As they were moving, the carriage was in complete silence. Jay kept staring out the window of the carriage as it was in motion. He knew he was on his own from now on. Just like how the others viewed him, King Aether also viewed him the same.
Even with all the abilities he had, he still had to master them all by himself and learn how to use them in battles. He knew it wouldn't be easy. *I'll surely survive no matter what,* Jay thought with determination.
Suddenly, a shout was heard as one of the guards' hearts got pierced by some kind of dark matter. "What is that?" the other guard thought with a puzzled expression. A whistling sound woke him from his stupor. Just as he stared in the direction of the sound, a terrified expression was etched on his face as a siege of arrows covered with dark matter rained down on the carriage.
As the arrows moved towards the carriage, King Aether suddenly opened his eyes. His dark red aura gushed out from his body, bringing a feeling of total suppression. As he gazed at the arrows moving towards the carriage at an incredible speed, he slowly raised two of his fingers coated with a dark aura almost resembling sword ki and slightly swung them.
The entire siege of arrows was cut into bits and fell to the ground. Then he calmly walked out of the carriage with his hands behind his back, as Princess Ember and Jay, with very shocked expressions, followed behind.
Jay thought about the scene that had just happened. What was that? Jay thought to himself. It felt like the entire carriage suddenly felt like a sharp sword.
Then Jay keenly stared at King Aether. Should I check his abilities? Jay thought. Maybe later, after we've all settled down. As he shifted his attention to what was before them,
what he saw surprised him, a horned monster with a human figure was standing in front of them, staring at King Aether. But that wasn't the only thing that had Jay looking shocked. It was the hundreds of horned demons behind it, some holding arrows, some gigantic spears, some holding big wooden clubs, and many more.
Jay maintained a calm expression, but he was inwardly shocked. What are those? Are these the demons? Jay thought to himself. He then directly stared at King Aether, who was looking at the whole demon army with a calm gaze. Even Princess Ember wasn't phased at all by this; she just stood there with a determined expression.
Looks like she totally believes in her father's ability, Jay thought. Then he focused on the demon leading the army.
"[Skill (God's Eye) activated]"
Name: Drakthor
Race: Demon
Title: Demon General (Clone)
Age: 10 Years
Blessing: Dark Blessing of Nyxoth (Innate) (Weakened)
Stats:
- Strength: 500 (Weakened)
- Dexterity: 350 (Weakened)
- Constitution: 400 (Weakened)
- Intelligence: 250 (Weakened)
- Wisdom: 200 (Weakened)
- Charisma: Nil
Skills:
1. Shadow Strike: Strikes an enemy with a blade of shadows, dealing 1.5x Strength as physical damage. (Weakened) (Can be copied)
2. Dark Veil: Shrouds the caster in a veil of darkness, increasing speed and dexterity while allowing quick evasion for a short period of time. (Weakened) (Can be copied)
3. Nightmare Grasp: Channels dark energy that pulls the enemy close to him, putting the enemy in a stunned state to deal heavy damage. (Weakened) (Can be copied)
Jay stared curiously at the demon general, checking out all his skills. So it's a clone, Jay thought to himself. No wonder his status board looks too weak for a demon general. As he pondered, the demon spoke.
"We are here for the hero. If you give him to us, we will let you pass in peace. If not, we will not show mercy."
As he said that, the demons at his back grew restless, saliva dripping from their mouths as they looked at Jay and the rest of them as their next meal. The demon general Drakthor waited for a response from King Aether.
Jay looked at the demon general and thought, So they came here for me. Sigh, looks like the information I've gotten from that maid in the castle was accurate. The demon kings do need the heroes to grow their strength, so they came to attack the weakest of the race knowing they wouldn't be able to retaliate.
A well-thought-out plan. Then he looked at King Aether, who just looked at the demon with a calm gaze and spoke in a calm tone. But behind that seemingly calm tone, there was seething anger.
"You came to ambush us, kill one of my guards, shoot a barrage of arrows on our carriage, and now you are talking about showing us mercy?" As he said that, Jay noticed King Aether's aura started rising increasingly, and a sense of suppression filled the air. "You will soon know the consequences of angering me." He drew his big sword from his back as his aura covered his sword. The demon general Drakthor looked at him with a wary look.
"So you've chosen to fight. Today you will meet your end," as the demon behind him started riling themselves up.
Jay also got ready as he stared at Princess Ember, wondering if she would be okay. He saw her looking calm, as if those demons wouldn't even be able to touch her. As the demons started moving, King Aether suddenly performed a simple horizontal swing with both hands.
His sword seemed to cut through space itself. As Jay looked away from King Aether and at the place the demons once stood, he found himself in utter disbelief. The entire forest domain was obliterated; not even a speck of dust remained.
He stared back at King Aether in shock. *What concept is this? How is this even possible for a race that was thought to be so weak? Then King Aether spoke as he coldly returned his sword to his back.
"Carry the dead into the back of the carriage and let's go." As he said that, he walked back to the carriage as Princess Ember and Jay, with seemingly dumbfounded looks, went back to the carriage.
The remaining guard simply did as he was told with a cold expression and went to the carriage and started moving. In the carriage, Jay was still processing what he had just seen. He couldn't still understand how a whole army of demons could seemingly be obliterated from the surface of the earth just like that.
He stared at King Aether and thought, This man really hid his strength well, almost fooled me. At least there is one thing he's sure of, and that is he will have someone to protect him during his early development in this seemingly dangerous world.
As the carriage moved at a faster speed than before to avoid any other ambush awaiting them, they quickly reached their destination. Jay stared at the big gate at the entrance of the kingdom. So this is Vongard, the kingdom of monsters, Jay thought to himself.
The bodyguard stopped the carriage and went to meet the other two guards guarding the gate. They communicated a little bit until the two guards both turned to the carriage and went on one knee, bowing their heads, showing respect to their king until he responded, "Arise."
As they stood up and opened the gate for them, the guard drove the carriage in. As they entered the kingdom, Jay started looking around, trying to gauge what the kingdom was like. What he saw baffled him. Instead of a rundown place filled with barbaric monsters like he thought or what he was told, what he saw was completely different.
He saw a big and beautiful kingdom with monsters dressed moderately like humans, with order and cleanliness everywhere. There was even public hygiene. It looked even better than the human kingdom. Even though it was not as advanced as the human kingdom, it was still almost to that level. It's just that they don't know how to properly use their raw materials.
Since they have no magic, magical appliances couldn't be created to help with daily life chores, and weapons were made with no enchantments. That's why they were still a little bit behind the other kingdoms. He thought, Why don't they buy from the Dwarves? Then he simply answered his own question, Who would sell anything to a race that they think is barbaric and doesn't even have the literacy to value money? Sigh,
I think none of the three kingdoms or heroes ever take their time to visit the monster race. Well, since they are known as the cursed race, I am not really that surprised.
As Jay was thinking about all this, the carriage reached the castle. King Aether came out of the carriage, then he spoke to the guard, "Go and bury the deceased and give some resources to his family as compensation. Tell them I will come and see them myself.
" The guard bowed his head and went to do what he was told as King Aether went into the castle, Princess Ember and Jay followed behind. As they entered, Princess Ember called out two maids who came immediately to her. They were both cute;
one was a beautiful orc lady, while the other was a goblin lady who was also a beauty. She looked no different from a human, Jay thought. Only her pointy ears and green skin showed that she was not. As the two female maids took him to his room, they bowed their heads and went back to what they were doing. Jay entered his room, which was neatly done and had a western kind of look.
Most of the things here were hand crafted from animals remains, and those animals even looked high-tier. Even his clothes were crafted from animals remains. As he tried it on, it looked like it fit well and was to his liking. Then he lay on the bed pondering on everything that happened today as he stared at the ceiling , his eyes became drowsy, then he dozed off.