Two figures inexplicably overlapped before her eyes.
She stared blankly at those clear eyes, not even recovering her senses when she was gently set down.
An absurd thought flashed through her mind.
Her lips parted slightly, just as she was about to speak, the silver-haired woman before her soared back into the sky, leaving her with a gentle silhouette.
Forcing down the burgeoning thought in her heart, she knew this was not the moment to speak.
Witnessing the insignificant ‘bug’ that had appeared from nowhere save the human it was supposed to kill, the demon’s fury truly ignited.
It raised its right hand, aiming its palm at the ‘bug’.
Then, its left claw sliced across the palm of its right hand, tearing open the crimson skin and unleashing a torrent of blood.
After the blood had drained, a pure black eyeball emerged from the gash.
Any monster that inadvertently met its gaze immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming as if plunged into an endless nightmare of terror.
Dorothy, however, felt nothing.
With a gentle clench of her hand, Holy Sword Megaphas materialized within her grasp.
Though the Holy Sword no longer recognized her, this did not mean she was powerless to wield it.
At the very least, in situations where its divine power wasn’t required, she could use it as a common iron sword.
With a swing of the Holy Sword, a silver sword light, accompanied by countless petals, swept across the ground, surging towards the demon.
The petals drifted down upon the blood-soaked earth.
One by one, silver-white flowers burst forth from the soil, shrouding the gruesome battlefield.
Caught within this sea of flowers, monsters, whether First-tier or Fifth-tier, could not escape being engulfed by the blossoms, their bodies transforming into floral mud.
The silver-white sword light struck the demon, yet left no mark.
It retreated two steps in confusion, staring at the flowers sprouting from the earth beneath its feet, then frantically stomped them to death.
Soon, however, an itching sensation began in its abdomen.
It tried to scratch vigorously, but its hand met only large patches of white flowers.
In terror, it attempted to pluck them off, but the flowers spread rapidly across its entire body.
Before long, white blossoms even grew from its mouth.
Its life force completely devoured by the flowers, the demon struggled for a moment before collapsing backward.
It crashed heavily into the sea of blossoms, the resulting gust of wind sending delicate petals swirling through the air.
A rich floral fragrance permeated the area outside Vidona’s city walls.
Monsters in the sky, from First-tier to Fifth-tier, would merely take a light breath and plummet from above, vanishing into the floral expanse.
Behind the sea of flowers, the beast horde continued to surge toward Vidona without end.
Yet, the moment they stepped into the floral expanse, they would forever lose their breath, their traces impossible to find.
The heroes encircled by the sea of flowers feared meeting the same fate as the monsters.
Consequently, they dared not move a single step, only swallowing nervously in terror where they stood.
It wasn’t until a bolder hero stepped out of the flower sea that they finally let out a collective sigh of relief.
Only then did they realize the flowers posed no harm to them.
The white sea of flowers now separated Vidona from the beast tide.
Looking out from the city walls, one side of the world was dark and chaotic, while the other was serene and beautiful.
‘A single sword strike killed a Sixth-tier demon and halted the surging beast tide?!’
This miraculous magic stunned the other heroes within the guild.
They gazed up at the figure in the sky, their hearts swelling with involuntary worship and awe.
Gradually, however, some began to stare blankly at the sea of flowers, as if recalling something.
“This sea of flowers… it’s the Silverbloom Sword Princess’s magic, isn’t it?”
The older heroes, having lived through the era of the Silverbloom Sword Princess, naturally recognized the iconic white sea of flowers.
It brought back memories of her and vaguely reminded them of her appearance.
Upon realizing that the woman who had unleashed this sword strike also possessed long silver-white hair, they suddenly grew agitated.
“Is it the Silverbloom Sword Princess?”
“But isn’t she Celia and their instructor?”
“Could it be…?”
Conjecture filled the heroes’ minds, yet without the Silverbloom Sword Princess’s personal confirmation, they couldn’t reach a definite conclusion.
A sense of unreality persisted within them.
‘Perhaps, perhaps she merely bore a resemblance to the Silverbloom Sword Princess…’
After all, if anyone had told them before that the strongest hero, once defeated at the Demon Lord’s Castle, had been living among them all this time, they would have simply laughed and called that person mad.
Now, having witnessed it with their own eyes, they felt as though *they* were the ones going mad.
Roland, though aware that Celia’s team instructor was formidable, had never imagined she was the legendary Silverbloom Sword Princess.
For a moment, she was too stunned to speak.
As monsters beside them were buried one after another within the sea of flowers, the remaining beasts in the horde finally succumbed to fear.
They began to flee frantically, sparking a chaotic retreat.
None of this concerned Dorothy.
After slaying the Sixth-tier demon, she returned to Sharlene’s side, her expression grave as she searched for Celia.
‘She had been able to sense Celia’s presence with her magic just moments ago, so why had it vanished now?’
Though a faint unease stirred within her, she didn’t believe Celia would be in danger during this beast tide.
After all, Orl, the butler, was protecting her, and that demon possessed at least Seventh-tier strength.
“Silverbloom Senior! Celia, she, she…”
In the distance, Aurora and Isha, disheveled and covered in grime, ran toward her.
Their pretty faces were etched with a mixture of anger and urgency.
At this sight, Dorothy’s heart sank, and her mind felt momentarily blank.
‘Celia… she couldn’t really be in trouble, could she?’
Her hands instinctively clenched tight.
From the moment she discovered Celia was her daughter, her life had become inseparable from hers.
Celia was like an angel, every frown and smile so adorable and heartwarming.
For the past half-year, whenever Dorothy saw her smiling by her side, an immense sense of happiness would fill her.
‘If she were to lose her, she didn’t know what she might do…’
Self-reproach and regret surged into her heart.
She began to regret agreeing to Celia’s and their request; if only she had been a little more firm, perhaps…
‘No, it couldn’t be! How could Celia possibly leave her? I must be overthinking things, that has to be it…’
She lifted her eyes to stare at Aurora and Isha, her mouth dry, and asked with difficulty, “What happened to her?”
Only then did Isha reach her side, bending over with hands on her knees, gasping for breath.
“She, she was forcibly knocked out and taken away by Orl!”
Dorothy let out a sharp breath, the stone that had been weighing on her heart finally plummeting.
Her trembling hands also relaxed.
‘Thank goodness, thank goodness, Celia is fine, I was just overthinking things…’
‘Losing her would truly break me.’
The reason Orl took Celia was quite easy to guess.
He had lost the bet to her, and thus resorted to this underhanded method to take Celia away, preventing her from becoming a hero.
However, she could also understand why Orl would break his word.
For Celia, a demon princess, to become a hero—if news of this reached Demon Lord Sophia, his punishment would likely be far more severe than a mere scolding.
“Where did he go?”
“East!”
After asking for the direction Orl had taken, and with Aurora’s prompt, Dorothy unfurled her pristine white magic wings.
In the blink of an eye, she vanished from everyone’s sight.
****