Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"Hey! Did you say Eli is here?" I yelled again, this time with a pounding heart.

"Yes." He answered concisely as he kept running and leaping between trees, to which I followed.

"Who? Oh, that boy back in my lair? Is he good news or bad news in this case?" This time, Luke was the one who proposed the question.

I immediately looked at general Zhang, waiting for his answer as I nervously gulped. Right, this time, he was the one who knew the current Eli the best, not me anymore. They were sort of, like, contractual something? Partners in crime, maybe.

So, was it good or bad…?

"I don't know." General Zhang answered the question while he jumped past a tall bush.

"What!? You don't know?" I hopped over the same bush, and quickened my pace, "but you said you had plans to meet him, right? Or something like that?"

"Yes, but we don't get in the way of each other's business," he groaned, "and those two, Owen and porcupine, wasn't part of our plan. So I can't guarantee anything."

"Seriously? Dude, you have a wacky relationship with him, I swear—" I frowned, "then, we are rushing because…?"

"He might kill them, what else?" General Zhang replied, sounding a little annoyed.

"Ah, right. He's like that now." I gulped, taken aback that I still wasn't very used to this version of Eli. He used to be so against senseless killing. Ugh, thinking about this hurts my head.

"What's your plan, then?" Luke suddenly asked, which piqued my interest.

"Huh?" General Zhang answered, sounding obviously annoyed.

"Your plan. You weren't able to defeat him last time, were you?"

"Hmm, is that how it looks like to you?"

"What?" I frowned, not really understanding what they argued about this time, "in any case, let's hurry up! Where are they being kept, exactly?"

"They're not far. Although, there's something a little weird." General Zhang replied without slowing down his pace.

"What's weird!?" I yelled, trying my best to keep up.

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"This. This is weird."

Finally, after running around for roughly five minutes, we stopped in the middle of nowhere, right when general Zhang stopped to announce that something was weird here.

"What do you mean?" I started to look around, trying to find something off from our surroundings.

"Ah, yes. Now I understand what you meant by weird." This time, Luke agreed with him.

I groaned when I couldn't really pinpoint what was weird about this place… Eh? Wait, they were all looking down… Perhaps?

"Are they down here?" I questioned while pointing down with a confused face.

"Most certainly. I can clearly feel their mana down below," general Zhang nodded while tapping his heel on the ground, "why do you look so surprised, little cub? Underground prison is pretty common, right?"

"I mean, yeah… But honestly, I didn't expect those minotaurs to be smart enough to build something like that. I guess this world is still so foreign to me, after all," I sighed, "should I blast through this?"

"No need, I'll do it," he responded flatly, "Owen, porcupine, you haven't been weakened enough to not be able to shield yourself, right? Watch out~" And with a smirk, he raised his foot high above the ground.

'BOOM!'

"Ack!" I flinched and instinctively protected my head with my arms when his stomp caused the ground to shake and the dust to fly everywhere.

"Big bro! Get away!" I shouted and jumped backwards a few meters to avoid falling into the hole that was beginning to form on the ground.

"… What?"

"Oh! Is that…?" My head started to look around again when I heard a familiar voice that I hadn't heard for quite a long time.

"Yo, Owen, porcupine~ How's life treating you?"

"Took you long enough."

"General Owen!" I quickly ran and peeked over the hole when I heard his voice for the second time. He was alive! Great!

"Wait, you're here? So, the powerful mana that I sensed belonged to… But, how?" The huge general stared at me with wide eyes.

Ah, right. I had grown quite a bit from the last time we met, hadn't I?

"Why do you look so disappointed to see me?" I pouted, "anyway, don't worry, we're going to bail you out!" I yelled and got myself ready to jump down the hole.

Surprisingly, both of them looked kinda okay-ish? I mean, this was the first time I saw general Enzo, but he looked… Almost exactly the same as general Emilio, even down to his body language. Very stiff and guarded.

Shouldn't they look malnourished and tired as heck, though? The minotaurs didn't really need to eat, right? So… Wait, how did they survive, then? There should be no food here, and there was no way they could survive only on water for weeks.

"Finally, you're here."

A raspy voice entered my ear, and my whole body immediately froze. I was just about to step into the hole, but now I felt like I couldn't move a muscle.

"Yo, edgy prince. Mind telling me what's your business here?" General Zhang scoffed while looking down the hole.

"I wasn't talking to you, but to that thing over there." The aforementioned guy pointed towards me with his sword, his infamously large sword that he kept behind his back just a few seconds ago.

I really wanted to call out his name, to ask him questions, but somehow, I felt like my words were stuck inside my throat.

"That thing? You mean her?" General Zhang frowned, "she's not a thing."

"… I don't care either way. I only want to know who she is. She's definitely suspicious, don't you realize that?" Eli replied coldly while throwing an icy glare at us. Ugh, how could his red eyes look that menacing? Felt so weird to me.

"Well, she's none of your business. What do you want from those two?" General Zhang hopped down the hole and landed in front of the dark-haired guy who wore a black leather jacket, complete with black pants to complete his look.

"I decide my own business," Eli retorted with a growl, "and my business with them is done. Right now, the person I want to talk to is you." He tilted his head, gesturing towards the white-haired man in front of him.

"Done, you said?" General Zhang raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"You can ask them yourself, what business I've been doing here for the last few weeks." Eli pointed at the two generals behind him that was seated on the ground, bound by chains around their wrists.

"Last few weeks?" General Zhang took a step forward, but suddenly looked back at me and Luke, and ultimately refrained from doing so, retracting his foot and continued to stand between Eli and us.

"Yes… That man, he…" General Owen opened his mouth, looking a bit unsure, "he had been coming every few days to bring us food and other basic needs."

"Yes." With a short answer and a simple nod, general Enzo also confirmed the fact.

"… Huh. Didn't know the heartless edgy prince is capable of doing things like that," general Zhang crossed his arms, "well? Now, spill your reasoning for doing that."

"Sharp as ever, I see," Eli replied without the slightest hint of emotion in his voice, "I came here to propose something to you."

"Oh? A new project? Bold of you to do that since we haven't even finished—"

"This is for the sake of our goal."

The moment general Zhang heard that, he quickly stopped talking and nodded.

"Before that, I would like to talk to them to confirm their well-being. That's okay with you, right?" General Zhang replied coldly, without moving from his place.

"… Do what you want." The other man sighed and looked away for a second, before deciding to stare at me again.

"Urk." I flinched a little, but still not moving from my place. What was I supposed to say in this situation? What was I supposed to do? I… What did I even want to ask or say to him?

"Eyes on me, edgy prince," general Zhang reprimanded him and snapped his fingers in front of Eli's face, "you two, come here. You can walk, right?"

Hearing that, general Owen and general Enzo stood up, although a bit wobbly, and walked over to general Zhang. Without the need for more explanation, both of them held their wrists up, as if offering the chains to the goofy general.

'Ting!'

By only clenching his fist, he managed to break the chains into pieces, freeing the both of them without moving even one facial muscle.

… See, he was even more suspicious than I was. How the heck could a normal person break a chain like that like it was nothing?

"Hey, you guys alive? Do you still have energy?"

"… Yes. No complaints here. What do we need to do?" General Owen was quick to answer, and immediately asked for the next course of plan. Not a lot of people could be that focused, especially after living under that condition for quite some time.

"So, have you finished checking?" Eli suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"I guess they're actually fine. So, what do you want?" General Zhang asked while he threw the broken chains aside.

Although I could clearly see that the other generals were shocked that Eli, the man that had been the talk of the town—in a bad way, was talking so casually with general Zhang, they were able to read the situation and waited for them to finish their talk.

So he really did treat those generals well, after all. No, wait, scratch that. He treated them well because he wanted something… Ack, in the end, those two generals get to live. It didn't matter if Eli did it with additional motive, if it meant that they could survive.

"Let me get this straight," Eli started, "let us join forces for the next mission."