“Well, then brace yourself for combat if you want to meet them. Not every creature down there is friendly” when Rita had heard those words, she had prepared herself to fight. She believed in her creatures and summons to get her through the upcoming battle easily.

After all, her creatures were really powerful and nothing had proven to be a challenge to her powers yet.

That had been one of the reasons Rita had been enthralled by Aurora at the first glance. The female had excluded power and aura like nothing Rita had seen before. It had left her in such awe that she knew she had to have it for herself as well.

But nothing short of being petty had gotten her the wanted attention from the elder. If anything she felt like she had been neglected and this feeling of being ordinary was not something Rita had been used to.

And didn’t know why, but she felt annoyed when Aurora’s eyes were not on her. It left her raging quite hard and made other unfamiliar feelings sprout up inside her heart.

That was why Rita had wanted to take this time in the Rocx valley to impress Aurora. She had to show her worth in order to remain relevant. She would finally prove that she was an important asset.

Or so was what she had wanted to do. But fantasy and reality often held different expectations for her and Rita found her summons to be powerless in front of the huge claws of the abyss monsters.

She found the system flashing with ‘the opponent’s power level exceeded the user’s and that made Rita’s panic worse.

The monster raised its claw to attack and Rita braced herself for the impact. It was going to hurt badly and she was not sure if she could even survive.

But the claw never managed to reach her at all. Instead, it was cleaved in half and the monster in front of her disappeared in a flash. Rita only saw the silver flash of a spear before it was gone as well.

She had been saved by Aurora at the nick of time and she could only watch in awe as the others danced between the monsters and thinned their number. Aurora looked like she belonged here and even her steps had a lightness to them.

Meanwhile, Aurora relished in the kill. She had not felt such a thrill for a long time and it made her blood boil to dispatch these monsters. Most of them were not even capable of higher thoughts and only had killing on their mind.

But it felt amazing to wield her weapon once again. Even if it was only to last for a short time, Aurora wanted to make the best of it.

It would not be long before the outlanders decided to join the fun and that was one group Aurora didn’t want to alienate this time.

She felt the thrill of battle but her senses also sensed the change in magic. There was a device that was using it up from the environment and Aurora felt the strike come her way.

She twisted her body as that the impact would not affect her but rather, land on the monsters behind her. And the impact caused the monster to disintegrate in an instant.

The mechanical fist did not stop. It made a noise Aurora was vaguely familiar with and then the first made another attempt at claiming her life.

“Wooo, stop right there. I am not your enemy” Aurora reasoned as she tried not to hit the outlander that had just arrived. They were particularly sensitive to magic but could not use any on their own.

The poor people called the outlanders were considered cursed as they could not use magic on their own but they had made technological advancements enough to allow their tools to be able to use magic instead.

Their living conditions in the Rocx valley had also made them particularly tough mentally and a force to be reckoned with. Despite the tower’s best attempts, they were never able to get rid of these people.

“Tower scum are not welcomed here. Killing you is the obvious choice on my part” the man well, the boy yelled before he made another attempt on Aurora’s life.

In another life, the child had grown up to become the biggest threat to the Abyss tower’s power. He was responsible for killing many top recruits as well as the collapse of the main building.

He had never been caught but he had shown up time and time again in front of Aurora and made her question everything she knew. But Aurora had held on to her ideals for Clove and fought him every time.

For now, the owner of those powerful golden eyes was just a kid struggling in Aurora’s grasp. She had caught his fist and held him into her hold.

And as soon as she had done that, the fighting seemed to have stopped around her. She had not even noticed the other outlanders thinning the monster’s numbers around her till now.

“I am not your enemy so I would like it if you did not attack us. Until then, I’ll hold him hostage” not a bright move to make for trying to gain someone’s trust but Aurora knew that those would not hear her out any other way.

The prejudice against the tower ran deep in these people and for good reasons. But for now, their goals were aligned. Aurora was hoping that they could collaborate in their effort to take the abyss tower down. The Outlander’s technology was something else as well.

The outlanders around her growled in warning, not liking the way she was holding one of their own. The kid in her arm thrashed, his horn coming to attack Aurora’s unprotected arm but she held him in place.

The kid was strong but Aurora had the strength of a goddess. The kid would not be able to escape her hold that easily.

“You promise to not hurt him?” Aurora nodded as she carefully made her way toward Rita. The girl had been left alone this far but Aurora was not willing to take any chances.

“I’ll not harm him. I came here to extend an olive branch and fight a common enemy. I would appreciate it if you would take me to your current leader” Aurora asked.

She could see that the group in front of her was stumped, not knowing what to do. They had likely never met someone this polite from the surface and Aurora kept her aura unthreatening.

It was up to them to decide if she was worth the risk or not.