Chapter 88: Interrupted
The two heroes did not wait for long, Sophia and Urduja almost instantly pounced toward each other, Urduja's Kampilan and a makeshift Ice blade of Sophia clashed at full power, Urduja knew that Sophia would attack with all her might and pound her with power every strike, thus she also used her full strength to attack, as a result, the two superpowers canceled out each other's strength, but not the momentum of their attacks, a large explosion ensued as crystals of ice and splashing lava went all over the place, but the two culprits are already out of the scene, they flew away from each other for a second and met on the other second releasing their full power against each other once more.
At this moment, the mansion deemed the safest in all of Urduja crumbled in front of the force of the two clashing behemoths.
The good thing is that Myra already announced the forced evacuation of the whole mansion and governing area, thus the hero and the Fallen did not even bother to check for collateral (not like they can) and continued their sword fight. This time, no matter how much anger Sophia had or how much confidence Urduja possessed, they knew that it was time to get serious. Urduja's whole body shined a golden glow whilst Sophia's Filipiniana squirmed like that of a worm, the Filipiniana she wore started to morph back into its original form.
Long sleeved a blouse as an undershirt, a black overcoat at the top, and an above-the-knee skirt, while Urduja's armor also appeared all over her body, it is a light golden armor with brown tight suit as an undershirt, her lean muscles and abs is an eye candy that men and women wouldn't mind ogling to, but it is no that time for that as she and Sophia once again engaged in a swordfight.
This time, Urduja cannot help but praise Sophia, for even though her overflowing wrath somewhat restricts her whole body, the finesse, and sophistication of her swordsmanship seem to not decrease nor slow down a bit. Even Urduja's self-control cannot achieve that level of mastery.
Though she is still failing to see the sense of helping Sophia understand herself more, the rational mind of gods simply doesn't work on empathy, and the God of the Sun and the God of the Undead are of the same power level, being leaders of pantheons, thus it is not a very good idea to go for each other's throat.
Urduja's mind is pondering on such things, plus the fact that she has to be on full attention despite fighting a mad monster named Sophia makes her not notice that one of the carriages that was sent to Kamatayan exploded and before she even can realize it, the hilt of the rapier bashed into her face.
"OOF!?"
Urduja was genuinely surprised as she was sent flying away towards a public affairs building, causing the building to be shaved off half of its structure. Sophia, using air magic pushed herself with speed near the speed of sound towards Urduja, pointing the tip of her rapier to her target, strands of black started to enshroud the rapier.
Urduja just stood up and saw the seen of dark magic being targeted towards her as the light around the place seemed to distort in fear of the darkness' presence, making normal people hallucinate, seeing this, the rather calm face of Urduja became shocked, her eyes wide open.
_Isn't she supposed to be unconscious!? How can she use magic that she must have acquired after her ascension to the fallen hero position!?_
She shouted as her blade also started to emanate the power of the sun whilst she held it in a baseball position.
[Oh, she is unconscious, alright.]
The god of the sun, or at least the part of him that guides Urduja said rather calmly, but the voice sighed.
[But it seems that that state of hers is not enough to stop her from learning things at an abnormal speed... Fascinating.]
Urduja knew that the Dark Magic was acquired only when Sophia ascended, after all the "Sun Magic" was also acquired by her the moment she became a hero, but her point is, that you're not supposed to learn magic given by god in a few weeks, even Urduja learned the basics after a year of training with her lord.
Urduja was thinking as such as the rapier went straight for her eyes, she swung her Kampilan at full force as the darkness and light from the two colliding blades fought for supremacy, and when they did so, the hands of the two heroes started to bleed, drops of their blood falling to the ground and when Urduja successfully pushed away the rapier, sending Sophia out of the populated areas of her territory, a large explosion ensued, all of the buildings, pavements, the little vegetation between the creases of the stones and even her mansion was disintegrated into dust.
Urduja stood at the epicenter, not minding the catastrophic damage she and her daughter-in-law caused as she thought.
_Khecy (her wife and finance secretary) will surely get mad!_
Urduja did not even check for any lives that were compromised, the moment the people in the capital accepted her protection that she never really gave to them, they were aware that they should have a contingency plan to evacuate if it so happens that a fight will break out, and given that there are no shouts were heard, Urduja assumed that everyone left already, though shaving of one-fourth of the governance district is not an optimistic thing, it is better than wiping all of it out alongside its inhabitants.
And when Urduja went in front of Sophia's injured visage, she felt a sharp glare coming from her side, she looked at Sophia who finally went back from her mad self to her normal sharp one.
_SOMEONE IS WATCHING US!_
[Sophia's POV]
Heavy pants can be heard from the deepest part of my lungs, the two arms mine are bleeding, with all of the bones on them being shattered, the damage given to me by the baseball throw plus the strong repulsion from the collision of light and darkness was so fast that my healing factor cannot keep up with the damage, though it is slowly but surely healing my hands alongside parts of my body at a visible rate. I am clearly aware of what happened, yet I cannot stop or rather did not stop it, I am very disappointed in myself, you can say that.
_That was dangerous._
I cannot help but think as such, but what truly awoken me is the person watching our fight that I felt the moment I stood up from the crater I was in, Urduja is in front of me, only a hand is injured and besides that, there are no wounds to speak of.
_I see, I was in the way of being defeated, huh?_
I gripped my rapier tighter so that the watcher would not be suspicious that we already discovered him/her, the good thing is that, as I was about to move forward, numerous sand tentacles latched into my back and stole my rapier, in my front is Momoiro's back that is stopping her mother from advancing.
"Lady Khecy is mad."
Her words were rather casual, but Urduja gulped a little, my vision also started to get blurry, it seemed like I was yet to be the opponent of the great Urduja, too bad. When Eleanor went in front of me, I could not help but close my eyes and bury my face into the soft breasts of Eleanor who went in front of me and smiled, well, she seemed to not be angry despite what I did.
_____
After a while, I opened my eyes in a room that had a brown theme to it, the light from the sunset conquered the efforts of the curtain to block its shine, and I stared at the room in confusion.
"Isn't Urduja's mansion one of the collateral damage?"
I asked myself, but surprisingly, there was someone who answered my question, it was Eleanor in a bathrobe, it seemed like she had just finished bathing and visited me here.
"The banquet and festival were not affected by my intervention, and with some help from your workers, all of the buildings were restored in five hours. You also don't have to worry about any backlash because the incident was covered as "A sparring match that escalated out of control", I am surprised by your recovery, it has only been five hours since you slept and you are good as new. But of course, you will have to bear with terrified stares because it is not every day that a mother has to fight someone who disregards the lives of people. "
Eleanor seems to not be angry towards me, she is even wearing such inviting clothes while we are conversing, in a room, with only the two of us, though the hanging filipiniana in the cabinet beside the bed is a sign that she is not inviting me at all.
"Well, it seems like the banquet is about to start, though I am really surprised that you can repair a quarter of a district in five hours."
"Yeah, it was adjusted earlier so people can forget the happenings faster."
My attire earlier started to once again morph into a black and white filipiniana, Eleanor also started to strip her bathrobe, leaving her with only her bra and panty, it is really sad that we are in an event that I almost destroyed. But in all seriousness though, now that I am not consumed by my anger, I cannot help but squint my eyes.
_I have never realized my anger can lead me to lose myself._
My mind is unknowingly and unprecedentedly clean, I mean when I was thinking, I didn't feel foggy at all, thus I am thinking that I could bottle up at will the grudgeful feeling towards my mom, who would have thought that I was very, very wrong.
_Fuck, I even felt better by blowing off some steam._
My clear mind made my mental processes smooth, even smoother than before.
While I was thinking as such, Eleanor went in front of me and presented me with bareback.
"Help me zip it up, please."
I stood up immediately and then zipped the Filipiniana upwards, and while I was doing so, I could not help but remember what Eleanor had said to me earlier this day, "A second or third one will not hurt." whilst my lack of EQ still lingers on my mind.
_Does that mean that I am..._
"Sophia? Let's go?"
I snapped back to reality and looked at Eleanor, I nodded silently and forcibly got my thoughts out of my mind, though I doubted I could do that, so I started to ask questions to Eleanor.
"Hey, it seems like you are in a good mood despite me breaking our promise, did anything happen?"
Eleanor snapped her head towards me all of a sudden and made an "Ehe~" sound as she smiled from ear to ear, really I wonder what happened.
"Well, you see my... our mother Urduja said to me that she intends to approve of our relationship as long as I am happy with it."
She is acting all smug even though she is so worried about her mom's approval earlier, I just shook my head and smiled.
"That is good to hear."
I then looked around and said.
"Did Urduja.. mom say anything other than that?"
Eleanor upon hearing my question straightened up immediately, she is a war veteran, and though her frontline experience is rather limited, such fact will never change so being serious in an instant is something she can do with ease.
"Don't worry about anything, Momoiro has already announced herself absent from the ball and will serve as the main surveillance unit, she will be sure to catch any individuals that have espionage thoughts, I also planted the anti mind reading spiders that you got earlier around the vicinity of not only the mansion but also the whole governance district."
I nodded, though I doubt that the person who was watching us would come into the governance area, I mean if he or she wanted to, she shouldn't have watched the two of us fight, it is more likely that the spy wants to confirm I and Urduja's current location.
_I see it is a more interesting case than the dark elf spy._
Though I worry about the creativity, I feel like this is way bigger than a mere request for me to join their cost, given the fact that the spy has better methods and presumably stronger than the previous one, I wonder how will Kabuto fare against such an opponent.
As I was thinking of that, we finally arrived at the ballroom of the mansion, in which there two nobles who are present, as of now of course. Their eyes shook when they saw me and at that moment I knew who these people were, thus I smiled at them and waved my hand as I and my wife went downstairs.
Bakunawa who was at the bottom of the stairs looked at the two nobles with suspicion, but eventually put her hand into her chest, I also smiled at her gesture and then went to the seat that was reserved specifically for me as I thought.
_The night will be very fun._
I'm not talking about the nobles
[3rd Person POV]
The two nobles looked at Sophia with hostility, something that Sophia knew they could not back up, at least directly, that is why they were gracefully ignored. shame crashed into their face, making their efforts to be the earliest nobles despite having the farthest territory from the capital as nobles designated in the two tips of the inverted V of Urdujan territory.
This gesture of theirs is for them to not raise any suspicion about what they are about to do, though they are not aware that such a move created a reversed effect, they are just too emerged into their imagination, after all, how can a person respond to a situation if she is not present in the location that the "situation" occurred, right?
_Let's see if you can still smile later._