Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG)

731. Break Free

This had to work. It was the only way of saving Mavos Academy.

It was the only way for Edithe to escape the Spirit Plane.

She had to believe it would work.

That was why she trekked through the ruined mountains.

Willy, Druma, and Centina trailed after her. The group remained silent as they made their way through the undulating hills. It was not that difficult to find where they were going, because all they had to do was follow the destruction.

The Spirit Lord had turned the Archangel into a tiny metal sphere and flicked it into this mountain range. And he threw the Archangel with such force that that tiny metal sphere tore through the mountains, ripping apart the landscape completely.

Because of that, Edithe knew where to go to find the Archangel. And she could only hope that it was somehow still alive.

But after hours of traversing the destroyed landscape, what she came to was not what she wanted to see. She found a giant crater there, lying in the base of a tall mountain.

“That’s—”

Edithe rushed up to the metal sphere as Druma, Centina, and Willy followed her. But even as she came to a halt next to the broken metal sphere, nothing happened. Nothing changed. Her [Identification] only gave her a single response.

[Broken Metal Sphere - It’s a broken metal sphere.]

And Edithe could only drop to her knees as she closed her eyes.

“No…”

She whispered as the realization sank in.

“The Archangel is truly dead.”

She was trapped, and Mavos Academy would be destroyed.

Sally had been busy.

Well, she had always been busy. Ever since she had been mentally disconnected from the real Salvos, Sally had pretty much just been aimlessly running errands throughout the Mortal Realm. Whether it was ensuring that Novis, Oriur, and Bellum had a safe place to stay, or helping deal with the influx of Demons pouring out of the rifts in the Netherfied Lands.

It was all the same to Sally. She wasn’t acting with purpose. She didn’t have a goal. Not like she could pursue any goal she even wanted, anyway. The real Salvos was already searching for Haec, and Sally couldn’t level up.

So Sally was left without much of a purpose other than to ensure that her companions here in the Mortal Realm remained safe and sound. Which proved to be quite difficult when there was always a new calamity befalling the Human Lands every single week.

But she was perfectly content with continuing with these tasks because she cared for her companions. Even if it often meant that she had to do boring jobs like what she’d been doing over the last few days— transporting powerful artifacts from other nations back into Mavos Academy using her teleportation magic.

It had been the only support that the powers of the Human Lands could offer Mavos Academy at the moment. Because not only were they all preoccupied with the Elven invasion to the northeast, they knew that they would incur grievous losses if they had to face the Matriarch Centinel and her swarm in battle— perhaps they would not even be able to repel her with all their greatest armies combined.

Whether that was true or not, Sally didn’t know. All she did was what she needed to do. She had traveled all across the Human Lands— from the Sunmere Republic, to the Eastern Kingdom Alliance, and to the Vaun Qieur Empire— to collect whatever artifacts they could offer her to aid Mavos Academy.

She had even been to the Council of Cremont, although they still scorned her for being a Demon. Which she found quite amusing more than anything.

Most of the Human Lands had been appalled to find out that she was a Demon. Many nations still refused to accept her— until she was offering them her help, then they gladly welcomed her with open arms.

Their hypocrisy was quite funny to Sally, because she didn’t even care whether or not they hated her. Perhaps the real Salvos would care to some extent. But Sally?

What exactly was going to happen if they hated her? Would they try to kill her? It was not like it mattered to her if she even died or not. She was, despite her individuality, just a clone of Salvos.

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So Sally didn’t care all that much. She just did what she had to do and returned back to Mavos Academy, bypassing the barrier in the brief moment it was weakened to let her through. Then she handed over a Bag of Holding full of High Grade, Epic Grade, and a single Mythic Grade artifacts over the Clayton Skyshredder.

Then Sally set off to find Rachel to catch up. The two of them had spent some time together, but because Sally was so busy while Rachel was preoccupied with trying to befriend the Centinels, neither of them had a proper full conversation just yet.

And when Sally arrived at the scene, all she found was a frustrated Oriur standing there, practically tearing the leathery skin off his face.

“Mama, I need your help!”

Oriur exclaimed as he threw himself at her. Considering he was around her height, that made her stumble. Sally blinked a few times and tilted her head at the juvenile Wyvern.

“What is it, Oriur?”

Sally asked with raised a brow. Oriur gritted his teeth and looked up at her.

“They… they took Rachel!”

Oriur exclaimed. Sally blinked a few times. She looked up towards the barrier and saw the swarm of Centinels gathered there.

“Who? The Centinels?”

Sally asked with a frown. But Oriur shook his head and pointed past her and towards the tall tower in the background.

“No— Clayton did!”

And that made Sally pause as she glanced back.

“Huh.”

For a moment, she was confused as to why Clayton would do that. But then she remembered that Humans didn’t take kindly to new things. And befriending Centinels was certainly a new thing.

“Please, you have to free Rachel.”

Oriur said as he eyed Sally desperately. He shook his head, before gesturing at the Centinels.

“Because if she doesn’t come back, I think the Centinels will… I don’t know, but I have a feeling something terrible will happen.”

Looking up, Sally could certainly see the discontent visible on the faces of the gathered Centinels. They were practically twitching to attack the barrier to find Rachel. But they were waiting— impatiently— for now.

“I guess I’ll have to do something…”

Sally muttered under her breath as she took a step. Oriur’s eyes widened, before he bowed his head gratefully.

“Thank you, mama!”

“Anything for you, Oriur!”

Sally beamed back at him, before she took a step before. Then she spread her flaming wings behind her back and took off to the sky. All the while, Oriur watched hopefully as she flew up to the top of Clayton’s tower.

Rachel sighed as she hugged her knees. It was hopeless. There was no escape from this prison. Her plan was ruined, all because Clayton was a big, stupid meanie!

“I guess I’ll have to just wait and hope…”

Rachel whispered as she hung her head back, looking up at the ceiling. She sat there, her back against the windowglass, for a long moment. And that was when she heard a soft tapping.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Rachel could’ve sworn it came from outside of the glass window behind her. But that was impossible. She was so high up above the rest of the school, nobody could’ve gotten up here. Unless they could somehow fly.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Rachel heard it again. And this time, she was certain it came from the glass window. So she turned with a frown.

“Wha—”

And Rachel’s eyes grew wide when she saw the flaming figure floating out the window.

“Salv… I mean— Sally!”

Rachel watched as the flaming figure waved back at her. Sally floated there for a moment, before snapping her fingers. In an instant, Sally appeared right next to Rachel.

“Hi! It’s me!”

Sally said as she beamed down at Rachel. The young girl smiled back in response.

“It’s you! What are you doing here?”

“Oriur asked me to save you, so I’m here to rescue you!”

Sally replied simply. Rachel blinked, before a smile tugged at her lips.

“He did? That’s so sweet of him.”

“Yep! So let’s go!”

Sally proffered a hand, and Rachel reached to accept it. But then Rachel paused.

“But Clayton will just get mad at me again even if you break me free. And this time, he’ll get mad at you too!”

Rachel tapped a finger on her chin in thought. Sally paused.

“I don’t want that!”

“I don’t want that either.”

Rachel agreed, before she frowned.

“But what can we do?”

“I dunno.”

Sally shrugged.

“I don’t usually make plans.”

“Aw. So I have to come up with a plan then.”

Rachel deflated, and Sally nodded eagerly in response. The little girl sighed and sat down once more.

“But I don’t really know what more I can do… I mean, I’ve already befriended a few Centinels, sure. I just don’t know what I can even do next.”

It was all so uncertain. The fate of Mavos Academy— whether Edithe would even come back. Nobody knew what was going to happen next.

Sally crouched down next to Rachel and peered at her curiously.

“Why did you even want to befriend the Centinels in the first place?”

“Because I wanted to prove that they aren’t just mindless monsters— that you can actually talk to them! So we can tell the Matriach Centinel that this is all a misunderstanding, and we don’t have to fight!”

Rachel waved a hand in the air, before snapping her brows together. Talking about her original plan helped her remember something, and an idea dawned on her. All the while, Sally just nodded to the side.

“Maybe we can—”

Sally started to offer a suggestion, but Rachel piped up as she turned to the flaming figure.

“Actually, I have an idea!”

“Oh?”

Sally leaned in curiously as Rachel began to explain.