Blade of the Goddess-Chapter 140

"Are you crazy?!" Valindra asked with a smile on her face, punching Zion in the arm.

Zion smiled at her, happy that she didn’t seem upset or reprimand him for what he was about to do. "I don’t know? Define crazy."

"Do you know of person named Zion Zagan? He’s human, pretty handsome, strong, and is a divine apostle."

"Hmm, that name sounds familiar. I think I’ve heard of him before. He won the most recent Starfall Tournament, right?"

"Mhmm, that’s him. If you want to know what crazy is, you just need to be around him for a bit, then you’ll understand."

"I’ll make sure to avoid a guy like that." He laughed

"Well, anyway, I came to see you because my mother needs your help. To ensure that the World Tree saplings don’t fall into the wrong hands, she wants you to use your holy power to protect them. Maybe this way we’ll be able to know if and when someone tries to steal it."

Zion nodded. "That’s actually a good idea. Lead the way, princess."

Zion and Valindra made their way back to the castle, one of the floors now having a large hole in it where Aethor had blasted Zion. Elves were already repairing the damage done to the building and were quick about it as well. The large hole was almost fixed and hadn’t even been five minutes.

"They work fast," Zion commented, pointing with his head to the people fixing the castle wall.

"Every carpenter, craftsman, and builder is on standby to help repair the damage done to Alfheim. They already have a lot on their plate, so please don’t give them any more problems." She begged, but in the short time that she knew him, she was probably asking for too much.

"Hey, I wasn’t the one who did that. I was defending myself when that loser decided to attack me. Jealous bastard. I still could have ended him, and your problem would have been solved." He argued.

Valindra looked at Zion to see if he was actually serious, and when she saw his eyes not wavering, she sighed, shaking her head tiredly. "I don’t know how things work in your land, but that’s not how things work here. I can’t just kill him simply because I don’t want to be with him."

"Oh, that’s not how it works in Midgard either, but when you’re in a position of power, you can do what you want most of the time. As for me, I simply don’t care. I can handle most problems myself."

"And the ones that you can’t?"

"I just get my mom to handle it for me."

"That...doesn’t sound like something you’d do." She admitted with a slight chuckle.

"You’d be surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going around causing problems that are unjustified, most of the time, or are in situations where I just exploit my status. I only call my mom when things get out of hand."

Valindra grinned, elbowing Zion in the arm. "So you’re mamma’s boy, huh?"

"I am fatherless, so yeah, I’m a mamma’s boy."

Valindra didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just kept quiet as they continued to walk in awkward silence. Awkward for Valindra at least.

---

"Good, you’re here, follow me." Melina urged, walking to the place where she kept the saplings in the royal palace in a hurry.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Zion asked, following behind Melina

"A recent report just came in. One of the Fae families, the Barahad family, just got attacked by an unknown person. Thankfully, their Sapling is safe and secure, but they lost some of their members, which has the other families on high alert."

"Do you have an investigation task force?"

Melina nodded. "Yes. They are currently looking into things and will alert me if they find anything. So, until that happens, I want to ensure that we’re able to protect all of the saplings we have now. We’re here."

Two Elves stood guard at what looked like a wall. No door, no outline, no nothing, just a wall. Obviously, since there were people standing guard there, something important had to have been obscured from view. An illusion, maybe? Zion didn’t know.

"Stand back," Melina ordered.

The two guards nodded and stepped to the sides.

Placing one hand on the wall, a large green magic circle appeared with hundreds of intricate runes that connected to many smaller magic circles. Each of them moved, rotating like gears in a lock, clicking into place once the combination was correct.

Once that was completed, the magic circle vanished, and the wall split open, revealing a hidden path with a spiraling staircase that led deep into the earth.

’Tessa, take notes.’

[Recorded everything.]

’Good job.’

"Come on." Melina urged.

The three of them walked inside, and the wall rebuilt itself, trapping them inside.

"Uhh, do we have to bust down that wall to leave this place?" Zion asked

Valindra slapped him on the back of his head. "No, you idiot, there is a teleportation circle at the bottom."

They walked down the spiraling staircase until they reached the bottom and were met with another wall. Melina did the same thing as before, placing her hand on the wall as another magic circle came into view. This time, it was a square, and the color was bright yellow.

At last, the wall parted like the one before it, revealing a vibrant forest bathed in soft light, with a single sapling hovering serenely at its heart.

The space was big, too big for it to be created by space magic and too real for it to be an illusion. Everything here was as real as the outside world.

"What is this place? Are we in some sort of pocket dimension?" Zion asked, looking around while analyzing the forest. "Wait! This mana reading! This...This place is a fracture." He called out, his eyes wide with shock.

Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om