After securing Annara with a restraining device, Gerri and his team of enforcers proceeded to scour the Darkness Institute once more to look for the second intruder. But even though they spent several hours searching every nook and cranny, they couldn't find any trace of anyone, which naturally left them bewildered.
They tried to interrogate Annara about her accomplice, but the red-haired girl kept her silence. Her attitude, coupled with the fact she was a highly wanted criminal of the Magus Alliance, the Violet Flame enforcer squad decided to sideline the second intruder and prioritize leaving the planet with the much more important captive.
Unbeknownst to them, as their ship took off into the sky, within the secret room where they found Annara, a figure casually walked out of a portal which quickly disappeared.
There were no spots on his body that were not stained with blood. It was in such an extremely terrible state, as if he had just gone through a life and death struggle. However, a smile could be seen on his face as he turned around and looked at the runes shining on the wall.
"Elder Cthulhu, whenever you are ready."
Moments after he spoke, a dark light emerged from the wall. It hovered in the air for a moment before flying up and into his chest.
Emery's body shook slightly when it entered, as an electrifying sensation coursed through him for a moment. Nothing else of importance happened after that other than the voice that came speaking in his mind.
<Being in such a form is exhausting. Quickly find me an alternate place as you promised>
"Of course, Elder. Don't worry, I will certainly do it."
In the past 12 hours, Emery had tried his best to gain the guardian's favor through various displays of strength, and even though he still wasn't able to convince the guardian to help him, he eventually managed to gain the latter's trust.
"Even if you don't choose me as your successor in the end, it is far better for you to get off this abandoned planet."
Only with such an argument, the guardian was finally willing to leave and stay with him until it found a new place.
Emery planned to bring the Khaos guardian to meet Morgana, hoping that maybe if she was around she could help him further convince the beast. If that turned out to be unsuccessful, he would just have to wait until he returned to Earth and reunited with his other soul.
At that time, he would definitely be worthy of becoming the Khaos Champion again. So until then, he was happy that he got to keep the Khaos Gate safe with him for now.
Now that his goal was sort of accomplished, it was time for him to leave Atrium.
It was only then that Emery finally realized that Annara was nowhere to be found.
Remembering her words about the arrival of the enforcers before he found himself in the Khaos Gate, Emery couldn't help feeling anxious about her.
He then quickly rushed out of the Dark Institute, where it did not take him long to find evidence of a battle outside. However, not a single figure of a person could be found in the area. The anxiety within him grew further seeing this.
"Was she caught or did she manage to escape?"
As those questions swirled through his mind, Emery quickly made his way to the hill where the pods had landed. When he saw that the two pods were still there, he immediately knew she was most likely in trouble.
Emery quickly entered the pod and fiddled around according to what he had been told beforehand. Moments later, its thruster ignited and it soared rapidly into the sky, piercing through the planet's atmosphere.
When the pod had left the planet and drifted silently in space, Emery waited anxiously. He could only hope that the pirate ship was still around to pick him up. Fortunately, after half an hour of waiting had passed, the indicator inside the pod started flashing, and he could feel the pod being pulled in one direction.
As the pod's hatch opened, a familiar gold-toothed magus greeted him.
"Wow!! I really thought that you got caught already!"
"What has happened?" asked Emery.
The pirate magus explained about the enforcer ship that had been tailing them and had just left the planet an hour ago. He was actually planning to leave this place if not for the notification that the pod was activated had suddenly appeared.
With this information, Emery was now sure that Annara was caught by the enforcer.
"Can we chase them?" He asked the gold-toothed sorcerer, who responded with laughter.
"Are you being serious now? Chasing an enforcer ship? That's the definition of stupid!"
With them being a pirate ship, the enforcer would definitely immediately call for reinforcements the moment they were spotted, turning the situation from the hunter to the hunted instead.
But then, the pirate magus turned to smile as he said, "Well actually, everything is possible with the right incentives."
The man signaled to Emery that they were totally up for such a job. However, he was currently sorely lacking spirit stones, therefore could only ask them to take him back according to the original deal.
"Of course, that's easy…" He raised his open palm while saying, "I haven't got the rest of the payment yet though."
Emery heaved a sigh at those words. After all, it was Annara who had the spirit stone. Since he knew he couldn't let these people know he couldn't pay them, he could only say, "I will pay you as soon as we get to Golden City."
Upon hearing that, the man's expression turned to frown. "Hmm, I really don't like this…"
"I will definitely pay you. Just take me back first."
It was at this time that one of the crew who was the co-pilot came close to the man and gave him a note while saying, "I have the information you want, Captain."
The man read it and then looked at Emery with an evil smile. "So your friend really is a fugitive."
Undeterred by the stares, Emery asked back, "Does it matter? Aren't you all fugitives as well?"
With a chuckle he said ", I have to say that since you can't pay the return fee, our contract ends here!"
As soon as he said those words, the half-a dozen men quickly surrounded Emery. Staring at the latter, Kotook said, "I wonder if you also have a bounty on your head as huge as your friend"
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