Mila, terrified, gripping her two staffs, prepares to defend herself from the snake, while the snake on the other hand opens its jaws wide, clearly showing those threatening and deadly teeth white as marble, shining under the radiant sun, and lunges with its mouth open to devour its prey in a single bite.
Emma, finally free, runs and runs, without resting, without stopping to think about the sharp pain she felt in her hand, an electrifying, almost paralyzing pain, also ignoring that she has spent 30% of her internal energy on just one ability of her gauntlets.
When she finally sees Mila lying on the ground, furious, she stops for a moment before shouting: "Damn filthy worm, DO NOT DARE TO HARM MY BEST FRIEND!"
Being only centimeters away from achieving it, the snake could already almost taste its prey…
Injecting her energy profusely into her spear and at the same time into her legs, kicking the ground she uses an emerald impact to propel herself, making a high speed jump, and in the air she shouts: "Emerald-Golden Dragon Arts!, Emerald Impact!, Lightning Dragon Arts!, Thunderous Strike!"
Her spear is covered by the same emerald energy that covered her legs, but this time stronger, followed by lightning energy that began to mix with the emerald energy, at first the lightning energy resisted a little, but soon the power of the emerald energy overwhelmed it and they merged…
Emma has achieved it at this moment, fusing two of her techniques, even if only momentarily, but instead of feeling happiness, with all her strength she crashes against the head of the snake that is centimeters away from Mila.
The snake, which was completely focused on Mila, could not react, before being sent flying, crashing and knocking down several trees in its path.
Mila looks at Emma and feels relieved, Emma likewise breathes a little easier and approaches and helps Mila get up quickly, taking advantage of that moment to take an additional recovery pill.
Then a very annoying hissing roar SSSSSSHSHSHSSSH is heard from where the snake had flown to, the furious snake looks in this direction, its scales shine with that dark purple glow, all its natural inscriptions light up at once and a dark, misty energy envelops it.
To the terror of Emma and Mila, the snake moved at an incredible speed, in just 10 seconds it had covered approximately about 300 meters with its size, it was a speed that left them impressed.
But they have no time to be distracted, Emma shouts to Mila: "Quick Mila run, I will distract it!" Emma raises her spear and changes the form of her gauntlet to her shield, she is glad that when it is activated she can continue changing form without deactivating it.
Mila starts running only to see how the snake, full of fury and incredible hatred, lashes its tail with overwhelming force, sending Emma flying to the side like a rag doll.
Emma, for her part, is left shocked, she could not understand it, she was prepared and even if it were stronger due to their difference in realms, how could this difference be so great?, Emma who now barely has 50% of her energy, since she could feel how just that blow took away another 5% of her energy…
This is extremely dangerous, more than she imagined, when one's energy drops below 50%, that is when the flaws of the armor begin to be noticeable and not all damage is covered.
But as if the problems were not enough, the shadow spears have also caught up and are about to join the combat…
Mila wants to go help Emma, but she knows she will only get in the way, so she starts running far away from the battlefield, Emma sees this and smiles, at least Mila will be able to escape, and then she tries to get up and finds herself face to face with the lizard women, with no trace of the snake, which she sees continuing its pursuit of Mila.
Emma is tired, her stamina is at the limit, even if her internal energy can continue fighting, the burden of using her battle prayer is very high, after all you are invoking the power of a god into your body…
The lizard leader smiles and says: "What was all that for?, it is useless, as useless as your god, you cannot fight an impossible battle and win, that is the cruel reality."
Emma smiles mockingly and replies: "As long as Mila lives I do not care about anything else!, my god fought an impossible battle and won, even though his enemies were stronger, even though they outnumbered him, he alone stopped the enemies of this entire universe!"
The lizard leader narrows her eyes and says sarcastically: "And what?, does that even matter?, does such an ancient past matter?, do not tell me, you are so naive that you think you will be able to do the same."
Emma finishes standing up and looks at the four lizard women and replies: "You cannot know if you never try, that is what my father used to tell me." And taking her spear she throws herself into battle.
…
Mila continues fleeing from the snake which was knocking down trees in its search to catch and devour her, but her heart would not stop being worried about her childhood friend who had put herself in a bad situation because of her inability to fight…
Mila has always believed in the emerald-golden dragon god, just as her family did, she believed that he would give them strength, power to move forward, and with that belief she continued living until this very day.
Of course she always knew that her god is not so magnanimous as to give power for free, that is why the dragon trials exist… all power has a price, whether effort or time… or a sacrifice, how much are you willing to sacrifice to obtain power?, many ask themselves that question.
She herself asked it when she saw her parents brutally murdered by monsters, now she is in a similar situation, while she runs she can see how it becomes increasingly difficult for Emma to even defend herself from the attacks of the lizard women.
As she is practically focused on defense, a sign that something is very wrong, since it means that she is completely overwhelmed, but she cannot do anything, while other priestesses can use two to three battle prayers on their companions, Mila can only use one.
The same applies to herself, Mila has never understood that, it is supposed that unlike paladins and combat priestesses who depend on their cultivation and the increase of their bond with their god, or even other branches that can also use them to a lesser extent and variety with limited quantities if they increase their bond with their god, priestesses can increase their limit with the strength of their faith.
But she fervently believes in her god, she is the one who prays to him the most, whether in this new village or in Vienna, she would wake up at 6 am and the first thing she did was pray, at 12 pm after lunch she prayed, at 5 pm after finishing her duties she prayed again, and at 9 pm when she went to sleep, she prayed again.
Even the great priestess herself praised her saying that possibly her bond would grow faster than all the others… but it did not, it is not doing so, what was failing?, she did not understand it, although she wanted to ask Feicui Long… with what courage would you ask your god why my bond with you has not increased?
Mila felt her heart pounding, Emma her childhood friend… could die here, for her, because of her, for protecting her because she lacks power… not Emma, but her, she is the one who lacks strength and power… she lacks Emma's courage and dedication…
Molly, who can feel her mistress's thoughts and has already fully recovered, rubs her head against her chest affectionately, producing loving sounds trying to calm her KyuukKyuukKyuuk
Mila, distracted in her thoughts, crashes into a cliff, she had run to the foothills of one of the mountains of the mountain range and had not even noticed.
Mila then panics because turning around she sees the snake blocking her path, she sees Emma being knocked down, knocking over a tree, how useless she is, she tells herself, she not only put Emma in danger, but also wasted her efforts…
Mila could only drop to her knees and cry while saying: "Sorry… sorry Emma I am useless, I am useless… forgive me, father, mother for failing to fulfill your wishes… forgive me my little sisters for never being able to see you again… I ruin everything…"
She hated herself, she hated being weak, she hated not having the necessary power, that is how she is… that is what she hates, she hates that girl who caused her parents' death because of a whim, she hates the girl who does not have the strength or courage to fight an enemy that surpasses her, she hates the girl who wakes up remembering that night of horror…
No, that is incorrect… what she truly hates is… lacking power and strength, that is why her whole life has revolved around how to obtain it, that is why the excuse is always… I am weak, I cannot do it because I do not have strength… I do not have the necessary power, power, power, power and more power…
A timeless, drowsy and majestic voice whose origin she did not know resonated in her ears, startling her: "That is right Mila Schmidt, what you have always wanted and what you have always desired is power… power over your own life, power over your own choices, power over your destiny, power so that no one ever again takes away what you lost because of your fault."
The voice stops for a moment as if to let her process everything and then says: "But if that is what you want, why do you simply not take it?"