Chapter 906: Unwelcome Return

- Dravok's POV -

Far from the parts of the world where civilization followed familiar rules, Dravok stood in a place where change itself was ordinary and the unexpected was simply part of everyday existence. It was a remote land few outsiders would ever reach, and the very place he had warned Trafalgar not to go digging into.

He had specifically warned him not to search for this place. Now, after all those warnings, Dravok had come here alone.

"What are you doing here?"

The question came from the man standing several metres ahead of him. It was simple, but Dravok found himself silent for longer than he expected, because there was no answer that could erase how many years had passed since he abandoned everything behind them.

"I needed to see you again."

Five people stood in front of him, and none appeared satisfied with his answer. Two were women and three were men, all of them carrying features that made it immediately obvious they did not belong to any ordinary race.

Their beauty was almost perfect, but it was nothing like the ethereal appearance associated with elves. Their faces were unusually symmetrical, their skin almost completely clear, and their bodies naturally developed even without the exaggerated muscle that came from constant physical training.

There was something slightly unnatural about that perfection. Looking at them gave the impression that every part of their bodies had been created with far more precision than it needed.

The marks made the difference even clearer.

Black patterns covered different areas of all five. One woman had thin markings travelling from her fingers almost to her shoulder, while the other had them around her wrist and along one side of her neck.

They looked similar to tattoos at first glance, but tattoos did not move.

The markings shifted slowly across their skin whenever mana circulated through their bodies. Lines separated, joined and changed position as naturally as muscles moving beneath flesh.

Dravok had once seen thousands of different patterns like them.

Seeing only five now was enough to remind him how much had disappeared.

The man leading the group had a large black pattern covering most of his right forearm. Mana entered it, causing several of the lines to spread toward his palm before darkness gathered above his hand.

Black metal materialized from nothing.

Several sections formed one after another before connecting into a heavy single-edged weapon. Dravok immediately noticed how similar the process was to Trafalgar summoning Maledicta or allowing Obsidian Wings to form around his body.

The resemblance was impossible to miss.

"You abandoned this place a long time ago," the man said. "You don't deserve to come back. Leave while we're still willing to let you."

Dravok looked beyond the five of them. There was little visible from here apart from broken dark stone and the path continuing farther into the territory, but he knew what waited beyond it.

"Let me see him."

The reaction was immediate. Nobody asked who Dravok meant, and the man holding the black weapon stepped slightly farther into his path.

"No."

Dravok met his eyes.

"You need to leave, Dravok. You ran when everything started falling apart, and now you return after all these years expecting us to let you walk through."

One of the other men moved closer. The black markings over the back of his hand had also begun shifting.

"They still call you the God of War, don't they? You carried that title while commanding our armies, then abandoned the war when we actually needed you."

Dravok showed no anger. Everything they were saying had enough truth behind it that arguing would only make him look more pathetic.

He had abandoned them.

People who had once followed his commands had died while he was somewhere else, and when the Primordials were driven to the state they were in now, their former general had never returned.

Dravok had his reasons. None of the five standing in front of him needed to hear them, especially when telling them the real reason for his return could create a much larger problem.

He could not mention Trafalgar.

If word spread that the child everyone believed had died was actually alive, Dravok would lose any control he still had over the situation. He needed to speak with the person deeper inside first and understand exactly what remained of the people he had once served.

"I didn't come here to justify what I did," Dravok said. "Let me speak with him. I'll leave afterward if that's what he wants."

"You don't decide what happens here anymore."

"Yeah... I guess you're right about that."

Dravok's calm answer only hardened the man's expression.

For a brief moment, Dravok considered forcing his way through. He abandoned the idea almost immediately, because even if he could break past these five, there would be more waiting deeper inside.

He had come here to determine whether bringing Trafalgar was possible. Cutting his way through the Primordials would answer that question in the worst possible way.

Dravok tried to speak again.

He never got the chance.

The man in front of him shifted one foot.

His body disappeared from where it had been standing, and the black blade arrived in front of Dravok's face almost immediately.

Dravok raised his bare hand.

[Origin Guard].

Mana compressed into one precise section of his palm and forearm. Skin, muscle and bone strengthened simultaneously as practically all of the defensive mana he needed was concentrated into the exact point about to receive the attack.

CLANG!

The blade crashed against his hand.

Stone fractured beneath Dravok's feet from the impact, cracks spreading several metres behind him. His arm moved only slightly before stopping the weapon completely.

The five Primordials stared at him.

Dravok tightened his fingers against the side of the blade and pushed it away. He released [Origin Guard] immediately afterward without attempting a counterattack.

He had no intention of hurting them.

But he needed them to understand something else as well.

The God of War had not returned weak.

[Godstep].

BANG!

Dravok drove mana directly through the muscles controlling his movement. His entire body accelerated at once, crossing exactly three metres before his feet touched the ground again.

To the five watching him, he had almost disappeared and reappeared farther away.

"I don't want to fight."

The other four moved before the first man answered.

Mana surged through the area as every black marking around them became active. A spear materialized in one man's hand, two shorter weapons formed around another, and the women separated toward Dravok's flanks as their own weapons began appearing.

Dravok watched them surround him without summoning anything himself.

He could still turn around.

If he left now, there was a good chance they would let him go. He would return to the outside world without the answers he wanted, and Trafalgar would remain completely unaware of how close Dravok had come to the people he had spent so long searching for.

That was no longer enough.

The man with the black blade lowered his center of gravity.

"Last chance, Dravok."