The fiftieth chapter...

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After Ethra declared her intent to go with her father, a wounded Sky Knight burst into the throne room, "Lord! Pyo'ah is headed towards Central Edeortha, along with 255 million demons!" Palu'Angit's face turned ugly, "That's almost half of their entire population. What in the world is Pyo'ah thinking?" However, after he stated the last sentence, another Sky Knight entered the room.

This second Sky Knight was wounded far more heavily than the first one, "Lord... The 28th and 33rd Wings were... wiped out by Regasol's champion..." The second Sky Knight gasped for breath as he painfully reported what happened, "As we speak... Aldric Asonar has... Mobilized almost 200 million soldiers... They are headed towards Central Edeortha... Possibly to meet Pyo'ah..."

Palu'Angit furrowed his brows, "Attend to me!" Palu'Angit shouted. Soon, 12 Sky Knights with lavishly decorated armor flew in from the door, "Lord!!!" The 12 Sky Knights saluted. Palu'Angit faced the 12, "What of the 201st through 312th Wings?" and asked. One of the twelve stepped forward, "Lord, all 112 Wings are headed to reinforce our soldiers stationed around the sacred area!" and replied, "At the moment, based on their speed, they should arrive in two days."

Palu'Angit raised a hand towards the twelve, "Legion Commanders, the Byblos has shown us events that were in accordance with the prophecy!" and pronounced. The 12 were legion commanders, similar to the Sloivat siblings a century later. Half of them were shocked, while the other half had solemn faces. "Only we of the highest ranks know of the prophecy. Truth be told, I am saddened by the fact that our duty had to prolong this world's inhabitants' suffering, but all of these ends now! Peace after a thousand years of going astray, as per our duty since long ago, if we are to die, then die we shall with pride!"

The Legion Commanders looked down, most were clenching their fists. Whatever the prophecy was, it was a hard pill to swallow. Palu'Angit lowered his hand, "Visit your families if you must. Cherish the few moments you have left with them." spoke solemnly, and dismissed the twelve. Watching the backs of the twelve leave the throne room, "Sacrifices are always a must, aren't they, father?" Ethra muttered. Palu'Angit naturally heard it as he was right next to her, "Sacrifices, be it lives, endeavors, money... we sacrifice anything to get what we want but to have what is needed, we must sacrifice it all."

Palu'Angit looked at his daughter, "My dear child, is your decision to come with me final?" Ethra stared at the door for a while longer. Ethra faced her father, and met his gaze. Palu'Angit was surprised at her eyes filled with absolute certainty. Without even speaking, Palu'Angit understood his daughter's intentions. "Come, child. Let us prepare to meet mother."

---

Somewhere in Southeastern Edeortha, within a demon territory.

Hordes upon hordes of beasts, demons, and other monsters covered the land. The vast networks of ravines and canyons that carve through the earth were filed to the brim with these hordes like a river of walking flesh. Various roars could be heard as the heads of mighty dragons towered high above like walking siege towers surrounded by lizardmen. High above them, wyverns of various breeds were seen flying as they were mounted by a myriad of demons. The demons themselves, be it furred, scaled, earthen skinned, and whatnot, all were moving towards the same direction, and were following a tyrannical giant that was leading them.

This giant had pitch black skin, and four horns. Two of its horns spread outward, while the other two wrapped around its head like a crown. It was the same giant that the demons summoned from a volcano. Their 'god', Pyo'ah. Thundering noises resounded as each of his steps shook the earth. The demons around him did not even appear hindered from the shaking earth as they marched forward without rhythm, well, aside from the smaller demons that could be seen bouncing off the ground.

Let us go back to a few days ago, a day after Pyo'ah was summoned.

At the base of the volcano where Pyo'ah was summoned, large clusters of demons gathered, and all were chanting, "Pyo'ah! Pyo'ah! Great Father of the Earth, Pyo'ah!" The demons, also known as the Earth Kildera, called Pyo'ah their father with arms raised. Pyo'ah was seated upon the volcano's face as he looked down upon his children. Pyo'ah breathed in, and spoke, "Children of the Earth, lend me your ears!" With these words, the demons below grew silent to listen, "The time of reckoning has come! By my memory, the Sky has the Byblos, and will surely learn of my summoning! With that knowledge in hand, they will surely lead legions of knights against us! However, with my knowledge of that, we shall bring the fight to them!" This time, loud cheers erupted from the demons below, "All hail the Great Father!"

Pyo'ah waited for their cheers to die down before speaking once more, "My children! This shall become the war to end all wars! We shall reign supreme!!!" A cheer louder than before erupted as the demons below brandished weapons, and raised their arms, shouting a chant that can shivers down one's spine.

Pyo'ah closed his eyes, and leaned back, 'Demetria, we will meet soon.' as a thought passed through his mind.

---

"Don't you guys have a goddamned compass?" Azrael whined on horseback, "How the hell do you know which way we are headed?" Currently, he was with the Regasol armies marching towards Central Edeortha. The rider next to him replied, "Compass? What is that, sir? We have only followed the sun and the shadows for directions." Azrael raised a brow at what the rider said, then he slapped his face as though he realized something, 'Damn, forgot that the compass was mostly developed by worlds with maritime civilizations.' Azrael shook his head.

The armies were currently marching through a valley on full alert because just recently, "Archers and magi! Be on guard for Sky Knights! We don't want another mishap to happen like before! Good thing we have our champion to take care of most of them!" a high ranking officer shouted. A Sky Knight patrol found them, and most ended up dead if not for a few that managed to escape.

Azrael was saddled on his horse with arms crossed and eyes closed like he was sleeping on horse back. For a while, nothing barred their path as they passed through the valley. However, just when they felt the safest, danger struck. A deep yet loud rumble came from the valley faces, then a roar erupted as something large burst forth from the earth. "Stone Devourers!" a soldier screamed, as beasts charged through the hole on the valley face. The Stone Devourer was a large beast around 10 meters high, 14 meters long, and 8 meters wide, and appeared like an armadillo with a stony beak. Its legs appeared similar to that of elephants, and its hide was flexible yet as hard as stone. A herd of Stone Devourers appeared before the armies, and suddenly charged towards them.

The soldiers up front shivered at the sight of 42 Stone Devourers madly charging towards them with reckless abandon. On the side, Azrael still had his arms crossed and eyes closed. The soldiers kept glancing at Azrael, and back to their commanders who were barking out orders towards the magi, "Magi! Flame Spears!" A torrent of fast moving lances of fire flew in an arc towards the Stone Devourers. One stone devourer got hit by a concentrated attack as its beak was blown off, yet its charge was unhindered. Another got hit in the eye, and roared in pain as it tripped and wildly flailed its body. Out of the 42 charging Stone Devourers, 38 were left unscathed.

There was a distance of 50 meters left between them, and it was getting shorter by the second. In just less than a minute, they would inevitably clash. Just when the distance was shortened to a mere 10 meters, Azrael waved a hand, and his scythe appeared, "Come to papa, meat!" Azrael disappeared from his horse and reappeared right next to a Stone Devourer before disappearing again towards the next one. Just before he disappeared from the second Stone Devourer, the head of the first Stone devourer fell off, and its body slumped and crashed towards the ground.

Ten seconds. It only took Azrael to lop off the heads of 38 Stone devourers. He casually walked towards the four remaining injured Stone Devourers, and slowly sunk the blade of his scythe down their necks. The beasts felt the blade inch slowly through their flesh until they died. Azrael turned back towards the armies, "Well? Are these things delicious?" and had the beasts be added to their food stores before continuing their march.

---

It has been around six weeks by now since Aisha rescued me. As usual, the days went on by peacefully. At the moment, I'm fighting against her golems to keep myself in shape because even now, I can't use my mana. The black thing on my chest was completely gone but I'm pretty sure it did something to my mana. I mean, Aisha could still use her magic in the area, and I could still have a faint feeling of mana around me but not as much back when I could manipulate it. Back to the golems, yes golemS. With an 'S' at the end. What's more, apparently, Aisha doesn't just have mastery over earth type magic, but also fire, ice, and wind. At the moment, I'm fighting against the earth type golem, a fire type golem, and an ice type golem.

The earth type golem, I have already mentioned before. The fire type was actually a mix of earth and fire, magma probably. It's a golem of melded magic. I understood since fire on its own is technically just plasma, you know, the things they teach in Terran schools: solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas. I wonder if I could get Bronte to work with a steel golem for his thunder. Ah, Bronte is an elemental contract of mine, he's one of the many thunder gods. Anyway, the fire... no, magma golem looks similar to the earth golem if not for the red glowing veins on its body that occasionally spurt out red hot flames every time it moved. One of the attacks it utilizes is a flaming hammer, similar to what another contract of the same element of mine uses for material attacks and sometimes bathes it in flames. Another is that the magma golem could make balls of fire revolve around its body to either protect itself or to launch at an enemy. Frankly, it's annoying, especially since I can't augment my body with mana to boost my agility. As for my dexterity, the ice golem becomes my nemesis.

The ice golem's body was made out of sharp shards of ice that could maim a person if one is not careful. This one uses a spear to attack, and also uses the same revolving balls, er... shards of ice for protection or for long range attacks. Now, if we add together the earth golem, that makes me go against earth bullets, fire balls, and ice shards. Because of this three on one situation, suppressive fire from two of them distracts me while the other one closes in to attack. I've been through hell and back when I was still under my mentor the first time I was summoned but this, this was worse. Back then, I was a newbie going up against a master level magic warrior but now, my 700 or so something years of battle experience amounted to almost nothing against Aisha's golems.

This made me realize something, I've been too dependent on my magic. Even when I visited SciTech worlds, I relied on my magic. Now that I can't manipulate my mana, I'm no different from ordinary warriors. Such huge mana stores unable to be utilized due to my current condition. It would be nice if we could measure mana capacities with numbers, but reality's a bitch. My unused mana could quite possibly summon at least half my contracts right now, and even one summon takes a chunk out of my mana. Yet here I am, fighting against three golems with just my muscle power and stamina.

Speaking of which, it seems Aisha uses this training as a reason to get in the bath with me. I noticed after the second time that whenever night falls during training, she would lead me to the bath herself. It's already at that level, isn't it? Yeah? Yeah? ... I don't know. AAAAGH! I should stop thinking about it. Over 700 years, huh...

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Let's see, ten human years is one angel year, seven human years is one demon year. So, Ethra should be around 140 years old here, and 240 years old later.

Azrael:

P.Atk: A

M.Atk: C

Agi: A+

Dex: B+

P.Def: D+

M.Def: D

Cavaron:

P.Atk: B-

M.Atk: A

Agi: B

Dex: A-

P.Def: B-

M.Def: C

Now, who's Demetria? :D