After xXx_GodSlayer_xXx has been woken up and brought out of the tent, she was greeted by the princess and was subsequently taken to the tent used as a war room. There, the princess explained everything to her.

"I see, so you're the one who summoned us."

"That is correct, Lady Cecilia, I have summoned you here to fight against the [Demon] horde."

On a side note, here in Elgardia, xXx_GodSlayer_xXx calls herself Cecilia rather than GodSlayer, which makes things much easier for everyone involved.

"Yes, I've heard about the situation. Your world is in quite a dire state isn't it?"

"It is indeed. If nothing is done, our world will surely perish, and that is why we need your strength, the strength of Champions such as yourself. For the sake of this world, I beg of your assistance, and in return I shall grant you anything you wish for."

The princess bows her head low towards Cecilia, formerly known as xXx_GodSlayer_xXx, socking pretty much everyone present within the room aside from Cecilia and myself with the humbling gesture.

"I understand. You can count on me, Your Highness."

Surprised, the princess raises her head and stares blankly towards Cecilia, wondering if she had heard right. She was not expecting things to go so smoothly.

"Are you sure? You could die, you know."

The one who brought that up was me, and though I said I'd be on the princess' side, I also don't want a friend to stupidly throw their life away without a second thought.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"You're aware that this isn't a game, right?"

"Of course, and that is precisely why."

"What?"

"This is reality, Aurelius, complaining won't get us anywhere and it most definitely won't get us home. The only reasonably thing we can do is to try and solve the problem."

I've thought about it before, about how mature Cecilia was even back in Elysium Online, so much so that it puts the sixty-odd years old me to shame. Is this experience gained from running the guild, or is her maturity what allows her to run the guild so well in the first place? Or perhaps she's actually older than I am. Is she actually a super old dude playing as a cute girl? I shudder at the thought of actually finding out as I gaze upon the beauty that is the avatar now called Cecilia. The contrast does not paint a pretty picture.

"Princess, you're the one who summoned us here, right? Will you return us home once this whole thing is over?"

"I will do all I can to find a way."

"So you don't know how?"

"I am afraid so. Even the summoning rituals we used to call upon you were something we have replicated from ancient records and are something we currently have no full grasp on."

"I see... But you'll find a way, right?"

"The royal scholars and mages are looking into it as we speak."

"Good, but if you dare go back on your words, after the [Demons], you're going to have us to deal with instead. Understand?"

"Of course, Lady Cecilia."

The atmosphere was tense while the princess and Cecilia went back and forth with their conversation. The princess did excellently as she calmly replied Cecilia. Had it been me in her shoes, my knees might just give out from stress and fear. Even more surprising though, is Cecilia. I had known that her negotiation skills were strong. I was there with her during the guild alliance meetings. But to be here, listening to the strength of her voice rather than just reading the chat, to be under the intense gaze of those red eyes of hers rather than staring into the chatbox, it was a completely different experience than what I could have expected.

"Now with that taken care off..."

Once the talk was over, Cecilia allows her face to relax and puts on a smile. Casually, she walks over to the princess, and though Merida reflexively tried intercept, the princess stopped her with a quick gesture, not wanting risk offending the mighty Champion before her.

"Princess, your name is Aurelia, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"May I call you Relia instead?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean, your names a little too similar to Aurelius here, so I thought it'd be nice to have a nickname for you. Unless you don't like it of course, then I won't push you."

"Oh, in that case, I have no objections, you may call me whatever you wish."

"That's great! And you can call me Cecil if you like."

Excitedly, Cecilia takes hold of the princess' hands in her own. At this point, I have one thought: Isn't Cecil a guy's name? Is Cecilia a geezer like me after all? From the way she's rubbing the princess' hands in hers, I cannot deny the strong possibilities.

"Well, it's all nice and fine that you're willing to fight with us, but what about the other two with you, will they be as calm about this?"

"Oh Aurelius, always the worrywart, don't worry about it, I'll convince them personally."

"If you say so, I'll leave it in your hands."

"Yes, you do that."

I have to say, it was fortunate that the first Champion we found was the guild master. Had it been anyone else, we might actually have a hard time convincing them to work with us, heck, we'd be lucky if they don't antagonize us when they find out that it was the princess that had dragged them into this mess. With Cecilia, a.k.a. xXx_GodSlayer_xXx, here, I have one less thing to worry about.

"Thank you, guild master, you're a life saver."

"Hey, don't stand on ceremony with me, not after everything we've been through. Also, you call me Cecilia too, guild master is too stiff, and that other name is just embarrassing here."

"Well it's better than 'SixtyNine69', I think. Speaking of..."

"Don't you worry, he's here too. Without his help, I wouldn't have made it so far."

"I see, that's good to know. And I guess you've been through a lot yourself haven't you. If you ever feel like it-"

"I'll tell you all about it afterwards, but right now, we have more pressing matters."

Pressing matters... In this case, there should be nothing more pressing right now than that one thing.

"The forest is it?"

"Indeed. However, now that you're here, maybe we'll finally able to do something about it."

"That will have to depend on what we're dealing with here. Can you brief me on the situation?"

"Alright, but what do you already know?"

"That the forest is bad and gradually expanding and that the [Demons] are weak but constantly attacking."

"That's the gist of it, but only most of the [Demons] are weak, mainly the ones that look like a mix of goblins and monkeys and the ones that look like wolves. However, the ones that look like boars and bears are actually rather strong, though they rarely show up outside of the forest."

"You've been to the forest?"

"Only once, but the [Corruption] status effect builds up while we're in there so we had to return and let it wear off. We didn't get very far I'm afraid."

"What happens when [Corruption] stacks up to the max?"

"I wouldn't dare to find out. We'd probably gain the [Demon] attribute, but I don't know what else might happen."

[Demons]... I already know that the [Corruption] turn other living this into [Demons], but I have no idea what becoming a [Demon] entails. Surely, it's can't just be the horns and dark aura, though I suppose there's no way to know unless I ask a [Demon] myself. They seem to retain intelligence, but their hostility towards other un[Corrupted] beings seem to suggest that their minds have been warped. Well, I'm sure it's something worth looking into if I ever have the luxury, but not right now.

"Anything else I should know? Like the growth of the forest. How fast is it actually growing?"

"Abnormally fast, I've heard that it grew about three meters the day before yesterday and five meters the day before that."

Three meters before yesterday, and five meters before that... Is there a factor in the disparity between the numbers? I wonder if there's a pattern here.

"Is that true, commander?"

I turn to confirm it from the man himself.

"Yes, the Champion here is not wrong."

"Can you give me the details on how much the forest expanded each day?"

The commander than proceeds to detail the approximate measurements of the distances covered by the forest's growth each day up till three months ago, and indeed it was as I suspected, there was a indeed pattern.

"The forest's growth is slowing down, but then it suddenly picked up speed around two months ago, and then it starts slowing down again?"

"I reckon that it means something?"

Cecilia had her arms crossed as she cast her expectant gaze towards me.

"It means something alright, but I can only hope I'm right."

"Go ahead, shoot. Let us hear your thoughts."

I nod and turn my gaze over to the princess.

"Just to confirm, the forest's abnormal growth is caused by the [Corruption], right?"

The princess nodded.

"Yes, that is correct."

"But what is the [Corruption]?"

"Well, from what I've heard, they say it was a blight brought on by 'the dragon that brings the end'."

"Dragon that brings the end?"

"It's an old legend, about a chosen that is to be a god, a guardian for this world, but in the end became the bringer of destruction. However, we all thought that it was merely a legend, until now."

Here, Cecilia cuts in.

"Well, for me, it looks more or less like some kind of magic."

"I-is that so!?"

The princess appears to be shocked upon hear our answer. She apparently doesn't think it made any sense. To her, magic might as well be some kind of science, something formulaic, and tends to make some kind of sense to her and her people. But for us, for those from a world without magic, that's a different story. The sense of the word carries a different meaning for us. However, though our understanding of the word is different, we may not necessary be wrong.

"It might be, and that's the angle I'm going for."

"A-angle, is this really a time for hypothesizing?"

The commander seems to be in distraught, I guess he's a man who sticks with the proven and the established. Not saying that it's a bad thing of course, the fundamentals are important, but sometimes you just need to get out of the box a little.

"Sometimes you need a little leap of faith, commander. The world is in a desperate time, and as they say, it calls for desperate measures."

Bit by bit, I unravel my hypothesis to them, and after much deliberation, which each pouring what knowledge on the subject we have, the hypothesis becomes a theory, and around that theory, a plan was formed.

After I was done outlining the plan, the commander scratches his bushy beard and stared at me with an odd look, one that was a mix of exasperation and admiration.

"Your plan is bold, Champion, reckless even. I see the stories about you are true."

"Um, what stories?"

"The stories about your battle atop the eastern mountains for one."

"Oh, that..."

Now that I think about it, I was lucky to have come out of it on top. It was fortune that allowed me to succeed that time, such as the fact that we ran into the [Demon] Champion who was taking the same route as we are for example. Had we not encountered and intercepted him there, though we might have wiped out most of the [Demon] horde, the fort would have fallen into the Champion's hand and we would have lost the battle. I wonder if I'll be able to have the same fortune this time around.

"Oh yes, Aurelius was amazing back then. The battle was at a stalemate, but Aurelius would not have it, and so he approached the fortress' commander and went, 'Grant me some of your man, I shall return with victory in hand shortly.' It was at that moment I knew that he truly was the Champion I have prayed for."

Oh god! What are you saying, princess? Aren't you dramatizing it too much? That was nothing close to what I said!

From behind, a slender yet somehow muscular arm came and wrapped around my shoulder.

"Looks like you have a fan, Aurelius."

"Please don't tease me, Cecilia. And for your information it wasn't as great as she made it out to be. I won because I was fortunate."

"Let me guess what you're thinking. Right now, you think that since last time you won with luck, this time, you might fails since you don't expect to get lucky a second time. Did I guess right?"

"That's close I suppose."

The arm wrapped around my shoulder then went and pinched my cheek.

"Hey! That hurts!"

"Let me tell you something, Aurelius, you adorable idiot you. Luck is good for everything, in battles and in life. However, to stand on top, you can't just rely on luck that's occasionally handed to you. No, you must make your own luck."

"I don't think we can make luck."

Once more, I was pinched.

"Maybe not, but we can damn well try. After all, that plan of yours isn't just something you slap together haphazardly was it? No, of course not. I know you, and I've relied on your tactics in more than a few raids and guild wars, you wouldn't just slap together a plan and call it a day. That plan just now was something you put together after collecting all the information and knowledge available here, it's the best you can put together with everything available to you at the moment. I believe that."

The good old guild master, she sure knows how to give a speech. If someone tells me that she a highschool girl, I'd smack them in the face and call them a liar. I'll bet half of all my money that on the other side, that she's actually a wise old man with a long flowing white beard. And if she is indeed a highschool girl, I'm going the bet the other half of my money on her being someone who was reincarnated from said old man with the long flowing white beard.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not like I'll be able to come up with anything better than that right now anyways."

I play it of coolly, though admittedly, I was kind of moved by was she had said, not that I'll tell.

"That's the spirit!"

And for acting cooler than I actually am, I was rewarded with a slap in the back by a Level 200 Knight/Warrior. Half my Hp bar vanished in an instant.

***

End of Chapter 18