--This happened moments before the fire pillar penetrated the sky--

A hero gathering was held once every year on a day when the strongest hero died to protect the world, the world does not know that it was set on this very date to honor the hero who passed on. Most people despise him and hate him but the people at the very top have their own beliefs, everyone believes that this was the day to celebrate the death of the demon lord and the victory of the human race. While they all have their feasts, the people at the hero's gathering are mourning for the death of a friend

Everyone that came to the hero's gathering are well-known people that played a huge part during the war against the demon lord, there are at least 12 people gathered in a circle.

"It's been 2 years..." A young lady with fiery red hair spoke out, sadness was apparent in her voice. This was "Thoress" Aurora

"Amongst all of us, he was the one who deserved to live the longest. It's a pity a young lad like him had to die young" An old man stroked his snow-white beard that reaches up to his chest

"Thoress, you were there, is there really nothing that you can share? even the tiniest detail..." A woman who was clad in black skin-tight clothing asked.

"Vivian, I already told all of you guys what happened. We were knocked out by the spell that the demon lord used, the last thing I saw was Henz rushing in to go for the kill." Aurora explained as her face expressed a mix of regret and sadness

"Still though, why did the church announce all of that without even consulting us or the king, I mean, we are all working together" A middle-aged man holding a large battle ax spoke out

"Come on Reg, isn't it obvious? the church wanted Henz to be the bad guy" Vivian answered Reg's question

"Hey, aren't you guys overthinking this? what proof do you have? you can't just falsely accuse the church just because the man you liked died" A woman that wore a tunic covered by a scapular cowl immediately replied to Vivian

"Andrea, you bitch" Vivian quickly lost it and shot back

"Tch, aren't you a little biased? sure Henz was an amazing Hero but aren't you all overthinking it? who knows? the demon king might've managed to kill him" Andrea replied to Vivian's curse

"You fucking hypocrite" Vivian gnashed her teeth in anger

"ENOUGH! We're all here to honor his death but what you're all doing is a disgrace" Another man that wore a full set of armor stomped his foot on the ground

His actions pacified the two women that were about to go at each other's throat

"Prizal, I really apologize for my actions but I can't let some lowly thief insult our church" Andrea apologized to the man

"Lowly thief? at least I'm not some attention whore that spread her legs to climb the ranks" Vivian shot back

"For the love of- can't you guys just get along? just for today?" Prizal rubbed his temples

"If that bitch shuts up" Vivian scornfully looked at Andrea

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Andrea snapped and took out her staff

Andrea was about to cast a spell but before she could even use it, a large hammer slammed on her back and made her face break the expensive tiles on the floor

"Please... just shut up" Aurora was seething with anger and sadness

"Heh, serves you right" Vivan smirked but Aurora threw her hammer at her

Vivian managed to dodge it moments before impact

"Hey what's the big ide-" Vivan couldn't finish her sentence because Aurora's stare striked fear in her, making her swallow her words

"As expected of "Thoress"" Prizal just uttered those words

"*Sigh* why are these troublemakers even heroes to begin with" The old man earlier spoke out

"I'm really sorry for the way they act, Regulus" Prizal just scratched his head

"Looks like I'll have to teach you younglings discipline" Regulus laughed with a ho ho ho

"Please do" Prizal laughed along with him

Their laugh didn't last long because Regulus' face became intense

"Regulus?" Prizal was puzzled and quickly asked

Regulus did not answer Prizal and instead shot out a fireball from his palm that destroyed the roof of the tower they were in

"Old man, I know I'm rich but fixing a tower's roof is quite expensive" Prizal spoke out

"...Oh no..." Regulus only said those words as he looked at Argon city which was only an hours walk away

Everyone was puzzled so they looked all at Argon city like Regulus did but still have no idea what he meant

"Look's like Regulus is getting old for this...?" Reg joked out but a sudden fire pillar appeared within Argon city

The fire pillar reached to the sky and ripped it apart, screams of madness, chaos, despair, and fear came out of the rip in the sky.

"EVERYONE, HEAD FOR ARGON CITY, NOW!" Prizal quickly announced

Everyone nodded their heads and quickly left the tower, they all rushed towards Argon city to investigate what happened but the fire pillar vanished before they could even get close, they arrived inside the city and noticed that there was no destruction like they imagined, only small damages caused by people panicking and bumping into stuff.

"I thought that we would have to lead normal lives now that the demon lord is dead" Aurora spoke out

"Well, at least I won't have to worry about my main source of income anymore" Reg pulled out his large ax

"Heroes! perfect timing, the King asks you to see him!" A messenger quickly asked

"We were heading there ourselves" Prizal looked at everyone

However, only Vivian, Andrea, Regulus, Reg, and Aurora went with him towards the castle, the other six heroes left after knowing that the city was safe

"Lord Vold" Prizal kneeled in front of the king the moment they entered the throne room

"Please, no need for formalities" The King pulled Prizal up

"Lord Vold..." Prizal was at loss for words

"Ah, I see you've also noticed the huge flame pillar earlier. That was no show or trickery it really happened" Vold read Prizal's mind and spoke out

"...Then what do we do?" Prizal asked

"Before that, what do you heroes think?" Vold asked

"Whatever or whoever it was, It was strong... stronger than the previous demon king" Regulus shook his head

"If only he was alive right now..." Vivan sadly spoke under her breath but due to the silence, her voice was loud and clear

"Ugh, will you stop it with him this and him that! He's already dead and if he could only come to a draw with the previous demon king, he would be useless against this one!" Andrea spoke out with disgust

"Stop it, both of you, we have a crisis at hand here and all you guys do is bicker" Prizal spoke out

"*sigh* looks like we're heading for war again" Vold shook his head

"No, it might be a massacre, not for the humans but for the demons" Prizal looked like he was enlightened and quickly spoke out

"What do you mean?" Vold was happy to hear something like this

"After the demon King died, the distrust and anger within the demon army exploded which led to them fighting amongst each other. Thanks to this, the demon clans are now scattered and weakened. They managed to beat us last time because there was the demon king that held them all in one place while the demon king right now only appeared, I'm betting on the chance that he has not amassed an army. If we hunt that demon king now, we might be able to kill him with sheer numbers" Prizal explained

"That... is possible, it might work" Vold thought about it for a while before happily speaking

"Everyone, get ready, we're off to hunt ourselves down a demon king" Prizal announced to everyone

"But won't you be needing more if you were to fight that demon king?" Vold spoke out

"Indeed so I'll reach out to all Legend-class warriors and mage to participate in this war...I'll also call all the Grand Warriors too" Prizal spoke out

"Wait a minute, do you even have any idea where the demon king might be?" Andrea asked

"Leave that to me" Vivian spoke out before vanishing

"Let's meet back here three days later, our objective is to amass an army that only consists of Grand Warriors and Legends" Prizal spoke out

Prizal was quite confident in their ability to create an army in a short amount of time, this is because everyone that joined the gathering he held was famous legend-class warriors and mages. He was also known to be the strongest amongst all the legend-class warriors

The door swung open and a beautiful golden-haired maiden along with a luxuriously garbed mage quickly entered

"King! thank God you're okay!" The maiden clasped her hands together and prayed

"Ria and William?" Aurora recognized the two that entered however, her expression quickly turned into that of disgust

"Aurora!" Ria quickly went over to hug her old friend but Aurora stopped her by holding out her hand

"Please Ria, don't" Aurora only said those words

"Is this about marrying William?" Ria quickly asked

"No, this is about Henz" Aurora looked at Ria

"He died! get over it!" Ria was angered, the topic of Henz always sets her off

"Get over it?! He died to protect us for heaven's sake! I don't give a shit if you marry William but at least visit his grave!" Aurora gnashed her teeth in anger

"*Sigh* now that we're talking about Henz, I've got a little info about that pillar of flame..." Vold quickly stepped in and tried to divert the two women's attention with a little information

"Please tell us" Prizal quickly asked

"The pillar of flame appeared... in the Rogue household" Vold spoke out, the words he said caused an eerie silence

"Think Henz's spirit came back?" Reg tried to lighten the mood with a little joke but he was rewarded by glares

"Impossible, he was a hero so his spirit should be with our God now" Andrea quickly spoke out

"My lord, we have investigated further like you've said and found a dead body within the Rogue mansion. We also found 38 people dead around the area, our mages speculated that their death was due to intense fear which led to a heart attack" A scout came in bearing news for the Vold and the heroes

"Who was the one found within the house?" Vold asked

"We asked around and discovered that this was an old lady was know as Sima Patron, she owned an orphanage that took in homeless children and children that lost their parents in the war. It was also known that this orphanage was frequently visited by Henz"

"He... did?" Ria was flabbergasted at the report

"Yes, he would frequently visit this orphanage to donate most of his zil's and play with the children" The scout replied to Ria

"...You've been with him for God know's when and you only recently discovered this?" Aurora looked at Ria like how she would look like a clown

"I-" Ria was about to speak but she was cut off by William

"How were we supposed to know? Henz did a lot of things in secret, like how he communicated with the demon king" William ridiculed Aurora.

"You! You ungrateful piece of shit" Aurora was seething with anger

"Ungrateful? what do I have to be grateful for? him attempting to kill us? don't make me laugh!" William shot back

"You shameless bastard wasn't it always him that protected you?! I have no idea what happened or why he tried to attack us but shouldn't you... ALL OF YOU bastards be thankful for him putting his life on the line to save you? Vold, forgive me for my disrespectful tone, however, didn't Henz charge forward against a legion of demons just so he could save your daughter?! Andrea, didn't Henz protect you when you were framed for the death of a high priest?William, Henz took a near-death attack to protect you, you should be dead multiple times if it weren't for him and RIA, Henz almost died hundreds of times in order to protect you!" Aurora released all her pent up anger in the form of words because she knew more than anyone in the room that if she were to go physical, the damage would be catastrophic

"Alright! shut up already" William spoke out

Aurora was about to go berserk but Prizal stopped her, Aurora looked at Prizal but Prizal only shook his head, telling her that it was not worth it

"Fine! fuck this, fuck all of you, count me out, maybe the world will be better if everyone died!" Aurora left the room

"Shouldn't we stop her?" Reg was shaking in his boots but he still asked

"Don't worry about her, she'll be back" Prizal spoke out

"This is Aurora we're talking about" Andrea replied

"On second thought, yeah, maybe we should stop her" Prizal looked at Regulus who has been quietly sitting in the corner of the room