saying a word.

"Anyway, Luna! Get to work before I kick you out of here myself." Elaina glared at Luna who was just standing there waiting.

"Yes Ma'am!" Hearing her orders Luna exited the room as quickly as she could. Elaina was not in the best of moods as the pope ran away and over half of the elite squad was killed. Her city was also partially ruined which will be a blow to her economy and reputation as a ruler.

"Okay now, what did you want me to do with them Freja? I really don't want to waste my time when I have other things to do." Elaina looked at each one of the group members gauging the strength of each one.

"Well, I want you to put them through the same kind of trials I did and get them up to scratch. Also, please don't go easy on them." Freja did a small bow which was very uncharacteristic of her and only showed how sincere she was.

"Hmmm I see, you have brought some interesting people so I will do as you request. However, it will have to wait until I get the city back up and running." Elaina didn't mind as she saw the potential in them, but there were other priorities.

"Fair enough, why not put them to use while they are here?" Freja smirked as she offered them up as free labour.

"Oi!" Shaman didn't sign up for this, but they didn't actually have a choice in the end. Freja and Elaina completely ignored Shaman's protest, continuing their talk.

"Hmm, no I don't think it's a good idea to have foreign races roaming around. They will stay here while I clean up." Elaina didn't want more problems to occur so she preferred to put them under house arrest for the time being.

"Makes sense. Is there anything you want from me before I go?" Freja figured that as long as she was in the Demon Lands she could at least help with something.

"Just leave, I know you actually just want to have fun with my maids." Elaina rubbed her forehead, completely seeing through Freja's plan.

"Ahhh too bad, I will go then after seeing my little ones off." Freja looked at the group who were staring back, not too happy about being called little ones.

"Whatever, I have things to do." Elaina clicked her fingers summoning demon maids and butlers to take the group to their rooms. She then disappeared from her throne, leaving the group and Freja to themselves.

"Don't worry she is a lot more light-hearted, but now that she has calmed down from the fight all the problems have come flying into her face." Freja hoped that the group weren't scared of Elaina as she was genuinely nice, but once the fight with the pope was over her mood turned sour.

"Well, I know I wouldn't be in the best of moods if suddenly half of Elfhiem was destroyed." Elanor could imagine the annoyance as seeing something you've lived in for so long crumble is not the best feeling.

"I think that goes for anyone, but it sounded like she lost a lot of good soldiers." Clara didn't know how strong the military was, but from Elaina's words, it seems there were a lot of casualties.

"I'll tell you about it once we are in your room, now let's just follow the servants." Freja was going to explain the situation and the new developments regarding the pope.

**

Following the servants to a set of rooms, they quickly claimed a few. They then met in Shaman's room as it was the biggest since it needed to hold three people.

"So how did the fight go? I feel like we would see a happier reaction if the pope was defeated." Shaman could tell from Elaina's body language that things had not gone as well as they wanted.

"It was going good for a while, but of course the man managed to run away in the last possible moment. However, he has now shown us that he uses dark magic, a fact I have recorded on this image crystal as evidence." Freja moved a crystal in between her fingers which had something resembling an image inside it.

"Wait, doesn't that mean everyone will turn against him when this goes public? Wasn't it stupid of him to have shown it in the first place?" Elysia tried to think of a logical reason, but maybe there just wasn't one.

*Sigh* "If I'm honest it won't do much. You know the state of Elfhiem and, well, the Fox Realm is not in any fighting shape either. Also, as you just saw the Demon Lands are in a very weakened position. Even if this goes public it will only cause panic among the citizens which would just cause more problems." Freja wanted to make the world know, but most people were powerless to do anything about it anyways.

They could try to band together all the powerful people in the continent to fight, but Freja was worried that would only cause more unnecessary deaths.

"Well what can you do, we are nowhere near powerful enough to fight the pope and getting to tier 10 could take forever…" Shaman didn't like where things were going. At the current rate, they wouldn't make it to tier 10 in time.

"I have a plan, but it relies on the pope not doing anything big for about a year…"