About thirty minutes later...
The team now followed Silah at a cautious pace up a sloping pathway onto the caldera with a cluster of noble mansions just over a ledge below them.
As the three women warily observed the woman saunter at an almost purposefully slow pace.
Almost as if...she was doing it just to get on their every last nerve!
Only for Silah to suddenly pause in her walk with her lifeless doll immediately halting in unison with her.
Zoi, Azula and Ty Lee stared questioningly at the woman with their young friend padding to a stop beside them.
And that was when their ears picked up the sound of voices in a mansion below while they watched Silah turn to glance down at the estate with oddly fixated dark green eyes.
"But, Father...do we really have to say the pledge before dinner?" A boy's voice asked almost as if in annoyance.
The team listened as they gazed at Silah with taken aback expressions in their eyes as they watched her stare down in bizarre interest at the estate below.
"And is it really necessary to have the Fire Lord's portrait on the wall?" A young girl's voice questioned soon afterward.
"Of course, it's necessary! You should consider yourself lucky that the nobles aren't home right now to hear you talking like that. Do you have any idea how fortunate we are as commoners to have a place in Hari Bulkan as servants in this household? Now, I don't want to ever hear you say anything like that again!" The voice of a man called out in a voice of paternal discipline.
Azula stood with her frigid amber golden eyes gazing down coldly at the estate below.
Only to gaze out of the corner of her eye at the puppeteer's pale face as the woman still listened closely.
'Why is this woman so interested in the dinner conversation of a family of servants?' Azula thought with her rigid amber golden eyes staring at her enemy in consideration.
As the two noblewomen still gazed back at the woman with bewildered looks in their eyes.
And the handmaid stood before her noble friends with her amber eyes gazing down at the estate in confusion.
"Yes, Father." The two children agreed in a voice of unified obedience as their voices carried out the window.
"Now, say the pledge." The father commanded in a voice of boundless nationalism that flowed throughout the window.
The hunter still glanced down with a chilling gaze in her dark green eyes as her lips creased into a scowl.
"My life I give to my country. With my hands I fight for Fire Lord Ozai, and our forefathers before him. With my mind I seek ways to better my country. And with my feet may our March of Civilization continue." The family chanted in near perfect sync as their voices traveled into the air throughout the window.
Team Azula listened with their eyes gazing at the puppeteer in bafflement only to take notice that her gaze now expression of unfathomable contempt.
And then Silah let out a disgusted sneer as she turned to resume her walk up the pathway while the four continued to follow after her in confusion.
"How pathetic. What a bunch of insignificant worms. They are nothing more than indoctrinated drones...with little more personality than my puppets...utterly without any semblance of individual thoughts of their own." Silah ranted under her breath in a disdainful voice as she walked with the princess now glaring in fury at her back.
Zoi and Ty Lee found themselves gazing on in anger in defense of the way that the family was being debased as if they were subhuman!
And Elle could only stare on with a taken aback emotion in her eyes as she struggled to understand why the woman was so hateful.
"How I abhor this shithole of a nation. This land...is completely and absolutely devoid of all concepts of creativity. There is nothing of artistic value to be found here...there is no imagination. It's culture...banal and uninspiring. It's people...no more than inculcated machines in the name of 'unity' who cannot even think for themselves without the Royal Family telling them where to go. A culture devoid of individuality can only be one thing and that is worthless." Silah spoke in a strikingly scathing voice that was laced with unfathomable derision as a scowl graced her pale lips.
The three highborn women listened to the monstrous woman's rant with stunned expressions in their eyes.
Azula's amber golden eyes had long since narrowed into slits as she exhaled fire from her fed up lips.
"How dare you talk about my nation in such a manner! The Fire Nation is the peak of the world." Azula barked with her royal wrath seeping from her outraged voice as her callous amber golden eyes nearly exploded from her eye sockets.
And the serving girl trudged along beside her mistress with her bewildered eyes still gazing at the woman in puzzlement.
Only for another ridiculing laugh to resound into the air as the pale woman turned to smirk tauntingly back at the princess's pridefully glaring face.
Zoi too glared back with her stony golden eyes greatly angered by the way that the woman described her fellows as if they were worms!
And that was all it took for Ty Lee to shiver once more under the puppeteer's frightening predatory stare.
"The peak of the world, Azula? Don't make me laugh. If anything is the peak of this world it is my citadel. My inventions greatly exceed that of even the best war machines that the Fire Nation has to offer." Silah responded in a denigrating voice as she sneered back into the princess's lividly glowering eyes.
"Oh, please. Your inventions are nothing more than corpses dressed up as toys." Azula hissed back with rivaling hatred in her sophisticated voice with a hand waving in the direction of the corpse standing behind the woman.
Only for her amber golden eyes to form yet another piercing stare as she refused to give in to the other immortal woman's efforts to dominate her.
Elle stood beside her noble friends as the three stared warily back at the woman's chuckling face.
"And not only that...but I saw with my own eyes that the technology that those soldiers possessed from beyond the gateway vastly eclipses what your nation considers the march of civilization." Silah stated in a deliciously odium filled voice with her dark green eyes enjoying the way that the young woman's eyes bubbled over in even greater fury.
As the three highborn women stared on with their eyes flashing in realization that the demented woman had been scoping out their encounter with the foreign soldiers!
"Riddle me this, Azula. If you have three piles of shit. And one pile of shit has a marginally less noxious odor than the other two piles of shit. Is it still shit, or is it gold?" Silah inquired with a voice of cold-blooded cruelty as she smiled back at the princess's indignantly reddening face.
The amber golden eyes of the princess simply brimmed with unimaginable rage as she met the ever-predatory stare of the far older woman's perverse dark green eyes.
Zoi gritted her teeth as she glared on with the patience in her eyes having long since faded away.
And Ty Lee could only shudder once more as she tried not to gaze back into the woman's terrifying eyes.
Elle could only find herself stunned by the immense contempt that the woman held for everything around her.
And yet once more...
Despite knowing how black her heart was.
She could still feel an intense loneliness radiating from the core of the woman's very being.
Only for Silah to let out another bored sigh with her clothed fingers trailing through her almost angelic hair as her gaze briefly met the captain's infuriated own.
"Honestly, Zoi. I have to give you credit where credit is due. At least you have a spark of imagination...enough so to create your revolutionary retroactive firebending technique. Which is more than I can say for the rest of the people in this nation." Silah commented in a cold voice as she stared back into the noblewoman's now mildly surprised eyes.
Azula and Ty Lee stared on in disbelief to hear the monstrous woman 'compliment' the captain.
"That and you are one of the only people that I have seen in this nation to proudly abstain from wearing that stupid top-knot. In that regard...you have my admiration...slightly." Silah stated in a pensive voice as she turned to resume her walk while the captain gazed on with taken aback golden eyes.
Azula still glared on with infuriated amber golden eyes after the woman's back as she resumed striding after her.
'This walk, with this freak...had better yield valuable information! Because if it doesn't, I really will kill her!' Azula thought with her icy amber golden eyes glaring on ahead while her sighing subordinates followed after her.
She kept a close watch out of the corner of her eye at her pet's pretty face as the young girl walked beside her.
"Sometimes I wonder...if the man who gave birth to me was as pathetic as the rest of the people of this nation." Silah muttered in a strangely reflective voice as she walked with her dark green eyes gazing in contemplation ahead.
And just like that the three highborn women halted as they shared an astonished look with each other.
"Y-your father.... was a Fire Nation man?" Elle asked in a kinder voice than that of her friends while she stared at the woman's silver flowing hair.
"He was. I never met him though. He abandoned me." Silah replied in an impassive voice as she walked with her emotionless eyes staring onward as the girl hastened her pace.
Team Azula gazed on with wary looks in their eyes in disapproval over their young friend's attempts to show the evil woman sympathy.
"I-I...am sorry to hear that. What...what about your mother?" Elle questioned in an uncertain voice as she padded along beside the woman while her highborn friends listened cautiously.
Only for the trio to instantly take notice of the woman's stiffening posture at the mere mention of her mother.
"She.... was a very famous Earth Kingdom woman. She abandoned me too. But she chose to keep my sister." Silah spoke in a darkened voice as she walked with her gloved hands at her hips while the young girl listened in sorrow.
The eyes of the Fire Nation women gazed on in realization as they shared another glance with one another.
'Her father was a Fire National and her mother...an Earth National?' Azula thought with her frigid amber golden eyes gazing on in deliberation as she furrowed her brows in mild interest.
Although she couldn't be too surprised.
If the woman was an old as she truly claimed...
She would have been born nearly a hundred years before the war had even begun!
"O-oh...that's horrible. I...I know your pain, Silah." Elle stammered as she in a mousy voice as she padded along while the woman's dark green eyes shimmered with curiosity as she turned to gaze down at her.
The three highborn women gazed on with unnerved expressions in their eyes as they watched the spark of fondness in the woman's eerie eyes grow once more.
"You do?" Silah asked in an unusually quieted voice as she gazed down at the girl's saddened face.
"W-when I was five years old...my parents and my entire village were killed by soldiers. I...was one of the only survivors." Elle mumbled with her sorrowful eyes gazing down at her feet while her friends listened in a sympathetic silence.
Silah's dark green eyes reflected a peculiar gleam of liking as she stared down at the young girl.
"I see. So, you grew up as an orphan too." Silah stated in a composed voice as she walked beside the girl while she ignored the glares of her enemies on her back.
"I-I...I did. But I was able to eventually find a place where I belonged.... here with Azula-sama and the others. Maybe...maybe you can find that too? Maybe...there is a place for you out in this world?" Elle suggested in an innocent voice as she stared up at the woman's pale face as she frowned over her.
The princess made no effort to hide her snort of laughter underneath her curled up fist.
'Yes, dear. I am certain that there is someone out there just waiting to love this monster.' Azula mused with a cruel roll of her eyes as she still watched her serving girl closely.
All the while as Zoi and Ty Lee gazed on grimly in mutual agreement.
"In another time...I once.... had such a bond with Mava. She...was my closest companion...and she.... meant more to me than anything in this world." Silah admitted in an unusually hesitant voice with her dark green eyes gazing ahead as if in reminiscence while the young girl listened in a surprised silence.
The three highborn women gazed on with expressions of rekindled astonishment in their eyes as they recalled Mava's words.
We were.... close companions once you and I.... before you abandoned me and left me behind bleeding out in this tree.
And they once again realized that in the past there was once a bond between their new ally and their despised enemy that hasn't been explained to them.
"P-perhaps...there is a possibility that you and Mava can reconcile your bond and regain whatever it is that you two once had?" Elle pondered in a naïve but well-intentioned voice while her three highborn friends listened in uncertainty.
She gazed up at the far older woman as she took notice of a momentary flicker of something akin to wanting in Silah's eyes.
As Azula glared at the back of her girlfriend's head with a stare of aggravation in her callous amber golden eyes.
Only for Silah to shake her head as a bitter laugh escaped her lips.
"No, child. There is not. That bond has long since destroyed by the sands of time...and besides..." Silah replied in a near emotionless voice as she walked while the young girl gazed down in sadness.
The three aristocrats gazed at one another as they continued to follow after their young companion and the murderous woman.
"In my two hundred and one years of life have researched every library...scoured every ruin...and explored every corner of the globe. I have long since surpassed the four nations. There is nothing of worth to me here anymore. This world...has nothing further to offer me." Silah spoke in a return to her profoundly arrogant voice as she held her head high while the girl stared up at her in amazement.
And for as much as Team Azula hated the woman.
They could only stare back at the woman's ageless face in marvelment over what it must be like to have lived for so long that the entire world had nothing to show her!
"However, perhaps...if not this world. Perhaps...another will have more to offer me." Silah commented in a voice of heavy deliberation while her dark green eyes gleamed with a yearning to explore the new avenues that another land would provide her.
And just then in that exact moment...
The Fire Nation women stared at the back of the woman's silver head with their eyes expressing their alarm once more.
'Under no conditions can we allow this monster...to traverse over into Elle's homeland!' Zoi thought with her golden eyes gazing back at Silah in revulsion.
"A-another? Do you mean...." Elle queried in a puzzled voice as she listened to her friends hurry up behind her.
Only to find herself squeaking when she felt her princess yank her back by the collar of her shirt.
She peered up into cold amber golden eyes as she trembled pleasantly under the woman's strict gaze.
As the team stared with narrowed eyes back at the puppeteer's almost lustful face as she gazed up into the distant sunlit sky over the caldera rim.
"I sensed many great powers out there beyond the gateway that rivaled the two dragons in strength." Silah stated in a wistful voice with her hair blowing in the wind behind her as a smile pulled onto her lips.
Team Azula stared on with astonishment in their eyes as the woman continued to gaze up into the sky.
"Y-you mean...the Apostles?" Elle pondered in a timid voice as she stared up at the woman's growing smile.
As Zoi and Azula exchanged a fascinated look to learn that the woman was able to sense their battles from beyond the gateway!
"Is that what they are called? There was one among them...who was a juggernaut above them all." Silah questioned in a voice of unquenchable curiosity while her chilling eyes gazed in excitement up into the sky.
The two firebenders gazed flashed with prideful stares once more as they glared on in recognition.
As Ty Lee stood in a state of fascination behind the two over the revelation that the emperor's power was so vast that it had been felt from an entire world away!
"Y-you felt her power from that far away?" Elle stammered in a stunned voice as the woman's smirk grew even larger.
"I did, child. Tell me about this woman that almost killed the two dragons." Silah demanded in a voice of insatiable hunger with her dark green eyes expressing a hunting gaze.
As the two firebenders spun around to gaze in outrage back at the woman's pale smirking face.
"She did not almost kill us. She merely had an elemental advantage and nothing more." Azula protested with boundless pride in her royal voice as she glared back at her enemy's smiling face.
"W-well her name is Reiko...she's the ruler of the...of the United World Empire. She's.... she's widely believed to be the strongest person in my entire world." Elle explained in a mousy voice while her highborn friends listened in begrudging fascination.
And just like that.
Azula and Zoi stared back at the puppeteer as their eyes widened as they watched a desire to hunt and kill the emperor begin to burn in the woman's eyes.
"The United World Empire? Is that so? So that's her name. It was enormous...even by my standards. It was positively gargantuan." Silah remarked in a highly engrossed voice with her eyes gazing up into the looming sky.
While expressions of astoundment came over the eyes of Team Azula as they listened to the way that Silah spoke of Reiko.
Almost as if...she was stronger than her!
"I-it...was that big?" Elle asked in a taken aback voice while her firebender friends scowled from behind her.
Silah still stood with her pale lips forming into a perverse smirk.
"It was far greater than that of any Fire Lord that I have ever met in my two hundred, and one years of life. It was everything that the Fire Lords have always claimed to be and so much more." Silah admitted in an uncanny fixation while her dark green eyes lit up with excitement while the team listened in disbelief.
The princess and her captain gazed on with their eyes expressing their incredulity as they clenched their fists at their sides once more.
'Stronger.... than all of the Fire Lords to come in the last two hundred years?' Azula thought with her imperious amber golden eyes staring coldly forward in a strange sense of aggravation.
And yet at the same time...
She felt her bending burn even brighter within her at the prospect of she herself being that much stronger than her ancestors!
"This titan...may even be stronger than me." Silah stated in a voice of obsessive absorption with her clothed hand raising up before her face while the four stood in shock behind her.
As the two firebenders gazed on with a similar amazement in their eyes over what this would mean for their coming battles with both the puppeteer and the emperor.
"I feel...as if this is what I have been waiting for over a hundred years. I have been searching painstakingly for a new artistic direction under which I could grow... waiting to find someone out there who could provide me that. The Fire Lords could never give that to me. They have never been worthy opponents." Silah lamented in an unnaturally sanguine voice as her lips adorned a vicious smile.
The three highborn women and their young friend stood behind their eerie enemy with their eyes still gazing back at the woman in rising alertness.
As the princess's amber golden eyes began to boil over with the infernos of war at the mere mention of the Fire Lords as being unworthy!
"You have some gall to call my great ancestors' unworthy opponents." Azula remarked in a venomous voice with her callous eye glaring back at the woman's smirking face as she turned to glance back at her.
"Any ruler can command an army but few are a force to be reckoned with absent their armada. A true worthy opponent is one who is an army onto themselves." Silah responded in a voice of twisted wisdom as she pointed a gloved finger back at the princess's coldly composed face.
"A-and you...feel as if Reiko is what you have been waiting for?" Elle inquired in a naively fascinated voice while her mistress glowered from over her shoulder.
"She may...only time will tell." Silah answered in a softer voice with her dark green eyes peering up at the sky over the caldera rim once more as if deep in thought.
The Fire Nation women exchanged a look of endless distrust as they never took their eyes off the woman's flowing silver hair.
Just as the puppeteer turned to gaze over her shoulder at the two firebenders with a rising smile on her terrifying lips.
While the two prideful warriors glared back into the woman's predatory eyes with gazes burning in defiance.
"You two have no idea how long I have languished to meet an equal. It has been an arduous two hundred and one years. After Sozin killed Roku. And after the passing of the Great Comet. There were no worthy opponents for me to fight. Without the Avatar around... and without Mava by my side...things had...become tedious. I waited for so long...for decade after decade hoping that a worthy opponent would show. I had almost begun to think that no one would show..." Silah complained in a scarily engrossing voice with her monstrous eyes staring back into her two enemies stunned faces.
The four could only stand there in a state of shock as they gazed unnervingly back at the woman's pale face.
"That is...until I met Jaran." Silah commented with satisfaction lacing her voice as she turned to smirk over her shoulder at the face of the lifeless warrior king.
The acrobat and the handmaid shuddered as they stared at the eerie face of the corpse in unsettlement.
As the princess and her captain stared back at the puppet with understanding in their eyes.
"J-Jaran...who...is he?" Elle asked in a grimly curious voice as she gazed up at the woman's almost reminiscent face as dark green eyes glanced down at her.
Zoi glared at the puppeteer with her golden eyes reflecting a still present fury over the woman triumphing after her defeat.
"He was the 51st Earth King, and unlike all of the feeble kings and queens to come before him. He was a powerful warrior and one of the mightiest earthbenders to ever walk this earth. At least...until he ran afoul with me." Silah answered in remorseless voice with her predatory eyes gazing down at the young girl's amazed yet disturbed face.
Azula and Ty Lee gazed at Zoi's infuriated face with expressions of wonder in their eyes.
"Y-you...killed me...and turned him into a puppet." Elle stated in a disturbed voice while the woman shrugged her shoulders in an uncaring manner.
"I did. But he was going to die anyway. For all his might... he didn't have the political acumen to repair his own deeply corrupt country. He was a hopelessly honorable sort. He was provoked into embarking on a suicidal quest for revenge after Azula's father arranged the assassination of his pregnant beloved wife." Silah explained in an offhand voice as Elle's amber eyes widened in sadness.
Before the girl turned to gaze back at her princess's stony face as she let out an annoyed sigh.
"Your...father did that, Azula-sama?" Elle inquired in a saddened tone as she bit her lip while her gaze reflected a significantly loss of respect for the man in question.
"He did, Elle...how many times must I tell you that war is not without its casualties?" Azula stated in a regally dignified voice with her possessive amber golden eyes staring back at her girlfriend's still glum face.
The gazes of Zoi and Ty Lee also reflected that of a bothered gleam over the girl's sorrow for the fallen man.
"Poor Jaran..." Elle mumbled in a tone of pity while her amber eyes once more passed over the man's departed face.
Before she gazed up at the face of Silah once more as the woman turned to stare up into the sunlit sky.
And yet despite how evil the woman was.
He still couldn't help but sympathize with her.
"Azula...Zoi...for what it's worth. I want you both to know that you awoke something within me on that day in that cavern. Something...that I had not felt since my battle with Jaran." Silah spoke in a darkly introspective voice as she turned to face the two glaring women.
Her pale lips began to curve into a wicked smirk as the two highborn women stared proudly back at her.
And Ty Lee felt herself shiver once more over the predating gleam in the woman's eyes.
Only for the three Fire Nation women to gaze on with unnerving curiosity in their eyes as the deranged woman held a gloved fist before her face.
"What did we awake within you?" Zoi questioned with a stony edge to her voice as she stared coldly back at the woman that she loathed.
"The thrill of mortal combat!" Silah exclaimed with her gloved fingers curling before her face while her dark green eyes took on an excited shimmer while the two firebenders listened in speechlessness.
The four members of Team Azula could only gaze back at the woman's increasingly psychotic face in disbelief as they processed what they had just been told.
"You made my adrenaline rush. You made my heart skip with the arousal of battle. Gazing into your flames as you both fought for your lives made me feel alive. I can only hope that I was able to give you ladies a fraction of the pleasure that you gave me." Silah declared in a frighteningly eager voice with a wicked smirk pulling onto her lips while the four listened in disbelief.
And that was all it took for yet another creepy breeze to sweep through the hair of Team Azula.
What had been a harrowing experience of terror and paranoia for them had been joy for her!
Even Azula herself was stunned by the woman's declaration.
At the same time the princess couldn't help but stare with a prideful flicker in her eyes over being told that she made the woman's adrenaline rush.
The mighty captain stared on with a sense of captivation in her eyes.
She would have never thought that there would be anything that she would have in common with this beast.
And yet...
There was no denying that they both sought out the thrill of battle!
That didn't matter in comparison to the countless lives of her fellow Fire Nationals that the demented woman has taken for no other reason than pleasure!
And just like that steam began to emit from her powerful muscles as her comrades turned to gaze at her with alert looks in their eyes.
"You bitch! You slaughtered my soldiers! I had to pay a visit with funeral flowers to the mother of one of the soldiers that you slew for sport! And now I don't even know if she is okay after all of the chaos that has overtaken Shung Wu!" Zoi shouted in a vengeful voice with her golden eyes forming slits as she glared back into the woman's heartless eyes.
Ty Lee scowled back at the sadistically smirking woman with disgust flashing before her brown-gray eyes once again.
'I can't believe it! A-all we did was excite her, and made her want to terrorize us even more!' Ty Lee thought with horror taking over her frightened eyes as she shuddered over the woman's monstrous smirk.
As Elle recoiled with a horrified expression in her amber eyes while her princess glared on from over her shoulder.
"C-chaos in Shung Wu? What...what happened in Shung Wu since we left?" Elle queried in a fretful voice as her highborn friends gazed on with discomfort in their eyes.
"It was on that day that I realized that unlike the Fire Lords of old...you two have the mark of ascendants in your veins. You are both worthy prey...worthy of the hunt." Silah informed in spine-chillingly fixated voice with her gloved fist clenching before her face.
Azula and Zoi's malefic eyes sparked with something akin to pride over being told once more that they had the potential for ascendancy.
As Ty Lee and Elle listened with looks of marvel in their eyes as they gazed back at the two firebenders in fascination.
"You've got it backwards, Silah. You're the one who is my prey." Azula hissed in a voice of limitless royal wrath with her amber golden eyes narrowing like that of a glare of a dragon back at the woman's smirking visage.
And then the woman turned away with a smirk still on her lips as she gazed up into the sunny sky.
The three highborn women watched with hatred in their eyes as something similar to a content smile formed onto her lips.
"And you, child...in a way I suppose I ought to thank you for revitalizing me. Your very existence in this world has galvanized me more than ever before." Silah announced in an eerily entrancing voice as she turned to glance down at the young girl's amusingly confused face.
While the three aristocrats now found themselves staring on with horror in their widening eyes to hear that their companion was inadvertently inspiring this monster to live.
"H-huh? I...I revitalized you? But we've...only recently just met?" Elle asked in an innocently befuddled voice as she watched Silah's lips pull into a strange smile while her friends glared on from behind her.
"While that may be true...your return...the return of the Component has marked the beginning of a new age for this world and beyond..." Silah trailed off in a voice of profound excitement while the girl listened in amazement.
Just as she turned to gaze back down at the girl with a spark of a roused emotion in her sinister dark green eyes.
The trio stared at the woman with watchful looks in their eyes as they too listened in begrudgingly intrigue.
"Since your arrival. I have witnessed the emergence of the evolution of two prodigy firebenders that eclipse all that have come before them. I was able to bear witness to the return of the Component as well as the return of the Avatar. And now for the first time in over a thousand years I get to watch the renewed clash of the Avatar and the Component. But that's not all." Silah spoke in a voice of astonishingly absorbing voice while the girl gazed up with awe in her eyes at her smirking face.
The highborn women listened closely with their eyes expressing their fascination over the astounding point that the woman was making.
"I also got to bear witness to the rise of Vega. A soul even darker than my own. A heart so black that her once warm internal firebending has transformed into the darkest shadow. A Fire National that has vowed to genocide her own." Silah stated in a wicked voice with a smirk on her entertained lips while Elle swallow in fright.
Team Azula gazed on with roaring dread in their eyes.
And Ty Lee could only shake in renewed shame with the two firebenders staring on with narrowing eyes.
Just as the hunter turned to smirk at the princess's furious face as they gazed back into each other's eyes.
"Best of luck with that one, Azula. Unlike you...she has no need to concern herself with needing to keep a populace alive to rule. Which means...that nothing in her war is off limits. But there is even more..." Silah commented in a voice of sinister delight as she smirked back at the stunned faces of the highborn women.
And even the captain found herself unable to resist recoiling over the gravity of the woman's claim.
The princess's imposing golden eyes boiled over in fury as she once more asked herself just how much this beast knew of their second enemy!
"The Elder One is long overdue to awaken from dormancy...I don't know when but it will." Silah revealed in a boundlessly unsettling voice as the four listened with paranoia in their eyes.
"D-dormancy?" Elle squeaked with unmistakable fear in her eyes as she listened to her friends protectively step up behind her.
She felt Ty Lee set her hand on her shoulder as the noblewoman also gazed on in terror.
"Yes. It is going to move to destroy both the Component Force, and the Forge of Light. Two forces that when combined possess the power to kill it and that terrifies it. It will stop at nothing to crush you and the Forge both." Silah responded in a disturbingly impassive voice with her dark green eyes gazing up into the sky.
The highborn women and their young friend listened with rapidly escalating unease in their eyes.
"B-but my brother split the Component in half when he tried to make himself the new holder..." Elle stammered in a frightened voice as she gulped while Silah gazed back at her with seemingly aware dark green eyes.
And just like that the Fire Nation women felt their rage towards the girl's brother rise to an even higher height!
"Yes, I know. My senses are just as attuned as Mava's...I sensed as much back in the valley." Silah replied in an eerily collected voice while the girl stepped forward to peer up at her.
"W-what happens if we don't restore the Component whole, and find this Forge...before it awakens?" Elle asked in a voice of tremendous trepidation as her friends gazed on in suspense from over her shoulder.
Just as Silah turned to glance back at the group with an even darker expression in her eyes than usual.
While a pale expression overtook Elle's face as she caught the meaning of the hunter's silent reply.
As Azula, Zoi and Ty Lee gazed on with a rising furious determination in their eyes to get to the bottom of the enigma of this entity.
"D-don't worry, little sister...we'll figure it all out...somehow." Ty Lee assured in her best attempt at reassurance while the young girl shakily nodded her head.
The princess glowered on with her amber golden eyes just brimming in calculation as she still studied the hunter's unbothered face intently.
And the captain did the same with her golden eyes taking notice that the woman almost...looked pleased.
"I am also just as interested in seeing Mava unveil the results of over one hundred and fifty years of planning to stop it. I have no doubt that she is planning something big. Something that must involve you two dragons, and what's more...." Silah spoke with amplifying eagerness lacing her voice as she stood with her hair blowing softly in the wind behind her.
The three highborn women and their young friend stared on with an amazed look in their eyes.
As the princess and her captain shared a glance with impressed looks in their eyes to know that the old hermit was not nearly as senile as they had first taken her to be.
"I have also discovered that there is another world somewhere out there beyond that gateway...with human life...with new nations...just brimming with new opportunities. With many new targets with as great of a potential as Azula and Zoi...and on top of all that. One that is even stronger and this woman...this emperor may even be able to give me the challenge that I have long waited for..." Silah stated in a voice that was gradually becoming more and more consumed with an insatiable hunger as a pale smile slowly curved onto her lips.
The team stared back at the demented hunter with astounded expressions in their eyes.
"W-why...does all of that...make you look so happy?" Elle questioned in an innocently bewildered voice while she tried to understand the woman as she stared at her growing smile.
Just as Silah turned to stare down at the young girl with an ecstatic expression in her eyes.
"Because I am! Because I am alive to witness it all! To see the birth of a new era with my own eyes. Can you even conceive the unlikelihood that all of these exceedingly exceptional circumstances would align together in conjunction with me being here to behold each and every one?" Silah replied in a shockingly enthusiastic voice with a laugh escaping her lips as she held out her gloved hands while the four listened in disbelief.
Even Azula and Zoi were struck by the depths of Silah's sheer joy in the face of the potential destruction of all human life!
And Ty Lee could only step back with ever rising fear in her eyes as she stared at the chuckling woman in a mixture of horror and disgust.
She didn't care!
It was all just a game to her just as Mava said it was!
Only for even the captain and the princess to stare on incredulously when Silah erupted into a belly shaking laugh that resonated throughout the caldera pathway.
"In all of my entire life I have never felt so alive! I have never felt...so invigorated!" Silah yelled out at the top of her lungs with a grin on her lips as she thrust her gloved hands into the sky above her head.
Team Azula stood in a state of shock behind Silah with their eyes gazing on in a disturbed speechlessness.
And they now understood why Mava had said that all that mattered to Silah was her hunt!
"Can you hear me, Mother! Are you watching me from the Spirit World! Are you watching my hunt! Can you hear me killing in the four nations! Does it traumatize you!" Silah roared in an unspeakably galvanized voice as her laughter resonated throughout the caldera while her warrior king stood faithful behind her.
The highborn women and their young friend could only stand there in a truly rare state of speechlessness.
Azula was gazing at Silah with marginally widened amber golden eyes as she finally began to see what the monster had meant when she had claimed that they were similar.
I...don't know what it is about you, Azula but I am so deeply attracted to you. Perhaps...it's because we have so much in common...my mother abandoned me too you know.
And now Zoi and Ty Lee were gazing at their princess's surprised face with a distressed realization in their eyes.
And what disturbed Zoi the most was the dawning understanding as to just why Silah had stated that her princess was more to her 'liking'.
'This is bad! Her preferred methodology is seeking out and killing people that she feels suffer a similar pain! That's...why she is so attracted to the princess! It's not just about her prodigy bending! She's drawn to her pain like a crocodile-shark to freshly spilt blood in the ocean's waters!' Zoi thought with her alarmed golden eyes staring at Silah's back as her lips expressed her unease.
"I am the firstborn daughter that you abandoned! I am an artist, and I am also a hunter! And I am the most feared killer on this entire planet! There is no land in this world that is safe from my hunt! I hunt the Fire Nation! I hunt the Northern Water Tribe and the Southern Water Tribe! And I have hunted your people too! I hunt the Earth Kingdom and even your home island! I hunted the Air Nomads, and I have even hunted the spirits! My mask of bones is more feared in our home country than that of the Fire Nation banner!" Silah howled out to the skies above with her wicked dark green eyes expressing a twisted joy while the team listened in astonishment behind her.
It went without saying that even Azula and Zoi were stunned by how proud Silah was to brag about hunting her fellow Earth Kingdom citizens.
And they now understood more than ever why June had so adamantly refused so much as even trying to bring Silah in!
"I hope my hunt twists like a knife in your chest for all eternity! I hope that it sends you wandering the planes of the Spirit World in anguish until the end of time!" Silah bellowed in a voice that verged on madness with laughter escaping her smiling lips.
As Ty Lee recoiled even further back with beyond terrified eyes gazing at Silah in terror.
And Azula and Zoi stared at the woman's back with widened expressions in their usually composed eyes.
The two firebenders shared a rapid glance as they communicated by gaze alone.
No matter what Ozai says!
There was no way that they could just allow this lunatic to run rampant unchecked across all corners of the globe!
And the truly terrifying thing was...
Even they weren't sure if they had the power to stop her at this moment in time!
Elle gaped on with her lips conveying a sense of horror.
And somehow a peculiar sense of pity as she once more sensed the palpable loneliness radiating from within the woman's darkened heart.
Just as they watched with eerily fixated looks in their eyes as Silah held up her bone mask in her left hand as if she were thrusting it to someone up above.
"My name is Silah the Immortal, and I live for the pursuit of eternal artwork! I live for the thrill of mortal combat!" Silah shouted in an immeasurably terrifying voice with her dark green eyes taking on a gaze of maximum menace while a smile graced her pale lips.
The three highborn women stood rooted to their spots with rightfully unnerved expressions in their eyes.
All over the prospect of having to constantly watch their backs to ensure that the woman was not stalking them everywhere they went.
Having to sleep with one eye open at night in fear that Silah would manage to successfully slip into their chamber if they left their guard down!
And then the hunter turned her head around to glance back down at the young girl's now highly intimidated face.
She ignored the way that three pairs of eyes were staring venomously back at her almost in a defensively familial manner.
"Now then child... about this emperor...tell me. Does she think that she is as untouchable as Azula and Zoi did before I instilled a spark of terror in their eyes?" Silah questioned in an uncannily petrifying voice that took great delight in the way that both firebender's eyes widened in outrage.
As the serving girl stood trying to steel herself under Silah's dark gaze while Ty Lee still gazed at the woman with horrified brown-gray eyes.
"You think too highly of yourself Silah. You did not instill terror in my eyes." Azula snarled with her beautiful lips forming a regally vindictive glower.
Zoi glared back at the hunter with steam exuding from her muscles once more as she never once shook from Silah's smirking stare.
"My favorites...are the ones who think that they are immune to the terror of the hunt. So, I will ask again, kid. Does this emperor...believe herself immune of my hunt?" Silah pondered in a voice of scary fixation with her penetrating eyes staring down into the girl's imposed amber eyes.
Azula and Zoi seethed back at Silah with their eyes forming into frightening slits of their own.
And yet at the same moment...
They saw the potential benefit of pitting both of their enemies against each other!
As Elle shook beside Ty Lee while all three aristocrats gazed down at her as the girl seemed to be wondering how to respond.
"I-I...I...would say that she does. In fact, I would go as far as to say that...she believes herself to be far more untouchable than even Azula-sama. I...I very much doubt that she would even fear your hunt. Considering...that your name was listed among her twelve most dangerous known targets." Elle answered in a carefully worded voice as she stared up into surprised dark green eyes.
The three Fire Nation women listened cautiously as they realized what their young friend was attempting to do.
"My name was one listed as one of her twelve most dangerous known targets?" Silah asked in a voice of unnatural eeriness as Elle swiftly nodded her head.
"T-that's so! Which means...that she sees you as the prey. Because...after all...to be a target...means that she views you as weaker. Therefore, in her eyes you are her hunt." Elle stated in a voice of momentary boldness while the pale woman's eyes coldly contemplated her words.
Team Azula could only stare at one another as they found themselves once again feeling a silent pride wash over them over how resourceful the girl was learning to be.
"Interesting...very few have ever had the courage to view me as their prey. One of the only ones brazen enough to list me as their hunt before was Ozai. He tried to dispose of me after I assassinated Jaran.... but he sorely underestimated me...he sent a large group of soldiers after me and the fools paid with their lives." Silah stated in a voice of growing interest as she held a clothed finger underneath her chin while the captain's golden eyes grew wider in even greater rage.
Azula's callous amber golden eyes stared on with a spark of disgust over how her father allowed himself to be played.
"B-but that's not all. There's also the matter of what her followers believe her to be..." Elle stated in a tone of struggling boldness while the hunter rose a silver brow.
"And what is it...that her followers believe her to be?" Silah inquired in a searching voice as stared down into the girl's thinking amber eyes.
"B-back...back home in the continent that I come from...Eurasia. W-which...is the largest continent on the planet and the very seat of the United World Empire...which is rapidly taking all other nations by storm. Reiko...is widely believed by her followers to the coming of a god in the flesh to save humanity from dark age that enveloped the world after the Third Great War." Elle admitted in a soft-spoken voice as she now stared up into Silah's widening dark green eyes.
And that was all it took for the three highborn women to stare back at Silah in astoundment as they watched a state of literal shock consume the hunter's porcelain face.
Her eyes enlarged in an expression of disbelief as her mask started to slip from her clothed fingers.
"She.... she is believed to be a god?" Silah breathed in a truly stunned voice as she stared on with an affected gaze while the young girl nodded in affirmative.
"Yeah! They call her...the God Emperor of the New World!" Elle exclaimed in a helpful voice as she stared up at Silah's surprised face in wonder as dark green eyes still processed her claim.
And the princess couldn't help but once again glare on with a flicker of envy in her power hungry amber golden gaze.
But it was no matter!
She can easily create a following of worshipers of her own once she ascended the throne!
"A...god emperor.... that is a title that far surpasses that of Fire Lord. Even Fire Lords...are still believed to be mortal. But they...recognize her as deity." Silah muttered in a deeply pensive voice with her eyes still expressing her unnatural fascination.
Azula's gaze burned with venom over the remark but she chose to keep her mouth shut in favor of getting the freak off her back!
As Ty Lee and Zoi listened in astonishment with stunned looks of their own in their eyes over the intense belief that the people had in the woman's supposed godhood.
"T-that's right! And that means...that she has her own religion! It's called Reikoism and her believers are called Reikoists!" Elle cried out in an educative voice as she hurriedly nodded her head up at Silah's speechless face.
Ty Lee blinked in amazement behind her little sister from where she stood beside the astounded firebenders.
Even though she heard all of this before.
Until she met this woman.
She never would have believed that it was possible for anyone to surpass Azula's already gigantic ego at such an enormous level!
"And they've even created their own religious text! It's called the Book of Reiko!" Elle blurted out in a clever voice while her three highborn friend's jaws dropped open in disbelief behind her.
As Silah's dark green eyes seemed to widen so large that it almost looked as if they were about to fall from her head.
And that was when the three highborn women saw it!
A bloodthirsty murderous intent was developing in Silah's psychopathic eyes!
And just like that the sound of the bone mask falling from the hunter's shocked gloved hands to the rocky caldera pathway at her feet.
As it clattered to a halt while Silah stood there with her agape eyes beginning to convey a lethal excitement!
"Fire Lords...don't have their own religion They...are merely seen as extensions of divine will...but this woman...she is seen as divinity incarnate. She must have authority that the likes of Sozin, Azulon and Ozai could only dream of. To be viewed...as a god." Silah commented in an uncharacteristically floored voice while her lips started to pull into an exhilarated grin.
The Fire Nation women stared on with captivated expressions in their awestruck eyes as they too processed the gravity of the authority of the woman that they encountered.
As the princess's amber golden eyes burned with a narrowing ire as she pursed her lips into a beautiful scowl.
This will not do!
'I will not be outdone by this woman! I will show the world, and Elle that the only goddess deserving of worship is me!' Azula thought with her eyes blazing in the infernos of war as she smashed her powerful fists at her womanly hips.
"T-there's...even more. Long ago back there used to be a religion that we now call Greek mythology...these days it is regarded as just that...mythology. But in Greek mythology the abode of the gods was called Mount Olympus and she...named her fortified palace Olympia which directly overlooks the capital city of her united empire, Reikopolis." Elle explained in a swiftly captivating voice as she stared up into Silah's astounded eyes.
And at this point the three highborn women could only stand there with their mouths hanging open of the sheer extent of the emperor's ego.
Even Azula herself was in disbelief of Reiko's arrogance!
"Both Olympia, and Reikopolis sit among the highest mountain range on Earth...the Himalayas!" Elle chirped with a smile while Silah stood in a state of awe with her dark green eyes continuing to grow even wider.
The Fire Nation women listened with never fading wonder from their eyes.
"Olympia..." Silah murmured with a clothed finger under her chin with a growing smile on her elated lips.
"A-and even the fighting force that she is creating...the Apostles. That's...a religious term as well. She borrowed it...from the largest religion in the world...Christianity. In Christianity...the apostles were the twelve chief disciples of Jesus Christ... the son of the god in their religion." Elle spoke in a perceptive voice while the hunter listened in obvious captivation with marvel in her agape eyes.
And that was all that was needed for a look of realization to come over the faces of the stunned women of Team Azula.
An expression of intense anger now came over the captain's eyes as she gritted her teeth in offense.
As the taken aback Azula and Ty Lee turned to gaze at Zoi's unbelievably offended face.
"How dare she! She wasn't just ordering me to be a general in her army! She was...commanding me to be her religious disciple! I would sooner die before I ever address anyone as deity!" Zoi barked with rage consuming her voice as her golden eyes glared on murderously.
And suffice to say Ty Lee was just awed by the magnitude of the woman's unfathomable conceit.
The princess stared on with her golden eyes in imposing slits once more as she scowled.
And to think that this woman managed to sway both Naoki and Katsu to her cause!
Two invaluable benders that would have made all the difference in the world in their wartime might in the current war and all other wars to come!
"And what is it that you believe? Do you believe this woman to be deity incarnate? Is she a god in your eyes? Is she...your god?" Silah questioned in a voice that was overcome with undeniable curiosity to learn more about this new world and its emperor.
As she stared back at the young girl's pensively pondering face.
The highborn women turned to gaze down at their small friend with a sense of wonder in their eyes as to how the girl would respond.
"No. I do not believe that Reiko is a god. I...don't really put much thought into religion really. I hold belief in Azula-sama...as my queen and I serve her fully with all of my heart. But I know that no matter how powerful she is...she is still human...just like the rest of us." Elle answered in a genuinely truthful voice as she gazed over her shoulder at her mistress's lovely stoic face while amber golden eyes stared down at her in approval.
Azula held her head higher with something akin to a pleased smile on her beautiful lips.
As she gazed down at her servant girl's loyal face with endless recognition in her cold eyes as her handmaid cracked a shy smile up at her.
The two noblewomen listened to their adopted little sister's reply with moved expressions in their eyes.
As Silah tilted her head as she processed the girl's reply with an interested countenance.
"But...but I think I have a good idea what she is trying to achieve." Elle stated in a gently musing voice while Silah glanced down with intrigued eyes.
"And just what is it that you think that she is trying to achieve?" Silah inquired in a tone of unmistakable hunger for knowledge as she eyed the girl in an odd sense of liking.
The three highborn women still stared coldly back at her from where they constantly loomed behind the girl.
"Godhood." Elle declared without hesitation while her friends listened in astonishment over her.
While even the hunter stood gazing on with her cruel eyes agape in rising fascination.
"Y-you see...Reiko...was born into a dark world where over eighty percent of the global human population were wiped out in the wake of the cataclysmic great war. T-the ensuing result was a dark age that swept over the entire globe...all modern technology was put to a grinding halt...there was no order and humanity came close dangerously close to teetering on the brink of extinction." Elle confessed in an indescribably sorrowful voice as she hung her head with her amber eyes reflecting a profound pain.
The three aristocrats were instantly rendered into a state of unspeakable shock with their eyes gazing down at the girl in newfound horror.
The girl had already told them that the great war had almost destroyed her world.
But never had they imagined that the resulting global death total was over eighty percent of the world's population!
And just like that even a woman as severe as Azula was staring down at the girl with her callous amber golden eyes marginally widened in disbelief.
And even the remorseless hunter was staring on with her dark green eyes momentarily flickering in shock.
The captain stared down at her adopted little sister with her stony golden eyes widening in realization.
'Over eighty percent...Elle...no wonder you are so set on peace.' Zoi thought with her watchful eyes gazing down at the girl's back as she clenched a fist at her hip.
And suddenly she felt a newfound burning drive deep within her internal fire to truly follow through on the words that she spoke to her princess in their prior conversation.
'What sort of person would it make me if I call this girl little sister and disregard her pain? I must lend my weight to her cause!' Zoi mused with her resolute eyes staring down at the girl's golden head in introspection.
'Elle...' Ty Lee thought with tears coming to her eyes as she felt an even anger arise within her over the prospect of subjecting the girl to even more war.
"That is...quite the death toll." Silah replied in a strangely allured voice as she gazed on with unending fascination in her eyes.
"P-people were terrified...they needed someone to believe in...someone to save them and then...almost as if it was a miracle. An aberrant of incalculable unparalleled might was born...named Reiko." Elle stated in a spellbinding voice as she raised her eyes to gaze up at the pale woman's entranced face.
Team Azula stood in awe behind their friend as they began to finally understand why this woman was hailed as a deity in the flesh!
"F-from...from the very moment that she could walk she possessed might that was godlike in comparison to her fellow humans. At a young age...she took over her father's budding empire, and immediately launched a campaign of conquest to unite the fractured nations of the world under one rule." Elle explained in a riveting voice while her audience listened in amazement from all sides around her.
She still stared up into Silah's utterly captivated eyes as the woman waited in anticipation for her to continue.
"One...by one...like a modern-day aberrant version of Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great...chaotic nation after nation fell to her conquest and with her expansion, she restored law, order, food, power, hospitals, technology put back into production, comforts, and even entertainment. Many people believe that she single-handedly halted the collapse of civilization and is beginning to bring humanity back into a new age of glory." Elle spoke in a voice of incredible engrossment while the hunter stood marveling with her eyes still wide in wonder.
And the highborn women also gazed on with boundlessly impressed expressions in their stunned eyes.
The princess's amber golden eyes sparked with a sense of curiosity over the names of the two other presumed conquerors that the girl had named in comparison to her rival royal.
"She is nothing like any monarch to ever come before in history. To her people...she is much more than just their leader...or ruler. She is their shelter...she is their protector...she is their savior and she is also their god. She is their god of the United World Empire. That is what Reiko is." Elle informed in a voice of unusual seriousness while the puppeteer listened with her ruthless eyes conveying her astonishment.
Azula, Zoi and Ty Lee turned to gaze back at each other with their gazes communicating their astoundment over how deeply revered the woman was.
"She...is using religion as a tool to control people. She is steadily pulling power and influence away from the largest religions in the world...to become the one and only belief. And...if I had to make a wager..." Elle commented in a voice of hefty contemplation as she folded her arms over her chest as she adopted a thinking pose.
She chewed on her lip as the four women listened with their full undivided attentions.
And Ty Lee couldn't help but find herself terrified over the depths of how frightening the emperor's ego was.
To the point where she would even control people through her own religion!
Until the four women stared back at Elle in captivation as she turned to peer up at Silah's unnaturally transfixed pale face.
"She has every intention to go down in history as the savior of humanity....so that thousands of years from now. If humanity should endure...she will be worshiped, and revered as their one, and only god for thousands of years to come." Elle concluded in a momentous voice with her amber eyes staring up at Silah's speechless face as still processed her words.
Team Azula stood with their eyes gazing on in incredulity over their young friend's stunning assessment.
As Zoi and Ty Lee stared on with their mouths hanging open in disbelief over the level of Reiko's megalomania.
The captain stared on with a measure of disgust in her unnerved golden eyes as she stared on from over the girl's shoulder.
It was now apparent just why the old sage was so unnerved by Reiko's image in her mystic flames.
This woman...was far more dangerous than they had taken her to be!
"Now that...is arrogance. Even by my standards, and yet...bizarrely stimulating." Silah remarked at long last in a voice of swelling enticement as her dark green eyes trembled in a rush of arousal.
"And...that is who you are dealing with...Silah." Elle stated in a softly meaningful voice as she watched dark green eyes continue to enlarge in awe over her.
The three highborn women stood behind their young friend with their gazes still recovering from the shock over what they had been told.
Only for the three of them to gaze back at Silah's pale face once more as they watched in shock as her eyes almost seemed to triple in size in blood lust!
Zoi stared back into the hunter's eyes with her stony gaze never making any effort to hide her disgust.
There wasn't a sliver of regard for all of the lives that had been had been lost as a result of this near apocalyptic war!
It was just as she had previously deduced back in the Forgetful Valley!
All that mattered to this beast was the sport of her hunt!
'You sickening lunatic! I promise you, Silah, that the day will come when I take your head in the memory of my fallen comrades!' Zoi thought with her golden eyes forming her warrior persona once more as she glared daggers back at Silah as her face trembled in excitement.
The Fire Nation women watched with fascinated yet repulsed expressions in their eyes as Silah's gloved hands started to shake at her hips.
"Oh...my. This woman...must believe herself invulnerable to all harm... she...may not even believe herself mortal." Silah spoke in a voice of intensifying thrill with her gloved fingers curling in anticipation at her hips while a smile started to consume her lips.
While the three highborn women stared back at Silah in revulsion as they observed her smile continue to break out across her monstrous face.
"Y-yeah. I'd certainly say so. Judging by how she behaved when she faced Azula-sama, and my oneesans." Elle stammered in a nervous voice as she tried not to shudder while gazing up at Silah's grinning face.
Under any other circumstance she would feel remorseful giving information about someone to such a twisted killer in an attempt to keep her family safe.
But she had a sinking suspicion that if Reiko and Silah were to ever meet.
That Silah may well come to regret the day that she ever chose to hunt Reiko.
But for now...
Azula just stared back at Silah's pale face with glacial amber golden eyes.
As she never once removed her glare from Silah's deranged smile as she pursed her lips into a wrathful glower.
'You and I are not finished...not by a long shot. I am going to make you suffer.' Azula thought with a sneer escaping her graceful lips as her nostrils exhaled a puff of blue fire.
"The prospect of killing a woman who believes herself a deity is indescribably tantalizing. Just imagining shattering the delusions of her godhood is making my heart beat with the impending thrill of the hunt. Should my hunt triumph...I will be viewed by her people not as the assassin of an emperor or a Fire Lord...but a god slayer." Silah remarked in a voice of escalating homicidal intent as her lips grew into an enthused smile as she gripped her gloved fists at her hips.
The highborn women stared back at the depraved woman with unhidden contempt in their disgusted eyes.
As Ty Lee felt a chill spiral down her spine as she tried not to shiver over Silah's climbing blood lust.
"Y-yes. But the gateway is closed and even if you did somehow manage to get through to the other side. On the same token, that also means that there are untold millions upon millions of devout followers who will be ready and willing to die for their god. I don't care how immortal you are...there is no way that you can fight them all. And that's not even counting the Apostles. One does not just walk into the heart of the United World Empire, and kill Reiko. You'll most likely be eradicated before you even lay eyes on her." Elle advised in a softly logical voice while her princess let out a cruel snort of amusement from over her shoulder.
Only for all four members of Team Azula to just gaze back at Silah's monstrous face as the killing intent in her eyes soared to an even higher height!
"How electrifying! I revel in the thought of this challenge!" Silah shouted without warning in a wicked voice as a perverse grin curved onto her lips as she held up her gloved fists before her eager face.
And then her tongue departed from her lips as she slowly licked her lips in trepidation.
The highborn women stared back at their enemy in utter disgust with their gazes conveying their loathing.
Just as the hunter turned to gaze up into the sunny sky over the caldera pathway with her eyes just gleaming in delight.
"Look alive, Jaran! We've already got our next hunt lined up!" Silah declared in a voice of frightening galvanization while her warrior king lifelessly stepped up to stand behind her.
As the three Fire Nation women and their young friend watched warily as Silah set one gloved hand on her hip as she gazed up into the skies above.
The warrior Earth King stood on guard over the depraved puppeteer's shoulder as her wicked smile grew even bigger.
"When that gateway reopens! We are going to journey into the new world to hunt Apostles, and their emperor who calls herself a god!" Silah called out in a voice of unrivaled eeriness with her dark green eyes staring up at the clouds overhead in an uncanny display of intoxication.
And then a laugh escaped her lips as her grin grew across her lips while she raised a tightened clothed fist before excited face.
The members of Team Azula stared with narrowed eyes at Silah's back.
As the princess and the captain exchanged a knowing look before they turned their hateful eyes back to their enemy's laughing face.
Not only could they not allow the monstrous woman to be allowed to go on a rampage in their young friend's foreign lands.
They knew full well that they had to uncover the woman's secrets and kill her before she gets the chance to build an even higher body count of Fire Nation lives!
"I wonder when I meet this emperor...will I violate her spirit, or will she violate mine? Will I slaughter her or will she slaughter me? These are the questions that I think about before a hunt." Silah commented in a sinister voice with a psychotic smile on her lips as her clothed fingers extended before her maddened dark green eyes.
The highborn women and their young companion fell into a stunned silence behind their deranged enemy.
Once more even Azula and Zoi found themselves shocked just by how much pleasure Silah took in hunting and murdering people for the sheer thrill of it!
And then the demented puppeteer placed one boot forward on the rocky caldera pathway with her elated eyes still gazing up into the skies above.
And with that she began to swiftly stride ahead once more with her warrior king following at her heels while her enemies were left gazing after her back in unease.
"Long live the eternal hunt, and may art forever be everlasting!" Silah exclaimed in a spine-chilling voice of predatory intent as she marched ahead onto the pathway with purpose in her step while her enemies' gazes after her in revulsion.
Yet it didn't bother her.
Even the greatest of artists had their critics.
And the works of many grand artists often went unappreciated by those around them.
She could care less if her artwork horrified people everywhere she went.
All that mattered to her was that she had her eternal art.
And that was all that mattered to her in the end.
AN:
Regarding the light talk of religion and references of religion with Reiko, since Reiko is going to be one of the main villains in the future of the series that wants to rule over the Earth as a god.
When Reiko becomes a regular focus in book two there will be more references of that as it is par the course with Reiko, and the nature of her tyranny because it is heavily implied that she seeks godhood.
It is meant to show how despite how cordial she can be with Elle, Naoki, and others, that she is a huge megalomaniac and it shows that she cements her power in every aspect of society.
I just want to say regardless of anyone's beliefs, no offense is meant. It is just all a part of Reiko's character.
I will also be submitting another round of edits over the next few weeks, I decided to change Elle calling Azula master to mistress. Since mistress is the term for a female master, and a mistress is what a female master of her servants would be called. I decided that when Elle first came into Azula's service and started calling Azula master, that it would fit better if Elle instead called her mistress.
I feel that mistress fits better than master, because it is a two-fold term unlike master. Firstly, Azula is the mistress of her servants, Also, Azula and Elle have a light dominant and submissive dynamic. As Azula and Elle's relationship progresses, and as Elle becomes less of a servant, mistress will make more sense than master because it also is a word that can still apply to their dominant and submissive relationship in private. And it just makes more sense to be me that Elle as a servant would call Azula who is a princess mistress.
On another note about my health, I recently traveled to Philadelphia to the Jefferson Headache Center, and I was hospitalized for six days from August 22nd to August 28th for severe inpatient headache treatment.
I was given ketamine infusion for five days. While I was hooked up, it made all of the burning pain in my entire body go, and it reduced my excruciating head and neck pain from a ten to like a four or a three. For the fifth day, for a brief time, I was starting to return to my former happy self that I used to be. I was able to move my head without feeling like it was falling off my shoulders, it was amazing, I felt so much happier.
But then on the sixth day, when they unplugged me from my iv, all of the relief vanished and I became just as debilitated as I was when I came in. I won't lie, I broke down crying, it was like grasping onto hope and watching it slip away from between your fingers. They told me that I can return in three months and try again, and that maybe the relief will stick the second time. I am going to get a ketamine nasal spray in the meantime in hope that regular use of it will bring the relief back.
I am extremely depressed right now because while I felt hope, it vanished and I am still just as crippled as I was before. I have zero relief right now, and the pain is still so extreme, that I cannot do anything, I can't get any enjoyment because the pain is all encompassing, I cannot think because the pain is so sharp. And because of that, I have not been able to make any progress with writing the story.
I am desperately hoping that they will be able to help me and that I will get my quality of life back soon. But I am just doing very poorly right now. I just wanted to put out an update because it has been a while.
I don't know when the next update will be, if I can reduce the sharp pain in my head and be able to write again it will be sooner than later. But all I can do is hope for the best, even though I fear the worst. At this point, my greatest fear is that I will never escape this, and I am desperate to be proven wrong by the doctors.