Gambit Of The Living Weapon - Chapter 246 The mystery of the dragon

About how Mia followed her using North’s power, how she challenged Evlin to a battle under the threat of harming her family, how Evlin ended up losing the fight and her body, and how her friends came up with a strategy to save her by calling an army of mages and warriors to face Mia with the help of Evlin’s niece.

Ria’s cheerful expression became cold the more she listened to their explanation.

“I’m so sorry…” she whispered, “all of this happened because of my stupid sister… If only I hadn’t avoided her and took care of that little brat myself when I had the chance… none of this would have happened…”

Evlin noticed her friend’s face becoming more anxious, “Ria, it’s ok… It’s not your fault…”

“But… She was my sister!! My responsibility!!”

“No… She was not… You’re her sister, not her mother… It’s not your job to fix the problems she made, so stop letting this bother you…”

“…”

“Gus, could you bring me closer to Ria, please?” Evlin asked.

“Ah, sure.”

Gustav placed the woman on the bed Ria was laying and she proceeded to muster some strength in her arm to give her a gentle hug while looking at Marcia.

“This little girl over here, THIS is your responsibility! So just focus on making sure she lives a happy life, ok?” Evlin commented with a grin.

“… I will! Thanks, Evie!” Ria replied while hugging her daughter again.

“Still…” Auren interrupted, “I had no idea there was a war taking place… West, why didn’t you tell us??”

The goddess just crossed her arms and glared at him, “what good would that do? It’s not like you two would be of any help with Ria being in the middle of giving birth…”

“S- Still… You should have told us… Our friends were in danger and we knew nothing about it!”

“Who cares? It’s over now and they are all safe and sound…” West continued, followed by taking a glance at Lilith, “Well… most of them anyway…”

Daren noticed the confusion on Auren’s expression and explained that she had lost her sight during her travel to Hana’s lost garden.

“Auren, do you think you can help her? You have the ability to revert time right?”

“Maybe… My power got a little stronger ever since I became a champion… I can now revert things back to at least two weeks!”

Lilith lowered her head in depression, “I lost my sight a month ago…”

“Oh…” Auren gasped, “but… I thought you said Mia declared war on you a week ago…”

“Inside the garden, we entered an area where time moved at a different pace… We spent an entire month in it training Ellie…”

“I… See… I… I’m sorry Lilith…” Auren regretted.

“That wasn’t a dragon, that was Wrath…” Hana commented. She had been silent up until now so the people there almost forget about her presence.

“Wrath…?” Ria repeated.

“One of the seven leaders of my army back when I was one of them…”

West began to shiver, “so the demon leaders are really back?? And they are here?? In this world??”

“Seems like it… I’m not sure how though… I was sure Angela had thrown them into a portal and made them disappear…” Hana noted.

“You sure it was him…?” Gustav asked.

“Positive… I could never forget that annoying way of talking he has… But he never had dragon scales before, that was new… If he really is working for Knucker, he must have received some kind of power from him…”

“Wait…” Ashely gasped, “You used to be their leader, right? Can’t you make them join our side or something?”

“Unlikely… They hate divine beings… If they find out that I became a goddess, they will think I betrayed them… Which… I kinda did, to be honest… And try to skin me alive…”

“… Well… That’s a mental image I did not need in my head…” Ria whispered.

“Does this mean there are more six of these guys out there??” Auren wondered.

“Five actually” Daren corrected, “the demon leader we faced on the kingdom of the south was the demon of sloth, and Evlin killed him…”

“His name is Chuck, thank you very much!” Evlin stated, “Oh! I just realized that I should name all the other six as well!!”

“No, you shouldn’t!!” Everyone present with the exception of Ria commented.

“Oh, you guys are no fun…” Evlin whispered.

Ria took another look at the room and realized that things really had not changed all that much from what they used to be.

“So that’s it then? We going after Knucker and his demon group and kick their asses?”

“It’s not that simple…” Hana commented, “the location of Knucker’s real body is a mystery…”

“Real body…?” Ashley repeated.

“He tends to send out a couple of humanoid avatars that operate under his will, but Knucker’s real body is that of a massive dragon, bigger than this whole city… But after his battle with me and Angela, he got severely injured and went into hiding… I’ve been trying to locate him to this day by chasing his avatars, but any time I get close to them, they just self-destruct and leave me with nothing… I hoped that turning into a goddess would help me find him, but I still had no luck with it… What’s worse, I later found out that gods can’t interact directly with people without a champion… So in a way, turning into a goddess just made my mission even harder…”

“So, how are we going to find him?” Evlin wondered, “do we just wait for his minions to show up or something and force them to talk?”

“Ah!!” Ashley gasped, “That’s a great idea!!”

“It is…??” Evlin wondered.

“We just have to capture one of the sins and make them reveal to us where Knucker’s body is hiding!”

“Hmpf! Easier said than done…” Evlin added, “you saw how powerful that Wrath guy was…”

“Come on Evie!! You just demolished him with your magic not too long ago! You can totally beat them!!” Ashley commented.

“She did??” Ria gasped, “you defeated one of the demon leaders by yourself!!??”

“No! I did not!!!” Evlin corrected while glaring at Ashley for once again putting so much pressure on her, “I just went crazy for a couple of seconds and lost my mind… I don’t even know what happened to me…”

“…” the whole room went silent due to Evlin raising her voice.

“Stop thinking that I can do everything, at least for a second…” Evlin whispered while lowering her head.

“… S- Sorry…” Ashley replied.

Gustav noted that the mood was becoming heavy and tried to change the subject, “by the way… Miss Hana… What do you think is Knucker’s current goal? Why would he steal the demon leaders and… From what I could gather… Turn them into half-dragons?”

Hana began to hold her chin, “He’s probably using them to- Ah!”

Before the woman could answer, her body began to glow and vanished completely. Hana realized what was happening and desperately waved her hand before dissapearing.

“…” everyone kept staring wondering if they should wait for her to appear again or not.

“Uuhh… Is she making a dramatic pause or something…?” Ria wondered.

“Ah!!” West gasped, which made them all aim their eyes at her, “the temple of the East was destroyed!!”

“What!!!??” Leona and Evlin gasped.

Gustav came closer to West, “what are you talking about??”

“Th- The temples are a way to connect the gods with the human world…” West explained, “If the temple is destroyed, the god is forced back into the divine realm until a new one is rebuilt…”

“Someone attacked the temple!!?? But… But the kids are there!! Ellie, Joseph, Claire, and Dia!! They are all there!!” Evlin stated.

“Lance is there too!!” Lilith cried.

“And the rest of the followers!!” Leona noted as well.

“West!!” Daren yelled, “take us to the temple!! Take us there right now!!!”

“What!!? B- But, if you all leave, my temple will be defenseless!!”

“West!!” Daren yelled again.

Ashley then was hit by a sudden thought, “Gustav! Gustav, try to contact South, right now!!”

“Ah!! Right!!” he replied, [South!! South, can you hear me!!??]

[…]

[South!!!]

[…]

“I… I can’t reach him…” Gustav whispered, “Is… Is he gone as well…?”

“I need to go back!! I need to see if the followers are ok!!” Leona shouted.

“And the kids! And Detra!! We gotta see if something happened to them!!” Evlin added, “West!! open a portal, NOW!!!”

“B- But what if we are attacked again!!?? Who’s going to protect my temple?? All of the wind mages that serve my church got defeated by that old Wrath guy when they tried to stop him!!”

“West!!” Evlin yelled again.

“No, wait… She’s right…” Ashley stated, “If we lose West as well, we lose all contact with the gods… and we will have no means of using their portals anymore…”

“But my niece!!”

“And my baby!!”

Both Evlin’s and Lilith’s expression of despair stabbed Ashley’s heart. She wasn’t sure what she should do.

“Gustav!! Can you contact Ellie?? We can find out if they are ok!”

“I- I will try… But we are really far away… I’m not sure we can reach them…”

The telepath was about to use his ability to reach for the diamond mage, but as soon as he started, the entire temple began to tremble, making all of them trip and fall on the floor.

“What was that…??” Marcus wondered.

Evlin raised her head and looked out of the window, where she saw a shadow flying against the sun with a pair of massive wings behind it, much larger than the ones she herself would have when she fused with Sphinx.

It continued to fly around the temple and each time its wings flapped, a huge gust of wind was released that made the entire structure shake.

The shadow moved its head as if it was staring at Evlin as well and began to charge at her with full speed.

It’s massive wings demolished the walls as it entered the room while pieces of debris continued to scatter all over the place.

They all looked as the smoke began to clear and revealed a beautiful young individual with long black hair, dazzling red eyes, a black robe, and dragon wings on its back, so big that it could barely fit the room.

From its gentle face, it was difficult to tell if this was a man or a woman, but once it began to speak, it revealed to have a deep male voice as he took a small bow.

“Hello everyone… I hope you are having a good day! I’m the demon of envy… And I’m here to kill all of you! Hope you don’t mind!”