What do I hate about this merged world, you ask? That is…
…The other world has a demon general, perhaps many, while our original world did not have any.
******
…
Marco and his party are surrounded by dozens of monsters. "Haah…" Marco whined. "I was hoping NOT to meet that thing. Turned out this isn't my lucky day, huh?"
"Really, now, Marco?" Scias grunted. "Heh, I'm just playing for a fool just now,"
The moth monster's chirping sound suddenly transformed into an audible language. Its voice sounded shrill and buzzing, but it is more than enough for simple humans to understand words coming from it.
"…y…ou… are lucky, humans."
"It… it talked?!" said Marco in surprise. "T-That monster… can talk…?" Aily trembled in her speaking. Scias' eyes sharped more in alert.
"Don't address me so lightly, humans. I am not the same as these mindless creatures."
"After what happened just now… you're the entomancer, right?" Marco asked. His stance appeared vigilant.
"Ah… that's true," said the mouth-less moth. "Why did you attack this kingdom?" Aily stepped out of her fear and asked. "Did the empire sent you?!"
"Empire? Oh… 'that' empire, eh? The self-proclaiming emperor and took control over these lands, is that what you meant?" The moth said. "I am no creature to be controlled by those otherworldly beings…"
"Then who sent you here?! The demon lord?!" Aily continued asking.
The moth monster got pissed by Aily's relentless question, "Ah, you're so noisy, human. Why don't you just die?" the moth monster raises its head into the sky.
*ZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGG*
Three hornets responded. They raced and aimed for her head. Aily plummeted herself backwards behind her two friends. Scias and Marco make a quick retaliation and break their charge. The third hornet, however, wasn't torn apart like the other two. It blocked Marco's short sword from piercing through it. "W-What the?"
"Bwahahaha, shocked?" the moth monster laughed evilly. "Ever thought of a monster that has self-awareness?" the moth monster asked. "No matter what attacks you land on it, it'll respond to defend and try to survive."
"Step aside, Marco!" Scias yelled. Marco hopped sideways as Scias attacks again.
"Sword Art – Shining Blade!" *SLAASH*
The hornet monster got cut in half in the blinding slash of Scias' sword swing, instantly killing it. The moth commentates, "Indeed, there's nothing it can do when it faced with skills such as yours…
…and it'll die without even realizing what happened to itself. But skills aren't what made it die. It is a mortal's will that made it happen."
"Heh, because we killed your children, now you're saying nonsenses, huh?" Scias said seriously. "Don't get the wrong idea, human… your will to protect your fellow allies are greater than these mindless creatures, that's what made you won against it.
…hey, human." The creature called Scias. "You… don't want to lose them, right…?" it asked threateningly.
"Krkh!" Scias' eyes shuddered. "Heh, so it is true."
"Enough of this, you've gone too far!" Marco shouted.
"Don't be so heated, human. Know your situation, too. We've got you surrounded for the meat grinder. But before I kill you humans, as a parting prize, I will introduce myself:
I am Mothrui. I am one of the five demon generals."
Aily's eyes turned hazily in fear. "N-No wonder…" she said in perspiration. "…the size of attack is too much… no wonder my sister mentioned a possibility for an entomancer… I finally remembered something… one of the five demon generals in our world: Mothrui!"
…
..
.
"I see you're from our original world as well. Well, that alone doesn't change my intention to kill you and your fellow humans. My skill… is insect manipulator, or for short: an entomancer. But lately I've developed capability to manipulate monsters aside simply insects.
That's why… as long as monsters exist in this world—no, merged world… I am utterly invincible.
Mothrui raises its head once again. It releases a shrilling screech once more, but this time louder.
*ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNGG*
Within seconds, all monsters around the lone party charged. Aily panicked and casts random wind magic spells to any visible monster she can find. "Die! Die, you monsters!" multiple wind slashes unleashed, but most of them were ineffective.
"Calm down, Aily!" Marco shouted. "There's so many of them, M-Marco! I'm… I'm scared…"
Eight to ten hornets charged, Scias quickly jumps in and casts his elemental spell:
"Firewall!"
A ring of fire blows out from the ground, creating a big wall of fire within a small radius which enlarges slowly, killing any weak monsters trying to pass it. "We're outnumbered, Marco," Scias stated seriously while maintaining the wall of fire. "Too heavily outnumbered, to be precise…"
"But if we let it roam free, it'll kill more people!" Marco argued.
"MARCO! Aily said it, didn't she? A 'demon general'… such thing never existed in our world. If that moth creature c-controls these monsters… pray only that we could survive. We must back off for now…"
"S-Scias…" Marco thought about it for a moment. Is there even a chance for them to get away? Surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of monsters, their chance to escape… is almost zero. "Can we even run?" he thought solely in his mind.
"Marco…"
"I still have a lot of mana energy in me."
"Marco…!"
"If there's no chance to run… then I'll—
"MARCO!"
Aily's repeated calls finally got his attention. Marco looked at her closely, "Marco… I… I might be scared… but… if I couldn't see those monsters within this wall of fire, then I can hinder my fear!" she stated while standing back up.
"Aily…"
Aily grabbed her scepter on the ground, "Scias, we can't run! We're surrounded!" she said. "There's no other choice than that! If we don't run now, we all die!" Scias replied loudly.
"No! There's still hope! Scias, let's combine our elements!" she persuaded. Aily then puts her scepter diagonally in front of her. The tip of her scepter is lighting up in green color, representing the wind element. "Aily… don't say you're going to use 'that'!"
"Yeah… I just pray that it'll work… no… it HAS to work!"
"Grgr… fine, I'll take it as a steppingstone for our escape," said Scias gruntingly. He prefers to run away from battles he knew he couldn't win. For some reason, situations like this will remind him of something. It triggered his emotions.
Aily starts chanting, soon, green magic circle appeared right beneath her:
"O' wind of the world, hear my call. Conceal me with thy soothing warmth air from evil beings. Protect those who are dearly to mine life, either near or far. Gather in circle, O' wind of the world, beneath the tip of my catalyst, and destroy my adversaries!
—Ánemos próosis !"
Aily slams the tip of her scepter into the ground. The magic circle disintegrates and blasts off high pressure wind around her. The wind didn't affect Marco or Scias. It continues on discharging into greater radius, thus finally gets combusted by Scias' fire wall before jetting off into monsters surrounding it. Buildings turned up in flames and many parts of the road are decorated with fire.
The wind mixed with hot fire, managed to kill hundreds of monsters in one radius blast. Mothrui, however, managed to withstand the fire with minimal damages. Aily used a lot of mana energy for that one magic spell. It was a level 3 wind magic, solely made by her, after all.
…
..
.
As the fire wind fades, Marco and his friends realized that Mothrui is still standing despite the burn damage it received. Mothrui's antennas were burnt, rendering it useless. "That moth demon… without its antennas, it shouldn't be able to call anymore monsters to its side."
Mothrui flaps its wings. It raised its head seconds later. "You surprised me, human… I never thought you'd blast the fire with your wind…
…but do tell me, why those two didn't get affected by it?"
…not answering, I see. Well, it doesn't matter, though…" Mothrui suddenly makes an eerie sound with wobbling motion in its entire body before finally stiffening. It flapped its wings once again, this time its wings shined in strange motifs.
…suddenly, a louder and much more deafening screech is unleashed into the silent air.
*ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRNGGG*
"HUH?!"
"GAACK!"
"Grrr…!"
The three reflectively covered their ears. But even so, they were seconds late into covering their ears—thus didn't help much.
Aily's shoulder was patted, she looked her side and saw Marco saying something but she couldn't tell what he said. Her eyes turned hazy again. The same said for Scias, who got dizzy after the shattering screech. Marco then pointed his arm toward the back of the road. She tried to scream, but even her voice was unheard by herself. She touched her ears, and realized that both of her ears are bleeding. She looked into Marco's and Scias', too. They share the same fate as she does.
Their eardrums ruptured.
Scias drew his sword and quickly slashed an incoming monster. Marco forcefully grabbed Aily and took her to the opposite direction. Marco watched his friend's eyes, he saw nothing but bland and flatness in her eyes. He gashed his teeth and rushed into running away while carrying Aily with him, soon, joined by Scias on his tail.
"Scias… Aily is…" said Marco while keeping up the pace of his steps. Scias' eyes shuddered. He fears the worst might've happened. "Her hands are still warm, she is still breathing, but her body is numb and her eyes are dead!" said Marco.
Aily can only think in her numbness, "Ah… I failed again, didn't I? I made everyone worried…" she thought. Her vision is all hazy and cloudy. Her ears cannot hear anything. Her muscles aren't powerful to lift her limbs. It's like her soul trapped in her own body.
"I failed to remember one vital thing…" she thought again. "Mothrui… Mothrui's source of entomancer ability… came from its wings. I just realized that its wings can… paralyze people. Whereas I accidentally looked into its wings for a tad too long…"
Behind them, a rampaging force of monsters chases them. Marco casted Thunder Spike many times to shake them off their arses. Mothrui chased after them as well, it flies in the skies, watching closely to where the running humans were heading.
"Please, stay alive, Aily! Please!" say Marco with high hopes. "Please…!"
—Aily WILL Stay Alive—
"Huh?!" Marco and Scias got shocked over a familiar voice nearby.
—Because she is MY sister!—
Suddenly, a large army appeared out of nowhere. They were using invisible cloak spell that belonged to no other than Captain Drugo Alabasta!
"Aim! FIRE!"
*DAR! DAR! DAR! DAR! DAR!*
Five cannons were fired at the monsters followed by gunner lines. It's super effective!
"What in the world…?" Marco and Scias didn't get the situation. "Marco! Scias! Aily!"
Marco and Scias recognized the voice. "Ninaaaa!"
Nina reflectively ran towards them and hugged them all warmly, her tears ran down. "I'm sooo glad you guys are alive… I'm so glad…" The party reunited once again, although Aily being disabled.
Behind him stand his men in white and blue-ish uniform remarking the symbol of Areda military colors. "It seems that we alone won't do the job, so I thought bringing along some 'friends' would do us good, eh?" said Drugo smugly. "Not only that…" Drugo pointed his finger to the back.
Behind them, a group of knights appeared from invisibility.
They are the Naprean Vanguards!