Point-of-View: Rion Xester
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"Five casualties in total...that is unfortunate, to say the least," Frowned Erhtaph Ragiu, after hearing about what happened.
It was a couple of hours later, we had used teleport spells to quickly return after Azzy incinerated all those bandits, and the other team returned not long after we did. Misen was recovering in a hospital, losing an arm kinda wore him out, to put it lightly.
Prato was also resting, the little trap dude was emotionally drained by what had happened when his team was ambushed by bandits. Three people in the other team had died, but the survivors had managed to interrogate the bandits that they ran into, before killing them.
"The woman he mentioned, that has me concerned," Remarked Siert warily, "If she's really Belia Lasmodeus, the same being that Kuro heard about when he learnt the history of the world from the Vampire King, then we're in trouble."
Damn, what happened to him...he's like a totally different person, he's not all stuttering and nervy anymore.
"Yes, I am quite concerned about that as well," Agreed Erhtaph with a frown, "However, on the positive side of things, gaining three True Anima users is significant. We shall warn Bronztan of this as well, and take countermeasures to prevent more bandits from slipping through our notice."
"If I may, sir, I believe that all of our strongest Adventurers need to be active now, including Azyl Roake and Persia Gerit, both of whom have been inactive for a while now," Chimed in Lusk, as he pushed up his glasses.
"Yeah, I agree, the S-Ranks need to be primarily handling this problem, along with assistance from the stronger A-Ranks. The rest should all stay out of it," Suggested Rex objectively.
"Considering that we have no idea how many more enemies have Demon powers, I have to agree as well, weaker Adventurers would only get in the way," Added Azzy in agreement.
Aw, man...both of them awakened their True Animas, no fair, I want to awaken mine too. Also, I thought it was supposed to be like, a super rare occurrence...so, what gives, three people in the same day?
"Hm, our main problem is the lack of information...we have no idea where to start looking, we have no real leads...I am open to hearing any suggestions," Said Erhtaph with a sigh.
"What can we do though? We have no idea where the enemy even is, let alone-," Rex began to reply, when suddenly, the air behind Erhtaph shimmered and turned dark and blurry, it kinda looked like a portal...and then, someone walked through it and stepped out.
A woman, with long, light blonde hair, dark blue glittering eyes, black feathered wings and a black halo floating above her head...and big boobies. Wait, this is not time to get distracted, is she...? Erhtaph swiftly leapt out of his seat and got some distance from her with a wary look on his face.
"Hi there! Did you all have fun with the surprises I set in store today? You all did pretty well to survive, I must say!" She greeted us in a cheerful tone.
"Then it was you!?" Snapped Siert, unleashing his True Anima form and forming six water tails from his lower back.
"Yup, guilty as charged- woah!" She exclaimed with a grin, evading as he whipped his tails at her and leapt towards her, swinging his claws at her head.
She ducked underneath his slash and then drove her palm towards his midsection, wind swirling around it as she struck him and sent him flying back and crashing onto the wall.
"What do you want, why are you here!?" Demanded Azzy, as she sprang up and above her, transforming into her True Anima form and blasting swirling black and orange flames straight down at her.
The flames roared down towards her and enveloped her before she could dodge, her screams echoing out, before soon fading away. As the flames and smoke cleared away, to reveal...that she was perfectly fine, surrounded by a protective barrier.
"Hehe, I bet you thought that got me, didn't you? That was a pretty convincing dying scream, wouldn't you agree?" She inquired with a laugh, as she deactivated the barrier, "Anyway, I'm not here to fight, you'd all be massacred if I were! I just thought I'd give you a fair warning..."
She continued talking as Rex entered the fray as well, using his True Anima form, but she barely even looked at him, evading his attacks effortlessly...
"Let's see, what's the date today again...? Ah, right, the 1st of February, right? I'll attack the Rustlands a month from now, on the 1st of March! Oh, and I've set something else in motion for the meantime, but don't worry, I won't spoil the surprise! Make sure to prepare well for my attack, the barrier you've got around this nation isn't bad, not bad at all, but it's far too flimsy to keep me out. To put it simply, this is a declaration of war...no, a declaration of chaos! Well, I think that's all I wanted to say, so...later!"
"You're not getting away!" Snapped Azzy, leaping towards her, right as she formed another dark shimmering ripple portal in the air and walked through it, disappearing through it before Azzy could reach her.
"She got away...," Remarked Rex with a frown.
"That she would show herself to us so brazenly, it likely means that she is confident that we cannot find her...but why would she tell us precisely when she is going to attack? Perhaps it is a lie, and she actually plans to attack sooner?" Mused Erhtaph grimly.
"I don't think that's the case...from what Kuro published, she doesn't seem to have any long-term goals, she just wishes to cause chaos, that was the reason she created the monsters according to him," Pointed out Siert, "At any rate, she is quite powerful, she was unaffected by all of our attacks, while not even taking us seriously."
Yeah, I didn't even get a chance to join in, everyone was moving way too fast...especially Azzy, I can't follow her movements much at all anymore, likely because she already had Karma and two Elemental Magic types strengthening her. That said, Siert and Rex in their True Anima forms are also faster than me, possibly stronger too.
"So, like...what now?" I inquired, looking around at the others...but no one had an answer to that...
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Point-of-View: Fuo Wesroh
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"That went well, huh?" I remarked with a satisfied sigh.
"I suppose so, but...we could have finished this days ago, why take so long?" Inquired Ekai disapprovingly.
"Well, I mean...we were given a week, so we might as well use the full week, right?" I replied with a shrug.
On the 24th of January, we were given a Quest to head to Platinberg, to form an alliance with...the Vampires. Misen's father decided on that after I informed them that the Vampires now serve Kuro. And I was picked for the Quest since I had already gotten acquainted with the Vampires and got on amicable terms with many of them, and Ekai tagged along too.
We got there in no time at all, I'd had my monsters spread out throughout the world so that I'd be able to teleport almost anywhere, so we got to Platinberg within five minutes after the Quest began. I then spoke to Zero, explained the situation, and his response was that they won't directly ally themselves with a human nation, but they wouldn't be our enemies either.
And of course, if Kuro commanded them to help us, they'd do so. Their loyalty wasn't just commanded by the King's Decrees he issued, he'd genuinely earned it when he'd stayed in Platinberg to train before, his sheer power had them bow before him willingly.
And because of that, I decided to tell Zero that Kuro was in a coma...and he agreed that the Vampires will help out if the Rustlands is attacked or something before Kuro wakes up...but then we realized that they can't enter the Rustlands because of the Decrees, so it all become a moot point. Anyway, with that, the Quest was pretty much complete.
But having returned to Platinberg after a few months, I was reminded of how comfortable the rooms in the castle were, so I convinced Ekai that, as a reward for completing the Quest so early, even if we didn't get the desired result, so we should take a couple of days to relax. And that turned into a week. Today was the 1st of February, and Ekai had adamantly insisted that we return.
"I can't believe that I let you talk me into lazing around for a whole week in this place," He sighed in exasperation, "You certainly are more easy-going than you used to be, you were a lot more serious and irritable before."
...what does he mean by irritable? I'll ignore that for now...
"It's not a big deal, we'll be back in an instant after I summon a monster, so we won't be late or anything," I responded with a shrug.
"Even so-...never mind, let's just go. Oh, wait, we should first stop by the Goldlands. Advisor Ragiu asked me to make sure that everything is in order over there, if we have time and finish the Quest early."
"I suppose that isn't a problem, I do have some monsters near there...," I replied, summoning a Werehyena, "Okay, grab hold, this will take us to the savanna area near the Goldlands."
I then undid the summon as he grabbed onto the monster, instantly teleporting us to the savanna.
"It's hot here...how far are we from the Goldlands?" He inquired, wiping away a bead of sweat on his forehead.
"About a kilometer or so," I replied, "Come on, let's go get this over with already."
We hurried along towards the east, reaching the Goldlands before too long...okay, so Ekai had been told to make sure that everything was in order in the Goldlands...and as soon as it came into sight, it was clear that everything was very much NOT in order.
Everyone was in a panic, running around screaming...and above them, dark clouds were hovering over them, each one with two bright red spots next to each other...
It can't be...Demons!? This is bad...really, really bad. How? Why? Even if the Demon Forbidden Zone was broken, that's supposed to be all the way in the wasteland to the south of the Rustlands, and we're a long way to the northwest of the Rustlands...what the hell is going on here!?
"What is this...!?" Ekai remarked with a look of disbelief.
"I think they're Demons...in which case, we can't do a thing about this, we can't touch them in their corporeal forms, we can't even stop them from possessing anyone they want to possess...and killing the people they possess is useless, it won't kill the Demon, they can just possess someone else in response...this is really, really bad..."
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