Chapter 427: Departure
Ace’s heartbeat involuntarily skipped a beat. His mouth felt somewhat dry. Athena’s soft body leaning against him left him a bit at a loss.
Athena didn’t speak anymore. She just hugged Ace like this for a while, her eyes smiling like crescent moons, while sorrow hid deep within them.
“I am leaving Salia. Thank you, cowardly Ace.”
Athena hugged Ace tightly, then stepped back, giving Ace a perfect smile. Frost gradually appeared, and the surrounding temperature plummeted. Athena raised her tender white left hand high. Boom!
A terrifying freezing wind erupted directly from her hand, piercing through layers of the burial chamber and soil. Her fair, crystal-clear bare feet stepped on the ground, knees slightly bent, and with a forceful jump, she flew out of the tomb complex, turning into a meteor flying toward Medimus City.
Seeing this, Ace immediately used Blink to catch up with Athena.
“Don’t do anything foolish. This is the Royal City; your father can leverage the power of the city-state’s status.”
Athena, completely covered in ice and snow that had transformed into a crystal ice skirt armor, smiled slightly to hide her sorrow and said:
“I didn’t expect wizards to have so many strange abilities. I’m not here to cause trouble for Father. No matter what, he is my father, and he didn’t do anything wrong; he just froze me when I was on the verge of collapse.
“I just want to retrieve some things.”
Ace grabbed Athena’s tender white hand and said seriously, “If it’s retrieving things, I recommend stealth to avoid direct conflict.”
Athena stopped in mid-air. Looking at the serious Ace, a smile flashed in her ruby eyes, and she whispered, “Then I’ll listen to you.”
Ace pulled Athena, covering both of them with Invisible Concealment. He didn’t rush but slowly descended, hiding outside the city.
A moment later, two beams of light flew up from within the city, heading straight for the tomb complex outside.
“The commotion you made when coming out was too big; you were definitely discovered. Let’s wait for them to leave, then go in immediately to find what you want, trying our best to avoid conflict.”
Ace said very seriously to Athena. Athena nodded vigorously. She had never done anything like this before and felt a little excited.
Ace skillfully took Athena and blinked into Medimus City. Under the observation of the Eye of Truth, only one Great Hero remained in the entire Medimus City, residing in the First District.
“It should be Dickens who stayed behind. The other two beams of light came from the Royal Palace, presumably Tedius and Arnold. Let’s move quickly; we can probably resolve this fast.”
Ace pulled Athena, blinked rapidly, and soon arrived near the Royal Palace.
“To my palace.”
Athena said concisely.
Ace nodded. With a flash, the two appeared in Athena’s remote palace.
Stepping on the palace floor, Athena looked around with some nostalgia and whispered, “This is the last time I’ll be here.”
She turned around with a brilliant smile and asked Ace, “You’re so skilled at this. Have you sneaked in like this many times?”
Ace smiled awkwardly and changed the subject: “Let’s hurry up and find what you want.”
Athena nodded. The ice crystal skirt armor on her body dissipated, leaving her in a wet long dress. Walking barefoot in the palace, she rummaged through chests and cabinets for a while, finally holding an ordinary pendant and an ugly murloc baby figurine in her hands.
“Let’s go.”
Ace looked at Athena’s wet long dress, averted his gaze to the side, and softly chanted, “Clean! Dry!”
Mana surrounded Athena. Her long dress became dry and clean. Athena smiled warmly, held Ace’s hand, and the two quickly blinked away from the vicinity of Medimus City.
Athena walked side by side with Ace for a short distance, then suddenly turned to Ace and said, “Have you never thought about asking me to stay?”
Looking at Athena’s beautiful face, Ace felt his heartbeat faster than usual, but he maintained his rationality. Casting a Mechanized Mind on himself, he said seriously to Athena, “Your future must be chosen by yourself. If there is a need, take this Dream Badge and come to the High Tower to find me.”
Holding Ace’s badge, Athena smiled somewhat lonely. Her bare feet stepped on the soft muddy ground, knees bent, and she sprang into mid-air.
Frost transformed into snow-white wings. Athena waved her hand, spread her wings, and flew westward.
Ace watched Athena’s receding figure, waved his hand gently, turned around, and left.
Early the next morning, the Royal City was completely locked down. Squads of soldiers led by Divine Descendants patrolled and searched extremely strictly. Even Peter’s residence was searched twice.
Fortunately, no one noticed Peter’s condition. Instead, some hidden devil worshippers and demon cultists panicked and were caught, though that’s a separate matter.
Three months later, Ace successfully helped Peter activate his blood qi, then left Medimus City-State. Peter didn’t want to leave for the time being, and Ace had no intention of staying longer.
After signing a strict confidentiality contract with Peter, Ace finally settled a matter on his mind. He would occasionally think of the night Athena spread her wings and flew away. If he had asked her to stay, what would have been different?
“Thinking too much is useless. What I wanted to do is done; those who should leave have left. Life has no regrets, only moving forward.”
Ace took a step, blinked, and left Medimus City. He probably wouldn’t come back for a long time.
A week later, in the High Tower Territory, autumn rain poured down, contrary to the seasonal norm, washing the entire territory. In the wheat fields south of Nightlight City, more than three hundred wizard apprentices were nervously harvesting.
Using mana, they jointly propped up eggshell-shaped magic crystal protective films to divert the increasingly heavy rain. Various magic crystal weapons and wind magic flashed successively, harvesting the wheat fields rapidly. Thousands of Hands of Mana separated and piled up the harvested wheat.
Ace’s figure flashed and appeared in the sky. He pointed his finger at mid-air. The rainwater gathered like a vortex and was diverted into the Luminous Light River.
The wizard apprentices noticed the anomaly one after another. They canceled the magic crystal protective films and concentrated all manpower on harvesting the wheat.
Ace threw the spell model in his hand into the sky and said with the Amplification spell, “This spell can last for three hours. Everyone, do your best to harvest all this wheat field in one go!”
“Yes, Lord Ace!”
“Faster, faster! Harvest everything within three hours.”
“Woah woah!”
Ace smiled at the crowd, blinked, and returned to the Magic Castle in Nightlight City.
In the hall of the Magic Castle, a speech was taking place.
Logan took off his oversized hat. Despite his short stature, he spoke with an amazing voice and passionate tone about his research results. He and Bayen stood on the stage; evidently, this was their joint achievement.
The entire hall was filled with advanced wizard apprentices and the other eight Official Wizards. Everyone looked at them with solemn expressions. Sulu looked as if he was gnashing his teeth, Warren was thinking seriously, and Betty looked somewhat panicked.
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