Chapter 23: Demon continent? Lets go!
"So, you both officially dating now bro?"
"Well yeah. I don't see any reason not to."
Mays answered the question with his normal indifferent tone. He was just being him.
"Hehe don't say it out loud. I'm embarrassed."
Ria tried to hide it but it really showed on her face. She was extremely happy.
"That… that's the Pink Demon Ria right? I'm not dreaming right now am I?"
Jace whispered to Sanortep as if he couldn't believe his eyes. This meek and feminine looking beautiful girl in front of him right now couldn't be Ria. Ria from his memory was a ruthless demonic empress who looked down on everything. She trampled on everything which blocked her path like a real demon.
"Is there anything wrong?"
As if Ria had a sixth sense, she asked Jace with a wicked smile on her face. There was even a killing intent embedded within her casual tone.
"Nothing… nothing could possibly be wrong. Congratulation to you both hahaha."
Jace awkwardly tried to laugh it off but beads of cold sweat were totally apparent on his forehead. That girl really was Ria. Nobody could send shiver down his spine with just mere casual remarks.
"Hehe thank you."
With a bewitching smile, Mia responded as if she had done nothing previously.
Not just Jace, Rose and Leet who was also present in the same meeting room also showed a dumbfounded expression when they saw how Ria currently acted. It was like something had possessed her, changing her personality entirely.
These people had known her for years. Not to mention, her bearing this past five years were way too excessive. She was the exact definition of a tyranny.
"Enough idle talk. Let's get to the main topic now."
Mays's tone changed as he looked over the face of every single person present inside the room. Currently, both Mays and Ria were inside the meeting room of The Alliance Headquarter together with the five top executive of The Alliance.
"So, you really plan on going to the demon continent?"
Sanortep highlighted the main issue. Mays already told him about this before they started this meeting. Even Jace already knew about this beforehand. Leet, Rose and King Edward on the other hand, showed a shocked expression. They themselves knew how dangerous it was to attempt that.
"Yeh. I'm not the type to stay here doing nothing."
Mays replied full of confident. Apparently, he already made up his mind.
"But Mays, even we didn't know what lies ahead of that portal. Every party we sent there ended up missing without contact."
Jace tried to inject some sense into Mays. To him, it was plain suicidal to just go there without any information.
"It's okay. I'll go with him anyways."
Ria who sat beside Mays added. She even blushed a little when Mays looked at her.
"But still…"
"Let him go if he want. It would be a great help for us if he succeed in doing so. Isn't that right, mister great leader?"
"That's true but the danger…"
"So what? No matter who attempted it, the fact that it was dangerous still remained."
Before Jace even finished his line, he got interrupted by Leet. His sarcastic tone was obvious.
"Just because you couldn't do it with the best raid team in your guild doesn't mean that Mays couldn't succeed does it?"
"Tsk!!"
Leet gritted his teeth in anger since he couldn't retort to what Ria just said. It was an undisputable fact after all. On their third try of scouting the demon continent, Leet arranged his best raid team of one hundred player to go there but they failed.
Worst of all, the entrance were closed off after twenty five member of his guild entered and they lost contact ever since. Only after a few days later, the entrance was opened again but of course, nobody dared to walk into it anymore.
Sacrificing spirits to gather information was also not a good idea. These spirits were the same as players in regard of life. They only had one life. If they died, their spirits tablet would forever disappeared from the archive cube. That would only meant the information about the demon continent that they wanted would still be outside their reach. In case of a players who owned spirits died, all their spirits also died altogether with them.
It was even debated that the entrance they ventured into might be a special region, a raid specified zone with the high possibility of it being a zone similar to twenty five man dungeon raid area. Too bad that an elite team of twenty five player was not something that could be gathered easily. More so when the safety of the participant were not even guaranteed.
"In that case, would you like some personnel to aid you in investigating the demon continent? I don't mind going along with you even."
Sanortep was totally concerned about Mays's well-being. They were blood brothers after all.
"Nah, it's okay. You knew that I prefer to act solo."
"Not solo! I'm with you this time."
Ria interjected as she pouted in dissatisfaction. She hated to be neglected the most.
"Ah yea. Sorry I forgot."
"Hehe it's okay."
Ria smiled happily right after Mays patted her head. The others inside the room were totally not used to this Ria in front of them.
"If that is the case then we will open the portal gate inside this kingdom at whatever date you wanted. The other two gate was located far away from here anyways."
"Yeah. We will make sure that there would be no problem with the teleportation from here to Tengah Island."
There were no portal gate which connects human continent with demon continent directly. The only way for anyone to travel from either continent was to teleport into Tengah Island before proceeding toward another portal gate. Tengah Island was also the location of the Great War five years ago.
"Bam!"
A loud slamming sound echoed within the meeting room.
"Master! Emergency!"
Damia who rushed into the meeting room without any notice ran toward Mays before she whispered something to him.
"Ugh, for something like that to happen. Ria, can you wrap it up here? I'm going somewhere for a bit."
"Okay. Leave it to me."
"Thanks."
Following Damia, Mays walked out of the meeting room with haste. The brief silence was broken with the sound of the door being shut after Mays left the room.
"Before we started, I'd fuckin kill anyone who dare to speak ill of me in front of Mays. Period."
Ria's mouth curled up into a cold smile filled with killing intent as she uttered that line.
"And you. I don't know what is it that yer planning to do but be warned if by any chance I caught wind of your evil scheme, your so called pleasant life here will be history!"
Her finger pointed at Leet without any distinction as she shouted all of a sudden. It seemed like there were already bad blood between them beforehand. With the way Leet tried to crossed Mays earlier, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't do anything underhanded.
Let alone Jace, even Sanortep who could be said was in good term with her felt dreaded over the overbearing killing intent emanated from her. At this moment, everyone inside the meeting room agreed upon one thing, this person in front of them really was the Pink Demon without a doubt.
"Now that everything is clear, let's start this meeting earnestly shall we?"
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Neverrain Mountain, SpiritSociety lodging suite.
"Silvia. Silvia left us!"
"Master! Mira couldn't stop her! Mira tried but…"
"It's okay. Calm down."
Mays patted their head trying to calm the two of them down. Aloha was obviously flustered while Mira was clearly blaming herself. She was there when Silvia's behaviour made an abrupt change before she dashed out of their resting area.
"Master. I don't really know what exactly happened but could it be that someone was targeting us?"
Syaitona who stood nearby came up with reasons for Silvia's sudden change. She was not nearby when Silvia made her sudden move but she could sense something like a debuff energy scattered all over the room. She was a berserker after all. Most of her skill dealt with curse and debuff which affect her body during a fight hence she was more proficient in sensing them.
"Yep. There was no mistaking it. Something or someone might had been affecting her current status. I'm not sure about the cause yet though."
"Figured. Silvia wouldn't be like that if that was not the case."
"For now we need to stop her from doing anything foolish. Come."
"Yes master."
After summoning Flamence, Mays and Syaitona immediately rode the dragon in haste. Mays also gave instruction to Damia to wait for Ria and informed her about the current situation at hand. He even told Damia to wait for them here until further notice. Damia just nodded to the order given to her without any question.
Mira and Aloha also rode Flamence afterward, leaving only Damia alone. If not because the order entrusted to her by Mays, she would also move together with them. There was no way for her not to be worried when one of their close companion suddenly acted strangely.
Mays knew that Silvia was not on her right might at the moment. It couldn't be helped since spirits were vulnerable to debuff.
"Glad I still have several of these thing left."
Mays sighed as he pulled out one glass orb from his infinity belt. That glass orb was no ordinary item for sure. It was in fact a cash shop's item. Since Mays rarely spent dollars on game, he barely had any cash shop's item with him. He only kept several PVP necessities with him all the time.
Spirit Tracking Orb.
As the name suggest, it only had one function which was to track spirits whom their owner had lost contact with. Back in the game, this item was mostly used to look for spirits which had been brainwashed nor captured by the enemy.
"Activate! Locate Silvia Rainchaser, the wind spirit."
With that command from Mays, the glass orb immediately shone brightly before it showed the projection of Silvia who was running in a forest. With the pamphlet of the empires map in his other hand, Mays tried to deduce the current location of Silvia.
"Flamence, head east!"
After looking at the map, Mays decided that the largest forest at the east of Neverrain Mountain would be the best location to begin. That forest was quite a distance from the mountain but with the speed of Flamence, it would only take Mays minutes to get there.
"Master, Silvia just ran past Bersa City."
Syaitona who kept observing the projection from the glass orb informed Mays about Silvia's current whereabouts.
"Sec, let me recheck the map."
That city was located several kilometers away from the large forest they were planning to head toward. Mays immediately ordered Flamence to change its course to catch up.
"Flamence, head southeast with haste!"
"Roarrrrrrrrrrr!!"
As if it felt the urgency of the matter at hand, Flamence roared as it burst out and increased its flying speed.
"Silvia… Nothing actually wrong with her right?"
"I think so."
Both Mira and Aloha seemed restless. This was the first time this kind of event happened after all. That was true if they only considered the time they got summoned into this world. Some of them did get brainwashed back in HeavensTale but they didn't seem to recall any of that. With how their personality and mind had been set with the temperament of a teenage girl, this kind of behavior was normal for them.
The wild goose chase continued for more than one hour with Flamence reducing its speed for better visual on the landscape. Even with the help of real time projection from the glass orb, it was still a hard task to find one person in this large empire.
Maybe because lady luck was currently smiling on their side, they managed to find Silvia after Flamence flew past another thick forest. Silvia who was running inside the forest jumped out at around the same time when Flamence flew past that exact area.
Mays leapt down from Flamence right away. He landed directly in front of Silvia who was currently still running at the outskirt of the forest.
Silvia who was usually calm and level headed was now totally enraged. Both her eyes were blood red. It was obvious that her mental state was clouded. She even tried to attack Mays who suddenly appeared in front of her.
''SCRAM!!''
With daggers on each of her hand, Silvia slashed at Mays who stood motionless, blocking her way. Mays on the other hand, had no intention of fighting back. He spread both his hands open as he endured slash after slash of Silvia's dagger.
Maybe because Silvia's main profession was a hunter, her damage with her side weapon were not as strong. Not to mention with how proficient Mays was with a fight, he easily evaded fatal strike leaving only the non lethal one landed on his body. Up till the moment when Silvia started panting because of the fatigue she accumulated, Mays hugged her forcefully.
"GET OFF ME!!"
Silvia shrieked. She was still stabbing Mays with the daggers in her hand.
"Let… me… go."
One stab after another. It became slower as time passed.
"…."
The barrage of dagger stab finally stopped. Syaitona and the rest of the spirits on top of Flamence were all watching the scene with a distressed expression on their faces. They tried their hardest not to interfere as per ordered by Mays but it was apparent how hard it was for them to hold themselves back.
Mays put Silvia down on the ground as he made her drink a yellow potion, a Clarity Potion. As the name suggest, that yellow potion helped in clarifying and removing bad status or debuff within the body.
Back in HeavensTale, that potion was used on those who had bad status such as [Paralyzed], [Poisoned], [Confused], [Sleep] or even [Mindcontrolled]. Mays decided that this potion was the best solution for Silvia's current condition.
Soon enough, Silvia opened both her eyes weakly. There were no more traces of impurities within her clear eyes now.
"Finally cooled your head off?"
Mays asked after their eyes met.
"Sss… sorry master. I… I point my blade at you. I…"
Trace of guilt was clearly shown in Silvia's eyes. Tears even started dripping from both her eyes. She just couldn't accept the fact that she stabbed her master who tried to help her.
"It's okay. None of it was your fault."
Mays didn't care one bit about that. He was actually relieved when the yellow potion proved effective. He would be at his wits end if even that potion was useless.
Spirits was a being faithful to their only master. For a spirit to hurt their own master, there were nothing more sinful than that. Silvia who had done that was feeling extremely conflicted right at the moment.
"But… but…"
"No buts. Everything was as I said. Or do you perhaps thought that I might be wrong?"
With an intimidating tone, Mays cut off the hesitating Silvia.
"No master. You are right."
Silvia gave up. She couldn't possibly deny whatever her master said.
"Good."
"Ugh… but… Golia…"
Mays was quite shocked when he heard the name muttered by Silvia. Silvia accidentally uttered that name as both her hand held her aching head.
"Golia? That name… Could it be? Nah it can't be… but what if… Shit this is troublesome. I need to verify it first before coming to a conclusion."
Mays was deep in his thought. That name was familiar to him. He couldn't be wrong. One after another, questions kept popping out inside his brain. With little information he currently had, obviously he couldn't came up with a definite answer.
"Master?"
"Nah its nothing."
Mays who was disturbed by Silvia came back to his senses. He observed Silvia again just to make sure that there was nothing wrong with her. There were still trace of uneasiness in her eyes but thanks to the yellow potion she just drank, the possibility for her to lose her mind again was close to nil.
Flamence landed near the location where the current Mays and Silvia was seated. Syaitona together with Mira and Aloha ran toward Mays with a face full of worry. They could still see blood dripping albeit barely from the wound all over their master's body.
"Don't you need to treat your injury, master?"
Syaitona asked out of consideration. She just couldn't disregard the fact that her master was currently bleeding.
"Nah it's okay. This kind of injury was nothing."
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Ria and Damia were standing in front of Spirits Society's main building. They had been standing there for almost an hour. Flying on top of them was a purplish pink dragon, Rosa the Blood Rose Dragon, Ria's signature mount. Just in case if they needed to go elsewhere, Ria got her dragon summoned beforehand.
"Mays really asked us to wait here?"
Ria asked impatiently. She never was the type to wait for others. Mays was the sole exception though. She even talked using her modest tone at the moment.
"Yes. Master told me directly that he wanted you to wait for him here just in case."
Damia answered respectfully. This person in front of her was someone important to her master.
"Ah okay."
A deep moment of silence continued as the two of them stood there without talking to each other. Even after standing there for almost an hour, there were barely any conversation between the two of them.
"Ugh this is damn awkward. Where are you Mays? Come here faster please!"
Ria pleaded in her mind. She just couldn't cope with this awkwardness any longer. She was not used to being left alone with a stranger. Not to mention that she never was the type to socialize with others.
If not because the person with her right now was one of Mays spirits, she wouldn't even care to be nice. She couldn't reveal her real personality right now since the person who was there with her was someone close to Mays. She never knew that Mays already heard all about her from Sanortep and Jace the day he arrived at the empire.
Not long after, silhouette of a crimson light approached them from a distance. Both Ria and Damia smiled as they knew what that crimson light was, it was none other than Flamence.
"There they are."
"Urm."
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