Free Web NovelChapter 5: When the Sky Answered Her
To Maeve’s surprise, the back of the settlement was not particularly special. She had thought there would be an emergency building or something, but the only things she saw there were residential huts, just like in the other parts of the settlement.
But when she looked more carefully, she noticed something else. There was a clean path just outside the settlement, marked only by simple wooden stakes. It looked like it led somewhere safer.
"Leader Ikarus, are we going to leave our home?!" asked the old man who had knelt earlier when Maeve arrived.
Ikarus gently set Maeve down on the ground before answering, "I don’t know yet. We have to wait for Cerus’s signal."
"Leader Cerus will definitely be able to wipe out the Cindermaws, right?" asked one of the female aliens.
"Of course, he can! He has never lost a battle!"
"Yes! Yes! He will definitely be able to wipe out the Cindermaws and save our home!"
Everyone cheered and tried their best to stay positive, but someone suddenly broke the mood by saying, "Defeating the Cindermaws is one thing... but what about the forest fire? Leader Axan is trying to fix the shield, but we all know it’s getting weaker."
Maeve blinked, feeling confused. Honestly, what shield? She still couldn’t see anything.
"We can’t lose hope yet," Ikarus said firmly. Everyone who had lowered their heads slowly straightened up again. "I know things look bad right now. But isn’t there at least one good thing that happened today?"
Almost at the same time, all of them turned to look at Maeve.
The way they stared at her made her freeze because it felt like being surrounded by a group of giant, overly excited puppies.
Maeve swallowed hard because being looked at by a bunch of tall aliens like this was not something she was used to, after all.
She was actually quite tall—in her world, of course—with a height of around 1.75 meters, but compared to aliens who were on average more than two meters tall, she looked like a dwarf.
She used to struggle to find a tall guy to date. Now? She just had to open her eyes, and there were dozens of them.
"Leader Ikarus is right!" someone said excitedly. "Today, we summoned a beautiful heavenly being!" freēwēbnovel.com
Maeve nearly choked on her own saliva.
Heavenly being again?!
"If we lose our hope now, then our Goddess will suffer!"
"We are the ones who summoned her, so we have to try our best to protect her!"
"Let’s not die today!" freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Maeve was flabbergasted because all of these people suddenly gained a strong will to live just because of her. Their gazes, which had previously been filled with despair, had now been replaced with determination.
"Leader! Leader Ikarus!" someone shouted as he ran from afar. He was running so fast that he almost tripped over his own feet. His chest rose and fell sharply, and his face was filled with urgency.
"T-The invisible shield... we can’t fix it anymore!" he said, his voice shaking. "Leader Axan has tried his best, but the Voryn Stones are already too badly cracked."
Ikarus clenched his jaw. "Where is Axan?"
The man swallowed nervously before answering, "Leader Axan is still trying to hold the shield together using his Aether energy."
"His body won’t be able to hold the cracked shield for too long." Ikarus clicked his tongue and looked at the sky. "Why hasn’t Cerus given a signal yet?"
Maeve’s frown deepened because she didn’t understand any of these terms at all.
[Ding! Ding!]
[Pinky’s Dictionary comes to rescue Host!]
[Aether Energy: A natural energy that exists in this world. It flows through the air, the land, and all living beings. It can be used to power abilities such as shields, healing, and combat skills.]
[Current Status: The Aether around the settlement is unstable.]
Maeve was still a little confused, but for now, she chose to think of it as magic.
"If the shield breaks, then our settlement will be burned by the fire right away," one of them murmured.
"The water outside the settlement is drying up. I don’t think we have enough to put out the fire."
"You’re right... We’re even struggling to find meat now. The animals are dying."
Wait, what?
They were struggling to find meat, but earlier, they had served her so much of it.
Maeve gasped and covered her mouth with both hands as she realized something.
’Did they give me their last meal?!’
Before she could think further, something suddenly startled her.
BOOM!
Maeve flinched and quickly covered her ears when she heard another explosion. But instead of flames, it looked like a burst of smoke. When she looked up, she saw green smoke shooting into the sky, followed by red smoke.
"What’s... that?" Maeve murmured.
Beside her, Ikarus let out a low growl. His fists tightened as he stared at the sky. "Cerus gave the signal," he said. "He defeated the Cindermaws, but the fire can not be stopped."
He then looked at the man who had been running earlier. "Tell Axan to abandon the shield. We’re leaving this settlement."
"No!" Maeve quickly covered her mouth when she accidentally spoke her thoughts out loud.
Ikarus and the other blue-skinned people turned to look at her, making her so nervous that a chill ran down her back.
Before anyone could speak, she hurried to explain, "I-I mean... it’s just... it feels like a waste to leave your home like this."
To be honest, she didn’t even understand why she cared whether their settlement would burn or not. After all, she didn’t have any emotional connection to this place.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t feel sympathy for them, especially since they had given her their last meal.
The thought of them walking away from a place they had lived in for so long, with nothing but the clothes on their backs, made her chest feel hurt. They didn’t even have time to pack anything.
"Yes... I don’t like this either," Ikarus said at last. He looked a little surprised that she had spoken up. "But we don’t have a choice, unless rain falls on this land."
Maeve went silent. Slowly, she lifted her head and looked up at the clear blue sky. The sun was bright, and there wasn’t a single cloud in sight.
She let out a small sigh and thought without meaning to, ’If only I could summon rain...’
ZAAAPP!!
A sudden bolt of lightning suddenly struck from the sky, hitting the ground about a hundred meters away from her.
Her eyes widened so much that she felt like they might pop out of their sockets.
"Look! The sky! It’s getting darker!" someone shouted.
"The Sky Mother must have blessed us!"
"Wait, what if the rain is coming because our Goddess is protecting us?!"
They all turned to look at Maeve again, while she could only stare at the sky with her mouth slightly open.
Did she... did she truly just summon rain?!
