The World Is Mine For The Taking

Chapter 1483: Chapter 210 - The Land Of Lust (7)

Leon’s POV

I messed up my timing there.

The annoying part was that I realized it almost immediately.

After the attack I’d landed on her, I expected at least a brief moment to regroup, but she came right back at me without hesitation. The force behind her counterattack was ridiculous. It caught me off guard for just a split second, but in a fight like this, that was more than enough to create problems.

My reaction ended up slower than it should’ve been.

Not by much.

Just enough to make me aware that I’d screwed up.

Fortunately, I still managed to block the attack.

Looking back on it now, things could’ve gone a whole lot worse. If I’d reacted any slower, I probably would’ve ended up getting cut clean in half, and that would’ve been an incredibly stupid way to die.

The second I realized she’d committed too much to the attack, I moved.

There was an opening.

A small one, but it was there.

After putting that much force into her strike, there was no way she could immediately follow up with another attack. Her recovery wasn’t fast enough.

Mine was.

I stepped forward and drove my knee straight into her face.

"Kuh...!"

The impact landed perfectly.

Her hand immediately shot up to her nose as she stumbled backward. Blood quickly started slipping through the gaps between her fingers, which told me I’d hit her harder than I originally thought.

Not that I felt particularly guilty about it.

She took another shaky step backward before dropping to one knee. To stop herself from collapsing completely, she drove her sword into the ground and leaned against it for support.

"You...!"

The glare she sent me was intense enough that it probably would’ve terrified most people.

Unfortunately for her, I was getting used to it.

I stared back while trying to figure out what exactly was going on inside her head.

Honestly, I wasn’t coming up with much.

Maybe that was unfair.

Actually, it was definitely unfair.

Still, every conversation I’d had with her so far had left me with the same impression.

She wasn’t exactly the brightest person I’d ever met.

Every time she opened her mouth, it was another threat or another promise about how she was going to kill me.

After hearing the same thing repeatedly, it mostly felt repetitive.

I honestly couldn’t help wondering how she’d become a Sin in the first place.

Then again, maybe intelligence wasn’t one of the requirements.

"I am going to kill you! Mark my words, I’m going to...!"

"See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about," I said with a sigh. "You’re doing it again."

Her eye twitched.

"You’ve been repeating the same thing this entire time. At least come up with a new threat."

Her expression immediately darkened.

"If you had just told me what happened to Elise, this could’ve been a pretty simple fight. Instead, you’ve spent all this time dragging things out."

"I don’t have anything to tell a man like you!" she snapped.

Well.

That answered absolutely none of my questions.

At this point, her hatred toward men wasn’t even subtle anymore.

Honestly, it was almost impressive.

I had a feeling I could tell her the sky was blue and she’d still find a way to be offended.

"C-Can I try talking to her instead?" Foriel asked carefully.

I looked over at her.

"Sure," I replied. "Go ahead. I’ll make sure she doesn’t try anything."

Foriel nodded nervously before taking a step forward.

"Y-Your Majesty, may I have permission to speak with you?"

The change in Amodeus happened so quickly that it almost gave me whiplash.

One moment she looked ready to kill somebody.

The next moment she actually looked willing to listen.

I blinked.

Well.

Apparently being a woman came with special privileges.

"Go on. I’ll allow it."

That was certainly convenient.

Her bias against men was honestly ridiculous.

"But he isn’t allowed to listen," she added while pointing directly at me.

Foriel looked back at me awkwardly.

I simply shrugged.

"If it gets us answers, I don’t really care."

So I turned around and walked away.

I didn’t even consider trying to eavesdrop.

The last thing I needed was for her to sense even the slightest trace of magic and immediately assume I was spying on her. Knowing her, that would’ve turned into another fight within seconds.

And frankly, I was tired of it, really.

For the first time since we’d met, it felt like we were actually making progress.

I wasn’t interested in ruining that.

So I waited.

Thankfully, it didn’t take very long.

A few minutes later, Foriel returned.

Her expression immediately told me she’d learned something.

"She told me she had your sister as a prisoner."

I frowned.

"Had?"

Foriel nodded.

"According to her, she escaped."

I let out a slow breath.

That was good news.

That was also terrible news.

Somehow, it managed to be both at the same time.

At least Elise wasn’t trapped anymore.

That part was reassuring.

The problem was that if she’d escaped, nobody knew where she had gone afterward.

Which meant we still had to find her.

"Then let’s get moving before we completely lose track of her," I said.

"O-Okay," Foriel replied before hesitating. "But what about her?"

I glanced toward Amodeus.

She was still kneeling in the distance, watching us.

Honestly, it was a little creepy.

"I think she’s willing to leave us alone now," I said. "It’s probably better to ignore her and focus on finding Elise."

At least, that was how it looked to me.

I didn’t think she was going to attack again.

Not right away, anyway.

If I had to guess, I’d managed to hurt her pride pretty badly during that fight.

She definitely hadn’t expected things to end like this.

I looked back at her one final time.

She was still watching and looking like she wanted to throw something heavy at my head.

But she wasn’t moving.

She wasn’t reaching for her sword.

She wasn’t preparing another attack.

For now, that was enough.

Whatever she was thinking didn’t really matter.

Finding Elise mattered.

Everything else could wait.

With that settled, we finally left this place behind.

***

The whole thing ended in a surprisingly anticlimactic way.

After everything that had happened, I’d honestly expected some kind of final confrontation before we left.

Instead, everything just sort of... ended.

Not that I was complaining.

A peaceful ending was still an ending.

After putting some distance between ourselves and that area, I asked Foriel to stay somewhere safe while I searched for Elise.

"Are you sure you’ll be okay?" she asked.

"I should be asking you that," I replied.

She looked away awkwardly.

I couldn’t help smiling a little.

"Don’t worry. Searching from the air will be much faster."

To make sure she stayed protected, I put the Guardian around her.

That way, even if something dangerous showed up while I was gone, she’d have protection.

Once everything was settled, I took off.

The moment I gained altitude, I was reminded why this was the better option.

The desert stretched endlessly in every direction.

From the ground, searching a place this large would’ve taken forever.

From the air, it was still difficult, but at least it was manageable.

The wind rushed past me as I continued flying over the sea of sand.

Dunes stretched across the horizon.

More dunes appeared beyond those.

Then even more after that.

At some point, it started feeling like the desert had personally decided to become infinite just to annoy me.

I continued searching.

Minutes passed.

Then more minutes.

Nothing but sand.

And somehow even more sand.

Then finally, I spotted something.

At first, it was just a small shape in the distance.

A figure lying motionless against the desert floor.

The moment I recognized who it was, my stomach dropped.

"Elise..."

I immediately descended.

The landing wasn’t graceful.

I didn’t care.

The second my feet touched the ground, I rushed toward her.

The closer I got, the worse she looked.

Her body looked painfully thin.

Her face was pale.

She looked completely drained.

For a brief moment, panic grabbed hold of me.

I quickly checked her condition.

Thankfully, she was still breathing.

Relief hit me so hard that I almost sat down right there.

She wasn’t dying.

At least, not immediately.

She was simply exhausted.

Extremely exhausted, in fact.

Without wasting another second, I started channeling healing magic into her body.

At the same time, I transferred some of my mana to help stabilize her condition.

The effects weren’t dramatic.

I wasn’t expecting a miracle.

Still, I could see small improvements.

A little color gradually returned to her face.

The lifeless look she’d had began to fade.

Her breathing became steadier and more natural.

Since exhaustion seemed to be the main problem, the healing wasn’t enough to wake her up completely.

Even so, it helped.

And right now, that was what mattered.

The tension that had been sitting in my chest for who knew how long finally started to ease.

She wasn’t awake yet.

She wasn’t fully recovered yet.

But she was alive.

She was stable.

After everything that had happened, that was enough for me.

I lowered my shoulders and let out a long breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

Thank goodness.

I finally found her.