Chapter 287: End of the Langriss Elf Kingdom, Patron Realm (1/2)
Addler looked at the destroyed palace and the powerhouses of the southern border, who quickly arrived to secure the palace while the king and queen were absent.
"Addler, I've informed the branch leader about this situation."
Addler nodded, "Find and follow their trail. Once we know their next location, we'll have more reinforcement to deal with them."
However, his friend revealed a hesitant expression for a second before he said, "Addler. Branch leader's orders...he canceled this operation, telling us to forget about those two."
"The regional competition has ceased all over the cosmos. A new one will start after four months but on the scale of star systems rather than on individual worlds."
Addler was stunned, and right after that, a feeling and an emotion oozed out of him involuntarily.
Completely out of his control, it oozed out from his subconsciousness and instincts.
Relief.
His shoulders slightly lowered as he felt relief from deep within.
"Mhm, let's return," Addler nodded with a plain expression.
His friend laughed and said, "It was a fool's errand to go after them anyway, haha."
"They even destroyed this palace and caused such havoc. Fucking hell. Anyway, it's better to focus on improving ourselves somewhere else than chasing our deaths."
…
Lilith was using her tricks to make her trail confusing and escape from the enemies.
But she also killed one of them while getting chased.
She was powerful, but it wouldn't be wise to fight when King Leim and Elina were also chasing her.
Lilith would only face the deadly trouble if she wanted to. It was in her control as they wouldn't be able to catch her if she decided to escape earnestly.
She also left mocking spiritual bubbles in her last trails until she completely removed her presence and aura at a certain point and gave multiple options for directions if they wanted to continue chasing a fool's errend.
"Return!" Leim shouted with a dark face. "We can't chase her blindly now! Damn fools, nobody could even mark her!"
"I-I did, but she removed it. Our physical stats were lowered because she put some kind of debuff on us, of Blood and Death element that weakened us."
"My lord, she was a formidable hunter despite her level suggesting that she just recently entered the Empyrean-order."
"She can't be nameless with that power. We will find her and her group."
"Aria is with them," Elina said with a frown, "Can you try to locate her using Bloodline resonance?"
"I can't!" Leim grunted and flew back. The others quickly followed him as they turned into beams, speeding back to the kingdom.
"What do you mean? Bloodline resonance should work for you because she has your bloodline."
"Not anymore. Her bloodline is completely different now."
Leim's slightly shaking voice rang, "It's that ancient will. The royal family no longer has its blessing. It went away with Aria."
"W-what?!" Elina's face turned pale white, while the other subordinate elves were shocked beyond belief.
"My lord, that can't be true, right?!"
"It's true. But we can't wallow in that loss. Speed up and rebuild the palace."
"The guests will still come after twenty-two days and…" Leim turned to Elina, his voice back to being firm. "Tell Runia that she will marry a prince from Enernia."
Elina's place expression turned normal as she digested the situation, and then a mocking expression formed on her face at Leim's words.
"Heh since Aria is gone, you want your other daughter for your plan?"
Just as this time, the group returned to the palace.
However, Elina's face shrank and turned ugly as abruptly paused while Leim's expression was hard to describe. He was bewildered, angry, twisted, and many others as his reply to Elina's last words stuck in his throat.
The city was lively.
Projections from mirage crystals were expanded, some big, some small.
Some displayed Elina on her fours getting pounded from behind, while some displayed Runia's legs wrapping around a man's waist while she hanged backward, her face clear and her tongue out.
The erotic voices and the life-like HD scenes displaying the duo numbered over a hundred.
Runia was shaking and trembling as she shrunk to the corner of the broken palace. Angry and blank both.
The voice that entered her head right before Erix escaped with others haunted her.
'He played us from the beginning…'
At that moment, a sudden regret stemmed from her, making her feel that she shouldn't have targeted Rin and others.
However, that regret soon transformed into fury with a sense of defeat as Erix's last words rang in her head.
'We've decided to let you live because you are utterly worthless. If you feel hatred and want revenge, then come at us anytime.'
'I will finish your story.'
Runia's head was only filled with his voice, but...her blank mind soon turned into a mush.
A dark green metal spike pierced out from her head as Erix suddenly appeared beside her.
While her consciousness was still active, Erix sent his thoughts.
'Actually, you are a stupid lunatic, so I'll end your story right here.'
'But, good luck with your next one.'
Erix killed Runia, but surprisingly got +1 Patron point while also giving him a gist of why he got it.
But putting it in the back of his mind, Erix quickly teleported away since he sensed powerful auras outside the palace along a blast and a familiar voice in a high pitch-scream.
'It seems Elina and Leim started fighting because of the mirage crystal's content,' Erix internally laughed.
'Better if both pieces of trash can take each other out.'
…
Erix flew back in the direction of Core Domain's first big city, Lopalize City.
Rin, Lily, Amu, Aria, and Maleina were already on the way while Lilith was also coming to this city, but on a longer and different route since she escaped in the opposite direction to distract the enemies away from the group.
Erix was flying at full speed, coating himself in space matter and cutting distances quickly while shrinking space from a faraway point to his current location.
'This feels weird, but I am fast,' Erix thought because he was moving through Space Limbo in parallel to the material plane, so he wasn't feeling any atmosphere or air resistance of the material plane of this Abyss.
Suddenly, he heard a notification.
[Your partner has also debuted. Bond completed. +1 Patron point.]
[+7 Patron point.]
On the other hand, Rin and others just slew a gang in an Airship that blocked them on the way.
Each kill gave her a Patron point, surprising her and giving her necessary information.
'Erix killed that trash, and he got a Patron point. I didn't kill anyone yet while we were there, so mine didn't start until now.'
[Patron Realm]
_Candidates: Rin & Erix.
_Leaderboard Rank: Unranked.
—> Yet to enter any challenge.
_Patron points: 11
_Patron shop.
—> [ Open - Close ]
Erix's panel also turned the same.
'So that statue really required two people,' Erix grinned.
They guessed it after seeing the Statue sparing Nix and contributing that incident to the bond between him and his wife. Amu's words also pushed them in this direction, which was why they decided to face the statue together.
'It seemed that whoever brought that statue knew about it but wanted other people to figure it out,' Erix wryly shook his head.
After ten minutes, Erix caught up with Rin and others.
"Is it over?" Aria asked.
"Yep."
Rin chuckled and tickled Aria's belly while flying her behind, "You can now forget about them forever."
Aria softly laughed at the tickles and replied, "Hehe, yes. I only have us in mind and the eagerness of whatever we'll do next."
"We'll wait for Lady Lilith in the city and then meet Granny May to get information about that Patron Realm thing," Lily said.
Erix and Rin had also confirmed the Patron Realm panel.
Rin had the same number of points as him.
"It seems that we both get points even if one of us earns it," Rin said.
"Open the shop, please. I want to see what they sell with these bizarre points," Aria curiously said with shining eyes.
"Yeah, let's see what it got for us," Erix grinned and focused on the - open - with his thought.
[Requires 1 Patron point from each to open the level 1 shop.]
Both of them agreed as their patron points were reduced by 1.
In the next second, a different panel appeared, displaying a shop with five sections, but the things this shop put up for sale were utterly bizarre!