A woman walked through a place full of flowers. Her long silver hair fell down her back, and her ears undoubtedly revealed that she was an elf. Her eyes focused on a specific white flower, making her crouch down.
"When will she come back? I've been waiting for you for so long."
Running her fingers over that flower, which was surrounded by smaller ones, the woman showed an expression of affection.
"Your Majesty, we found the princess."
Hearing a man's voice behind her, the woman, without caring, began to move her hand closer to the flower. Stopping just before touching it completely, she asked a question.
"So… did you bring her back?"
"I'm sorry, but it wasn't possible, because she disappeared as soon as we found her."
The voice belonged to an elf with bright blue hair. He was one of the main guards of the queen of the Elf Dimension. The queen, who was in front of him and who, upon hearing the news of what she considered a failure, began to pull her hand away from the flower.
"What a pity."
"But we managed to sense that she returned thanks to the magic beast."
The woman quickly turned her head toward him, and her eyes seemed to shine with a bit of darkness at their center.
"When?"
"Five minutes ago, my queen."
"You…"
A smile slowly began to appear on her face as her hand now firmly grasped that flower.
"You should have informed me in the very first second, you bunch of incompetents."
The flower began to be disintegrated slowly, as if she wanted it to suffer as much as possible. That flower was something special given by her mother to her missing sister. Something that should not exist, just like the elf who should never have been born.
"So the time has finally come to eliminate all those traitors who decided to follow her."
A cruel smile was on that woman's face. She wanted to completely destroy her sister, the sister she hated so much due to childish envy.
"Elaris… we'll finally see who is the best to rule, but this time I have the advantage, just like you did before."
She began to stand up while the surrounding flowers were disintegrated by a blue light. That was the ice magic of the royal family at its maximum splendor.
"Call those so-called followers of the god of sacrifice and tell them I accepted their proposal."
"Yes, my queen."
It was time to eliminate all of them, and she would use whatever it took to kill them, even that being her ancestors hated. The two elves walked toward a dark castle; it was even strange how dissonant that garden was compared to the rest of the place. That was because this garden was the only pure thing there. Everything else looked as if the plants and trees were withering over time or aging far too quickly.
"So this is the woman we have to ally with?"
Three hooded figures, one kilometer away, watched the place where the two elves were. These three bore a symbol that Enrico knew well. It was the symbol of a servant.
"Remember what our Lord said, Galahard. He said she might be our ally."
"I understand, Sicra, but I can't lie and say I like the presence of this elf."
The man called Galahard turned in the opposite direction of the castle. He seemed to narrow his eyes to see at a distance of at least ten kilometers without even using magic. He was doing this because he wanted to know if the rest of the followers he brought with him were fine. Meanwhile, the woman named Sicra turned toward the last member of the team.
"This is your last chance to help, miss."
She looked at this last member with a certain disdain, even though she tried to hide it, but that attempt did not go unnoticed by the eyes of the short white-haired girl. One of her eyes was covered by a black eyepatch. This was Lyria, a half-vampire, daughter of the cult leader.
"Of course, Lady Sicra. I don't plan to disappoint."
When Sicra nodded and turned in the same direction Galahard was looking, Lyria took the moment to scratch her eyepatch a little. Even though almost three months had passed since she received that injury, she still felt a slight discomfort.
'I really can't forget that abomination.'
Remembering Enrico for a moment, she also ran her hand through her short hair. She decided to keep her hair that way and also not heal her eye with her father's magic because she wanted to remember that day well, because thanks to it she managed to realize something.
'Everyone in the cult hates me.'
Since she failed that mission, everyone in the cult seemed to become more transparent with their feelings against her, which made her realize that something was wrong.
'Even so, I want to defeat that guy to regain my pride.'
Looking in Sicra's direction, Lyria made an expression of disguised disdain, just as Sicra had done toward her. She just wanted to find out what they wanted so she could know how to proceed.
'If they are trying to sacrifice me like I think, I have to find a way to escape without them coming after me.'
She had heard about a sacrifice before, but most said it was a prisoner. Now, the reason she thought it was this sacrifice was simple. As mentioned before, the disdain they had for her, and at the same time the way they seemed to protect her, raised a small suspicion.
'The only thing I have to do on this mission is not fail, so I can gain more time.'
Of course, that was a bit naive on her part; the best thing would be that as soon as she confirmed who would be sacrificed, she would flee. The only problem was that in this Elf Dimension there were many cult followers spread around.
'Let's see, from what I know there are some fairly strong newcomers toward the west. If I can get Sicra to put me together with them, I can confirm it and escape more easily.'
She looked in the direction where those two guards were, who in her opinion were quite annoying. Right after looking, she directed her gaze to her own right arm, which was completely bandaged.
'I have to survive. I've come too far to die here; I even made that damn pact in secret.'
With force, she squeezed her arm with her left hand before walking toward them, where it was possible to see the view of a large part of the Elf Dimension. But the view of that place, which in stories was called beautiful, was now completely dark and without any sign of life in the distance.
'That queen doesn't seem like a good leader… then again, I can't say much, since I've never been one.'
With a few more words from Sicra, the three headed toward the castle.
'An alliance with the elves… why do I feel like everything will go wrong?'
While the two in front of her had a bit of confidence that they could achieve this alliance, Lyria had a feeling it would not work out.
'But thinking about it, if it doesn't work out, it might be my chance… now I want this alliance to fail.'
With a snort, she followed the two more quickly. She had to appear the same as before in front of them, so her thoughts had to stay in her mind. All of this for just one reason. To survive.