Chapter 195: Aftermath (1)

The light of the portal rippled as Viel and Sofia casually stepped outside. Their bodies were covered with a sort of green sticky liquid. Sofia quickly summoned a torrent of water and doused their whole body with it.

Viel was shaking his limbs as he tried to remove the liquid from his hands, his face filled with disgust.

"You could have just killed them from afar, Vi", Sofia could not help but click her tongue in frustration as Viel flung some of the green liquid to her. But after a while, she looked at the floating text that was hovering in front of her.

"It says I leveled up again", Sofia fixed her spectacles as she tried to gather her mana, "Even though this is the second time already, it's still a weird feeling", she said as she squinted her eyes.

"What about you, Vi?", she looked at Viel as she summoned a gust of wind to dry both of them up, "Did you… level up?"

Hearing Sofia's words, Viel's eyes instantly twitched. "Nothing!", Viel waved his hand, "Not even a reward! Ack, so stingy!"

"What?", Sofia could not help but slightly raise her eyebrows. She then looked at the other set of floating texts in front of her, which told her that she has a reward. And so, she raised her finger and accepted the reward.

"I have a reward", Sofia said as she showed the item to Viel. It was some sort of feather made of jade.

As soon as Viel saw that Sofia was given a reward, he once again groaned in frustration, "So jealous!", Viel shouted as he threw a huge piece of the ground towards the monsters that were now roaming aimlessly.

"You… really did not get anything?", Sofia placed the feather in her pocket. She was going to ask Viel what the feather does but seeing as he did not receive any rewards, it might be too… insensitive of her to do so. She'll just ask later, she thought.

"No", Viel crossed his arms, obviously disappointed.

"Does it say anything on why you don't have any rewards?"

"Uh… yup", Viel sighed, "It says I already have the reward. But I don't see it anywhere!", Viel once again raised his voice, as well as his fists.

"I… see", Sofia raised her eyebrows and shrugged. But after a few seconds, her eyes widened in shock as she realized something.

"!!!", she quickly looked Viel straight in the eyes as her breathing turned heavier.

"A...are you alright, Sofi?", Viel could not help but slightly back away as he saw Sofia's expression.

Sofia, however, was not even hearing Viel as her thoughts raced inside her mind. She has already surmised that the Portals may have ultimately something to do with Viel. But this new discovery of Viel already having the rewards more than added to her hypothesis.

"Can you ask… Mr. Voice to give you the reward?", Sofia stuttered as she kept staring Viel straight in the eyes.

"Eehh…", Viel blinked a couple of times before he turned quiet. After a few seconds, he clicked his tongue. "Stingy!", he shouted, "It says I can't. I don't have the right to access it or something"

"!!!"

Once again, Sofia's breaths stuttered. This confirms it. Whatever it is that is inside Viel, this Mr. Voice or whatever it is… It might be the one responsible for the appearance of the portals. Maybe it even created the portals.

What if all of the rewards they were receiving came from Viel or from this Mr. Voice in the first place?

Sofia could not help but gulp as her ideas were starting to align. But it was probably best to keep this information for herself for now. After all, it is still just speculation.

"Sofi?", Viel squinted his eyes as he leaned closer to Sofia.

"Should we help your friend?", Sofia then quickly fixed her spectacles as she looked towards the only portal left. Completely pushing the thoughts away from her mind.

"Hmmm…", Viel was still weirded out by Sofia's sudden stupor, but after a while, he shrugged his shoulders and looked in the direction where Sofia was looking, "No, they can handle it".

"Let's clear everything here instead", Viel added as he started to walk towards the horde of monsters that were now wandering aimlessly ever since the two portals closed. But before Viel could even take a single step, Sofia stopped him.

"Let me", she said, "I want to test how much stronger I got from this… level up"

Hearing Sofia's words, Viel let out a tiny sigh, "Sure", he whispered as he slowly backed away with his arms raised.

"So what are you going to--"

Before Viel could say anything else, the air around them started to lower in temperature. He could hear the air cracking as tiny icicles started to form everywhere. However, unlike Sofia's previous spells, the icicles remained minuscule.

Instead, the monsters that were actively moving froze in their spot. And after a few seconds, they started to crumble, the pieces that were falling from their body completely frozen in ice.

And like a domino that started from Sofia and Viel's position, the monsters all crumbled one by one.

"This…", Sofia could not help but raise an eyebrow.

"Eh… what did you do?", Viel slightly pouted, "I thought you were testing your powers, this seems weak?"

"No", Sofia breathed, "This... is amazing", she said before summoning a bubble around her and floating above the skies. She flew above the center of the city and quickly looked around her.

She let out a huge breath as her hand palms started to tremble rapidly. And as she was doing so, the ground below also started to quake.

And then, like a famished quicksand that covered the entire city, the ground pulled all of the remaining monsters down, completely swallowing all of them at the same time.

Yinji, who was carefully straying off the monsters inside the city walls, let out a smirk as she looked above towards Sofia.

Diao Mei could not help but let out a deep sigh as she stared at Sofia, "Of course…", she muttered. Those who can stand beside Viel will never be ordinary.

General Diao also let out a deep breath. It has not even been an hour since Yinji and the others arrived, and the situation has already been contained.

General Diao continued to watch as the monsters disappeared to the ground. He then slowly walked towards Matriarch Yinji while stroking his beard. "It seems the next generation is already taking over", he sighed.

"My generation is still strong", Yinji quickly replied without even looking at General Diao, "You're just weaker", she said coldly.

"This…", General Diao could not help but twitch his eyes. But after a while, he once again let out a tiny sigh, "It has been a while since I last saw you, Matriarch Yinji"

"Oh? When was that?", Yinji finally glanced at General Diao, "I have quite a lot of memory of your father, but not you"

Of course, she won't know him that well. He was just a young man when he first saw Yinji. She was the dream of all men back in the day when she was still active. There was even a group dedicated to Yinji then. And of course, General Diao was part of it, as well as Emperor Cha.

General Diao's reminiscing was cut short by the voice of his daughter.

"Are there anyone that needs help inside the mansion?", Diao Chan asked.

"There are many", General Diao quickly replied and nodded, his tone full of weight.

"Okay", Diao Chan nodded as she quickly rushed inside, followed by Diao Mei. Lu Xun also approached General Diao, asking if there was something he could do to help.

In the end, he ended up assisting the soldiers and collecting the body of those that died. Their bodies were still above ground even though Sofia buried the monsters deep. A testament to how much control she had with her powers.

Sofia then started to descend to the ground as soon as all of the monsters had been eradicated, landing in front of Yinji and General Diao.

"I see you've become stronger the last time we fought", Yinji quickly commented.

Hearing Yinji's words of praise, Sofia could only fix her spectacles, "You were just playing with me back then".

"Are you--"

"That was amazing, Sofi!"

"!!!", General Diao was about to introduce himself to Sofia, but he almost jumped in fright as someone suddenly shouted behind him.

"W...what the!?", General Diao slowly turned his head to follow the golden-haired kid that was approaching Sofia, "Since when were you there!?"

General Diao could not help but blink his eyes a couple of times. Even though he is a lot taller now, the boy in front of him is definitely Viel. Who else would have such long golden hair and such a beautiful face?

There was also the fact that he suddenly appears out of nowhere.

"Oh… General Diao?", Viel tilted his head, "You're still alive?"

"..."