Ep 198. Warmonger. (5)

  Somewhere in the skies, the deity of creation sat idly within the forts of her makeshift fortress. She quietly sipped on the cup of tea in hand, gazing into the endless blue that surrounded her beyond the rails.

  The atmosphere was so peaceful – serene, even.

  So, when a shadowguard slithered into being at her side, she expected the hey bore to be just as perfect as the world that was surrounding them.

  “Lady Letherien. The shadowguards have returned from Kavir.”

  “…And?”

  “All remaining survivors have bee with, including our own royal guards. Only Keldrin and his squad have remained behind to address any further reinforts.”

  A thin smile formed over the deity’s lips as she listeo the shadowguard’s report.

  On the surface, she’d done what any good ruler ought to have: she’d sent a team of royal guards, Karia’s fi soldiers, in hopes of saving the elves being held in Kavir as sves.

  Unaware of the source of Kavir’s bzing inferno, the royal guards had rushed in to save the city’s inhabitants. They’d put out the fires themselves, procured what survivors they could find, and was ready to escort them back to their homend.

  …Had Letherien not sent the shadowguards after them, perhaps it would’ve been a royal guard standing before her instead, rep on the number of elves they’d mao save from Kavir.

  As, the deity of creation saw little purpose in bringing additional refugees – or rather, defects – into her domain.

  As she lowered the cup of tea ontss table, Letherien beamed a warm smile at the news of their successful massacre.

  “You always kly what I want, Aldon. What would I do without you?”

  “…You ftter me, my liege.”

  Still smiling, Letherien offered her hand to the shadowguard before her. A sed cup would soon shimmer to being within her grasp, which Aldon gracefully accepted from the deity.

  Seating himself across the small gss table, he then proceeded to pour himself his own helping of tea, drinking together with Letherien amidst the clouds.

  As the shadowguard lifted his mask t the cup of tea to his lips, Letherien observed his subservient attitude in amusement.

  “Aren’t you afraid it’s poison?”

  “I am,” the shadowguard answered ftly. But he heless poured the cup’s tents into his mouth, letting the warmth trickle into his body.

  Only when the liquid had fully immersed into his system did Aldon deliver the rest of his answer.

  “But I am far more ed of disappointing you.”

  ? ? ?

  A fsh of metal blitzed past, the silver bullet skidding across the dragonlord’s barrier.

  “…Are you afraid, fner?”

  “…”

  Unamused by the accusation, Serenis returned a pathetic stare towards the bck-cd assaint above.

  Although, her attention wasly on the elf himself, per se; instead, her attention was fixed onto the equipment that he held, ranging from massive hand ons to throwable explosives.

  It wasly the typical image of ahat she remembered.

  ‘But, regardless…’

  As another explosive was thrown towards her dire, Serenis tio maintain the barrier over herself, as well as the two mages behihe projectile soon burst into fmes right before their eyes, creating a momentary wall of fire that separated them from their assaint.

  In that moment, Serenis gnced behind to look at the two mages behind her.

  “…Patrick, Iris. you two sense any others nearby?”

  Initially, Serenis had sidered that she may have been mistaken – that perhaps the survivors’ mana were so insignifit to a point where her senses were failing tister them. After all, she could hardly tell the presence of the elf that was attag them in front of their face.

  But much to the dragonlord’s disappoi, Iris slowly began to shake her head.

  “I appreciate your , but I’m afraid there aren’t. As you said, if there were any, then that elf probably…”

  “…”

  Serenis briefly closed her eyes in refle.

  It wasly the answer she’d been hoping for. But at the same time, it was the answer she’d been expeg.

  Then, without words, the dragonlord began to step forward into the open to address their assaint.

  As Serenis emerged from the fires unscathed, a bitter scowl crossed the elf’s face beh his veiled mask. He then quickly shifted his hold on his on, preparing to bst the dragonlord once more.

  But when his trusted equipment’s trigger failed to respond, a wave of fusion washed over him.

  “Hmm…?”

  Again, the elf would pull at the trigger – to no avail. The on refused to respond in any manner, failing to produce even the smallest ember.

  Wheurned his attention to the three below, the smoke had now cleared to reveal Patrid Iris, each holding out their staff and hand to form a fiery insignia in the air together.

  Sn, Patrick shouted at their assaint with a gloating grin.

  “Never had your toy broken, have you?”

  “…Sorcery?”

  “Never saw Silenced Fire before?”

  Admittedly, suppression arts were hardly used outside of those who dealt with criminals on a regur basis. It was unnecessarily plicated, and not very flexible to boot.

  …But unfortunately for the elven assaint, both Patrid Iris were ‘those who dealt with criminals on a regur basis.’

  “…”

  Serenis likewise spared a momentary gnce behind to give her brother a faint smile. She didn’t particurly he help – but she appreciated the gesture heless.

  And, bolstered by her sibling, the dragonlord leapt forth without further dey.

  trary to the elf’s expectations, his enemy seemed to have no trouble reag him from below as a pair of white wings seemed to appear out of nowhere; before he could even process the situation, the dragonlord smmed him unto the roof with brute forot eveing to magic as she usually would.

  With ched teeth, the assaint growled back at the woman like a rabid animal.

  And, as if his growling had served as a cue, a number of others began to emerge from the shadows into pin view around the other rooftops nearby: each were the same bck armor as the one under Serenis’ grip, each equipped with simir handheld ons that were gathering massive amounts of energy. Every single one of them poiheir ons towards the winged woman, seemingly ung for their ally that would be caught i.

  But as their ons simmered with restrained fire, so too did orbs of light just above the dragonlord’s head.

  “…Magic?”

  While the assaints bnkly stared at the spell f over her head, a soft sigh escaped Serenis’ lips – almost as if she was relieved to see them all appear at once.

  For whatever reason, these elves were difficult to detect through mana. Hunting eae down would’ve been far more trouble than it’s worth.

  pared to that, bsting magic at eae was cakewalk.