30. Lost

With the snap of his fingers, Greg unleashed huge crimson flames upon the group burning all of them into ashes within seconds, he didn't even bat his eyes when many men women and children were burned by his flames.

The people of the Chrome tribe didn't even understand what has transpired and before they could even shout or wail they were turned into ashes. Was it merciful that they didn't experience the dread or pain, or was it cruel how fate has played with their lives and made them feel so insignificant at their deathbed?

Just some time ago they were all celebrating breaking free from a curse that plagued them for ages and now they didn't even get to experience what life could have been. All they felt and saw was their helplessness and insignificance in front of the power-hungry elites.

All of this had taken place within seconds, Ast realised what was going on and was anxious about what would happen to his tribe and the people that he cared for, the best-case scenario that he was hoping for was that his tribe would be taken as prisoners but as soon as Greg stopped his speech a huge crimson fire enveloped everything. It didn't discriminate between the children or the adult, the women or the elderly. It engulfed them all.

These were the people with whom he had spent his life, after the death of his parent they took him in, they cared for him, and he had his share of scruples and fights but now there was silence, he would never get to see them again, he would never get to build his home. A home for which now he craved more than anything.

Ast didn't know what to feel, he wanted to rush back and tear this person apart but he also wanted to run away, away from all the things that have transpired today. He wanted this all to be a dream, a dream from which he could run away.

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Greg noticed that all the people in front of him were turned into ashes but there was a small slime-like blood creature which was still there, half of its body was also burned but a pair of eyes were watching him with killing intent.

Greg threw a strange bead on this creature and suddenly he saw a thin line connecting this creature to someone not so far away. He could now feel the presence of the one who had summoned this creature.

Greg started flying towards this presence quickly.

Viktor noticed that Ast's mental state was too unstable and then he felt a suffocating presence quickly moving towards their position. Viktor called out his bats and covered Ast with them, he was trying his best to hide Ast's identity from Greg. As he didn't want 'The Order' to know about Ast so soon.

Greg was about to reach Ast and Victor when they suddenly disappeared completely. Greg was surprised by the sudden change in his surrounding. The presence that he felt was now gone. Greg didn't put this into much consideration and proceeded toward the central region of the forest. Greg was the official in charge of this whole operation. He was sent by the order to finish Viktor. And it didn't matter to Greg whether Viktor was in a dormant state or fully awake(he was stronger than Viktor)

What had happened was that Viktor had used the same teleporting device that earlier Chris had used while fighting against Ast (circular disc, mentioned in one of the previous chapters), before coming to his tribe Ast had ordered Viktor to hide this silver circular disc near the transit terminal with the help of his bat. This circular silver disc was a high-grade artefact given to Chris by the neutral faction temporarily to help him succeed in his mission. Its teleportation radius could cover an entire planet.

Viktor could have used his bats to teleport but it would have left some elemental residue and Viktor didn't want that.

Viktor knew that right now they were not an opponent of this Greg fellow and he wanted his master's identity to remain hidden for the time being.

Viktor woke Ast from his trance and asked him to undo his summoning for the blood devil, although the distance this time was too far for the bead to work Viktor was not taking any chances, not after how close they were to dying.

Ast did what Viktor asked him but he was still not in control of his mental faculties. Viktor's priority has always been Ast so he then sent one of his bats to find a good hiding location, Viktor was convinced that it would take them(the order) at least one more day to search the entire forest so he was not in a hurry to leave as he feared that Ast might want to search for Anna and Alena and he didn't want to be the bad guy in front of his master.

Viktor teleported them to a hidden cave nearby and waited for Ast to calm down.

(Note - earlier I did not mention Viktor's talent and skill level because using his 'all-seeing eye' Ast could not read Viktor's info, due to level difference)