"'The Eye of Galadra' has been unusable for a long time now, ever since we lost contact with Lady Michelle. I'm here this time specifically to say goodbye to you."
The voice of the newcomer's reply sounded extremely familiar. I focused for a closer look—and it wasn't anyone else. The one standing on the platform and speaking to the dragon was Fernando, whom I hadn't seen in ages.
Fernando, as one of Lady Michelle's most capable lieutenants, had made Adrian and me suffer plenty in the past. But my strength had grown a lot since then, so even if I ran into him again, I wouldn't be afraid.
However, the two of them were talking at full volume, and their voices instantly caused a commotion. Many of the human underlings sleeping soundly on the ground were startled awake, and we intruders nearly got exposed because of it.
Fortunately, as soon as we sensed things going wrong, we all retreated in time and hid in a dimly lit corner. We barely avoided the immediate danger.
The good news was that the bandits clearly already knew Fernando's identity. They were probably so terrified by the deep-blue dragon's overwhelming presence that, after the brief scare, quite a few of them only muttered a few complaints, rolled over, and went back to sleep. For the time being, it didn't raise any further alarm.
The bad news was much more troublesome: Fernando's arrival and the deep-blue dragon waking up meant our search for the hostages was bound to become far more difficult. Under the noses of experts above the seventh tier, any unusual movement—no matter how small—could be noticed. And the way those two acted, they looked like old friends who had known each other for years. It seemed they still had a lot to talk about, which would likely drag on for quite some time.
"Do you remember that mysterious organization I mentioned to you last time?"
Facing the deep-blue dragon's surprise at his sudden farewell, Fernando thought for a moment, then decided to explain everything from the beginning. "They appeared out of nowhere on the Dark Continent. There are only four humans in their group, but every single one of them is extremely strong. Taking advantage of the gap created by Lady Michelle's disappearance, they've been recruiting everywhere on the Dark Continent, winning people over…"
I'd actually heard some rumors about this too. The First Angel Legion had altered its itinerary over the past month or two precisely because a new faction on the Dark Continent was trying to reorganize all monster forces. That was why they decided to take Reed to the barren northern lands of the continent to strengthen defenses and tighten vigilance.
"That's right. I remember they called themselves the 'Supreme God,'" the deep-blue dragon immediately agreed with a nod. "You also told me they'd be hard to deal with. After all, among the members of the Dark Council, only you were left. But you couldn't just ignore it either—so what happened after that?"
Even though he was all the way down in the far south of the Kingdom of Astralrealm, he knew so much. It looked like Fernando exchanged information with him frequently. And as their conversation went deeper, an unexpected answer emerged.
"Unfortunately, their source of power and their combat methods are extremely strange," Fernando said. "Even though I was lucky enough to beat two of them at first, I couldn't fight all four alone. In the end, I lost. But they didn't kill me because of it. Instead, without holding any grudges, they actually invited me to join their team…"
I hadn't expected that—even with the impressive strength Fernando had shown before, he still ended up losing. But the development was strange: a trusted subordinate of Michelle being poached by the enemy, and Fernando's attitude made it seem like he had accepted.
He then described, in simple terms, what this so-called "Supreme God" organization actually was:
"They aren't humans from this world. Besides this team, there are supposedly other teams as well—teams that can travel continuously between different worlds while collecting resources. Of course, that offers far broader prospects than staying in a single world forever. But the catch is that all teams are uniformly governed by a mysterious higher existence, and every mission is issued directly by it. Because a previous mission caused heavy casualties for their team, they set their sights on me and invited me, hoping I would join them. And after I officially joined, I received something unexpected—something I'd dreamed of for ages: a personal celestial weapon."
A personal celestial weapon? The moment I heard that term, an association flashed through my mind—wasn't that basically the System? And the way Fernando described the "Supreme God" truly did resemble how system teams operated. Did that mean he had been recruited by another system team?
On the other hand, the deep-blue dragon was curious about what a celestial weapon actually was, and about the higher existence that governed them. But Fernando shook his head and explained:
"Because of certain rule restrictions, I can't voluntarily reveal the name of the higher existence or any further details to others—unless the other party has already learned that information in advance through some other, unrelated channel. What I *can* tell you is this: I've already obtained that so-called personal celestial weapon. It allows you to exchange something called 'points' for anything you want. It's just as powerful as the descriptions claim. But in return, once our team's mission in this world is complete, I will have to leave this world immediately."
"…"
With that said, the deep-blue dragon naturally had no more questions. He seemed to come alive in an instant, suddenly lifting his neck and letting out a thunderously clear dragon roar. Then, before everyone's eyes, his enormous draconic body began shrinking amid a dazzling radiance, condensing into a human shape. In the end, he stood before Fernando once again as an adult man with short blue hair, patted Fernando on the shoulder, and offered his congratulations:
"Then I truly should congratulate you! A stroke of fortune like that can be called once-in-a-millennium luck. I'll be sorry to part with you, but as it happens, I have good news on my side too. How about we sit down, have a drink, and celebrate while we're at it?"
From my current perspective, the dragon's transformation into human form was extremely peculiar. The dragon's voice worked together with the water element in the surrounding space, producing a small, brief, reality-altering effect—completely different from the principles behind human magic. If nothing else, it had to be the legendary dragon-speech magic.
But for Fernando, this scene was clearly nothing new. Although he usually came across as reserved and taciturn, under his friend's warm invitation he couldn't help showing a rare smile. He nodded in agreement:
"Exactly. Vaksham… I'm afraid it'll be hard for me to see you again in the future. This is probably the last time…"
Next, a complete set of tables, chairs, and tableware—and an endless stream of various foods—were pulled out of storage space and laid out across the platform. Seeing that Fernando had obviously come fully prepared, the deep-blue dragon Vaksham—now in human form—didn't stand on ceremony. With bold cheer, he called out loudly to the human lackeys nearest the platform:
"Someone! Bring up all the wines and spirits we seized recently. Tonight we celebrate all night—no one stops until we're drunk!"
A direct order from the boss was, of course, something no one dared disobey. In an instant, the entire cavern hall became lively again. Aside from the trusted men who had been singled out and kept running in and out carrying supplies, a few busybodies even took the opportunity to shout that they wanted to drink and celebrate too. They were immediately clapped over the mouth and dragged away by others, as if terrified the boss overhead might hear them the very next second.
"It looks like Fernando has set up a sound-and-information dampening screen around the two of them," Cyrae said quietly, her senses sharp. "It's meant to block most outside sound."
Sure enough, an almost imperceptible magical barrier had silently enveloped the area around the platform. And of course, it didn't just block external noise—it also ensured that outsiders couldn't hear any of the conversation inside the barrier, serving as a secrecy measure.
We still couldn't know what Fernando and the deep-blue dragon named Vaksham would discuss next, but the appearance of that barrier unquestionably created excellent conditions for our hostage-search plan.
"Remember this!" Adrian reiterated once again before we moved. "If you find where the captives are being held, don't rush to leave. First use these arrowheads to put them all into an invisible state, then look for a chance to escape slowly and carefully. Use invisibility spells as little as possible, because even low-level Light-element mages might detect them. This will minimize the risk of hostage casualties caused by a direct clash!"
As he spoke, Adrian handed out a large number of battle-aura arrows from his stockpile. By then, each of us had already been hit once by the special "Conceal" arrows that granted invisibility—there was no way the dragon's underlings could detect us. And the only two who might have sensed something unusual were, at that very moment, literally plugging their own ears, sitting upright on the platform and clinking cups with each other.
"Feliciana, I want you to keep an eye on that guy Fernando!" Adrian suddenly grabbed me before I could join the search. "We finally ran into him again in a place like this. Now he's in the open while we're in the shadows—we can't let him slip away again. Old grudges and new ones, we settle them all at once. With what you can do now, that shouldn't be a problem, right?"
I had been planning to join the search team, but Adrian assigned me a new task on the spot. It turned out he had never forgotten the debt Fernando owed for sabotaging New Parristol—this was clearly the moment he intended to collect.
"Of course. No problem—don't worry," I agreed without hesitation. Then I reminded Adrian that his mother's safety was the highest priority: we had to rescue his mother and the others first before anything else.
As the saying goes, even if it takes ten years for a gentleman to take revenge, it's not too late. After all, Fernando had forced his way to his objective back then only by taking me hostage. I'd wanted to get that debt back for a long time, too.