Chapter Sixty-Seven - Conquest

The unexpected way Locke acted upon being hit caused a lot of confusion among the soldiers, they expected an attack from a raging beast, they thought their frightened friend's mistake would be the cause of their deaths, but Locke reacted in such a human way that he left all the soldiers without a reaction, not knowing what to do the soldier who fired apologized.

"Errr....I'm sorry?" the soldier spoke confused.

"Sorry? What the f*ck is wrong with you? Is that how you interact with people? You didn't even say anything before shooting, not even a 'freeze!' or 'hands up!', you just went out straight to shooting!" Locke replied still offended. "And you aimed for my face! Right in my face!"

"Hey, just look at you! You are a dragon-man thing! You can't blame me for being scared!" The soldier replied.

"You f*cking racist! You work for an organization that deals with other races! You should be used to beings that look different from yours! That lady over there is a f*cking catwoman! And I don't see any of you guys shoot her!" Locke pointed to Tamar, who was wounded and being healed in a corner of the room by a priest.

The soldier was about to continue debating when Durand put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him along. "I take it from here! Tompson, go back to the squad!" she said, the soldier could see anger in her eyes, he knew he had screwed up, the soldier lowered his head and walked towards his companions, one of them slapped him on the back of the head for having fired without the order.

Durand went to Locke and stood in front of him, the Nephilim looked him up and down, her expression was cold.

"Agent Durand, I assume." Locke commented while analyzing the woman, she had a strange androgynous appearance and sharp eyes, she wasn't ugly, but her type was far from what Locke would consider pretty.

"So our original target decided to come to our aid?" She commented. "Or have you also become a tool of the cultists?"

"Wasn't saving your *ss proof enough of my intentions?" Locke questioned.

"Answer the question!" Durand responded angrily.

"You know what? I could have just let you all die!" Locke approached and faced the woman, which caused the soldiers to raise their weapons. "But I didn't! Even though you are a huge bunch of cocky and proud idiots that just pissed me off I helped you! How about showing a minimum of gratitude?" Locke looked at the soldiers with their guns cocked. "I swear to God if someone shoots me again I'm going to be really pissed and I'm going to start handing out beatings!"

Durand was silent for a few seconds, all the soldiers were tense, they had seen how one of their special bullets had hit the target's face and made not even a scratch, only served to annoy the target absurdly, also their leader had used up all her sacred power and they main combatant, Tamar, was injured, if another fight broke out they would be annihilated. Finally the woman replied:

"Thank you!"

"What? What did you say?" Locke questioned.

"I said thank you! Thank you for helping us when we were having a hard time!"

Locke looked at the woman for a second and answered. "You're welcome!" He turned around and was ready to head back down the corridor he had come from.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Durand questioned.

"Now that you are all right I will continue on my way!" Locke replied. "I recommend you guys move too, the low quality copy of the Sh*ma Gorath died, but there are still more monsters out there..."

"We are in no condition to move at the moment…that fight has exhausted our strength, we…we are on the edge…" Durand opened up, she was more concerned about the well-being of what was left of her soldiers than in her own pride.

Locke looked around, most of the soldiers looked worn out, many of them were also wounded, it seems that when they started this mission they didn't expect the kinds of difficulties they were facing now. He sighed, now he couldn't leave them behind, the chance for them to survive alone was very low, but he didn't trust the soldiers and didn't want to leave his back to them.

"If you wanna I can send you guys out…" Locke replied.

"There's no way out! We've been trying to find the exit for hours without success! The place you entered probably doesn't exist anymore!" Durand replied.

"And who said anything about finding the exit? If you want to go out I can send you out now!"

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I can jump across dimensions!" Locke replied.

Durand was silent, the target claimed he could cross out of an artificial dimension that even her father couldn't get into, she wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not, but if he was the Bureau's level of interest in him would double. "Let me speak to my soldiers..."

Locke waited patiently while Durand talked to the other soldiers, after a while they made a decision. All only soldiers would be taken out, with the exception of Durand herself, the leopard woman Tamar, and the nun Sandra, who would continue looking for Durand's partner and the cultists.

Locke spread his mana the same way he did with the trapped people, enveloping each soldier, he then leapt through the dimensions, they arrive back to the shelter and all the soldiers he brought with him fell from a height of about one feet off the ground, landing on their asses.

Locke ignored the soldiers' complaints, the second attempt to jump with more people had been easier than the first, due to the small number of soldiers he also spent a lot less mana than the first time, he didn't miss a second and jumped back to Durand, now that he knew exactly where to go it was easy to get in and out.

Durand was ready to go around looking for her partner when she realized that Locke was back.

"Your soldiers are safe, I'll help you find your partner and then I'll get you all out!" Locke took the lead, the three women were forced to follow him, he walked forward confidently, his eyes ascending in a strong golden light as he used all his senses to seek out Garrard's mana.

Agent Durand and the nun Sandra hold remained silent, the Nefilim was saving her last transformation for a time of need and the nun continued to whisper her prayers, slowly accumulating more and more sacred power, Tamar, the leopard woman, approached Locke and sniffed deeply, which made him a little uncomfortable.

"What is your history?" Tamar questioned.

Locke glanced at her askance as he continued to lead them through the maze of corridors. "I don't feel like sharing this with you, you guys came here to capture me originally..."

"I don't think you need to worry, our team can't catch you anyway, you've already proven to be too strong for us to handle, at least tell us your name, we can't keep calling you our prime target..." Tamar replied, Locke looked over to Durand but she showed no interest.

"...Eradan, you can call me Eradan" Locke decided to use his father's name.

"Eradan, the black dragon of conquest?" The three women spoke in unison

"Do you know my father?" Locke questioned.

"Are you the son of the protector of the world? The black dragon that defeated hell? Are you serious?" Tamar questioned, she grabbed Locke by the shoulders.

"It makes sense, this absurd growth in power is now explained! He must have the same attribute as his father!" Durand commented. "If the Bureau had this information before we would have taken a completely different approach!"

"The church has to know this! This changes everything!" Sister Sandra commented.

Locke was confused, he had no idea his father was famous like that. 'Tia, did you know that?' he questioned the fairy through they mental link.

'As I already told you on the first day, I knew your father was powerful and that for a long time he protected this dimension, but I always thought he did it behind the scenes, maybe when we manage to release all the records in the system we can find out more about this...' The fairy replied, as surprised as he was.

'What does she mean by my father's attribute? And what is the title of Black Dragon of Conquest? Does my father go around winning hearts?

'Do not be silly! This title refers to your father's attribute! Every true dragon has an attribute attached to his soul! Even you have one! Those attributes is usually something common, like a specific element, but your father was born with a special attribute, your father's attribute was conquest, every time he killed something he got stronger, he conquered the power of those he defeated, Do you understand? It was an attribute that allowed him to grow and become one of the most powerful among dragons!'

'Wait a minute, this description... It's exactly the way the system works! Every time I kill something I also become stronger!'

'That's because your father created the system to make you inherit his attribute! Through the system you can exert an similar effect to the conquest! It's almost like you have two attributes, your father's and your own! Still going to deny you're a cheater?" Tia teased.

"Wow, I had no idea... But if this 'conquest' was my father's attribute, what's my attribute?"