There were other fish in the sea, and I'm sure Cora was already content with her dark elf servant… so I see no loss for my side at least.

"F-Fine, but she has to come to me. I need to serve somebody stronger than me if I have to kiss the boots of somebody else," She replied with a bit of nobility in her voice.

"Hmmmmm… Are you of noble descent? You look like you would be and almost sound like it,"

"Y-Yes… But I have no ties with them anymore. Their disgusting and immoral acts have pushed me far away from the likes of me even coming into contact with them,"

What an amazing woman I've caught for you, Cora…

"Well, I'll send her to you once I finish sending these guys off. Just need to make sure they don't die as soon as they leave the wall, you feel me?"

"S-Sure… A-Also, might you be one of the commanders who just came to the dukedom? I respect you very much for attempting to fight off the demonic forces," The woman said, and now I started to feel a bit bad.

"Are you saying I could've just told you that I was a commander, and you would've let me through?"

"Y-Yes…"

It was a loose, single-word answer, but it felt like a stab in the back as the words trailed out of her mouth.

"Fuck… Well, I'll get the duke to send some more subordinates here. Also, are there any actual strong monsters? Could they actually defeat us?"

"From what you've displayed, I'm sure you'll do fine, but please try to stay away from attacking a horde. Dealing with individuals isn't that bad, but attacking a horde will get you trampled almost instantly,"

"Wait, then what are monsters like?"

"They're Giga Crawlers. Normal crawlers are about four feet in height, but these are about five meters in height… so their immense strength combined with their numbers will be quite the challenge,"

"I see… Thank you for the information. I'll reward you well once I get back," I said.

"No need. I'm glad I was able to help you out," She said before we left the little base and continued down the gaping cavern with tread marks.

It was clear some old vehicles had driven through this place just based on the marks on the ground, but there were some other marks that made the corp behind me very nervous.

"If you retreat, I'll kill you myself," The new recruit said, and I couldn't help but audibly laugh out loud as her stern voice slowly trailed off with the echoes of the cavern.

"No need to be so tense. There will be no running away with me around," I chuckled before placing my hand on the new recruits' shoulder.

"Y-Yes… Thank you very much for the backup," She replied, and I couldn't help but smile as I saw her try to regain her serious expression.

She was already flustered, and regaining that was harder than anticipated, especially after being embarrassed by me.

"You're so freaking cute~," I muttered before pulling in the new recruit for a hug but was rudely interrupted by a few stomping sounds in the distance.

These stomping sounds then traveled through the cavern, shaking it and causing several rocks to fall from the ceiling.

"Hmmm… It's smaller than I expected," I muttered as I was expecting the crawler's head to be practically scraping the ceiling, but it was just a bit below three times my height.

[Descendant of Quetzalcoatl's Fire]

A green flame burned in the center of my hand and shot straight from my palm before locking onto the crawler's head.

It burned and burned with its screechy cries of pain. These cries were like music to my ears as it was obvious these things had been feasting on the innocent around here.

Skulls, bones, and rotting flesh littered the cavern the farther we traversed into it, and of course, the smell was absolutely putrid.

"Hmmm… All of you, try not to throw up. We didn't bring much water, and that'll just dehydrate… well, that's unless you find a pond or some kind of lake on the other side of the wall," I muttered, and everybody just nodded their heads.

They were all quite obedient and stern, and I knew deep down that they were more childish than they thought.

Everybody here seemed to be in their early twenties, a bit older than me, in fact, but they were all fascinated by the massive monsters and piles of broken gear scattered about.

"When we come back, we can collect some of the gear… or, if you guys come back, so try your best,"

"Yes, commander," They all replied before I shot down another Giga crawler which, this time, had two comrades beside him.

But, they were no match for my flames, so I had no clue what the chief was talking about… until I saw it. The massive horde of crawlers.

There were at least a hundred of them, and they all immediately detected us, forcing all of us to run back to where we came from.

"That's quite the number of crawlers. I guess the cool girl wasn't joking," I chuckled, but the rest of the corp all shot glares at me as their skin was currently under my safety.

"M-Miss, please pay more attention to matter at hand," The new recruit kindly requested with a drop of sweat running down her cheek.

"I am,"

FWOOSH

A blast of flames exploded from my hands, getting rid of the first few crawlers at the very front of the horde, but this just closed the gap between us.

"Goddammit… I don't even have my wings anymore… tch… [Crown of Flames],"

I was already done playing around and activated my crown of flames, creating a literal condensed crown of green flames above my head.

It floated above me like a halo, my very own halo, which increased the output of my flames and allowed me to twist my newly formed sword of flames into things impossible for a normal weapon.

Soon, I jumped straight into the horde with a large smile.

…

"Huff… huff… huff… huff… huff… That… That was more than I thought," I chuckled before I walked down the staircase of corpses I built up.

"That was incredible," The new recruit said while putting out her hand as if she was a gentleman to help me take the last step off of the pile of corpses.

"Oh my, no need to stroke my ego if you were going to be so polite," I chuckled once again before taking her hand and hopping off the final corpse.

I decided against burning it as we were too far into the cave, and I might use up all of our oxygen inside.

Setting everything alight now would just cause too much chaos and most likely kill us… but that didn't matter much as we soon reached the end of the underground tunnel.

"It seems those were the last crawlers inside here," I muttered to myself before placing my hand against the large stone wall.

It seemed like a dead end, but if you looked near the bottom, then you would notice it seemed like this place had collapsed in on itself.

And so, I pushed through a little bit, and just like that, the entire wall came crumbling down, crashing into several large boulders.

I was strong enough to swat away the ones that came near me, and the rest of the corp stayed back as I did my own thing.

"It's beautiful," The new recruit muttered as an expansive prairie covered in thick snow was revealed to us.

The slow yet gentle falling of snow coming from the dark clouds above created the perfect atmosphere for a peaceful nap.

I just wanted to lay in the middle of it and fall asleep forever.

"Well, I wish you all good luck," I said, and the corp members gave me a salute before taking out their cold-resistant cloaks from their bags and pulling them over them.

As they disappeared into the prairie of snow, I looked up at the wall right beside me… and it was massive.

Way taller than what I thought from seeing it very far away.

"I guess that would make sense, though," I smiled before making my way back down the long and musty cavern.

…

As soon as I arrived back at the base from before, only a few days later, I saw what seemed to be a royal carriage drawn by white horses… with horns?

A-A unicorn? A UNICORN?! THERE ARE UNICORNS!?

I could hardly contain my excitement, but as I entered the base, a few men in thick metal gear holding long metal spears stopped me in my tracks.

"Who do you think you are? Did you not hear our warning?" One of them uttered through their thick metal helmets.

"And who do you think you are?" I smiled, ready to beat the shit out of them.

"Please don't fight, Miss. I can explain,"

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