A large group of Questers were headed towards the Lower Continent’s Demon Emperor Yvick’s lair.

It was a group of about two hundred Tier 8-9 Questers. After the recent embarrassment of a raid being crushed by a Demon Lord in the Main Continent and the loss of their second most powerful man by the name of Grego Drand, the Questers were now in full force attempting to subjugate any Demon Lord and Demon Emperor class.

Four very familiar faces were included in this group. Their names happened to be Ern, Luke, Mur, and Heather.

They had joined in this subjugation raid because they were vengeful. Erebus, Tear, and Vyne had undoubtedly been killed by the Demon Emperor, seeing as they hadn’t returned to the Main Continent in five months.

Heather was the one who suggested they joined the raid. She had sent a message to Ern, telling the young elf of this.

Ern, who happened to have affections for Vyne, readily accepted this. She would avenge her lost love. She had worked up the courage to confess to him after he got back from the Lower Continent but that day had never come.

How could she not fall in love with that man? Even though, he acted so cold towards Tear and, well, everyone but Erebus... sometimes a real smile would cross his handsome face. And that was what she fell in love with.

She remembered how broad his shoulders were and how the muscles in his back would ripple every time he swung his sword.

He was smart, beautiful, strong... She had fallen for him.

But now he was dead. Without a doubt. When people disappear for months in the Lower Continent, no matter how strong they were supposed to be, they would always turn up dead. Or sometimes their corpses were never found.

Ern tilted her chin up as they passed through the [Poisonous Snake Forest]. Soon, soon I will avenge you, she told the late Vyne.

“Are you all right?” the young man next to her asked. He had curly blonde hair and a goofy grin, his name was Griffin.

“Yes...” Ern smiled weakly at him. “I’m all right. I was just lost in my thoughts.”

“Don’t get too distracted, this forest is dangerous.” Griffin’s brown eyes were full of cautiousness. “This is my first subjugation mission.”

“Same here.” Ern tightened her grip on the wand she carried in her hand. She had never participated in the subjugations because they were trivial in her mind. If you take out one Demon Lord, another one would pop up again.

But this time, this was personal.

The group ahead of Ern and Griffin finished hacking the head off a long snake and then shouted out. “The castle is within our sights! Another ten minutes until we destroy the menace!”

A chorus of whoops.

They were confident they would win. They had brought even more Questers than they normally would.

But what they didn’t know is that Yvick had taken more from his time with Erebus than fighting skills.

Yvick knew that they were coming. And he was excited about their arrival, he had a new weapon to test out.

The self-confident Questers crossed the drawbridge. For some reason, there wasn’t a door but they didn’t pay much attention to that.

They entered the lair.

The inside was well-kept, there were fresh flowers in pots, the walls had a fresh coat of paint on them. There was certainly a large mana build-up in here, but it had a nice feeling to it.

Was this truly a Demon Emperor’s lair?

The Questers climbed up a set of spiraling stairs. Were they in the right place? Nothing had even come and attacked them.

“It’s even scarier when nothing comes to us,” Griffin whispered to Ern who nodded in agreement.

She almost said something in response, but she remembered what happened in the Passageway. If she said anything now, it would certainly take a turn for the worst.

They stopped in front of a magnificent set of doors that lead into the throne room.

“Mages in the back, start preparing Myth classed to hit him with. The vanguard will keep his attention but just in case, I want mages who specialize in protective magic to block the ones working on the magic,” the leader of the entire raid said.

Everyone nodded their understandings.

“Then, let’s go.”

The doors opened every so slowly as if it was to increase the suspense even more. An ominous creaking sound filled the castle as the doors slid open.

The throne room's ceiling was made completely of glass which allowed the golden sunshine to hit the figure seated on the throne. On the stone table next to Yvick’s throne, a figure lay. Its back was turned to them, it looked as if it was sleeping.

The Demon Emperor Yvick smiled, to call it a smile was wrong, it was more of a snarl of some sorts. “Welcome, fools.”

Ern and her group of mages began prepping Myth ranked magic without any hesitation.

Along with Ern’s section of mages, three other groups were starting the Myth ranked magic’s circle.

Yvick watched this with detached interest. They were really going all out on him.

Soon enough, his attention was dragged away by the charging vanguard. Swords, axes, and spears were all ready to cut him down. Yvick removed a red ring from his left pinky and threw it up in the air.

“Awaken and slaughter my enemies,” his deep voice said.

The red ring trembled in the air before growing a pair of feathery rings and morphing into a scarlet gargoyle. In its hands was a mace.

Without hesitation, the gargoyle swung its mace. A Quester with a large shield instantly jumped to the front with amazing reaction speed and took the brunt of the blow.

When the mace and shield connected, the foundation of the castle shook. Pieces of stone crumbled off of the wall.

The sleeping figure shifted as if to block out the noise.

“Impressive,” Yvick said, placing his hand on his chin. The gargoyle continued to swing the mace and the Quester continued to take the blows.

The vanguard moved around the two and once again charged towards Yvick. He let out a sigh and stood up.

It seemed the toys he wore on his fingers would not be enough to deal with this group like it had for the previous ones. Yvick removed the mana stones on his earrings.

Within in an instant, a lance and shield with a repulsive aura appeared in his hands.

The group of Questers that had been charging towards him stopped upon their appearance. They weren’t idiots, it wouldn’t prove too good for them if they just charged at him without any care.

“Come on now.” Yvick smiled. “Don’t be afraid now. If you don’t attack I will.”

The Questers tightened the grip on their weapons and started to move again but they were a second too slow. Yvick struck the air with his lance, the Questers were sent flying backwards into the group on standby.

“Not as strong as I’d like,” Yvick said to himself.

When the vanguard came running at him again, Yvick, too, ran forward. Only, his speed caused the ground under his feet to crack as he flew towards them. He readied his lance again and then hit the space between him and the Questers.

This time, the force put behind it was enough to send the vanguard and a few Questers behind them flying into the walls. When they fell to the ground, a good amount of them did not stand up again. Their skulls had cracked against the stone, the lucky few who had helmets on their heads were able to survive.

Yvick cracked his knuckles and stared down the remaining Questers. Another vicious smile spread on his lips. “The amount of strength I have to put into each swing is significantly less than my previous weapon, yet I get more power in each blow... I will let you all be my guinea pigs to see what else Triton’s creation has in store.”

The tattoos on Yvick’s body began to glow and a clanking sound could be heard as thick plates began to grow out of his skin. The plates were black-blue in color and covered his entire body. His eyes were the only thing left uncovered. Longer plates were sprouted from his head like a type of hair.

This transformation took about ten seconds to be completed. It was a sacred technique of the Hulad-Ruhi clan, only taught to the heirs to the clan leader position.

On the Quester side, Heather’s eyes widened upon hearing the name ‘Triton’. Was this the message the trio had delivered? This monstrous weapon. Her anger grew even more, so they had reached the Demon Emperor. But he must have killed them.

Mur, who had also heard this, released his chained spear towards the man. He threw it with all of his power, hoping to pierce the armor plates that now covered his body.

The spear collided with Yvick with a loud boom. Yvick slid back a little but otherwise, was unharmed.

This is getting dangerous, Yvick thought to himself. If he lets this carry on any longer, he’d surely be killed.

Large magic circles appeared underneath and below Yvick.

“Oh dear,” he said, removing two golden rings from his right middle finger. “Protect me.”

Two translucent golden bubbles appeared around him.

Yvick who knew this wouldn’t be enough, also slammed his shield onto the ground. This caused the shield to grow and stretch around him, creating a black sphere with a viridian glow to surround him but still within the golden bubble.

Four different types of Myth ranked crashed into Yvick’s walls of defense.

[Light Magic: Zeus’ Lightning]

[Destruction Magic: Encircling Light]

[Water Magic: Tempest]

[Destruction Magic: Shatter]

The magic easily broke through the golden bubbles but the weapon that was designed to suck mana proved to be a more difficult task. A few cracks and fissures appeared and the black sphere also was destroyed but the power of the magic had been reduced to an amount that Yvick’s armor could withhold.

Yvick was standing there, the magic had hurt him but not enough that it would weak him significantly.

“Whew...” Heather rubbed her temple in annoyance. She wasn’t expecting him to have so much defense that four Myth spells couldn’t completely penetrate.

A door slamming open drew the attention of everyone turned to see two figures enter the room.

One was a beautiful woman with a painfully flat chest and the other was a humanoid demon.

“Just what is going on here? You’ve disrupted my studies.”

Yes, it was a very angry looking Vyne and a bored looking Tear.

Hey lovies, I think I can get one more chapter out today. So keep your eyes peeled. Leave any thoughts you had below, constructive criticism helps out a lot.