PREVIOUSLY
SQUELCH!
Elm stood on top of the Nephalem, with a bloodied dove-like white wing in her hands. Before the Nephalem could even scream, Elm kicked him down enhanced with chi.
To any race that had wings, they would tell you that their wings were something akin to a demon's horns, or a beastkin's tail, or a human's heart. But in terms of sensitivity, ripping apart an angel's wings had the same level of pain of ripping a man's penis out, while squishing his balls flat under your heels.
But, the Nephalem couldn't even scream. Because, light travels faster than sound.
With every step of Elm's feet, she was digging out a chunk of the Nephalem's flesh, and at the speed of light, the pain was unimaginable, especially since while the Nephalem was processing the missing chunk of flesh on his leg, his arm had already suffered the same fate.
So, what could he do?
Nothing. He could do nothing. The might Nephalem could do nothing, not cry, scream nor even beg for mercy because his brain, while of the higher plane of intelligence, only made it worse since he was forced to feel every little scab being torn out before he could even feel the chunks.
There was nothing he could do.
"Die."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
As Elm willed, she struck the last hit onto the Nephalem's core, but physically stopped her Holy Sword from absorbing the Nephalem. In one second, or even under one second, Elm had done it all, all torture imaginable onto the Nephalem, and it was simply because she didn't like him for wasting her time, time that she could have spent taking a step further into her paradise with her beloved brother.
She looked down. The Nephalem, a proud warrior of his race, and an existence comparable to the top tiered gods, or the the lower 10 house-heads of Hell, had been reduced to a limbless, wingless, dummy-meat of a sentient being.
But, Elm didn't care. To her, the job was finished. To the Nephalem, he was still processing his right limb being torn off, a job she had done ages ago.
She wiped the blood and sweat off her face with the back of her hand, ignoring the sharp pain in her right arm, the arm that held her Holy Sword. Then, it happened. She couldn't stave off the Holy Sword's hunger anymore since her body was beginning to hurt, and so, she let go.
A second later, and the Nephalem was no more. Elm took a deep breath, and let it out. The Holy Sword disappeared back into it's dimension, and everything ached for Elm. She shouldn't have used the Holy Sword for so long, for a simple little fledgling but the way he talked as if he knew everything annoyed her.
Only her brother was allowed to talk to her that way. The racing in her heart didn't even last that long and she wondered if she had turned into a battle-junkie.
Then, the pain hit her from overexerting herself. To others, it would feel like your skin being peeled off inch by inch, but to Elm, the memory of the Demon God toying with her beloved brother felt a lot worse.
"A day."
Elm looked around her, and as usual, there was nothing but swamp and fog. In her state, she wouldn't be able to get as far as she wanted, so there was no point in forcing herself to run. No, she would have to recover for a day.
She really shouldn't have been so reckless with such a little mob for an enemy. Elm shook her head, knowing that if her brother were here, he would have chastised her with the adorable nose scrunch he did whenever he was angry.
"Oh, how I miss you so."
For a second, the mist felt as warm as Willow's touch. Then, flaring her aura, she went to sleep, uncaring of the other predators in the Swamp.
***
Willow's POV
"You're seriously going to be taking such a unrewarding quest?" Illya asked, as Raegis kept the quest scroll inside the dimensional pouch I had bought for her.
"Yeah," I looked up. "Why, is there something wrong?"
Illya just shook her head lazily. "Look kid, I don't know what you're cooking up in that pretty head of yours, and I'm not really inclined to ask."
"But, take care," She said. "I've seen many young bloods like you who think they know how the world works before ol'Terra gives them a reality check."
Illya's eyes softened. "Hell, I was one of them."
I put a hand on her shoulder, or at least tried to since she was so tall, so I decided to settle for her arm. With the most convincing look in my eyes, I told her, "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. And even if I don't, I've got her to cover for my ass."
Illya chuckled at that. "Oh, I bet she'll cover your ass alright."
A sprinkle of pink dusted my cheeks. I punched her in the arm, but that only made her laugh even harder. Seriously though, why do I get so much mother vibes from Illya? It's even making me miss my own mom back in town.
"Go now?" Raegis asked, breaking me out of my reverie.
I nodded. "Yeah, let's go. A couple day's worth of journey straight into the heart of the OuterForests, all to collect some PhantomGrass for some dumb alchemist apprentice who screwed up his master's potion."
Illya laughed at that. "Oh, I remember his face when he came in to post the quest. Oh, he was as white as an albino dragun!"
Raegis salivated at that. "I wanna eat a dragun again."
I shook my head. I remembered that dragun and anything that was dragon-related was something Raegis really, really loved. I think in the game, there was a side event where you hunted as many dragons as possible and Reagis nearly drove the dragon race to extinction all to satisfy her appetite.
Scary.
And now, we were going to go on a short quest to bring her a step closer to that level of power. Only after, can we focus on me.
B Ranked Quest. Collect [100 PhantomGrass]. Location: Heart Of the Outerforests. Time spent for the quest? Approximately, 3-5 days. Reward: 10 Silver.
Food? In Stock.
Equipment? I bought a new, sharper sword for Raegis, one that was made out of a wind wyrmking's claws. Now, we're broke.
Physical/Mental State: Absolutely peak after a week's worth of rest.
I waved Illya goodbye, before catching in the glimpse of my eyes how she turned back into the cheerful illusionary person of hers as I pushed the doors open, leaving the home of ruffians for a couple days in order to achieve the next step of my plan.
But then, Raegis decided to ruin the moment by saying she needed to pee.
***