Rolut was fuming. His rage was out of character albeit understandable. The entire castle shook due to his anger and everyone save for Erebus and Frize had dove for cover.

“Perhaps Ayirn will have better luck,” Frize said in a pitiful attempt to appease Rolut. They all knew that if Erebus couldn’t find Fate, Ayirn’s inferior searching magic had no chance. When Rolut didn’t say anything, Frize added, “Fate may just be guarding against Erebus’ magic.”

Rolut paused, those words drew his attention.

“Impossible,” Erebus said, tossing a mana stone into his mouth. “Ayirn’s magic is similar to my own, she just uses different means to achieve the same end.”

The ground rumbled loudly.

“Dammit!” Rolut roared.

Erebus sighed. “Even if you rant and holler, we’re not going to find her any faster. In fact, it’ll take us centuries to find her at this rate. We don’t have that type of time so end your temper tantrum. Do you know how much time it’ll take me to fix the damage you’ve done to my castle?” None at all, but Erebus wasn’t going to let Rolut know that.

The eldest dragon froze, the palpable rage he was emanating finally ebbed away and he was back to his normal self. “My apologies,” he muttered.

“It’s not like your fury is unwarranted,” Frize remarked. “We are in a dangerous situation. The only way we’ll be able to find her is if she pokes her head up.”

Erebus sighed, that was highly unlikely. Fate was too careful to make such an amateur mistake. “So you want to rely on her putting down her guard? Well, as long as she hides from me, Fate has to consciously work on not corrupting the mana, so nothing bad has happened.”

Frize nodded. Erebus would be able to find her if he detected her otherworldly mana--if she restrained it, he couldn’t find her. But it was also true that she wouldn’t be able to do any damage. “We’re nearing a stalemate, aren’t we? Fate can’t abuse her power or we’ll notice but at the same time, we can’t find her if she doesn’t, neither side can make a move right now.”

“Still, we have the advantage, the second Fate gives her position away our victory is decided,” Rolut said. Fate wasn’t strong enough to face off against the Dragon Council, that much was for certain.

“But, if she starts her corruption, we have no way of holding it back,” Erebus countered. “In that aspect, she holds the advantage.”

Frize sighed. “This has spiraled out of control.”

“It’s been that way.” Erebus looked down his eye darkening. “Since you didn’t end her years ago.”

Rolut didn’t look at Erebus but his voice came through clear, “It’s too late to regret that decision.”

Erebus snorted. It was obviously too late to do anything about that. It had happened regardless of their will--now it was time to fix their grievous mistake.

Frize looked between the two before finally saying, “Erebus, is there any way to draw her out?”

The black-haired man furrowed his eyebrows. “She wouldn’t expose herself willing.”

“Fate wants you to join her, right?”

“Who knows?” Erebus responded with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

Frize frowned. “Didn’t you say she asked you to?”

“Yes, but she’s the type to say whatever she wants without truly meaning it.”

Frize couldn’t deny that much, seeing as Fate had been heavily influenced by Erebus. Did she have to deal with such a frivolous man? It would have been better if she was predictable, but someone who did whatever they wanted was the biggest wildcard.

“There’s another advantage that we have against her,” Erebus said.

“And what’s that?”

“She can’t keep it up forever. It requires quite a lot of energy. Her body is no longer bonded with the stone so taking in this world’s mana hurts her quite a lot. She may be able to blend in with the surroundings for now, but it won’t last long.”

“You mean that she’ll have to take a break?”

“Mm, and expose herself for a few moments before she can go back undercover. And she won’t be able to escape fast enough with using her magic--which would also alert us to her position.”

“Why didn’t you say this earlier?” Rolut demanded.

“It was fun watching you squirm?” Erebus said, scratching the back of his head. “Anyway, she can’t do anything for right now--as much I hate it--we have nothing to do but sit here and wait.”

“I’m calling the others and telling them to stay in position in, whoever’s the closest to her will get there first and take Fate out... For good. We need the minimize the amount of damage she does when she reveals herself.”

Erebus nodded his head.

“Sitting here and waiting is certainly unpleasant, though,” Rolut murmured, collapsing into a chair. For a second, his age shown through and the weight of thousands of years seemed to be boring down on him. “I was alone for a while, it was just me... I never knew if there would be another or if I would just stay all by myself... sitting and waiting for someone.” He closed his eyes, both Erebus and Frize were silent. “I have deep roots with this planet, they run very deep, yes. I love it... with all of my heart.”

When Frize opened his mouth to speak, Erebus stopped him. “Let the old man reminisce.”

Rolut’s eyes opened and his chest rumbled with quiet laughter. “An old man? I suppose I am one. Though, I’m not much older than you are Erebus, only a few centuries...”

“Then we’re all old men,” Frize remarked. “Stubborn old men.”

“I don’t consider myself to be an old man,” Erebus input. “I look quite youthful, you know?”

“That appearance is a lie,” Frize answered jokingly.

“You two... are you forgetting the situation that we’re in? Especially you, Frize.”

The dragon held up his hands in surrender, a wry smile on his face still. “We haven’t forgotten. But there’s not much that we can do about it, is there?”

Rolut looked up, his eyes far away once again. “I suppose not.”

....

Fate rested her head on the trunk of a tree, her chest heaving up and down. Breaking free from Erebus’ magic took more strength than she had been expecting... she had managed to accumulate mana without Erebus’ noticing which allowed her to break his spell.

But it was hardly enough, she almost failed. Fate had been left with barely enough mana to move her far away enough from the Dragon Council’s headquarters, she had still been on the Dragon Continent until a little while ago.

“It’s about time for me to have some fun myself,” she said to herself, brushing her hair from her eyes. “Oh, Erebus... I almost pity you.” Fate thought of her (ex) lover, thinking about how hard he must be struggling to find her. She knew his magic well enough to know how to avoid it.

It went from finding a needle in a haystack to finding a piece of hay in a haystack.

He was probably cursing her right now.

As long as she was in his thoughts, though, it didn’t matter what they were about. Her feelings for him weren’t fake, she loved him... even though he no longer loved her.

Her breath was labored and it looked as if breathing pained her greatly. Without the「 Godly Stone」, she was in a precarious situation. But still, the moment she released her mana, she’d be back to normal.

Fate smiled weakly.

“You’ll probably hate me more after this... But didn’t you tell me to do what I wanted to do?” Fate spoke to Erebus who was too far to hear her. “I want to play this game with you, even if it means you’ll hate me forever. Ah, Erebus, I’m having so much fun right now. Are you?”

With an exhale, Fate unconcealed herself. “Let’s start our game.”