Her form suddenly shifted to a complete contrast to what she used to be, her weak self had completely dissipated and her body regained a lot of its previous lost vitality .
I didn't know much about what had happened to her and how much she had developed in the last few months since we arrived in this world, but I hadn't expected her to have changed by this much .
But her current form also gave me a glimpse of what might she should have encountered to reach her current form, her aura had skyrocketed and she actually began to give me a feeling of reaching the Ruler level .
This was a shocking surprise, after all not to mention that she shouldn't be able to surpass the level of SSS powerhouse this easily and without the Shard's Will announcing it to the whole world and even if it didn't spread the news about it, the Shard should have tried to target her .
In a similar way to how it tried to attack me before, but here I was facing a new kind of development and quite the shocking surprise, her current form was a mix or a hybrid of some kind between humans and dragons, if I was recalling correctly, she did indeed have a job related to taming dragons .
But I would have never expected that she would eventually become one herself, her current form was quite charming as well, purple hair and purple colored long eyelashes that adorned the same color as the scales that covered most of her body now .
Shimmering purple scales that screamed of majesty and toughness, they looked more like purple crystals than actual scales, her head had a single horn sticking out of her forehead, like the one associated with unicorns, giving her a sense of being quite mystical .
Her body was filled with muscles that no one could ever believe after seeing her weakened state from before that she could have, she was still a girl was a kind face but her features got enhanced a bit more .
Even in her weakened state from before, she was quite charming, now that she was starting to recover, I saw how powerful and more charming she had become .
I couldn't help but think about what kind of transformation did Hana also had and where exactly was she, just as I was thinking about this, the girl's body in my embrace suddenly began to shift slightly and looking down, I saw her opening her eyes for the first time after she had recovered .
These weren't eyes that a human should have, this was my first impression and thought, she actually had a slit purple irises like the ones that appeared in some lizards and animals back in our previous world, her eyes too were full purple in color .
Seeing her eyes baffled me for a few seconds, the shape of them took me by surprise yes, but this wasn't the reason behind my reaction .
The issue was the tears rolling down on her cheeks and the filled with different kinds of emotions look in those deep eyes of hers, she was shedding tears for some reason as well, so I couldn't help but wonder about what could exactly be on her mind .
Luckily, she didn't let me find the answer myself and said in a bit more or less weeping tone :
I should have said something back then, even if it had costed me gravely, I shouldn't have let them treat you like they did, Sakurai-san, I'm really really sorry for all the troubles that you had to go through due to my own weakness .
So that what this was about, I was able to feel her sincerity and I can't say that at that time I didn't hold a bit of grudge against all those who stood there and watched me get unfair treatment, but my mentality had now been refined throughly with everything that I had witnessed, so I no longer hold that much grudge towards anyone who is weaker than me .
If I had shown enough of my bizarre strength at that time, I might have enjoyed my life at the castle with Hana for a little bit, but then what, both of us would still be sacrificed and be used by the Demons to open the Space Rupture and neither of us would be able to show much resistant no matter how strong we are .
So I indeed felt some bubbling anger when I recalled how I was kicked out of the castle back then, but this only lasted for a fraction of a second before I completely discarded those feelings away, instead I felt a bit of gratitude to everything that led to this current development, as not only it allowed me to experience the ups and downs of this world, but it helped me unlocking some of its secrets as well .
Without these experience, I might have not been able to even see a glimpse of hope in this kind of tight situation, but luckily it did happen and everything led me to where I'm today, a person strong enough to affect the entire situation .
As I realized this, I patted the girl tearing in my arms on the back and said :
" Sora-senpai doesn't need to worry so much, am I not looking fine enough for you, in fact I'm more worried about your current state, how are you faring ? .
It took a few more minutes and a few more comforting words for her to finally calm down, her eyes were still red and she was still laying in my arms with no intention of letting go, but I did hear her muttering something, saying :
To think that you are still alive, Hana will certainly be happy about this, pity, I had no way of contacting her and tell her about such a happy news .
As I heard her say this, my mind was suddenly jolted awake and I couldn't help but ask about what had exactly happened at Troland Kingdom after I had been teleported away, what exactly happened to Hana and her, how come they appeared here and many more questions that I had no way of knowing the answers for before .
After making sure that she was in enough good state to answer my questions, she started to explain on his own, everything that had exactly happened after I disappeared from the battlefield that day .
Starting was what prevented them from even coming to the battlefield in the first place, they were mislead by a decoy and they ended up being appointed to another location across the kingdom and in a town that was opposite to the direction of the battlefield .
Hearing this I couldn't help but ask if whether were the King and the prince stupid enough to do something this reckless, but then she explained to me that these monsters whom they were sent to deal with were all low-level monsters that weren't even worth the trouble and could be dealt with by the normal soldiers .
This was what aroused her suspicions about the true objective of their mission, she also mentioned that she and Hana were able to become quite strong in a short period of time thanks to the resources given by the Royal Family, at this point she become a bit embarrassed at the fact that they were able to enjoy such resources while I didn't .
Once again telling her that I didn't mind in the slightest and that I was actually more than happy for them, ended up in only making her feel even more guilty and she for the first time released me from the hug and circled around the room while saying with a voice full of unmasked envy :
I really envy Hana-san .
Before I even ask what was this about, she continued to explain that they were sent there to that town because they had actually managed to surpass the strength of even the former heroes, their mission was to secure this position and stop all monster raids on this town .
But after they dealt with the low-level monsters that appeared in the vicinity, no more monsters appeared after that, soon they were contacted by the Royal Family and heard that the Monster raid was over .
They both were perplexed by this as it wasn't even a day before the crisis was over, they had previously heard that it took at least a whole week to completely force the monsters to retreat, but nonetheless they thought this was a happy news either way .
Then they returned to the Royal Capital and they were finally told about what happened to me and what I did to end this crisis, the princess had relayed my message to Hana and the latter vowed openly that she will do her best to get stronger and find me no matter how much time it took .
The girl in front of me also vowed secretly to do the same as to repay me for helping her out when we were children, I couldn't help but feel touched by their efforts, but my feelings soon became a bit mixed regarding this, due to hearing what these promises forced them into doing .
After I mysteriously disappeared, they both started to enhance their strength through killing monsters and leveling up, unaware of the fact that they were hastening their own ends by doing this .
With the big growth in their strength, the risk of keeping them around kept increasing and the green Source Energy they can produce also increased, soon they both reached the level of strength and importance that as expected made them get targeted by that damn kingdom .
They were sent on a trip to another kingdom under the rule of a human, the kingdom of dwarves, Terra .
But they were completely oblivious to the fact that a trap was already set for them by King Vouce and one of the heroes from the previous generation, the trap was set in the Kingdom capital inside of an active volcano .
They made another discovery there, the enemies were actually trying to capture them alive without endangering them losing their lives in the slightest, but this wasn't the most shocking discovery they made .
Thanks to how talkative the King of Terra was, they were able to understand that the one behind the trap and the person behind the scenes was actually none other than the crown prince who sent them on this expedition .
Luckily, the two of them managed to escape the encirclement thanks to the fact that they made full use of the fact that these guys were ordered not to endanger their lives, but it was still a journey filled with misery and dangerous troubles .
As even after they managed to escape Terra, they were chased down by their weird artifacts and even after crossing to the other side of the world and them teleporting from one place to another, these guys were still able to find them, until finally they fell into the hands of Kiba Akiho and his uncle teacher Sudo .
She a bit embarrassed to say that they were at fault of getting captured, meeting this two people was also part of the plot that the crown prince had prepared for them, they were approached by the two as fellow earthlings and they confused them with talking about how they misunderstood the prince's intentions .
And even with her warnings to Hana against trusting any words these guys said, Hana told her that whatever that might happen to them will most certainly happen to the two people as well, so that we need to unite to have a chance of saving ourselves .
But soon Sora's worries had finally come true, just as the group of 4 people were about to cross into the next place they already planned to go, the second they passed the teleportation portal, they found their enemies waiting for them and was stabbed in the back by the two guys who they were trying to save .
This ambush resulted in the current turn of events, Sora was hit more aggressively than Hana and was quite in a life-threatening situation, but Hana after managing the escape with her in much a better state, the only problem laid in the fact that no matter what spells or skills she used, she wasn't able to heal Sora .
She was also not willing to part ways with her for the hope of saving herself, no matter how many times Sora asked her to, but this decision doomed the two of them without having a clue .
The power inside the wounds caused by those guys to both of them was actually allowing the enemies to track them no matter how far they went, the enemies finally caught up to them as the two were no longer in any state suitable to fight back .
Sora used the last ounce of strength she had left and making use of Hana lending her some Mana, she summoned her contracted dragon, trying one last, final and desperate attempt to escape, sadly fate and circumstances seemed to have overwhelmed both of them .
The dragon she summoned was unable to support escaping with the two of them on its back in time, the enemies attacks also left them completely vulnerable to crash down in any second at that time .
The attacks kept landing on the two of them and on the dragon, forcing it to maneuver in different ways, if they were both in their peak form, this wouldn't have affected them much, but they were already at their last strings, an attack suddenly crashed into the tail of the dragon they were on .
Instantly turning the situation into becoming even more desperate than before, not only one of the wings of the dragon was damaged, but she herself lost balance and almost got thrown off its back, if not for the timed rescue of Hana .
But the dragon was no longer able to support the weight on it not to mention the altitude, it not only kept losing its ability to fly upward but it was even going down on an alarming rate .
Sora was clear about the fact that if we continued to remain like this, they would both be captured by the enemies, so Sora decided to take a risk, she let go of Hana's hand and allowed herself to get capture while giving the dragon one last push to accelerate its flying speed even for just a few seconds and she ended up getting captured and brought to this land .
When she woke up she was met with the harsh treatment of Devo and his subordinates and wished that they had just left her to die, the only thing she kept comforting herself with was telling herself that at least for the sake of the debt she owed me, she let Hana survive as I would have very much wished .