At 10 AM, with only a day remaining before the completion of the selection process.
The black-haired couple finally exited the room; they made love one last time before walking out of the room.
Isha straight up burned the whole bed before exiting the room because she thought that some compensation was better than the embarrassment she would feel when the female elves appeared for room service.
After compensating for the bed, they left the inn before flying off somewhere without even bothering to check their names on the last few tournaments' list of matches.
Somewhere in the clouds, above the Elven Kingdom
Eshwar manipulated aether to form a thin aether blade that he used to cut off his hair as Isha stared at him curiously. What she was so curious about was something both Eshwar and Isha were trying to figure out.
"Anyway, take this." Eshwar then abruptly threw a black-coloured mist-filled crystal ball at her, trying to distract her from talking too much, which worked a bit too effectively.
"What's this?" Isha asked with a bright smile as she curiously gazed at a small orb in her fist.
"A God's; Mor's core. Mor is the name of the mannequin I killed." Eshwar replied and continued.
"It had the same abilities as you do—the black mirror, which redirects the skill back at its sender. I thought you would get a minor or large boost in your abilities if you ate or absorbed that." Eshwar said as he continued to cut off his hair until it was medium-sized and stored the cut off hair in his sub-space because it was a bit too strong to simply throw away, which was also the reason he himself was cutting his hair, because he knew that no barber would ever be able to cut his hair, normally.
He shaved off his full beard and combed his hair with his fingers until it seemed good enough for him, then floated towards Isha, who was still curiously gazing at the orb.
"I can't believe I'm already being ignored." Eshwar's grumble sounded in front of her, and when she gazed up at him, she froze.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"....."
"...."
".... Hello?" Eshwar mumbled as he shook her by her shoulders, snapping her out of her stupor.
".... You look.... great." Isha tried, but still failed to find any words to express how handsome he looked with his current hairstyle, though messy; it was what made him look even more...hot.
Isha quickly used water and wind magic to clean off the small hairs on his shoulders and chin before pouncing on him for a deep kiss.
".... Well, haven't you gotten bolder?" Eshwar teased her with a playful smile.
"Well, the final wall that made me flustered broke just a few days ago, so I'm more... m-mo-more comfortable, n-now." Isha replied with a scoff but began to stutter when Eshwar leaned closer and closer, until their faces were just an inch away.
'W-Why am I getting so flustered?' Isha wondered inwardly but wasn't able to find an exact answer.
"This is...." Eshwar mumbled with his gaze fixed on her, leaned forward, and
"Mhm~" Isha stared at his gaze as she was abruptly kissed; though she wanted to close her eyes, something in her didn't want to shy away from his bright orange eyes that were staring at her.
"This is.... the Isha I know...." Eshwar said with a gentle smile and backed away. Though dissatisfied with how he stopped kissing her, Isha only pouted cutely, gazing at Eshwar as his white mask materialised out of nowhere, covering his mouth.
"The one last time is now." Eshwar said while looking at Isha in the eyes, and after she nodded her head in agreement, he dove down, instantly appearing near the ground with his feet facing the ground.
***
A while back.
The second day after Eshwar's return, he had gone to visit the Uncharted's hideout, spoke with them for a few moments, checked up on Louie before tossing ten Rank-SSS dungeon monster cores at Arngrim, and headed out back to the Elven Domain after somehow escaping from Core's tear-filled head lock, which Eshwar received when he was talking to Henry.
And at the present, a few moments ago.
In the topmost room of the tallest tree in the Elven Kingdom. The Uncharted's members were gathered around a small roundtable. Of course, Louie was with them, standing as the strong and proud heart of Uncharted's Big Brother.
"Eshwar said nothing, except for asking us to gather all the information about the rumours calling Isha a sacrifice." Core said and sucked on her lollipop while sitting on Henry's lap.
"I think a slaughter is going to take place here." And she continued, expressing her thoughts, at which Louie, Arngrim, and Henry could only nod in agreement.
"I wanted to show off a bit." Arngrim grumbled under his breath, but it was loud enough for them to hear. Today was the day they, the Uncharted, were going to make their appearances, taking the top spot by tomorrow, which now belonged to a Dwarven warrior that fought and won against the prideful, top-ranked, Elven warrior.
"Don't worry, you can show off even after the tournament." Louie consoled Arngrim, who seemed like he wanted to go and sit in a corner and hug his scythe.
"And we have to get stronger, because the monsters we're going to face in the future would be stronger even for Eshwar, who defeated a Rank-SSS boss monster by himself." Henry reminded them of Eshwar's words from before; though they raided the coliseum relentlessly, they weren't that sure they could defeat a single Rank-SSS monsters by themselves, even though they grew a lot stronger than their own previous selves.
"Right. And what was that about the thing he said about making Isha sit in the place she deserves?" Core asked Henry because even though Eshwar only mumbled those words under his breath, Henry and Core were able to hear them.
"And why has he become so... indifferent?" Louie asked with a frown of confusion on his face. And the others turned silent, since even though they too noticed Eshwar's indifference, they didn't know what had happened to him, and from their talk with Henry, they knew that something was going on with Eshwar, and whatever it was, it was breaking Eshwar from the inside, so without an answer, they couldn't help but turn silent at Louie's question.
"And from the information I gathered, almost all of the humans seem to hate Isha; I don't even know how almost all of humanity came to hate Isha... How is that even possible?" Henry said after a few minutes and it seemed like he wanted to explain something, but he frowned deeply when he spoke out those words. No matter how one sees it, something like that shouldn't be possible, since half of humanity doesn't even care about things like that. But in this case, it was different, a bit too weird.
"As if some kind of unknown force was playing its part...." Henry mumbled, he wasn't that religious, but even if things were different now that the gods were literally interfering with the humans, no matter what, the only explanation he could think of was the goddess's prophecy.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe prophecy seemed to be making humans believe whatever was related to the demon in the prophecy. That was the thought that cruised through their minds, somewhat in unison.
"What scary power..." Arngrim mumbled, but Core still had a frown on her face.
"Why are we...." Core mumbled, and though she didn't complete her words, all three of them understood what she wanted to say. Somehow, for whatever reason, the prophecy didn't seem to be working on them.
"Maybe because we are living with the demon from the prophecy," Louie said. And his words caused them to frown.
"Don't glare at me; think about it. We know that soon a massacre will take place here, maybe right now. And now, what did the prophecy say?" Louie explained and asked them.
"A demon stronger than the demon king will bring destruction to earth." Core, Arngrim, and Henry mumbled in unison, and Louie noticed their eyes slightly open wide at the realisation.
"Yes, I am saying that Eshwar is the demon from the prophecy. I don't know how strong the Demon King is, but with Eshwar's strength, he could definitely be the demon from the prophecy." Louie concluded, but strangely, there was one who was still not convinced.
"Or it could be that kid, Vinny Grover; he killed his own father, and by the looks of it, he definitely could be the demon from the prophecy." Arngrim said, but Louie's next question made him shut his mouth.
"He is stronger than Eshwar?" Louie asked, and nobody could refute his words.
"It doesn't matter who he is or what he does; even though Eshwar wouldn't like it, I'll gladly kill you guys if you stand in his way." Suddenly, a sweet woman's not-so-sweet words sounded behind them, and all of them turned to find Isha staring at them with an indifferent expression on her face.
"Who said anything about standing in his way? We're just discussing our thoughts." All four of them said this in unison with their brows raised. None of the members of the Uncharted ever cared for human lives because their lives since childhood were f**ked up before meeting Eshwar. They then began to survive in the society under his care, finally forming the Uncharted mercenary group. They simply named their group without any interest in fame or things like that, but the things they did garnered the attention of the people giving them the fame they never asked for, but even with all the fame they received, they didn't really care about it as they continued to live their lives together with Eshwar without an ounce of care for human lives.
"Don't worry about our muttering. And you're right about Eshwar not liking it, our deaths, I mean, and that too with your hands." Henry said with a chuckle.
"But I also don't like it, that he's doing it because it's me." Isha mumbled under her breath, and Louie, who heard her, sighed.
"He is doing it because it is you. I don't know everything about Eshwar, but I know that if something hurts him, he will hurt it back." Louie said, and all of them nodded their heads in agreement, including Isha.
"It doesn't matter even if it is the world itself." Isha mumbled, but this time no one could hear it, as she remembered how he destroyed the earth because it was hurting him repeatedly.
"My Villain." Isha mumbled with a mesmerising smile before letting out a delighted giggle.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!