"I'm a little bit confused, Erend," Eccar said amidst their journey through the corridors. Now they were inside Isadora's castle, searching for something they could use to locate Erend's family or perhaps information about Isadora's plans.
Unfortunately, up until now, they hadn't found anything significant.
"About what?" Erend replied, observing a wall around them, searching for clues.
"I saw humans and Elves there earlier. Are they all your friends?"
"Yeah," Erend answered simply. "Why are you asking?"
"I just find it strange because you're friends with both Elves and humans. Aren't Elves known to despise other races?"
"You're right. At least most Elves still hold resentment toward humans. But I'm certain there's a small portion that feels differently," Erend said.
"Well, you saw those three Elves earlier, right? They don't hate me because we've helped each other before."
Erend decided to end the conversation about that and focus on the task at hand. They were searching for something useful to locate Isadora or Erend's family. However, after some time passed, they finally decided to give up.
"This is useless. Don't you have any other ideas?" Erend asked with an irritated tone.
"We could directly search randomly in the domains of other gods and goddesses," Eccar replied. "It might sound harder, but for now, we don't have a choice."
Erend pondered about the issue for a moment, then said, "We don't have to search randomly. Let's go to Svaros."
Eccar shook his head. "I already told you, the god named Svaros won't likely cooperate with other gods. He's too wild even for Chaos Realm standards."
Earlier, Erend had talked to Eccar about Svaros and proposed searching for him. However, Eccar said that Svaros wouldn't be involved with other gods. Even though he attacked Erend, it was merely out of his desire. Eccar was confident that Svaros wasn't connected to the kidnapping of Erend's family.
"Let's just go there and check," Erend insisted. Seeing his determined gaze, Eccar knew he couldn't refuse his request anymore.
"Alright. Let us go there," Eccar said.
So, they left Isadora's castle. Even though all the monsters were already dead, Isadora hadn't returned yet. That indicated that she was still struggling. Or, in the worst-case scenario, she might have successfully found Erend's family and was now doing something terrible to them.
Eccar had opened another rift in front of them. Without wasting any more time, they both entered the rift.
Now, they were standing on black sand littered with bones from various beasts and monsters. In the distance, there were hills and mountains. After Erend focused his gaze, he realized that those mountains and hills were also made from piles of bones.
Erend didn't seem to care much about all of this. He walked ahead of Eccar and started scanning around while activating his [Dragon Eyes].
Eccar followed closely behind Erend without saying anything, understanding how urgent Erend was.
After searching for a while without finding anything, Erend kicked a pile of bones in front of him out of frustration.
"This is the domain of Svaros, he is the god of, uh... I forgot," Eccar scratched his head, looking confused.
"The god of The Fallen Beast," Erend said.
"Right!" Eccar exclaimed. "Let's go see him."
Eccar walked ahead. Erend followed, gritting his teeth. Svaros, Erend vividly remembered the strong animosity he felt when facing him. It was evident how much Svaros despised him. If he was indeed involved in all of this, Erend feared what Svaros might do to his mother and sister.
Erend quickened his pace, now walking as fast as Eccar.
"We need to find him quickly. I'm worried about my family," Erend said.
"Yeah. Let's fly." Eccar spread his wings and took to the air. Erend followed suit.
They flew for several minutes in the barren domain. The air here felt stifling; if they weren't Dragonborn, they wouldn't survive in this place.
During their journey, all they saw were piles of bones forming mountains and black sand. Erend remembered hearing Adrien dream about this place. Thankfully, during that time, he hadn't fallen too deeply under Svaros' influence, or Adrien would just be another person Erend had to save.
"There!" Eccar pointed ahead. When Erend looked in the direction he indicated, he saw Svaros' castle standing tall amidst a desert of bones.
"Let's meet this creature." Erend darted towards the castle, with Eccar following closely.
Back on Earth, Conrad and Thomas were now in General Lennard's office. The General was holding his head in his hands after hearing their explanation. The computer monitor still displayed CCTV footage from the presidential palace that they had hacked.
"What do you suggest?" General Lennard asked, his frustration evident in his voice.
"We need to restrain the president, sir," Conrad said.
"How? Based on what I've seen here, the president now has superpowers that can kill a dozen people in a matter of seconds."
Conrad and Thomas exchanged glances. Then Conrad said, "We're not entirely sure yet, sir. But I believe I can reactivate my Magic abilities and use them to fight against him."
Upon hearing that, General Lennard looked up with hope in his eyes. "If that's true, then you have my permission. But do it quickly because it seems the president will be coming out soon."
"We'll get to work on it right away, sir," Thomas said.
Conrad and Thomas left the General's office and headed to the lab where Thomas had stored all the data and equipment salvaged from the secret facility.
"I'll set something up first," Thomas said before heading to another part of the lab.
After Thomas left, Conrad sat alone in the room. Slowly, a grin formed on his face.
"After this, I'll be able to contact Eliril again."
Previously, Conrad had felt depressed because he couldn't communicate with Eliril after losing his Magic powers. But the Magic awakening presented a new opportunity for him to regain his abilities.
His current priority was undoubtedly saving humanity. After witnessing humans killing each other due to Magic's awakening, Conrad realized he needed to stop that first. Only after that would he contact Eliril and ease his longing.
A few minutes later, Thomas finished setting something up in another area. They returned to the room and moved on to the next step.
"Are you sure you only need this?" Thomas asked as he saw Conrad entering the transparent chamber. The chamber was an early prototype of the one in the destroyed secret facility.
"Yes. I just need something to isolate me from the outside world," Conrad said.
Thomas nodded. "Alright."
Thomas sealed the chamber, cutting Conrad off from the outside world. There was still proper air circulation inside the chamber, so Conrad didn't need to worry about running out of breath.
Conrad still remembered his first time learning Magic with Eliril. She had said that he could start sensing the Magic created within himself after she gave him a seed of her own Magic.
"I just have to do the same
Conrad began to close his eyes and concentrate. In his mind, he felt the Magic energy that had formed within him and focused on it for a few minutes before he finally got something.
However, Conrad soon realized that what he was obtaining wasn't just his Magic power. There was something else that felt evil and corrupted.
"This must be the Magic from the Chaos Realm."
Conrad still didn't know exactly what the Chaos Realm was. He hadn't even heard about it from Eliril. However, Conrad now understood that it was something dangerous.
Conrad pushed away the energy from the Chaos Realm and refocused his mind on his own Magic. Because he was accustomed to it, Conrad didn't find it difficult to do so.
A moment later, he had regained his Magic. A smile formed on Conrad's lips.
"Just a little more."
Ragna, one of Svaros' generals, saw the arrival of Erend and Eccar from a window in the castle.
Initially, he thought that the two figures might be envoys from one of the gods or goddesses. However, as they drew closer, Ragna could see that they were entirely different.
Their humanoid forms, adorned with wings, immediately sparked suspicions in Ragna. As one of the four esteemed generals tasked by Svaros to safeguard this palace, he couldn't remain idle in the face of two figures who unmistakably appeared to be intruders.
Ragna lifted his great axe, his skeletal legs moving quickly as he headed outside.
Erend and Eccar descended before the skull-adorned fortress of Svaros. Right then, Ragna, with the appearance of a three-meter skull wearing armor, emerged from the castle. His massive axe rested upon his shoulder.
"(Who are you?)" Ragna's voice rang out with a tinge of anger.
Speaking in his native tongue, Erend couldn't grasp the words, but he could certainly feel the intensity of the emotion.
"He's asking about our identities," Eccar conveyed Ragna's words.
"Oh," Erend replied. "Just go ahead and inform him about our purpose."
"We've come to find Svaros. Is he home?" Eccar addressed Ragna.