Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Aaron and his group discussed what Maria said. Part of him wanted to stay with Maria and Celaine, but Aaron also realized that they couldn't even join in on the fight against the Light Drake. Not to mention that they'd receive the lesser treasures and they'd even have to split them amongst 5 people.

If they found anything that wasn't of the Light element then perhaps they'd be able to gather some decent loot with Maria and Celaine as the group leaders, but sadly, it would be quite rare to find any treasures like that considering this world has a huge affinity for light.

Maria didn't say anything else and focused on recovering.

Celaine stood guard, making sure that nothing could sneak up on Maria.

After around 10 minutes, Aaron and his group came back to Maria and Celaine with complicated expressions.

Maria opened her eyes and gave them a bright smile, but she seemed to already know what their answer is.

"It seems you've come to a consensus?" Maria asked.

"Yeah… I think we are going to head out. I can't, in good conscience, lead my group into the jaws of death with barely anything to show for it. I'm sure we could probably work out a deal for the treasures, but we don't have much to offer. Maybe if we were just a bit stronger then we could accompany you, but right now there is pretty much no point for you to keep us with you." Aaron said calmly, but his teammates didn't have the same look.

It seemed the battle with the Light Drake only proved to them that not only are Maria and Celaine extremely strong, but the beasts here are equally as strong if not stronger. It would be stupid of them to challenge any Rank 6 beast, hell even a Late and Peak Rank 5 Beast is hard enough.

"Hehe, don't worry too much! I had a great time being able to talk with someone other than Mira! She only cares about training, training, and more training! I would say that you guys should meet her, but even if you 5 do somehow manage to live, she'll definitely tortu-I mean train you guys into the ground seeing how weak you are, hehe~! Anyway, we should definitely meet up after the Secret Realm is over! I'll try and convince Mira to see you guys as well! Should be fun!" Maria giggled at the thought and sent a beautifully innocent smile towards them.

Unfortunately, Maria's smile didn't make them feel any better and instead sent shivers down their spine.

Valery, the meek archer with a water affinity was the first to speak up.

"N-N-No, that's okay! We wouldn't want to bother Mira with all of her training!" Valery fumbled her words.

Aaron's group had a decent understanding of Mira, but Valery seemed to know a bit more about her. She was the one that paid the most attention to Mira ever since the Inter-Sect Tournament.

She also paid quite a bit of attention to Mira when she dove headfirst into an army! When Mira was killing people of the Soul Devouring Sect, Valery took note that Mira didn't seem to be at a disadvantage at all while being surrounded by enemies. No, it looked like she was thriving in such a chaotic and horrifying environment.

Occasionally, she'd catch a glimpse of Mira's eyes when she was fighting, and whether it be at war or on stage, she always had a cold but malicious look in her eyes just waiting to be released.

"Ahaha… Well, as long as she doesn't intentionally try to harm us then I'll take your word for it." Aaron laughed awkwardly.

"Hehe~ Also, you are welcome to stay here a bit longer while I'm healing. It'll probably take a few hours or maybe even a few days before I'm fully healed." Maria offered with a warm smile.

Aaron and Flint blushed a little seeing how beautiful Maria's smile was and were in a trance for a few seconds before shaking it off.

"S-Sure, I guess we'll stay for a bit. What do you think, guys?" Aaron avoided eye contact while muttering.

"Y-Yeah."

"Sounds good!"

"It's not like we had any plans, to begin with."

"I-I guess that's fine."

Hearing everyone agree, Maria jumped up excitedly…

"Hurra-Ouch!"

... but instantly regretted it.

Everyone chuckled a bit at that and started to make a small camp for them to stay at for at least a few hours.

***

Back on Mira's side, Elenei was informing Mira about Maria's situation.

"So far, nobody has tried to harm Maria while she's weakened, but I can't rule out that Celaine has anything to do with this. They should understand that Celaine isn't much weaker than Maria and it's really just her cultivation that's lagging behind a bit. I've also heard from Maria that she intends on trying to convince you to meet with these people in the future." Elenei reported while Mira was still meditating, trying to gain understanding into Yin Fire.

"I see," Mira muttered without opening her eyes.

Elenei, however, grew curious about what Mira will do. From what she understands, Mira is very anti-social, has trust issues, and has a deep hatred for men. It would certainly be interesting to see her engage with these regular folk.

"What will you do about it?"

"Who knows. Normally, I'd say no immediately, but I feel like this could be a good way to 'inspire' Maria to work hard. She's always asking for rewards from me like some kind of puppy and I usually don't have anything to offer other than training. But then again, I'd rather not meet up with them." Mira said before going back to meditating.

Elenei was surprised at first, but after a bit of thought, she understood Mira's reasoning for her decision and Elenei also found it to be a good decision if she goes through with it.

Elenei could tell that Mira basically has nothing to offer as a reward besides training advice. Her personality is warped, she hates interacting with others, has no hobbies other than fighting and killing, hardly ever sparks up a conversation, and only cares about getting stronger.

"I think that's probably a good idea. I think it'll also be good for you to interact with oth-" Elenei was speaking casually, but before she could finish her sentence she felt an overwhelming amount of malicious intent washing over her followed by Mira's blood-red eyes.

Gulp.

Even though Elenei is inconsequentially stronger than Mira, the amount of murderous intent that Mira can let loose is still unnerving.

The two didn't say anything else and went back to what they were doing beforehand, but the atmosphere around them was much heavier than it was before.