The black knight proceeded to tell Kurt everything she knew about the faction game.

About how this competition involved a great number of races to fight against each other, most of which had already been completely erased by the forces of the dragon faction.

She also talked about how the rulers were the ones responsible for organizing the game and acted as scores to determine who wins and who loses by using their own lives.

And finally, how both she and Kurt were the trump cards that each faction would usually rely on to obtain victory, the commonly known 'guests', individuals from other worlds that are brought here that tend to be much more powerful than a regular member of their species.

Kurt's expression was completely frozen as he continued to hear that. Nearly fifteen years living in this world and he had no idea such a big secret was being kept from him.

He wasn't even aware that there were other species besides dragons living in this world.

"You okay, kid?" the lady asked while trying to analyze his face.

"That's... That's a lot to take in... Sorry..." he mumbled while losing a little bit of light in his eyes and lowering his gaze.

"Trust me, I know... I also had a hard time getting used to the concept when I first heard about it..."

"So..." he continued, "Hold on... So you're telling me that every time this game is played, all the races just start killing each other just like that??"

"Sounds crazy, right? I tried to dig up some info about this during my travels..." she explained, "Apparently this was some kind of trick from the rulers. They come into the worlds and offer the concept of the game, and all they ask is that in return, none of the races are allowed to wage war with one another. It's meant to work as a way to keep everyone in check and avoid any conflict.

"So they stop the conflict by creating an even bigger one?? What sense does that make??"

"Think about it. Instead of every faction spending years and years tearing each other apart, it all comes down to one game. One single game, with a minimum number of casualties being up to five individuals from each race. Five from each race does sound better loss than millions upon billions of deaths, right?"

"I... I still can't believe it..."

"And the best part is, everyone is so focused on this concept that they don even realize that the rulers are just laughing their asses off as we all keep killing each other!"

"What do you mean...?"

The knight stood up to pick a small stick and started to draw a number of circles on the ground.

"I told you before... Any time the game ends and a winner is declared, that winner can choose one of the following options... End the game and ask the rulers to go away forever... Allowing them to move to another world and make it someone else's problem..."

Kurt stared at the knight with full attention while feeling a drop of sweat moving across his face.

"Or... They can ask for the right to have an additional guest in the next game! For instance, the dragons made use of this right five times already, so in this next game, they will have access to five individuals from our world that possess more powerful abilities than a regular dragon!"

"And... I am one of those five..." Kurt assumed. He realized that this explained why he was so much stronger than the other kids. He always assumed it was because he was the son of an emperor.

"Correcto!" the knight nodded while pointing the stick at him and then lowering down to cross one of the circles, "But here is the part where it gets kinda dark... The third right of the winner is the option to completely erase all members of an entire race."

These words sent a series of shivers down Kurt's spine, "Uuhh... When you say erase..."

"I mean gone from existence! Completely! As If they were never even born."

"You mean... They are killed?"

"Correcto again! Death. Large-scale obliteration of all life for that specific race."

Kurt began to feel dirty just from hearing that. He suddenly stood up and began to shout towards to knight, "Why would anyone do such a horrible thing??"

The lady just stared at his irritated expression, "Territory."

"What...?"

"It's easy to build a bigger house when you don't have any neighbors..." she continued, "The dragons are using the game to expand their empire by eliminating any race that could pose a problem to them.

Orcs? Gone. Elves? Gone. Angels? These were the biggest threat to them and also the first ones to go."

"You can't be serious!!"

"Gnomes, fairies, dryads, hobbits, gone, gone, gone, all gone..." she continued, "I think you can count on your two hands the number of races that are still left alive..."

"Shut up!!" the boy cried, "Just shut up!! You want me to believe my race is that cruel?? That I'm part of a species that just goes around causing extinction after extinction as if it was a game??"

"It's worse than a game..." she corrected, "It's business... For the dragons, the other races are just numbers. You either are inconsequential, or you are a threat to their expansion."

"This is ridiculous!! By this logic, its just a matter of time before dragons are the only race alive!!"

"That's the point!!" she screamed, "This is exactly what they want!"

"But isn't the game meant to propose a means of co-existence?? Isn't the whole idea to stop the conflict?"

The knight just shook her head, "That's just their propaganda, kid. The real point of the game is to create a show for the rulers to watch and laugh at while we keep destroying each other without even noticing it!"

Kurt began to rub his eyes and his head. He started to walk in circles around the cave while trying to process everything he had just heard.

When he woke up today, his only concern was how to make peace with Gaby and try to become her friend.

Now? All of a sudden he is hearing about this bizarro game that treats the lives of races he didn't even know existed as a joke, and that his kin is the biggest cause of it.

"This... This is a trick... You're just messing with me, aren't you?"

"I haven't lied to you a single time."

"Yeah, right..." he laughed while glaring at her, "You want me to believe some random person who won't even show me her face that I'm part of an empire that grows from the death of others? The same random person that tried to kidnap me when I was barely able to walk and even tried to kill my mother?"

"In my defense, she attacked us first..."

"Right..." Kurt rolled his eyes, "Where even is the rest of your gang by the way??"

The knight turned her gaze away and began to clench her hands together, "Gone... All of them..."

Kurt was at a loss of words at her sudden shift in tone.

"The emperor found out about our little night adventure from years ago and... Sent his forces to hunt us down...

I... I was the only one that remained..."

"My father killed your friends...?"

"Yeah..." she responded while dropping her stick on the fire and watching it burn, "Me and Lily go way back... That asshole has been nothing but a pain in my ass ever since I arrived here..."

Kurt stared at her in silence. It was true that she tried to kidnap his son, but he still had trouble picturing the emperor just ordering to have them killed like that. Kurt was the main cause of the event and he hadn't even heard anything about this.

"Don't fool yourself..." she called him out as if reading his mind, "He didn't do it because of his duty as a father... Lily doesn't care about anyone but himself... He just did that to mess with me... The same way he always has..."

The tone of her voice made it sound like she was being honest, but Kurt still didn't want to believe that everything he knew was a lie.

"You can't rust them, Kurt..."

"Who...?"

"All of them!" she yelled, "Your family! Your friends! They are all just using you! You're nothing but a tool to help them win the game!"

"No... No, I don't believe in you! If any of that was true, they would have told me! I would have heard about it long ago!!"

"You didn't hear about it because they didn't want you to hear about it!!" she stated, "It's easier to create a path to someone that only knows how to walk in a straight line!! You gotta start looking to the other options and think about which path you want to take!!"

"Lies... You're lying!!"

"Just take a moment! Just one second to think about it! Ask yourself if there isn't something strange about the way people behave around you! I'm gonna take a few guesses and assume your parents never told you why you even have to learn self-defense lessons, did they?"

"That's because of you!!" Kurt replied, "You and all the other attempts at my life from assassins!!"

"Wrong!" she claimed, "It's because they want to iron you out!! Turn you into the perfect weapon of destruction! These weren't assassins! They were servants from your father, sent out to help you improve your skills!"

"No... No, I don't believe you!!"

"Your father is a monster, Kurt..."

"Shut up..."

The lady began to approach the boy and grabbed his shoulders, "He is a cold, heartless, demon that thinks nothing of what others want or need and only cares about fulfilling his own desires!"

"I said shut up!!" he ordered while covering his ears.

She simply grabbed his arms and forced him to listen, "He's using you! Just like he tried to use me! Just like he uses everyone around him like pawns!! You gotta stop just accepting things the way they are handed over to you and start asking questions!!

You have to start questioning everything! Question why people act the way they do! What they say the things they say! Why do they want you to learn how to fight? Why doesn't your father hire any guards to protect you? It's because he wants to know if you're worth anything!!"

"Stop it!! I don't wanna hear it anymore!!" Kurt was now starting to tear up.

"I'm trying to open your eyes! I'm trying to save you! But I can't do anything if you don't realize in how much danger you are or how much danger you can be to others!!"

"I DON'T NEED TO BE SAVED!!!" he yelled while latching into her arm and throwing her at the pile of rocks covering the entrance.

"Ugh!!" she mumbled as her body crashed against the rubble and finally cleared the exit once again.

Kurt gasped at the sight of the outside of the cave and began his escape, "Dorothy!! Let's go!!"

The owl flew after him as the kid dashed with all his might as far away as possible from the ball knight as he could.

She quickly appeared from the pile like a monster in a horror movie that refused to stay dead and began to chase after him.

"Kurt!! Wait!!!" she shouted.

"Stay away from me!!" he ordered while continuing his sprint through the woods under the light of the arc of moons.

The black knight kept approaching him and was inches away from grabbing onto his shirt, but right before she could catch him, Kurt's body started to become transparent and caused her to pass right through him.

"What the what!?" she gasped while losing her focus and rolling on the ground.

The lady turned around and noticed that someone was standing by Kurt's side. The boy himself was also looking rather startled by this.

It looked like a boy with earrings, a calm gaze, short black hair, and wearing a hoodie.

"Nala...??" Kurt gasped upon seeing Trevor's sister, "What are you doing here??"

The girl gazed at him, "I have orders to keep my eye on you... I'm just fulfilling my duty..."

"Get back here!!" the knight shouted while pulling out her blade at swinging it down in an arc.

But Nala saw the attack coming at grabbed tight on Kurt so that the two of them would become intangible, allowing them to dive into the soil and escape from the knight completely.

"No... No!!!" she screamed while stabbing the ground.

She gazed at the sky and only saw Dorothy flying above her and staring back at her.

"You having fun with your little game?? You gonna laugh while watching that kid killing innocents in your silly game of murder-chess?"

Dorothy just remained quiet and flew away in order to reunite with Kurt, vanishing into the sky.

"Damn it!!" the knight complained as she pulled out her blade, "Lian Garen... I'm not gonna let you win... Not after what you did...This, I promise!"