The mental link with the others ended as soon as Geroodrah perished. She stood dumbfounded. Not only did the demon take away her vindication in dispelling Geroodrah, but it also completely outclassed her in her own ability. She cleared her mind once more, dispelling all thought about the offer the demon had given her.
Right now, she needed to first and foremost clear up this mess that she had caused. She could tell. Just now, radars in probably several different countries have all shot up into the sky.Who knows how many mages would appear here within the next couple of hours. Hell, even adventurers would end up at this location soon. She was certain her aura could be felt within the air as far as Central Integra.
She opened her infinite pocket and everyone coughed out of the void. They all landed in a heap before her. Zari at the bottom of the entire pile suffocating. That was at the very least what he had deserved.They quickly helped the kid up.
Ire dusted himself off. He found a second wind after the entire ordeal had finally concluded itself. He rubbed his eyes one more time in disbelief. “You managed to beat the creature?”
Lusha exhaled. She was exhausted. She had not fought like this in how long? Perhaps 1,000 years ago was the last time she had a fight that was more taxing than this one. “As much as I want to hate you, kid.” She turned to Zari. “Your information did help bring his end.”
Zari looked dumbfounded. To think he had helped take down the creature. “He’s dead?”
“Then… is my brother.”
Lusha shook her head. There was something she picked up off of the ground. Clothing colored brown. Within it, she could see flesh and hair and blood bound together as if in a pouch. Nothing dared leak from the apparatus. This was how tightly the demon had crushed his brother’s body.
“This is all that’s left. Well… this is all of him. And all of that demon as well.” She dropped the stone on Zari’s hand. “Don’t worry. Your brother did not suffer. He was already dead a long time ago.” That was right. When she connected minds with everyone, there was a notable lack of another entity within this body. “Geroodrah had simply tricked you with false hopes.”
Zari nodded and clutched onto the remains. Tears left his eyes once more.
Inora couldn’t help but ask. She could feel faint traces of her mana in the air. But even more noticeable, was the lack of anything. There were no trees anymore in this forest, and there was no village off in the distance. With this barren of a landscape it should be easy to notice the village. “Are the villagers…. Are they all.-”
Lusha nodded. “I killed them.” This was as a result of her ability. Inora dared not ask. “Lusha… just what are you?”
She looked back at the woman who asked that question. “Isn’t it obvious?... I’m human just like the rest of you. I’m simply human.”
“You took down a creature that required 3 Hero Rank adventurers. Are you sure you can even call yourself that anymore? You’re much closer to that thing than anything.”
“Ouch… even that would hurt to hear.”
She sat down, exhausted. “I’m sorry Zari.. you’ve lost everything truly. Even your butlers are dead. Soon enough, the adventurers guild will be upon this place.”
She lacked the strength remaining to move much. “When that happens… I’d like you all to omit the details of my being here…”
“What?? Why?! Do you know how much praise you would get? You’d shoot straight to hero rank.”
“No… not after what I did. I’d be branded a villain and hunted down by every adventurer within the guild. I’ve already been involved in one situation like this. It would be too much a coincidence to occur again.”
While Lusha would find that outcome very enticing, she would be displeased by how it would have to end. Though all of the adventurers would come after her, and perhaps there will be some that would have the ability to grant her wish, she may have to leave a trail of carnage everywhere. She did not wish to discard most of the world of its talent. More-so, she feared the outcome that there was no one strong enough to kill her. In that event, she would only find out once she had killed the last challenger. Besides, her actions may end up stifling the growth of an individual who could eventually grow to be capable of ending her.
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This was perhaps why she had never gone the route of becoming the universal villain. “Inora… help me up will you?” Inora tensed up and immediately ran to her side picking her up and letting her lean her arm around her. They were both the same height so it was a perfect match.
Zari sobbed, still clutching onto his brother’s remains. “W-what am I supposed to do now?.” He wailed like the child he was, his fingers that were broken before still limp and swollen purple.
“The only thing you can do is move forward… that is the least that you owe them.” Lusha said.
“Zari… let’s go to your village. There’s only one thing I can do here…. You’ll have to take care of the rest.”
Zari nodded. And the group had left for the village. Rinn stood beside Lusha, clutching onto her other hand.
“You know Rinn… this type of thing… this type of thing will probably be following me more often from now on. It is better you do not follow me. I had thought I lost you earlier.”
Lusha thought about what she was saying, and instead opted not to continue. She shook her head. “Nevermind… it’s stupid.”
She couldn’t help but think about her other versions. How they were dealing with everything that had occured. She could probably see that their worlds were all deceased. But those were universes that were not supposed to be accessed. Aias’ teacher once had a theory about that. To think his beliefs were true. If what he was saying were to be true, then it would mean there were many such worlds. Even ones where those two were alive.
Lusha got rid of those thoughts and left it behind in the other worlds where they belonged. They walked through the scattered terrain only to find that the great Pharolia tree was still standing. Perhaps it truly was a tree of luck. Or perhaps it simply sapped the luck from everything around it. That may be the reason why it is the only thing standing, yet everything else including the village was deceased.
Though, she knew that even this tree would eventually die. The amount of mana she had just released into the terrain was not the kind that one should remain in for too long. In a matter of weeks things would begin to distort. She looked at the withered roots of the tree. Eventually this tree would die as well. She sighed.
“Elemental Magic; Earthen Crevice.” The ground began to sink around the tree. Except she had spaced them out into various different partitions. About 220 different graves had formed around the tree.
She walked up to the tree and punched a hole into it. She gave Zari a suggestive look. He understood exactly what she was suggesting and nodded. Zari placed the remains of his brother within the hole that presented itself. As he did so, Lusha then placed her palm against the tree. “Diamond Chrysalis” The tree became encased in a crystal. This effectively killed the tree, but ensured it would retain its appearance forever. The diamond encased everything down to the roots.
Zari looked in awe at everything. Never had he seen a finger grave. Tears streamed down his face once more and he ran over to Lusha, giving her a hug as he sobbed into her sleeve. “H-hey… come on now I…” She sighed and gave up. He patted the little brats head as he continued to cry uncontrollably.
“You’ve just lost everything… I suppose even I would have done that at your age… if I had a heart back then.”
During this time, Rinn had presented Grodd his hand. None of them had any significant healing magic that could repair arms. But perhaps there was a place where they could have the arm reattached. Lusha utilized the last of her mana to encase Grodd’s arm within a small aqueous solution. “This should help keep it fresh. Until then… we should probably be light with everything. I’ll seal your arm within the void for now.
Grodd nodded and gave her a bow of gratitude. She had wanted to leave the area, yet, she could not. The energy she lacked was too great. The state of everyone else indicated the same. It was impossible to ask this of Grodd or ask that he help. Thus, it would mean they were entirely at the mercy of the investigative units that were soon to come.
As she lay back on the grass and stared at the moon, they began talking about everything that occurred. “The ability of mine…I could not effectively use it in front of you all.” Grodd however, was there to witness the ability for a brief moment before the others had banished him into the void.
“Usually unbinding your mind from that technique left you scrambled. It’s truly an unorthodox technique… that is why everyone here has died. They all connected together and died when I did the same thing to that demon there.” Yet, she couldn’t help but recollect the other demonoid that appeared and immediately understood the inner mechanisms of her ability.
These anomalies were definitely a danger. She wasn’t certain how they were ranked. But if that one had called himself number four… there was a high probability that the others were stronger than him. Perhaps they were even stronger than her.
Not long after they had finished placing everybody within their graves, The mages arrived. The sky was lit up with over 300 different mages of different affiliations and countries. Various high leveled adventurers had also appeared. This must have been Central Integras entire emergency response unit.
She could make out the clasps of over 6, no 7, H.E.R.O Ranked adventurers, 15 platinum grade adventurers, and over 46 diamond rank adventurers. Various high leveled mages also remained afloat above them.
Inora jumped up and waved her hands to them.
A blast of lightning quickly bolted towards her. Lusha had barely moved in enough time to lounge her out of the way.
“What the hell are you all doing?!”
“None of you move!”
“This is the protocol we must use to deal with these kinds of situations. Do you understand?”
Several of the adventurers descended down before them. First the platinum rank adventurers and then the diamond. The Hero rank adventurers remained in the sky along with all of the magicians.
“You will all be coming with us.”
“Remember… my involvement within this is minimal.”
“Tch… I don’t think that would be bought so well. But alright… I’ll try.” Inora stated.
“If a single one of you move, the protocol is to destroy each and every last one of you as fast as possible. They each removed several foreboding shackles from their belt. A type of product similar to amalgems. Except they pacified magic. If one were to try and exert magic through them, they would simply let it out the other end in a non concentrated manner.
Lusha could feel something was definitely going to be off about this. This was a completely different manner of situations than she had dealt with before. There was perhaps a chance that this would end up like what she had feared would end up.
– An event in which she had to make the entire world her enemy.