Chapter 365: Farewell

Chapter 365: Farewell

"It got away. I wasn't able to stop it"

These words stung more than anything. Dug felt empty. All remaining energy left his body and he became numb. All emotions, hopes, and dreams, simply disappeared like thin morning mist. He felt nothing.

Now it was really over. Even Gustav lowered his head and sighed. Truth really hurt like a bitch sometimes.

"I managed to get just a few bottles of blood, sorry," Gerald explained shortly and handed over two full vials of burning blood.

"Huh?" The men, especially Dug, blinked at him in confusion a few times. They understood the individual words that were coming out of his mouth, but together they made no sense. A few bottles of blood? What was he talking about? The Phoenix was barely hurt when it escaped, how could he collect so much blood by running after it.

It had to be something else Some rational explanation that

"Here!" Gerald placed a vial in Dug's grasp, leaving the searing heat from the eternally hot liquid to do its thing.

Like a starving man tasting a candy bar for the first time in years, the heat from the glass slowly woke him up, returning some life to the empty eyeballs. The heat was real. Dug felt it. He squeezed the bottle and felt the heat coming out of it. It hurt, his hand was in pain, but he couldn't let it go.

He was afraid that if he opened his hand, the dream would end, and he would be brought back to the cold reality.

"Hellooo? Are you alright?" Gerald waved in front of his face but received no response. "Here, take the other one as well, I got mine already." He pushed the second vial into Dug's other hand and then opened a pouch, giving it to Gustav.

"I gathered some feathers on the way back, here, you can have them." He handed over some, but not all, of what he collected. There was only so much he could realistically make use of, and he didn't need money, so why not be a little generous and collect some good karma. Not that he believed in that stuff, but hey

Then out of nowhere, a wild Dug appeared and attacked him! The man threw himself at him and tried to squeeze the life out of him by crushing him with his hands.

"Oof! What are you-?"

They rode the Earth Dragons all the way back to the Wailing Canyon where they returned them to their rightful owner. Luckily none of the beasts died so they were good on that front. After everything was settled and they refilled their provisions, they returned to the surface. But that's where their paths split. Dug's gang went towards the west, while Gerald planned on returning back home which was to the north.

"Gerald" Dug called out to him and came close, taking out his expensive-looking box. "I want you to have it. It was supposed to be used against the Phoenix, but now Anyway, thank you for your help."

Gerald was rendered speechless. That was supposed to be an extremely powerful and hard-to-get weapon. How could it be so easily handed over?

However, Dug insisted. And it was best if he didn't bring it back home with him, so giving it away to Gerald seemed like the best idea. He was strong enough to protect it, but also wouldn't so easily fall to the allure of its destructive power.

Yeah right

"Well Alright then, thank you!" Gerald accepted the gift. "But I can't just let you go empty-handed. Now tell me, do you like using magic?"

His question resulted in chuckles from the rest. Dug also laughed, "What kind of question is that? Of course, I like magic, everybody does!"

"Good!"

The wooden box vanished from Gerald's hands and in its stead, many vials appeared. There were two colors of liquid inside, and he handed them over to the stupefied Dug.

"What is this?" he asked, confused but intrigued.

"A gift. For you and your men. It will help you with your magic," Gerald winked mysteriously. "But I wouldn't advise showing it to anyone else"

He said much and almost nothing at the same time. It was just a few vials of Mana Elixir and Potion of Focus. A small parting gift and a thank you for everything they have done for him as well as the good times they spent together. He then turned around and walked away. Dug was left holding the potions in his grasp, and had only one thing left to say, "Appreciate it, brother! Take care!"

"Farewell!" Gerald shouted back, only half turning his head, and slowly disappeared into the distance, swallowed by the gently swirling dust and sand.

The two men would never see each other again.