264 Working some issues

"Agh!! Whaa- Wha- What...? Where..." he mumbled.

He began to look at his surroundings and realized that he was under an improvised blanket made with one of the coats of the fire mages from the temple of the east.

He was laying inside some sort of cave where the only source of light was from a bonfire placed near his side.

"What the... Where am I...?" he asked, hoping that someone could answer, but it seemed he was alone in there.

He continued to study the cave and noticed that his clothes were next to the fire for some reason, which made him realize he was wearing nothing but his underwear under that coat.

The man rushed to put his clothes on but quickly realized that they were wet for some reason, almost like they had been forgotten in the rain.

"Hello!!?? Anyone there!!?? Lilith!! Ashley! Evlin!! Auren! Ria!! Gustav!!" he shouted. The cave was so dark that he couldn't even tell which way was the exit.

He waited for a couple of minutes until his clothes finally dried so he could dress up properly. As he was about to start investigating the place, a voice called out to him.

"Oh, you finally woke up..."

Daren turned around and spotted a woman with chestnut skin, blond hair, and amber eyes frowning at him while carrying a wooden staff that had the shape of a dragon head on its tip eating a large piece of absorbing crystal.

"Oh, great... It's you..." Daren commented with an annoyed tone.

It was Leona. Daren almost didn't recognize her without her usual white robe.

"Nice to see you too..." she replied.

"Where is everyone else? Where are the others?"

"I am everyone else... I haven't seen any of the others besides you ever since we landed here..." she explained.

"Landed...?"

"Yeah... We got sucked into the portal from your friend Ria... But something went wrong, and we ended up here..."

"Well... That's just perfect... Of all the people I had to end up lost with you..." Daren complained.

"I'm sorry... Do you have something you want to tell me?"

"Lots of things... None of which will help us right now..." He admitted, "So... Which way is the exit?"

Leona glared at him for a bit but still tried to cooperate, "That way... But it's the middle of the night right now... So it's better to rest a bit... We can try to explore tomorrow..."

"Fine..." Daren agreed, but not looking too happy about it.

The two returned to the bonfire's side and suddenly Daren started to bombard Leona with questions.

"You sure you didn't saw anyone else?"

"Pretty sure..."

"Why was I almost naked when I woke up?"

"Your clothes were wet, you would have caught a cold if I had left them on..."

"Why were my clothes wet?"

"Do you know where this island is? What were you doing back then? Do you have a way to contact someone? How long until the sun rises? Are there any dangerous demons or monsters out there?"

Leona began to rub her forehead, "Would you please ask one thing at a time?? You're not the only one who has a lot on their mind right now..."

"Oh, right... I forgot you lost the connection with your boss... Must be a really bad time for you right now..." Daren mumbled.

Leona began to glare at him with more intensity, "You know... I saved your life not too long ago, would it kill you to at least thank me? Or maybe just staying quiet so that I can properly think?"

"I'm not going to thank someone that obeys the gods like a lost pet... If they ordered you to let me drown you would have done so without even questioning..."

"I've got news for you, most people in my situation would probably have let you drown... Especially considering how annoying you are... I'm not the norm, I'm the exception..."

"Right, right... I forget that all of those that worship divine beings are automatically better than everyone else... My mistake..." Daren replied while rolling his eyes, "Please continue to enlighten me about how great of a person you are for caring about someone's life... "

Leona began to ignite her staff with fire magic, "You really are going to keep doing this, aren't you...?"

"Hey... If you have a problem, why not just pray for your goddess to solve it for you?"

Leona finally stood up and pulled the cloak that was warming up Daren away from him, "I really should have let you drown after all..."

Daren saw her moving away from him and going deeper into the cave, "Where are you going?? You said it was late at night!"

"I don't care! I can't stand another second next to you! Good luck returning home by yourself!"

He continued to observe as she used the fire of her staff to light the way.

"Fine by me... I rather be by myself than with that woman's servant..." he answered.

Once he was alone, Daren began to think if maybe he hadn't been too harsh on Leona. After all, as he said, she did help him when he was in a dire situation and even placed herself in harm's way many times before to aid Evlin and the others.

But even though he wanted to, part of him still could not let go of his grudge towards the gods.

A goddess trapped him as a metal statue for two-hundred years, imprisoned his best friend, and even erased him from existence. He assumed she was going to be punished once Evlin dragged her to the other world, but instead she seemed to be just enjoying an easy life as her maid as if nothing had happened.

Not only that, once the war with Mia was over, some even began to look at her as a hero and him as an enemy, all because he had been placed under Mia's control and that same goddess played a huge part in rescuing him. Daren never felt so humiliated before, being saved by the one person he hated the most in the world.

Even though Lilith tried to tell him to let it go, he just could not.

It wasn't just that goddess. Daren hated all the gods. The goddess that imprisoned him, the goddess that forced Auren and Ria to work for her, the god that turned Mia into a maniac, the god that was responsible for protecting his homeland and yet when he arrived everything was in chaos, and finally, this new Hanna goddess that just casually arrived out of nowhere and simply asked them to kill a dragon for her while threatening the lives of the kids.

No matter how much Daren tried, he could just not see himself getting along with the gods due to their history, nor with someone like Leona who just follows their commands like their word was law.

If it were up to him, he wanted to let the temples of the gods stay destroyed so he could never have to deal with them again.

But on the other hand, a god is the only way to get Evlin back home, and he owned Evlin more than he could count.

"Godamnit..." Daren whispered as he realized that in the end, he would still need to cooperate with Leona in order to help his friend.

He finally stood up and followed the path Leona had used in the hopes of finding her.

"Leona!!! Leona!!!" he screamed as he advanced.

He was about to shout one more time, but a hand appeared out of nowhere, and closed his mouth while slamming him against the wall.

"Shhhh!!" Leona whispered while locking Daren in place.

"What are you doing!!?" Daren tried to say.

"Don't make any sounds..." she mumbled to him.

The woman finally released Daren after realizing he had calmed down and gestured for him to follow her.

Daren wasn't sure of what was going on but he still obeyed her command out of pure curiosity.

As they continued to progress through the tunnel, Leona finally showed him what she was concerned about.

"Can you see it...?" she asked.

"Yeah..." Daren replied while shivering.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a huge cave with five different holes in opposite directions connecting to different paths. The ceiling was open which revealed the night sky filled with stars and the bright light of the moon in the far off distance.

Inside the cave, a large creature was sleeping in the center of the cave being bathed by the moonlight and snoring very loudly making the entire area shake with its noise.

It appeared to be some kind of giant lizard with dark blue skin, a pair of wings on its back, a long tail that was used to wrap his whole body like a blanket, and a head filled with purple horns and purple hair.

"A dragon..." Daren commented.

"Do you think it's just a regular dragon? Or could it be one of Knucker's underlings?" Leona wondered while trying to not speak too loud.

"Hard to say... He probably dispatched his dragons to guard the temple locations... There is no reason why one of them would be here in the middle of nowhere..."

"Wait a minute... There is one temple that is located on an island..." Leonaremembred.

"There is?"

Leona tried to adjust her position and attempted to peek over the open ceiling after climbing on top of a rock. It was faint but she could make it out just enough the shape of a structure very similar to her own temple right on top of a mountain outside the cave.

"This must be it... There is no doubt about it..." she noted.

"What? What?" Daren asked.

"We are on the island of the temple of the north!"