Legacy World 4.17 Vanora's First Warrior Angels

They followed any sounds of battle and encountered a few stray fights in this manner. They were all small fights, consisting only of one or two angels and a few more hell beings. Each time Vanora joined in the fray, Vlad commanded the hell beings to assist in some other fight elsewhere. The angels proved to be no challenge. Vanora was still at her peak performance, while the angels lacked talent and experience.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the pair encountered their largest fight. Five angels hovered in the sky, above the hell beings that Vanora recognised as the ones that got sent away by Vlad. However, every one of them were now glowing white. The two angels that bore weapons and wore colder expressions dominated the fight. The one with a gold lance fought perfectly in sync with the one with a bow. White sparkling arrows that disappeared upon impact rained on the hell beings, causing more chaos among them. Vanora instinctively knew that these two were of a different caliber from all the other angels she had fought with. Meanwhile, Vlad's eyebrows were drawn together. /What're warrior angels doing here?/

"Vanora, be careful of-" Before Vlad could finish his sentence, Vanora already made her move. He sighed. /She's not listening, she's more hasty... And there was that matter earlier. What exactly is going on?/ With that thought, the colours of her aura naturally revealed itself to him. /It's still the same. It's good that her power's finally stable, but I don't like this. Something just doesn't feel right./ He eyed Vanora closely while he continued to wonder about what he should do about her.

Vanora burst into the fight with her hellfire raging at its strongest. Catching everyone by surprise, all of them were successfully caught in her hellfire. Like all the previous angels that got attacked by her hellfire, they dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. Only the two warrior angels dropped on one knee. The other hell beings were equally stunned, so Vanora led the attack. She prioritized getting rid of the annoying purification angels, so she made quick work with taking their lives.

The next closest was the angel with the lance. She leapt towards him with an arm stretched out and her fingers curled, ready to rip his heart out. The next thing she saw, however, was half her arm dropping to the ground. Before blood could even flow out, the lance that cut her arm off at the elbow was already going for her heart. Her pupils constricted and her left arm shot out by reflex. She grabbed the lance, redirected it to go past her head, and brought herself closer to the angel. She brought her knee towards the angel's chest, but the angel decisively abandoned his weapon and rolled away. He then stood up and staggered a few more steps back. Vanora wanted to follow up with another attack but the hair on her body rose and she jumped to the side instead. A few sparkling arrows struck the ground just as she did, then disappeared. Now that both of them were within her field of vision and staring her down, she used the time to take stock of the damage done to her body. A scratch to her face. Half an arm lost. The amount of blood dripping out of her large wound was not life threatening. Not too bad. They were definitely in greater pain than she was. A tiny bit admiration for their determination to fight on rose within her. /Are all angels of that caliber like that?/ She eyed them a little more. /I can taunt that one./

Vanora leaned against the tree behind her and smirked. "I can do this all day. It'll be fun to watch you SLOWLY burn to death."

"What a vicious and cruel person you are to have such a power." The angel who had the lance growled.

"Just like you angels, right?"

"What?!" He took a step forward. "How DARE you-"

"Brandon." The other angel held onto Brandon's arm to stop him from advancing further. "Don't lose your cool. She's obviously taunting you."

Vanora nonchalantly waggled her finger at them. "That... What's that called? Oh, ya, purification of our souls. How's it any different?"

"We're saving souls, yours is just for torture!" He barked back.

"Same thing."

"They're NOT!" Brandon charged at her, picking up the lance along the way.

"Brandon!" The other angel shouted out angrily.

"I won't lose to someone like her!" Brandon assured.

Vanora stared at him with half-lidded eyes. Her bored arrogant look was the final straw and Brandon saw only red. Feeling that it was time to move, Vanora dashed forward. Yellow lightning shot out of the lance. She stopped abruptly, but continued to skid across the grass. Brandon smirked, thinking that it was the end for Vanora. Just before the lightning touched her, she ducked down and followed up with two kicks upwards. One kick broke his spear. The other spun Brandon's head around like a screw being taken out. It ended with his face looking at the other angel, who had his bow drawn and readied. Alas, he had responded too slowly.

"BRANDON!"

Vanora used her good hand to grab onto Brandon's body, using it as a meat shield while she ran towards the other angel. The other angel flew up and aimed his arrows behind Brandon's body. "You underestimate me!"

To his surprise, there was no one behind Brandon's body. It was flying forward by itself.

"Did I?" The ominous voice came from above him and sent a chill down his spine.

The angel looked up to see Vanora suspended in the air with her legs tucked in. Before he could react, she kicked down and smashed his face in. His fall created a depression in the ground. When her feet touched the ground, she instantly crushed his heart to make sure that he was dead.

The cut on her face had already healed and the bleeding at her elbow was now barely a trickle.

Meanwhile, Vlad was staring at the scene with a dark and gloomy expression.

The instant he saw her get injured, gory scenes that he did not recognise flashed through his mind. All he could eventually think about was her dead body lying in front of him. It overwhelmed his senses so much that he instinctively took a step forward, wanting to intervene. However, when he did, a pair of grey eyes with fiery golden specks surfaced to the forefront of his mind. /If I act now, I'll really lose her. With how she is now, there's no doubt she'll leave even if it costs her her life. This is my last chance. I must keep my promise./

Several times during her fight, he wanted to go to her side. He managed to hold himself back with much difficulty. The growing tension and stress transformed his power of pride. Now, the obedience effect was no longer limited to his voice. His aura now had the power to control as well. As a result, he unknowingly controlled all the other hell beings in the area. They had recovered from the surprise but found themselves unable to move or speak.

Seeing Vanora make her way to him, he sighed in relief as he could finally run to her. He hugged her once he reached her, trying to calm his anxious heart, remaining completely oblivious to how stiff Vanora became.

"Please tell me you're done." He whispered in pain as if he was the one injured.

"Of course. I should recover before my next fight. Even I know that much." She replied flatly.

"Mm. That's good. That's good." Vlad sounded very relieved.

Vanora thought that he would be appeased with that, but his arms tightened around her instead, drawing a small frown from her. In her peripheral vision, she could see a crowd gathering around them. So, she stomped on his foot without restraint. Vlad raised his head and looked down at her curiously. Before he could make eye contact, Vanora darted her eyes away from him. He followed her gaze and finally realised the number of hell beings around them. Everyone looked as if they were barely able to suppress their excitement.

"Are you sent by Lord Vlad?" One asked.

"Does this mean that he's fine?" Another asked.

Very soon, everyone talked over one another.

"I thought that he was defeated!"

"Yeah! He suddenly went missing like that!"

"How can Lord Vlad be defeated?! He probably had something else to attend to!"

"What could be more important than the war?"

"Maybe its something related to the war?"

"Yeah, are you doubting Lord Vlad?"

"No, I -"

"Anyway, does this mean that he's coming back now?"

"That'd be awesome! We really can't win this war without him."

While the demons started discussing about Lord Vlad's prowess, Vanora got lost in her thoughts.

/The demons started losing since he went missing? And he hasn't been with them since... Isn't it since the day he met me? So it's because of me... I almost screwed the plot up with a careless request./

[But you did it because he was the only one you could learn from. How is it your fault? You made the best decision you could at that time.]

/Yes, but at the risk of ruining everything? Can you imagine what would have happened if I continued to listen to him and fight the demons he gathered for me? What's the point of getting stronger if there's no world for me to fulfil the wish and complete the mission?/

Finding that it was a valid argument, BaoBao was at a loss for words. It was indeed a gamble that he had thought was well-taken.

/My decision to return to the surface to fight the angels... Was it a conscious decision then? Was it really made by me? Or was I just acting according to the world's consciousness? I probably haven't changed a single thing in the past two weeks... This may have been the original soul's strength after she transformed! After all, wasn't she full of hate and vengeance?! That was probably why at the end of the book, when Michael and Angela found Vlad, Vlad was assisting her. He must have seen the potential in the original soul. The potential that he saw in me before I held in my emotions. I'm... I'm only starting back at square one. After ALL this time... DAMN IT! I'm such an useless idiot!/

At the same time, the crowd's attention returned to the pair in the center. "When is Lord Vlad coming back?" They asked in unison.

Vlad noticed the look of horror on Vanora's face and became concerned. He tilted his body down and gently held her chin to make her face him properly. "What's wrong?" His voice was so soft and gentle that it should have been soothing.

Unfortunately, Vanora's emotions and thoughts had strayed too far to be calmed so easily. Her eyes were a little glazed over. She replied almost like she was talking to herself instead of replying to him. "We won't return to the room. Let's camp out here from today onwards."

The crowd looked at each other in confusion. /Did the two not hear us? Should we ask again?/ They shared the same thought.

"Are you sure? It won't be comfortable." Vlad's worries returned.

"You can't sleep?"

"I can, but you-"

"I'm fine." She turned her head to the side to show that it was the end of the conversation.

His hand hovered in the air as he wordlessly stared at her side profile. /If only I can read her thoughts./

"When is Lord Vlad coming back?" A ghoul tried asking again.

Vlad was finally irritated with the lack of privacy and their incessant chattering. He glared at the ghoul and growled, "I don't know. Maybe never. But we're here now so things will be fine. If all of you continue to stay here, you'll lose your puny lives that you had the luck of keeping."

Cold shivers ran down their spines. They scrambled far away, giving the pair their privacy, while staying close enough to know when the pair moved off. Clearly, they intended to travel together.

Not wanting to interact anymore, Vanora also left Vlad's side and headed to a nearby tree. She sat down, leaned against the tree, hugged her legs with her good arm, then buried her face in the crook of her arm. She looked so small and vulnerable that it fanned Vlad's desire to keep her caged and protected. /Why do you put yourself through this? Why? Why? What're you thinking about?/

After another bout of worrying, he made up his mind. Since he could not shelter her, he would dedicate himself to supporting her and providing her relief whenever she was out of a fight.