Ball of Nothing

Bob woke up to find himself in magic restraining shackles in a cage. Jermine was in a similar shackle beside him, unconscious. The dragon immediately panicked and tried to break the shackles using his pure strength but he couldn't even transform. There was some sort of substance in his body that made him weak and the dragon growled. His first thought was to reach out to his master but after two attempts, he paled.

Zero wasn't answering and he couldn't reach Truen in the party call. What happened to them? Mii was also offline and the entire party appeared to be dead.

Quickly, he checked the summoning bond he had with Zero and felt a little relief when it was still there. Still, there was no pulse from Zero through their connection and that made Bob worry. What was going on and where were they?

"Eek!" there was a nasal squeal and the sound of someone falling from their chair before running away. The light was too bright and Bob was having a hard time adjusting to it. He couldn't tell who was there.

"The dragon is awake!"

There was a snort before an arrogant voice said, "See those shackles that they're wearing? I made them myself so relax. Unlike Thomas, my stuff works. Technicians are unreliable."

Understanding dawned on Bob as he listened to the gnomes talk. They were finally in gnome territory but he didn't speak. Now that they were hostages to lure Truen and Zero out, the dragon had to play it smart. His master tasked him to protect Jermine so he couldn't afford to offend the gnomes. He was completely at their mercy with these shackles on.

Why were they immediately on bad terms with the gnomes? That was one thing he couldn't understand. From memory, gnomes weren't always this hostile. They were peace-loving folks with no desire for war. Wasn't this why they chose to isolate themselves and live in the desert?

The alchemist gnome called Wesley walked forward. He took a look at Bob who glared at him.

"You're quite a young dragon," Wesley stated. "I thought they were extinct!"

Bob smirked. "I could say the same about gnomes. We thought that they were completely wiped out until we came across Gnaway."

The name "Gnaway" made Wesley stiffen. "Nonsense! How can you know anything about Gnaway? You're lying!"

Bob played it cool. It was easy to rile this gnome so he might get the answers he wanted if he led the gnome towards it.

"Really? And how would you know if I was lying? How else do you think we were able to track you down so easily when nobody else has succeeded in so many years?"

Wesley was enraged. "You didn't know! You were just lucky that your summoner leader called a lucky find at the oasis! Nobody else would have known our location!"

Hearing that they knew about Zero and was watching them ever since the oasis, Bob decided to bait this hot-headed gnome. "Is that so? How come we were told to head west then? My leader didn't just summon a random creature, do you know who he summoned? He summoned a djinn. Don't you think that it is a coincidence for a summoner to summon a djinn? Oh, did I mention, that wasn't the first djinn we talked to. We also talked to Raju who was quick to tell us everything about Gnaway. Is this how you treat your guests?"

Raju was a very familiar name and Wesley was thoroughly shocked. He was starting to have doubts about Bob's words. Perhaps the dragon was not really lying.

"Turmeric," Wesley called the timid gnome. "Tell Thomas to come over. The dragon is awake and he has stories to tell us. Also, tell him to stop trying to break the lamp and bring it over. He can tell us more about the two elves and where they went."

Without question, Turmeric ran to do as he was told. Wesley looked at Bob with an unsure expression.

"Tell me the truth, why are you looking for us? You didn't really come because Raju told you to, right? According to the legends, gnomes are already extinct. Why cross the dangerous desert just to search for a species that has gone extinct?"

Bob shrugged. "You'll have to talk to my leader for that. I don't know anything, I'm just a hired mercenary with the girl here."

With this, Bob was confident that he could buy time. He didn't know what lamp they were trying to break but it doesn't seem like the gnomes have found Truen or Zero yet. This could be good news for him so he passed the time by napping. His master was strong, they wouldn't be defeated by gnomes so easily.

Wesley couldn't do much so he left to discuss this news with the other gnomes. The dragon didn't seem to be an ally of the two elves they blasted so it should be fine to let them go after wiping their memories. However, they wouldn't do that before first finding the two suspicious elves. Nobody could disappear into thin air at such a point-blank shot of the nova canon. After all, the nova canon was designed to decimate countries and even shoot down the Gods sitting in Heaven.

Thomas said it before that the nova canon wasn't something he came up with. The mad technician kept whispering that someone taught him how to build this in his dream so he wrote everything down and built it based on the schematic of a dream. Strangely enough, that was the smoothest invention that Tomas ever made and the gnomes agreed to never use it for genocide or revenge. They would only use it to protect their base.

With six gnomes in the shelter, it would only be a matter of time before they become six aged corpses. They only wanted to document as much as they could everything they knew for a lucky explorer to learn everything they dedicated their lives to mastering. For all he knew, they could very well be the last gnomes alive.

With a heavy sigh, Thomas wondered what the others would think if he proposed to teach the dragon all their craft before letting it go. At least this way, the knowledge they had could live on for a few hundred more years. It wasn't every day that they received guests, this must be a sign of hope from the Heavens for their race.