Chapter 175.5: The Grand Return


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono had been following her knight across the entire tutorial. Her body ragged and injured, but she still persevered. Through the staggering number of Ants that chased her through the tunnels when she followed him into the Hive.


    <span style="font-weight:400">To the pressure from the hatching of some next-level monstrosity. She had proven that she was stout of heart in needing to capture every moment of her dashing, dazzling, and magnificent knight.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I will never let a moment pass unrecorded! Unillustrated! Every gnt moment in my Knight’s story must be put to paper for others to awe and adore!!” she eximed spreading her arms wide.


    <span style="font-weight:400">s, even her knight was put to the test. The newly hatched monster proving to be a trial he must go through.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono witnessed her knight defeated once, but only for a moment.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She had managed to exit the Hive to the surface once more through a small almost copsed tunnel, circling around to the trees still in view of his battle.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono watched on as her zing dazzling knight fought tooth and nail with one of hispanions, Therge one with the red hair and beard.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“This shall make for a lovely scene…..” she muttered, pushing up her sses with the back of her mana stylus, “This may be the turning point of their rtionship! Will the giant win? Or will the gorgeousdies of the camp?!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono began to drool with anticipation as her stylus hit mana paper, illustrating the standoff of the pair against the newly hatched monster. Its body looked as if it was carved from pure silver, and still heated in its formation as red streaks of crimson pulsated through its natural armor.


    <span style="font-weight:400">But she was interrupted once again by the chatans who wanted to call themselves followers of the true knight.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Mdy! Where have you been?! You have been missing for almost two weeks! When you plunged in after the man-”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono turned, her eyes fierce.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“You mean after I chased down the true knight! You false, half-wit, lily-lipped, single-celled, frightened, indecisive, cowering, uncourageous, pond scum! You would not follow and risk yourselves for the true history of thend!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The group flinched, berated by her coarse words.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“But Mdy… We surely would have died had we followed him down into the depths of such a ce. Do you not see the monster in front of you? What you do rivals stalking…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“S-stalking! I am Observing! Ob-ser-ving! And what of it?!” she sneered, “If you are not prepared to give your all and die for your art! Can it truly be called ART?! He is true <i><span style="font-weight:400">elegance</i><span style="font-weight:400"> and he will ovee this lousy bug like the rest!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She lifted her chin confidently as she shouted at them. Only to hear the end of a spell chant, and see the beginning of the ice that filled the ins.


    <i><span style="font-weight:400">“Ryoiki Tenkai, 7th Layer of Hell.</i><span style="font-weight:400">”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono’s head whipped back to the fight, only to see thest glimmer of her knight’s grinning face as it was obscured by the ice.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She and her group looked on and waited with bated breaths as the sounds of battle continued from within the Ice.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“W-what is going on in there?” Aono said, biting down on her thumb in frustration.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I do not know… But I must!” she shouted running for the ice domain.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No Mdy!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono charged out of the trees aiming for one of the small windows that opened the structure.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She finally reached the window but was too short to look in. Her followers arrived a momentter behind her with ragged breaths.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Looking back she pointed downwards.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Get on all fours! Quickly!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“W-what?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“On your knees! So I can look into the ice!” she repeated.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Wearily some of the followers began moving to get into a pyramid on the ground so she could reach the window, their faces saying just how much they were enjoying the assignment.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Stop smiling, you disgusting perverts!” she shouted.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“B-but our goddess is stepping on us…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono growled, kicking one in the face as she stepped up, “Keep it up and I’ll do it ag-” she began saying then grimaced, the man smiling more wildly.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“P-promise…?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Kimoi…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono flinched momentarily from the sheer disgust welling up in her stomach but shook her head. She needed to reach the top so that she could record her gant knight.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Once there she looked inward, seeing the battle resume.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her knight and hispanion were on the back foot, fighting for their lives against the insect.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono’s hand flew across the mana paper capturing the fight as best as her unenhanced eyes could manage. They appeared as if they were teleporting across the battlefield. One moment on the end of the ice chamber, the next shing with the insect.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono began to froth at the mouth at the material she was witnessing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Yes….ha… ha… yes!!! Good…. Goood!!!!” she shouted with glee.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“S-she’s drooling on me!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Lucky…”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Shut up down there! You are breaking my concentration!” Aono growled.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She refocused, seeing Drake jump backward as he summoned chains of earth around the monster, as hispanion raised his sword with both hands.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“<i><span style="font-weight:400">Witness…. Heaven Splitting Strike!”</i><span style="font-weight:400">


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono gasped as she felt the power from the strike, her breath taken from her, but still, she kept her eyes locked on the scene.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her stilled beath was released only after the impact of the strike, the low mist inside the Ice blown away. And the insect left standing.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Suddenly she heard her knight’s voice ring out.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Noooo!!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The red-headed man was suddenly thrown to the ground, a hole in his midsection.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Drake shed forward battling desperately with the insect but could notnd a substantial blow even to Aono’s untrained eyes. The insect was toying with her knight.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Kisamaaaaaa!!!!” she seethed in anger, her stylus snapping in her grip, “My Dazzling Knight! Put that sorry excuse for a cicada in the ground!” she screamed, bing fully immersed in the fight.


    <span style="font-weight:400">But she witnessed something she thought would never happen.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Drake was struck, his chest pierced by the insect.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono gasped in pain, her eyes turning to points.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“NO!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The icey chamber that was erected disintegrated, crashing apart in small shards of ice, as the insect threw Drake’s limp body to the ground. Following it up with a swift kick to the stomach, sending him flying across the field.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Time slowed down for Aono. Then Drake disappeared.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Mdy! We must retreat! It is not safe here!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono tumbled to the ground from the pyramid, the group forming around her, but she didn’t move, didn’t speak, her world muted.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her body shivered, unsure of what had just happened. The sound of screaming and ground-wrenching blows reverberating in her chest and ears.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Then a shiver.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She looked up and saw a man on the field, holding back the monstrous insect like a child.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The man’s smile ignited neurons in her mind like a lightning strike.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“My Glorious Knight! My Dazzling Tyrant!” she squealed, blinking away the onught of tears, his clear visage in her gaze once more.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She looked at Drake, his body now tanner, his hair reaching past his knees, and his body seemingly made out of chiseled marble. He said something in a whisper to the woman behind him, then turned to the insect.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Sorry. Looks like I can’t afford to lose anymore.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono held back a girlish squeal. Only to leak out a few words.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“It’s the return scene!!!!!!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Instantly the insect backed away, nursing a broken arm. But Drake did not let up, shooting forward in a sh, closing the distance iparable to his speed before.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“S-such speed!?” she muttered.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Drake reared his hand backward, the air and light around it deforming and bending, before throwing his fist forward. Thrusting the Ant into the ground creating a crater sorge and deep it obscured her view of them.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“S-such power?!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The next moment something shot out from the crater into the air, Aono’s head snapping upwards more from the sense of mana in the air shifted up, rather than her eyes being able to follow.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her eyes focused. And making out Drake in the air. Arge ck bow with a string of lightning in his hand. In the other an arrow forming of the condensed elements encircling him.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The arrow finally manifested with each element swirling in tandem around its jet-ck base as Drake knocked the arrow and drew back on the bow, chanting something she could not make out over the cracking of magic in the air.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“We must get away! dy!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“No! I have to see it!” she shouted.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Drake’s voice pierced the thunderous surroundings, entering her ears.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“<i><span style="font-weight:400">Steaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”</i>


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono looked at the tempest of magic molded into an arrow careen towards the ground, her eyes blurring slowly as she realized she had begun crying, a maniacal smile on her face.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Ha….Haha! Hahahahaha!!!! Beautiful! So Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The impact of the arrow resonated through the area, wind, debris, andshes of mana spreading out kicking up and blowing away everything in the area.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Aono still screaming in joy as she was flung backward into the trees.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! AHAHAHAHA!!! WONDROUS!!! ELEGANCE!!!!!!”