บท 23: BEAUTY IS A BEAST BUT STILL A BEAUTY.

BACK IN THE VILLAGE.

Jin hovered over the crater IK was in her face showing the disdain she had always shown him from the beginning, her fiery butterfly wings began to slowly fade as it felt like the night was never going to end because she could hear the ruckus deep in the forest where she was sure Tor would be, she also heard two distinct footsteps approaching the village and since the crater Ik dug wasn't too far from the open gates, she was sure they would reach her in less than a minute. She began slowly descending into the crater, her wings were disappearing but the sight looked breath taking, she landed with one foot on IK's face and the other on the ground scorching it. 'Ah I'm so tired I used too much mana on scum. Since it seems there are people here to save you and I promised someone I'd never use this unless I'm dying. But those guys seem strong and she won't forgive me if I die, you should know she's super scary.' She seemed to be trying to convince herself to do something but IK who was underneath her scorching foot suddenly began screaming but his body wouldn't move all his bones were broken and that was truly excruciating, his mouth could barely move due to Jin's scorching foot which was currently on top his face.

'Oh? You're still alive? Even scum can be saints I guess.' Jin continued with disgust as at this point the two approaching elders had already reached the mouth of the crater, they stood atop looking in, Jin looked up back at them. 'Esteemed mage, we believe that would be enough,' One of the elders said being cautious, he was not sure of where such a young girl came from and judging by the amount of damage she had inflicted on IK, it was safe to say that the adults who brought her there must be monsters. Also they hoped to retrieve IK without wasting much time because they could feel the natural mana converge at the area where the Senior elder was probably battling the blood beast which had escaped they thought.

'No you two look very dangerous, what if I hand him over and you're not satisfied with just that, what would I do then? Anyways I'm here alone so I cannot trust any other men, especially not lecherous looking ones like you old geezers.' Jin responded with a giggle as she bent over Ik. One of the Elders wanted to hop into the crater but as soon as he jumped, Roy appeared from the other end, meeting the elder at the middle his sword giving off sparks of lightning as it was swung towards the elder's head, the elder swiftly repelled it as a 'boom' rang out and he was pushed back to the spot he jumped from sliding back to the gate. Roy then landed next to the Elder still at the mouth of the crater. 'Why do you interfere? Are you this girl's parent?' The Elder next to Roy asked as he turned to look at him. 'Hahahaha, indeed if I had kids I could only pray and wish for them to be like them, but that would never happen. The issue her is that I have a vague feeling that if you touch her, uhh how do I put it, everyone involved today will die and the future won't be looking too great for our clans either.' Roy responded as he stretched his right hand which was holding his sword pointing it directly at the Elder's face as a silent welcome, for him to challenge his resolve.

'Such insolence, I guess you will have to die first.' The elder spoke as he burst into speed covering the short distance between Roy and him in a second, he drew his sword aiming to slash Roy in two, but Roy parried as the weight of gale behind the slash sent Roy into the air, when he reached the climax of his rise, the other Elder appeared behind him in the air and slashed at his back but just a second before the slash made contact, Roy threw his sword towards the gate and as it pinned on the gate he turned to a bolt of lightning appearing where the sword was stuck, he grabbed it pushing off the gates and in a second appeared in front of the first elder, swinging his sword at lightning fast speed. 'That won't work anymore.' The first elder said as he parried the strike upwards and kicked Roy in the chest back towards the gate.

As all this was going on, Jin knew that Roy would die if she didn't do something and the other people in the village would either also die for the cover up or die due to Tor, taking revenge. This also included Ana and Taka which bothered Jin a bit because she was related to that princess who knew where that scary woman was. Tor couldn't remember but he was always searching for her. May had always told her that once the Great Elder gave permission for them to leave, they could find her, but Tor forgot, she also forgot, no she still can't remember her face. Jin thought about a lot of things before she coated her fingers with spatial mana and placed it on IK's abdomen, he began to scream as though he was going through the worst torture, but the elders were preoccupied and could not do anything for him. Jin slowly brought her hand out as she was carrying a fist sized golden mana core, which sowed he was indeed a saint.

'Time to use that woman's magic I guess.' She said in a semi sad voice as she called out 'Devourer.' Suddenly, red flames covered the mana core and it looked as though it was tempering the core to the outside world, she was actually absorbing the mana from the mana core and making it her own. A powerful skill yes but the moment it is activated it takes on a life of its own. Jin kept absorbing as spatial fluctuations began occurring all over the village, if one could see inside her, her current mana core was full but because she could not stop the devourer magic, the mana was spilling out as spatial magic. 'Nark stop playing with that clown and come let's finish her off before she causes trouble.' The second elder said in a serious tone as he was feeling spatial pressure. 'no Park let's have a deal, you will help me capture her and I will let you have all the glory for this assignment. Can't you see that although that girl is a beast on the inside she is still a Beauty that can be tamed?' Nark responded in disagreement as they disregarded Roy as unimportant and bargained about what would happen to Jin.