(A few hours later.)
"How's he doing?"
"He should be fine in a few hours. I don't think it's necessary for your highness to be here. I'm sure there are much more important things for someone like you to attend to."
"Are you trying to purposely offend me Sheila..."
"I'm terribly sorry your highness but to be frank I would much rather you not being in my home."
"I'm just here to check on the health of one of my comrades and if that's such a problem then I wouldn't mind taking away your nobility."
"It would be a honor."
Abrak and Sheila stared at each other with hostility clearly evident in their eyes. They were standing right outside Kyle's room as Sheila had just attended to his dislocated shoulder. It turned out that it was a bit worse than they had thought with Kyle's shoulder blade having a nasty crack in it. The muscles had also been torn with a very sore bump swelling.
Sheila wasn't too happy about it but it would make her day if Abrak simply returned to his palace and left her home. Unfortunately Abrak had no such plans and he could use the excuse of being king to stay as long as he wished. The group had escaped the blast radius of Abrak's unique magic which turned out to be a bit more destructive than they thought. There was way too much mana in the air and it completely mixed to create enough fuel for the magic to create a rather large bomb.
Just thinking about it made Abrak a bit nervous. His divine dagger had returned to him not too long ago with its blade being extremely hot.
{Hopefully no nearby villages had been damaged as a result.}
But this led to the rise of another problem.
"Hey ms. Sheila... do you know why the 'ancient' seemed to be a lot weaker than we thought?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Sheila was now avoiding eye contact as she tried to walk past Abrak. He would have none of it and grabbed her shoulder in a vice like grip.
"You did something..."
"Sigh... so maybe I did but you should be grateful I did otherwise you wouldn't have won so easily."
"I knew something wasn't right... I mean to those angels the 'ancient' was within their expectations but Zora isn't that easy to kill. If I knew he would be that weak I would have simply left my armor in the armory..."
"Don't you think you may just be underestimating this Zora guy just a bit?"
"No he really was way too weak compared to the Zora I knew from long ago."
"Really? How so?"
"For one thing he was missing his ax... you took his ax didn't you. Also he seemed to get far more disoriented than he should have been."
"Well if you really must know..."
Sheila snapped her fingers and something materialized onto her palm. It was a stone ax with moss growing across its blade. The thing reeked of the sea but Abrak was surprised nonetheless.
"You have a unique magic of your own, don't you?"
"Ye I do but do you want to know how I made that Zora guy weaker?"
"Sure."
Sheila smirked and placed her hand on Abrak's shoulder in a single motion. She squeezed tightly and cast her unique magic.
"[Unique magic; goddess demands]"
Immediately Abrak felt lightheaded as he struggled to stay on his feet. He fell to his knees with a very annoying banging noise dominating his thoughts.
"What the hell is this..."
"[Goddess demands], its a unique magic given to me by my mother. It forcefully makes the target of the magic do anything I telepathically demand."
Sheila now had an even wider grin.
"Even to raise the amount of mana they need to cast a single spell or take a step forward. I can even command them to hold back more than half their power. So how about you go back to your palace and never come back here."
"YOU BIT-"
But Abrak said nothing else before his feet quite literally ran him out of the house. He disappeared in a second leaving Sheila standing alone in the hallway of her own home in peace.
{Finally.}
***************
Hannah held an apple in one hand and Kyle's Dyrnwyn in the other. Their plan had worked surprisingly well and although Kyle had been really injured the outcome was more than positive. Hannah had no reason to not be happy but she felt suspicious somehow. She had not detected anything unexpected other than Zora's power but there had been somebody else there.
"Was it Sheila... did she really come to the fight just as she promised..."
Hannah let out a tired sigh and bit into her apple. Sweet apple juice dripped down her chin and staining the book on her lap.
"No!"
"Are you alright sis?"
Hannah looked up and found a rather bored Alicia standing in the doorway of the study. Alicia had changed her clothes to something a bit more warm since they had come from a rainy battle. Her bow was nowhere to be seen though.
"I'm fine although I would be much happier if you went to sleep."
"Ok but you have to come with me."
"Alicia... I really can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm studying for the coming test."
"I see- wait, what test?"
"The business studies test this Thursday. Apparently it's going to be a practical test so we may need to know the basic of this world's trade."
"And you're willing to waste your precious sleep for that!?"
"We can't live our lives in this world as heroes who don't understand the world."
"That... alright if you want to waste sleep for that then I won't stop you. Just make sure you come to bed soon."
Alicia left the study slamming the door shut behind her. Hannah chuckled as she heard Alicia's footsteps fading away before only the sound of the fireplace could be hear. Hannah was alone with the study all to herself. She placed her apple away and wiped the juice on her chin using her thumb. She had only twelve more hours before she would receive her 'gift'. Hannah had recently found out something about her ability and it looked to be quite promising.
{Connecting to Heaven's Archives...3rd Heaven access granted...Congratulations to User 1 of 'Historian of heroes' for defeating an enemy of combat rank 100. A gift has been prepared by the relevant authorities and shall be given to you after 12 hour(s).}
Hannah had recently heard the voice of her ability speak into her mind nonchalantly. It had happened when they had returned back to the mansion and she entered the study. What she had done specifically to receive a gift was a bit vague to her but it probably meant they had defeated Zora.
Not long after Hannah tried using her ability multiple times only to receive the same message over and over. It still said 12 hours each time so she wasn't sure how much longer she needed to wait but by the time she woke up tomorrow it should have arrived.
"I just wonder who the 'relevant authorities' might be."
***********************