ELFORIA

Sealing the Portals

KRISSUS EMPIRE

City of Imperia — Capital

"Have you heard? Something strange has been happening in the City of Uzhin."

"Yeah. Rumours have been going around that a mage appeared."

"What kind of barbaric story is that? Mages only exists on ancient books now."

For the past weeks, pillar of lights would appear from different parts of the City of Uzhin. Then, roars of monsters would follow afterwards.

"What would happen to us once those monsters finally enter this city?" worry filled the voice of the citizen who spoke.

Because of the strange events that's taking place, many stories and speculations started going around. But the most wildspread is the version in which the pillars of lights are the source of the monsters.

Unbeknownst to all, the reason behind those strange lights are actually the exact opposite of what they thought. Because everytime they see those, it's a signal that a portal have been sealed.

On the other hand, the reason behind the strange events is currently enjoying herself stuffing herself with all sorts of delicacies in the City of Uzhin.

'This cupcake is so good! I need to take some when I leave this place.'

Eloise is currently seated inside one of the most well-known café in the city. In front of her is a milk chocolate drink, and different kinds of tarts, cupcakes, cookies, and slices of cakes.

Despite her effort to avoid standing out too much by altering her appearance (her white silvery hair is now a a deep shade of black, her golden eyes turned brown, and her pale skin turned a couple shade darker), she still stood out because of her table which is overflowing with desserts despite being alone.

'Might be some rich noblewoman.' the citizens thought.

"Where should I go next?" Eloise murmured as she took a bite on one of the tarts, her gaze set outside of the glass window of the café.

It's been days— almost a week since she arrived in this city. All she has been doing was either track the portals and close it, or eat to her hearts content.

"This is starting to get boring." I honestly thought I'll be encountering some sort of a powerful monster.

Eloise loves how peaceful her life has been for the past year since she arrived in this world, but since she's already out here in this troublesome mission, might as well enjoy it with a good fight, right?

'But this is so disappointing. Those monsters are just too weak for me.'

Eloise doesn't even understand why the emperor seeks her help to something as trivial as this.

Are they that weak?

But of course they are not! The Krissus Empire is the strongest empire in the whole Elforia! A single palace knight could take down at least three warriors from other empires at a time. Specially the emperor, known for his nickname "Blood Hound".

Eloise is just too strong that fighting off hundreds of monsters alone is a mere child's play for her. Unlike the Elforians who can be overwhelmed and defeated once outnumbered.

Eloise sighed.

As she was about to take another bite of the desserts, her senses suddenly tingled. "Seriously?!"

Many different portals broke at the same time somewhere in this city. She felt a sudden rush of different aura coming out of the dimensions where the portals are connected.

'Can't it wait until my snack time is over? Ugh! I think I jinxed myself.'

With a defeated sigh, she stood up. A single flick of her fingers and everything on the table disappeared. She out it inside her spacial pouch dedicated for foods. Eloise didn't even care about whether other people would see it.

'Ain't no way I'm leaving those delicious treats here.'

She walked towards the bathroom inside the café and entered a cubicle, then from there, she teleported and appeared at the entrance of an eerie looking forest.

"Seriously? Am I a doomed to always encounter these creepy forests or what?" First is the Forest of Valeria, and now this one?

With no choice, she walked and entered the forest. For some reason, she could not sense the coordinates inside the forest, making her teleportation useless.

"Hmm... This place is not half-bad." She said looking at the surrounding.

The whole forest is covered in a thick fog, blocking an ordinary persons view. Well, she's not ordinary so those fogs doesn't really do much.

Eloise also saw a bunch of poisonous herbs and insects here and there. Anyone who enters this forest would undoubtedly never be able to return.

'This one's even more dangerous than the one I stay at.'

Well, she really can't be bothered so Eloise just continued walking deep into the forest.

"Found it!" After a few more minutes, she saw a small portal. It is located in a very large tree, surrounded by dozens of Rubikons.

(RUBIKONS: Small red-eyed monkeys who feeds on flesh and poisons. They are agile and hard to deal with, specially in groups. And since they also feed on poison, every part of their body is poisonous.)

Eloise walked straight towards the portal's direction, gaining the attention of the army of Rubikons. When the monsters started approaching, she surrounded herself with a thin barrier made up of dark fog.

Everything that the fog touches has its life sucked out of it— the insects, plants, trees, and of course, the monsters.

The moment the agile rubikons reach her and comes in contact with the barrier surrounding her body, it's corpses could be seen dropping to the ground.

Since these low-class monsters has no mind of it's own, they just continued attacking her. It was an unending ocean of them as the portal continues on releasing even more rubikons.

'Hmm... It'll be a pain in the a*s killing these insects if they reach the city.' With that thought, she surrounded everything within a ten kilometer radius with the same barrier surrounding her body and filled it with the same fog that sucks out the life out of living things.

Then, upon arriving in front of the portal, she touched it and released a ball of light that devoured it's entirety. As soon as the light vanished, the portal vanished along it.

"Hmm. At this point, am I sealing the Portals or simply destroying it?" Whatever. As long as it's gone, her role is done.

As she looked around and saw that every single rubikon has died, the dark fog immediately vanished.

Eloise sat down and touched the corpse with her fingers, but then instantly withdrew it. "Yuck. I can't even eat this."

'What a boomer.'