"But we have much bigger things to worry about than just ugly dragonlings." The Ancestor glanced at me. "How is Devour? How long till it finishes digesting Control?"
"I have no idea. It is completely dormant now. There are no clues" I said with a shrug.
Grahhhh! Graaahhhh!!! Graaaahhhh!!!
The sound of many, many blue dragons roaring suddenly rang out faintly.
The dragons were on the move. But strangely..
"They are not leaving the lair? They know that we are still here!" I exclaimed with a start.
"Father has a treasure that can, to an extent, aid him to sense the general location of someone he has had close contact with. They know we are still here in this lair." G-Drake calmly dropped a bombshell on us.
"Damn." The Ancestor cursed softly. "How specific is this "general sensing" you're talking about?"
"The treasure becomes more accurate the stronger Father's emotions are about the target, and also the closer the contact Father has had with the target." G-Drake said.
"Then it is safe to assume that he knows we are here. And in that case, we are faced with two very real facts. The world is still safe from the dragons because he won't be leaving anytime soon, and that we are pretty much screwed." The Ancestor said gloomily.
"Not necessarily." G-Drake said. "I know a secret passage that would lead us out of this place."
At that, we all fell silent. The choice that we faced was pretty difficult.
Stay in the blue dragon lair and keep the world safe at massive cost to ourselves, or escape from the lair and risk unleashing the dragons upon the world?
Or... The third choice. Leave the old man behind.
"You both leave now with the dragonling." The Ancestor instantly picked that third choice and commanded us to leave him behind.
Both my big bro and I remained silent.
I was silent because I knew without a shred of doubt that I was leaving, and as hardened as my heart was, it still did not feel good leaving someone behind.
My big bro was silent because he was probably, no, definitely weighing the probabilities of him staying and somehow being able to make an impact and turn things around, against the fact that the Federation still needed him and everything he had to offer.
Was the risk of him dying there worth the potential reward of saving the old man?
"It is not worth it." The old man shook his head at Bruce Pang. "Leave. I can take care of myself. Do not forget your responsibilities. Billions of souls, each far too precious to measure, need you and your leadership. Do not betray their trust."
The old man did not mince words and immediately struck at Bruce Pang's rock solid sense of responsibility.
Bruce Pang's lips twitched slightly, probably holding back a mouthful of curses at the damned old man for mentioning the obvious and fast forwarding his decision process to remove the agonizing internal back and forth that would have served to lessen his guilt slightly.
The Ancestor smiled at him wryly.
"You do not have a moment to lose. Save the ninny whiny goodbyes for if I really die. Go before they discover us. Where is this escape tunnel you mentioned, dragonling?"
"It is right here, at the center of this river." G-Drake said.
"Very good." I nodded in approval at his impressive initiative. "I assume nobody else knows about this escape tunnel?"
"My mother probably knows. But she has no idea I am sworn to you now. So there is no reason to suspect that you have all escaped through this particular passage. We just have to send the Ancestor away first before we escape."
"Drop me someplace nearby and then come back here immediately to escape then." The Ancestor said. "Just far enough to move their attention and focus away from the secret passage."
"There is a better way." G-Drake said calmly.
"Tell us." I commanded him immediately.
G-Drake gave a soft growl of command, and a slight rustling sounded from all around us.
Within seconds, relatively small dragon-like creatures appeared. They were only three meters in size, hornless and with leathery wings that made look like mutated snakes than dragons.
"Wyverns!" The Ancestor exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
G-Drake growled a couple more times, and the largest, four meter long wyvern stepped forward hesitantly.
"Good! With wyverns, I might even be able to mount a counter attack, and resume my mental attack on the blue dragon!" The Ancestor said with an excited gleam in his eyes.
"Good good." Bruce Pang said with relief. "In that case, let's go! Here. Take these treasures with you. You might need them."
Bruce Pang tossed his bulging back of treasures at the old man, who glanced at its inside before nodded once in gratitude.
The fact that Bruce Pang did not hesitate to give all of the treasure to the old man, and the fact the old man did not hesitate to receive it told me many, many more things about them in that instant than the past few days combined.
The old man held a very important role in Bruce Pang's heart, and that the old man's chances of making it out alive from this predicament was actually quite low.
There was nothing much else we could do other than say a simple goodbye.
The Ancestor got onto the navy blue wyvern and pinched a strange flower of sorts that made the Wyvern's eyes glaze for a brief moment. And immediately after that, the wyvern took off with a powerful kick and flew off towards the grassy plains once more, angling towards a different mountain range to our left.
"Let's go." I said to my big bro, and we both entered the pod once more. "Where will this passage lead us to?"
"There is a small portal that will lead us to an underwater cave not far from the real portal's chasm." G-Drake replied.
"Perfect." I said enthusiastically and made myself comfortable in the pod.
"However, that cavern is home to a giant mutated squid. We might need to fight it the moment we exit the portal." G-Drake added.
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