Goddess of Ocean Currents

Heather's eyes lit up as soon as she saw Fran emerge from the purple door, as if she had won something and was showing it off to her companions.

Valerie, rubbing her forehead, said helplessly:

"Alright, Your Highness, you win."

Heather then pointed happily at Fran and said:

"So you're not going to stop me from fighting her, are you?"

"Your Highness, I always keep my promises. Now that you've won the bet, I have no reason to stop you."

Valerie looked at Fran, her eyes full of curiosity—curious that someone would actually dare to come here and steal.

Moreover, they didn't steal anything, only some weapons and equipment. The best thing they had was the Purple Shortsword. She couldn't understand their thought process at all.

If they really wanted to rob someone here, shouldn't they have gone to the treasury of the Emerald Market? That place is full of Spirit Crystal; if they could just steal a few tons, they'd be set for life.

But she never expected that the other party would only take this little bit of stuff, and it seemed they were already preparing to leave.

Putting aside Fran's abstract behavior, she looked at Heather, Heather had previously bet her that there would definitely be a thief coming out here.

At the time, she mocked:

"How could anyone have gotten here? Although the stone statues are cracked, I think it must have been some kind of large-scale attack, right?"

"How could anyone possibly come here specifically to snatch those auction items?"

Now she has seen it.

As for Heather's reward for winning the bet, which was the permission to fight the potential thief, Heather said the following:

"That despicable thief must have stolen my short Short Sword. I'm getting it back, and you're not allowed to stop me."

This was no big deal for her. Everyone knows that even if someone dies in the Spirit Realm, it won't really harm their Material Realm body, which is why she felt comfortable letting Heather act.

"Hey, how about you give me that Purple Shortsword and I'll let you go?" Heather suggested.

Fran would never agree. The reason she risked coming here was to retrieve her weapon. If she didn't want it, she would have left long ago. Why would she come here at all?

Ignoring Heather and the others' thoughts, she activated her special ability [Mental Power], channeling her mental energy into her physical constitution, and then kicked off with her hind leg, running away.

Heather heard only a series of hurried footsteps, followed by a cloud of dust, and then, as she prepared for battle, the footsteps faded into the distance.

"Don't run!!"

Fran didn't want to pay any attention. The Lord of Radiance had told her that it would be best to come out within ten minutes, and five minutes had already passed, so of course she wasn't going to stop.

She glanced at the distance between the barrier and herself. She could reach it in just one minute if she ran, but some people didn't want her to have her way.

A pale blue Radiance shot to Fran's side. Although it didn't hit Fran, Fran still pushed off to the right with all her might.

A violent explosion occurred where the beam struck, and the aftershocks slightly reached Fran was outside the area of effect.

Fran was thrown off balance by the force of the explosion, but she quickly regained her balance using her Elven Swordsmanship and landed steadily on her feet.

As she tried to ignore the two men's attacks and continue running out of the barrier, she suddenly discovered something that surprised her greatly: the two men were standing right in front of her.

She looked at the woman next to Heather, who was holding Heather and bursting forth with a speed far exceeding Fran's, arriving in front of Fran.

It was only then that Fran realized she had misjudged the situation; she had assumed the other person was also a Priest, wearing the same Bishop Robe as Bishop Gillian.

No matter what, a second-tier Priest's physique could never catch up with Fran, who had over twenty points of physique after being empowered by Mental Power. Therefore, Fran's initial strategy was to simply run away.

However, she never expected that her opponent was not Priest, but Profession similar to Church Warrior, which meant she had no physical advantage.

This means she has to change her strategy. Since she can't escape from the opponent, she should return to the area where mages excel and use spells to directly repel them.

Fran took a deep breath and then channeled [Elemental Radiance] directly into her palm. She put several of the weapons she was carrying on the ground to avoid being hindered in the upcoming battle.

Her Spell Ring hadn't been processed by the Spirit Realm, so she currently didn't have any Spell Ring on her. Otherwise, she could have simply used Shield Spell to rush out of the barrier without any problems.

Seeing Fran get into a fighting stance, Heather was immediately delighted. She broke free from Fran's grasp and began channeling her divine magic.

Since Fran started the channeling, Fran successfully channeled her second-tier spell [Elemental Radiance], but this spell was a support spell.

So even though Fran had cast her spell first, it was Heather launched the first attack.

A pale blue Radiance appeared on Heather's hand, and after being guided, this Radiance spread directly to Heather's entire body, draping Heather in a blue veil.

Heather didn't stop what she was doing. After completing the divine spell, she placed her right palm against the side of her left hand, then aimed at Fran and slid her right hand along the direction of her fingers.

A beam of blue light shot out from Heather's palm, whizzing through the air and striking Fran.

When Fran saw the familiar pale blue beam of light, she was reminded of the explosion that had just attacked her.

The opponent's strength is clearly not what a normal First Order Profession should have; he is much stronger than a normal First Order Profession.

When that beam of light exploded, Fran knew why her opponent was stronger than a normal First Order Profession.

Because those pale blue lights had some fluctuations that Fran was very familiar with; they were the Radiance that Fran had obtained from the Lord of Radiance during her Trial in the Spirit Realm.

Those Radiance emitted similar fluctuations, making the other party's identity quite obvious.

The other party is either Proxy of a god like her, or someone in a special position within the Goddess of Ocean Currents organization.

In any case, the other person's identity must be extremely extraordinary.

Now Fran is curious whether there are any limitations to the opponent's use of such an attack, even though this attack is not as powerful as the Fran used when attacking the Wyvern.

But she was still very curious; it seemed like the other person was just throwing it at her regardless of whether they could hit her or not, as if there were no restrictions whatsoever.

Was it because the Goddess of Ocean Currents wielded too much power in the Material Realm that she could use such power without limit? Fran wondered.

Facing the beam of light shooting towards her, Fran dodged the attack by tilting her head to the side, but she knew that the beam would explode.

Heather revealed a cunning expression. With a flick of her finger, the beam of light that had flown behind Fran exploded. That's right, Heather could directly control the explosion of this beam of light.

In her past battles, even if her opponents knew this mechanic, they had no way to deal with it, because she could throw out three beams of light at once, leaving them with no way to dodge.

Heather's divine spells were too powerful when everyone was at the First Order and had little mobility.

But Fran was not afraid at all. After the [Hardened Scale Rock] behind her shattered into only a thin layer, the impact of the explosion sent her flying forward.

Fran gripped the Purple Shortsword directly, without using the runes on it, and instead used Sunflame.

The red light covered the amethyst, but did not completely cover the purple hue. At the same time, Fran, in mid-air, smashed straight at her opponent with a speed that Heather could not react to.

Fran's [Elemental Radiance] just now converted into Wind Element, not Fire Element.

Because she was ready to run away at any moment, if she was left here by these two, nothing would happen in the Material Realm, but she might lose all the things she had.

She also has a Arts called [Gale Swordsmanship], which involves covering her Short Sword sword with Sunflame and then using Swift Wind Slash.

With the support of the surrounding active Wind Element and Fran's [Wind Walker] trait, this Combat Technique unleashed a speed much faster than Fran's previous escape.

At this speed, not only Heather but also her companion beside her didn't have time to react and could only watch as a streak of red light hurtled towards Heather.

Fran swung her Short Sword just before she reached Heather.

"Hmm? Why does it feel like this?" Fran sensed something was wrong.

But the usual slicing, tofu-like texture of the Sunflame was absent. Fran swung her sword and slashed at Heather's arm. Just as she severed the arm and the blade cut into her side, Heather moved.

Heather jumped back and looked at the smooth cut surface of her arm, which was protected by a layer of pale blue Radiance.

"It actually managed to break through my divine magic defense." Heather was very surprised. This was the first time she had ever seen an attack that could break through her defense so quickly. Even her companions next to her could not do this easily.

"The Sunflame was actually blocked." Fran was quite frustrated; this was the first time she had ever seen such an effect achieved after using Sunflame.

Even in the previous battle at the Northern Territory Pass, although she didn't cut off Connor's flesh with her Sunflame, the burning effect of the Sunflame alone was enough to cause him internal injuries.

However, Heather was currently naked, and Sunflame couldn't break through her defenses.

"Hey, just you wait!!" Heather seemed to have had her arm severed by Fran, and felt she had lost this round of combat; her face was full of anger.

Then, Heather made a gesture that Fran couldn't understand: she placed her unbroken hand in front of her chest, and a flash of blue light appeared from her chest.

At this moment, Fran felt a very familiar sensation, as if she were facing the stars, the sensation of Fran activating her Star Gazing Art.

"What's going on?!"

The scene before Fran's eyes flickered between darkness and light, and when she could see clearly again, she was presented with an endless sea, and on the sea...

Goddess of Ocean Currents!!!