BOOOOM!!!
Explosions and destruction happened within the vicinity as if the end of the world is happening at the moment.
The dark sky was tinged with an orange hue and was plastered with thick smoke, adding to the atmosphere of the apocalyptic scene.
"Vanguard, prepare to attack!"
"... Support team, provide support to area A8, a strong monster has appeared!"
"Help! We need a healing potion…"
"... Take charge! Evacuate the citizens, fast!"
…
Upon arriving outside, Lance's face turned into disbelief, while Francia and Alterick's expressions tightened.
Shit went from 0 to 100 really fast.
The once stable situation was thrown again into hell. The situation turned into a stalemate.
A battle of attrition will now happen from now on.
Thousands of various monsters started flowing out from the distorted holes in the sky. Gazing from a distance, they look like infested cockroaches coming out endlessly from their nests.
A sight that can give any person goosebumps all over their body.
"Holy shit…" Lance shivered at the sight.
Even Francia looks uncomfortable at the scene.
ROOOOOAR!!
SHHHHRAAAA!!
It didn't take long for them to be spotted by the monsters, as they started to swarm the group.
"We need backup!" Alterick unsheathed the sword on his waist, as he also brought out a palm-sized spherical machine that seems to be a communication device.
Francia did the same, she brought out an earpiece, and a mini magic circle appeared on her ear.
The witch then summoned a wand, casting myriad AOE attack spells.
They did all of this while moving straight ahead of the horde of monsters swarming at them.
Lance, who is at the back, held tightly on Francia's waist. He didn't even have time to appreciate the witch's curves, as the situation was too chaotic and they were moving at a pretty fast speed.
The broom that they were riding did some flips and tight turns, with a rise and fall that can beat any roller coaster thrill in the world.
Lance's face turned green, he wanted to vomit…
Francia who just finished drinking a blue liquid from a vial sensed the grip of the student, loosen.
Glancing at Lance, the witch took out a white pill.
"Eat this, this will help lessen your nausea."
The student immediately took the pill.
He can't be picky, he definitely doesn't want to be seen puking at the back of someone who saved his friend, especially in front of a beautiful lady.
The pill immediately took effect, lessening his nauseous state.
The witch nodded, while she continued burning the monsters into ashes with her fire spells.
"This is Rogue Hero, Alterick Hanson, we request reinforcements and back-ups… any will do, monsters have infested the home planet! Send them ASAP!" The hero basically yelled at the communication line, while bright light radiated from his sword.
With each swing, an arc of bright light left his sword, killing hundreds of these grotesque monsters.
"Grave of Swords." Alterick chanted, while a golden magic circle went through his sword, soon, a thousand swords identical to the one he was wielding appeared.
With the falling gesture of his hand, numerous swords hovering in the air rained down on the hordes of monsters!
SHRRRAA–!!
ROOOOAR–!
In an instant, the area around them was cleared.
The monsters were turned into porcupines.
"... Bzzz… We can't, Sir Hanson… we're also being invaded here! The… last of the reinforcements were dispatched!"
"Where is the king?" Alterick felt annoyed with the situation, these monsters were just too goddamn numerous!
'How can there be this many? Every area is being invaded by these pests… with this amount, they must number at least a billion. The hero himself shuddered at the possible amount of these monsters.
Even the most populated species, which are the demons, also number in billions, but that is the whole population of the demons, and not all can be dispatched for battle, as there are demons who are not suited for one.
"....The King… bzzz… is destroying the portals along with the… Queen of the Witch… He is busy holding off the monsters!"
"What!?" The hero felt surprised by the revelation.
Their King… The Hero King, Arthur Pendragon is one of the strongest heroes in existence.
An individual blessed by magic, loved by spirits, and favored by gods.
The Hero King is a true prodigy, it is said that at the mere age of 16, he once slayed an evil god at the wrath of the death of his sister…
With his divine sword, Excalibur. He has vanquished millions of enemies, many are ancient powerful beings who have once threatened the extinction of mankind.
Thus, he has also earned another title: 'Guardian of the Humans'.
A being who guides and protects humans. The first hero, who is the symbol and model of pure heroism.
It is really surprising that the broken being who is their king is being held back by these monsters.
Despite the shock, Alterick's body kept moving, with each strike, hundreds of monsters fell.
It is a good thing that most of these monsters are weak… at least for a human who is a warrior in the mystical world.
"... How many monsters are you dealing with on your side?" Alterick asked, preparing himself for a shocking answer.
"... Bzzz… about 50.5 million!"
"..." Alterick felt like his ears had gone old.
Hmm… maybe I'm really old? I'm probably deaf.
I should hire a healing witch, or probably ask old Francia for a healing potion.
Alterick cleaned his ear, asking again:
"I'm sorry, I must have misheard it due to the static noise. Can you repeat that again?"
"... It has been estimated that there are almost 50.5 million of those monsters, Sir Hanson!"
Yep, he's not deaf, it's really 50.5 million! How are there so many monsters in one place!?
What the hell, how the fuck is that possible!?
He knew he should prepare for a numerous amount of these monsters, thousands were still a bit acceptable, almost a million are too many, but half a hundred million?
"..." Seeing that the hero's movement slowed, one of the monsters that looked like an alien octopus tried to take advantage of the situation.
But before one of its tentacles was even able to reach the hero, Alterick suddenly disappeared from his place.
The octopus was about to respond, however…
A gust of wind immediately passed by, and after a few seconds passed, the octopus started falling apart into countless pieces directly turning into takoyaki bits.
The hero who is now at the back of the once 'alive' octopus, swings his sword causing black blood to splatter on the ground, continuing his killing spree.
"... I see, if ever there are available reinforcements send them immediately to the US!" Alterick ordered still a bit numb while chanting another AOE attack.
"... Bzzz… Understood, Sir Hanson!" The sound of fighting and chaos can also be heard on the heroes' side. It can be deduced that the situation over there is not much better than on Earth, in fact, it might even be worse.
'What now…?' Alterick felt his head hurt from all the thinking.
Alterick didn't place his hope that the reinforcements on his side would come any time soon.
Invasion is happening all around, and the only thing you can rely on is yourself, this teaching has been engraved as one of the sayings within their faction.
The only thing that you can rely on the most is yourself.
"Yes… got it."
Hearing the witch's voice, Alterick looked at her with some expectation in his eyes.
"The place in our faction has been secured, the numbers aren't concentrated in the base, as they were being lured by the vanguard of our faction." Francia nodded, while Alterick felt a bit shocked.
"What? Is the Witching Well being invaded by those monsters too?"
"Yes."
"Then how–"
"Magic." Francia replied a bit proudly as if the word explained itself.
In fact, it did; magic is the mainstream energy for most beings, it is very diverse when it comes to effects and usage, and the witches who are maniacs in this field are the winners when it comes to its application.
"The magisters who are proficient in magic circuits were able to put up a whole barrier covering the whole area."
"Apparently, with enough time that they were lured by the vanguards, they were able to set up a barrier that's enough to last for a month." Francia explained the situation that was told to her.
BOOOOOOMM!!
Without even looking back, she chantlessly summoned a fireball from her wand and that fireball exploded in the distance.
"I see… well then, I'll start the evacuation of the remaining citizens." Alterick nodded in understanding.
"Yes–" Francia was about to reply.
HOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU!!!
When a loud wail suddenly echoed on the battlefield; a heavy aura fell on everyone!
From the portal came a huge balloon… no. A huge whale that's almost 5 km big!
The huge monster struggled to get out of the distorted hole in the sky as if it was stuck.
The flying monsters who were near the huge whale were immediately turned into meat pastes due to the erratic movement of the huge monster.
As if the situation wasn't worse enough…
ROOOOAAAR!!!
SHRRRAAAAA!!!
More monsters started flooding out from those distorted holes!
At this point, the ground was littered with small hills of corpses, most are from the unknown monsters.
The continuous flow of these monsters that came from those hellholes, make it look like a sea of insects came flooding the whole city.
"... Fucking hell… we're doomed." Lance felt despair seeing the amount of these monsters spawning.
It truly felt endless.
No matter how strong you are, when faced with an endless amount of enemies, sooner or later you will wear yourself out, and these effects came apparent sooner than expected.
Witches have started running out of mana, while warriors from the hero factions have their movements slowed down.
It can be seen from their faces, that everyone is starting to get tired.
Like a ripple effect, the citizens who saw this started to panic again. They were fastly losing their morale.
The amount that these monsters spawn is just despair-inducing. The tide of the battle was instantly tilted to one side.
…
"Goddamn…" James mumbled in terror, seeing the sea of monsters causing havoc.
"C-captain, what do… w-we do now?" A skinny man dressed in leather attire almost stumbled backward at the horrific scene before them.
"This might be the end of the world…" A girl with a ponytail holding a staff felt unwilling at the possibility that this might be her last day.
HOOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!
The huge whale in the sky who seemed to be stuck in the hole it came through, gives off a heavy aura.
An aura that is despairing enough for most of them.
The group was the rescue team who sent Leona, Daniel, and Cindy to the evacuation area.
They have just returned to save another batch of the refugees, when they were caught off-guard by the sudden waves of these monsters.
At this point, every area is infested with these abominations.
There are so many that the sky and ground are filled with these creatures wherever you look.
"We have no say in this… even at despairing times, we must stand on our feet."
"... Are there other citizens that need to be transported?" James clenched his fist, determination can be felt from his tone.
"Only some stubborn citizens and those unwilling to part with their precious relatives are left behind in this area." The girl with the ponytail holding a staff walked forward with a paper in her hand.
"Hurry up, guys! We need to evacuate too, has anyone come up with an escape plan yet, captain?" A short girl with a twin-tail wearing a short leather denim jacket asked a bit flustered by the sudden increase of the enemies.
Shooooot!!
In her hand is a longbow that's as big as her, and with each arrow…
Spliiit!
It splits into hundreds of arrows that turn the flying monsters who came towards them into a beehive.
'Would we be standing here if there is one right now?' The skinny man who's fearfully sweating, internally retorted.
Despite looking weak, this skinny-looking man is a proficient ki user.
"Fight." With a hand gesture, a red energy covered his hand while red cords that are only visible to a ki user, connected to the limbs of an ape monster that was approaching them.
SMAASSSH!!
Soon, that ape monster started attacking its own kind!
"No, Mara. These things are everywhere, if we move blindly we will only attract more monsters, and that's something more than we can chew…" James replied, decapitating three monsters with his western sword.
"Then, what should we do!? We're gonna die here if we don't do anything!" The short ponytailed girl named Mara was about to go nuts.
But the skinny-looking man who was scared shitless a while ago, felt like he had enough.
"Can you please shut up, shorty!? There's no plan to be made here! These things are goddamn everywhere and they're still not done spawning from those hellholes!"
"F-face it! We will all die regardless of what we do, this is the last doomsday for all living beings! Not even the gods can help us!" The skinny man is about to break down, he even lost control of the ape… not like he cared though.
"Ian–"
HOOOOOUUUUUU!!!
James was about to calm the skinny man called Ian but was interrupted by a loud wail.
Attracted by the noise, all the humans who were still trying to survive, looked at the huge monster in the sky.
The huge whale has finally squeezed through the hole!
FUUUUSSSHHHH~
The heavy aura immediately got denser, and most of them felt it was hard to breathe.
The refugees who were left and the vanguards who are tired from fighting, all felt despair just from the dense aura.
"W-we're doomed…" The skinny man felt helpless, tears welling up from his eyes.
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!
Suddenly, a big pillar of golden light fell from the sky!
The huge whale was swallowed by the golden light!
Everyone on the battlefield looked at this pillar of light as if hypnotized by it.
All the humans who saw the light looked like they found hope from the clutch of death they were in right now.
After the disappearance of the light, the huge whale that covered the sky vanished as if it didn't exist in the first place!
"Thou shall vanquish the evil from this land, the God shall provide and save the lambs from their despair! 'Judgement Day!" A voice full of authority shortly echoed.
WIIIEEEENNG!!
Followed by the call, the dark sky which was tinted by an orange hue, was suddenly replaced by a pure golden color, as if paradise and judgment had descended upon earth.
ROOOOAARR–
Numerous smaller pillars of light showered the whole area.
The monsters were instantly obliterated upon close contact with the golden light.
Fifty minutes later, the judgment ended.
No dregs of the monsters were left, not even ashes…
The once-infested land with almost hundreds of thousands of those monsters was cleared within a few minutes.
While the monsters who were endlessly spawning from the distorted holes were immediately disintegrated by the pillar of lights that fell on them before they were even able to take a step.
…
""Sigh…"" Alterick and Francia both let out a visible sigh.
It was remarkable for an elite like them to feel nervous in a situation. It has been decades since they felt this kind of tension.
It felt like an extreme rollercoaster, going from 0 to 100 and it then directly went to 1000 when that balloon whale appeared.
'That whale is really strong…' Alterick felt like he would have to be a bit serious for him to take down that huge monster.
And that's saying a lot about the strength of the opponent…considering he is an elite from the Heroes' Hall.
The whale monster has huge energy to spend, while its skin might be a bit tough to penetrate. But regardless, it shouldn't be much to take it down, at least for Alterick.
Power isn't all about energy and talent. Skills, techniques, mastery, weapons, experiences, etc. The overall sum of these aspects is what makes one truly strong.
The whale might be 'powerful' when it comes to energy but it severely lacks other aspects such as techniques and experience, not to mention that it only acts on its instincts.
Thus, he evaluated it should just take him at least 30% of his full power, to take that thing down.
"We need to go." Francia reminded them. Lance, on the other hand, stopped thinking since before.
Too much shit is happening that even for an otaku genius like him to process the events all at once is impossible.
If Francia and Alterick, who are experienced and are deemed as experts, felt that what happened was an extreme rollercoaster, then Lance on the other hand felt like he just rode a rocketship without any spacesuit.
Clang!.. Clang!
Hearing the sound of a bell, the trio and the people who have survived the hellish war, looked up at the sky.
A soft golden light fell, following the descent of the hundreds of winged beings dressed in holy battle armor.
"The angel race…" Francia muttered under her breath but was clearly heard by Alterick and Lance.
"Hero, you can leave this to us. Do what you must do." A male dressed in priestly clothing followed by a group who are dressed uniformly in Christian robes, walked towards them.
"Thank you for the assistance." Alterick casually thanked the priestly man while he bowed a little.
The priestly man who looks to be in his late 20s, smiled gently as he looked at Rion who was sleeping throughout the whole event without any care in this world.
"That man is…?" Sensing the gaze of the pope, Alterick made a quick response:
"A friend of my friend."
"..." Lance nodded a bit stiffly, sensing the gaze of the priestly man fell on him.
"No need to be nervous around me… I'm just a mere messenger of my God after all…" The pope chuckled a bit, but it can be seen that a hint of displeasure glinted in Francia's eyes, despite having a neutral expression.
"Mortal, leave this to us." An angel with four white wings landed near the group.
"Damn… an angel." Lance mumbled.
"Well then… we'll be going ahead." Francia wasted no time talking to them.
Alterick then asked a warrior nearby to accompany them as he passed Rion to the warrior.
A little cold, she went ahead along with Lance and the unconscious Rion.
She left without any gratitude in her action and tone, and clearly, the group dressed in Christian robes were dissatisfied with it but didn't say anything, despite the sour look on their faces.
"Hahaha… I apologize on behalf of her, you do know the past of the church and the witches before…" Alterick laughed awkwardly, walking towards the pope and the angel.
"It's fine, it's fine… yes, we do know it was on our side's fault… Deep wounds leave scars." The pope waved his hands, as he kindly replied, while the angel, who was dressed in the holy battle armor, just looked in the direction of where the witch left.
"Sir Hanson! The rescue team has arrived!" A man dressed in adventurer's clothes ran and saluted the hero before him.
"Well then, I'll be talking with the group first, excuse me, gentlemen." The hero excused himself, while the angel and the pope nodded, as they went on with their tasks.
…
"James, have you all evacuated the refugees that I asked you specifically?" Alterick was talking about Daniel, Leona, and Cindy.
"Yes, we have, Sir Hanson!" James replied, a bit stiff.
"Hahaha~, no need to be stiff around me. Just call me Alterick or Rick." Alterick casually laughed, while James and the rescue group felt a bit helpless.
"How can we do that, sir… you're the no. 1 adventurer out of all the adventurers…" James replied a bit dryly, while the others nodded.
"Not to mention he's part of the elite heroes in the Heroes' Hall…" Ian muttered too but was clearly heard by all.
"Now, now, stop singing praises. Tell me first what happened." Alterick responded, the group then reported what transpired.
"Actually, I recently received the news about the relocation of the evacuation area to the Witch's base. The monsters were lured to a different dimension created by the Witch Queen, along with the Hero King."
"... Tell me in detail, Kristen." The hero was curious about what happened on the witch's and heroes' side of things.
The pony-tailed girl who held a staff, named Kristen nodded, continuing her report:
"One of my friends, who is in the hero faction, told me that the Hero King and the Queen of Witch planned to redirect all the monsters that have spawned near the holes that they came from."
"With the help of the Witch Queen and her people, they created a separate dimension that contained those monsters along with those holes that they came from."
"The Hero King and the other elite heroes who are left, volunteered to be the vanguard of wiping out the monsters inside the separate dimension until the timer runs out."
"Before the operation started, the Queen of Witch ordered those who are left at the witch faction to activate the dimension barrier in the Witching Well."
"King Arthur, then commanded that the refugees be relocated at the witch's base, as the concentration of the monster is significantly less, while the monsters at the hero's faction nearly tripled." Kristen ended her report, as she stepped back.
'So that's why the monsters almost numbered half a billion.' Alterick felt relief, it turns out that they have purposely lured the monsters into their base.
As a hero, he knew that the heroes' base, Guardian Stronghold, is built for the apocalyptic phenomena, which is rather suited for the monsters to be lured there.
"I see… Well then, it's about time we go to the Witching Well too." The hero invited the rescue group, which the group immediately accepted.
Alterick nodded, seeing the angels and the Vatican take over, while the adventurers, warriors, and witches took a rest.
They are much more suited to this job, as they can provide a sense of calmness, and peace in this chaos as a 'positive' being.
Soon, Alterick and the rescue group took off, following behind Francia and the group to the witch's base.
…