Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Who was that creature? What had been their goal? Did they help the devourers to reproduce? The fake hero was somewhat still connected to the whole problem? Those were the questions that bothered Ethan's mind for the rest of the night and through the next day while he was hunting. The devourers began to scatter when they noticed that their defeat was inevitable. Although that was troublesome, everyone worked hard to exterminate them down to the last one.

"A creature that can teleport at will?" Emily frowned after she heard the events from Anna's mouth. "I didn't think that was supposed to be possible. A spell as complicated as that needs some preparation and one heck of a level of concentration. Your sister needs to do that much, right Ethan?"

"… Give me one good reason as to why I should tell the secrets of my sister's techniques to you," Ethan frowned.

"You are so cautious… I didn't ask for the details, and I was just asking about what is common sense," Emily shrugged.

"Anyway, at least this incident proved that perhaps the destruction of this world wasn't caused only by the fake hero," Ian said. "He messed around, but as expected, the multiplication of the devourers wasn't a natural event."

"Although that seems to be the case, it doesn't make things easier for us," Maerys said. "Still, we are thankful for your help. If something happens again, we will make sure to contact you before the problem escalates."

Although the battle lasted for more than one day, there were no losses on their side. Everyone had to thank Emily for it since she healed everyone before things could get dangerous. In any case, for all intentions and purposes, the mission was over. Still, Ivan would return in a few weeks to collect some more information about those weird symbols. Also, the Clannian people would look for more suspicious things while they slowly built their society. Besides, since they worked hard, Ivan had to pay them properly. As far as magic stones are concerned, just giving them a few magic items that will help to rebuild their world wasn't enough, so he promised to look for the Clannians that were captured in the other missions and bring them back to their home planet. Regardless, it was time to say goodbye.

pαndα,noνɐ1,сoМ "We owe a special thanks to you, Ethan," Maerys said. "Without you, we wouldn't have recovered our planet and our dignity."

"Thanks, are unnecessary. I will be paid for this, after all," Ethan shrugged.

Although Ethan didn't really care about it, some of the Clannian were quite fearful of him. Obviously, he remembers most of the things he did when he went to berserker. That shout had been very demon-like. Despite that, others wanted to stay away from him for other reasons, like his decision to negotiate with the mercenaries despite what they did. Cen was one of them.

After saying goodbye, Maerys and her people left the camp in order to look for an appropriate place to build their new homes. Although Ethan watched them while they disappeared in the distance, his head was somewhere else. He was thinking about the words of that creature. It had been a long while since he felt so bothered by the words of someone… for the good or the worse, his life while he was on Hedo, was a simple one. All he had to do was to fight demons steal their power, and grow stronger. Then one day after defeating the demon king, he returned. Although he questioned his powers several times, those were the tools he needed to accomplish what he was supposed to do. Aside from that, he didn't have many doubts about anything else. However, things were different now. His home planet was changing and becoming like one of those fantasy worlds, after all.

"It looks like I will have to work much harder than I thought… Something big is about to happen, and I can feel it. So, I will have to use all of my free time to grow stronger."

After teleporting everything back to Earth, Ian used Telekinesis to make the mercenaries use the portal. While they were doing that, Zeke approached Ethan. Although he was in a good mood, he couldn't just forget the things that happened. It wasn't like Ethan couldn't understand him, but he also couldn't just readily accept all of his questions.

"Despite everything, it was good to work with you, kid," Zeke said. "Those weapons of yours are quite interesting, so we are interested in negotiating with you."

"Unless you can impress me with a high amount of money, I don't intend to sell them," Ethan replied.

Ethan wanted to sell them since they were useful and practical, and everyone would pay top dollar for his magic weapons. However, it would be a problem if some troublesome individuals got their hands on those weapons and managed to reproduce them. As far as Ethan could tell, that wasn't impossible since only mana was being used to create them.

"Well, it is not like you guys will need those weapons, right?" Ethan asked. "Each one of you will receive a lot of money, enough to retire from this line of business."

"Haha, you are completely right," Zeke smiled in satisfaction. "Still, if the opportunity arises, I would like the chance to do business with you."

"As long as you guys don't do unreasonable things again, I won't see any reason not to do so," Ethan said.

Zeke didn't like people who liked a strong sense of justice since in his eyes, they were too naïve. At first, he thought Ethan was the same, but then he understood he was wrong. Ethan, more than any person there, could understand the mercenaries because he had fought alongside many types of mercenaries before. It was only natural since Hedo was almost taken over by the demons. In order to prevent the victory of their single natural enemy, the humans from there had to put their differences aside. Still, that only worked for a while since the human side had an anomaly called Ethan.

In the end, Zeke also left without having any lingering ill feelings. He had no reason to have them, after all. Eventually, the only people left were Ethan, Emily, Ian, and Anna. Ivan had been the first to return since he had to pay the mercenaries. Although it was a bit weird considering Ian's behavior, he decided to finish the mission the same way it happened: with him, Ethan, and Emily being the last ones to return to Earth.