Chapter 536 - What's Going On Here?
Leon shortly directed the Life Energy throughout Princess Thessalia's body with Divine Will. The Life Energy quickly linked with the medicinal essence of the Bone Regrowth Pill and Nirvana Pill before their efficacy was boosted.
Missing parts between bones were gradually regrown and connected before they were reinforced while organs slowly reformed themselves under Leon's observant divine sense.
At the same time, Princess Thessalia gazed at him coldly.
As she felt her body's condition improving, the cold and piercing gaze that Princess Thessalia glared at Leon with gradually turned complicated.
Nevertheless, the healing process was slow and gradual.
Outside of the vine dome protected by Supreme Elder Haldir, the battle continued to rage on, and time quickly flew past.
The mutated rat tide quickly dwindled in numbers.
Eventually, the last mutated rat was slain by Aria's icicle attack from the sky as it was escaping from the region.
"It's finally over," General Marquis Hendrick sighed on the field littered with mountains of mutated rat carcasses.
After the mutated rat tide was reduced to less than ten thousand in numbers, the General Marquis directly joined the battle and fought alongside the Supreme Elder.
"Yeah…" Supreme Elder Haldir spoke.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Elder paid little attention to the mutated rat carcasses on the battlefield. Instead, his gaze was fixed on his vine dome located at the airship's crash site.
Many hours had passed since he left, but the treatment process was still ongoing.
At the same time, the explosive cannonballs forged by Duke Ignis and his group of blacksmiths were depleted.
Many mutated rat carcasses had exploded into numerous pieces of flesh after the violent reaction effect of clashing lightning and fire. They laid scattered all over the battlefield with their lightning spikes fragmented into dull shards.
While many pieces like this could be found everywhere on the battlefield, many whole carcasses were also preserved with their lightning spikes intact.
These were the mutated rats killed by Aria, the Supreme Elder, and the General Marquis.
Shortly after, the General Marquis began issuing his orders for the soldiers on the Great Wall to descend to the foot of the wall where the General Marquis awaited them.
However, many rope lifts had been destroyed by the mutated rat's volleys of lightning spikes. As such, some time was taken for high-level elven warriors to construct new rope lifts for them.
"What are your orders, General Marquis?" A leading soldier inquired in salutation with a group of soldiers right behind him.
"Go clean up the battlefield. Also, collect the lightning spikes and send them to Duke Ignis to be studied. See if the Duke has a way to make use of these lightning spikes. It would be a waste to throw them away, otherwise." General Marquis Hendrick ordered.
"Yes, General!"
"Also, give me a count on the casualties later." General Marquis Hendrick added.
The soldier saluted, "Yes, General!"
Meanwhile, Aria descended from the sky and landed near the airship crash site before she awaited Leon's emergence from the vine dome.
Shortly after, Faelyn also arrived and waited with a concerned look.
"Sorry. This would not have happened if I did use my lightning powers." Aria apologized to Faelyn with guilt and self-blaming.
However, Faelyn shook her head and held Aria's hand before reassuring her, "This was not your fault, Miss Aria. No one could have predicted the rat tide was capable of mutating like this. As such, I do not blame you, no matter what happens to my sister."
"Thank you…" Aria said with difficulty.
Who knew how much harder it was for Princess Faelyn to try and console Aria when her heart was plagued with her own worries for her third eldest sister's safety.
Seeing Faelyn's tight wrinkle as they gazed at the vine dome, Aria knew it was her turn to console Faelyn.
"Don't worry too much. If it's Leon, your sister will definitely be healed. When it comes to medical skills, I believe he is the best in the world," Aria spoke confidently.
Faelyn was not sure where Aria's confidence came from, but she nodded, having understood Aria's kind intention in trying to reassure her.
Sometime later, inside of the vine dome, Princess Thessalia was fully healed.
Once Leon was done with the treatment, he unsealed Princess Thessalia's acupoints before draping a piece of clothing from his Worldspace over her bare body.
Surprisingly, Princess Thessalia did not attack Leon after her mobility was recovered.
Instead, she wore the clothing Leon gave her before thanking him in a cold and emotionless tone, "Thank you."
Shortly after picking herself up, Princess Thessalia made her way over to her personal guards' corpses and gathered them in silence, intending to give them a proper burial elsewhere.
Seeing his business done here, Leon waved his hand at the vine dome and manipulated it to dismantle itself.
"Leon!"
"Sister!"
Two different voices were quickly heard.
Aria approached Leon before she lowered her head in guilt, still feeling terrible about what happened.
Leon pulled her into his embrace and caressed her head gently with one hand as he said soothingly, "Don't worry, you did well to minimize the casualties while I was gone. There's no need to be hard on yourself. Not everyone can be saved. However, it's alright now."
It was a pity for the airship crew and the Third Princess's personal guards, as well as the soldiers and elven warriors that died.
But at the very least, Princess Thessalia survived.
"Mmm." Aria nodded before resting her head against Leon's chest.
Meanwhile, Faelyn had rushed over and embraced her third eldest sister from behind.
"I'm so glad that you are okay, sister. I don't know what I would do if you were to also leave me like father, mother, big brother, and big sister." Faelyn said with relief.
Princess Thessalia lightly smiled with little emotion in her eyes before she said, "Sorry to have worried you, baby sister, but I'm fine now. You can let me go now. I need to give collect my personal guard's bodies."
"Let me help you, sister." Faelyn quickly offered, but Princess Thessalia shook her head and said, "I want to do this myself."
"Alright…" Faelyn reluctantly left her sister alone.
Shortly after, she made her way over to Leon. Seeing Aria was within Leon's embrace, Faelyn could only stand by his side while waiting her turn.
"Thank you for saving my sister, Leon!" Faelyn said shortly after giving Leon a sudden peck on the cheeks to express her gratefulness for what he had done.
Leon shook his head and said with an unnatural smile, "It's what I should do."
Faelyn's peck on Leon's cheek did not escape Aria's eyes as she pulled herself away from Leon before looking at them with a raised brow in question.
"What's going on here?" Aria queried suspiciously.
Leon chuckled wryly before she explained awkwardly with a cough, "Ahem, well… some things sort of happened back in Elvengarde…"
"We'll be sisters in the future, Miss Aria. I hope we can get along from now on." Faelyn said guiltily with a shameful blush.
While hugging one of Leon's arms close to her chest and feeling bad for getting in between them, Faelyn did not want to give Leon up.
Aria was stunned, speechless.
She had let her guard down and allowed Leon to pick up a new sister. That being said, she was not angry—just a little surprise.
She could also immediately see that Leon and Faelyn's bonding was good for the relationship between humans and elves.
This would be important for the elven tribe's integration.
"You don't have to explain to me, Leon. I am not angry—just a little surprised. You should think about how you are going to mother instead." Aria said.
Leon smiled wryly.
"You don't dislike me?" Faelyn asked Aria with surprise, thinking Aria would have developed some ill feelings for having to share her man.
However, Aria shook her head.
"No, I have long known that I cannot keep Leon to myself. Besides, you are not the only one. The other sisters are waiting for us back in the empire."
Aria shrugged.
Shortly after, she whispered into Faelyn's ear teasingly, "Besides, I cannot satisfy Leon by myself. It's good to have some sisters to help me. You might have to do some extra work, though."
Faelyn's face quickly flushed red from Aria's words.
At the same time, Leon was a little speechless after overhearing Aria's words. Despite how she was behaving in front of Faelyn, she was actually a conservative woman.
Perhaps, Aria was trying to assume her role as the head wife that looks after her little sisters in the harem.
After Leon gave Aria a peculiar glance, she immediately averted her gaze from him with a crimson blush on her cheeks.
Sometime later, Supreme Elder Haldir and General Marquis Hendrick approached them.
"Thank you for saving Princess Thessalia, young prince. Your abilities never cease to amaze me," Supreme Elder Haldir praised Leon, seeing that Princess Thessalia was alive and kicking.
Leon smiled lightly in response.
Although the Supreme Elder was very curious about Leon's method, he knew that the person did not want to disclose the secret. As such, the Supreme Elder intended to inquire from Princess Thessalia later.
Shortly after, Leon turned to General Marquis Hendrick, who appeared to have something to say before he smiled, "Let us head back to Military City and discuss our next course of actions for this Cataclysm. It'll be great if I can contact my father and mother back in the Capital quickly."
There was no doubt that chaos has spread throughout the Crawford Empire due to the Cataclysm's eruption.
There was a mountain of issues that required immediate attention and arrangement.
"Yes, Your Highness." General Marquis Hendrick fixed his expression and patted his chest solemnly before he said, "I will arrange the Communication Tower's repair immediately. It should not take too long.. You can use it to contact the Capital."