259 More lost than ever

"Is this some kind of joke!!??"

"Who do you think you are ordering us around like you were above us!!"

"You insolent peasant!! Do you have any idea who you are talking to!!??"

"..."

Aside from the ruler of Greyart, all of the royal guests began to scream in anger after hearing Kunkcer's request to set out a bounty for him out of nowhere.

The dragon just stared at them, all standing up while glaring and cursing and slamming the table acting like they have never been so insulted before.

In knucker's eyes, they looked just like a bunch of animals crying and jumping.

He stared at the ceiling to try and activate his ability to see the future n order to learn how to win their trust and convince them to help him, but it was hopeless.

His power only worked when he was in danger, and right now, while controlling a fake body and hiding his true self in a safe location, ruling over the seven demon leaders, and being a creature only able to be killed by terminal fire, Knucker had basically never been in a safer position than before.

Even if all the kings and queens tried to stand against him, one snap of his finger was all it would take to turn them into preys for Wrath and Dria.

Knucker was simply too powerful and invincible right now. With each passing day, his power to see the future continues to work less and less.

The only one that can help him get access to his power again, is the one that represents the most risk to his life.

The girl that is slowly learning to control terminal energy, the girl that can make people look up to her and follow her, the girl that can make an entire war happen just to rescue her and bring her back home safely, the girl that went to the ends of the earth, faced the son of the living weapon, a demon leader, and a goddess, just so she could get home to her family, the girl whose mere existence makes the whole world change around her.

He needed Evlin.

Not only was this mage girl able to give Knucker the power to see the future, but she also strangely had this hidden talent to set things into motion. Just by being able to predict how she would act, Knucker basically had the entire world in the palm of his hands. She was like a centerpiece that managed to set a huge machine to work, and by controlling this girl, the dragon could control the machine.

But Knucker ended up making a mistake. When the most crucial moment arrived, he allowed his emotions to take the best of him.

Being in that room, face to face with the woman who was responsible for all the visions of his own death, he was unable to keep his rage inside. He wanted to punish her, make her suffer, see her agony, see her face crumbling in despair as he revealed all the horrible things he did to her.

He needed to find her, and he needed to do it fast.

If Evlin was allowed to roam freely, she would no doubt try to master terminal energy in order to take his life. If she succeeded, his story would end right there, but even if she failed and the energy burned her completely, Knucker would lose the only current threat to his life, the biggest threat to his life, and he would have no means to prepare when Ellie, Marcus, and Dia joined together to come after him next.

He needed to regain control of the situation and he needed Evlin for that, but without Evlin, he had no idea HOW to regain control of the situation.

Knucker was stuck, and seeing the royal guests arguing and whining was doing very little to help him.

"Enough!!!" he finally yelled, completely silencing the entire room.

All of those present there flinched in fear of what he might do, even Dria.

"I've tried to play nice all this time... Tried to play along with your idiocy and have some fun... But I'm way past the point of giving a damn right now...

You think I don't have the right to order you around? I just want you to understand that right now, every second you still breathe is me showing mercy... I could kill you all in mere seconds... I could kill this entire CITY in mere seconds!! You see this big scary dragon right here?? There are five more of them just waiting for my signal to start rampaging and tearing your kingdoms a new one...

None of you understand the amount of restraint that I'm showing right now by trying to have a proper conversation and not just placing your heads on a jar to put on display...

So put something in your tiny worthless heads...

I AM above you... Above all of you!! The amount of power, knowledge, and accomplishments that it would take hundreds of years for you to acquire, I can gather in mere minutes...

So when I say to put a bounty on some random girl, YOU PUT A GODDAMN BOUNTY ON THIS RANDOM GIRL!! AND BRING HER TO ME, BEFORE I REALLY GET ANGRY!!"

Knucker dropped from Wrath and began to walk on top of the table.

"Your lives don't matter, your desires don't matter, your futures don't matter... All that matters is whether or not I'll let you live for another day or not... My word is law, my patience is kindness, and my desire is your salvation...

So I'll give you and the rest of your useless race two options... Give me what I want... Or watch everything burn!"

Part 2

Evlin woke up staring at the blue sky while feeling the rough surface of the sand under her body while her skin was kissed by the strong warmth of the scalding sun.

"What the what...?" she whispered as she tried to stand up, surprised that she was finally able to move by herself again.

Gazing to her left and to her right, she quickly put together that she was lost in the middle of some kind of desert.

No signs of the castle, Knucker, Wrath, or Dria. She also didn't see her friends anywhere. Nothing but hills of sand no matter where she looked and an immense heat filling up her body.

"Ashley!! Gustav!! Ria!! Daren!! Marcus!! Leona!! Auren!! Lilith!!!" she tried to scream in the hopes that any of her friends could be close by, but it seemed like she was by herself after all.

"Sph- Ah..." for a moment she considered calling for her pet griffin, but just thinking about the way the beast acted around her like he was afraid of her, made her heart feel extremely heavy for a moment, almost the same way when she lost Mia. Seeing someone in pain and being unable to help was something that damaged her more than any kind of scar that she could acquire in battle.

She checked herself for a moment and realized that her wooden armor and her crossbow were gone, probably ended up getting burned from the fight with Wrath where she surrounded her body with terminal fire.

All she had was a green whip that she got from stealing one of the vines from Dria during her escape.

"Oh, joy..." she mumbled as she realized her terrible luck was acting up again.

"Ugh..." whispered someone in the distance.

The sound was just loud enough for the mage to hear and rush to see what the origin was.

She kept running until she found a man laying on the ground with half of his body covered in sand. He had a clean shaved head and a strong physique, making him look like the leader of a biker gang.

"Auren!!" Evlin cried as she dashed to help her friend.

She removed the sand from him and tried to give a little bit of water from a bottle that Auren himself was keeping in his bag.

"Auren!! Auren, talk to me!! Can you hear me!!??"

"Ugh... E- Evlin...?" he replied.

"Auren!!" the girl yelled while hugging the lad, "Thank God you're ok!!"

"What... What's going on?? Where are we...??" Auren wondered while analyzing his surroundings and standing up as well.

"I have no freaking clue... Ria's portal must have overloaded with power and scattered us around the map..."

"What!!?? No, no... I need to find her!! I need to find Ria! And Marcia!! They need me!!"

"Auren, Auren, calm down... We can't be- Oh... What's that...?" Evlin asked as she gazed at a cloud of smoke approaching in the distance.

The cloud continued to come closer and closer until it revealed some kind of shadow inside of it. It looked like a man riding some kind of creature with a spear in its hand and a mask covering his face. The mask seemed to have some kind of fake white hair that extended itself until it could reach its waste.

The creature he was riding seemed to be some kind of red shark with eight crab legs sticking from its body.

"Trespassers!!" the rider screamed.

Evlin took another glance and realized that there was more than one rider. She counted five, eight, twelve people, all riding red sharks that just walked over the sand like spiders.

They kept approaching until they got both Evlin and Auren surrounded while aiming their weapons at the two who were just raising their hands to show they didn't intend to resist.

"E- Evlin... What do we do...?" Auren asked.

"Uuhhh... We come in peace...?"