Back on the Main Continent, Erebus’ castle was experiencing a little bit of trouble.

To say a little bit would be an understatement.

Lilian had miscalculated. She had wrongfully believed that the humans wouldn’t bother them anymore.

But she had overlooked multiple aspects, her master’s leaving had stressed her out so much that she neglected to carefully look over the treaty that had been signed.

The treaty only stated that the Quester’s Guild would no longer interfere with the Demon Lord.

But it did not state that the Milon Kingdom’s Royal Army wouldn’t team up with the Eururia Empire’s Holy Army to subjugate the Demon Lord.

It also did not state that Quester’s couldn’t join in the Royal Expedition to conquer the evil Demon Lord.

As long as it wasn’t a Quest, they could join in.

Meaning if they were hired as a mercenary, not a Quester, it was a legal move.

Lilian wrung her hands nervously as she paced the throne room. Tear, Magnus, Stone, and Vyne were all standing there, too.

“To think the humans would be so sneaky,” Magnus said, crossing his arms. His six eyes squinted in annoyance. “To do such a thing while our master is away.”

“We must deal with them before Lord Erebus comes back!” Tear cried. She could only imagine the disappointed expression that would be on his face.

Wait, that might actually be good.

Lilian ran her hands through her hair and let out a groan. “They amassed 10,000 troops! 10,000! To subjugate one Demon Lord.”

“Their numbers won’t be too difficult as long as we--” Vyne attempted to say.

“Not too difficult? Are you kidding me!” Lilian collapsed to the ground. Her cold exterior had completely vanished, creating an entirely different character. “There are five of us. There are 10,000 of them. Our mana isn’t endless! We are not all-powerful like Lord Erebus,” she wailed, curling into the fetal position. “This is a disaster.”

Stone shook his head, stretching out a hand. “Do not fret, Lilian. Your necromancy combined with the defensive unit of our castle should be enough.”

Lilian snorted. “You only have a couple hundred Lower Terror to Epic ranked soldiers. The strongest I can summon is equivalent to Demon rank. Anything more than that would cost me way too much mana to use any other magic.”

“How many can you summon to fight?” Vyne asked.

The rabbit-eared woman closed her eyes in thought. “Around one hundred Demon rank, two hundred Epic. So on and so forth. That’s as much as I can control at once.”

Tear said, “We should have a couple hundred or so over one thousand troops in total, correct?”

Vyne nodded.

“That’s still a huge gap in manpower. Why on Eirlok did they gather such a large force?” Magnus questioned.

The others paused in thought. They had no idea, either. The humans would normally send a much larger amount.

Was it due to their recent failures with Yvick and their last attempts on Erebus?

“They want us to suffer crushing defeat, probably,” Vyne offered. “They want us to be completely overwhelmed.”

“I see, that does make sense. The humans do have a taste for dramatics, after all,” Lilian said, regaining her composure. She wasn’t fooling anyone there, though. They had all seen her true self.

“The troops will be here in an hour, I will get to work on summoning the undead to fight. Magnus and Stone, gather your troops, too.”

Magnus and Stone nodded and left the throne room. Lilian took a deep breath. She needed to calm down and get to summoning.

“I’ll be leaving then,” Lilian said and began to head for the outside of the castle.

A curious Vyne and Tear followed, they had never seen Lilian’s necromancy before. And, also, unlike everyone else, they didn’t have anything to prepare for at all.

Lilian completely ignored their presence, she had to focus on her job. They all exited the castle, which was in the middle of a vast grassland. The castle was located on the opposite side of the mountains surrounding the Milon Kingdom.

The necromancer pulled out the black rod that she typically carried in her pocket, she whispered words in an unknown language and the rod extended until it was about four feet long.

Swirling red mana in a wisp-like form solidified into an orb. Black finger-like structures grew out of the rod and grasped the mana orb tightly.

Lilan continued to speak in the strange language, “Haliphi zu Uninos. Walio Qi Persi uni! Fier zu est.”

Awaken from your slumber. Slaughter all! You are my servant.

As soon as she finished her incantation spoken in the language that only necromancers knew, hundreds of mana circles appeared on the grassy plains.

“Oo...” Tear gasped in awe as bodies began to rise up out of the ground.

Skeletal Knights, Skeletal Lancers, Skeletal Beserkers, Zombies, Liches, Ghouls, Wraiths, Shadows...

All of varying strength.

Lilian was capable of summoning a very wide variety of undead, showing her prowess as a necromancer.

She currently had her eyes squeezed shut, the red orb was glowing brightly and pulsating. A thin sheen of sweat appeared on Lilian’s forehead.

The amount of mana needed to summon this many undead was, give or take, equivalent to two Myth ranked spells.

Vyne and Tear clapped when Lilian finally finished. The woman dropped to her knees, breathing heavily.

She hadn’t used this much mana in such a long time so her body wasn’t completely prepared to handle it all.

Lilian finally caught her breath. “They will obey the mental commands I issued. This is about all I can contribute, I can cast some other magic but... if I exhaust too much, my soldiers will turn on me.”

Vyne and Tear nodded. “We understand.”

“Then, you two speak with Magnus and Stone. Tell them that they will provide the frontline troops. The armies will go through them pretty quickly, but it will expend their energy, nonetheless.”

“Understood,” Tear said and walked back inside.

A few minutes passed before Magnus’ and Stone’s small army of Lesser Terror to Terror ranked monsters filed out of the castle. Lilian’s undead army parted to the side as the troops progressed. Then they fell back into place.

“Phew...” Lilian closed her eyes and activated [Vision Magic: Seeing Eye]. In her mind, the image of the enemy troops approaching appeared. “They’re exiting the forest that leads into this grassland... they’ll be here in less than twenty minutes at the rate they’re moving.”

She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted in a loud voice amplified by magic, “Prepare for enemies! They will be here in less than twenty minutes! Slaughter them, leave not one alive!” She took a breath. “We will protect this fortress.”

The undead army and low ranked monsters all cheered and whooped with excitement.

Lilian turned to Tear, Stone, Vyne, and Magnus who had appeared behind her. “I will command the outer defense. I know this is normally your job Stone and Magnus but...”

“We understand,” the brothers said. They weren’t trained to deal with such large numbers, and their job was never to kill any intruders.

“Then, you guys will stay inside and deal with any who manage to pass through. I will be unable to stop them.”

The four nodded and headed back inside.

Twenty minutes passed rapidly. Even though Lilian was standing there doing virtually nothing, her mind was focusing and she was collecting mana inside of her body steadily.

When the troops arrived, Lilian spoke with no emotion, “Attack. Don’t allow them to prepare, and we will certainly not parley.”

She pointed her finger towards the men in shining armor, freshly polished. They held the flags of the empires in their hands.

“Go!”

Lilian didn’t have much faith in her forces actually being able to kill them all, but she was sure a substantial amount of lives would be taken from their side. Enough to where they could handle it all.

Her army obeyed, they surged forward like a tidal wave and crashed down on the Milon, Ereruia, and mercenaries (Questers).

The opposing side responded accordingly. Their mages instantly began to prep Myth class magic and their warriors fought valiantly.

Liches, too, began to prep powerful magic. It took more of them to start the casting, though.

The sound of clanging swords, shouts and roars from warriors could be heard in the open space.

Lilian watched the scene carefully. Magnus’ and Stone’s minions kept the vanguard preoccupied, allowing the powerful undead to sneak through.

She was preserving her mana until it would be needed.

They could possibly win this, she thought to herself. No! They will win this. Failure will not be tolerated. Lilian clenched her hands into fist. Lord Erebus will never find out what occurred here.

I will undoubtedly cuddle Lord Erebus dolls after this! I will not fail.

“Do not relent on your onslaught!” Lilian thundered.

Her charisma was amazing. Her troops began to fight even harder.

Everything was going damn near perfectly until...

Two figures dropped from the air. A young boy with magenta hair was clinging onto a familiar white-skinned man, the young boy was holding on for dear life.

The two landed on the ground. Erebus stood up slowly. Weryn looked as if he was ready to upchuck.

“What in Eirlok is this?”