Emery returned to his normal form and stayed still on the ground. The blood on his severed right arm kept flowing out on the earth when the familiar voice rang in his mind.
"Sigh… You truly are hopeless, kid," said the voice in a low tone.
"Why? Why is it that when you say something, it's always about mocking me. Can't you see I've tried my best?" said Emery, indignant.
"Why don't you reflect on your actions, kid? Look and ask yourself, how many times have you gotten out in such a crucial moment only to be saved by pure luck? You won't survive this time," replied the voice.
"Haha, but at least this time, I've won!" Emery's laugh got cut short before he curled in pain. His vision was getting blurrier and the sound from the surrounding was waning.
"This is definitely not winning…" retorted the voice, clearly disappointed.
"Well ain't she the one running? I believe I could say I won fair and square," Emery said to convince himself before coughing out blood.
"You know she'll return and she's alive. Based on what I had felt from her earlier, she should at least be a rank 6 acolyte, and for her to live that long, she should also have a healing spell on her sleeve. As for you though, you'd probably be dead once she comes back," explained the voice.
"Hahaha — cough cough — maybe you're right… Hahaha, this is so funny… I'm talking to myself. I've become crazy as well… "
"Kid… haven't you figured it out already? You are not talking to yourself…" criticized the voice.
"Is that so? Then who or that are you? Come on, humor me in my last moments," chided Emery.
"I am Killgragah, the Guardian of Khaos! Thou should remember my great name for my greatness was once and still feared by the whole galaxy!" announced the voice.
Emery burst out laughing. "Hahaha… God… I really am dying… My imagination has gone wild!"
Once more, Emery's lungs issued a fit of coughs filled with blood as he yanked the jet, black dagger out of his chest. It didn't take long for him to feel all the warmth was exiting his body, only the coldness remained. These were all the things that registered in Emery's head before plunging into the eternal darkness called death.
Or so he thought…
A moment later, the swearing of a woman sounded not far away coupled with the crunching of branches and hard thumping.
Just like Killgragah had said, she wasn't dead and had come back to finish her loose end.
But in the second that that happened, a sudden deafening buzzing caused pain in Emery's head, making him open his eyes only to find what was supposed to be an open sky blocked by tree leaves had changed into what appeared to be a ceiling made out of rocks.
Emery shot up, sitting before exclaiming, "Wha-what just happened?"
He looked around, confused. He seemed to be inside a cave-like tunnel. "Am I dreaming again? Or have I died? No, this is—"
A throbbing pain came rushing through his right shoulder as well as his chest. Emery grabbed his shoulder with his left arm as he gasped for air while gritting his teeth and grunting, "Urrgghh!"
These pain were too real for Emery to consider he had died or dreaming. The only explanation he could come up with was he once more transported into some kind of space or something.
Eventually, the pain calmed down to a point he could somewhat bear it. He tried to stand up with his wiggling legs, using the wall as a support.
Once he had stabilized his footing, still leaning on the wall, from the darkness the familiar voice echoed in the air and said, "Kid…"
Emery tried to peer into the darkness that appeared to be more like an abyss into nothingness. He was unable to see anything, so he called out instead. "Killgragah? Is that you? Where are you?"
Now that he had gotten back to his senses, Emery felt like he had been here before and similar to that time, his body now was also emitting its own light to provide some vision in the surrounding.
He decided to walk toward the voice, and as he trudged along the path, he could barely see a monstrous shadow, and some sort of black fire lighting up the tunnel. Emery thought to himself that whatever would happen, would come to pass, and proceeded to exit the tunnel.
"I am here," said the voice above Emery's head.
Emery looked up and saw the species that only existed in mythical stories. Its size was at least ten times of that of a war horse, its neck stretched like a snake connected with its huge chest. Its four limbs, two in the back acting as legs, and two in the front that was connected to its wings spanning at least ten times the dragon's total size.
The dragon moved its pointed and scaly snout at Emery. If this was another time, Emery would've probably been scared to death or frozen to the point where he wouldn't be able to move even an inch of muscle. However, considering what he had just gone through in some unfortunate event and had half-given up, Emery issued half a smile as he said to the mythical creature, "Haha… so, is this how I'll go to the afterlife? Are you going to eat me now?"
"Should I?" said the dragon's booming voice. It opened its wide maw and Emery just stood still before a flash sparked inside its mouth and spewed out an invisible energy like a gust of wind, pushing Emery to his knees.
"Hey! Did you just spit on me?" Emery said in a rage as he stood up without issues. Only then he realized that the throbbing pain on his right shoulder disappeared and bleeding chest closed up, looking just like how it died before. On top of that, a surge of energy revitalized his weary spirit that he felt like was back to his previous self.
"Hahahaha! Be grateful, kid, for you have been blessed by the awesome, mighty, great and powerful Killgragah!" declared the dragon, seemingly overpraising himself by using the same descriptions.
Emery received a slight headache from talking to this narcissistic dragon. Still, a gratitude was due, so Emery said, "Thank you, Killgragah. But if you're so powerful, why can't you grow my hand back?"
"Too bad but I don't know such spells," immediately replied Killgragah, moving around.
Emery noticed a chain rustled behind Killgragah's leg. He said, "How come the great and powerful is in chains?"
"I-I don't want to talk about it!" Killgragah snapped as he once more moved into a corner.
Emery stopped pressing the issue and placed his attention elsewhere. Looking around the chamber, there were two things that caught his eyes. Floating on one side of the room was a huge window while on the opposite side was a rather massive door.
He first walked up to the overbearing door that it felt like he was an ant once he stood just a few steps away from it. When he moved closer, an invisible force pushed against him and no matter how much strength Emery placed through his legs, he couldn't get one foot nearer.
"You won't be able to get near much less open the door with your current understanding of the elements, kid," commented the dragon.
Emery opened his mouth to ask what was inside about but decided against it. He had a feeling that no matter how much questioning he did, the dragon would probably say to prove his worth by opening it by himself.
He then took a step back and headed toward the window instead. Through the window, he could see the forest where he had just fought with the woman who was supposed to be Granny. In fact, the woman was also there running around and looking behind each tree or under the rubble of trees in search of him.
"Killgragah!" said Emery with gritted teeth.
"Don't bother. She can't see you, and you also can't get out," replied the dragon, sitting calmly.
"What do you mean? Are you taking me as a prisoner here?" questioned Emery.
"Is your mind really that simple, kid?" glowered the dragon.
"If I'm not a prisoner, then what? Why am I here? What is this place?" interrogated Emery.
The dragon stood up and spanned his wings amidst as if he was stretching. "You are currently inside a space created by Khaos, The Ruler of Darkness, Lord of Shadow."
Emery twitched his brows, not understanding one bit Killgragah had just explained.
"As for the reason why you can't get out, it's simply because you don't have the sufficient power to do it. Like what I said earlier, you are just too weak," taunted the dragon.
Emery clenched his fist. Again, he wanted to give this dragon a piece of his mind, but he calmed himself before asking, "Then, tell me. How did I get in here the first place? I'm assuming it was you?"
"Correct, I used a lot of energy and broke a rule by letting you in," replied the dragon, yawning.
Emery released his fist. He tried to fight off the urge to ask why but something at the back of his head was telling him that was not the right thing to ask next. Instead, shouldn't he be grateful that this Killgragah had actually gone out of his way to place him in this spatial space? After collecting himself once more, he asked, "So, Killgragah. What should I do before I can get out of here?"
The dragon's eyes beamed, looking as if Emery was finally asking the right questions. Killgragah said, "Simple enough. Cultivate your understanding of the elements until you are strong enough."
"How strong are we talking about?"
"Until you've become a magus, of course. I've seen your talent, so that should probably take about five to ten years in human time."
"Ten years?!"