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Even though he was currently surrounded and outnumbered, Emery didn't feel scared at all because he knew he could take these people without much trouble. However, the fact they were currently in space did give him some worries to think about.

The pirates however made it clear they would stop at nothing.

"I'm pretty sure you've found some valuables down there." Kotook said with a smile. "Give me everything you found and we'll make it as painless as we can."

All six saint-level pirates brought out their cold and energy weapons and quickly brandished them at Emery, ready to attack him at a call's notice. Even so, the latter maintained his calm appearance.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Emery asked in a calm voice as his eyes stared at the smiling pirate captain, to which the latter responded by bursting into laughter.

"Haha, don't act tough! There is only one of you now, while there are seven of us!" With a swing of his arm he said "Everyone, ATTACK!"

Heaving a sigh, Emery didn't even need to opt for his transformation ability as his figure disappeared, dodging the initial round of fire from the energy weapons these pirates wielded. Pulling out his [Blade Claw], he dashed forward to engage the incoming gold-toothed magus.

BAAMMM!!!

Sparks flew in the air the moment their weapons clashed. As soon as they exchanged blows, the pirate magus' face immediately changed as he found himself pushed back a few steps.

Before he could warn his crew, Emery already ditched him and was closing in on them. With his vastly superior strength, it only took one strike each before the saint-level pirates were incapacitated. None of them were able to put up a resistance.

It was truly a one-sided battle.

Seeing his crew being crushed so easily, Kotook immediately took off, but not at Emery. Instead, he shot towards the pilot's seat. Before Emery could do anything to stop him, he pressed some buttons on the control panel.

Emery quickly plunged his claws into the gold-toothed magus' back and flung his body violently to the back of the spaceship, where the other injured and incapacitated pirates were gathered. The man groaned in pain, but a smile could be seen on his face when his eyes met Emery's.

"What did you just DO?!" Emery shouted.

Although in pain, the smile on Kotook's face widened as he said, "It's our insurance that you will not kill me and my crew."

Since Emery knew quite a bit about piloting a spaceship, he immediately tried to operate the control panel. Moments later, his face turned dark as he saw his actions were answered with a warning sign.

[Autopilot lock. Please insert the passkey to remove the lock]

"Autopilot?!" Turning to the gold-toothed magus, Emery asked, "What destination!? Where did you set it to!?"

With a chuckle, he said, "Reinforcement."

Emery stood in front of them with irritation apparent on his face. Nevertheless, he still planned to make the pirate magus release the lock through negotiation. Only when peaceful methods didn't work would he resort to a more violent and forceful approach.

But before he could even do that, a look of surprise appeared on Emery's face as he suddenly felt energy burst out of his chest. To his and the pirates' shock, dark green tentacles came out and shot towards the group, tying their bodies in a tight bind.

"What?! What are you!" Kotook screamed with a frantic voice.

In a matter of seconds, all the saint-level pirates were pulled in without them being unable to do anything. Only the magus captain was able to resist the initial pull, but even then his struggle didn't last long. He could only helplessly scream as he was pulled in as well.

Watching all this, only seconds later Emery woke up from his shock. Needless to say, he immediately questioned the culprit.

"Elder Cthulhu, what are you doing?!"

There was silence for a few seconds before the deep voice echoed in his mind.

<Like I said before, wandering around like this made me exhausted. In fact, is barely enough… need more.>

"Elder, leave me at least one of them! I need to get some information out of them!"

<...Too late… they're all gone.>

"..."

Emery was completely speechless hearing that. Sweat couldn't help but form on his forehead. From its words, the creature casually devoured those people as if they were candies. Not only that, now that all the pirates were dead, he wouldn't be able to deactivate the ship's autopilot.

"Seriously, Elder…" At this predicament that shouldn't be happening, Emery couldn't help but sigh. "Then never mind… Just please tell me first next time."

<I never make promises.>

"..."

As he was unable to undo what had happened, Emery went back to the pilot's seat and tried his best to deal with the problem. Unfortunately, he soon realized his limited knowledge was not much help. There was nothing he could do to gain control of the spaceship.

Before long, the entire ship experienced turbulence as it slowed down, closing in on a certain asteroid field that covered almost the entire view from the pilot's window and stretched as far as several light years.

Such a sight meant nothing but trouble for Emery.

"Dammit, this must be the hideout of the pirates!"

As if answering his words, it took only a minute before the ship's radar picked up several ships coming towards it.

Emery quickly came to a conclusion that the ship being boarded and captured by the pirates would be the best option for him to happen. The other option was that the ship got shot down which would automatically make him unable to fight back.

With not much time left, Emery once again called for the Khaos guardian that was inside of him.

"Elder, you really have to help me here, since technically it's also partly your fault."

Despite not hearing a response, he still tried again. "If you make me your champion, I can certainly walk through the door and get out of this situation, don't you think?"

Emery couldn't help but smile, hoping to turn such tragedy into an opportunity, however the Khaos guardian answered decisively.

<No! Even if I agree, it's simply impossible, not without a Darkness Spirit Soul.>

Annoyed by such an answer, Emery said, "Then I guess you'd be stranded here with my dead body drifting in space!"

Emery stood tall as he watched three ships approaching from the asteroid field. To not be found, he quickly removed himself from the ship window.

The other side attempted to establish communication, most likely because they wanted to know what happened, which of course he completely ignored.

Unfortunately, they appeared to have the ability to access the ship door remotely.

"Damn they are entering soon!"

Emery was ready for a fight when he felt a surge of power from his chest. The next time he blinked his eyes, he once again found himself in the Khaos space where Cthulhu was.

"You pulled me in?!"

As his eyes looked around, he saw the remains of six pirates and frowned slightly at their terrible state. Then, he turned to the creature in the room and said, "Are you planning to devour me too? Do you want another match? Or did you finally agree to make me your champion?"

<None of them.>

Following those words, a window suddenly appeared. When he looked at it, he could see the inside of the ship where he had been a moment earlier. Shortly thereafter, the ship was boarded by a group of pirates, who were clearly confused when they were unable to find a single person inside the ship.

<Unless they have a grand magus who is proficient at darkness element, won't be able to sense us.>

Just as the guardian said, the pirates spread out to search the ship, only to find their efforts to be in vain. Eventually, after finding absolutely no clues, the leader of the pirate group decided to take over the ship and bring it into the asteroid field.

Since he saw that the autopilot lock had been deactivated, Emery didn't want to waste his chance to get out and take control of the ship once again. However, considering there were three other ships out there, he ruled out this plan because it was too risky.

Emery decided to wait until the pirates reached their destination. But as time went on, his face became darker and darker.

"Damn it... We're heading to the pirate base, aren't we?!"

It only took him a few minutes to confirm his guess.

It was a numerous asteroid with multiple entrances like caves. One that was easily able to accommodate multiple ships like Kotook's. As the three ships reach an opening, Emery could see a town within, one populated with thousands of people.

To be continued