Chapter 333 - Envious Fate
The strong and intense draconic aura burst out from Hope. His body glowed with a dark gray color, igniting with a blinding light and slowly transformed into his dragon form.
His skin turned to scales, his teeth turned to fangs, and his hair became fur on the back of his dragon form. Hope was falling to the ground when he wrapped his wings around him and opened them to unveil his form.
It was his true form where his size was bigger and his features were more sophisticated. There were crystal scales on parts of his body that resembles an armor. On his front shoulder, on his legs, and on the endges of his wings.
"I see," Livor grinned as he watched Hope morph. The dragon boy was now the same size as the sin, both on their fours and with tails that also functions as weapons. "Who sent you to me?"
"I came here because my dragon gut told me," Hope replied but didn't expect a responsible. In his dragon form, all he couls mutter were growls that other people does not understand. His eyes widened when Livor talked to him back.
"Well, your dragon gut must be trustworthy," Livor smirked. "It has the instincts of a true predator and a true Emperor."
Hope regained from the shock and growled at Livor. "I am my Realm's Emperor!"
"Let's see," Livor snickered. He raised his tail and prepared to shoot it.
Hope knew what entails within the tail. It reeked of poison and if stung, he could be done for. A poison in Livor's caliber would not allow its victim to become paralyzed or take time for it to effect. It will give its victim an instant death.
"Two minutes," Livor said. "That's how long till you'll stand."
"Let's see about that!" Hope growled, raising his claws and clashing them with Livor's. "I will beat you and then pull your tail out of your body."
–
"Connor's gone, Hope suddenly fled," Ed grunted. "Frederick, we're short on people."
"Lance, Ed, go provide backup on team Alice and team Elizabeth," Frederick ordered. "I don't think they have enough people on their side."
"But then you'll lose even more people–"
"Just go," Fredrick didn't let Ed finish. The red haired man looked at Luck and nodded. The latter responded before they both leaped to the direction of Aviditio.
Ed scoffed and looked at Lance, "Can you even believe him? He's planning on taking Aviditio with just Luck and luck by his side. That's two lucks if you know what I mean."
"Don't underestimate them," Lance said and flattened his lips. "They may not look like much, but the two of them are highly capable individuals."
"I mean, I know that," Ed scratched the back of his head. "But then we're fighting against a Sin here. A legit Sin. Something that's capable of harming the Five Kings which received the Almighty's powers. What can we do."
"Fight," Lance replied and smiled. He brushed his hand over Ed's hair and ruffled it. "All we have to do is fight."
The prince soon left the confused Ed alone. He grunted and wanted to reject the order given to him but it was too late.
With a groan, Ed ran to where team Elizabeth was. She was battling the Sin of Envy, Juno. They were both in an equal ground. Elizabeth grew a tree that had a large spherical head, containing Juno inside it.
The Top 1 Adventurer provided mobility to her teammates. The branches from the tree she grew made her allies easily get to one point to another.
The tree wad large that made Ed gaze at it with amusement and admiration. Elizabeth was indeed a very capable individual. No wonder she became Top 1 even when most of her attributes provided support.
It wasn't long before Ed got inside the tree. Inside wasn't as pretty as the events that were ensuing outside. There were lights from attacks, blood, clashes, and a lot of screaming.
On the branches of the green trunks of the large tree, there were glowing flowers with different colors. Ed knew from the aura of these flowers that they were for boosts. Each color represents different boosts, and since it looked like they were a lot of flowers inside, the boost must be so great.
While Ed explored the tree, he found Juno in the middle of the sphere while the Adventurers on Elizabeth's group surrounded her. The Sin raised her sword and threw it forward. When the sword took up all of the chains that was Juno's tail, the centaur-like Sin spun.
Her sword also spun like it was from a playground. The Adventurers around here were wondering why she was doing this when she was so tall that her attack could not reach them.
Elizabeth raised her hand to conjure something when Juno suddenly stopped spinning right front og Elizabeth and slammed her tail on the smaller human.
Just in time, Elizabeth conjured a smaller sphere shield against Juno's attack. Elizabeth screamed while sunflowers grew from her sphere. The sunflowers faced Juno before firing bright yellow beams.
Juno yelled and took her sword, slashing it forward that created a dark green slash. The slash countered the sunflower beams easily. This plastered a wide grin on the Sin's face, seeing how her power overpowered one of the strongest humans on Earth.
"You're all dead now," Juno grinned. She crossed her arms and let the chain tail lift her sword right behind her. The chain looked like what seemed to be a pole that had the sword on its tip. Its length was about five meters tall and just by looking at it, the plans Juno had in mind wasn't pretty.
"Let's see if your puny shield can block another attack!" Juno yelled. "Tail of the Forgotten!"
Her tail suddenly swerved to the side and pierced several Adventurers as it moved. The ones it passed through instantly died, having being slashed on their necks without giving them enough time to react.
The tail was coming towards Elizabeth. She need to cast a stronger spell to defend herself, but she didn't have the time to do so. The girl could only close her eyes and waited for her demise, slowly accepting her death.
"Etheorian Protector!" Ed suddenly appeared in front of Elizabeth. The boy let his right hand sleeve gush out the aura form the curse, letting it build the large arm once more.
"You can't possibly block that–"
The projected arm from Ed's sleeved arm slammed the tail directly. It was strong enough to take the impact, but wasn't sturdy enough to completely block it.
Ed took a step or two back after the attack hit him. He expected the force from Juno to be strong, but he didn't anticipate for it to be that much to make him step back.
"Another seemingly strong human," Juno smirked. "Tell me, are you stronger than this woman?"
"I-I cannot possibly tell you that I am," Ed said in shock. His face slightly blushed after getting embarrassed. He was thinking that being compared to someone like Elizabeth was an honor in itself. "She's belongs in a far league than me. She can wipe us all out if she's serious."
This made Juno narrow her eyes and retract her tail. The Sin extended her arms to the side and pulled them back in, the branches from the sphere of Elizabeth slowly following Juno's arm.
"I felt a very vague but very similar magic to me not long ago," Juno spoke. "It vanished, so I guess they're dead. Envious Fate."
The branches swerved towards Ed, all shooting towards his direction at an alarming speed. Ed shook his head in disbelief but had no other choice but to block the branches from reaching him. He covered his head with his actual arm while his projected arm followed his action, bending to the side so it would block all the branches.
"Elizabeth, what is happening?!" Ed yelled, but couldn't look behind him. He was busy forcing his arm to protect them. He had come to realize that his projected arm can also influence his actual arm. Ed felt the numbness when the branches hit his projected arm, screaming after feeling the pain.
"Why can she control your tree? Isn't this your skill?" Ed yelled but once again, heard no response. "Elizabeth, what in the world are you doing?!"
Ed spun to look at Elizabeth, gasping after seeing the blonde woman on her knees and looking up. Her eyes were empty and her lips were agape, seemingly in a trance.
After feeling that the pain of the branches on his projected arm was too much, Ed pushed it away and he brandished his sword immediately. His projected arm also took out its own sword, making the boy confident enough to block if Juno attacks once more.
"What is happening to you?" Ed yelled at Elizabeth who was still unable to respond. "What's going on?"
–
She was in a dark empty space. Elizabeth hovered over the space and looked around, failing to see anything familiar. "Hello?"
"Miss!"
Elizabeth froze after hearing the familiar voice speak behind her. The woman turned around, eyes widening after seeing the people there.
"Miss!"
Right in front of her were her dead guild mates.