Chapter 399: I am Looking for the One who Threatened me
"My mother, Irina, is no longer in the land of the living, as far as any of us know," Elara explained, her voice growing quieter and more personal. "After the last Celestial War ended, she disappeared from the world completely. No one has seen her or heard from her since those ancient days. I... thought that a dweller of the spirit world, someone like you, would know more about that than we do."
Because it was strange that someone had left the spirit world—a place where souls were supposed to remain once they departed the land of the living—and came looking for a living soul among mortals, Elara hoped and feared a little bit that perhaps... Irina might not be in the spirit world at all.
Perhaps she was still alive somewhere, hidden away, waiting to be found.
"Perish the thought, Elara-chan. Do not let that hope take root in your heart, because it will only cause you pain in the end," Sakura opened her fan and hid her face behind it, her amber eyes locked on Elara from behind the painted surface, and her voice soft but firm. "Irina-sama is... not here. I spent a very long time searching for her after the war, across many lands and realms, and I found nothing. Do not hurt yourself by introducing false hope into your heart when there is none to be had."
"Goodness, was there not a more soft and gentle approach to telling me that news? You have no delicacy at all when it comes to matters of the heart, do you, Sakura?" Elara rolled her eyes at her the kitsune, though there was no real anger in her expression.
"No, it is because I love you that I said it that bluntly. If I did not care about you, I would have let you believe whatever you wanted and watched you suffer the consequences later," Sakura added, her fan still hiding her face.
Then the intruder spoke again, her soft voice directed at Elara again: "I did not come here to find Irina. That was not my purpose coming here."
And the initial shock of Benjamin’s possible execution rose anew among the assembled women, spreading through their ranks like fire through dry grass.
The Amazons entered defensive positions yet again, raising their weapons and tightening their formations: the life of the father of most of their unborn children was being threatened by this strange and powerful woman who refused to explain herself properly.
"Then, pray tell, what is your goal in coming here to Verdant Spire? What do you want from us?" Elara asked, now feeling genuine unease at the stranger’s presence.
The woman looked around at the gathered Amazons once more, her yellow pupils scanning their faces, and now she seemed a tiny bit disappointed by what she saw.
Then she turned her back to the women as if to leave, dismissing them entirely.
"I am neither a spirit nor a god, despite what your senses may be telling you about my power and presence," she added, walking slowly away from the formation, her bare feet pressing into the tall brown grasses. "I was a friend of Irina, a long time ago, but I have not seen her ever since she went to war with the demons. I am... looking for the one who threatened me recently. But it seems they are not here in this village. Farewell, Elara-chan of the Amazon tribe."
"Uh... It is Elara, without the ’chan’ attached to the end, though I appreciate the sentiment," she made an awkward face and glared briefly at Sakura for the obvious influence she had had on the stranger’s choice of address. "And I truly am sorry that you could not find your enemy here in our home. I hope you have better luck in your search elsewhere. Farewell to you as well."
The pale woman seemed more interested in Elara than anyone else who was gathered there.
She nodded at her in acknowledgment, a small gesture of respect, and then began to walk away with her humongous magic power still radiating from her body like heat from a furnace...
...However, something strange and alarming occurred after she had taken only a few steps.
After moving for about seventy meters or so from her initial location, putting some distance between herself and the assembled warriors, she stopped walking abruptly.
Her body went still, her shoulders stiffened, and then she turned back to face the women and stared at them unnaturally, her expression no longer bored or disappointed but focused and intense.
The white of her eyes went dark, consumed by shadow, and her yellow pupils flashed with an intense focus that had not been there before.
"She wants to attack! Prepare yourselves for combat immediately!" Marina shouted, her voice cutting through the stunned silence, as Elara stuck her hand into empty space—into a small tear in reality that she created with her magic—and pulled out a large, intricate sword nearly her own size.
"Goodness, I never understand these types of beings and their moods," Sakura sighed, observing the now suddenly hostile intruder with exasperation, her fan snapping shut in her hand. "She was more cooperative and reasonable just minutes ago. What changed between then and now to make her turn on us like this?"
The women remained still for a long moment, waiting for the attack to come, waiting for the stranger to make her move, before Sara understood what was happening first, her eyes widening with the realization: "She is targeting Benjamin!"
But it was too late when Sara spoke the words aloud.
The stranger had bolted forward with a supernatural speed and force that none of them could match, moving like a blur past the assembled Amazons, going straight and deep into the village of Verdant Spire.
"Curses! He was her target all along!" Tamar squeezed the bow in her hand tightly, visibly angered by the situation. "Mother, we need to do something fast lest she teleports my Benjamin to a slaughter house of the gods, where we will never see him again!"
***
Some minutes ago, prior to when the intruder had suddenly appeared at the edge of Verdant Spire, Benjamin had been...
