Gambit Of The Living Weapon - Chapter 257 Night escape II

“Ria!!” Evlin screamed as she saw her friend in danger.

Ria herself saw the beast charging wildly at her and pulverizing even more of the castle much to the king’s despair.

“Aaaahhh!! My castle!!! Stop destroying my castle!!!”

Auren leaped forward to try and stop the dragon with another barrier of energy, but like before, it proved to be harmless against Wrath’s powerful scales.

Ria used her own power to create a shield beneath their feet that propelled them out of the way, making the dragon crash against the wall and completely demolishing it.

This small moment of panic made Ria lose her focus and ended up making the portal she struggled so much to open disappear.

“Oh, no…” Ria gasped.

“Evlin…” said Ashley, who was still lending a hand to her sister so that she wouldn’t fall on the ground, “Do you have any strength left…?”

“Barely anything…” Evlin admitted, “But I doubt any of my spells could be of much use against Wrath…”

“What about Ria?”

“Ria?”

“You used your magic once to increase Gustav’s power so he could spread his purification throughout the whole south kingdom, right? Can you share some of it with Ria so she can make another portal faster?”

“M- Maybe… But I told you… I’m almost out of juice…”

“Just try to give it a little bit… Just enough to help us get out of here!”

“I- I’ll try…”

Wrath’s head appeared from the cloud of smoke that was hiding the hole he created on the wall, and soon he once again stepped forth to enter the palace.

“You’re running out of time, crossbow girl!” Knucker mentioned, “Time to make your decision! Will you accept my offer and go home? Or will you take your chances and continue to gamble with everyone’s lives?”

Evlin glared at him, “I don’t believe in gambles anymore…”

She then locked eyes with the only person in that room that could save her right now.

“KING OF GREAYART!!!”

“Ah!? W- What!!??” the king gasped once he returned to reality from thinking about how much the repairs of his castle would cost.

“Between Knucker and me… Who do you hate more right now?? The girl that ran away from you? Or the guy that brought a dragon into your house??”

The king glared at Knucker for a moment.

“Oh… We are on this timeline…” Knucker whispered realizing what Evlin’s plan was.

The king then stood up and raised his staff while charging it with lightning magic, the first magic he ever learned from his old teacher, Xadi.

“All soldiers!!! Bring me Knucker’s head!!” he screamed while releasing a powerful blast of thunder magic at the white-haired man.

“Oh boy…” Knucker whispered while gazing at the attack coming at him.

“Wrath!! You moron, I’m just an avatar!! Forget about me and grab the crossbow mage!!!” Knucker yelled.

Evlin and Ashley used this chance to rush closer to Ria so they could move on with their plan while Wrath was distracted.

“Ria!! Grab my hand right now!! I’m going to boost your power!!” Evlin stated.

“O- Ok!!” Ria replied as she touched the mage with the hand that was equipped with Marcus in his gauntlet form.

Evlin tried to focus but, as she imagined, she had barely any power left.

“Sphinx!!”

She tried to call for her pet who was still waiting outside so she could fuse with him and get access to his magic, but once the griffin came closer, he began to shiver at the sight of Evlin.

“Sphinx…? Sphinx, come on!! I need you!!”

The golden monster remained still. Just looking at Evlin and thinking about getting chained up again was sending shivers all over its body.

Evlin knew it was just a matter of time before Wrath charged again, so she tried to use the only other thing she could think of.

She closed her eyes and began to focus.

‘Fire ladies… Are you there…?’ she whispered in her mind.

[Let… Us… Out… ]

Evlin didn’t want to do this, but if they were to survive, she would need to ask for help from her own powers. The same powers that were trying to come alive at the cost of burning her body. She was hoping that her current drained state would allow her to tap into this power without too much risk.

[Let… Us… Out!!!] the powers mumbled again.

Evlin’s whole body was shaking in fear, but she still needed to finish her mission, ‘I can’t do that… You are my powers… You belong to me… And I need you to help me right now!!’

[LET… US… OUT!!!!]

‘I said no!! I’m the one in charge, so you better start listening to me!! Unless you want to become dragon food, give me enough power to get me and my friends out of here right now!!’

[…]

Evlin suddenly felt her skin burning, very similar to what happened when she faced Wrath in the city of the west and when she destroyed the roof of the west temple during Envy’s attack. Although, this time, it seemed like it was on a much smaller scale.

‘Good girls!! Mommy is proud!’ Evlin praised.

The mage then tried to use her power-sharing magic and sent out a bit of power for Ria and Marcus.

“Ah!! I can feel it!! I think I’m ready to make another portal!!” Ria replied.

She gave Cia for Auren to hold and began to charge energy into her hand to open a scar, but when Evlin took another look at her palm, she realized that Ria had terminal fire coming out of it.

“What the…” she whispered.

Ria began to open her portal, except this time, instead of being made of some kind of golden energy like usual, it was glowing with the colors of terminal power.

“S- Something is wrong…” Ria noted.

The portal wasn’t revealing any location, it simply showed a strong blinding light while unleashing small sparks of energy as if it was unstable and about to explode.

Evlin realized that her terminal power must have been too much for Ria to use while armed with Marcus.

“Ria!! Ria, let go of me!!” Evlin yelled.

She tried to jump away from her friend and almost fell on the floor before Auren managed to catch her.

“Evlin!! Evlin, what’s happening!!?” Auren shouted.

“I think-”

Before Evlin could finish her sentence, one of the sparks from Ria’s scar managed to strike them and teleported the two away from there.

“Evlin!!?? Auren!!??” Ria gasped.

“Ria!! You gotta close this portal!!” Ashley yelled right before being hit by a spark herself and being teleported away next.

“Ashley!!” Ria screamed.

She tried to close the scar but it was too powerful for her. The woman saw even more displays of energy flying around and rushed to grab her daughter who was just lost with no idea where her father went.

“No… No, no, no, no… No!!” Knucker repeated while gazing at the situation.

More sparks of energy continued to fly and teleporting Daren, Gustav, Lilith, and Leona who were still unconscious on the ground.

“Stop it!!” Knucker screamed as he observed Evlin and her group escaping from him one by one.

Ria looked at the portal while holding her baby close to her chest and praying that everything would work out.

“Dria!! Don’t let her run away too!! Grab her!!!” Knucker ordered.

The dryad started to move but once she gazed at how fragile the portal looked, she began to worry about what might happen to her if she was hit by that.

“What are you waiting for?? Capture her!!”

“Are you crazy?? I have no idea if it’s safe to get closer to that!!”

“You work for me you useless plant!! Do what I say!!”

“…” Dria felt hesitation. The words from Evlin and her group continued to fly over her head. How she was always someone’s dog just following orders without getting a say in the matter.

“DRIA!!!” Knucker shouted again.

“I- I- I can’t do it!!” she replied.

Ria, Cia, and Sphinx finally got hit by a blast of energy as well and, just like the others, they were all teleported away from the castle.

As soon as they left, the portal became even more unstable and finally blew up.

Knucker, Dria, Wrath, the king, and all of his soldiers were then pushed away by the impact and watched as the remains of the castle continued to fall apart even more.

“You…” the king grumbled while looking at Knucker, “This is all your fault!!!”

The man with orange eyes just stood up and gazed around to confirm that indeed, his prey had escaped.

“This did not go as I wanted…” he whispered.

The king released another magic blast but Wrath just stood in the way once again to protect him.

The dragon aimed his fangs at the king and readied himself to swallow him, but Knucker just raised his hand to signal him to stop.

“Don’t! I still need him…”

He then moved towards Dria who was hiding her head under her palms without noticing that the portal had closed already.

She raised her face to see Knucker glaring at her with an expression she never saw him making before. It was a very similar expression to the way the previous demon of sloth looked at her when she betrayed him.

“You just refused to follow my orders in the middle of a moment that could completely ruin a plan that I’ve been working on for years… Give me one reason to stop Wrath from chewing on you!”

“…” Dria felt her entire body trembling, “I- I can fix this!!”

Knucker stepped on her face, “You better!!”

The white-haired man then kicked Dria away and took a deep breath to recover his composure. He then gazed at the king and began to march towards him.

“Your highness…” he said to the young man glaring at him, “I think you and I should have a small talk…”