"Hello, mother." The girl bowed slightly, causing the tulip on her head to shake slightly.
"What have I told you about disappearing for so long without telling me? You made your mother very worried." The woman on the throne wiped tears as if her daughter's disappearance hurt her weak little heart.
"Mother... Don't act like you care all of a sudden. Ireese disappeared for three decades, and you didn't say a single word to her." The girl harrumphed at her mother.
"Ivy... Don't tell anyone this but..." Ivy's mother, Rose, suddenly disappeared from her throne and appeared by Ivy's side.
"You're my favorite." She whispered with an almost childish giggle before returning to her throne an instant later.
"I don't think you're allowed to say that, Mother." Ivy scratched the back of her neck with a tiny bit of embarrassment.
"Bah! Forget about such things. Tell me, in your four years away from your mother, what have you discovered?" Rose leaned forward and asked with a tinge of excitement in her voice.
"Uhm... Not much, to be honest." Ivy sighed in slight disappointment before a certain memory came to her mind.
Her cheeks immediately became rosy pink as Ivy twirled her hair around her finger.
"Oh... And, I met someone." She muttered under her breath, yet her mother's enhanced hearing allowed her to hear her voice even if they were almost 20 meters away from one another.
"AHHHHH!" A shriek came out of Rose's mouth as she disappeared from where she sat and appeared behind Ivy again.
Ivy couldn't react as he mother hugged her with so much speed that her movement alone broke several sound barriers and shot gusts of wind in every direction.
"Finally! I might be able to finally retire! One of my very own daughters finding a man for themselves... It's like all my dreams are coming true at the same time. Quick! Tell me who this man is... Does he have a ruby core like that human king? Or is he filthy rich? Or maybe even both... Wait, don't tell me it's that king!" Rose suddenly stepped back with a hint of fear in her eyes. Of course, she didn't fear the king, but she was really hoping he wasn't the one that her daughter fell for.
The last time she met him, she could not help but remember how he gave her the creeps.
"No! Of course not!" Ivy shouted with a beet-red face.
"Then who is it?" Rose sighed in relief, yet her breath was quickly caught in her throat when she heard her daughter's next words.
"It was some kid I met a year or two ago. I remember he had a Garnet core at the time, but when I returned recently, I wasn't able to find him." Ivy sulked slightly.
"R-Really... A garnet core? Is he at least rich?" Rose asked with slight disappointment in her voice as she appeared on her throne again.
"Ehhh... Not really." Ivy shrugged, his face still beet red.
"T-Then... What do you like about him." Rose asked, yet she had already decided that the boy wasn't good enough for her daughter.
"I saw him fighting alone against a few beasts and monsters. A shadowswarm, a mistwalker, and an earth bear all at the same time." Ivy recalled with a little bit of excitement in her voice.
Ivy continued to explain everything to her mother. She told her how Silas had somehow held them off despite all of them being an entire core stronger than him. She explained how he had somehow used the sonic bat's screech against the shadowswarm and even talked about how he had created tier 3 and 4 spells despite not having reached the topaz core yet.
Ivy continued on and on while Rose listened to her daughter, who hadn't even realized that she had been speaking about him for a quarter of an hour.
At first, Rose had thought that it might have simply been a crush, but after a while of listening to her daughter and everything that happened, her motherly instincts allowed her to understand something.
Her daughter didn't just like the boy. She was obsessed. A certain look in her eyes told her that his daughter was obsessed. She could remember that very same look in her own eyes when she had met the first boy she actually liked, yet despite knowing how many good memories she had back then, the only thing she could remember about him was how badly it had ended.
"Ivy... You're a young girl. You're barely 30! Think about it a little more and then come back to me if you're actually serious about this... Also, wait until he's of an appropriate age. Humans don't usually get married until they're at the very least 16 years of age!" Rose explained with crossed arms.
"But mom!" Ivy tried to argue, yet her mother quickly shut her down again with a deadly glare.
Seeing that she wouldn't get through to her mother, Ivy slumped down slightly before turning around.
Seeing her daughter in such a state, Rose sighed and looked at her back as she left the leaf dome.
However, before she could fully leave, Ivy's head perked up before she turned around slightly and looked at her mother through the side of her eyes.
"I just remembered something." Ivy spoke, causing her mother to raise a brow.
"When I saw him, I remember Gilea connecting to me and telling me something..."
"!!!" An alarmed expression appeared on Rose's face, but Ivy spoke again before she could even say anything.
"She said that he wasn't from here." Ivy paused momentarily and spoke a word that didn't exist in any Gilean language.
"I think she said he was from a place called..."
"Earth?"
***
-Darkless City-
Within a dark room, two individuals could be seen standing on either side of the room.
"So, Silas... Have you come to finally challenge me to a duel? Let me say, no matter what happens; I just want you to know that I not only did it for the good of the city but for you too." Archie tried to explain.
His voice echoed throughout the vast hall, and entered Silas' ears from all directions, yet he did not seem to react to Archie's words.
Letting out a sigh, Archie got into a fighting position.
He wore the mask covering everything around his eyes, and he could see that Silas' mana wasn't stable. It was like a volcano waiting to erupt from within him.
"Archie... I'm not here to fight you. I am well aware of your prowess and how much stronger you are than me." Silas sighed before continuing with a step forward.
Yet, even Archie could see that it contained no malicious intent, even though Silas was now lowering himself into a fighting position while brandishing both of his axes.
"Arlem... As the current strongest within Darkless city, could you teach me how to fight..." Silas asked while Archie slightly widened his eyes before letting out a wry chuckle.
"Don't expect me to go easy on you." He smiled.
"I would never expect such a thing... I'm sure you see it too. Greed's death was, for the lack of a better word, insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Whatever she was planning, it goes beyond her death. It goes beyond her too...
The moment she died, a ticking clock began...
What we saw before was nothing... Right now, the real war is looming before us, and right now, we can do nothing but prepare."
[End of Volume 2 - Darkless]
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