275 How many will remember you?

The demon dryad just sighed at his hostility, "Knucker saw that you were coming here, and asked me to let you know that the endgame is about to start..."

"Oh... How sweet or Knucker... Did he sent a basket of gifts as well??"

Dria didn't show any emotion, "Ah ha... It was so funny I forgot to laugh... Anyway... You are kind of a pain so I'm going to kill you now, okay...?"

"What!?" Gustav gasped as he saw Dria turning her arm into a blade and jumping to slash him in half.

Gustav reacted by slightly tapping Sphinx's neck and the beast jumped out of the way immediately, making Dria fall on the snow.

Dria raised her blade and gazed at Gustav distancing himself from the mountain.

"Sphinx! Let's get out of here!!" he shouted.

The griffin tried to turn around so they could fly away but the dryad turned her arms into long vines and latched onto the golden beast's leg.

"Sphinx!!" Gustav cried.

He pulled his blade to slash Dria's arm but the girl acted faster and used her other arm to latch onto him as well.

"It's not nice to ignore a girl after she goes out of her way to meet up with you..." Dria commented while pulling the two back to the mountain.

"Ugh!!!" the blond man cried as he crashed against the snow.

"Just stop, Mr. horse... You can't beat me... You never could..." Dria whispered while still holding her depressed eyes.

"Why did Knucker send you after me!!?" he questioned while standing up.

Dria rolled her eyes, "Oh, gee... I wonder why the guy that wants to hide the location of his true body would want to kill the mind-reader that can look into people's minds and learn the location of his true body..."

"Ah... I see..."

"Yeah... Congrats cowboy... You finally got someone to give a damn about you! Now stay put so I can kill you!!"

Dria pulled her vines back and changed both into blades one more time as she dashed towards Gustav.

The telepath pulled his own short blades and parried her attacks.

"What!?" He gasped as he gazed at Dria's body safely getting in contact with his metal weapons, "Why aren't you burning!?"

"Blessed metal alone doesn't work on me anymore..." Dria replied while pushing Gustav back with her strength, "I'm also a dragon now! The demon dragon of Sloth!"

Gustav lowered his center of gravity and kicked Dria away using her own strength against her.

"You're a dragon...? You of all things??"

Dria just smiled as if she agreed with his reaction, "I know right? Knucker is really scratching the bottom of the barrel..."

"You're a demon sin and a dragon, and you're still having so much trouble with me alone?" Gustav wondered while jumping sideways from one of Dria's vertical swings.

"Oh shut up... It's not like you're worth going all out anyway..." she replied.

She turned her blades into vines and stabbed the snow beneath her feet. Gustav could feel the ground shaking and once again successfully dodge her attack as a wave of vines started to appear right where he was standing.

"You're just like me... The one member in the group nobody cares about... So just drop dead already so I can go home..."

Gustav began to analyze Dria's odd behavior and realized that something was indeed wrong. All the demon dragons he had seen were so powerful that they could destroy an entire temple on their own, and yet, Dria had barely managed to put a scratch on him.

Why had she not killed him yet? There is no way Gustav was so full of himself that he would assume he was stronger than her current power level.

"Is something wrong, Dria? Did Knucker forgot to take you for a walk and left you stuck at home?"

"Oh... Jokes about me being a lapdog... Soooooo original... I totally haven't heard that a bazillion times by now..."

Dria readied herself to strike again, but the moment she was about to do so, Gustav shouted "Now!!", and suddenly, Sphinx appeared right on top of her and buried the girl using its massive weight.

"Ugh!! Let go of me, you overgrow cat!!"

Gustav walked closer to the two with a little bit of confusion on his face, "There is no way beating you was that easy... What are you scheming?"

Dria just sighed, "Oh, who cares... Knucker will just kill everyone anyway... Just let me kill you so we both can stop wasting our time..."

Gustav raised an eyebrow and began to touch Dria's face with his hand, "Don't mind if I do..."

He then began to activate his telepathy powers and started to look deep inside Dria's mind.

He saw her thoughts, her memories, her inner secrets, everything about her that made her who she was, and in doing so, Gustav finally understood why the green girl was behaving like she had lost any will to fight during their struggle. It's because she had.

"What's this...?" Gustav whispered as he continued to dive deep into her soul.

He observed how during these last six months Knucker had treated her like trash, always using her to vent his anger and frustration, constantly stepping on her, beating her up, insulting, mocking, and even torturing the plant girl just to pass time.

Dria tried her best to please her master, but his agony during Evlin's absence, during a period of time being unable to utilize his ability to see the future, almost drove the dragon insane, and his insanity eventually turned into rampages and outbursts of rage.

Gustav saw images from Dria's point of view of her begging Knucker to stop while his orange eyes would glare down at her as he asked 'Where is the mage!!? Why isn't the mage back yet!!? Why did you not bring me back the mage yet!! Are you conspiring against me!!?? Are you!!??' as he continued to torment her.

"What... What is this...?? What happened to him!!??"

Dria sighed while still trying to get Sphinx out of her back, "He went mad... Is what happened... That guy spent his whole life living in multiple realities... Always looking into the future, always trying to predict and control how things would turn out... But then, all of sudden, his power disappears... And he gets stuck in the present, unable to see any other reality... "

Gustav was starting to understand. He remembered that Daren also took some time to a life without his curse after he lost the ability to turn into a beast at night. So much power vanishing all at once must not have been an easy thing to adapt to for someone like Knucker.

"So now he just lashes out on his underlings?" Gustav wondered.

"No... Just me..." Dria corrected.

"And why is that...?"

Dria sighed for a moment and then tried to raise her head to stare at Gustav, "I told you... I'm just like you... I'm the disposable one... I'm not strong like the other demons... My only role was to infect the minds of the people close to stick-girl and lead her to the timelines Knucker wanted... But that's all done now... I'm basically the errand girl right now, just doing whatever the hell my boss comes up with on the spot..."

"Why don't you just leave then? You always run away when things get thought..."

"You think I don't want to?? You think traveling to the top of this stupid mountain just to see your dumb face is my idea of having a good time?? I can't disobey him! Not this time... My dragon body has taken over most of my being and is forced to obey Knucker's command... I can't say 'no' to him... He will never let me say 'no' again after I hesitated during that crazy portal fiasco..."

Gustave tried to use his power again and managed to confirm that she was not lying. Dria was Knucker's slave in every way possible, be it to fight for him, die for him, or just get beat up for him.

"So what's the plan Dria? You just gonna keep following Knucker until he gets tired of you and let you go?"

"You talk like I had a choice... Also, what do you even care? I'm a demon! You guys hate demons, right?"

"We do... And I really hate you in particular... I still remember all the things you did to me... To my friends..." Gustav admitted.

"Then... What's there to be said? You think talking to me will give me a change of heart? I came here to kill you, and I WILL kill you!" she stated.

Gustav was starting to get really upset about Dria's behavior, "You really do fit well with the sin of sloth..."

"Excuse me...?"

"Have you ever tried? Like... At all? To do things yourself? Or was your whole life nothing but a set of plans that others came up with?"

Dria began to glare at the lad, "Oh, I'm sorry... Is the way I live my damn life bothering you by any chance!!??"

"It is, honestly!! It just annoys me that after all you did, when all is said and done, you're just this pathetic loser who doesn't even try to do anything on your own! I can't believe my family was almost split apart by someone so embarrassing..."

"Hey... Watch your words..."

"Or what!? Are you gonna go home and ask Knucker for permission to talk back to me?"

The ground started to shake beneath Dria's body, "I'm serious... Knock it off..."

"You keep saying that we are the same... That I'm just a background character in someone else's story... But guess what? When everything is over, I know that there will be those who will remember me... Tell me Dria... Who will ever remember about you after you are gone?"

Sphinx looked down and began to sense the trembling getting stronger.

"I said knock it off..."

"If you really hate the direction your life took, then freaking do something about it! Stop blaming Knucker or anyone else for your own failures... You didn't end up in this situation because of bad luck or anything like that... You ended up like that because that's what you always were... What you turned yourself into..."

"Don't say it!!!"

"A lapdog..."

At that moment, the ground began to erupt with gigantic vines that circled Dria like green pillars. One of them slapped Sphinx off her back and finally freed her from its weight.

"Say that one more time..." Dria dared as her eyes turned from red to orange, "Come on!! Go ahead!! Mock me again! Insult me to my face!!"

"Are you going to kill me, just like Knucker ordered, Dria?" Gustav asked while standing firm.

"I'm going to kill you because you pissed me off!!" she replied as she launched her storm of enormous vines after him.

Just like before, Gustav was able to dodge all of it, but he noticed that Dria was not stopping her attacks this time, so he was forced to keep moving at all times.

"You think I didn't have goals!!? You think I didn't have plans!!?? That I don't know what I am!!?? I wanted to do so many things!! I never wanted to become this!! But it didn't matter what I did, I always ended up in the hands of someone bigger than me!! I never had a choice!! I'm tired of following everyone around all the time!! I'm tired of just obeying orders!! I'm just so, so tired of my life!!! But I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!"

"These are the words of a lazy coward... It's not your fault that you ended up this way?? Why didn't you just took another path? Why not instead of aiding the people you hate you actually try to face them!!?"

"Are you insane!!?? You think I could ever go up against the likes of Knucker? Or the north god? Or the demon leader??"

"Evlin did! So did Ellie! And Ashley! And Lilith, Daren, Ria, Auren... They all tried to go up against impossible odds and came out on top!! All because they never gave up!! Even the old east goddess tried to be better! What have YOU done Dria?? How have you ever tried to be better?? To be brave??"

"SHUUUUT UP!!!!!!" Dria yelled as her orange eyes began to glow with a powerful light. Her body began to grow bigger and bigger. Poison started to drip from her mouth.

"So this is the power of a dragon..." Gustav whispered as he watched Dria slowly transforming into a horrendous beast.

He wondered if maybe he didn't push his luck a bit too much, but he could tell that Dria's power was much superior than anything he could handle. She could have killed him and Sphinx any time she wanted, and since this was her mission, survival was never an option. But now, all her focus was on him, so at least Evlin's pet could get out alive.

[Her attention is completely on me right now, Sphinx...] Gustav whispered into Sphinx's mind using his ability, [Escape while you can! You need to stay by Evlin's side!]

The golden monster began to cry in objection, he didn't want to leave Gustav behind.

[If we try to leave together, she will kill us both... Please, Sphinx! Leave this place and return to Evlin!!]

Dria's figure was now so big that Gustav could barely make out her current shape. All he could see were Dria's eyes staring down at him with immense fury.

[She needs you! Go!!]

The griffin finally released one final cry as he began to fly away using the opening his friend created for him.

Dria was so fixated on Gustav that she completely forgot about the beast, allowing him to fly away safely from her grasp.

"You never planned on getting out of here alive... Did you...?" Dria's voice asked as it came out from that humongous body.

"I did at first... But I soon noticed that I had no chance against you... But at least I would like to be killed by someone who wants to kill me... Not by someone that has to kill me..."

"Good for you..." Dria commented while raising her gigantic claw, "Let's test your theory and find out how many people will remember you!"

Gustav saw the attack incoming at a much greater speed than before. He would never be able to block it, and he would never be able to dodge it in time. This was the end for him.

At that moment, he began to think back to everything that led to that point and where he ended up at.

'Killed by a demon dragon plant all alone on top of a mountain of snow...' he thought to himself, 'Not really the most honorable way to go...'

He then also started to think about all the friends he made, all the battles he faced, all the enemies he encountered, and all the places he visited.

Lastly, he began to think about the crying face of one particular girl, a crying face that he caused to happen, a sin that deep inside he had never forgiven himself for.

He slowly saw that face changing from a crying one to one of the girl smiling at him, and all of sudden, her words started to flow into his mind as he saw themselves standing on the edge of a cliff at night while enjoying the light of the stars at night.

The night when they finally properly made peace with one another.

[["So, can we finally be real friends now, Gustav?"

"Yes! I would be honored!"

"About time you dumb-dumb... Just try to rely on me more if you ever need someone to talk to!"

"I'll remember that, thanks!"]]

Gustav then realized that his sin had been forgiven a long, long time ago, even if he had never accepted it himself.

"Man... I really am a dumb-dumb..." he commented while blood dripped from his mouth as he gazed at the now massive hole in his chest.

Dria was staring down at him, now back in her normal form, with blood on her right hand dripping on top of the snow and drenching it in red while Gustav dropped on his knees.

She couldn't bear the fact that even now he was still showing that smiling face to her. She could feel no negative emotions coming from him, nothing that could feed her demonic hunger for negative emotions. Gustav was completely at peace with himself.

"You really were a weird guy... Mr. Gustav..." she commented.

"I come from a family of weirdos... Of course I would be a weirdo myself..." he replied as suddenly he couldn't sustain his own weight anymore and fell on the snow, buried beneath it as if he was getting ready to sleep in a bed of clouds.

He could feel his eyes closing and his body getting heavier. Too heavy to stand, too heavy to talk, too heavy to move. And yet, at the same time, he could also sense a strange comfort surrounding him.

"Strange... It doesn't hurt... At all..." he whispered, his final whisper, before he could finally start to rest.

Dria turned around and started to walk away after having finished her mission.