Chapter 175.5: The Grand Return

Aono had been following her knight across the entire tutorial. Her body ragged and injured, but she still persevered. Through the staggering number of Ants that chased her through the tunnels when she followed him into the Hive.

To the pressure from the hatching of some next-level monstrosity. She had proven that she was stout of heart in needing to capture every moment of her dashing, dazzling, and magnificent knight.

"I will never let a moment pass unrecorded! Unillustrated! Every galant moment in my Knight's story must be put to paper for others to awe and adore!!" she exclaimed spreading her arms wide.

Alas, even her knight was put to the test. The newly hatched monster proving to be a trial he must go through.

Aono witnessed her knight defeated once, but only for a moment.

She had managed to exit the Hive to the surface once more through a small almost collapsed tunnel, circling around to the trees still in view of his battle.

Aono watched on as her blazing dazzling knight fought tooth and nail with one of his companions, The large one with the red hair and beard.

"This shall make for a lovely scene….." she muttered, pushing up her glasses with the back of her mana stylus, "This may be the turning point of their relationship! Will the giant win? Or will the gorgeous ladies of the camp?!"

Aono began to drool with anticipation as her stylus hit mana paper, illustrating the standoff of the pair against the newly hatched monster. Its body looked as if it was carved from pure silver, and still heated in its formation as red streaks of crimson pulsated through its natural armor.

But she was interrupted once again by the charlatans who wanted to call themselves followers of the true knight.

"Milady! Where have you been?! You have been missing for almost two weeks! When you plunged in after the man-"

Aono turned, her eyes fierce.

"You mean after I chased down the true knight! You false, half-wit, lily-lipped, single-celled, frightened, indecisive, cowering, uncourageous, pond scum! You would not follow and risk yourselves for the true history of the land!"

The group flinched, berated by her coarse words.

"But Milady… We surely would have died had we followed him down into the depths of such a place. Do you not see the monster in front of you? What you do rivals stalking…"

"S-stalking! I am Observing! Ob-ser-ving! And what of it?!" she sneered, "If you are not prepared to give your all and die for your art! Can it truly be called ART?! He is true elegance and he will overcome this lousy bug like the rest!"

She lifted her chin confidently as she shouted at them. Only to hear the end of a spell chant, and see the beginning of the ice that filled the plains.

"Ryoiki Tenkai, 7th Layer of Hell."

Aono's head whipped back to the fight, only to see the last glimmer of her knight's grinning face as it was obscured by the ice.

She and her group looked on and waited with bated breaths as the sounds of battle continued from within the Ice.

"W-what is going on in there?" Aono said, biting down on her thumb in frustration.

"I do not know… But I must!" she shouted running for the ice domain.

"No Milady!"

Aono charged out of the trees aiming for one of the small windows that opened the structure.

She finally reached the window but was too short to look in. Her followers arrived a moment later behind her with ragged breaths.

Looking back she pointed downwards.

"Get on all fours! Quickly!"

"W-what?"

"On your knees! So I can look into the ice!" she repeated.

Wearily some of the followers began moving to get into a pyramid on the ground so she could reach the window, their faces saying just how much they were enjoying the assignment.

"Stop smiling, you disgusting perverts!" she shouted.

"B-but our goddess is stepping on us…"

Aono growled, kicking one in the face as she stepped up, "Keep it up and I'll do it ag-" she began saying then grimaced, the man smiling more wildly.

"P-promise…?"

"Kimoi…"

Aono flinched momentarily from the sheer disgust welling up in her stomach but shook her head. She needed to reach the top so that she could record her gallant knight.

Once there she looked inward, seeing the battle resume.

Her knight and his companion were on the back foot, fighting for their lives against the insect.

Aono's hand flew across the mana paper capturing the fight as best as her unenhanced eyes could manage. They appeared as if they were teleporting across the battlefield. One moment on the end of the ice chamber, the next clashing with the insect.

Aono began to froth at the mouth at the material she was witnessing.

"Yes….ha… ha… yes!!! Good…. Goood!!!!" she shouted with glee.

"S-she's drooling on me!"

"Lucky…"

"Shut up down there! You are breaking my concentration!" Aono growled.

She refocused, seeing Drake jump backward as he summoned chains of earth around the monster, as his companion raised his sword with both hands.

"Witness…. Heaven Splitting Strike!" 

Aono gasped as she felt the power from the strike, her breath taken from her, but still, she kept her eyes locked on the scene.

Her stilled beath was released only after the impact of the strike, the low mist inside the Ice blown away. And the insect left standing.

Suddenly she heard her knight's voice ring out.

"Noooo!!"

The red-headed man was suddenly thrown to the ground, a hole in his midsection.

Drake flashed forward battling desperately with the insect but could not land a substantial blow even to Aono's untrained eyes. The insect was toying with her knight.

"Kisamaaaaaa!!!!" she seethed in anger, her stylus snapping in her grip, "My Dazzling Knight! Put that sorry excuse for a cicada in the ground!" she screamed, becoming fully immersed in the fight.

But she witnessed something she thought would never happen.

Drake was struck, his chest pierced by the insect.

Aono gasped in pain, her eyes turning to points.

"NO!"

The icey chamber that was erected disintegrated, crashing apart in small shards of ice, as the insect threw Drake's limp body to the ground. Following it up with a swift kick to the stomach, sending him flying across the field.

Time slowed down for Aono. Then Drake disappeared.

"Milady! We must retreat! It is not safe here!"

Aono tumbled to the ground from the pyramid, the group forming around her, but she didn't move, didn't speak, her world muted.

Her body shivered, unsure of what had just happened. The sound of screaming and ground-wrenching blows reverberating in her chest and ears.

Then a shiver.

She looked up and saw a man on the field, holding back the monstrous insect like a child.

The man's smile ignited neurons in her mind like a lightning strike.

"My Glorious Knight! My Dazzling Tyrant!" she squealed, blinking away the onslaught of tears, his clear visage in her gaze once more.

She looked at Drake, his body now tanner, his hair reaching past his knees, and his body seemingly made out of chiseled marble. He said something in a whisper to the woman behind him, then turned to the insect.

"Sorry. Looks like I can't afford to lose anymore."

Aono held back a girlish squeal. Only to leak out a few words.

"It's the return scene!!!!!!"

Instantly the insect backed away, nursing a broken arm. But Drake did not let up, shooting forward in a flash, closing the distance incomparable to his speed before.

"S-such speed!?" she muttered.

Drake reared his hand backward, the air and light around it deforming and bending, before throwing his fist forward. Thrusting the Ant into the ground creating a crater so large and deep it obscured her view of them.

"S-such power?!"

The next moment something shot out from the crater into the air, Aono's head snapping upwards more from the sense of mana in the air shifted up, rather than her eyes being able to follow.

Her eyes focused. And making out Drake in the air. A large black bow with a string of lightning in his hand. In the other an arrow forming of the condensed elements encircling him.

The arrow finally manifested with each element swirling in tandem around its jet-black base as Drake knocked the arrow and drew back on the bow, chanting something she could not make out over the cracking of magic in the air.

"We must get away! Mlady!"

"No! I have to see it!" she shouted.

Drake's voice pierced the thunderous surroundings, entering her ears.

"Stellaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!"

Aono looked at the tempest of magic molded into an arrow careen towards the ground, her eyes blurring slowly as she realized she had begun crying, a maniacal smile on her face.

"Ha….Haha! Hahahahaha!!!! Beautiful! So Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed.

The impact of the arrow resonated through the area, wind, debris, and lashes of mana spreading out kicking up and blowing away everything in the area.

Aono still screaming in joy as she was flung backward into the trees.

"BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! AHAHAHAHA!!! WONDROUS!!! ELEGANCE!!!!!!"