A Conclusion Reached

George watched the destruction from below with indifference in his eyes.

The coldness in his dead heart grew after recalling the events that had transpired today.

His [Aura] absorbed this coldness and projected it everywhere within his domain. The temperature of the area below dropped and the cold winds picked up, putting out all the fires.

The area became cold enough that frost crystals were beginning to form on the scorched earth.

A shadow moved into the area below and turned into Melissa who got on one knee. Her face was pale and sweaty, and she was exhausted from the combat and escaping.

Even so, fright appeared on her face glancing up at George whose [Aura] surpassed Emma's and reached the ground at his height. Within his influence, she could feel the coldness and emptiness seeping in alongside an intimidating pressure being emitted by him.

George's [Aura] detected her and he coldly glanced down at her.

Melissa shivered sensing his gaze and almost peed herself thinking she had done wrong.

"Tend to the three party members. If they awake before my return, come up with a story that involves the fight ending peacefully with no injuries." George's voice boomed to the ground despite being so high up.

"Y-Yes George! I'm sorr-" Her voice could almost not be heard.

"This is not your fault. I am the one responsible. I was careless and not cautious enough. My mood is just a little sour right now." George did not show his bad mood on his face.

"I-I'll do what you asked of me!" Melissa sighed internally of relief.

She turned into a shadow and left the area to return to the campsite.

George's gaze left Melissa and focused on Emma whose eyes were twitching.

She let out a soft ground as her eyes full of exhaustion slowly opened. Emma slowly looked around as her blurry vision returned to normal. Her eyes widened with realization seeing George holding her wedding style.

Although Emma blushed slightly, it disappeared as her memories returned.

Her face turned even more pale from horror, regret, and guilt.

"I... what did I do? Why did I do that?" Emma brought her hands against her face as if trying to deny reality. She could not believe she had developed malicious thoughts.

"It's not your fault." George's voice brought her back to reality. She brought her hands down and glanced at him, who looked back at her. His cold expression revealed a rare emotion of guilt.

"What... are you saying?" Emma's thoughts were too messy, but she showed surprise seeing emotions appear on his face.

"That was my fault. I apologize for that." George looked into the distance as if lost in thought.

"I've grown too trustworthy of the ring I wear, thinking it is absolute in suppressing my demonic magus. I never told you this, but the ring has a durability which is slowly decreasing everyday and speeds up when I use my skill."

"If you think of my ring as an analogy to a dam, erosions will gradually wear away at the dam. Leaks will gradually begin to occur and grow before the entire structure collapses. The ring has some weak spots the demonic magus can use to escape."

"I never had the problem interacting with others, but I guess you all are special. I guess it used my lack of caution to sneak out and slowly infiltrate your body. It decided to rear its head when it sensed an opportunity."

As George explained this, Emma's eyes widened more in surprise by the passing second.

She carefully looked into his eyes and felt a rise of complicated emotions.

His iris' were glowing, but his pupils radiated a feeling of emptiness and eternal coldness stronger than usual. It was enough to give rise to goosebumps all over Emma.

Emma realized he was trying to distance himself from her.

She looked at his hand where her legs are and realized the ring on his index finger was glowing intensely with a gentle radiance. Emma could subtly see silver chains leaving the ring and wrapping all around his [Aura] forcefully merging the demonic magus with it.

Sensing the tremendous amount of demonic magus surrounding her, the first thought that came to her mind was:

'How is this a meagre amount leftover from escaping Diabolus? His aura seems to surpass mine!'

Although Emma was shocked, her mind was numb from the exhaustion.

Even so, she was greatly relieved her earlier thoughts were formed from an outside influence. Emma would have been traumatized if she had developed such malicious thoughts.

"*sigh* George, everyone makes mistakes throughout their life. As long as you acknowledge your mistakes and own up to them, then that's fine by me." She firmly looked him in the eyes despite the coldness and emptiness seeping into her body.

"You don't mind that I caused all this and then kicked you in the stomach to defeat you?"

"You kicked my stomach?" Emma glanced down at her belly and realized an intense amount of aching could be felt. She looked up and glared at him.

"You'd hit a beautiful women like me?"

"Err..." For some reason, George started sweating and he averted his eyes.

Emma tried to maintain her glare, but ended up smiling and laughing.

"Pfft! Hahaha! Don't take it personally. I understand what you did is necessary. I'm just messing with you."

"So you forgive me?"

"Forgive? I wasn't even mad in the first place. You apologized and admitted your mistake. That's all that matters to me." Emma gave him a firm smile.

"What if I hadn't?" George curiously looked at her again.

"If I ever found out the truth, I would beat the crap out of you until you apologized. I'm still a woman you know?"

"I understand." The coldness and emptiness in his eyes returned to normal.

George's [Aura] and the temperature of the area returned to normal.

Seeing him no longer in a bad mood, Emma adjusted her body to look around.

"We're so high up."

George looked around and realized they had almost reached the height of the clouds.

His move against Emma had catapulted her very high into the sky, more than he realized.

Still, they took the time to look at everything.

Tall and short mountains dotted the landscape, either very close to each other or very far apart. Countless valleys, forests, and grass fields existed between the mountains and many of them occupied half the side of the mountains.

Streams of water moved between these mountains and carved out their own paths.

The cold high speed winds caused their hair and clothes to flutter.

"Um, can we return to the ground?" Emma was starting to shiver as the cold blasted her face.

"Sorry." George gradually lowered their altitude until they reached the ground.

Emma looked at the destroyed landscape around them and gasped a little.

"I did all this?"

"Yes." George simply nodded.

"Wow." Emma moved to get a better view but she was very weak at the moment.

She awkwardly looked at George and blushed a little.

"I, don't think I can walk."

"When is your magus fully regenerated?"

"It usually takes around three to four hours naturally, but two if I meditate and eat a lot of food." Emma blushed even more as her stomach growled.

"We have plenty of food then. Just eat the extra meat we got." George instantly thought of the solution.

"So um, could you carry me back?"

"Naturally."

"So where's everyone else?" Emma looked around again and saw nobody in the vicinity.

"I had Melissa knock them out with a sleeping gas right before I started to fight. Try to recover as much as possible before they wake up and pretend you don't have injuries. Make it seem like the fight ended peacefully. Try to talk with Melissa about an excuse as to why they went unconscious."

"Melissa... looks like I'll have to apologize to her."

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When George returned to the campsite carrying Emma, more than twenty minutes since the fight had ended had passed, further putting them behind schedule.

Bernice, Abe, and Hester were put into their sleeping bags which Melissa had found in their tents.

Upon seeing George and especially Emma, Melissa almost fled in fear.

"Wait! Melissa, I want to apologize." Emma had recovered enough that she could be finally put down. However, her legs were wobbly and her stomach was hurting badly. George had to put her arm to his opposite shoulder to keep her standing.

"Apologize?! You almost killed me! This was supposed to be a friendly duel!" Melissa was tired but also outraged. She glared at Emma and backed away like an intimidated cat.

"This was my fault. I..." George explained what had happened in simpler terms.

"Your, demonic magus corrupted her?" Melissa looked at the two and slowly relaxed her stance.

"Yes. Emma normally does not behave like that. This was entirely my fault. I apologize." George bowed deeply which forced Emma to do the same. However, she was already planning on apologizing so it did not matter to her.

"U-Uh, you don't need to apologize!" Melissa became flustered and was no longer intimidated. She was technically his bodyguard now, so it made her feel uncomfortable.

Seeing them not budge, Melissa turned red from awkwardness. She quickly ran over and forced the two up.

"I get it-I get it! I forgive you two! No need to keep bowing!"

"Thank you."

"I'm relieved now."

The two returned to normal posture, causing Melissa to scratch her cheek and look away.

"So um, what do we do with the other members?"

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Notes:

* I will likely only upload one chapter Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of next week. Those days I will be very busy since it involves most of the day being on the road. I have to head back with relatives and pick up an SUV to drive back home. Just driving there will take 11 hours, so I'll be staying at my relatives home to rest for the night.

* Although I may or may not stick to only one chapter, I will try to produce extra chapters so they can be released on those days. I can't write and drive at the same time.

* If you are wondering why I spend my power stones on my own novel, it is because I don't spend them anywhere else. I usually forget to, so why not spend them on my own novel rather than them just sitting there?