Several hours passed before Michael regained consciousness. He still felt like his head was about to burst apart, but his physical condition was much better than before. Even his right arm didn't hurt as much as before.
While pushing his flat hands against the soft ground beneath him, Michael felt that something was odd. He forced his eyes open just to realize that he was lying on a mattress inside a large tent.
'How did I end up here?' Michael wondered before he noticed that the taming bond of the Elemental Empress gently tugged at him.
["Where are you?"] He asked the Empress immediately.
After taking a good glance around the tent, Michael could tell that he was still in the Savannah region. Given the smell that hung in the air, he couldn't be far away from the border settlement of the Kitsun Lord either.
["I'm coming!!"] The Empress responded a moment before she barged through the entrance of the tent.
She threw herself against him and hugged Michael tightly.
"Thank you…thank you for taking revenge for my people!!" The Elemental Empress began to sob bitterly, her hug even tighter than before.
Michael was just about to tell the Elemental Empress that he took revenge for his people as well, but before he could do so, he saw Zira, another Valyr that looked like an older version of Zira, and two unknown men enter the tent.
"You woke up faster than expected," Zira winked at Michael, who raised an eyebrow.
Zira's look-alike stepped forward with a thin smile on her face. She held her hands together and her lips parted as she greeted him. "We're glad that you woke up. My name is Valkyria, but most call me the Valyr Lordess. You must be Michael. The Elemental Empress told us about your actions. You are very brave!"
"...Or foolish," one of the men next to the Valyr Lordess added. His physique looked somewhat humanoid, but it looked like his body was made out of fluids. Michael saw the liquid flow all over his body ceaselessly. He had a reptilian head with long ears and razor-sharp teeth. He had spikes jutting out from his spine and extraordinary long legs that didn't quite fit his proportions.
He was a member of the Laprix race.
His remark earned the man a frown from the Valyr Lordess, who tried not to roll her eyes at him. "He is the sole reason why we could defeat the Kitsun Lord. Even if you think his actions were foolish, you should keep your mouth shut!"
The man, the Lord of the Laprix race in the Savannah region, was about to respond to the Valyr Lordess' outburst, but the Zynur Lord standing next to him held him back.
"She is right. Haro Ki was about to advance to the next Tier and become a Higher Lifeform. If not for this young man's actions – foolish or not – we would have much more trouble defeating the Kitsun Lord. Our losses would have been too high to recover from," The Zynur Lord said before he turned back to Michael.
The Zynur Lord had a silver metallic body. His appearance resembled a werewolf with silver metallic fur covering his skin that was also silver. Additionally, he had silver wings as well, but they looked too heavy to fly around. If Michael was not wrong, the wings were merely decoration. At least, at the Zynur Lord's current level. Maybe he could learn how to fly once he reached a higher Tier.
The Zynur Lord's eyes were ocean-blue and quite large. They stared at Michael intently as he approached the young Lord.
"You seem to be in pain. Let me help you a little," The Zynur Lord said, pressing his cold metallic claw upon Michael's chest.
Michael flinched and was about to pull back when the pain in his head and arm disappeared. Crackling noises rang out from his arm as the bones in his shattered right arm were rejoined and realigned. The sounds were far from pleasant, but Michael could clearly feel that his broken arm was healed, so he ignored his instinct telling him to pull back and stay vigilant.
The Elemental Empress eyed the Zynur Lord warily, ready to strike the moment the Zynur Lord did something foolish and tried to harm her master. However, that time never came. The Zynur Lord fixed Michael's arm and stepped back right after.
"Your arm is fine now. As for your headache…fighting for several hours the way you did must have drained your mental power beyond its limit. Resting a day or two would be the best for you. The headache should be no more after you've rested well. If it continues to bother you, just rest a little longer."
"Thanks," Michael replied, glad that someone was there to heal him.
He didn't really want to travel home with a broken arm. After all, Michael had no idea what awaited him on his way back home. Hopefully not much.
["By the way. Where is Stinger?"] Michael asked the Elemental Empress via telepathy. The Elemental Empress turned to him and smiled lightly.
["Sun Demos told me that Tiara and the Forest Elves might need the Golden Stinger Wasp. I am not sure what happened, but it seemed important. So I sent it back home."] She informed him.
"You can communicate with Sun Demos?" Michael blurted aloud, staring at his second tamed subject in surprise. He didn't know that the taming bonds worked like that.
Michael had been certain that Sun Demos and the Elemental Empress could only communicate with him telepathically, not with each other but that didn't seem to be the case.
["After our fusion I was able to hear Sun Demos' voice. He was worried when he sensed through the bond that you collapsed. I reassured him that everything is fine and that there is no need to worry. That was a good thing, right?"]
The Elemental Empress sounded worried. For a moment, she feared if she had done something to irk her master. Luckily, Michael just scoffed in response. He found it hard to believe that the Elemental Empress was the same as before. It seemed like having taken her revenge removed the heavy weight she had been shouldering since the death of her people.
The Elemental Empress was finally free. She could do whatever she wanted without having to fear getting tortured, or that Michael would chain her to some wall until the end of time. Michael would never do something like that. That was something the Elemental Empress figured out during the last few days.
Michael would rather jump into dangers head-first than let his people sacrifice themselves instead.
Michael was just about to ask the Elemental Empress why Tiara and the others needed Stinger's help, but he noticed the confusion in the eyes of the three Lords and Zira. Thus, he changed the topic.
"How long was I asleep?" He asked first.
"You have been out for almost 24 hours. But that was to be expected. The attacks you released were far above your Tier. I don't quite understand how you did it, but you cut the Kitsun Lord in half while you're only a Low-Mid Tier-2 Lord. Your combat prowess must be ranked Mythical if not higher!" Zira answered, trying to hide the envy in her voice.
However, her eyes gave her away and Michael noticed the jealous gaze directed at her. The Valyr Lordess scolded her daughter and pulled her back in the next second.
"Putting aside your monstrous combat prowess, we would like to thank you properly for attacking the Kitsun Lord. Others would have avoided the Kitsun Lord and his territory until they grew a little stronger. But not you. You attacked the Kitsun Lord even though you are only a Lord at the 2nd Tier. That is why we felt obliged to thank you properly, not only as the Lords but also in the name of everyone you rescued from the Kitsun Lord's disgusting clutches!" The Valyr Lordess said to Michael, handing him a small satchel.
Michael accepted the satchel and eyed it in his hands. After a few seconds, he channeled some energy inside the satchel. His eyes widened in shock and he looked at the three Lords with great surprise.
"A non-Artifact storage device?! It has so much space as well…wow…" Michael's eyes shone excitedly. He had a Spatial Pouch Artifact, and the War Rune's storage space. However, their combined storage space was at most a quarter of the non-Artifact storage satchel.
'They stored all corpses inside the satchel as well…even the Kitsun Lord's corpse is inside. Amazing!'
"Since you know the rarity of the satchel, we hope that you're satisfied with it. A quarter of the annual funds of all our territories was used to purchase the satchel for you. That is the least we can do to show our gratitude. Your help was far more important than you might realize!" The Zynur Lord gave him a short bow to express his gratitude.
He wasn't even trying to hide that the Kitsun Lord would have caused much more problems if not for Michael. Instead, he remained truthful – to a certain extent.
'Spending a quarter of your annual funds is much better than losing your territory against the Kitsun Lord. That is quite…obvious,' Michael thought, suppressing a light chuckle.
Michael had never planned on demanding anything from the three Lords – other than the Kitsun corpses – but if they were willing to gift him something, why wouldn't he accept the present?
"It can be accessed by everything, so that is a little downside. But you can also use that to your advantage," Zira added, earning herself glares from the three Lords.
But Michael just nodded, "That's the downside of non-artifact storage devices. It's normal that they don't have a seal."
"Is there something else we can help you with?" The Valyr Lordess inquired, suddenly feeling pressured because of her own daughter's continued stupidity.
Michael thought about it for a moment and tilted his head. There was something he wanted to talk about, but he was not sure how the three Lords would react. The three Lords seemed amiable with each other, but he didn't know what would happen now that their common enemy had been killed.
But at the end of the day, Michael had to know the answer to the question that flashed through his mind over and over again,
"What are you planning to do with the Kitsun Lord's territory?"
**
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