Chapter 1037: Reaching The Surface
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Alma, and her group, alongside the Unique Skill Users that were rescued by Drake were all brought to the surface by the joint effort of Drake's Slimes and Root, an enormous mass of plants, leaves, and hardened roots and branches with no defined shape, except with the slight appearance of some type of draconic monster, as it had a large dragon-like skull which it used as its "head".
"We are back… Sorry for not being able to help." Sighed Root. "I tried to break through to go to your aid, but Greenwood prepared magic against me, trying to drain away my life energy through death magic items… I never thought he would find my weakness so quickly; Oberon has always been a sharp bastard."
"It's fine… it was still all thanks to Drake, but we are fine now- Eh?" Alma quickly looked around her, finding the entire town of Heaven Port completely emptied of people.
"What the heck happened here?" Hermes walked around, looking into the sea in front of him, and finding Drake and company standing over an enormous frozen landscape.
"Was there a fight here?! Woah, so many giant monsters!" Alma said, opening her eyes wide open. "Oh, that's Drake! Was he defending the city?"
"Those tremors…" Root said. "Don't tell me, was this provoked by the Ruler of the Ocean's Abyss?! Well, your friend managed to defeat that might entity, he's surely a strong Divine Dragon. I wonder if one day I could become near as strong."
"The ruler of what?" Asked Hermes.
"Wait… hold up! Lady Alma! L-Look!" Elma pointed out, as Elena also pointed after her sister.
The silhouettes of what resembled enormous mechs appeared within the horizon.
"That's… no…" Alma muttered. "Greenwood is coming here with his damn robots?! Why now?!"
"He hasn't given up?! Does he wants to recapture the Unique Skill Users?" Hermes wondered. "Now that we are out, we should teleport back to our hideout right away!"
"And leave Drake to do everything?!" Alma asked angrily. "He has done so much for us, look how tired he is! His friends as well… and Greenwood is coming right after he defeated that Ruler of the Abyss or whatever… we can't just leave him be!"
"Alma we almost died!" Hermes said.
"And HE saved our lives! The bare minimum we can do is… help him." Alma said, recklessly. "Also, you used your Unique Skill only like an hour or two ago, you have a cooldown of 12 hours, don't you remember? Even if we wanted, we wouldn't be able to escape, only to run into the forest or something."
"…I guess you're right." Hermes sighed. He always ended forgetting the actual cooldown of his Skill, which was 12 hours between uses, meaning that he could teleport twice a day.
"We cannot escape
. If Greenwood somehow defeats that dragon, we are next, even if we run as fast as we can, Greenwood is always faster." Alma said. She valiantly looked into the horizon, her no-attribute endless mana flowing across her body.
"I don't know what Drake did to my body but I feel completely revitalized. I think I can go for another round…" Alma didn't noticed, but a blue dragon mark appeared in her left hand.
"Little sister?" Callon slowly regained his consciousness, opening his red eyes.
"Callon! Are you alright?" She asked.
"I-I am…" He sighed. "What happened here? Why… why are you so big now? Weren't you a little girl, Alma?" He wondered. "I could only recognize you due to your face. Even as big as you've grown, that annoying bratty face you've got hasn't changed a single bit…"
"You don't remember what has happened?!" Alma asked. "S-Since when? What's the last age I had you remember?"
"…Five? Six?" Callon wondered
"S-So since Greenwood took over your mind that you've never been you." Alma sighed.
"What? Greenwood? That's- Ungh! Aghh!" Callon began to groan in pain, as fragmented memories of what he had forgotten resurfaced. Greenwood's torture, the strange magic machines slowly merging with his body. The agonizing pain of his brain being slowly taken over by something else, completely losing his own free will.
"I-I remember… something… I… What have I done…?! By the gods… Mother and father? Why?! I've… I've tried to kill you so many times…" Callon muttered. "When I had promised our parents I would protect you as your big brother…"
"Hey, there's no time to sob about it now buddy." Hermes said to Callon. "Can you move?"
"Brother…" Alma sighed, hugging Callon. "I knew from the very beginning that you were being controlled… Are you really you and not someone else?"
"I am… me." Sighed Callon. "Sorry Alma… for everything."
"We can talk about that later." Root's voice echoed behind them.
"Right." Hermes said while crossing his arms, he still had beef against Callon because he literally killed him. "You're too weak to be with us, go with the Unique Skill Users outside, bring them to safety into the forest at least, away from the battle that is coming."
"Who are you?" Asked Callon.
"We don't have time for introductions, Callon! Bring those people outside!" Alma ordered her big brother.
"R-Right, alright!" Callon quickly led the people to the outskirts of Heaven Port, while small Plant Clones of Root followed them from behind to protect them if anything happened.
Meanwhile, within Greenwood's base of operations in Alfheim, the elf smiled maliciously, looking a
t Drake from within the mechs he had sent to Jotunheim several hours ago.
"They have arrived just in time! There's no way I'm missing the chance to acquire this Dragon's Unique Skills. I'll do anything I can to get his powers… No matter what!" Greenwood said. "I've not upgraded the technology and fighting patterns of my creations for nothing."
Greenwood smiled maliciously as he saw Drake in the horizon of the view of his mechs. And above all, Alma and her group were there as well. He couldn't help but feel like he couldn't waste such a good opportunity, they were going to throw their lives away merely because they wanted to repay the dragon a favor.
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