Chapter 689 No Escape

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Although Cynthia wasn't particularly fond of Emilia's current form, she also didn't like leaving things unfinished. "Don't let any of them get away! We ended up losing almost three percent of our energy reserves because of these idiots, you know?!"

In fact, Emilia was also a little shocked when she realized it.

It wasn't that she never expected some of her spikes to fail to penetrate through the soldiers. That would have been asking for too much, given that many of them were wearing at least some armor.

That's why she made them so long, thin, and pointy.

Of course, even if a few ended up getting stuck in a different direction than intended, it wouldn't be too much of a surprise.

What she never expected, however, was for her 'attacks' to end up completely healing her opponents at times. That is, so long as they weren't already dead and had one of her spider spikes completely stuck inside their body.

"It's only because you used a part of your body that was completely detached for that attack, and allowed it to 'merge' with someone else long enough." Cynthia sighed. "Your idea of keeping strings attached to each spike was quite good, but unfortunately, they all broke almost instantly."

Sad as she was that so much of her energy was lost on such 'easy' opponents, Emilia-spider could only take her anger out on the prey that had managed to flee.

She even had to use her 'Predator's Mark' on so many to make sure they didn't flee… how hateful of them for making her waste almost another percent of her energy!

Tearing off another man's neck, the Emilia-spider couldn't help but grumble. "Since you guys hate being killed by me so much, why not just accept death peacefully and shoot yourself?"

Of course, the corpses around her had no response, but Cynthia couldn't help but shudder. 'This might be too much, even for me. I have to figure out some way to make her prefer a, uhm, prettier attacking form than this one.'

Even with some of them already getting on vehicles… their speed was no match for the scuttling crimson spider, and the miles of desert all around them was like its personal playground to slaughter them at will.

In their final moments of desperation, they could only curse at their bosses for picking such a crap meeting spot. Not only did it have some kind of ancient evil lurking within, but they couldn't even flee!

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Energy Reserve:  113.06%

Emilia pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Well… it could have been worse."

The three beads that held the 'images' that she could shapeshift into currently included Emilia's original form, the 'magic hair tunnel maker form', and the ash-blonde lady knight from her previous world. And since Emilia's skill had freshly entered an eight-hour cooldown, she could only pick one of them upon getting close to civilization.

After all, she couldn't very well board a bus or get on a ship as a giant spider, could she?

Well, maybe if she really didn't care about anyone in this world, maybe she could have… just because she was sure many people's reactions would be amusing.

"Oh, maybe I can get a big hat and a cigar or something, and pretend to be a particularly 'civilized' talking spider just out on a leisurely walk?" Emilia giggled. "And if someone attacks me, I can pretend to be really scared and run away while crying for my mommy. Can you imagine the headlines?"

"… Did one of those escaping vehicles hit you on your head?" Cynthia frowned. "But then again… you should have regenerated already, right?"

The crimson-haired girl rubbed her nose in embarrassment. "I was just joking, obviously."

In the end, she just picked the ash-blonde lady knight form again, since her 'tunnel digger' was pretty much her original form with very long and weird hair.

Although Cynthia rolled her eyes, inwardly she was a bit relieved. 'It seems like she's no longer in such a bad mood after getting rid of all those cockroaches, huh? Guess even those worthless mortals can be useful sometimes.'

Of course, despite her elated mood, Emilia hadn't forgotten about the last person on her 'hit list', the president of Red Dusk.

Although she wasn't really afraid of an overly paranoid who couldn't even trust in the ability of his best subordinates, the crimson-haired girl knew better than to be complacent.

"He's probably not much of a threat at this point, but that guy is a bit too clever for his own good." Emilia hummed thoughtfully. "He might not have been the mastermind behind the Federation's formation, but leaving him alive means giving him a chance to get back in power, and maybe even letting something much worse loose on the people of Blue Dawn."

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Although all the ex-leaders of the Federation had made arrangements to not cause much alarm when they sneaked away, they'd obviously never considered losing their lives on this trip.

After all, not to mention that they were supposed to be on the same side, but the person who invited them also had neither the means nor the guts to deal with them.

But as time passed with no communication or response from their side, it was inevitable for some people to start realizing that something wasn't quite right.

Less than forty-eight hours after Emilia's slaughter of almost the entirety of the Federation's leaders, the shocking news of so many 'public figures' going missing finally became known to all, and conspiracy after conspiracy started pouring out from all corners of the globe as people tried to guess what could have happened.

"Clearly, these people all used to be the leaders of the Federation, and the one who has the greatest animosity towards them is none other than the Empress of Blue Dawn, Emilia. Who else could have killed them?"

Even those who usually supported Emilia unconditionally were split on this topic, since many believed that their princess had both the ability and the courage to pull off such a 'ridiculous' move to seek justice on her people's behalf.

Not everyone believed it, though, and the 'opposing' side's thoughts were also quite reasonable, at least on the surface.

"Well, they had a lot more in common, or they would never have been able to unite as one to make the Federation, right? Moreover… if the Empress of Blue Dawn had that kind of ability… wouldn't she have killed them all long ago? Why wait until now?"

Of course, despite Emilia's absence, the Empire of Blue Dawn still received an official statement denying any involvement with the matter, under Noelle's guidance.

They all knew Emilia's intention of making sure the people of Blue Dawn didn't suffer a disaster after they had to leave, after all. That was the whole point of the crimson-haired girl going out of her way to get rid of these 'hidden dangers'.

Had Emilia been exposed while trying to kill them, they might have spun it differently and tried to use it as a deterrence instead, though it might not have been very effective after she left. But now that she'd been able to more or less get away with it, it made little sense for them to attract hatred from others when it could all be easily denied.

Naturally, the crimson-haired girl trusted her girlfriends with these matters, and didn't let any of the rumors distract her from her final target… the president of Red Dusk.

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