It wasn’t long after Zurdon’s announcement that I contacted Dred, but upon hearing the details, they both moved out and commanded the blood servants made with Jake’s and my blood to gather at specific places. If the Bear God was able to sense us and follow us, we’d be done for even before Dred and Elena got here. One couldn’t be cautious enough.

If we lost our lives, the pawns and descendants made with our blood would lose their lives as well, but if they had others nearby, they could use soul container to catch their souls, though we'd have to use necromancy to revive them. We didn’t have the kind of power that brought back people to life completely, but there may had been things in the universe that were able to do something amazing like that. Even a sliver of hope was better than nothing.

“How is it?” Elena asked.

“It’s getting closer, I don’t know how!” I shouted. We were teleporting non-stop, but with our current levels, it’d take quite a bit of time to meet up with them, even if they were moving towards us. We should be able to meet up somewhere around the northwestern outpost. But this thing behind us was getting closer and closer.

“Who says we’re going to lose and die? This may be the day we kill a legendary creature!” Jake tried to cheer me up, but not even he believed in what he said. It was most likely about five times as powerful as us, so I had my doubts about Elena and Dred as well. I was afraid that even if they caught up, they wouldn’t be able to do anything.

“I think that we should go another way,” I told Dred and Jake.

“No, it’s a command,” Dred replied.

The blood coursing through my veins erased all kinds of thoughts about leading the Bear God another way, simply as that. Their blood was like a parasite that overwrote people’s brains and bodies. It was the main reason Elena and Dred were able to ‘descend’ in our bodies, though they wouldn’t be able to ‘replace’ our bodies with theirs, else there would be no need for us to run away.

The chasing went on for two more hours when all of a sudden, I couldn’t teleport anymore. Turning around, I found a six meters tall giant bear standing not far behind us, eyeing me suspiciously. It had more layers of reddish brownish thick fur that seemed impenetrable, and fifty centimeters long claws adorned its paws that were bigger than my head.

“I can’t teleport anymore, we’ll have to fight,” I contacted my masters.

“Don’t go close to it, it’s a Bear God. Only a dragon or a hydra would be as powerful physically as that thing,” Dred warned us. “We aren’t too far away, hold on for a bit longer,” he added.

“Do we have any better choices?” I muttered, shaking my head.

“Why did you not stop?” the Bear God asked. His deep voice sounded human, but I could feel the wind move under his control, so he was using magic to speak.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice your presence,” I bowed apologetically. The longer we chatted, the better it was for us…

“Don’t take me for a fool,” he laughed. “Very well, dishonest one. My name is Roin, the Bear God of this universe!” he put his large paw on his chest.

Nodding my head, I introduced myself, Jake in tow.

“Audrey and Jake, mhm. So? Why did you refuse my servants’ call? I know everything about what happened there, I’ve been watching you moving around for a few days now,” Roin said.

“We were just exploring the area and didn’t wish to intrude on your territory. We were about to leave the area and go back to Trigon, but your servants wanted to stop us. Since we were out on an urgent mission, we had no time to visit your majesty. I apologise, but it was Tastar, the human king of Trigon, who sent us on this mission. Would you be as benevolent as to forgive what happened?” I asked respectfully. Sure, I was talking bullshit and lied to him, but that…

Oh, fuck it, I fucked up so bad! Seeing him grinning, I rubbed my temples. Every legendary creature other than the devourers had the Eyes of Truth, which meant that if you lied in front of them, they’d notice. They wouldn’t find out the truth without you telling either, but it was impossible to lie to them. Yet I was doing nothing but lying.

“The dishonest one really fits you,” he laughed and appeared in front of me, only an arms reach away. Jake jumped in front of me and pulled out his weapons, ready to fight against Roin.

“Hmm? Move aside, pest, I’m talking to her,” Roin said in a commanding tone, his crushing aura pressing down on Jake. It wasn’t even pointed at me, yet I felt overwhelmed by his presence.

“It’s the same as back then with Padinyss,” Jake grumbled.

“Jake, stop. Step aside,” I said.

“No way in hell. Prepare to fight instead,” he replied.

Sighing loudly, I put my arm around his waist and pushed ourselves back with a wall of wind. “I’d appreciate if your majesty stayed further away,” I said to the Roin.

It appeared in front of us once again and looked back and forth between the two of us. His body started to shrink and his fur started disappearing. A moment later, a handsome red-haired man stood in front of us. He was still over two meters tall, his shoulders broad and his body muscular.

“I’ve been eyeing your beauty since you came close to my territory. That beautiful red hair, and that nice body of yours, I fell in love with it at first sight. But it saddened me when I’ve seen you indulging in this wimp,” he looked at Jake in disgust.

“But I’m a generous person, so I’ve got an offer for you. If you come with me and become my possession, like the other women serving me, I may keep him alive. How about that?” he added.

“Jake, we could use this to cheat him. If I said yes and went back with him, then I could run away later-”

“Are you an idiot? He’s been following us since we killed the other bears. He must have a way to track us down, he isn’t your average human who can’t even sense our presence,” Jake yelled at me for the first time in a long time.

“But what should we do then?”

“Just fight.”

“I see dishonesty in your eyes even before you answer,” Roin laughed, seeing my misery.

“Okay, let’s fight. I’ll use the supernova to start out, you should cover for me for a moment or I won’t be able to cast it,” I said.

“Sounds like a plan!” Jake said as he lunged towards him with weapons in hand. Roin returned to his bear form in the blink of an eye and deflected Jake’s weapons with his claws.

“A futile attempt,” he laughed and before we could do anything, a red wave of energy burst out of his body, throwing us onto our backs. Jake sprung up from the ground and used blink to get behind the Roin, while I finished casting supernova. As the elements mixed and the gravity started pulling him in, I felt a bit of hope, but much to my sadness, he roared one and my spell broke into pieces. It was some kind of cancelling spell.

Turning towards Jake, he swung his large paws. Jake raised both his weapons to defend against it, but he was smashed into the ground under the huge physical strength of Roin. Seeing Roin’s other paw swiping towards him, I was about to use a spell when a black light flashed and appeared behind Roin. As it struck his back, Roin roared out in pain and jumped away from Jake.

The black light cleared out, revealing Dred. Turning around, I found Elena standing behind me. I really wanted to hug them right now, but I knew it was no time for those kinds of things. Dred didn’t continue attacking Roin and just stared at him with menacing eyes.

With a deep gash on his back and a green liquid flowing out of the wound, Roin turned around to glare at his backstabber. Jake appeared next to me while Elena stepped in front of us, her pair of daggers in hand.

“You are… my kind,” Roin growled. “What kind of legendary creature are you?”

“The kind that’s going to gut if you don’t fucking go back to your forest right now,” Elena shouted.

An aura of death encircled Dred and Elena, fighting against Roin’s overwhelming aura of pure strength. Looking at me, he asked, “Is she yours?”

“Yes, she is my blood servant, so get back,” she replied.

Sure, we’ve been wandering around for a while now, but just how much stronger did they become while we were away? I couldn’t help but think remembering the wound Dred inflicted upon the Roin.

“I don’t like your tone,” Roin growled and after pausing for a while, he added, “But I’m not in the mood to fight a dangerous battle with you because of a woman. And you, little wimp, you better not touch her anymore. I’ll make her mine,” he pointed at Jake.

I really wanted to tell him that Jake could touch me all he wanted, out of spite, but I refrained from causing more troubles. I didn’t want to accidentally trigger this idiot and start a battle between legendary creatures. I wasn’t sure about Elena’s and Dred’s levels and I couldn’t read Roin’s level either because inspect was blocked by a skill. Most likely it was common among legendary creatures.

Grabbing my hand, Elena pulled on it and took a step back, “We’re leaving.” I felt Roin deactivate space lock, so the four of us teleported away instantly.

“Tsk,” Elena clicked her tongue.

“What’s it?” I asked.

“I latched a bacteria onto him, but he destroyed it the moment we teleported away. I guess his senses are sharp enough to notice them,” she replied. “Well, whatever, let’s go back to Trigon. I’ll deal with this shitty bear once I become a bit stronger.”

“I wonder what’d happen if you forced him to drink your blood later,” I mused.

“We’ve talked about this already…”

“I know, but what if you blackmailed him or something? Are you sure nothing would happen?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’ll test it in the future,” she murmured.

A few hours later, we were back in Trigon and decided to retire in the Greywing mansion. Liz prepared a nice serving for us and we had a fancy dinner. It was nice to reunite with everyone and chat about the things that happened. After taking a hot bath and then having a bit of fun with Jake, we retired for the day. There was still a lot to do and we both felt the need to become stronger. I didn’t want to feel as powerless as in front of Roin ever again.

I went to bed at midnight and closed my eyes after this long and tiring day, though the latter half was fun.

It was in the middle of the night that I woke up to someone touching me. Opening my eyes, I felt my blood freeze on the spot. That red-haired bear, Roin was kneeling over me, holding my wrists. Turning my head to the side, I looked for Jake, but he was out cold.

“I just knocked him out, he just makes the hunt more fun,” Roin giggled and put his dirty finger on the strap of my nightgown. I tried to use magic and contact Elena and Dred, but for some reason, everything was blocked. I couldn’t do or sense anything.

“Surprised?”

“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted.

“You see, Bear Gods have the ability to negate every magic and soul-related spell upon contact. Dragons Gods and Twelve Headed Hydras are just as strong as Bear Gods, but they excel in magic as well. Although that’s not really my forte, I’ve got this fancy ability to deal even with them. So you have no chance to alert your lil’ friends~”

“How did you find me?”

“That? Hehe, all the bears in my territory have their claws smeared in a fluid only I can create. No matter who it is or where they are, I can track them down once they come in contact with that fluid. I call it the Hunting Fluid, fancy, isn’t it?”

That cut on my arm? Are you kidding me?

“Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking, it’s all because of a careless mistake, that small,” he paused for a moment and licked the place of the wound that was long gone, “wound…”

“Get off of me!” I struggled to break free, but he was too strong. I couldn’t even budge my arms. If only I could break free from his grasp, I could contact everyone, but I couldn’t do anything while he was touching me! Was I really supposed to bear with him?

Remembering Elena’s precautions and that the pawns and descendants were gathered, an idea came to mind. But it was risky. What if they can’t find a way to bring me back to life? Am I supposed to carry this shame with me till the end of my life? Wasn’t it enough once when I was human? Why does it have to be like this? Are the other races no different than those damned humans on the Kriton?

Feeling him slowly pulling down the strap, almost revealing my breasts, I struggled even more, but the face he made was becoming happier and happier by the second. Sighing loudly, I said, “I’m sorry, everyone.”

Igniting Elena’s blood in my veins, I started self-destruction. Originally, self-destruction was supposed to be used only when the devourers’ servants were caught and were questioned with the help of some treasure when there was no way to keep silent and say nothing. Although that wasn’t the case, I didn’t want to fall victim to this bastard. I was sure the others would survive somehow.

But the quirks of fate… just before I lost consciousness, I saw the door being smashed open and Elena appearing.

Oh, the regret… If only I waited a few seconds…

But it was too late.