Malachi felt the urge to smile stupidly when he heard such genuine praise from his idol.
Really was there anything that could make this moment better?
"If you and the lady are interested, would you like to have dinner with my wives and I to celebrate?" Morgan offered.
'It just got better!'
Before Malachi got too excited he looked down at a still blushing Sei in his arms.
"Would you like to go?"
Sei could naturally tell that Mal was trying to rein in his excitement but his eyes not hidden by his glasses were extremely telling.
'He can be so cute sometimes.' Sei smiled inwardly.
"I would be honored." She bowed politely to Morgan.
"Come now, it's just dinner." Morgan waived away her polite gesture. "And of course you all are invited as well." He said gesturing to Aisha, Aubrey and even Luna.
Aisha and Aubrey looked at each other briefly before Aisha spoke, "We… actually have plans already."
Malachi raised a brow at this, but he did not comment.
Luna thought a bit and she really had nothing better to do than stay at home and play with her magical beast.
"I will accept your invitation." Luna nodded.
"Wonderful!" Morgan seemed to be truly excited. "Then I'll send a car to pick you all up from Malachi's house at eight."
With that, he waved goodbye to the group and prepared to head home.
"What sort of plans do you two have?" Malachi hurriedly activated protective big brother mode as soon as Morgan departed and directed it at Aisha.
"I-Its just dinner!" Aisha hated the knowing look she was currently getting from Malachi.
"Oh? Well you could've just had dinner with us don't you think?" Malachi prodded.
"Aisha got us reservations at a really nice restaurant!" Aubrey smiled.
Malachi wanted to be more upset but… it truly has been a long time since he'd seen her be so carefree.
Aisha was getting his sister to smile more and more everyday it seemed like.
"Fine but you can only go on one condition." Malachi said sternly.
"Which is?" Aubrey asked curiously.
Malachi pointed at Aisha and said, "You better eat until her wallet is empty."
"Pfft… sure!"
After that, the group separated a bit.
Malachi was bombarded with questions from interviewers about his first gate but also with questions about Sei.
The two quickly became uncomfortable with all of the attention so Malachi hurriedly lifted her up and flew away with her in his arms.
Just because he didn't want to hide, didn't mean he was some attention whore.
He just wanted to live his life as himself.
Luna gave hugs to both Opal and Nina and told them she was glad they were safe before she went and spoke to the mining team in charge of excavating resources from the cleared dungeon.
"Everything about this dungeon is strange so I want you all to stick together to ensure each other's safety." She ordered.
"""YES LADY LUNA."""
The group of around 40 men and women then entered the gate, preparing to search for any magical materials they could find.
While the group was entering, no one noticed that amongst the waves of people entering, the portal distorted slightly indicating a single invisible entity had exited.
Luna thought she noticed something strange but upon closer inspection she found nothing to be amiss.
Her curiosity sated, she soon turned her mind towards a more important issue.
'What on earth do I even wear?..'
-
"God damnit!"
BANG!
Alex Heller destroyed his desk in a blind rage as he saw the hundreds of thousands of comments online raving about Malachi and his harrowing gate raid.
Viewers were enamored with his frighteningly amazing powers as well as his determination to see things through no matter the danger.
While there were some online accusing him of being reckless or simply putting on a show for the camera, those comments were few and far between.
A knock at the door briefly stifled his rage, but if it was who he expected it to be, he knew he wouldn't be calm for very long.
"Come in."
Selene strode in with a woman wearing dark clothes.
"I'll order a new desk." She said before she calmly walked out and allowed the two blessed to discuss things privately.
'I'm almost certain I'll have to call someone to mop her up.' She thought as she closed the door.
Standing across from Alex was an almost equally famous person who looked like she was ready to be chastised by her mother.
Short black hair styled in a pixie cut, bright red eyes that were trembling with fear and a beautiful yet scared face.
Her fair white skin was spoiled by what appeared to be two intersecting scars, one running down her left eye, the other across her nose.
She was Sierra Caligo, a SS ranked blessed, a member of true sky and the woman chosen by Hades.
"Tell me something Sierra.."
When she heard his tone, she felt her whole body tense up in fear.
"I got you in the gate early… I got you an artifact that let you turn invisible and conceal your presence… I even gave you that special crystal to empower the boss should all else fail." He slowly approached the trembling woman, his eyes glowing a bluish silver.
"So tell me, why is Malachi Saint still alive?"
Sierra hesitated for a moment as she seemingly tried to come up with an acceptable answer.
Truthfully, she'd done as much as she could despite the circumstances.
She killed all the monsters inside the gate with her telekinesis so as not to leave any visible wounds and raise suspicions.
She'd even taken care to mimic their actual behavior and hide them under the sand for an ambush.
Her personal undead army was off limits since they were much too recognizable and with a camera man there recognition was the last thing they needed.
"I-"
Sierra didn't even finish her sentence before Alex had his hand around her neck and lifted her up into the air.
"Idiot! An entire army of undead at your command yet you couldn't kill one fucking rookie?!"
She wanted to say that Malachi's weird flames seemed to be her power's natural weakness as they not only destroyed her undead, they also burned up her energy.
"Useless!" Alex roared and hurled the young woman into the nearest wall.
Bang!
Her body collided hard with the solid surface, and she fell weakly to the ground while coughing furiously.
Suddenly, Alex stomped her head into the ground and ground his heel into her skull.
"Fucking worm! You whine about wanting to be free from me but you can't do the one fucking thing I ask of you?!"
Sienna simply held her breath as she tried not to cry.
She was seen as a strong, dependable woman by many and yet she turned into a weak little girl when it came to this man in front of her.
All she could do was try not to be even more pathetic by crying.
"Give me the drops." Alex ordered as he removed his shoe from her head.
Sienna shakily took out a golden storage ring that was filled with various items that rightfully belonged to Immortal Moon.
"So you can do some things right." Alex snorted in contempt and began to walk away.
He stopped at the ruined remains of his desk where he picked up his tablet that was still open to the latest news articles about Malachi.
He picked it up and scrolled angrily throughout several stories that were all saying the same thing before he stopped as he saw a photo of Malachi and a beautiful woman.
'It's a shame… an entire guild under my control and yet I have to do everything by my goddamn self.'
Tossing the tablet to a slightly recovered Sierra, he gave her another set of orders.
"Find out everything you can about that woman, and try your damndest not to fuck that up too." He growled.
Sierra swallowed and took the tablet before she shakily exited his office.
Selene saw the state of the woman when she walked past her to enter the elevator and could not help but raise her brow in surprise.
'Huh, I guess I called the janitor for nothing.'