"I expected worse when it ca to battles between Archon-ranked, but..."
A wry smile curled l’s lips as she surveyed the gaping chasm splitting the forest’s heart.
"Is the headquarters still intact?"
Where the trees grew densest, the grasses flourished lush and the lava veins rose the thickest, l and the others encountered a large, uneven hole that spread beyond their vision.
Roots erupted from the hollowed earth, the battlefield’s remnants scarred in burnt soil and leaves.
A strange, large tree lay in the middle, its base fused with the lava veins and roots seeping from beneath.
No leaves were left intact among the dry branches, and the bark was marked ashen white.
"Well..." Lila blinked, spotting Samantha and a few Holy Knights at the site below them. "At least they seed... fine?"
"Finer than most, at least."
Rosana’s tease ca from behind as they turned, their gazes glimring with curiosity.
"The Northern War has seen worse from Archon Ranks," Rosana smirked before tapping her neck. "Not bothering to hide them?"
Lila hung her head, brushing a lock of hair to hide the bite marks on her neck.
l grinned at the adoring sight. "Nope! Want to decorate your neck next?"
With a raise of her brow, Rosana chuckled. "How fitting of you to flirt right after your little... private session."
"I’m never a person with any sha." l shrugged, her nose raised high. "So are you, too, if you’re willing to bend your neck for ."
"No reason to decline from here, however..." Rosana’s eyes smiled. "I prefer you offering yourself on a plate first."
"Oh?" l’s waist arced suggestively, hands still clenching onto Lila’s. "Try now, then. You might be too hooked to quit once you taste ."
As l’s neck shimred with bite marks, Lila’s possessiveness flared up with each flirt between the Heiress and l.
So she leaned forward, before clamping onto l’s earlobe to draw her attention back.
Teeth scraped l’s ear, as a shiver ran through her skin before l’s gaze snapped to Lila’s pout.
"Look at more..." Lila’s face flushed as she uttered. "l..."
A spark occurred in l’s mind as she cupped Lila’s cheek in a haze.
With a tender smile, she crashed her lips onto Lila’s, enjoying how Lila whimpered with each nip and kiss.
"That’s it, Lila..." l’s palm smoothed over Lila’s strands of hair, pulling her deeper into the kiss. "So cute and sweet... lt into more..."
"Mmm..." As Lila leaned back, her lips lowered to capture l’s neck in a frenzied daze. "l... please beco mine... mm..."
Petting Lila to claim more of her neck with tender bites, l faced Rosana whose brows raised in interest.
"Perhaps one day, I shall buy us a ." Rosana held her chin, licking her lips. "For each of us, I an."
"That won’t be necessary." l’s breath hitched, her neck bending back to invite Lila’s tiny bites. "I’ll use my own funds for that."
"Then I’ll eagerly await."
Unashad, their silent laughters ca in between Lila’s nips and kisses.
------------
As l descended with a blushing Lila and a chuckling Rosana down the large hole, Samantha and the other Knights turned to them, surprise flickering across their gestures.
"All of you..." Samanatha sighed as her palm covered her face with an annoyed frown. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you, Miss Samantha!" l waved, dismissing the . "Our Elf Senior told us it’s safe to co here, so we did!"
A groan escaped Samantha’s lips, her rainbow eyes observing the dazed Lila and amused Rosana.
The Saintess-disguised Elf was nowhere to be found, much to her dismay.
l watched Samantha’s hand slide on the tree, concern passing over her features.
"Tell she didn’t trick you into any danger."
Blinking her eyes, l shook her head. "We ran into so minor troubles, but they were resolved easily."
Samantha squinted with doubts, her thoughts reverting to the Saintess’s orders.
She and the Knights were to pursue cultists worshipping remnants of Pride, yet even with the reassurance, Samantha never trusted the students’ safety with the lazy Saintess.
Worse, her initial guess was correct: the Saintess did use l and the others to set up the traps for the Knight Spies implanted by the cultists.
"This seems pretty empty here." Feigning ignorance of Samantha’s tension, l scanned the barren site.
Not a corpse, not a foe, just eerie stillness, devoid of even a monster corpse or enemy.
Samantha’s brows knitted together before sighing. "Because all of the trouble-workers have been captured. There’d be no longer another Monster outbreak."
Samples, docunts, and horrific experintal results were stored within the Knight’s storage.
As for the self-proclaid Archibishop and other cultists, Samantha defeated and encased them within a , an artificial dinsion that ceased their consciousness and cut their link to the outside World.
A necessary asure till the handover to the Saintess, considering bombs are attached to their very beings.
"Really?" l’s index pressed sideways to her cheek, as she peeked over Samantha’s shoulder.
"I thought that creepy tree behind you caused the outbreak."
Lila nodded in agreent, her feet shifting uncomfortably at the thick lava veins sticking out from the trees like roots.
A shiver ran through her when she noticed the bark, cracked and grafted with molten lava.
Weirdly, no crystals glittered around the vein-like treeroots, unlike the grassland or the soil field they had treached through earlier.
Yet only a cool breeze brushed by her skin, as if the tree had chosen a rciful embrace.
"I can’t figure out what tree that was as well."
Samantha waved with dismissal. "Now scram. I’d arrange a Knight to-"
"Ah! But I know what this is, Miss Samantha."
l’s claim prompted curious glances from other Knights, their efforts to identify the tree shifting to interest.
"Really?" With doubt and faith interwining in her gaze, Samantha tapped her chin. "Do pray tell."
"Ah, but first."
With a little smirk, l summoned her wooden staff. "Let’s do a little experint."
The in her hand pulsed, trembling like the veins beneath them.
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