Awakening the Divine Spark-Chapter 251: Son.

The scorpion king didn’t die on its own.

When the only present elemental lord got bored watching its agony, she used the two gravity step artifacts again and climbed up, over twenty feet above everyone. After closely observing it, she jumped on top of the colossal insect, punching it between the eyes, and ending its struggle.

She didn’t use any weapons and everyone, especially the Elred and the eight people from his group, felt their feet grow cold at the sight. Afterwards, Lady Panello called Alwin and Dain over and ordered them to get the scorpion’s spark.

No one wanted to miss this part and the hunters quickly gathered around them. It took a while to dig the spark out, and just like in the flea’s case, it turned out to be a round one, shining with bright white light. Alwin passed it to lady Panello, his face barely hiding the unwillingness, and she inspected it for a brief moment, but then hid in a wooden box, and that, in turn, in her spatial treasure.

The grand event was over.

Some people had died, and the hunters kind of did kill an old god in the size of a mountain, but the whole thing turned out to be underwhelming. All the preparation, the days spent in the hot environment, killing thousands upon thousands of insects that didn’t even had a spark – all led to the only fruit of their labor being pocketed by a haughty elemental lord. And no one could do anything about it.

"You may return or do whatever!" Lady Panello said to Alwin.

Then she pointed at Elred, and said, "You! Take your people and lead me to the place Seren died."

For a moment Lee pondered whether he should stay back and hide in the group of hunters. There were still over three hundred of them and in theory he could get lost. Every single one of the others, including Elred, had this thought, but unfortunately, when Lady Panello glanced around the crowd, everyone felt she recognized them.

Apart from someone blabbing, their defense had one main weak point. There were Vaerin’s remains in Elred’s spatial artifact, the amulet. He intended to return them to Vaerin’s brother, but realizing the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous, during the encounter with the scorpion, Elred threw it in a lava pool while no one was looking.

He did it with heavy heart, not only because of his friend’s remains – the amulet was his family treasure. Unfortunately, there was no way around it – Elred was positive sooner or later she would search all of them, especially after not finding anything useful at the spot where they killed the other old god.

The three hundred hunters left the desert with loud cheers. Contrary to them, the group of ten, and the butcher’s axe above their heads called Lady Panello, all had grave expressions.

The only good thing about her was that she finally assisted during more difficult encounters when the group was attacked by larger swarms of insects. Her ability to kill dozens at the same time was remarkable, and basically guaranteed everyone’s safety – but only from the insects, of course.

Lee wasn’t sure whether her actions were intimidating enough for the rest to break all of the sudden. Just in case, he kept Soulcleaver ready in the glove at all times, and began to analyze her movements, preparing to both – sneak attack the elemental lord, and escape from her.

Obviously she was miles ahead of someone like Lucien Duvant – the only elemental lord Lee had killed so far. She could likely employ a wide area skill to kill or disable him before he had the chance to do anything to her. In addition, she still had not used her weapon.

All of it led Lee to one conclusion – he had to make sure they returned to the first camp. He still had time left till the three months were up when Simone Lamart was going open a rift for him to go back.

***

As expected, the area in the mountains was barely recognizable. One could guess that once upon a time a huge battle had taken place here, but only from the unnatural rock formations. The remains of humans, wasps, and even the old god, had long been devoured, including their skeletons and carcasses.

Elred led Lady Panello around the place, faking the difficulty to describe the way the fight actually went or where Seren died. All of the hunters thought his performance was impeccable, but it wasn’t enough to persuade the elemental lord.

She walked around the place for two days, meticulously inspecting every rock and pebble. Lee began to guess whether it was only to instill fear and paranoia, but then she did something strange.

She sat down, meditated through the night, but in the morning took out a small jar with translucent liquid. After adding there few droplets of her own blood, she put the jar in the middle of her palm. Few moments later the liquid inside began to boil, and evaporated in the span of three or four breaths.

It looked like a pure witchcraft nonsense, except the vapor didn’t dissipate. The thin cloud hung in the air for a while, and then slowly flew towards a specific direction. After twenty or so yards it vanished, but apparently it was all she needed.

And there it was – hidden between rocks she found a weapon, tightly held by few bones that were once a human hand. Lee could swear that for the first time there was a natural expression on Panello’s face – a genuine grief, but it disappeared quicker that the vapor earlier.

With a great care she put the sword and the hand in her spatial treasure, motioned Elred to lead the way, and the group left.

Lee thanked both Elred and Heavens she didn’t insist on returning to the second camp. In fact, it seemed that Lady Panello was too deep in thoughts to recognize the direction they were going, or maybe didn’t care. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

On the way, she continued to assist the group in dealing with the insect swarms, but never said anything. The hunters began to hope it was finally over, except for Lee who had the premonition the real fun was just about to begin.

And it was so.

Their arrival brought the tragic news to the camp where all this time the handful of people kept fighting off the insects two times a day. Everyone mourned their lost friends, but Lady Panello coldly observed the interactions.

Then she did the simplest thing possible. She brought Elred and the rest of survivors outside the camp, and said, "The one who speaks the truth will be pardoned. The rest will perish. How did my son die?"

Lee expected her to employ this tactic when she arrived. Maybe she wanted to find out more details, or maybe didn’t want to kill people, either way she patiently tolerated their act. Now, though, the gloves were off.

After swallowing the shocking part of Seren being her son, Elred was the first to speak.

He said, "Lady Panello, I assure you ..."

He didn’t get further, because the next moment she appeared next to him, and the mighty elemental master, a person who was cream of the crop in many worlds, burst in flames. Elred died, roaring in pain, while the group watched him in terror. The other people from the camp rushed out, but seeing who the inquisitor was, quickly returned, pretending to have never seen anything.

"The next one who’ll try to bullshit me will meet the same end." Lady Panello said, throwing Elred’s charred remains to the side, "And I promise I’ll find all of your relatives and burn them as well."

Lee knew he was fucked.

He only needed another day. If he could prolong the discussion till the next day, he had a chance to escape, rushing up the hill where Simone was supposed to open the rift. Now, though, one of the seven people would surely blab. And the rest will be killed.

"How did my son die?" Lady Panello repeated, her face void of any emotion.