"What's in this for you?"
Avery was skeptical as to why Evan was trying to help him, Blair and Evan never really got along after all. It's hard to imagine Evan would go this far for her sake without some sort of ulterior motive.
"-"
Evan was bleeding to death however, his vision was blurred around the edges. He was fighting to stay alive, as long as he could make it back to Sadako everything would work out he thought.
Avery had opened a pathway back into the world of Jigoku. Unfortunately, he didn't have pin point control over this power however. Once the two of them stepped through to the other side Evan was knocked to the ground by a big burling man. They had popped right into the middle of a busy street. It was an afternoon rush, there was markets on both sides selling food, livestock, and various goods. People were everywhere.
"Watch it kid!" The man yelled before carrying about his way. He paid no mind to Evan's serious condition.
However, there was good news and bad news about the laws of Jigoku. The good news was that in this world even with his wounds as bad as they were, Evan wouldn't die so easily thanks to the laws of physics being completely different. The bad news was that pain is much stronger here, a simple cut feels like a chopped off limb in Jigoku after all. With Evan's wounds, his pain was immense. He grit his teeth and screamed out, almost losing himself for a moment. But then he realized again what was truly important. He had to save his family, he stumbled back to his feet. He gave Avery a serious look before speaking again.
"We have to find Sadako, she's in the town of Illumious."
"What town is this?"
"From the looks of it…Treaven. Illumious is the next town over, it will take a week to make it there…"
The plan was going array, even with the benefit of this world it was doubtful that Evan would survive a whole week traveling with his wounds. Although, there was another option. It was risky, but they could steal a land dragon. They weren't actually dragons or anything like Atsuko, a land dragon was much smaller and less intelligent. Basically, a glorified horse.
If they stole a land dragon, they could cut their travel time down to 3 or so days. Evan could probably survive that long, the only problem is the risk of unwanted attention. If the royal guards caught wind of this and gave chase, it was highly likely that information would be relayed back to Goliath.
"Our only option is to steal a land dragon. But, if we get chased by the guards, even if we're out numbered we have to kill them all."
The gleam in Evan's eye was serious.
"'Kill 'em all' huh? You sure have changed in these two years."
"We don't have time for small talk, let's go."
Evan may have seemed cold, but he couldn't worry about that. He was on a time limit, Sadako had a means in which to heal him. Either way, he hadn't imagined that he would be in this much pain. He didn't believe that Avery would have brought him this close to death. They we're once friends after all.
Evan learned how to fight from Sadako and in doing so he had plenty of confidence in his battle sense. That glass attack from Avery was unexpected.
The more he thought about it the more he believed that attack was cowardly.
If Evan died from that sneak attack then Sadako would surely be heart broken. Saika would grow up without a father. Sadako wouldn't be the type to fall in love with someone else had Evan died, although for her sake he hoped she would find someone eventually. He had to face that possibility.
Evan walked up to the market place and began making a scene, he made a bunch of noise. Drawing attention to himself.
"Oh! God! Oh! I'm bleeding! Ahhhhhhg! Nooo I don't wanna dieeee!"
His acting was over the top, but the distraction worked just fine. This was the type of thinking he had learned over the course of his 2 years spent in this world. A distraction goes a long way sometimes. Avery had snuck into one of the stalls and untied the rope holding the healthiest looking land dragon. There was another one that he almost chose due to it's size being larger. That one also looked considerably older compared to the other one so he thought the younger one was a better choice.
Upon seeing Avery leave with the land dragon, Evan suddenly stopped being dramatic. He busted through the crowd and escaped into a near by alleyway. He went to the front of town where Avery would be waiting for him with their stolen transportation.
"Hey!? Someone stole my ride!!!!"
As Evan was walking away he heard a man shouting. Presumably, the owner of the land dragon. Evan felt bad, but his mission was important. Lives were at stake in fact. It wasn't like they were just stealing it just to go joy riding. That would be careless, and horrible. There are families that love their land dragons after all, they feed them and treat them preciously. Like a member of the family.
After all of this is over, I'll have make sure to return this land dragon. Evan made a metal note.
It only took 2 days to arrive in Illumious, that creature was really something to cross that amount of distance so quickly is what Evan thought. There is an Express highway that leads directly to every town in the region. Though, you'd have to first cross the front Gates of the royal castle. It's not too much of a problem as long as the couple of royal guards stationed at the gate didn't find those crossing to be too suspicious. Evan and Avery got by just fine despite both being humans, the guards that day were pretty non chelont.
"Here we are."
Evan said, they had stopped at a certain apartment type building. Illumious was totally different from Treaven, there were many more buildings and it felt much more modern and relaxed as a town.
The land dragon was tied up outside the city as to not draw any possible attention to their exactly location. Evan was barely clinging to his consciousness, between bleeding out and not sleeping for over 2 days. It was a miracle he was able to climb the stairs, Avery did notice his struggle and put an arm around him helping him to the top.
"Its this one."
Evan pointed it out, room 913. Once the door was opened she was sitting there, eyes open wide in surprise. Excitement. And then worry, as she saw Evan's bleeding. Sadako cleared the couch and immediately began to go to work. She tore his shirt, completely exposing his chest where the wound was located.
"You've lost so much blood…"
An orange light came from her hands, she was shaking a bit covering the torn skin with her palms. The cut was deep, though, had the piece of glass hit just a few inches over then Evan would have died instantly. You could say it was a stroke of luck, either that or Avery was more of a skilled marksman than anyone thought.
Evan completely lost consciousness the moment he laid back. He was running on fumes the entire journey, the thought to see his wife and save his child. That's what kept him going.
Once the wound closed up, his body would still have a significant loss of blood. Sadako brushed his hair back and kissed him with quivering lips. She was worried the entire time he was away that she would never see him again after all. She sat there watching the front door for the entirety of those 2 days, praying to see him open that door and come inside once more.
"A lot really has changed around here hasn't it?"
Avery spoke, he was bewildered. Though the only reply Sadako gave him was her silent cold eyes, her face said the words she didn't speak. It was a face of hatred.
"If we didn't need you then I would never have gone so far as to send the father of my child out there. You're worthless as you are, crying and lashing out on those who are innocent. What you need is to gather that key from the demon Lord.
That is the key to Neodeka, your girlfriend came into the gateway of the phantom world if you recall. When she did that, a contract was made and her soul was kept safely inside the phantom realm.
If I go back to Neodeka and open that gateway I can retrieve her soul and you two idiots can go do whatever you like from there on...But...what we need is for you to keep the demon Lord busy long enough so that Evan can carry out a separate mission.
There's another room in the castle where my daughter is being held captive right now. If you understand the entirety of the situation then I'm sure you understand that keeping Goliath distracted should be as important to you as getting that key.
If you fail to keep his attention and Evan or Saika lose their lives in the process, I will NOT bring your beloved Blair back to life. Do you Understand?"
"Yes may'am."
Sadako was cold hearted as she spoke, she made everything clear as day. From the plan, to the fact that Avery had multiple objectives at hand. If Avery ever wanted to see Blair again he would have to not only face the king of demons, he would have to delay his attention long enough for Evan to complete his mission as well.