Leyda felt as if she was missing something. Last night Rauros and her had sent the vision to their champions. A demon lord had raised an army and was planning to attack Florianne, the capital city of landmass Filinile. The Feliur capital was in danger and the champions had two days to stop the demon lord before he attacked the city.

Their champions had mobilized. Rauros and Leyda kept track of them. They had already reached Florianne and were working to muster up an army. It seemed they were going to fight a battle with the demon lord and their armies.

Leyda looked at who the demon lord was. It was Botis the Reconciler. He was half humanoid and half reptile. Wielding two curved swords he slashed through his enemies. Leyda checked his level for the encounter. He was to be at level 100. A fair encounter. A worthy challenge for their champions.

So, what was troubling her? She thought about it. As she thought more and more about the encounter, she realized something. She was not concerned about the battle at Florianne. There was something else. Something she had read but was eluding her at the moment.

Leyda put down the file concerning Florianne and looked at the other files. The file for another city caught her eye and she frowned. Opulential. Yes. It was something about Opulential. Then her eyes widened.

Leyda picked up her file and started reading. Then she paled. She remembered the Opulential encounter. After Cthulhim’s defeat, another demon lord was supposed to rise near Opulential. This was not a weak demon lord. But she had stopped that encounter. Delayed it, linking it with another encounter as the Cthulhim had been defeated early.

She read the file. Fury rose within her. She had made the necessary changes. Rauros had not approved them. Without both their approvals, what Leyda had suggested did not move forward. The encounter with the demon lord and forces of Opulential city was going to go forward. And it was tomorrow.

Leyda stood up. Both the champions were busy. She had to do something otherwise there would be major loss of non-adventurer life at Opulential. She was sure that Rauros would not be fazed considering how he was proceeding with the quests, but she did not want non-adventurers to die.

Leyda went to Charles.

Charles said, “How can I help you, Lady Lightweaver.”

Leyda explained the situation and Charles paled. He said, “At what level the said demon lord would be summoned near Opulential?”

Leyda replied, “In the original encounter he was supposed to be at level 150. However, as this encounter is happening earlier than normal, he might be at half the level. 75, but I am not sure. I want to know whether there are any high-level adventurers in Opulential.”

Charles said, “Give me a few minutes.”

It felt like the longest few minutes of Leyda’s life.

Charles came back after fifteen minutes and handed her a digital note. Leyda read the list of adventurers.

Leyda asked, “Are all these adventurers in Opulential right now?”

Charles shook his head. He said, “There are only five adventurers over level 75 in Opulential right now. The rest have been mobilized. They are moving to Opulential.”

“What do you mean?”

Charles took a moment to refer his notes and said, “It seems that the Order of the Sun already knows about the demon lord being summoned. He has already asked all the guilds to get their high-level adventurers to Opulential. A general message has also been passed and the city of Opulential and apparently a village named Salinar are being evacuated.”

Leyda was surprised at this information. She asked, “How are they so well informed?”

“They were informed by an adventurer team who were investigating demonic sightings”, replied Charles.

“Oh, and who was this adventurer team?”

Charles told Leyda their names and she smiled. She should have known. They would be in Opulential after all and considering their luck, in the thick of things.

Charles still looked worried. He said, “I know Opulential is preparing well but will it be okay without the champions. I know they are going to Florianne. Should we split them?”

Leyda said, “No. Splitting them would have devastating consequences for both Florianne and Opulential. They need to be fighting together to be effective.”

“So, what do you propose?”

Leyda thought for some time. Then she said, “We cannot do much about Opulential. Let it move naturally. You know we cannot interfere. We just need to hope that the high-level adventurers should be able to defeat the demon lord.”

Charles did not say anything. Leyda knew that he wanted to argue further but he would not. Leyda went back to her chambers. She hoped that they would be alright. She hoped Opulential will not fall.

***

Kyrie looked at the gathered adventurers. The village of Salinar was evacuated overnight. About 500 meters from the village, the adventurers, the holy knights and the soldiers had set up camp. If what Marcus learned from Marbas was true, then a demon lord would be summoned today. The summoning would take place in Salinar and the demon lord would be summoned with his armies.

Marcus and Kyrie had raised the alarm and had hoped they would be helped. The leaders of Opulential had taken action fast. Kyrie could see high level adventurers in their camp. Majority of the Order of the Sun along with Commander Timothy Candlewick was present. The mayor of Opulential had also sent a platoon of soldiers to help. Kyrie hoped that this force would be sufficient.

An adventurer named Tithus Linius had taken command of the adventurers. It made sense because he was the most experienced adventurer of all present and was at level 124. With Tithus was his teammate Charian Linius. They were husband and wife gnome adventurers. They were good natured folk and Kyrie could see many adventurers naturally gravitate towards them.

Kyrie looked for Marcus who was standing with Tithus. They seemed to be discussing something. Kyrie did not want to disturb them at that time. They would most likely be discussing strategy.

They knew the name of the demon lord being summoned. They did not know the number of demons that would be summoned with him, but Kyrie was hoping that it would be a manageable number.

A scout was seen suddenly rushing back to their camps. Kyrie could see a red light shining bright at the village Salinar. It had begun. Orders were given to take positions. Kyrie rushed to take her place at the troops that were forming. This was going to be a coordinated attack. This was going to be a battle.

The melee adventurers formed the first two rows of their force. Then followed the holy knights. The soldiers were selected to be the rear guard with rows of ranged attackers in the middle. The cavalry was at the side of the force, and they would be flanking the demon army.

Kyrie knew their numbers. Their force consisted of 102 adventures, 55 holy knights including the commander, 20 cavalry units and 50 soldiers. They had a total strength of 222 units. They had to be sufficient.

The red glow stopped, and the force readied themselves. In the village she could see red forms moving. Growling and snarling could be heard till where their force was standing. And leading the demon force was the demon lord. Kyrie could see that he already towered all of his forces and the forces that were gathered to stop the demons. The demon lord was at least twenty feet tall and looked like Cthulhim.

The force consisting of adventurers, holy knights and soldiers advanced. The demons advanced too. Their force moved slowly while the demons charged. As the demon lord neared, Kyrie saw his name and shuddered. He had an aura of power around him unlike any she had ever seen. This was the one who they had to kill.

Cthulhu the Devourer

Demon Lord, Level 80

Health 100,000 / 100,000

Kyrie shuddered as the demonic army neared them. She readied her bow. It was time. The battle had begun.

***

Marcus looked at the twinblade in his hand and then at the charging demons. Then he sighed as they charged too. Battle cries rose from their side as they clashed into the demons. Tithis and Charian clashed right into Cthulhu. They hardly did any damage which was not surprising as they did not have holy weapons or weapons enchanted with holy damage.

The plan was simple. Few high-level adventurers would engage the demon lord while the others would wipe off the remaining demonic forces. Then everyone would pitch in to defeat the demon lord as they were sure that the demon lord would take some time to die.

The demons were at level 80 too and had quite the health bar. On an average, they had 1,000 points of health. Marcus had a hard time killing them even with his [Enchant Weapon: Holy] spell and had to take help of either the holy knights or adventurers around him. They did give good experience points though. If he survived long in this battle, Marcus was going to level up very fast.

Marcus slashed his way through the demons, taking his time and not taking any risks. Arrows and spells flew around him. The high-level adventurers had taken their fight with Cthulhu a little away from the battling forces.

Marcus helped kill one of the demons when he was hit with a dark bolt. Marcus turned to see a demon spellcaster targeting him. Marcus dodged another of the spell bolts from the spellcaster and downed a health potion fast. The first attack had taken off about 80 points of his health. One more shot and he would be dead.

Marcus dodged another spell, an attack and downed another potion. He needed to be at full health before he headed towards the spellcaster. Marcus was well aware that the spellcaster could kill him in just two attacks but the spellcaster was targeting Marcus and Marcus had to take care of it.

The spellcaster already had less health. Marcus dodged more of the spells coming towards him as he ran up to the spellcaster. The spellcaster readied a big spell as Marcus reached close. Marcus was not sure that he would be able to reach the spellcaster in time. Then an arrow hit the spellcaster right in the face for some critical damage. Marcus took this golden opportunity and cast the spell [Whirling Weapon]. The spellcaster was hit multiple times with Marcus’ spinning twinblades. That killed the spellcaster.

Marcus was panting. He turned to his left to see where the arrow had come from. He had an inkling as to who would have fired it and grinned when he saw her. Kyrie was standing with a gnome with a crossbow firing in different directions, providing fire support wherever required. Marcus also identified the gnome with the crossbow beside her. It was Zissix Trance. Marcus grinned and he charged into another demon. This was going to take long.

***

Kyrie shot another arrow killing another demon. She looked around to see that the number of demon forces had largely reduced. The adventurers, holy knights and soldiers were killing off the stragglers effectively now.

Kyrie turned her attention to the demon lord now. Cthulhu had hardly received any damage. The demon lord seemed to have lost about 2,000 points of damage till now. How was that possible? They had been fighting for quite some time. With holy attacks Cthulhu’s health should have been quite less by now.

Kyrie remembered what Marbas had told her. Every demon and demon lord was weak to holy and light damage. But some demon lords had some sort of protection which would negate the effect of this holy or light damage. Did Cthulhu have some similar protection? It seemed so as even the high-level adventurers were not able to deal much damage to it.

Kyrie said to Zissix who was beside her, “Come Zissix. Let’s go near Cthulhu. Tithus and company needs help.”

Zissix nodded and they both started to run towards Cthulhu. The high-level adventurers were having a bit of a tough time fighting Cthulhu and it seemed that three of them had already died. The others also seemed to be not holding well.

Kyrie observed Cthulhu to determine what can be considered as a weakness. Cthulhu looked a lot like Cthulhim. There were two differences though. While Cthulhim stood at about four feet, Cthulhu was at least 20 feet tall. And Cthulhu had a ruby in the center of his forehead.

Kyrie frowned as she looked at the ruby. Could it be so simple?

Zissix said, “So, what are we supposed to be doing here Kyrie? I doubt we can do much damage to Cthulhu considering the level we are at.”

Kyrie said, “Do you see the ruby?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you can shoot it?”

Zissix observed Cthulhu fighting the other adventurers and said, “It could be a bit difficult considering how much he is moving but it is possible. Are you going to shoot the ruby too?”

“Yes”, Kyrie said, “Holy and light attacks do not seem to be working. Could it be that Cthulhu’s weakness is that ruby?” Kyrie did not want to explain her visit to Marbas and so she kept the explanation simple for now.

Zissix snorted and said, “I doubt it would be that obvious. But we could try.”

Kyrie and Zissix both took aim. Kyrie tracked Cthulhu’s movements waiting for an opportune movement. When she had the opportunity, she fired. She could see Zissix fire a moment later. Kyrie’s arrow hit the ruby in the center while Zissix’s bolt hit the ruby on the side.

There was a loud crack, and everybody just stopped. Kyrie checked her notifications. It read that she had caused 100 points of damage to the ruby. It seemed that Zissix had done similar damage.

From across the battlefield Cthulhu’s eyes were fixed on Kyrie and Zissix. Then he jumped right towards them.

Zissix shouted, “Gork” and dove out of the way. Kyrie dodged in another direction. The high-level adventurers realized what had happened and charged after Cthulhu.

Cthulhu charged Zissix who was running and dodging Cthulhu’s attacks muttering, “Gork! Gork! Gork! Gork! Gork! Gork!”

Kyrie cast [Power Shot] and readied it. As soon as she saw the ruby again, she fired. It hit the ruby again, hitting it for 150 points of damage.

Cthulhu stopped chasing Zissix and roared. The high-level adventurers took this opportunity to engage him.

Kyrie shouted over the din of the battle, “Cthulhu’s weakness is the ruby on his forehead.”

She also sent a general text to everyone. The message started to pass around the battlefield. Kyrie engaged the demon spellcaster which was attacking her and killed it with the help of a few soldiers. The demons were dead now. It was only Cthulhu who remained alive, and he was now fighting ferally.

Everyone focused their attacks on Cthulhu, especially his ruby. It was still tough now that Cthulhu was aware that they were going after him and his ruby.

Two more attacks damaged the ruby and Cthulhu jumped back. The others followed him but then he let out a roar of rage which stopped everyone in their tracks. Kyrie noticed that she had a notification which said that she was stunned for 10 seconds. That was not good.

Cthulhu was now surrounded with a red glow which seemed to be emanating from his body like vapour. He charged at the nearest adventurers, killing them immediately. Within seconds he was near Kyrie. Kyrie was still going to be stunned for two seconds. Cthulhu raised his clawed hand to strike. Kyrie closed her eyes.

The next moment Kyrie heard a voice, “[Whirling Weapon]”.

She opened her eyes to find Marcus standing directly in front of her with his twinblade spinning fast in front of him. The twinblade did not hurt Cthulhu much but it did drive him back. That was all the time everyone needed. They came out of their stunned condition and attacked Cthulhu.

However, Cthulhu had become much stronger. He was killing everyone in just one or two hits and it was getting difficult to stop him.

Many of the adventurers managed to damage the ruby on Cthulhu’s forehead but he killed them immediately after that. Kyrie could see that the ruby was now completely cracked. A few more attacks and it would be completely destroyed. However, Cthulhu was making it difficult for them.

At that moment Cthulhu managed to kill Charian as she was aiming for the ruby. Enraged, Tithus charged but Cthulhu killed him too. Suddenly they were leaderless, and their numbers had been greatly depleted. Kyrie readied an attack. It was now or never. They had to destroy the ruby or Cthulhu would kill them all.

Kyrie activated [Power Shot] and took aim. Cthulhu somehow seemed to sense Kyrie’s intentions. Bloodshot eyes filled with rage fixed on her and Kyrie felt a shudder pass through her. Cthulhu was about twenty meters away from her, but he leapt high and fast towards her.

Kyrie knew that she would hit the ruby but not before Cthulhu hit her. She felt the claws pass through her. She let loose her spell. It hit the ruby at point blank range. There was another loud crack. Before she knew what happened next Kyrie blacked out. She died.

***

Marcus saw the ruby crack and the large explosion which followed it. However, he was more concerned about his teammate. She died while destroying the ruby. Destroying the ruby dealt 50,000 points of damage to Cthulhu. He was now down to 27,532 points of health.

All present now charged Cthulhu, Marcus included. It seemed with the destruction of the ruby he was stunned for some time. The holy and light attacks were now dealing proper damage to Cthulhu. It seemed that the ruby had been providing Cthulhu with some form of protection against the holy and light damage.

Cthulhu was stunned for five seconds. They managed to shave off 10,000 points of damage.

When Cthulhu came out of his stunned status, he jumped high into the air and roared. He came down with extreme speed and everyone rushed out of his attack’s way.

Cthulhu slammed into the ground, cracking it and sending tremors all around. He took this opportunity to attack the adventurers and knights surrounding him, but the others had stabilized themselves fast. The adventurers and the knights were now either dodging well or defending against Cthulhu’s attacks. Marcus could see Cthulhu getting more and more frustrated.

Marcus could see that Cthulhu was preparing to roar again. But a mace descended upon his head stopping the attack and hitting him for a critical strike. Marcus grinned as Timothy bashed his skill into Cthulhu and Cthulhu ran away from him into an adventurer who slashed him for another critical attack.

Cthulhu was now getting attacked from all sides. An enchanted bolt flew past Marcus and lodged in Cthulhu’s neck. He heard a whoop of joy and saw Zissix readying and firing another enchanted bolt.

Marcus grinned. Cthulhu tried to attack and failed. Cthulhu tried to defend and failed. Cthulhu could not do anything as adventurers and holy knights led by Commander Candlewick led the last charge and destroyed him completely.

Marcus saw an adventurer deal the last blow to Cthulhu. Cthulhu’s health dropped to zero. He fell down and started to burn. He slowly disintegrated. A hush fell over the battlefield. Then a cheer started and spread across all who were present. Every adventurer, holy knight and soldier was cheering.

Marcus realized that he was shouting with joy. They had done it. He had done it. He collapsed on the ground tired. It was over. They had won.

***

Kyrie was floating in darkness when she got the notification.

Do you want to revive?

Yes No

Revival cost Level multiplied by 100 units

She thought of Yes and the next moment she lay beside the resurrection stone in Opulential. She took a huge gulp of breath and sat up. Vertigo hit her and she lay back again.

A face appeared above her. The person said, “Welcome back to the world of living, Kyrie.”

Kyrie identified the voice. She blinked and waited till everything stopped spinning. The face came into focus. It was Sylinine. Kyrie groaned and got up.

Kyrie asked, “What are you doing here, head librarian?”

“Helping NAIF revive dead adventurers. Considering that Opulential is under attack, we need all hands-on deck”, replied Sylinine.

Kyrie frowned and asked, “Opulential is under attack?”

Sylinine nodded, “It seems that Marcus and your information was not complete. We heard from other adventurers that we revived that a demon lord was indeed summoned in Salinar with a demon army. However, it was a small force. A bigger demonic force attacked Opulential from the North. They are not led by a demon lord but an elite demon. Considering that we sent the majority of our forces to Salinar, it has been tough defending the Northern gate and wall. Last I heard, we are still holding strong. The adventurers who died at Salinar and revived here are helping. You go to the Northern wall too. Your archery skills would be useful.”

Kyrie thanked Sylinine and rushed out of the adventurer’s guild. She summoned her mount, Nalana and flew up to the Northern gate. There she saw a demon army just outside of it. Ranged attackers were raining arrows and spells on demons below them. A small part of the gate had been destroyed and demons were spilling inside but they were held off by the melee fighters present.

Kyrie could see that the soldiers were large in numbers, but they were not well equipped to kill demons. Few holy knights and adventurers were there but there were still many demons present. Kyrie estimated about 100 demons still remained. She could also see the elite demon amongst them.

“From murky water to even muddier water”, muttered Kyrie as she landed Nalana and dismissed her. She started hunting demons who slipped through the gate and tried to go into Opulential. She was joined by a holy knight and together they killed many demons.

Kyrie went back to the gate to find that demons had now broken through it. She saw Tithus and Charian engage the elite demon. She helped the others kill demons. She shot arrow after arrow till her arms felt heavy and she could barely see straight. She loosed one last arrow and retreated back for rest.

She drank a health potion. She had not lost health, but the potion did refresh her. She joined back into the fray. The adventurers, soldiers and the few holy knights were making progress. The number of demons was reducing. The major blow to the demons came when Charian took the elite demon’s head. The remaining demons were demotivated after that. They ran everywhere. The demons which remained in Opulential were hunted down while the demons who were outside the walls were allowed to run away. A few arrows and spells were shot towards them, but they soon were out of range, and no one pursued them. They would be hunted down later.

Few minutes later all the demons were dead. Tithus killed the last one and looked around. Seeing no more demons he raised his sword and gave a cheer of victory. Everyone cheered.

Kyrie grinned. It was done. It was over. They had won and Opulential was safe.