Chapter 121: The End of the Nightmare
Silas’ team shuttle sped toward the edge of the mine territory without slowing down.
After placing Silas inside the bathtub and confirming that his condition had stabilised, the rest of the team gathered around the tactical map.
The first thing they noticed was the monster tide abruptly changing direction and surging toward the mine.
"It’s happening just as he predicted."
Lara pointed at the display, stating the obvious.
"Now no one will dare chase..."
She stopped mid-sentence as a black shuttle suddenly appeared on the map.
"Did you really have to jinx us?"
Darius rolled his eyes, although there wasn’t the slightest trace of humour in his voice.
"It’s my father," Cher said calmly. "That’s the Black Falcon, the fastest shuttle in the entire kingdom."
"I know," Alfred replied, his expression unusually grave. "At that speed, it’ll catch us before we reach the mine’s border."
No one argued. They simply watched the black marker steadily close the distance, and after only a few minutes, it became obvious that Alfred was right.
"Can someone remind me what Silas said about this situation?" Lara asked, looking around the room.
She was answered only by uneasy silence and grim expressions. Silas had never accounted for this possibility, which meant there was only one conclusion.
"We have to stop him." Darius swept his gaze across the group. "We can’t let everything we’ve done go to waste. It’s up to us to stop Cher’s father."
"No."
Cher’s quiet, yet firm, refusal immediately drew everyone’s attention.
Without another word, she shifted the tactical map focus away from her father’s shuttle and toward the distant border of the mining territory.
She had remained silent when Chaz first appeared, but it wasn’t because of fear.
Something inside her had changed during this mission, and Silas deserved most of the credit for it. The fear was still there, as was the trauma Chaz had carved into her heart over the years, but the wound was no longer festering. For the first time, it had begun to heal.
The others exchanged confused glances as she continued adjusting the map instead of watching the shuttle chasing them.
Then she stopped. And a large fleet appeared near the border of the mining territory.
"What... is that fleet?"
Lara could no longer hold back her curiosity.
"Are they enemies or friends?"
"It is Silas’ contingency plan for exactly this situation," Cher calmly answered.
She still didn’t know how to feel about it. Before they reached the mine, Silas had suddenly risen a point that no one else noticed, not even her.
He had been puzzled by the academy’s attitude to the mission. In his opinion, the moment news of the dragon reached Frontier Academy, they should have dispatched reinforcements and terminated the mission immediately.
Her explanation had cleared that confusion.
Chaz Avaron possessed enough influence to suppress all news about the dragon, even from Frontier Academy, despite its students carrying out an official mission inside the mine.
Once Silas understood that, the events that followed allowed him to piece together a reckless contingency plan.
When he realised how few Dark Hunters had reached the mine, he immediately understood that Chaz would wipe them out long before turning his attention to the dragon.
Originally, Silas had counted on the Dark Hunters to keep Chaz and his elite forces busy long enough. With that possibility gone, he became convinced that neither the monster tide nor the dragon would be enough to stop Cher’s father from pursuing them personally.
So, before they separated at the mine, he gave Cher one final task. He asked to use her connections and get word to the academy.
The big fleet now entering the mine territory was the result.
An official Frontier Academy force had arrived in overwhelming numbers, forcing even Chaz Avaron to abandon the chase and instead present himself as a fearless commander fighting against the monster tide.
After all, he had a public image to preserve, especially before a giant like Frontier Academy.
Suddenly, every wristwatch vibrated as a high-priority notification appeared.
[The mission is over.]
[Proceed to the border of the mine.]
[Senior Academy students and medical teams are waiting to escort you safely.]
Silence settled inside the shuttle.
Cher slowly expanded the holographic map, revealing the entire mine. On it, the Black Falcon had already turned around, retreating from the pursuing academy fleet.
"We... we did it."
Those simple words broke the silence.
The nightmare was finally over.
Darius threw both hands into the air, laughing as he danced around the cabin before bursting into a popular song from the Elfine Kingdom. Lara sprinted toward the cargo section, celebrating with her three babies as though they understood every word she said.
Cher quietly clenched both fists. For the first time in her life, she had escaped her father’s grasp, and after a direct confrontation with him on top of that.
Alfred remained where he was, silently observing everything around him: the map, his companions, and even the wound in his leg.
What filled his heart wasn’t relief, but pride. Together, they had survived something impossible. He only wished there were someone left from his old life to witness it.
The celebrations continued, fueled first by Darius’ endless energy, then by Lara after she returned from the cargo hold.
Cher sat beside the holographic map, quietly tracing every route they had crossed during the past several days, reliving every desperate battle and impossible decision.
Eventually, Darius grabbed Alfred by the arm and dragged him into the celebration. At first, Alfred resisted. Then he started dancing. To everyone’s surprise, he was an astonishingly good dancer. Had it not been for his injured leg, he would have easily outshone all of them.
The only regret they all had was for Silas to be inside his Bathtub, missing all these precious moments. They wanted to celebrate their victory with him, and so they decided to do another party after arriving at the academy, after he would wake up and get better.
Their laughter echoed through the shuttle until Lara casually asked a single question.
"What about our team ranking?"
"Do you think we’ll receive any points at all?"
Her words fell like a bucket of ice water falling on their heads. The celebration came to an abrupt halt as a heavy silence followed before Darius finally revealed the piece of news he had kept hidden all this time.
"No matter what happens," he said with a grin, "neither Leopard nor Rachel will make it to the top ten."
Slowly, he explained everything.
Under Silas’ instructions, he and Alfred had sought out the red-haired student, Terio, and carried out a plan that would ensure their rivals lost any chance of claiming a top ranking.
Only then did Alfred finally understand why Darius had insisted they take that long detour, why the latter had spent so much time talking to Terio, and why his own injured leg had been worth enduring in the end.