Hello everyone. Author here. For those of you who might have missed my message in the latest chapter of OOAK, I have begun accepting donations due to some financial problem. As such, i thank you for your support and generosity. This is Chapter 2 of 4 for regular releases. every $50 will earn you an extra chapter per week aside from the 4 regular chapters.

“Any luck on your end?” Kiefer asked, yawning as he stretched his lazy limbs.

“Unfortunately, not much. Anybody I ask seemed more interesting in flirting with me than providing answers. The guards especially. They pretend to know something, but their answer always ends up with ‘it’s direct orders from above’. There should be a better way to do this. It’s been 3 days already and we haven’t even found the end of the tail yet.” Isana complained as she plopped down on the bed beside Kiefer, lifting his light child-like body and sitting him on her lap before resting her chin on his head.

“I thought it would be easier to differentiate the mana signatures when everyone was sleeping, since that would be their baseline, but there are just too many different races and species. I’m too tired now. I never thought sending out mana pulses to cover the entire city for the whole night would be so exhausting.” Kiefer replied, leaning back into Isana, her warm body soothing the chill of the night.

“I guess there is no other way then? It might be a little tedious, but we will have to do this through the process of elimination. Maybe we can start with the group of individuals with the least number within the city, and then move from one group to the next,” Isana suggested, sending out a mana pulse of her own.

As morning came around, Kiefer and Isana set off from their inn right on the edge of the central district, heading towards the docks to inspect their first target. Meanwhile, the recruits were busy training back at Kina’s mansion within the central district. The warriors and archers alike were running laps around the football field sized compound that the mansion occupied. The one leading the training was of course Rose, who was sipping wine from a bottle, looking out for any slackers. The mages though, were secluded in one corner of the courtyard, still going at it at the mithril plates, trying to raise their mana caps.

The main heroine though, was nowhere near the city. Right at this very moment, she would be easily mistaken for one of the demon were she spotted by anyone from the city. In her full black dragon form, Kina was soaring through the skies, deep towards the broodmother perimeter that she and Rose stumbled upon days earlier.

As per instructed by her father, she was to wreck as much havoc as she could within the demon army. The point being that this sudden and possibly fatal attack would throw the commanders into disarray, making them easier to identify should there be any spies within the city. As she sped through the air, she spotted the familiar purple miasma that emanated from the canopy. If only whoever was controlling the demons knew, that the most powerful threat was not her, but instead 2 others whom she obeyed and listened to.

The perimeter of miasma was thicker than she had expected. Last time, she and Rose had approached the boundary by foot, so they could not accurately determine just how far the toxic miasma stretched. But now, hovering from high above, she could tell that the wall of broodmothers actually stretched out to be at least 5km thick.

Following her suspicions, Kina decided to leave the broodmothers alone, flying overhead easily. If she was correct, and she was secretly hoping she was, the broodmothers were merely the first line of attack. They were expendable pawns meant to be thrown away like waste. They had very low intelligence and mobility. Their only good point was probably their numbers. The broodmothers collect mana and inject it into the ground, spawning swarmlings from the earth itself, made of metals and rock.

There should be more powerful foes waiting on the other side of the broodmother perimeter, and that’s where Kina had intended to actually make herself known to the enemy commanders. Lowering herself to a height close to the treetops, Kina zipped past the forest, looking for any signs of demons. As the trees rushed past her, she could make out small animals within the depth of the forest.

*Rumble…*

Without any warning, the ground shook as if there was an earthquake, Kina noticed it but continued flying at the low altitude nonetheless. However, in a flash, the ground rose from below her, throwing trees into her flight path. As she ate some branches and leaves by accident, Kina made an abrupt swerve upwards, just in time to avoid a massive jaw clamping shut in the position where she had been mere moments earlier.

Hovering high above the forest, Kina saw a large clearing appear at the place where the attack went down. A large shimmering golden worm the size of a train was tunneling its way back underground, part of its body still visible in an arch above the mess of trees and stone. Had it caught her, Kina was sure that the worm would have taken a chunk out of her body. Its jaw was easily half the size of her body.

Swooping in low once more, Kina made quick zagged turns close to the ground, hoping to tempt the worm into another attack. Sure enough, it did not take long for the worm to emerge once more, bursting out from the ground and throwing trees, soil and rock high into the air. With her quick reflexes, Kina dodged the simplistic pounce of the worm, circling around quickly to find the worm tunneling back into the ground.

She grinned, her sharp row of fangs twinkling in the morning sun. With her jaws wide open, Kina dove straight for the part of the worm that was still above ground. With a loud clang, she bit down on the worm, only to wince in pain and quickly retreat back into the skies, watching as the worm disappeared once more.

Her fangs broke. Her set of pearly whites did not even penetrate the armour of the metallic worm. Flapping her wings to stay afloat, Kina channeled her mana into her mouth, her Titan’s regenerative abilities surging into full gear. Soon, the old set of teeth were dropping out of her half open jaw while brand new fangs grew in their place, whiter and sharper than before. The fangs made light clinking noises as they collided with the blood giant sword that was now slung around her neck like a necklace.

Revising her plan, Kina once again baited the giant worm out. This time, she was determined to drag the worm out of hiding, swooping down and grabbing the writhing body before making an upward dive with all her strength. Sure enough, the metallic worm was as long as a train, golden throughout except for its ends which were pitch-black.

With all her might, the black dragon flung the worm high up into the air before releasing an icy white and blue beam at the struggling golden train in mid-air. The moment the beam made contact with the worm, a thick layer of magical ice began forming over the worm, restricting its movement. Within seconds, the worm was crashing back down into the forest, sending a hail of shattered ice shards and mist into the air. Even then, Kina kept up with her breath attack, freezing the worm whole along with the nearby forest.

After nearly 20 minutes of sustaining the breath attack, Kina finally relax. Descending onto the forest floor and transforming into her human form, she admired her artwork. An entire giant worm the size of a train, completely encased in ice. From the constant miniscule vibrations on the surface of the ice, she could tell that the worm was still alive despite having been frozen.

“Well... I can’t crush it, dropping it doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t die when I freeze it either… what to do what to do?” Kina pondered while walking around in circles, keeping an eye on the worm. She wasn’t 100% sure this belonged to the demon army, but she might as well get rid of it.

And then, just as she was formulating plans on destroying the worm, she realized that she had become surrounded. From deep within the forest, numerous pairs of eyes gleamed as one demon after another stepped out. They resembled large towering apes, with a single horn jutting out from their forehead. At first it was 10, then it became 30, finally there were hundreds of the 3m tall burly horned apes surrounding her and the frozen worm.

“Err… hello? You don’t suppose you guys can show me the way to Mayheir city would you?” Kina asked jokingly. However, she received no reply from the demon apes as they took slow steps towards her. Then, without any indication of movement, one of their fists were already right infront of her face, landing a clean hit. She had not expected such a quick attack, and as such, was sent tumbling into the frozen worm, shattering part of the ice prison.

Through the dust and mist of ice crystals, she stumbled out, rubbing the side of her face which was slightly red. Her eyes dimmed as she prepared for battle. Grasping the blood sword, she teleported to the ape that had hit her, and swung down. As the ape blocked the swing with its arm, the blade went through the flesh and bone effortlessly, slicing the arm right off from below the elbow. Even then, the ape showed no signs of pain, only roaring in anger as its battle cry stirred up the rest.

Still not confident to use her time stop abilities for fear of wasting mana, Kina made do with continuous teleportation, dispatching the demon apes left and right. However, they just kept on coming without an end in sight. There were so many that at one point, Kina felt that maybe quantity was a trait that all demons had. Then, what she saw in the midst of battle worried her.

Not only were the demon apes working on freeing the giant worm by pounding away at the ice, their numbers were no decreasing because they were not dying at all. Limbs that were chopped off would be picked up and reattached, healing and recombining as if they never left the body. Demon apes with their heads cut off would be immobilized temporarily, that is until one of their own picks their head up and reattach it to their original body.

It went on for quite some time as the apes constantly came back to battle, their numbers never diminishing. Kina had been firing spells of non-stop, and yet their fur seemed to have magic resistance capabilities. Even then, arms that were burnt to a crisp by her horrifyingly powerful magic would regenerate quickly, returning the demon ape to their full combat capabilities. Fire, Ice, lightning. Nothing worked.

Her only option was to atomize them completely, but that would require either Sher, or Icarus, both of which she did not have control over at the moment. Sher was back on Aioa, while Icarus would take too long to fly over to where she was. She knew she had grossly underestimated the enemy. Even if she was a one man army, it wouldn’t matter in the face of an indestructible undying enemy.

“Not good. I better leave. I will come back with Mum and Dad. Let’s see what these fat apes can do then,” Kina thought as she prepared to teleport back to Mayheir. Then, a sharp pain ran up her spine and jolted her brain.

As she crumbled to the ground onto her knees, her head blanked out for a split second, only to have an agonizing piercing feeling in her right shoulder. Her mind jolted into action as she stared at her empty shoulder socket. Her right arm that was holding the blood sword had been ripped out. As her regeneration kicked in, the wound in her shoulder closed, but she could still feeling the stinging sensation. Looking down, she realized that her legs were wrapped in golden threads, with sparks dancing along them. The worm had escaped in the midst of their battle. It had caught her legs and sent a paralyzing shock to immobilize her and stop her from teleporting.

Scrambling to pick up her arm and the sword that was still clutched within the torn off arm, Kina saw the horde of demon apes close in. They were sneering, some still healing from the numerous wounds she had inflicted. Then, a second, more powerful shock surged from the worm’s golden threads, causing her to shriek in pain. Not willing to give in, she clenched her teeth, glaring at the apes.

Then, the apes seemed to make way, forming a path between her and a new figure who was walking steadily towards her. It was clear that this man was their leader. The one coordinating the demon ape army. Her vision was blurring, but she could still make out the figure.

“Mempheus?” She muttered as she saw the man draw a long sword from his waist. Then everything turned dark.