In another region of the Path of Legend, three elves were taking shelter in a cave in the middle of a mountain range. They both seemed to be in a sorry state, their clothes tattered, and bruises riddled their faces as if they had escaped from a terrible disaster.
"Finally, gotten rid of those terrible abominations!" One of the elves, a male purple-skinned elf, said with a solemn yet exhausted tone as he looked at two beautiful elven women.
One of the women was just like the male and had purple skin, and she even resembled him a bit, but the other elven woman was a fair-faced beauty with white hair like snow, and her beauty was a class above the purple-skinned elven woman.
The ice elf started at the male elf with a hint of complicated glint before coldness crept in them again, giving her the appearance of an ice queen, "What are you doing here?"
The male elf's lips curled up slightly as his eyes flashed with rage as he retorted, "Shouldn't you be thanking this old man for saving both of your fearless butts!? Not to mention, that should've been my freaking question! Not only did you kidnap my precious daughter, but you even had the gall to bring her into the path of legend with your Beyond Legend Rank!? Are you out of your goddamn mind?" Then he glared angrily at the purple-skinned elf, who lowered her head in shame as if she had been caught doing something wrong. He mercilessly berated her, "And you! Don't you have some kind of rivalry with her?
"I was under the impression that you can't even stand to see each other in the eye before pulling each other hair. Yet not only did you run away from home without telling me, but you never even bothered to contact me or answer my calls, and on top of all that, you accompanied her in the Path of Legend of all places!?"
The more he spoke, the angrier and more agitated he became, his eyes filled with disappointment as he looked at his daughter.
"If I hadn't found you in time, you two would've been swallowed by that beast!" He felt like blowing his top the more he looked at them.
The ice beauty expression was somewhat ugly as she finally couldn't take it and retorted with a resentful glare, "Then you should've let me be swallowed by that beast! Why the hell did you save me anyway since I'm not your daughter, and you even hate me!" The elf sighed helplessly as he shook his head, "Lucy, oh Lucy, I never hated you, nor could I hate you. The moment I arrived at the unique plains, I tried to contact you, but you had vanished like a ghost, and you didn't even return to the bank. Now, you dragged Ellie into this. Just what have you been up to all these years, and how did you convince her to enter this idiocy as well?"
"I-it wasn't…"
"You shut up!" Nelsen coldly shouted before Ellie could say anything.
He was really fuming at this moment. Only he knew how much trouble he had to go through to track his reckless daughter all the way here, and he almost died multiple times. He even had to sell himself to track her down, which he hated the most!
The more he thought about his difficulties and the people he had to join because of Ellie, the angrier he became, especially now that he was dragged into the path of legend, which he didn't want to enter at all.
After all, he wanted to live a peaceful and comfortable life, yet his idiot daughter won't let him, and he even suspects that she was trying to murder her old man. Just what kind of sin he had committed to deserve this!?
Lucy coldly replied at this moment, "You've always been lackluster despite your gifts, and you waste them away lying around. Well, I don't blame you, Nelson, since you were always a coward who only cared about himself!
"But you even control your daughter to be like you despite the fact that she's clearly not. She wants to experience the world and have ambitions, unlike you. You're repeating the same thing you did with your wife.
"And yet, you still wondered why she ran away from you!? Even though you are gifted with the mind of a genius, you're really an idiot when it comes to the sentiments of your own daughter!"
She screamed as if she wanted to bite Nelsen as she was trembling with anger and all the resentment she had accumulated in all these years. Even Ellie was astounded as she peeked at Lucy sneakily and then her father, who was flabbergasted.
Although she's been traveling with Lucy for decades now, she never saw her this agitated before. Even though she hated Lucy in the past, they still managed to bury the hatchet and work together to achieve their goals.
Furthermore, it was only after living with Lucy that Ellie realized that she actually cared about her mother, who was Lucy's sister. The reason Ellie agreed to go with her also involved Lucy's sister.
Moreover, Ellie felt suppressed in the Lightning Elf Clan. Her grandfather even held disdain for her and called her an 'idiot' every time he saw her. Given her arrogance, she decided to leave the clan for good and seek her own path.
But who would've thought her father would come after her despite her lack of contact? She was moved and felt ashamed that she put Nelsen through all that and even dragged him into this dreadful place.
It was only after entering the Path of Legend that she and Lucy realized how reckless they were and that they had completely overestimated themselves. Nelsen sighed again as a remorseful expression appeared on his face. He didn't retort to Lucy because he simply couldn't.
Feeling helpless, he said coldly, "I admit I've made many mistakes in the past and lack ambition. However, you can't deny that this very cowardliness and lack of ambition have kept me alive all this time. Or do you think if I had been reckless like you and sought power blindly, I wouldn't have already died in someone's hand?"
"Have you both forgotten the reason we all left or fled the Epic Plains? Do you forget about the Faceless Ancient, who you both recklessly played like a toy, but he ended up turning into a monster who almost swallowed the entire Epic Plains in his wake?
"Now, you both recklessly searched for all medallions all over the unique plains despite knowing about the great war between the Ice Fiend Locusts and the three factions? The fucking Crimson War!
"Furthermore, do you know who was the one who had been the person who led that Crimson War and put an end to it all when multiple quasi-legends died?" Nelsen's eyes flashed with a hint of fear as he said that name that still gave him nightmares and chills, "That's precisely the Faceless freaking Ancient who's been playing the entire lesser Galaxies of Taurus!
"Many influential figures who survived that calamitous war are still searching for him, and they even think of him as their spiritual leader or whatnot, for fuck' sake! Not only that, but a terrifying organization is looking for him with all its might!
"Although he had vanished after that Crimson War, with his scheming personally and unfathomable power, he's probably present in this place. So, tell me, what if you unknowingly cross paths with that monster? Will you still have this arrogance and ambition of yours in front of him?"
The moment 'Faceless Ancient' was mentioned, Lucy and Ellie trembled as terrifying memories surfaced in their minds. If they both fear anything in this world, it is exactly the owner of this name, and they regret every action in the past.
Furthermore, how could they not know about that war? The name Crimson had long been associated with the Faceless Ancient, and they both even planned to flee the unique plains when they found out that the monster was there.
Lucy took a deep breath and said, "He didn't know what we looked like, and we have no intention of crossing him, period. We've learned our lesson, and as long as we don't go looking for trouble with him, I'm sure he won't care about a bunch of ants like us.
"Besides, Faceless Ancient is the exact reason we are searching for ways to achieve a higher rank of power, and the Path of Legend is the only way. Furthermore, we have no intention of vying for Legendary Keys.
"We were planning on waiting for others to end the Path of Legend since, in ancient records, it's mentioned that once the keys are used, everyone in the Path of Legend will be teleported to the Legendary Plains.
"We just wanted to wait here but ended up in this godforsaken forest. But now that we are fine, we'll wait here for all of it to be over. And you have no choice but to do the same now since there is no turning back!"
Nelsen nearly vomited blood as his heart ached because there was no falsehood in Lucy's words. He couldn't help but stomp his foot in anger as he glared at Lucy, who seemed to be sneering at him, and then at Ellie, who wore an innocent expression.
"Fuck, you both will be the death of this old man." Nelsen cursed again and again and felt like crying.
In the end, he sighed ruefully, "It's not so simple anymore. You have no idea what I've done to track you down, and now I have to pay my debt!"