Hera's first thought was to get the mana stone herself. But Neria wanted to help. In fact, she suggested that the entire party chip in. If they had a very large mana stone, even if it could not recharge on its own. A mana stone could allow the triton to use more powerful heals. For a moment, they would be safe. That way, she could do some emergency procedures without tapping into the mana she had compressed for a more pressing emergency. Another argument was made about the other uses the mana stone could have, from helping Flint craft larger objects and improve his armor to supplying various tools with mana. Ultimately, they all agreed to give some money to the cause. Even if most of it was money, they had won from Hera herself.
The Empress still paid for most of it, even without considering the gambling. If it was up to her, she would buy the entire thing herself, but after dying as Hera Kingsley, she lost all of her money. Even with her numerous dungeon runs before starting to travel with this team, her finances could have been better.
Actually, buying the mana stone wasn't an issue. Hera was a woman with a mission, and she was a woman with a mission. When she went into a store and asked for it, the seller took one look at her and gave up the idea of haggling. After spending close to half a million gold, they got a small stone that could hold up to 40 million mana. That was considerably more than anyone in the team could create, but it didn't matter. The main reason why Hera picked this store is because they sold the mana stones already charged. The Empress' intention was to use the mana stone right away.
After buying that and a 'potion of the berserker,' which gave her a 50% buff to her strength for one minute, the drawback was that after the duration, her strength would be reduced by 50% for the next 10 minutes. With that out of the way, she marched back to the dungeon. The rest of the team was a bit worried due to her intensity. However, when Viper asked what they would do if something killed one of their friends, the team understood.
About forty minutes later, they arrived in the dungeon, and they quickly moved to the Monarch's territory. In around 8 minutes, they found the dungeon boss. Hera didn't waste time and asked for every single buff the team could give her. She also drank the potion in a single gulp. With all of that setup, she created, for the first time, a legendary-grade venomous weapon. It used almost half of the mana inside the mana stone, but that didn't matter. The Ophidianite wanted nothing more than to obliterate the Monarch. Her weapon of choice was a dagger. One that she placed in a simple scabbard, with no skills or stats to its name, that she bought from the store.
"Neria, trap it, and I'm going," Hera said, her eyes cold and snake-like. Her own voice was filled with hatred, which scared Vash and Skyler slightly. They'd never seen her like that, nor did they know she was capable of such a strong anger.
As a matter of fact, they were not the only ones surprised by that. Daskka, Lurize, Livy, and Amber, the only court members who were around the Empress before she became an Ophidianite, were also concerned. They were silently discussing if this was something related to the court's emotion, to be a different species, or if it had to do with the guild and what happened with Silah.
While that was going on, Hera also used a Fire Elemental Strength spell in her venomous dagger to increase its damage. With all the buffs active and the Monarch of the Glen in her sights, she just waited for Neria's signal. The triton knew they didn't have long, so she just went for it. She pulled some water from her staff and sent it to the Monarch. The water wrapped around its body and lifted it up from the ground. Hera took the chance and dashed at the monster. Triggering her [All In] skill to increase the power of her strike.
At the same time, she grabbed the legendary venomous dagger and used [Grasshopper Draw], spending not just her own entire mana pool but also the 20 million mana that was still left inside the mana stone. To top it all off, she also added a [Weapon Break] as she swung the dagger. The combination of skills, along with the flood of mana boosted by her [mana Touched] title. Created an effect that was both terrifying and precisely what she expected.
The moment the blade of her dagger touched the neck of the boss monster, there was a flash, turning the entire world black and white for a split second. A massive jet of fire was created, along with the destruction of the weapon. It was a combination of the flammable venom that was part of the weapon with the fire that was boosting its strength. The flames started white, turning blue, then orange, and finally read in the distance. Everything in front of Hera was carbonized in an instant. The trees, the Monarch, and even the ground itself melted due to the intense heat, forming small pools of lava. That fire was part of the result, but it wasn't everything the attack did. There was also a considerably large opening on the ground, currently being filled by the molten ink that was covering the ground. It seemed like the ink even helped spread the flames, which were growing with each second.
'Empress!' Dusa's voice finally came through.
"Sorry, what?" Hera asked, but she realized she couldn't hear her own voice, 'What is going on?'
'The rest of the team is calling you back, and… Flint was telling you to pick that up quickly,' Dusa said with some uncertainty.
'Pick what up?' the Empress looked down and saw a large green horn with small flowers painted on it, almost as if they were growing from inside it. The horn was also about to fall into some of the lava that was spreading under her feet. Hera moved quickly, grabbing the drop and moving back to the rest of the team. She could see their mouths moving, but there was no sound coming out of it. Or she wasn't able to hear what they said.
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Neria slapped Flint, who seemed to be yelling and grabbed Hera's hand, pulling her away from the flames.
'Flint is cursing. Saying that it was too loud and that you should've warned him. Skyler and Vash are asking if you are okay, Roan is asking about the skills you used, and Neria is yelling for everyone to shut up so she can focus on healing everyone's ears.
'Why are their ears a problem?' the Ophidianite asked. She didn't hear anything when using the attack.
'Because it was loud! Really loud, loud as fuck girl!' DJ said with an excited voice.
'I think you didn't get to hear it because the pressure changed too quickly. That popped your eardrums without you even noticing,' Autumn added.
'Oh? Really?' Hera reached out to her ears and felt something warm and a bit sticky coming out. She didn't even feel that happening.
Neria slapped the Ophidianite's hands away and said something else, but Hera waited for one of the court members to translate. The healer was casting spells the entire time they were walking.
'She is saying that you shouldn't poke it and that we need to leave the dungeon before she can heal. Apparently, your eardrums are completely gone. According to her, fixing an eardrum is one thing; making a new one grow is another entirely, and she needs peace and quiet to make it work properly.
Outside the dungeon, Viper took the job of being Hera's translator while she was treated by the healer. They double-checked, and the horn they got was the drop they had been trying to get for over a week already. It was called 'Pristine Monarch's Ivory Horn.' Which was a mouthful. There was also a passing mention of the antidote when they used [Inspect] on it, but it looked like a footnote, not its main use. She also told Roan about her skills and added that she didn't expect the result to be that strong. Vash praised the attack, but Skyler warned her not to use that combo outside a dungeon. The destruction it could cause was too big, and the fallout would be too much of a problem for anyone to deal with.
It took Neria about 30 minutes of constant healing to fix Hera's ears, but in the end, it worked. She could hear again just as well as she could before killing the Monarch.
"Are you hearing ok?" Neria asked.
"Yeah. I think so. Thanks for the help. And sorry for this," Hera turned to the rest of the team, "Sorry to everyone. I was just really angry."
"It's fine. In the end, it worked. And the money we spent was mostly yours anyway," Roan shrugged.
"Again, don't use that skill outside. Unless you are ready to destroy a large chunk of a room. Even if you go to deeper layers, be careful. If you are strong enough to do that right now, I can only imagine what will happen when you are stronger," Skyler shivered.
"Also," Neria smiled and held Hera's head with both her hands. Giving a warm smile that caused the Empress to blush a little. Only to be hit by both of the triton's hands at the same time. Neria aimed right for Hera's freshly healed ears, making them ring like crazy, "Don't use fire to do that again! Or sound. If you are going to use a skill like that, at least make something that is not going to hurt you."
"OW!" Hera rubbed her ear, "Now I can't hear anything again. What did you just ask me to do? Always use fire?" she teased, but Neria slapped the back of her head again, "Ok, ok. I got it. Stop hitting me!"
"Stop being a brat! That was dangerous."
"To be fair, I had no idea this would happen like that. It was the first time I used an attack that powerful."
They continued talking for a few minutes just to make sure everyone was rested and without any injuries before heading back to the city. Things were looking up. They got the horn sooner than expected; they got a large mana stone that needed charging, but still, now they could take a day for Skyler and Vash to enjoy the city before going to their next mission.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case. Halfway through their walk back to the city, all of their tablets rang. A message from Milla asking them to call her as soon as they left the dungeon. She would never ask them something like that unless it was urgent, so they gathered around Flint and called her.
The harpy took the call before it rang twice, "We have a problem!"
"What's wrong?" Skyler asked.
"A rampage is going to start three rooms away from you. It's not that big of a place, but there are two cities, and they don't have enough people to protect both."
"Shit, are they evacuating one of them? To make sure no one gets hurt?" Roan asked.
"Yeah, but there is another problem. One of those cities has most of the residents and the other the infrastructure. Power plants are being used to refill the mana crystals going to the front lines. A few vertical farms make food for a few rooms. And that second city is nowhere big enough to protect everyone who lives there.
"Can't they just leave? Go to a different room?" Vash asked.
"Potentially, yeah. But the closest city is 3 rooms away. Taking an entire city of refugees through several rooms is going to be dangerous. Stop the quest you are doing and head there. I'll ask the healer to leave the front lines to fix this."
"We just got the drop. Let us confirm with the healers here if this is what they need. We need to head back to the city anyway to get our things," Skyler replied.
"Really? That's good. OK, while you are going, I'm checking a route for you all to take. With Nimbus's help, you should get there soon," Milla said, turning to a different screen and typing away.
"Nimbus won't be here to help. He was killed… broken. It will take a few days before I can summon him again. But we do have Livy. So if the route would go through water we can probably make an even better time than if we were with Nimbus, " Hera turned to Flint, "As long as we have a boat or something like that."
"I have some rafts, but I can get the blueprint for a proper boat and the materials for one if the Alliance helps with the bill. It shouldn't be that expensive, but I don't know."
"Right. OK, ok. Got it. Go to the city and finish things up. I'll double-check if you can make it on foot and keep you updated while I work," Milla ended the call. Just as soon as she did that, the entire team started to run. Not desperately, but they might need all the time they can get. A rampage wasn't easy to deal with, and if it was aimed at a place that was important for the army, they couldn't afford to abandon it.