"You are joking, right?"
Aizu was the first who managed to recover and speak.
"I am telling the truth. We met with an incarnation of Yale's father not too long ago."
Lina only said that they met Yale's father what was true, but the two girls felt that she said that everything was true, including the part of Lina being Yale's girlfriend.
They had decided to not reveal the truth in front of others unless they fell in love with someone, and Yale remarked especially that Lar and Aizu shouldn't discover the truth.
"Then, I guess you are our greatest rival."
Lar finally recovered enough to speak. She didn't mind if Lina and Yale were a couple at that moment because she felt that her past relationship with Yale was enough to be at the same level.
"Stop joking. There is no way two kids can be my rivals."
Strictly speaking, the only persons in the world that Lina considered adults were her brother-in-law and Yale, so it didn't matter how Lar and Aizu looked, she would still be considering them kids.
"I am not a kid. I can't change my form in this prison, but I am definitely not a kid!"
Lar felt that her appearance was the problem, so she was quite upset since she could already use Shape Shift to change her age, but she couldn't use it in prison.
"I know that you have memories of your past life and in that life, you barely became a Law God before dying. Anyway, you are still a kid in my eyes. I don't mind about your past story with Yale. You helped him in a desperate moment, but that is all. In our families is forbidden marrying someone or having children before becoming an Essence God. If you two aren't Essence Gods, you are just kids."
Yale had told Lina to be harsh with them to destroy their wills so that they wouldn't continue pursuing him.
Looking for the Battle God wouldn't be a leisure trip, and weaklings weren't allowed, so Yale hoped to leave their friends and disciples behind.
Putting them all in the Storage Space was a bad idea since it would harm their growth, so Yale was decisive in parting ways with his friends after rescuing them.
However, Lar and Aizu were the most problematic since they might try to follow him stealthily and that would only end with their deaths, which Yale didn't wish to happen.
"You two shall give up with Yale. Lar, you are like a sister to him, and he is grateful for your help, but he doesn't see you as a woman. Aizu, you are Yale's disciple, and although he cares a lot about his disciples, he never saw any of his disciples in a romantic way, nor he will do it in the future. Of course, if any of you are in problems, he will do everything to help you, but he will never have romantic feeling for the two of you. Just accept your current relationship with him; don't try to be greedy."
Lina's words were like swords stabbing in their hearts. She was just saying what Yale told her to say; it wasn't that she wanted to bully them. After all, Lina only saw two cute kids who admired a powerful expert that was outside their reach.
For those who aren't from great factions, the chances of becoming an Essence God were slim, at least in the short term. Since Lar and Aizu were related to Yale, Lina felt that maybe someday they would do it, but that would still require a lot of years.
Lar and Aizu wanted to reply, but they were unable to find the correct words. After all, they recognized that Lina was far more powerful than them since she managed to put an end to that prison where they had been captive without being able to even imagine how to escape.
Moreover, both of them were still quite weak after having been imprisoned for so much time, and they had lost a lot of weight even if it didn't reach the state of others who had been more time in the prison.
At that moment they couldn't compare in power nor beauty, so they decided to keep their mouths closed despite their urges to battle with Lina. After all, that wouldn't be a battle at all; it would just be an adult playing with two kids.
Both of them decided to recover completely before acting, and they felt that going directly to Yale would be more effective than discussing with their greatest rival.
Lina could understand what those two were thinking, but she just felt it fun.
The group advanced in silence after that conversation. Lina wasn't planning to free all the people in the underground cells, only those related to Yale and the brother of the king.
Yale and Lina would study the cases of the others before freeing them because those sent at those cells were considered dangerous and probably not everyone was there framed for something they never did.
"This should be Julie's cell."
The cells in the underground were individual, and it was impossible to see who was inside from the outside, but given Lina's level, there was no way that prison could block her Spiritual Sense which at her level was usually called Divine Sense but was the same thing.
However, she was shocked when she opened the cell, and the same happened to Lar and Aizu, but they even shouted in fear. Lina could sense who was inside, but she couldn't see the aspect of the person locked in the cell until she opened the door.
What was inside the door couldn't be considered human.
It was practically a skeleton with brunt skin and no hair at all; if it weren't because Lina could feel that she was still alive, she would have thought that was a corpse.
Lina quickly broke the shackles that were on Julie's limbs and neck and moved her outside the cell before starting to heal her.
Lar and Aizu tried to speak with her, but that was useless because Julie couldn't see or hear, she had lost that capability after the tortures inside the underground cell.
She wasn't even conscious of her surroundings; she was like a living corpse.
"I can't heal her just with the Water Essence. Let's all enter my world. I will be able to treat her better there."
They all disappeared at that same moment, without waiting for a reply from the other girls.
Lina didn't dare to leave them behind, so she let them saw while she treated Julie. Lina needed to use all her power to let Julie see like a human again, but she was still far from complete recovery. At least she recovered her five senses and was conscious, but Lina felt that her mind had been broken.
"If she recovers or not is something that will depend on her will. Her current state is due to her mind being broken due to being unable to endure the situation; it isn't a problem with her body or soul. If she recovers, her chances of becoming a Law Master in a short time will be extremely high, but if not, she will never be able to wake up again."
Julie managed to reach the Elder Rank before getting caught, which was a huge improvement given her previous level, but those prisons were prepared to torture powerful people, and Julie was just dragged there because Shirk and Driwna, so her body was unable to endure it.
Lina felt that Julie could have only lived a week or two if she continued on that situation.
There wasn't any food on the underground cells, and they can only drink water when the whole cell was flooded for a minute, which was one of the tortures.
After that flood of water, flames appeared on the walls increasing the temperature of the cell a lot and provoking burns to those who didn't have a body that was strong enough to endure it.
The guards in prison and those in the royal palace had formations to see in direct what happened in those prisons and seeing the pain of the captives in the torture time was one of the moments they enjoyed the most.
Lina was able to see through the tricks of the cell easily, and she couldn't help but want to destroy the whole kingdom in rage. However, she could only hope that Yale tortured those guards and royalty members enough to make them pay for their actions.
Lina, Lar, and Aizu returned to the prison leaving Julie inside Lina's world and rushed towards the cell where Ange was.
Ange was a Law Master, so they hoped that she was in a better state, but she only trained in the Magus Path, so it was still difficult to know how she was.
Lina knew that Ange was someone very important to Yale and felt that the Dwarf Kingdom might truly disappear if she ended like Julie.
Lina opened the cell, and she was shocked again, but for a different reason than before.
Ange didn't have a scratch, and she looked perfectly healthy. Of course, a Law Master didn't need food at all, so starvation wasn't a problem, but the reason for not having even a scratch was that Ange was frozen in time and the flames never reached her.