Zoey looked up from the book he was reading to find the proprietor of the adventurer’s guild in Treedos standing over her.

“What is it?” asked Zoey.

The proprietor, a large Umaru with quite a dull and unremarkable face replied, “The captain of the guard is here to see you.”

“Then why are you telling me this? Have you banned him from your establishment and are waiting for my gorking approval or something?”

“No, he simply wished to talk with you in a private room.”

Zoey sighed, rolled her eyes and got up. Gorking captain of the guard. She put her book on the table and followed the proprietor to the private room where the captain of the guard was waiting for her.

Captain Zumok Karine was an Umaru, part of one of the oldest residing families of Treedos. He was not as tall as the other Umarus but had clever eyes and a highly muscular body. Zoey could see that he was at ease sitting calmly in one of the chairs of the private room.

Zoey thanked the proprietor as he led her to the room and locked the door behind him after leaving.

Zoey said, “What brings you here, Zumok?”

Zumok looked at her with those pale blue eyes twinkling with something akin to mischief. He shifted to turn towards her as he spoke, “The guards are in position as per your instructions. The adventurers, however, are not. They seem to be taking their time. And here I find the leader of the hunt simply sitting in the guild and doing, I don’t know what, wasting time maybe?”

“The adventurers will be in position on time. I have had word from my team leader in Galados. Marcus has started to go towards his fight with Harados. I believe there is still some time.”

“For your supposed attack I presume”, said Zumok. Zoey could detect a hint of impatience and annoyance in his voice as he continued, “This attack which you are sure is coming. Are you sure it will happen today?”

“I have explained to you my logic before Zumok. You agreed with it. Why are you questioning me again today? I have said all I had to say. What do you really want to know?”

Zumok said, “It was about your theory. The deal with Harados based on what that adventurer Marcus had discussed with you. It seems that the council thinks an adventurer is a traitor.”

Zoey raised an eyebrow, “And how did the esteemed council come to such a conclusion?”

Zumok shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I actually have orders to detain you and take you for questioning.”

“And somehow I see you sitting here and telling me everything instead of arresting me.”

“The council’s decision is bullshit and I know that you are innocent. I also know that you have shared everything that you know about this scenario. That is why I am simply passing the time. If this attack of yours comes, then I believe I would not have to participate in this farce of arresting you. However, I am sorry to say that I can delay the inevitable maximum by evening. If you are wrong, I may have to arrest you.”

Zoey put her head in her palms and groaned, “Gorking idiotic council of Treedos and gorking foolish advisors and gorking…”

She continued in a similar vein for some time insulting every authoritarian body and figure in Artorios.

Zoey finally said, “Thank you for warning me. I will get my adventurers to get in position. I will go to the wall near the main gate myself. I hope the attack does not happen, but if it does, we are in deep shit. Thank you for the warning Zumok. What will you do now?”

“Accompany you”, said Zumok, “That way I can tell that the reason I did not arrest you immediately was that I was confirming whether what you said was true or not rather than telling them I was simply delaying.”

Zoey messaged the adventurers to get into position and said, “Come on then. Let’s go to the main gate.”

They took Zumok’s MQ to the main gate. The main gate was about twenty feet tall and formed the part of the wall surrounding Treedos. Zoey could see the guards in position and standing in discipline while adventurers simply seemed to stroll into position on the parapets atop the walls.

Zoey could sense Zumok clench his teeth as he saw the behaviour of the adventurers and Zoey simply shook her head. They took the stairs up the parapet while Zoey checked her messages from adventurers across the landmass.

There was one city, ten towns and twenty villages present on the landmass Artorios. Zoey had a sort of intuition that Harados was planning something on a large scale. When she had talked with Marcus, she had made him relay what he had discussed with Harados, word to word. This made her think that something was going to happen, and it was going to be today, when Marcus fought with Harados.

She had fought with the council of Treedos and got them on her side. She had deployed all the adventurers she could reach out to, her current adventurer hunter team and other adventurers and had asked them to be on guard in each town and village. She had ensured that the militia of that particular town or village, whatever it may be, was also ready for any sort of attack. She hoped it was enough.

As she checked her messages, she relaxed a bit as she was getting confirmations from various team leaders that the adventurers were in position. She stood with Zumok and other guards looking out at any sign of disturbance.

She got a message from Nadia that Marcus had reached the site of the duel. The duel will start now. Zoey absently nodded to herself. It had begun. Whatever was going to happen, would happen soon. She tensed and looked out to the open area in front of the gate. There was no one and nothing out there. Still, Zoey did not relax.

Zoey waited for some time with bated breath. She did not relax even as the minutes ticked away. Then suddenly she felt it. A wave of magic had passed over Treedos. She looked at Zumos who was also looking concerned. He had felt the wave of magic too.

Zoey paled as she looked at the open area in front of her. It was filled with demons. Hellhounds and an army of other hell spawn covered the entire field as far as her eye could see. But that was not what concerned her. It was the presence of the demon lords that concerned her. Yes, demon lords. Leading the army of demons were five demon lords and they had all come for Treedos.

Anuhur the Invader

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 100,000 / 100,000

Guzuril the Bullheaded

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 102,000 / 102,000

Akenwsu the Trickster

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 92,500 / 92,500

Ann the Deathless

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 150,000 / 150,000

Morri the Battlequeen

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 100,000 / 100,000

All of the demon lords looked like celestials to Zoey from afar. However, the difference was that the demon lords’ skin was various shades of red and instead of a halo, they had horns on their head. Moreover, their wings were black instead of the various bright colours that the celestials had.

Zoey gulped as she saw the army in front of her. She could feel the fear of the guards surrounding her. She heard Captain Zumok saying a prayer. She could understand his sentiments. This was not good. She expected an all scale attack, not five demon lords attacking Treedos.

However, she got many messages at once. It seemed that Treedos was not the only one attacked. Every town and village in Artorios was under attack. And from the messages she was getting from other adventurers, it seemed that each attack on the town was being led by a demon lord while each attack on the village was simply hellhounds led by an elite demon.

“Gork”, she said simply as the trumpets started to blare. The demons charged. The battle for Artorios had begun.

***

Nadia decapitated a hellhound as she recalled her chakram. Her day had started so well. Marcus had gone to fight Harados and the entire town of Galados was on guard as per instruction of Zoey. Nadia had truly believed that Marcus would defeat Harados and their problems would finally be solved. This quest had started to bore her.

Now, it seemed that Zoey had been right and Galados was under attack from an army of demons and a demon lord. Nadia had quickly sent a message to Zoey regarding what was happening in Galados before she started aiding in the defence of the town with other adventurers.

She hoped that help would come on time. She was not sure that there were sufficient guards or adventurers who would take care of the army. And there was the demon lord to contend with.

Belphegore the Sleeping

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 72,500 / 72,500

The demon lord looked like an imp, en enlarged imp and was simply sitting on a throne which was floating over his army. He looked dully over the fight and Nadia felt that the demon lord wanted to be somewhere else rather than here. Somewhere sleeping maybe.

Nassir came up to her and said, “Did Zoey send a reply?”

Nadia checked but she had not gotten any reply from Zoey. Then she looked at the group chat of team leaders and froze. Zoey had formed this chat so that she could send group messages specific to the quest. Nadia had not posted in this group when the attack began and had sent a direct message. The group chat was filled with messages from help.

Nadia paled as she said, “We are not the only ones under attack Nassir. It seems that everyone is talking about an army led by a demon lord invading their location.”

“How is this possible?”

Nadia shrugged and they together attacked the demons that came their way.

“What do we do?” asked Nassir in a concerned voice.

“Nadia looked at Belphegore and said, “We try and kill him.”

“Too much of an army between him and us and he does not seem to be moving.”

“Then we kill the army”, growled Nadia.

Nadia sent a message to all the adventurers present in Galados that help was not coming. The entire landmass of Artorios was under attack. They needed to kill the demon lord.

There was a lot of swearing and questions on the chat. Nadia ignored them. She simply communicated that the messages should be of urgent nature only and to focus on killing the army and the demon lord.

There was silence in the group chat and Nadia felt the mood shift suddenly. Now every adventurer present was fighting ferociously. The demon army was being pushed back. Nadia grinned at Nassir and let out a roar. Nassir joined her and husband and wife charged into the demon horde. It was time to take the fight to the demons.

Nadia lost time when she fought. She realized that her core team was fighting beside her. There was her husband Nassir twirling his spear and launching at the demons. There were arrows being shot around her chakrams downing any demons that approached her. She turned to see the source of arrows and found Charinge and Kinnear. She grinned and resumed attack. Then she stopped a bit as she realized that she had seen Charinge and Kinnear.

“Nassir”, she shouted, “Charinge and Kinnear are here. I am going to talk to them. Help me clear a path.”

Nassir and Nadia jointly made their way to Charinge and Kinnear who were at the back.

Nadia said, “What are you doing here? Why are you not with Marcus and Kyrie?”

“We died”, said Kinnear and Charinge quickly told Nadia what had happened.

Nadia did not like that. She said, “Alright. Nothing we can do now. Come on. We need to kill the demon lord. That would disband these demons.”

Kinnear said, “Only if these damned gorking hellhounds would die. The demon lord does not seem to have much of an army. It is only these gorking hellhounds that are swarming us.”

Nassir said, “We kill them now. Stop complaining. Come on.”

The four of them focused on the attack again. As Nadia attacked, she could see the guards and some of the adventurers falling. She did not know for how long they would survive. However, survive they must, and push back the demon tide, otherwise Galados would fall. She did not have much hope, but she pushed.

Nadia was starting to feel tired. A wayward attack from a hellhound hit her and she fell down. Before she could get up a hellhound was on top of her. She tried to look for Nassir, but she had to put her chakrams up to stop the hellhound from snapping her head off.

A swipe of a paw and her chakrams flew off her hands. She called them back, but she knew it would be too late. She saw the maw of the hellhound closing on her and the fetid breath making her nauseated. She closed her eyes to death, but it did not come. The weight was taken off her. She opened her eyes to see no hellhound.

She stood up and looked around. The entire battlefield was quiet and still. The hellhounds had disappeared, and, in their place, Nadia could see only falling flakes. What the gork had happened?

Nadia could see the surprise on everyone’s face, the guards, the adventurers and even the demons. No one had expected the hellhounds to disappear. If they had disappeared, then Nadia could assume only one thing. She grinned. Marcus had been successful. Harados was dead.

Nadia gave a short laugh and shouted, “Charge.”

That was all it took. The adventurers and guards gave a war cry and started attacking the remaining demons with energy Nadia had not felt before. The loss of hellhounds even gave Nadia a new bout of energy and she also attacked the demons after downing a couple of potions.

That was when Belphegore decided to attack. He waved a hand and an attack of red energy flashed in a straight-line decimating adventurers, guards and demons. The attack was strong, taking away a lot of health of those who got hit by it. Moreover, it created an explosion sending everyone flying away.

Nadia swore as she focused on Belphegore. There were many demons between her and him. She looked at Nassir, Kinnear and Charinge. They nodded. They got the message. They were going for the demon lord.

Slowly and steadily, they started to make their way towards Belphegore. Nadia saw that the other adventurers were also making their way towards the demon lord. Only the guards and some of the adventurers were now focused on killing the demons.

Belphegore was sending lines of red energy in a line at random intervals. The adventurers and the guards had learned how to dodge the attack and mostly demons kept on getting hit with it.

Nadia and her team slowly made their way towards Belphegore. When they were close enough, Nadia nodded towards Charinge. Charinge changed her bow with a staff and cast a spell.

“[Mass Enchant Weapon], Holy”, casted Charinge.

A recent acquisition of Charinge and a very expensive spell. It was a generalized [Mass Enchant Weapon] spell and Charinge had just blessed every ally’s weapon within 10 m with holy damage. Nadia was sure that everyone was going to make good use of it.

Nadia, her team and some of the adventurers charged Belphegore. The demon lord seemed surprised that someone was attacking him. He waved a hand, and a wave of red energy surrounded him, damaging those who attacked him. Ranged attacks still hit him though and the adventurers made use of that.

Nadia had an idea. She shot her chakrams at Belphegore. As the chakrams hit Belphegore, she cast the spell [Whirling Weapon]. She had gotten the idea for getting this spell from Marcus. It was a useful spell, even with chakrams. The chakrams started spinning, embedded in Belphegore. Belphegore screamed but was trapped. The chakrams did their damage and came back. And the bonus, it all counted as one strike even though many attacks had taken place.

Nadia grinned. Belphegore was at the last vestiges of his health. Before he could do anything, the adventurers made a final charge and whetted his health down to zero. Belphegore died with a roar.

With the demon lord dead, there was chaos amongst the remaining demons. The adventurers and the guards gave a cry of triumph and charged the now retreating demons.

Nadia smiled. They had won. Galados was safe. Now, she hoped that the others were fine as well.

***

Kyrie stood, her bow ready at any sign of danger. However, there was no danger. The hellhounds had just disappeared. What had happened. Moments before she and her Water Elemental had been close at being overrun by hellhounds. And now, silence. She could hear the wind blowing through the trees, the stream gurgling behind her and the swishing noise the Water Elemental made as it looked around.

What had happened? Where had all the hellhounds gone? She looked at the Water Elemental as it made some bubbling noises. As it would turn out, Kyrie understood those noises. The Water Elemental was telling her that the danger was gone and she was safe and to dismiss it. It was tired and it told her not to summon her for some time. Kyrie nodded and the Water Elemental disappeared with a splash. Only a puddle of water remained where it once stood.

Kyrie checked the cooldown time for the spell to summon the Water Elemental. It was one day and the clock had already started ticking backwards. She sighed and relaxed her bow. The hellhounds had gone. Does that mean that Marcus had defeated Harados?

She summoned Nalana, her mana wyrm, her mount and flew to the site where Marcus and Harados were fighting. There she found Marcus lying on the ground. She panicked as he did not move when she approached. She dismissed Nalana quickly and took out a healing potion.

Kyrie grabbed Marcus’ shoulders and shook him.

“Mmm. Let me fucking rest for a bit. I am tired”, mumbled Marcus.

Kyrie laughed with relief. Marcus was alright. She put the healing potion back in her inventory.

“What happened?” asked Kyrie.

“Well, Harados and I fought. Then he summoned hellhounds. The hellhounds chased you lot. Then we fought again. I killed him. I won. And I am fucking low on potions.”

“I think the hellhounds disappeared when you killed Harados.”

“Considering how you are alive, I believe so too. How many did you kill?”

Kyrie checked her notifications and blinked. Then she looked at Marcus and looked back at her notifications.

“One hundred and thirty three”, said Kyrie in a small voice.

There was a moment of silence. Then Marcus started to laugh out loud. Kyrie did not understand what he found funny but he was now rolling while laughing.

Kyrie checked her experience points. She had received a total of 79,800 experience points for killing the hellhounds. She had levelled up twice and was now at level 103. She had 4 points to distribute and she put 2 in dexterity and 2 in wisdom.

She checked her status.

Name: Kyrie Shiningstar

Race: Water Nymph

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 3

Age: 83

Current Location: Fontaine

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 103

Experience: 7,800 / 32,200

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 82

Intelligence: 10

Vitality: 50

Agility: 50

Wisdom: 26

Luck: ???

Health: 500

Mana: 256

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Fast Draw - Level 12

Precision - Level 14

Longbow Proficiency - Level 18

Stealth - Level 12

Water Proficiency - Level max

Description: The outcast traveller from Tarados, flowing into Una, taking huge steps now and sweeping demons away is still enjoying herself by bashing other adventurer’s heads. She is the water nymph to watch out for.

Spells known:

[Power Shot] [Fade] [Enchant Weapon: Poison] [Summon Water Elemental] [Detect Magic]

Spells Equipped:

[Power Shot] [Fade] [Enchant Weapon: Poison] [Summon Water Elemental]

Spell Slots: 4

Physical Attack: 543

Magical Attack: 51

Physical Resistance: 238

Magical Resistance: 224

Critical Attack Chance: 45%

Critical Attack Damage: 107%

Status:

None

She looked up to see Marcus looking at her.

“You levelled up?” asked Marcus.

“Obviously”, replied Kyrie, “Twice.”

Marcus nodded. Then he said, “I did too.”

Then he shared his status for Kyrie to see.

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 3

Age: 25

Current Location: Fontaine

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 104

Experience: 24,800 / 33,000

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 42

Intelligence: 55

Vitality: 50

Agility: 40

Wisdom: 40

Luck: ???

Health: 625

Mana: 340

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 10

Well Rested - Level 5

Twinblade Proficiency - Level max

Alcohol Tolerance - Level 3

Stealth - Level 6

Battle Analysis - Level max

Description: The anomaly has now become a better adventurer. With a little effort people may forget he is an anomaly after all.

Spells known:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon] [Force Push] [Detect Magic] [Force Pull] [Trap]

Spells Equipped:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon] [Force Push] [Detect Magic] [Force Pull] [Trap]

Spell Slots: 6

Physical Attack: 262

Magical Attack: 451

Physical Resistance: 474

Magical Resistance: 313

Critical Attack Chance: 45%

Critical Attack Damage: 92%

Status:

[Well Rested]

It seemed that he had leveled up three times.

“That is quite a jump”, remarked Kyrie.

“I just fucking soloed a demon lord and won”, said Marcus, “Of course there is going to be a fucking jump.”

“What now?”

“I don’t know. Considering the notifications, all of Artorios is under attack.”

“So, what do we do?”

“Do you want to help them or do you think they will be alright on their own?”

Kyrie sat down beside Marcus and said softly, “You do not want to fight?”

“I am tired, Kyrie. I think I just want a break.”

Kyrie looked at Marcus. He really looked tired. Kyrie wondered what she should do. She understood Marcus’ reasoning of not helping other adventures fight the demons but was it a good decision? She did not know.

“You know, when I joined you, one of my conditions was that you let me do adventurer versus adventurer to my heart’s desire.”

“Yes”, said Marcus slowly. Kyrie could see the confusion in his eyes.

“You said that you are okay but quests that harm the non-adventurers take precedence.”

“I remember saying something in those lines.”

“Well, you just had your… well not exactly adventurer versus adventurer but a one-on-one fight with the demon lord Harados.”

“Thanks. I had forgotten all about it.”

Kyrie ignored the sarcasm and continued, “It means that you did what I wanted to do and now I would have to do what you wanted to do.”

“What? That does not make sense, Kyrie.”

Kyrie said in a soft voice, “Do you want the deaths of non adventurers on your conscience when you know your presence could have helped, even one or two of them.”

Marcus did not say anything. He got in a sitting position and looked down, frowning. Kyrie did not say anything further but simply waited. She knew Marcus and she knew he would make the right decision.

“You are going to Galados, are you not?” asked Marcus after some time.

Kyrie nodded. Marcus let out a string of expletives which made Kyrie blush. She had never heard such a colourful language from anyone. Well, she had heard Marcus and other people swear but this was simply a bit too much for her.

Marcus looked at her and took a deep breath. Then he said grumpily, “Fine. However, we are not doing anything for a month though.”

Kyrie smiled.

“Come on”, she said, “Demons await.”

“Fucking demons and demon lords”, mumbled Marcus as they both summoned their mounts.

Harados was dead. However, the battle for the landmass was just beginning for them.