“Hehe, who knows?”
She flapped her wings and flew towards the sky at breakneck speed.
Neo was frozen in surprise.
‘She was acting too friendly until now.’
‘Was that her real personality?’
No, there was no way she was stupid enough to put herself in harm’s way for someone she saw just now.
‘Elizabeth being here and her not being a part of the Expedition must have made it clear she was with me and others from my world.’
‘She has no connection to the Grand Expedition. Why is Zera trying to save her?’
Kindness?
Compassion for a fellow person trapped within the nightmare?
A powerful roar erupted in the sky as the vines smashed Zera into the ground again.
“Stop this,” Neo said. “I don’t need your help.”
“Haha, now you are just being stubborn,” she said, as she staggered and tried to force her body up.
Her limbs trembled, and blood leaked out of her injuries in large quantities. “If you really want to save her, shouldn’t you ask for my help?
“I’m hundreds of times stronger than you.”
“And you are also injured. Keep this up, and you won’t know when you died—”
A shockwave erupted before Neo could complete his words.
Zera took off to the sky.
Her eyes were fixed on Elizabeth’s figure.
The Vine Spear descended from the sky again and attacked Zera.
Neo, unable to watch longer, jumped up.
A powerful force slammed him into the ground before he could move higher.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
Zera did not answer him. She flew through the sky while dodging the vines and used her Air Affinity to make sure Neo could not come up.
Her intentions were clear.
She was making sure Neo was not injured.
He gritted his teeth.
Although he wanted to shout that he didn’t need her help, he knew this was no time to be stubborn.
He needed Zera’s help to rescue Elizabeth.
“Use your World! Don’t worry about me! I have a way to survive that!”
Zera turned her head slightly, looking down at Neo.
Her eyes seemed to be looking into his soul.
As a Clan Leader, Zera had always been caring about people under her.
Elizabeth, now with them, was a member of the Grand Expedition too.
Zera believed it was her duty as a leader to protect everyone who was her subordinate.
‘If Tyr was here, he would’ve scolded me for putting a single member’s life over my own,’ Zera chuckled inwardly.
“Zera!” Neo shouted again. “Use your World!”
Zera understood she did not have time to hold back, especially when she was already injured.
She decided to trust Neo and that he had an ace up his sleeve.
The World
A huge domain formed around Zera, the size of a Stage-2 Planet.
Normally, awakeners could transform their Energy (Mana/Divine Energy) into Elementals inside their Core.
This caused their techniques to have a delay.
However, Gods were not held back by such weakness.
[The World] allowed them to transform the area around them into their territory.
They could create Elemental Energy with no delay inside [The World].
Humongous purple tornadoes erupted in the sky.
They spiraled towards the Vine Spear, attacking it.
Zera roared and increased the output of her World.
The Void Elementals in the air started to corrupt the Vine Spear.
She used the moment of opportunity and passed the Vine Spear.
Her form flew higher into the sky.
Suddenly, another new vine attack flew down towards her head from the sky.
She was a moment too late to react.
Just when Zera thought she would be hit back to the ground, she sensed the Time Elementals around her rapidly decreasing.
Her eyes widened, and she looked below.
A caterpillar rested on Neo’s shoulder.
The tiny fellow was devouring the Time Elementals like a black hole.
However, it barely slowed the vines.
They were too strong, and the caterpillar couldn’t snatch too much time from them.
“Thank you, dear!” Zera roared.
The vines had slowed, even if barely.
They brought Zera enough time to react.
Neo had brought Zera enough time to react.
She roared and used corrupted wind to throw the vines off track and reached Elizabeth.
Thousands of vines started to descend from the sky.
It was as if they had been angered.
Zera did not wait for them to reach her location and grabbed the vine attached to Elizabeth’s head using her mouth.
She tore it with a powerful tug.
Then, she descended from the sky at quick speed.
She crash-landed, unable to descend properly due to her injuries.
“Get ready. They might attack now that we rescued a person forcefully….”
Zera stopped speaking when she noticed the vines did not follow her back to the ground.
They hovered in the sky, angry, but that was all.
“Zera!”
Neo rushed towards her.
“Transform back into your human form! A size like this takes too much energy to maintain!”
Zera followed his words and morphed into her human figure.
She was covered in blood and injuries.
Her form looked more similar to a half-decayed corpse than a living person.
She coughed and could barely stand.
Neo created a simple bed with mimicked elements and laid her on it.
He did the same for Elizabeth.
“You are quite reckless,” Neo said.
“Isn’t there something else you should say?” she smirked.
“Thank you, and rest now,” Neo said.
As much as he wanted to heal Zera, he couldn’t do that.
Not only was he weak, but his holy element would also worsen her injuries.
If he had very high mastery in holy, he might have been able to heal her without degrading her condition too much, but his mastery in holy and life elements was pathetically low.
‘I feel like shit,’ he thought, gritting his teeth. ‘She helped me without asking for anything, and I can’t alleviate her pain.’
Zera tried to sit up after a few minutes.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Wait, don’t move now.”
“It’s okay,” she smiled and waved her hand, trying to assure Neo. “Dragons, and Dragon Gods at that, are much more durable than you think.”
Her barely attached arm said otherwise.