Unaware of the intense and world shaking battle that had just taken place in another dimensional plane, Eugene slept an uneasy and restless sleep. He had been forced to rest after the episode he had in the morning while Gustavo and May took the reigns and controlled the automobile.
At their current speed, they would reached the desert kingdom of Tahan by nightfall.
Time moved quickly and Eugene only woke up at noon, when the sun was at its peak. Even so, he was tired and muddle headed.
His movements drew Gustavo's attention and the injured man peaked a head through the latch at the front of the carriage.
"Young master, you are awake." He smiled.
"Mm. How close are we to Tahan?" Eugene asked as he rubbed his eyes and sat up.
"We made good time. We should arrive there in about four to five hours." Gustavo replied.
"That's good." Eugene said as he stretched.
The vehicle continued moving without any problems for the next half hour. During that time, Eugene cleaned his weapon and practiced controlling the flow and output of his mana. He did not know any spells yet, but it was never too late to perfect his mana manipulation.
"What's that?" May's curious voice drew Eugene out of them focused state of mind that he had sunken into. He twisted his neck as he strained to see what they saw through the latch at the front of the automobile.
"None of our business." Gustavo replied decisively and Eugene felt the direction of the automobile turn.
"What's wrong?" Eugene got up and walked over to the latch.
"There's someone on the road ahead. It's fine, we'll just ignore them." Gustavo replied.
Eugene took a look in the direction they had just turned from. A moment later, his eyes widened in shock. The figure that he saw just now was wearing the same ragged robes as the Demon from his dream. While it might be a random person, the situation was too strange to be a coincident.
"Wait! Stop!" Eugene called out.
"What's wrong, young master?" Gustavo was surprised.
But Eugene did not answer him. Instead, he swung open the door to the automobile and jumped out before running in the direction of the person in ragged robes.
"You!" Eugene called out as he rapidly closed the distance between himself and the person. Just as he called out, the robed figure seemed to sway before slowly falling down face first.
Eugene paused for a moment before continuing forward. He soon reached the side of this person and bent down to turn him over.
"Hey!" Eugene pulled aside the hood on the robe, but was shocked when he was not met with the somewhat familiar face of the old man that the Demon had taken form of. Instead, he was met with the image of a young man with smooth, soft features and a head of sandy blond hair.
"Who...?" Eugene was stunned. This was not the person he remembered. Instead of a wrinkly old man, he had been handed a young and unknown man. The young man looked to be around the same age as Eugene, but he could not be sure.
'Are you looking for me?' A familiar, mysterious voice whispered through Eugene's ears and he turned around in shock. It was the voice of the Demon!
'Where are you? Are you the young man in front of me?' Eugene asked back to the Demon.
'No, no. I just thought it would be funny for you to run into him and mistake him for me. I am within your mind. As for him, well, he is a helpless human. You can find out what's wrong with him. He is harmless at this point.' The Demon chuckled deeply within Eugene's mind. As the moments passed, its voice seemed to fade and Eugene was once again left alone.
"YOUNG MASTER!" Gustavo's voice came out as a roar as the automobile came to a stop some distance away and he hopped down and sprinted over to Eugene.
"I'm okay. But he's not." Eugene said to the man when he knelt beside Eugene.
"Even still! What if he had been an assassin?! You would be dead right now!" Gustavo said, his eyes red and his tone firm. This time, he was scolding Eugene! "You were too reckless!"
Gustavo instantly took the body of the young man a distance away. Normally, he would inject qi into the other person's body to snap them awake, but his qi was unbalanced. It had been ever since he was injured by the leader of the assassins in the attack on Blazing Sun City.
"Wake up!" Gustavo resorted to delivering a solid smack to the young man's cheeks. Evidently, it turned out that slaps were quite effective at waking up people, as the young man immediately sputtered as he came to.
"-What? Where?!" He jumped up but was pressed back to the ground by Gustavo's inhuman strength.
"Stay down!"
"You'll never get me, bastard!" The blond boy pulled out a dagger from his sleeve and tried to stab Gustavo, but his hand suddenly went slack as strength left his body.
"What did you do to him?" Eugene had already stepped back when he saw the blond boy struggling. When he suddenly stopped, Eugene had assumed that Gustavo might have done something.
"Nothing." Gustavo shook his head.
"Go ahead... Just get over with it and kill me." The boy turned his head to the side with a defeated expression.
Gustavo's face hardened. His suspicions concerning the boy had risen again.
"Are you an assassin?" He asked. He wanted to give the boy the benefit of doubt before doing anything else.
"Assassin? Aren't you the assassins?!" The boy's eyes snapped open and he glared at Gustavo. He looked at Eugene and May behind, and then at the automobile at the back.
"...Wait, where are we?" He looked around and saw that he was in the middle of the desert.
"In the middle of the desert. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Gustavo questioned as he kicked the dagger in the boy's hand to the side and held him more firmly.