"Mhmm..." Elizabeth eyed the three uninvited guests a kilometer or so away from her with a skeptical look. She thought, 'Great, two Saints and an expert in the Transcendent Foundation Stage...' She dropped to the ground before briskly walking over to meet them halfway; internally wary as something disconcerting came to mind.
Eventually, the two parties came to a stop about ten meters apart from one another. The same man that assaulted Krok at Tyre's Guild asked, "You're supposed to be the Supreme Mage of Tyre City, right?" His tone was derisive enough for Elizabeth to raise a brow.
"What's it to you?" Elizabeth responded as antagonistically as she had been talked to. She couldn't help but let a bit of Lisa's personality cloud her judgment as she thought, 'This fucking Level 29 ant dares to look at me like this? Hmph!' A single serious punch from her would utterly decimate him, after all.
"Huaaah? You wanna fight, bitc-" The man's short temper had been tested. Alas, his superior had put a hand on his shoulder, surging with deadly energy as if to convey the command, "Stand down."
Smiling herself, the man's superior — the woman at the Transcendent Foundation Stage — looked at Elizabeth with gleaming eyes as she said, "Pay this idiot no mind." Her blunt words both surprised Elizabeth while simultaneously cutting into her junior's pride. She brought out a badge and flashed it for Elizabeth to read before saying, "We come from Inghile, the Empire's capital, to offer you an invitation." As she looked at Elizabeth she grew more and more excited by what she saw.
'She's supposed to be fifteen?! A fucking fifteen-year-old Peak Phase King Mage with enough firepower to rival Saints! What a fucking treasure I've found~' She couldn't be sure that Elizabeth's age was correct until it was confirmed with more advanced methods at the capital of the Empire, but looking at her now, it sure looked to be the case. Even if it wasn't, the merits she would earn from recruiting someone so powerful would be nothing to scoff at; regardless of Elizabeth's true age.
"Mhmm… Joining the military?" Elizabeth spoke out loud as she thought about rejecting the offer outright. However, Lisa — being as active and noisy as ever — strongly recommended against such actions, saying, "No! Idiot host, this is our chance! We can thrive on the battlefield and grow faster!"
"Mhmm… I guess it depends then," Elizabeth said as she looked to have made up her mind.
"It depends?" The Spirit Realm expert momentarily glared at Elizabeth for not instantly accepting to her terms, but before her two subordinates could notice she returned to her feigned jovial temperament to asked, "On what exactly does it depend?"
The Saints before her may not have noticed, but Elizabeth certainly did. Though she didn't react, it made her think of choosing her words better, lest the situation devolves to a point of irreconciliation. "Well, is there any important war in the midst of developing? Any conflict where I'd constantly need to fight or kill?"
"No," the woman spoke firmly. Yet neither she nor the two behind her could contain their disdain for Elizabeth as she looked like she was a complete coward; daring to ask if she could avoid fighting.
Sighing, Elizabeth shook her head as she said, "How unfortunate… Listen, I appreciate the invitation, but right now I'm in the middle of cultivation. I'd be fine if I traded the time spent on meditation on fighting, but since there's not much conflict for me to develop by any meaningful amount, I'll just stay here. If the Irelian Empire is ever in the throes of war, however, you can come back and ask me again..." As she spoke, her crimson eyes seemed to cast a spell of pressure over the three before her, as they fully felt how sorry she felt for not being able to participate in a grand war.
"You'd really rather stay here to cultivate than at the Empire's capital? With your prestige, surely there would be countless resources better than the trash that you could find around here..." The Spirit Realm expert pressed.
"Really? Even resources for a Time Mage like me?" Elizabeth asked as she internally cast, 'Manifest: Time.' As the incantation sounded off from her soul, a wall veritable mountain of cyan-tinted Time Magic manifested above her.
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"Mhmm… You have me there," the Spirit Realm expert let out a sigh before adding, "In our world, Origin-type treasures are far and few in between. Only those in the Foundation Collapse Stage have a shot of actually making use of those around here..."
She gave Elizabeth a final look before saying, "Well then, Miss Ultimatia, I guess that's all there is to our discussion, goodbye." Along with her two subordinates, who did their best to hide the shock in their systems, the woman gave Elizabeth a bow before turning around and leaving. Yet, for some unknown reason, Elizabeth couldn't help but look at their fleeting backs with worry and a foreboding sense of premonition.
After a full five minutes passed, and her Spatial Pinging — as she had dubbed the crude way she used spatial ripples as a method for detection — failed to pick up on their traces, Elizabeth returned to her Base Camp; traveling a short fifteen kilometers.
Even as she thought of herself as being paranoid, Elizabeth didn't hesitate to conceal herself with her Spatial Shift ability before walking the distance back to Base Camp. The first thing she did when she arrived was call everyone out for an emergency meeting.
"Huh? What's up?" Sun asked. Thinking that they might be under a threat for Elizabeth to call all of them out, he along with the rest of the party vigilantly made their way out to the fortress-like tent's entrance.
"We need to move as soon as possible..." Elizabeth muttered as she fought the unease she felt welling up in her system.
"Move? But that'll ruin all the formations I've already set up!" Jane couldn't help but voice her concerns as it seemed like a total waste to leave so soon. Her formations weren't even a month old! They were not even close to reaching the end of their usable lifespan.
"It's fine, I can just cut our losses if we really need it by trading more Veins on Earth. Just understand that I'm not doing this on a whim… Just a little while ago I met with some experts of this world; one was even in the Spirit Realm."
"Uh… Ok? That still doesn't explain why we have to move, now does it-" Liam's grumpy tone was cut short as Yrre delivered a chop to his head. "Tsk, you're still so naive… Obviously, master wants us to move to avoid any greedy eyes coming upon our group's resources. I've heard from your talks of how 'harsh' the cultivators of Earth are, but they still behave like children in the face of true cultivators. You don't know the meaning of cut-throat until you have a knife in your back because the person you thought was your friend wanted your treasures..."
Still not quite getting it, Liam shrugged his shoulders as he helped the others pack up. Within the minute, Elizabeth's group had everything prepared. All the formations were dispelled, with every Spirit Vein being returned to her and the fortress-like tent already retracted back into its disc; apparently, it could be redeployed.
Alas, even with everything progressing even faster than she expected, Elizabeth couldn't shake the alarming sense that something wasn't right. As she was being handed the last Spirit Vein — the Supreme Duality Spirit Vein, which everyone in the group used — Jane couldn't help but ask, "You alright? You look a little pal-"
"Shit!" Elizabeth's eyes lit up with a burst of cyan before she seemingly teleported before Tristan with her saber already on hand. Boom! Along with a terribly loud booming sound that came as a result of two titanic forces colliding, everyone present could also hear what sounded like glass breaking.
Within an instant, even though she had been blasted several dozen meters Elizabeth didn't hesitate to launch an attack lest Tristan gets hit by the same Spirit Realm expert. "Perish, Javelin!" Within a tenth of a thousandth of a second, a greyish black mass formed the image of a javelin even as it flew in the opposite direction of its caster. By the time it stood an instant away from striking its intended target, Elizabeth had already recovered and shot forth to continue intercepting the Spirit Realm expert that had ambushed her. It was the same woman that had leftover half an hour ago; the same woman, Elizabeth made sure to look out for by using her spatial ripples all the while she and her party packed things up.
The moment Elizabeth's Death-imbued Magic Javelin made contact with the woman that had ambushed her, the construct appeared to have completely been negated; having stopped completely in its tracks from piercing her flesh. However, before the woman could mock Elizabeth for her weak attack, the spear began to collapse in on itself far too fast for her to do anything and before she knew it, it blew up in her face.
The explosive force generated from the Javelin collapsing in on itself was nowhere near the level of firepower Elizabeth's Cold Flames possessed; even before she acquired her Blazebreeze Affinity and improved it to Mediocre Tier. However, it was still more than enough to cause the Spirit Realm expert to flinch, especially with all the resulting Death Magic that threatened to consume her.
'Why does it always come down to this?' Elizabeth thought to herself before activating her 6th Seal of Chaos, instantly quintupling her physical parameters. Her saber, Megadia's, primary and secondary effects had already been activated, as Elizabeth's already outrageous speed increase even more along with the size of the saber's blade.
"Manifest Space," Elizabeth said as she solidified the space behind her opponent and forced a clash. Boom! Another booming sound reverberated for dozens of kilometers, yet no one had the luxury to turn and witness Elizabeth's battle as the rest of her party had two high leveled Saints to defeat.