Chapter 212: Wretched Woman
Elena nearly jumped out of her skin when Seraphine’s voice came out of nowhere, and for a moment she was ready to attack at any second, convinced this was just another monster in this place trying to kill them.
Seraphine, however, paid none of that any mind and revealed herself anyway, calming them with the soothing aura her very presence naturally gave off.
Even without knowing who she was, they could feel a strange energy radiating from her, something that naturally settled their nerves and let their guard down.
That worked for the young woman and the boy. For Elena, though, it had the opposite effect, putting her even more on edge.
Seraphine quickly realized that convincing this woman wouldn’t be easy, though she couldn’t really blame her.
From what she could tell, they’d been here for quite some time, and the simple fact that they’d survived this long was already remarkable enough. The earlier encounter with those Abyss creatures had been more than enough to show her what they’d been facing up to now, and given the recent death of that father and son, she understood their emotional states were anything but stable.
That said, she could tell they wanted to get out of this place, and that aligned perfectly with her own goals, so she decided to reveal herself and offer to collaborate.
With her current strength, doing everything alone would have been a problem, but with these people, she might actually be able to pull off what she intended.
That was essentially the deal. They would help her with what she needed to do once inside the palace, and she would help them get home.
The only thing that worried them was how to get into the city without dying, which turned out to be far easier than expected, since Seraphine managed to shield them from the laws of death that governed the city and got them into the palace alive.
Now that they were here, the real work was about to begin, something they didn’t fully grasp at first, until they raised their eyes to see what Seraphine was looking at, and then they understood, and felt their souls tremble with fear.
’What the hell is that thing?’ Elena thought warily as she stared at the mass of purplish mist high above them, seemingly watching them.
She had no idea what level it was, let alone what exactly it was, but she felt an instinctive pressure radiating from it, one that even beings at Paragon rank didn’t give off.
She couldn’t help but wonder if the woman had really brought them here only to lead them straight to their deaths.
The journey here had been completely uneventful, without any danger whatsoever, something that had made her wonder several times if things had been going too smoothly. Now, seeing that thing above them, she clearly understood that hadn’t been the case.
"Please tell me we don’t have to fight that thing," she murmured beside Seraphine.
Seraphine didn’t answer. She simply continued watching the being as, having noticed their presence, it began to move.
The atmosphere in the hall shifted as an invisible pressure began to build, one that started to choke the three people standing behind Seraphine.
"You... this can’t be. You shouldn’t be here." a voice rang out, neither male nor female, closer to the roar of some beast than anything else.
The souls of the three trembled at the sound of it, their bodies going rigid as they watched the violet mist begin to spiral downward, almost like some enormous serpent descending from above.
But it didn’t attack them, nor did anything else. It simply plunged down at full force, striking the ground in front of them hard enough to shake the floor for a few seconds as the entire mass of mist poured into that single point.
It didn’t disperse, though. It seemed to be collecting there instead, condensing into something.
Elena’s group watched, terrified, as a shape began to form out of that mist.
Seraphine, unlike them, showed no sign of concern, watching everything unfold with the same calm expression as before.
It didn’t take long before the mist had completely vanished, leaving behind what looked like a small figure, roughly the same height as the young woman from Elena’s group.
Seeing this, the three of them, who had braced themselves for something monstrous, froze for a moment in sheer surprise.
’A little girl?’ was the thought running through all their minds as they stared at the figure of a young girl who, at first glance, seemed to have nothing remarkable about her at all.
Ordinary clothes, an ordinary, almost harmless appearance, two long dark violet pigtails, and an irritated expression, or at least what was supposed to be one, though it looked more like a pout than anything else, something that nearly erased the instinctive fear in all of them, or at least it would have, if not for her eyes. Harmless as they looked, they radiated an invisible pressure that still weighed on all of them, keeping them on edge even now.
"You wretched woman, how did you break free from the seal?" the girl spoke, her voice no longer frightening like before, more like a sweet little voice, something in stark contrast with the situation, so much so that Elena’s group, already caught off guard by everything else, once again found themselves at a complete loss for how to react.
On one hand, they were afraid to even move.
On the other, they couldn’t help but wonder if they were imagining all of this, because what their senses were telling them and what their eyes were seeing didn’t line up at all, leaving them standing there, confused, not knowing what to do.
Seraphine, though, didn’t seem bothered by any of it. She looked at the girl in front of her and gave a gentle smile as she spoke.
"Tch, insolent brat, is that any way to talk to an adult? And why do you seem so angry with me? I don’t recall ever doing anything to you," Seraphine said, with the voice of someone falsely accused of a crime they never committed.
Hearing Seraphine’s words, the girl seemed to grow even angrier.
"Hey, who are you calling a brat? I’m almost 36,000 years old! And don’t give me that innocent face. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your attack on Master. If he hadn’t stopped me from killing you back then, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now."