Mavis POV
Aggressively tapping my desk, I glared out my window, utterly furious. Taking a deep breath, I reached into a secret compartment and grabbed a vial of ichor, consuming it as it sent me shivering with delight, a faint moan escaping my lips at its immaculate taste.
The cold fury that had been surging through my mind and heart mellowed instantly, freeing my head and letting me think clearly. I leaned back in my chair with closed eyes, my breath shallow as I briefly rested my mind.
These past ten days have been utter chaos. The summonings from Mother were dreadful, and the punishment from the council was aggravating. At best, I thought I'd lose my position as the heir and be stripped of most of my authority, working as some menial administrator; at worst, I'd lose everything and be stuffed into the dungeon to be forgotten about for centuries.
However, by some miracle, despite being heavily punished, the heirship was now effectively mine. The others, having been bisected in half from Alexander's attack, were unable to heal themselves; nothing we did worked. Epic-tier potions didn't work, as for a legendary-tier potion, something I didn't have the authority to know about, even if we had one, it wasn't even brought up, let alone used.
The continent's greatest healer had already been summoned, but to no one's surprise, even she couldn't do a thing; their wounds had been created with divinity, and only a being with divinity could heal their wounds.
'Or, this.' I looked down at the drawer, which had several vials of ichor; their wounds would heal if I used that, but why would I ever do that? I'd nearly risked Mother killing me from her questions; if I were to reveal I still had vials after denying her questions, a swift death would be a blessing.
All in all, despite everything that occurred, somehow, I still managed to achieve my greatest desire; however, now, I felt as if I had a swinging guillotine above my head that was ever slowly lowering itself. The fact that I allowed Alexander to escape greatly unnerved me; if he seeks revenge, one of these days he'll return, and while currently he isn't a threat, I have little confidence I'd be able to defeat him next time.
"I was too greedy; I tried to keep him as a pet. I should've taken what I needed and then killed him." As much as I was furious with him, I had to carry some of the blame as well; I was arrogant, and I believed he'd never be able to escape from me.
Sighing, I closed my eyes and shook my head; although Alexander escaped from my grasp and was still on the run, he would be found eventually. It may take weeks, months, or even years, but he wouldn't be stepping off this continent.
With Mother's assistance, we've prohibited any transportation off this continent; no ships, no intercontinental teleportation. It would be impossible to leave this continent; not only that, we'd already put a bounty of one diamond-coin on him. It wasn't a matter of if, but when.
"I still have a mountain of work to do thanks to him." Feeling ever so slightly refreshed, I leaned forward, preparing to continue my work, though just as I grabbed my pen, someone knocked on the door, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "You may enter, Marston." As Marston entered, I set my pen back down, crossing my fingers together as I curiously observed him.
"The Crusher Corps has sent news regarding Alexander." "Ho, that quickly? I expected this would take much longer." Faintly smiling, I rhythmically tapped my fingers, the noise resounding throughout the silent office, though they abruptly stopped at the following words.
"They've located Alexander… However, they believe he's escaped to the ocean." Freezing, I narrowed my eyes, staring intensely at Marston. "What do you mean he's escaped to the ocean?" "The report says he's escaped into the ocean with a small boat, Mistress."
"He left the continent and is sailing the ocean in a small boat?" "Yes, Mistress… Although we won't be able to find his corpse, he's as good as dead; sailing the ocean–" Before Marston could finish speaking, I whipped him with a blood-tendril, slamming him into the wall.
"I know that, Marston!" I clenched my desk, my nails digging into the desk as I suddenly tore it apart, throwing the right half at the wall beside Marston. "What if he lives!? Did you think of that!? He has a 99% of dying, but what if he manages to live that 1%!? What then!?"
Marston merely remained silent and lowered his head, prompting me to cover my face as I realized the situation had spiralled out of control; at that point, chasing him any further was pointless. Finding him in the ocean would be an utterly pointless act; even if we used all our manpower, we wouldn't cover a fraction of a fraction of the ocean.
"Marston, Alexander comes from the Mezcla continent; start looking there. On the off-chance he survives, he'll return home. We need to be ready when he does." Eyeing Marston coldly, he slowly nodded. "Understood, Mistress." Rising to his feet, he straightened his suit and bowed before exiting my office, leaving me alone.
Heaving, I plopped into my seat, and I rubbed my face in exhaustion, brushing aside my hair. "This is terrible." Muttering softly, I reached into the left half of my desk, grabbed a vial of ichor, and consumed it. "Ahh, t-that's better."
___
___
Alexander POV
"Oh, that doesn't look good." Using Trina as a paddle, sailing across the relatively calm waves, I looked off into the distance, eyeing the thick blanket of dark clouds. Cursing, I scanned the distance, hoping I might be able to steer clear, though I don't know what I was thinking; the storm was too big.
'Shit, no evading that.' I've barely been at sea for a day, and I'm already forced into deadly weather; the only way this could get worse is if I were still being chased. "I'm not being chased still, right?" Muttering softly, I cautiously looked behind me, eyeing the empty ocean before shaking my head.
With the storm unavoidable, I continued paddling, an hour roughly passing until I arrived at the edge of the storm, causing me to use [Mana Enhancement] on the boat, increasing its durability with my own mana; given it's size, I could maintain it for a long period, so I wasn't worried I wouldn't make it through the storm. 'I just hope I don't capsize.'
I glance down at the monster-infested ocean, shivering in fear at who knew how many thousands, if not millions, of monsters were just waiting for me. Shaking my head, pushing those thoughts to the back of my mind, I hardened my gaze as I began to slowly enter the storm, the ocean growing more turbulent and aggressive in kind.
I was sailing across large waves easily dozens of times the size of my boat before falling several meters back onto the ocean, just to repeat it all over again. I used [Wind Barrier], preventing water from entering the boat, but that didn't stop the jarring roller coaster-like waves from crashing into the hull.
"You know what!? I could see this being fun if I wasn't worried about capsizing!" Shouting over the torrential downpour, I looked up at the blanket of dark clouds, only to be hit with hail directly in the eye. "Oh fuck me, don't tell me this is a hail storm!?" To my luck, I guessed correctly; not even a minute later, the torrential downpour transformed into a rain of hail, crashing onto my head on the boat.
"Fuck me!" Raising Zartha, I used [Expand] to protect me and the boat from the hailstorm; hours passed like this, and the storm showed no signs of weakening.
Spotting a massive wave hundreds of meters tall, a tsunami-like wave, I gulped. 'Is there a god/goddess of the ocean? Can I pray to them?' I wasn't given the opportunity as I began to ride the tsunami-like wave, rising to the top, so high, only to fall, crashing into the ocean, capsizing, my worst fear.
Flipping over, I opened my eyes, floating in the water, instantly seeing thousands of figures swimming directly for me with [Heroes Gaze] 'Shit!' Using [Air Step], I leaped out of the ocean, slamming my back into the boat, flipping it right-side up, just in time for hundreds of various fish-like monsters to emerge from the ocean.
I swung Zartha, utilizing [Wind Blade], launching multiple, several-meter-long blades of compressed wind, cutting tens of monsters in half, killing them; however, that was just the beginning, as a whale-sized octopus-like monster emerged, causing me to groan. "Fuck me, man!" Shouting, I swung my blade upwards, launching a [Void Slash], cutting it in half vertically.
Yet, I was given no respite as new monsters arrived, some weaker, some stronger, but all equally annoying.
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE, DAMMIT!"