"Then what about you?" Arthur ignored this point and decided not to dig for an ancient history buried and forgotten as it seemed.
"I will go after my dear auntie," Aemie said with a bitter smile, "she is a family, yet despite all my tolerance and forgiveness she still seemed to take me for a foolish nephew."
Arthur gave her a long glance before sighing, "I don't think that going directly after her is wise."
"Why?" Aemie crossed her arms, "don't tell me you are worried about me."
"It's not… listen," Arthur paused before adding, "one like her won't take such a big step without many backups. She even sacrificed her daughter just to get you."
"Your point?" Aemie's face didn't change as she waited to hear what he wanted to say.
"Even after taking those obvious agents out of the picture, more hidden ones will slip away your fingers… You'll lose either way so why not wait for us to come and regroup?"
"And what difference do you think you can make?" Aemie shook her head, "you are weak… I'm still amazed you came all this distance without getting yourself killed."
Arthur turned his eyes towards Nicole. "Don't use her, she can't help," Aemie stepped to stand between him and her, "I will move the moment I take down all her agents. If I wait, she will escape."
"Where exactly?" Arthur slowly asked, trying to reason with her, "the entire planet is sealed by your protective shield, she can't get out."
"It's not safe to let her loose," Aemie said in determination, "I will take my chances, thanks for worrying and let's get outside."
Arthur could only succumb to her wish. He waved his hand in the air and the portal appeared once again. "Go," he said while walking through it last.
"Guards," the moment he went there he heard Aemie shout. He turned to her in question while Nicole's face turned ashen white.
"So you were so much interested in this ant not because of what he claimed but because of this… I have to say this is something I never counted on before."
The moment he knew something was wrong he heard the familiar voice of the old lady. She was standing on his back, and when he turned to see her he found a group of fifty mages standing around her.
"I was getting worried. The moment I came here and didn't see your corpse or my daughter I knew something was wrong," the old lady said in a vicious tone while her face showed a very brutal smile. "It turned out like I feared… oh daughter, your heart always stood in between any greatness you might have."
"Greatness in betraying her master," Aemie stepped forward while putting Nicole and Arthur behind, "I know a lot of things about you auntie, but a traitor wasn't one of them. What happened to you?"
"Stop your pathetic empathy, a loser and dead mage like you don't have the right to criticize me."
Aemie glanced around while Arthur whispered, "how strong are they?"
"The best," Nicole slowly answered, "they are part of the special forces that worked under Aemie's orders."
"What about the rest?" Arthur asked.
"I took them down," the old lady said in an evil tone, "can't let anyone interfere with the beautiful meeting with my nephew here. That reminds me of those pathetic guards who are lying dead now outside your precious room."
Aemie's eyes narrowed while Arthur felt bad omen about this.
'There is no way but to run,' the golden dragon warned in an urgent tone.
'Ding! I can't agree more,' the system said.
'I won't leave without Aemie,' Arthur said in determination, 'losing her meant losing everything.'
'It's either stay and die or run and live to fight another day,' the golden dragon tried to be cold and ruthless, but he failed in persuading Arthur.
'Letting her die means the fall of such a stronghold in the hands of the dark mages. I can't let that happen! The moment that bitch seizes control over the clan the enemies will flood the world and we won't find anywhere to escape to.'
"Easy there," As Arthur was having this argument with his system and golden dragon, Aemie tried to move yet the old lady warned her. "If I were you I would consider safely passing the rule to me, this way no blood will be spilled."
"Don't listen to her," Arthur jumped the next moment as he grabbed her shoulders, "let's run and fight another day."
"Stop them!" the old lady screamed yet she was a bit late. The next moment Arthur took Aemie and Nicole inside his garden world while he vanished with them.
"Why?" Aemie screamed in rage yet the next moment Arthur was gone.
Then he reappeared again.
"What the hell?!" Nicole was speechless yet Arthur vanished again. He kept doing this for a long half an hour non-stop and without exchanging a single word with them.
He was trying to run away and it seemed to be harder than he thought. Everytime he used the portal to shift places, he would be surrounded by many mages of the old lady side.
It was a close call, yet he kept jumping like this until he finally exited the palace he was held captive at and found a large camp nearby.
"Tell me you have some people you trust in the nearest camp to the palace," the moment he appeared after half an hour he didn't disappear as he shouted at Aemie with short breaths.
He didn't have time to even rest. He kept doing that to evade his pursuers, yet he failed to shake them off.
They were more stubborn and far more relentless than he thought.
"That's the main guard camp," Aemie slowly said, "did you manage to get there?"
"I'm close," Arthur tried to catch his racing breaths, "but be ready, I don't want to be much delayed or else they might annihilate the entire camp before we can reach there."
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om