Chapter Speed Up the Hunt
"Hi~ What did I miss?" Elysia gathered with her friends in the living room.
"Fufu, there"s not much you missed." Ai patted the empty seat beside her. "What about the experiment and the antidote?"
"Mm, the G.o.ddesses made the antidote perfectly. For that chess piece..." Elysia paused for a second. Those chess pieces had already been extracted into pure energy for her to take advantage of. Still, there was another effect that was easier for everyone to understand. "They are like curse energy stored in a container with a particular divine law. Those things can be turned into a temporary power boost."
"Oh! Even so, I hope we don"t use curse energy as a power boost even if it"s only temporary." Ai nodded slightly and looked back at the TV.
"Ely, we"ve seen terrible things happening worldwide, thanks to this TV. Is it possible we can end this mess as soon as possible? I don"t mean to be presumptuous, but I"m afraid the G.o.d Game partic.i.p.ants will prepare for something terrible in response to that warning letter." Sylvia raised her hand and voiced what she had just discussed with the other girls.
Along with that proposal, the girls glanced at Elysia and the G.o.ddesses. They thought a change of plans needed to be made, but they didn"t want to offend anyone who came up with the previous plan.
"Fufu, why are you being so tense? Relax, we discussed that before, and a decision was taken after careful consideration. We will start the hunt tomorrow, but we will be quite busy today with some matters." Elena was pretty amused by Sylvia"s tense expression.
"Tomorrow? O-oh~ That"s for the best. We"ll hunt them all down and eliminate them from the game." Sylvia was pleasantly surprised. She shared the joy with Vanessa and Yuuki.
"But, it"ll be a bit problematic for all of us... Are we going to weaken them too? Something like taking or erasing some of their special abilities regardless of the punishment they deserve?" Ai put her hand to her chin. She thought many people would hate their group and would take revenge. Their group could be seen as the great villains with the world as their enemies.
"As soon as the chess piece is extracted from the partic.i.p.ants, their power boost based on the game scheme will disappear instantly. Some of their natural abilities will also gradually disappear because we took them from their spirit and damaged some of the threads of life. That"s what happened. If we use proper and neat methods. Worse results can occur if the chess pieces are violently taken away." Rhea glanced up as she explained that.
"Worry not. Our main target is actually just the naughty deities. For those humans, they will be judged based on their actions by nature spirits at the will of Earth Mother.
It doesn"t matter if we miss the other chess pieces, but we must collect sixty-two king chess pieces." Elena stroked the nature spirit on Elysia"s shoulder.
"O-oh, leave it to me and my fellow nature spirits. The sinner shall receive the punishment it deserves. However, those deities are tricky and full of deceit. We can"t track all of them accurately." Sora saluted.
"Then, how can we find the other sixty-two evil deities? You can"t possibly ask us to travel the world, can you?" Nell raised her eyebrows. The thing they were about to do sounded easy, but it wasn"t as simple as it seemed.
"Well, if they"re so slick, we can track them down with the chess pieces under their leadership. That way, we can know their exact location no matter where they run or hide." Sora explained casually.
"I see..." Nell felt that everything was clear now.
"Ah, there is a neutral hunter under Divine a.s.sociation protection. He is the messenger of the divine owl and the darkness bat. However, he is so overwhelmed because his targets are too many. Right now, he is in exclusion due to serious injuries." Sora heaved a sigh.
"So, he can"t help us. Apparently, he summoned too many enemies. However, it"s not his fault because more than a thousand enemies is too much for a human even though he has the blessings of two deities." Elena shook her head. She knew what Sora wanted to say, but that was a matter for later as there were some priorities to do.
Elysia then told her friends about her current situation and what happened when she just got materials from the Alchemy a.s.sociation.
"You"re actually using yourself as bait, Ely? Really, you"re putting your life in danger… However, it doesn"t matter. I"ll protect you and crush those who try to harm you from the shadows." Ai held Elysia"s arm and conveyed her statement confidently.
"Yes, we shall punish them horribly."
"If they dared to inflict harm, they must be ready to receive the tribulation and retribution!"
"The only thing they will get as a reward is a terrible punishment."
"It"s okay, Ely. We will watch over and guard you with our fox eye perception. That way, we can monitor the threat before the unexpected happens."
The girls expressed their support and care to Elysia. They could not tolerate anyone who dared try to harm Elysia.
"Thank you, everyone. We will be busy for today and for the next few days. Today I am the bait, but tomorrow we are the hunters." Elysia put her hands together.
A few moments later, Elysia saw some TV broadcasts. Still, everything the media showed was not a live or accurate one. The natural disaster had subsided because the nature spirits had calmed down. However, the journalist was still exaggerating it to the point that the news of the apocalypse was imminent.
Elysia turned off the TV and turned around.
Elena had already divided their group into several teams that would be tasked with several different things. However, their goal was the same: to protect Elysia from a distance and eliminate the G.o.d Game partic.i.p.ants in sight.
"Shall we go now?" Ai raised her hand as if waiting for Elysia to take her hand.
"Yes, we will go now. However, we need to invite someone first." Elysia put her hand on Ai"s.
"Okay." Ai gestured to her pet before entering Elysia"s shadow. That place was so lovely, dark, and comfortable. A place where she could feel at peace while monitoring everything that was happening outside. "Oh, the darkness, my sanctuary place of tranquility."
"!?" Cherub immediately followed and entered the shadow realm. However, Gio also caught up and jumped into Elysia"s shadow somehow.
"Whoops, where are you going? You have your own role now, yes? Do I need to explain to you one more time?" Lifa caught Gio and pulled him out of Elysia"s shadow.
"Rawr..." Gio nodded in understanding. He only wanted to know what the world looked like in his master"s shadow, but it was just a dark and mysterious place.
After that, he transformed himself into a large burly man clad in brown dragon-scale armor. He possessed an absolute defense and could perfectly protect his master from any threat.
"Hmm, you"ll be too conspicuous in public if you look like this. Let"s put some disguise magic on you." Elysia extended her hand towards Gio and used her disguise magic.
Gio"s appearance gradually changed into a prince-charming man with the charisma of a real man that usually only exists in fairy tales. However, that was just an illusion. He was still a dragon-like man in full-body armor behind Elyia"s magic.
"Wow... You look like the improved version of a dragon king from the kingdom of a thousand thrones from the picture fairy tales we"ve read together, Ely. Nice, charming, charismatic, and has an oppressive-like charm! Any man might be intimidated by your appearance alone, Gio. Your disguise magic is top-notch, Ely." Sylvia patted Gio"s back with a proud laugh.
"Hehe, the credit goes to the G.o.ddesses who taught me many things." Elysia grasped her hand and smiled happily.
"Hmm, o-oh!" Gio tried to check his current appearance. He didn"t feel anything was wrong because it was only his outward appearance that was changed by the illusion.
Elysia, Elena, and Rhea went to the second floor to meet Xero.
*Knock* *Knock*
Elena knocked on the door, but there was no answer. Therefore, she unlocked the door with magic and went inside.
Xero was still busy with his demonic experiments on the chess pieces. He knew who was coming, but he didn"t stop them from entering. "What do you want? I"m busy right now. It"s just a little bit more, and I can use this thing for a nice power boost."
"Oh, we"ve found the most effective method to use that thing. Here, why don"t you read the results of our experiment? It might be useful for your recovery before we face the Ruvoid G.o.d." Elena flies a piece of paper to Xero.
Xero caught that paper and read it thoroughly. Yet, he needed to read it twice to ensure every information.
"What?" Xero marveled in surprise. He didn"t expect these G.o.ddesses to work so much faster than him.
After being purified into pure energy, he could use these chess pieces for his current situation. After all, recovery from permanent improvement was much better than temporary power boost.
The only problem was that he didn"t possess any energy purification techniques as described! However, he was sure the G.o.ddess of Light had that technique just because she told him about this.
Xero looked at the chess pieces on the table with a glint. He could a.s.sume he only needed at least two hundred chess pieces of power or at least twenty kings to restore his power to his peak condition like last month.
"This is the deal. I get all the recovery energy from all my prey. You will refine it for my recovery to my peak strength. I will help you for something in return." Xero cleared his throat and negotiated.
"Sure. We will go to the Minamoto Clan and the Alchemy a.s.sociation to introduce the antidote right now. You will come with us to hunt down the partic.i.p.ants who might be targeting my Ely for that bounty." Elena agreed without needing to consider anything.
"That"s for sure. We"re leaving now." Xero secured his chess pieces to his darkness pouch. He would collect a lot of these soon.
Elena turned around, almost forgetting to tell Xero about something important. "We will also speed up the hunt to tomorrow. We will end the G.o.d Game sooner."
"That"s for the best." Xero rubbed his hands together with a grin. He antic.i.p.ated their hunting activities tomorrow.