Previously
"It was really a pain to find all of this, you know," Eliza sighed. "I had to pull too many strings just to get a few of the words written on there."
"You really owe me for this," Eliza said, glancing at the scrolls in Elm's hands. "By the way, how many abilities do you have in your arsenal now?"
Eliza knew that Elm, being the Celestial Hero, was a user of the element of light, and a master of the martial path reaching the second realm, not to mention she had easily reached the top of her emblem rank - all under a span of one month. Add to that with her Holy Sword? Elm was ridiculously strong and she would only be getting stronger, perhaps even cracking the Top 10 strongest of the world in a year at the rate she was going.
A shiver ran through Eliza's spine. She remembered the brief encounter she had with one of the Top 10 and it was enough to make her want to wet her pants. Even with her mind, she couldn't figure out a way to ever defeat such a level of power. There were Gods and there were them.
XXXXXXXXXXX
Eliza smiled. What a glorious day it would be for her beloved kingdom, if they had birthed such a being. But unfortunately, the thought of manipulating the Celestial Hero to make the Kingdom the strongest in the myriad realms was out the window the moment she had signed the contract.
Also, Elm would probably figure out and annihilate the kingdom if she figured out. Something about those cold, dead eyes staring down at you being the last thing you saw before you died made Eliza sweat profusely.
"Many," Elm replied. "But, still not enough."
Oh, how Eliza wanted to flip over and strangle herself after she heard that. Elm was strong enough to contend with the top 5 Demon Lords, in under a month and she was still not content with her power.
Eliza pointed at the scrolls. "So, up north, or down south?"
"North," Elm replied without hesitation. "I can make do without the armor for now."
"The climate?"
Elm breathed in, letting a sheen of white protective light envelop her body.
"Right," Eliza said. "And, the fallen angel guarding the shield?"
Elm only glanced at the invisible Holy Sword hitched up her waist. "Not even the wings of God can impede my path."
"I forgot you had the sword," Eliza rolled her eyes when she realized why.
"How could I not? It's invisible most of the time," Eliza said. "You're just too good for the rest of us, aren't you?" In Eliza's mind, the sword in question buzzed with fury but in reality, not a sound was made.
Eliza looked up into the Celestial Hero's golden eyes, that appeared to glow under the rays of sunset glimmering from the window.
She managed to put up the most serious face she could handle and asked, "When are you leaving?"
Eliza took a look over the beautiful, strong golden-haired woman with an invisible sword that would bring annihilation to the world's evils. She couldn't help but feel a certain pang of loneliness when she realized that it would be a long, long time before she could see the Celestial Hero she had fallen for, again. She thought herself too smart to do such a stupid, inconsequential thing as falling in love, but the stoic woman had her charms and unfortunately, Eliza fell to them.
Oh, she was still smart enough to know that Elm would never belong to her, as long as that annoying brother of hers still lived. A dark thought ran across Eliza's mind, before she shook the devil's whispers, specifically the whispers of the demon lord living inside her.
She bit her lips, and took a dare, asking a stupid question that would bear no fruit.
"Will you ever come back?"
For a moment in time, for seconds that spanned hours, for the first time since her birth, Eliza put herself out there not as the strategist of the Kingdom, the holder of the 2nd Demon Lord or even as the crown princess.
It was Eliza that asked the question, and hopefully, it would be Elm that answered her question.
The pair looked into each other's eyes, silver mewling up into gold, as silver wished for the moment to freeze, locked in all eternity. Actually, she could do something like that but Elm would easily be able to break out of it.
"I-"
BOOM!
"Hear me, worms of Valterra, I have descended to deliver a warning. And, after your judgment."
The moment broke. And, silver eyes were furious. Eliza's head whipped so quick, looking outside the window to find that there was a company of Demon Lords, specifically, the heads of House L to LX, with a Head of House XX standing above them. The Twentieth Demon Lord was the one speaking with such an arrogant tone, a tone that suited only someone far, far above his station.
Eliza's brain raced, thinking of ways to torture the company of fleas. It would be easy to kill them all, but it would still take quite a long time, time that she wanted to spend on her little crush for it might be the last time she had with her.
"Ten Seconds."
Elm's sweet voice broke Eliza's thoughts. She turned to look at Elm, only to see that the Celestial Hero was still staring at her.
"What?" Eliza thought over what she meant. "Even for you, ten seconds is a little too short to get rid of one of them."
Elm tilted her head. "One of them?"
Eliza's eyebrows furrowed, before her eyes widened in surprise. "All of them? In Ten seconds?" Then, she couldn't help her lips from smiling. "You're that strong already?"
Elm corrected her. "I'm still this weak, unfortunately."
It was those words that shocked Eliza to the core. She realized that Elm didn't see her limits the same way Eliza saw hers. Whereas, Eliza was using her knowledge of past Celestial Heroes and their limits, Elm had been consistently testing her limits, using her inheritance to understand and invent new ways in which she could surpass levels of powers in one-go.
To Eliza, Elm was sufficiently strong now and would be endlessly powerful when she cracked the Top 10.
To Elm, the word 'strong' started only when she cracked the Top 10.
The realization brought awe to Eliza's mind. After all, the strategist side of hers wondered and tried to formulate how powerful a Celestial Hero who could break the universal limits would become. After all, even the weakest of the Top 10 was at least a solar-system powerhouse, which is why they were called the 10 Sovereigns. There was only one who had broken the universal limits, but the identity hadn't been found even after using all of Eliza's resources and connections. She did have a guess to who, and if she was correct, another being - the Celestial Hero being on the same level would be catastrophic beyond imagination.
Her promise to the World's Spirit told her to kill Elm now, before she weakened the world more than it already was but the mischievous side in her wanted to see how far this Celestial Hero would go. Besides, she loved Elm much too far to simply kill her, just for a debt she owed years ago.
Since the romantic atmosphere had been interrupted, Eliza could only go into strategist princess mode and say, "Alright then."