Chapter 10: The Elf Divination Grounds
"Look, this girl's not with me, I'm seriously just on some random D rank quest to find this certain flower." Sky said as he pulled out his copy of the quest info to show it to the group of mercenaries. The warrior girl finally laid her dagger down and stared at the quest info. She seems to have finally relaxed this time after seeing the quest info. "Why are you following me?" That was the first thing he did after he cleared this misunderstanding was to ask why this Nathalie girl was following him. "Because…"Nathalie started blushing. "Sigh… Can you not forget about the scene of me half naked?" Sky shot out the statement that Nathalie least wanted to hear and blushed even harder. The surrounding group of mercenary were staring at them two as if wanting to say, "Hello, we are still here, if you guys want to warm up to each other do it in a "room" and I thought you guys didn't know each other." In Sky's mind he was being a narcissist like he was before thinking, I realized that you are the third girl that I have shown my looks too and had gotten into some kind of relationship too, am I that handsome. While Sky thought, the warrior girl started to drink on her water reserve.
"Well, we gotta get going then," The warrior girl broke the awkward silence and ordered the other three guys, "We need to get there before midnight so we can be safe, "she continued. "May I ask a question?" Sky realized it was a good time and good situation to ask the whereabouts of the Somnias flower. "Go ahead." The girl said plainly. "Do you know where the Somnias flower is?" After Sky asked this question, all the other mercenaries stared at Sky like he said a taboo. "Somias flower is the divine flower used in the Purification of the Elves," the elf girl said plainly looking at Sky. "Where can I find one?" "Come with us, you may find one at the grounds," The elf girl said, for her she sense a somewhat altruistic aura around Sky for some reason as if he is also of the elven race. She had felt somewhat close to Sky and ironically Sky does too.
Nathalie still is mad and would stare at Sky ferociously after their fight especially when she saw her talking with the elf girl. She herself doesn't even know why she's mad after all she isn't the kind of person to actually believe in love at first sight but unfortunately that's what is happening to her. On the way to the Divine Grounds, Nathalie is feeling really down, she stares at Sky talking to the elf girl with a sense of bitter scent in the air…
Of course Sky had felt something's wrong with the surroundings but he did not look back and if he did the evil eye Nathalie is showing could have "killed" him millions of times. "So why are there humans traveling with you?" Sky had asked out of curiosity. "They are my guards due to certain circumstances," again the elf girl said emotionlessly. "Oh, ok," Sky found himself unable to hold a long conversation with the elf girl so he just ended up asking her name at the end, but again she said, "It's Lia," and ended the conversation again. The way to the Divine Grounds were very laid back, most of the monsters were only gold ranked not much to the party of mostly veterans. Of course there were always one or two that got to Sky but Nathalie would always shot to his side and slice it down unmercifully using those monsters to relieve her anger. Sky still is that "wood" person.
The Divine Grounds was not far, the party travelled for 2 hours before reaching to a empty plain field that had a bizarre stone standing on each of the two sides in the middle of it which at first Sky couldn't very well see why they were here at this plain. Lia stepped forwards to Sky's perplexed face. "Oh the great spirits of nature, grant moi the divination that shall bestow upon the grand path towards greatness and queenhood." Lia's voice boomed into the plains and shaked the fields as if the plains were reacting to her sounds. The nearby monsters that had their eyes on the group all backed off. (The more intelligent monsters viewed the plains as a trap for their prey because there is nowhere to hide) To Sky's surprise, the space between the two stones started stir and finally cause a rift in between the void. Whirls of particles and space started stirring in front of them sucking in things as it stirs faster and faster until it slowed down to form a whirling portal. An old voice boomed from the portal startling the party.
"Oh, Thou with the Elven blood, what is it that thou seek?" "I seek the Queenhood of all Elves!" Lia for once in Sky's experience with her yelled out loudly. "You who seek the queenhood shall pass this "cleansing" for being the queen, it will forever limit thou's power as an elf but always have power over other elves is that alright for thou?" "Yes!" "Very well, thou shall pass!" The portal shook again forming staircases that lead down underground forming slowly like domino stacks. The party started to walk down the passage and found the underground to be a lot cooler than on the ground but that coolness was very refreshing; it felt very "nature."
Soon the party heard sounds of dripping liquid as they followed the sound they reached an underground lake. To Sky and Lia, the lake felt very Holy to them for some reason but to the others they only screamed, "There's an underground lake here?!" "Thou shall cleanse with the water here, it is only if you have the resolution to become queen!" Lia without hesitance walked gracefully towards the lake… At this point Nathalie and the warrior girl pushed the other guys out of the sight due to the "nudity" of the scene.
Sky with his wry smile has already left the scene looking for the Somnias flower as he was requested to find. He had pulled out a book of botanic plants from his storage ring. Flipping through the pages he found the rainbow colored plant as he used it to find the flower. Sky had been scanning through the underground cavern for the flower while ignoring all the events that are happening with the "cleansing." Just as he sees the flower, he heard a stomping sound…