Chapter 155: Meeting Ophelia
Ren and Leon flew through the air for a few minutes. Leon shut his eyes every few meters and tried to recall what he had seen through the eyes of the spider. Nothing good came up for a while until suddenly his eyes snapped open when they came over a waterfall that was located in the forest.
"Over there." Leon pointed down.
Ren wasted no time and flew down immediately. He transformed before they got down. The both of them looked at the waterfall for a few seconds, and then they walked right through the surging water, Ren using his wings as a cover for them.
There was a cave behind the waterfall. It was dark but warm, leading deep with no end in sight.
"Seems your memories have found something." Ren muttered and started walking while Leon followed behind.
"So what are we gonna do when we meet this person? She is the mastermind behind the entire spider issue, is she not?" Leon asked. He looked around with a bit of worry.
"Most likely, this will not go too well at all, but it’s better I meet her now that I know what she is doing. Her plan is to become a demigod. Honestly, we can’t allow that."
"And why is that?" Leon asked.
"Look at what she is willing to do for the power. Imagine what she will do after she gets it. The entirety of humanity, as well as many other races, can kiss their lives goodbye.
Then there is me that has been standing in her way all this time now. If I do not stop her, she will end up coming after me and those that I care about." Ren laid out his reasoning as they walked.
Soon, they started coming across small spiders that were moving all around the walls and crawling into cracks. Ren had to make a flame to light the way, and wherever the flame pointed, the spiders rushed away from it into the cracks.
"It’s weird that no one has attacked us till now." Leon pointed out.
"That’s because she knows we are here and is simply waiting for us to reach her. She knows that nothing she throws at me now will stop me, so she’d rather meet me face to face."
It took a few minutes, and finally they arrived at the place, the tower throne still where it was and Ophelia seated on it with her legs crossed, palm under her chin and eyes pinned on Ren, who had just entered.
"You finally grew the balls to come see me." She spoke with a smile.
"I was half hoping it would not be you. You seemed pretty chill when we first met, this is a bit of a downer." Ren replied.
"We do not always get what we want. For instance, I need you gone and away from my quest, and yet you manage to stick your claws into it somehow." She spoke with a tinge of frustration in her voice.
"You are planning to kill over hundreds of thousands of humans and other races to make yourself ascend into being a demigod."
"Hahah, you say it like I do not know what I am doing. Every being that’s weaker than me is a tool to be used. Only the strong can dictate the flow of this world.
I need all their souls to force the laws of the world to bend, to ensure that I rise to become who I am meant to be. Their lives matter little to nothing to me, so I could not care less." She kept a straight face as she spoke, making it perfectly clear that speaking with her was in no way going to work with her.
"Sigh, I guess I expected too much from coming to talk to you." Ren said.
"You did. I have no plans to back down or stop. I only have one regret now."
She said and leaned forward. "The fact I could not control you, Ren. You would have become the greatest asset for me.
Either way, you might be too late already. My plan is in motion, and by the time that you can detect it, I’d have already gotten all I need." She kept a smile on her face. She pointed at Ren.
"Be a good forest lord and do not try to be a hero. Even if you are a dragon, I can deal with you." She said the last line, and her eyes turned to slits. A massive, impressive aura exploded from her body, like a raging fiery storm, one that consumes all that it touches.
Leon staggered back when he felt it, collapsing on his behind.
Ren stood there. He unleashed his own aura. It acted like a roaring storm, slamming into hers like a hammer. Both clashed in the air, and the walls began to tremble. Both fighters stared each other down for a few seconds.
"Since you have so much faith in your plan to win, I’ll show you that the odds are not always in the favor of who thinks ahead."
Ren turned around and started walking away.
"Oh? You are not going to try to kill me?" She asked.
"Kill you? No, you would see through me attacking here and you would react accordingly.
I do want to kill you and end this whole thing, but the risk of doing it here is not worth it. We will meet again, Ophelia, and when next we do, one of us will have to pay the price."
Leon followed closely, scared that if he remained, he would get killed in a second.
"So that’s all? We are not doing anything against her or stopping the spiders?" Leon asked as they left.
"She was not the only one there. There was a terrifying presence in the room as well, well hidden and watching. If I had made a move, they would have attacked, along with Ophelia.
I might be able to make it out alive, but I can’t guarantee you would be able to."