When Darwin had materialized as a summon, Leon stared at him and he stared back at Leon.
“I thank you.” Darwin dropped to one knee and bowed his head. Leon placed his hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
“It’s fine. You have suffered enough.” He smiled, but his smile was crooked. However, Darwin could still tell his intentions.
The interaction between Darwin and Leon left Kai and the others stumped. They shared confused looks between themselves before finally deciding to speak up.
“What are you talking about?” Estella asked, her voice soft and a bit fearful. Leon still frightened her to an extent. The fact that he was a Divine Envoy was even more effective at making her fear him more.
“You will not understand.” Leon shook his head as he turned to face them. He then began walking back to the battlefield where his summons were still tied in battle. By now, they were just sweeping up the remaining resistance. The four colorful lizardmen had been put down as well.
“Leon!” As Leon and the others came into view, Nedra came over to him. She left the corpse of the water attributed lizardman that she had been standing beside.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” Leon smiled at his Spirit Companion.
“Mhm! This was the perfect exercise I needed to stretch!” Nedra laughed as she replied. She then turned to face the Beastkin, her smile slipping off her face.
‘What are we going to do about them?’ She asked Leon mentally.
‘Nothing, we will let them go.’ Leon replied without taking his eyes off the battlefield.
‘Are you sure? They might end up messing something up later.’
‘Don’t worry. I already have a handle on it.’ Leon said with a hint of amusement in his tone.
Some time before Michael had met him concerning this mission, he had gotten a reply from Richard concerning the invasion. Richard had been rather surprised about the news, but had assured Leon that he would be coming to the Desolate Lands with an army behind him. And guess what?
The headquarters of the Silver Tooth Guild was in the Gublin Empire!𝑶𝐕𝐿xt.𝔠𝒪
Richard’s guild held quite a bit of sway in the Gublin Empire, and the actual leader of the guild was even on good terms with the king of the empire! Surely, when the news of the invasion came, then Richard would be able to handle things on that side. There was no way that he would not hear of what happened within this dungeon, and when he heard that, then he would surely act as a mediator between Leon and the Gublin Empire.
‘I see…’ Nedra hummed after listening to Leon’s explanation.
As they had been talking, the battle had come to a close. All the monsters had been killed. Leon waved his hand and his Domain spread out, carrying out the task of converting these monsters to his loyal summons. Their cores were pried out of their bodies and stored elsewhere in a smooth, casual motion that Leon had done hundreds of times by now. In less than a minute, there were no dead bodies strewn about, but the signs of battle were still obvious.
“I will be taking my leave now.” Leon turned to Kai as he recalled his summons. His elites came to stand around him like loyal guards as he looked at the Beastkin.
“Something tells me we shall meet sooner or later. Till then.” Kai nodded his head. He had accepted the fact that he could not make Leon do anything so he could only go along with the flow at this point. He did not possess the strength to stand against Leon.
“Till then.” Leon also nodded and squeezed on the medallion in his grasp, inserting his mana into it. A bright light shone from it and enveloped him and his group, blinding Kai’s group for a moment. When their visions returned, Leon and his summons were nowhere to be found.
‘They just left…’ Kai thought to himself as an invisible burden that had been weighing on his shoulders since his defeat lifted from him. He felt as if he could finally breath properly. He had never let down his guard, always prepared to fend off a surprise attack from Leon. In fact, he had been stumped to find out that Leon had just left without actually taking a strike at them.
‘He has powerful summons, but no A rank summon aside from the dungeon boss. I thought he might try to make me one of his summons… And also, what was that about the boss suffering enough?’
A multitude of thoughts ran through Kai’s mind in the span of a few seconds.
“He just left?” Like her life was seeped from her body, Meredin fell down to her knees, her shoulders trembling and her eyes wide. Kai hurriedly knelt beside her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Hold yourself together, cousin. The Despair Dungeon is feeding on your fears and amplifying them.” He shook her shoulders, and after getting no response, he turned to Estella.
The Priestess was also shaken, and rightfully so, as the foundations of her beliefs had been tested by this ordeal, but she had managed to hold herself together better. She took a couple of deep breaths to regain her composure before casting a holy light around Meredin to soothe her mind and restore her mental state to a reasonable level.
Only after roughly five minutes did Meredin regain some semblance of sanity. She looked up with tears in her eyes and Kai felt his heart strings get tugged as he felt pity for the girl. She had some bad experiences with Dark magic and Necromancy in the past, so Leon was definitely a bad match up for her. Plus, with the effects of the Despair Dungeon being all around her, the despair and fear in the air and within her had been amplified, which had caused her mind to collapse.
“It’s alright. You’re alright. We’re alright.” Kai held Meredin in his arms as the rest of their family watched them, waiting till they were ready to return home.