Hexbound Apocalypse [LitRPG Apocalypse] (Book 3 Finished!)

While Hazel kept Esil restrained using her Evil Eyes, Zoe spoke up.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't show," She said, crossing her arms.

Hazel shrugged. "Like I said, the situation with the Orcs took a bit. But hey, better late than never, right?"

She heard a heavy sigh escape the knight's lips but refrained from commenting on it. Her eyes remained trained on the dark elf, making sure that he was still under the effects of her Evil Eye. Then she remembered a trick involving her Astral Eyes and hastily cast the Evil Eyes effect on one of them before aiming it at Esil.

Thanks to this, she could look away from the dark elf without worry. This allowed her to spare a glance at the other player, Mara Grisel. From what her status showed, Mara possessed a Black Knight class, which seemed to be a stark difference from Zoe's class. Even the black armor she was shrouded in seemed to contrast with Zoe Callahan.

Mara noticed her gaze, but instead of glaring at her, she simply smiled. As if finding her gaze amusing. Hazel's brow twitched irritably at this, but she didn't say a single word.

"May I ask why you're staring at me?" The black knight uttered calmly.

"I'm simply curious about who you are," Hazel said plainly. "I assume that you're the guild leader of the Battle Breakers, then?"

"As a matter of fact, I am!" She beamed. "My name is Mara Grisel, a former knight of the Ruinvia Empire."

Hazel's eyes widened upon hearing that name. She knew about the Ruinvia empire from Astrid's explanation of the current continent they were on. The Ruinvia empire was located at the very bottom of the continent. But what was a knight of the empire doing in the Briarhart kingdom?

Then again, it was likely the same situation with Astrid and her brother. They were sent to another location because one of their party members likely originated in this area. Because of that, all members of the party would be sent there. Hazel found this little rule to be absolutely absurd and annoying.

If this rule weren't a thing, Astrid would've been sent to her homeland already, and so would Damien, saving Hazel the hassle of traveling all the way to the Great Forest of Meir to find him. Sure, she was elated that she knew that her brother was fine and all, but all this roaming around was getting annoying. It didn't help that she was doing this in the middle of an apocalypse.

Hazel quickly dismissed her pointless thoughts and focused back on the conversation with Mara Grisel.

"I've heard about the Ruinvia empire. So you were a resident there."

"I am," Mara nodded before pausing. "Well, at least I was. After everything that happened with the system appearing and our worlds merging, I doubt the Ruinvia empire will be able to rebuild amidst all of that chaos."

She wasn't wrong. Because of what was happening to their world, the possibility of the Ruinvia Empire returning was extremely low. Not only that, but rebuilding a kingdom right now was out of the question because they needed to ensure that their world didn't get used for resources by other worlds.

They needed to focus on completing the trials and obtaining the qualification to become an Official realm. After that, they could focus on rebuilding their world. Of course, Hazel knew that there were bound to be people who would try and take advantage of the chaos and attempt to establish their own kingdom or territory. They technically already did by making guilds.

It wouldn't be long before players began to make kingdoms from the guilds they built. Thankfully, Hazel planned to avoid getting involved in such scenarios. Or at least she hoped to avoid it. Her best chance of staying out of such troublesome affairs would be for her to gather as much strength as possible, which was her original plan in the first place, since she needed to reach level 50 to use her Arcane Heart.

Sadly, she didn't get the chance to. She would've done it by killing the Orcs, but held back since she found them to be more useful to her alive rather than dead. It was certainly the right call after seeing Astrid's message.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Speaking of which...

"Zoe," Hazel turned to the Callahan knight. "You know about the siege that's happening at your base, right?"

She nodded. "Yes. John informed me a little while ago after we were getting attacked by Dolk's allies. By the way, where is he? Did you catch him?"

"Yeah. He's currently being watched over by two elves who were fighting him."

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "Why were two elves after him?"

"Actually, they were after me and my mom, but stumbled upon Dolk while searching. They attacked him because of the mess he was involved in within the Great Forest of Meir."

"Wait, what?!" She blurted out with widened eyes. "Why were the elves after you and Evelyn, then?!"

"Because of my brother, apparently."

"W-what...?"

"Look, we can talk about this later, but for right now, we have bigger issues, don't you think?"

As much as she enjoyed seeing the flustered knight, Hazel knew that they needed to head back to the valiant guild's base while they had time. They needed to help in stopping the siege and take down the last two dark elves currently at their base.

"Y-you're right..." Zoe said, realizing the big picture. She then turned to Mara with a stern expression. "I'm sorry to ask this of you, Mara, but could you please come with us, so we can deal with this problem as quickly as possible?"

Hazel was a bit surprised by her request just now. She didn't expect the Callahan knight to ask for help like that. Especially to another guild leader. Did they perhaps become friends or something?

Mara sighed while scratching her head. "I can't really say no here. Especially since you guys have the dark elf bastard that dared to plant spies in my guild."

When the black knight said this, her expression turned dark and angry, displaying her disdain for what Dolk did to her. Hazel could understand her sentiment and was thankful that she wasn't trying to get in their way.

Just then, a distant monstrous screech could be heard, alarming Zoe and Mara. However, Hazel remained calm and simply turned toward the source of the sound. As for why, it was because she recognized the screech.

Barreling down a hall, Nycteris suddenly appeared and zipped toward Hazel with an enthusiastic expression on his face. He stood before his master, sitting like a dog would in front of their owner. Hazel then reached for his head and began to vigorously rub and scratch it.

"You did a good job, Nycteris," she said with a wide grin. "I'm proud of you!"

In response, Nycteris let out a soft purr as if he were a cat. It didn't bother Hazel at all as she continued to pet her familiar. Meanwhile, Zoe and Mara stood next to one another with conflicted expressions written on their faces.

"So, this beast is your familiar, huh?" Mara said, taking in the scene.

"He is, but he's not a beast, so I would appreciate it if you didn't call him that again," Hazel stressed, sparing a glaring glance at the black knight.

Mara raised her hands defensively, clearly having no desire to fight or argue. "Duly noted. My apologies."

"Regardless," Zoe then chimed in. "Thank you for sending your familiar to help us."

"You're very welcome. I expected that Dolk would be a bit difficult to deal with since he was going to try and succeed in killing you and her. So, I decided to send Nycteris over to you guys, just to make sure that didn't happen."

"Well, you certainly planned this out, huh?" Mara noted while crossing her arms. "You didn't perhaps plan this from the beginning, did you?"

Hazel paused for a moment before giving Mara a fake smile. "And what do you mean by that, exactly?"

"I mean using us as a way to lure the dark elf out, so you can catch him by surprise and take him down. Considering that this Dolk guy was aiming to eliminate all the guild leaders within this area, it seems obvious that he wouldn't pass up on killing two guild leaders who are meeting one another, am I correct?"

Hazel silently gazed at the black knight, taking note of her intelligence. While she didn't expect Mara Grisel to be a brute with no intelligence, the fact that she managed to figure out her plan in such a way surprised her quite a bit. Then again, a plan like this was pretty much obvious, so perhaps she was overthinking it.

Either way, considering that Mara figured it out, Hazel felt there was no need to hide it.

"Yes, you are correct," she confessed. "To have a chance of getting to Dolk, I used you and Zoe to do that."

"Wow, you admitted that quite easily. And shamelessly, at that."

"Just because I'm acknowledging my actions doesn't mean I feel guilty. Dolk was clearly causing a lot of problems and was eventually going to take down the guilds within Portland one by one. Since I'm currently cooperating with the Valiant Guild, I couldn't afford to let Dolk try and destroy them. That and my partner was desperate to find Dolk as fast as possible."

Mara arched an eyebrow. "Your partner? Is she a dark elf as well?"

Hazel nodded. "Yes, and that's all I'll say about that."

Hazel didn't want to reveal any information regarding Astrid. Especially involving such a sensitive topic as her betrayal and her wanting to take down Dolk and his conspirators.

She let out a cough before continuing. "As much as I love to continue this conversation, we are technically on the clock, so we should probably hurry and head back to the Jetport."

Hearing this, Zoe's expression hardened with alertness. "You're right. My guild is currently being attacked!"

Mara let out a heavy sigh. "Alright then, lead the way."

Once everyone was on the same page, Hazel then guided them out of the hospital building to meet back with the elves and Dolk. As they did, Zoe and Mara contacted their allies who were with them and meet them back over at the building they were heading to.