"What's going on?" Malphas said letting out deep breaths.
The fight between the two demons and the heroes paused. Both Prince-ranked demons were exhausted as well as the heroes who were slowly gaining the upper hand.
"What the fuck?" Malphas muttered feeling the army of demons dying extremely fast.
The dark cloud of demons that covered the sky was gone and the rest of them were being purged at an extremely quick rate, they would most likely all be gone in less than a minute.
Malphas was enraged by this situation, they had done everything they could to outwit the humans, they even tricked a dragon and sealed it. But it simply is never enough, the tophat his wife made him and his fancy tailored suit were completely destroyed, he couldn't go on using mana for much longer, the exhaustion was taking over and the heroes had a healer who could revitalize them every time they were tired or injured.
Malphas had tried to use his trump card 'lightless world', but one of the heroes benefited from the shadows, making them a much deadlier group. Not to mention every time Malphas or Mammon was close to killing one of them, they would suddenly be outwitted by the mage.
'This is truly the most despicable situation...' Malphas thought, in the next few seconds the rest of the demons would be cleaned up thoroughly.
Dawn breathed heavily leaning on Excalibur.
'Is this Rei?' Earlier Dawn's amulet had gone off, signifying Rei was near her and fighting with his unique abilities, but after that, the amulet never glowed or felt warm. It still wasn't glowing, but she couldn't imagine anyone with this kind of power besides Rei.
Soon a figure appeared from the forest, all the demons were dead except the Prince-ranked ones fighting the heroes. The figure was a man wearing a black kimono, with a red haori. His hair was a dark abyss, and he stood tall.
"So you two are the perpetrators of this event... It's been some time Malphas."
"Pale Morning! What? Why are you here!"
"You demons have overstepped your bounds with this stunt. I understand your monarch's current rage and haste, but she should act more appropriately." Pale Morning had a cold emotionless gaze.
The heroes all stood there flabbergasted, they all knew who the man was and was surprised.
Mammon began to growl, his hair stood up and he faced Pale Morning in a position ready to pounce on him.
"Mammon! Stop, don't!" Malphas yelled to his big furry dumb partner.
Mammon charged forward.
Pale Morning unsheathed his blade and cut an arc into the air.
In an instant, Mammon was cut in half, and killed. Just like that a thousand-year-old Prince-ranked demon was killed, in such an anti-climatic way.
"If I wasn't in an avatar, I wouldn't have needed to lift a finger for that barbarian." Pale Morning gloated looking at the body.
Malphas facepalmed and beads of sweat rolled down his face. He looked at Mammon swallowed, then looked at Pale Morning. "You're gonna let me go, right friend?"
"Of course, you demons have done something terrible... But I have already let the world know that I am independent, I wouldn't kill a rival of the past over something so trivial." Pale Morning had a cocky smile.
His expression changed back into his usual cold one and he gazed into the sky, while gazing at the sky he said:
"You kids should leave. He's about to arrive."
"Who?" Silas looked at Pale Morning still enchanted by his swordsmanship, hoping to see him perform magic.
"A terrifying demon."
Right after his words a black figure descended from the sky and a dust cloud spread obscuring everyone's vision.
Everyone became alert, watching the silhouette in the dust cloud raise to its feet. An extremely tall creature with horns. Dawn shivered watching the silhouette in the dust.
The soon cleared revealing Minos standing proud and tall, he was looking down standing right in front of Pale Morning.
"This was not a good idea Pale Morning," Minos said angrily.
"You're only here because I'm an avatar." Pale Morning looked up at Minos returning the angry expression.
"If you actually came out of hiding then we would have sent all of our strongest demons, even you can't hope to defeat us all."
"This won't be an easy fight for you."
Pale Morning moved lightning fast before Minos could react and sent his arm flying with a clean sword slash upwards.
Minos didn't react and simply stared at his missing arm. "I didn't expect you to be this strong in an avatar... You've gotten even stronger."
"Or maybe you've gotten weaker."
"You may be right." Minos stared at the man in front of him and regenerated his arm. "I couldn't hope to ever beat you in a fair match, even with your avatar. So I'll play unfairly." Minos had a sinister smile.
Pale Morning tilted his head his emotionless expression stayed until, the moment Minos raised his axe and it was covered in a purple aura.
"Stop... You're not planning to-" Pale Morning was cut off by Minos mercilessly swinging the axe covered in the purple aura.
Pale Morning grit his teeth and reached his arms out forming shields around the heroes, and even Malphas. And the instant later everything turned white.
***
Minos exhaled looking at the spot Pale Morning was once in, the avatar completely evaporated leaving ashes behind.
'Not bad.' Minos thought while looking around.
Pale Morning had cast a spell to not only defend the heroes but also to send them flying in random directions far from danger. Minos knew the Demon King did not want the heroes dead, but Minos also knew Pale Morning would save them it was a necessary gamble unless he wanted to lose his life.
'I didn't expect him to save Malphas as well.' Minos looked at the spot Malphas was in and laughed a little.
"I will accept your goodwill and return. Next time we meet it will be a fair fight to the death." Minos said looking at the ashes, even if Pale Morning couldn't hear him he didn't care. Right after his words Minos cut through the sky, heading back to report to his king.
***
I let out a few deep breaths and opened my eyes, the blade that sealed me was split but half of it was still in me.
'Good work Altheius.'
I didn't receive a response and was slightly worried, the sword had probably tired herself out.
Gripping the bit of blade still inside of me I let out a groan of pain and pulled it out, right after pulling it out I could feel my Draconic Force circulating and my energy slowly returning.
"Good..." I sat up and leaned against the caves of the giant walls. "How long has it been..." I couldn't tell, even if the battle was still happening. I had no way of knowing.
'Let's hope Althieus didn't take years.'
I sat and meditated to circulate my energy, I decided to sit and wait till Althieus was active and get some information before leaving the cave, and in my condition even if I wanted to I couldn't climb, I also didn't have the energy to summon my wings.
I sat still in the cold cave reviving my strength, I was angry I was careless enough to get stabbed from behind. I was angry I couldn't even make out who was behind the attack, and I was angry seeing the walls of this cave... And not being able to know if my companions lived through this ordeal.
After a few hours, I released my Draconic Force around my body and the hole in my chest began mending itself, Althieus was still not active but I was far too impatient to wait any longer.
'Two ways huh.' I looked left and right, I came in through the right side but the left looked like it also led to an exit because it was curved up.
'These are trivial thoughts.' I released my wings and flew up the left one, the layers of stone slowly became dirt and I arrived at the top. The snow was mostly melted and it only felt slightly chilly, in fact, it felt kind of warm.
"They won?" I smiled and then glanced at a small building that resembled a lighthouse in the distance.
"People?" I extended my Draconic Force toward the wooden tower.
'Someone is inside...'
I began walking towards the strange building with haste, excited to find out about the events that occurred. But I felt slightly anxious hoping Rivena and the people I met in the fort were still alive and walking.