Chapter 136 - Alice Is Near

Flying through the air in a helicopter, Elizabeth felt tempted to just let loose and jump outside. The winds that brushed through her hair, made her hyper-aware of the elemental energies in her surroundings.

Ever since she boosted herself above 20,000 feet on ability alone, she felt as if she was on the verge of a breakthrough.

Currently, her aching body was in need of constant release. Elizabeth couldn't imagine how Alice and Zeel must feel after accumulating all that energy for 29 years.

Elizabeth was tempted to attempt flying once more, but doing so would be attempting to access energy she could not fully control.

At most, she could reach a couple of hundred feet in the air before she would begin to slowly descend. She knew this because she tried flying a couple of times after the Military Incident.

Still, Elizabeth knew that small steps should be taken when Zeel wasn't around. It wasn't that she lacked confidence, it was just that there were many ways to die in the Multiverse.

While flying was theoretically possible with her ability alone, Elizabeth was not yet at that level of control.

Her Elemental Energy manipulation was rudimentary at best.

Her novis ability had only grown stronger, but it had now become a trump card of sorts.

She rarely found a chance to practice it though, since entering a pseudo-dimension had become much riskier with the energy leaks from her body.

"So where you from?" Slivko asked, having not left Elizabeth alone since she boarded the helicopter.

To her right was James, Preston, Mason, Brooks, and Bill; to her left was San, Mills, and the annoying Slivko.

"You're a kid and I am married," Elizabeth replied, disinterested in everything around her, especially the questions the teenage boy was asking.

"Damn it!" Slivko said as he faked a dejected look.

Elizabeth had to admit that any other normal girl would think of the kid as cute, but she felt pride in the fact that she was so old.

Not physically or mentally, but spiritually since she had been in the stasis-pod for so long. Elizabeth felt smarter with age, even if that wasn't the case.

After Slivko's strike and miss, the plane descended into silence once more, until James decided to speak.

"So who is the lucky guy?" James asked.

Elizabeth thought for a while before saying "He is lucky, huh? I wish he also thought that way. You could say he has a God-complex,"

"I hate those types of guys," Mason said, with everyone echoing her sentiment.

"But you love him, right? They say love is blind, so he must be doing something right," San said with a bit of envy in her voice.

After all, she found it hard to have relationships with men who weren't as smart as her.

"Huh?" Elizabeth thought for a while before saying "Well I do love him, a lot actually. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here right now.

I wouldn't have seen the worlds I have seen. My own world would have been destroyed had he not intervened.

He has given me so much to be thankful for. The problem is, I don't think I could ever give it back,"

Though she was using a false identity, every word Elizabeth said came from the heart. One had to know, had Zeel not appeared in Lorien Universe when he did, chances are that she wouldn't be alive today.

That was why Marina and the others didn't think it dumb that she would chase after Zeel. Because Zeel didn't only give her a relationship, he also preserved everything she cared about.

Preston reached for his holster before dismissing the thought, something about the way Elizabeth spoke rubbed him the wrong way, but she could have just meant it figuratively.

"Guess I got no chance then?" Slivko said in a sad tone.

"Hey, never give up on what you want… when you meet him, if you can beat him up then you can forcefully take me away," Elizabeth said as she burst out laughing immediately after.

This was the best joke she had ever told but Alice and Zeel were not here to hear it.

Mason, on the side, started taking pictures of Elizabeth, but every time she would take a picture, a silver glare would always appear as a light leak around the eyes.

'Weird' Mason thought but chalked it up to contact lenses in the end.

Thirty minutes later, the group was approaching the storm that bordered the perimeter of the entire island.

The nearer they got, the less intensity with which the lightning struck.

"Weird, the lightning is losing its intensity," Brooks said after pulling out his computer.

"Yes, the energy is being dispersed, but to where?" San also said.

"I don't know but we should take the small victories where we can," Elizabeth said as she ordered everyone to pass through the storm as quickly as possible.

Emerging from the storm, what they saw appalled them to no end, the island was akin to a hidden gem that shone so brightly, the stars themselves would be jealous.

Everyone in the group, except Elizabeth, felt blasphemous for looking upon such a beautiful place with their dirty eyes.

The dark-green trees, crystal clear waterfalls, and abundance of colorful fruits highlighted the treasure trove the island was.

After dispersing the energy in the storm, which unsurprisingly was supercharged particulates and electromagnetic radiation, Elizabeth could feel the connection with Zeel and Alice grow much stronger.

While she knew Alice's exact location, Zeel seemed to be much deeper underground – not only deep but it was as if the excess energy that he should be giving off was blocked or rather absorbed?

Elizabeth couldn't determine the cause and circumstances at this moment, but if she could get Alice to resonate with her, then all would become clear instantly.

Feeling around briefly, she could sense that Alice was also in the ground but at a much shallower location in comparison to Zeel.

*Boom*

*Boom*

*Boom*

That's when she began hearing massive bombs, Elizabeth's head snapped around as she looked towards the other Helicopters, in the distance, dropping bombs.

How could she forget about the seismology involved in this island exploration as well, but for a moment she was too annoyed.

Without anything to contain her excess energy, any emotion would be enough to trigger an instinctual response.

The moment she felt annoyed, the helicopters that had yet to fully cross the storm barrier were instantly enveloped by the storm and destroyed.

"Fuck our men," Preston yelled, intent on turning the helicopter around.

"Stop those fucking bombs," Elizabeth yelled, not minding the explosions from the helicopters that had yet to pass through the barrier.

The last thing Elizabeth wanted was to drop bombs on an island she knew nothing about.

Receiving the order, the other helicopters soon stopped deploying the bombs, and this, in turn, made Brook and San very unhappy at the lack of experimental results for their research.

"Who the fuck drop bombs on an island they know nothing about," Elizabeth yelled.

"People, who want to find out about the island they are on?" San responded snappily.

James couldn't agree more with Elizabeth's common sense statement, but at that moment everyone's eyes grew wide.

An enormous beast rose up from behind a few mountains. It was a massive ape that held scars of war.

With a massive bellow from the beast, the helicopters were already swaying unsteadily in the air.

Before they could process the presence of the ape, massive rocks flew across the skies and began picking down the helicopters one at a time.

Boom

Boom

Boom

Three of the six helicopters were instantly destroyed, spiraling out of the air to a crash landing on the ground.

The helicopters drew close to the beast, and soon shots of retaliation were fired at the 30-meter-tall ape.

Elizabeth was also surprised at the sight of such a huge ape, when she said they didn't know what was on the island, she was mostly referring to poison gas or maybe a new species of snake, but a giant ape?

'F*ck is the world coming to?' She thought, deeply annoyed by something not within the parameters of her plannings.

Soon the ape began swatting down the helicopters like a human would annoying mosquitos.

However, just as it was about to do the same with the helicopter holding Elizabeth, she manipulated the wind to form a barrier while simultaneously dragging another helicopter in front of her own.

*Bang*

An enormous hand swatted the helicopter in front. The explosion impacted Elizabeth's wind barrier and sent her helicopter hurling into the distance.

Elizabeth swiftly used the winds to guide the helicopter towards Alice's presence. Not wanting to go without getting a few shots in, Elizabeth summoned a flaming tornado for a brief moment to cook the giant ape.

Her flame elements were relatively weak, but this allowed other helicopters to safely land and the men to escape into the jungle.

Luckily, everything was in such disarray that her identity was not exposed.

However, she was certain that certain people in the group had begun to suspect her, but she could care less with Alice being so close.