Zaha couldn't dare to imagine it.
What was going on? Such a massive Emperor Hell Dragon, just fell down like that?
"Hey, Zaha, hurry up and use that, she's looking over here," Briz said with some urgency.
The Emperor Hell Dragon dissipated into mana particles. Nanoda stood upon the scorched earth, looking toward the group of Demons, and took a step forward.
"I admit that we underestimated you. Well then, until we meet again."
After the Emperor Hell Dragon disappeared, the mana around Zaha suddenly weakened. At the same time, the object he was clutching in his hand emitted an intense white light, completely enveloping the group of Demons.
A sense of déjà vu washed over her. Nanoda thought to herself that this was bad; it seemed she had played around too much and was about to let them slip away.
This light looked exactly like the Teleportation Magic used when she faced Wolf back then.
During the battle with the Emperor Hell Dragon, Zaha had taken the group of Demons far away from the battlefield, but they were still within Nanoda's line of sight.
Nanoda was confident she could catch up to them, but Teleportation Magic was a different story.
And so, in that very instant, Nanoda unleashed her power.
Enveloped by the soft white light, Zaha, for once, did not feel disgusted by it.
Beside him, Briz let out a sigh of relief and said,
"What a truly dangerous fellow. We need to hurry back and report this to that Lord."
"Yes... she is indeed a variable."
Just as Zaha was thinking about how to make his report, a black arc suddenly pierced through the white light before his eyes.
"Slash!"
His previous thoughts ground to a halt. He stared in disbelief at his severed arm. The scenery before him shifted once more; they had already left their original location.
"No... this... how could this... be possible..."
Having lost his arm, Zaha collapsed to the ground. Only then did Briz snap back to his senses.
"Hey!"
Supporting the dying Zaha, Briz examined this sudden injury and found it increasingly unbelievable.
The teleportation had clearly been nearing completion, yet Zaha was still injured by that broken-horn Demon, even losing an important item in the process.
Inside Böse's barrier, Nanoda was the only Demon left.
"Phew~ I let them get away."
Unleashing her full power, Nanoda could vaguely feel that her strike just now had once again transcended the boundaries of the rules, exceeding the concept of time and space. It was a strike approaching the realm of gods.
Compared to when she killed Wolf, the damage this time was much lighter. Since it was only for a split second, Nanoda could easily withstand this kind of soul impact.
Walking slowly across the scorched earth, she saw a severed Demon arm slowly dissipating not far away. In the tight grip of its five fingers, a grayish-black object was revealed.
Picking up the broken horn that had fallen nearby, Nanoda somewhat heartachingly flicked the mud off it.
In her moment of desperation earlier, she had directly thrown the broken horn. Imbued with the Power of Severance, the broken horn had cleanly sheared off Zaha's arm and disrupted part of the teleportation.
"A fragment of stone?"
Picking up the grayish-black object, Nanoda took a look at it. It was just an ordinary stone fragment, about half the size of a palm, with half of an incomprehensible symbol carved into it. Yet, as a whole, it gave Nanoda a profound sense of antiquity and desolation.
The white light from earlier had originated from this very fragment of stone.
After examining it closely in her hand, Nanoda still couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Injecting mana into it yielded no reaction; the symbol was unreadable, and only half of it remained. However, the material was incredibly hard. Even applying force couldn't break it. One must know that with Nanoda's strength, crushing a lump of stone wasn't exactly a difficult task.
"Forget it, I'll study it after I get back."
Placing both the stone fragment and the broken horn into her leg pouch, Nanoda looked around. After confirming through her Mana Perception that there were no other Demons present, she decided to leave this place first.
What were these Demons doing here? What was up with that strange Teleportation Magic just now? What exactly was this stone fragment?
Nanoda had many questions. At the same time, missing the opportunity to subjugate this group of Demons and failing to gather information about their situation left her feeling somewhat disappointed.
"Is Teleportation Magic a dime a dozen now? How come I run into it every time?"
Nanoda muttered her complaints to herself. In this era, Teleportation Magic was practically non-existent; such magic had been lost to time long ago.
Furthermore, the incident with Wolf last time gave her the illusion that she hadn't completely eradicated him. Logically speaking, even if Wolf had been teleported away after being sliced into four pieces, it was impossible for him to have survived.
Putting her headband back on, Nanoda walked out of the barrier. She specifically chose a different direction to exit, afraid of being discovered the moment she stepped out.
At this time, the sky was just barely beginning to brighten. The soldiers keeping watch outside the barrier were slacking off and dozing, so no one noticed Nanoda coming out.
Nanoda fashioned a cloak out of mana, pulled the hood up over her head, and quietly returned to the tent she shared with Yuna.
Evading the early-morning patrol knights along the way, she managed to return without a hitch.
As soon as she entered the tent, she saw Yuna sitting upright, sporting faint dark circles under her eyes.
"Ah! Lady Nanoda... you've returned..."
Yuna offered a somewhat haggard smile. It looked like she had been nervously waiting for Nanoda all night without sleeping.
"Mhm. I..." Before she could finish her sentence.
Seeing Nanoda return safely, all of her previous stress and worries vanished into thin air. Her body went limp, and Yuna collapsed onto her bedding.
"Haaah..."
A faint breathing sound emerged; Yuna had fallen asleep.
Stunned for a moment, Nanoda shook her head.
"Silly girl."
She reached out and gently pulled the blanket over Yuna.
Having spent so much time with the heartless Aura, it had been a long time since she felt someone worry about her this much.
Seeing that Yuna was sound asleep, Nanoda also closed her eyes and sat down beside her. She began to cycle the mana around her body. Through this kind of practice, Nanoda could better master the flow of mana within this body and stimulate more power. This was also something she had frequently done over the past few years.
It was nearing noon when Yuna slowly woke up with a soft groan.
"You're awake."
Nanoda opened her eyes and greeted Yuna.
"You can go back to sleep for a bit. Denken and Lerne came by earlier. They said this barrier won't be dispelled anytime soon, so we'll have to stay stationed here for a while. As for why you were still resting, I just made up an excuse to cover for you."
"It's alright, Lady Nanoda, I'm already fully awake."
Then, Yuna added somewhat sheepishly,
"I'm sorry. Because I kept thinking about you inside the barrier, Lady Nanoda, I didn't get a good night's rest. We agreed that I would cover for you, but..."
"Alright, it's fine. Do you want to hear about what happened inside?"
Nanoda shook her head, changing the subject.
"I do!" Yuna was also very curious about what had transpired.
After Nanoda recounted everything that had happened inside, Yuna's mouth fell wide open in astonishment.
At the same time, Nanoda also brought out her spoils of war—that stone fragment.
"Yuna, have you ever seen this thing before?"
____
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