Ashen and Aeyrs had already returned to Arlen and were in their room at the inn. There was still a lot of noise coming from the first floor of the inn, yet the majority of it was silenced through the thick walls of the room. It was late, nearing midnight when they decided to go to sleep. When they woke up it was early morning, the sun was barely in the sky and there wasn't much light. Eldrick and Kurtz left their room and walked downstairs, there was a different woman behind the counter than the night before. She had long brown hair and was much younger, she wore a long white apron over her clothing which covered the majority of her body. Eldrick and Kurtz sat down at the seats next to the counter and Eldrick said:
"What morning food do you serve here?"
She responded with:
"We have eggs, bread, meat, fruit, and vegetables, and we also have some soups and porridge."
"Hmm… We will take, two pieces of bread, 3 pieces of meat, 3 portions of eggs and some water."
"Alright sir, we will have it in just a moment."
She walked into another room behind the counter than the other woman had the night before. After a few minutes, she had come out with the food requested and she said:
"Here you go if there is anything else you need just let me know!"
"Thank you"
Kurtz nodded his head at her and started to eat along with Eldrick. The food was quite good and it was freshly cooked except for the bread which had been cooked the night before. There was nobody else inside the room except for these three people, as they ate the woman was doing some basic cleaning around the room, such as clearing of the tables and cleaning them and straightening the chairs and sweeping the floors. By the time they had finished Eldrick called out to the woman, saying:
"Thank you, how much will this be?"
"This would be… 17 copper coins."
Eldrick placed a silver coin onto the counter and stood up as he said:
"Here, keep the excess as tip."
She nodded and picked up the coin as Eldrick and Kurtz left the room. Eldrick and Kurtz realized why there were no customers at the inn when they saw a very large gathering of people around 3 knights and a man in similar clothing to Ganruth’s ones. They approached the crowd and heard several men talking amongst themselves about what this could be about but nobody knew. The man in the fancy clothing announced to the group:
“Quiet down, quiet down, Now as most of you may know, I am Stron Von Balan a noble who runs this town. Recently we have been informed about an emergency concerning the town. As you all may know, in the Rib Cage Mountains there is the Large Black Castle yes? Well recently while conducting their research as normal, two men were confronted by a Demon and a Lizardman of unknown power, which had claimed the castle as their own! The two men both said that the Lizardman had entered the castle and the demon had teleported them into the city, please do not panic! Remain calm, we are currently looking into the matter and we will ensure your safety as long as you remain inside the town. So to all adventurers here, Please stay away from the mountains unless you want to attempt to attack them!”
The crowd was talking in more than whispers now, in fact, the majority of people were on the verge of screaming at one another about the news. A group of five adventurers spoke out at a voice much louder than the crowd, their leader presumably, said:
“Do not fear! We shall go slay the Demon and Lizardman! We will most likely be able to enter the castle if we do so!”
Stron replied with:
“Then I shall offer a 10 platinum coin reward if you can do so, please be warned though, we have no idea of their strength.”
“It will be fine, we can cast 11th tier magic, we will be prepared for anything that they throw at us!”
The crowd now stopped talking about the castle and the demon and Dragonoid but were now chattering about how they were able to use such a ‘high’ tier of magic. Eldrick and Kurtz decided to head home, they quickly left the town under the cover of the communication of the crowd, fortunately, nobody noticed them as they hastily ran out of town.after the town was far enough away, Eldrick cast teleport on them both and they teleported inside the castle’s conference room. Inside there were two maids there who immediately were startled by them. Eldrick and Kurtz quickly transformed back into their normal forms and the maids eased up. Ashen told one to go get Premium and the other to continue with her tasks. The maids wore basic maid outfits and also carried some basic cleaning tools, both were young-looking women and were both beautiful. They did as they were told and one continued to clean and the other hurried off to find Premium. After 10 minutes Premium, Misfortune, Planthra, and Titan had entered the room. Ashen quickly ordered them to:
“Quickly have the reserves get ready for combat in case, you four will then come outside the castle with us and we will wait for a group of five to come here. We don’t know when they will get here but we do know it should be soon!”
They followed his orders and quickly dispersed into the hallway outside the room. The maids had finished cleaning the room and one asked hesitantly:
“My lord, is there something wrong?”
“Why, yes, yes there is! We need to not kill them and also need to show them our power at the same time, any suggestions on how?”
“With all due respect my lord, although I would dislike the thought of being so kind to enemies of the castle, you could slay them and resurrect them I believe.” The maid asked nervously.
“You know, you’re right, thank you, You can take the rest of the day off. Consider it my thanks for your hard work.”
“Thank you, my lord!”
She bowed her head and then left the room, the other maid followed behind her, leaving Ashen and Aeyrs alone once more. Aeyrs was completely ready for combat while Ashen was trying to think logically, He thought about what to do. If he were to ask for diplomacy than he could then have an ally and a reason to fight the Dark legion other than the castle. Ashen put his hand into his portal that leads to his pocket dimension and pulled out a large obsidian orb, this was an item that he got from the Cash Shop System. The item negated all debuff and doubled the effectiveness of buffs on the user for one hour.
After it was used it would take Experience to recharge and one week before it could be used again. Aeyrs did the same and they both used it, causing the orbs to glow a deep purple and their bodies to shine slightly for a brief moment. They put them back into their pocket dimensions and teleported outside the castle. Aeyrs could see a group of five adventurers approaching at a speed twice that a carriage moved at, likely due to a magic item or spell. Aeyrs nudged Ashen and pointed in the direction they were coming from. Ashen used telepathy to alert Premium, saying:
“Premium, They are approaching as I speak, have the four of you come here immediately!”
“Yes, Lord!”
Ashen ended the spell, started to cast spells under the effect of Silent Cast. Those spells being: Resist Cold, Resist Heat, Demonic Protection, Holy Protection, Protection, Harden Armor, Strengthen, Amplify Magic, Resist Magic, Enhance Spells, Boost Luck, Enhance Perception and several others on both Him and Aeyrs. The majority were defensive with several offenses and passive, Ashen had a large black and red staff that glowed, the staff had a Dragon head holding a glowing red eyeball in it. Aeyrs had a large broadsword black and red glowing bastard sword, these were the strongest weapons they had on them and they couldn’t be: Stolen, Pickpocketed, Destroyed, Distorted or Damaged by anyone that is not the user.
Ashen was able to see the group of adventurers more clearly now as they were close to the castle and would arrive in a minute. There was one in large dark grey plate armor and had a large hammer in his hands. There was a woman in leather armor which had a longbow. A woman in the back that had a large staff with a heart on the top in gold, she also was wearing religious clothing. There was a man in luxurious blue and white robes which carried a large silver staff which twisted into an emerald at the top. A man was wearing light plate armor which had two short swords. They weren’t on horses but were instead all flying over the ground and soon slowed down to a stop not too far from Ashen and Aeyrs. The one in light plate armor addressed them
“I hope you’re prepared to die you Demon!”
Ashen replied in a calm and collective, yet still monotone, manner:
“But I have yet to do wrong have I not? What have I done, I've been in my castle for well over 1200 years keeping to myself and yet you claim I have done wrong? Well then, What have I done? Let’s hear it!”
“Lies! You know what you’ve done! You-”
“I don’t mean to interrupt but can we not play the name game here. What have I done? Don’t say ‘you know what you’ve done’. That doesn’t solve anything here!”
“You have been sending demons and undead to our cities! You don’t think we would know it was you?”
“Listen, kid, it wasn’t me I was going to fight their leader in only one week but if you want to claim it was me maybe I should let them destroy your kingdom. Hell, why not the world at that point? Then I could just kill them and be the ruler of the world! You know what? I think I should do that, yeah since all I get is accusations of being a demon lord, then why don’t I start acting like one right?”
“Lies! We are done listening to your lies, now we are going to kill you!”
“Listen, kid, unless you were above level 800 I wouldn’t even suggest thinking about it, you see me and this guy (Pointing at Aeyrs) are both level 1000 so just keep that in mind.”
“What? No! Lies! Demons always try to deceive their opponents! We will not fall for this! Now! Everyone attack!”
The mage cast ‘WaterBolt’ while the archer shot an arrow at Ashen, the man in heavy plate armor swung his hammer at Aeyrs only to miss as Aeyrs dodged in less than the blink of an eye and had already killed him with the sword. The sword was directly through his heart and he collapsed, The arrow bounced off Ashen’s head and the spell had automatically been negated upon reaching Ashen. The man with light armor rushed at Ashen and took a large swing at his chest only for his sword to be shattered upon impact and for him to fly backward because of it.
The priest had cast: Divine Strike, on Ashen only for nothing to happen. After their attacks, all failed they quickly grouped back up together and Aeyrs snuck up behind them and stabbed the priest through the heart as he did to the other man. She fell and laid on the ground, Ashen cast: Volcanic Burst, a spell that caused a barrage of magma to spray towards the remaining three adventurers. The mage had cast: Lake Wall to counter this but Ashen’s spell was too superior and the magma penetrated the spell and struck the mage than the archer while the man in light armor dodged.
The mage and archer collapsed to the ground with severe burn wounds, The man in light armor used a scroll he pulled from his pocket and he glowed for a moment and then grew in size slightly and then he rushed towards Ashen once more. Unfortunately for him Ashen quickly rushed forward and grabbed him by the throat and held him in the air while he squirmed around trying to break free of his grip. Ashen then said:
“Unfortunate, I did warn you all but you didn’t heed my warnings. Sorry but after I kill you I will resurrect all of you and we will have a little chat okay?”
Ashen proceeded to crush his throat and he fell onto the ground, Ashen the chanted out loud:
“Enhance Spread Resurrection.”
After he said this all of their bodies had instantly been healed and they all regained consciousness one by one. They slowly rose from the ground as Ashen said:
“Alright, it looks like that worked perfectly! By now you all should know that you all died and were resurrected. None of you were even able to scratch one of us and to be honest, I did warn you all! Still, now isn’t the time to say: I told you so. Besides, now I will let you all leave on one condition. Inform your king to send representatives of their kingdom so we can perhaps make a treaty to stop the one behind the demons and undead.”
“Why should we do that? Huh? What would we gain from it?”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Simple, your lives, not being constantly attacked by demons and undead and also, you know, not having a castle filled with monsters of unknown strength as an enemy!”
“Fine, We will inform him of your request but won’t guarantee anything!” He said hesitantly.
“Fine with me, if he doesn’t agree, I will personally destroy his entire kingdom. So please make sure to inform him of this, another thing, don’t try anything funny because we can just teleport directly to him if he declines.”
“Alright! We’ll tell him!”
The group ran off using the same spell they used to get there, by the time they were already out of distance Ashen heard footsteps from behind him. Premium, Misfortune, Titan and Planthra had just arrived, Premium the asked:
“We are here sir, where are they?”
“They arrived, died, got resurrected and left to go tell their king to send representatives to us.”
“In one minute?”
“Yep, on another note, Misfortune.”
Misfortune responded with:
“Yes, lord?”
“I want you to go to the king that rules over Arlen and just keep an eye and ear on him. Don’t get noticed no matter what, you have the best stealth out of anyone here so this is perfect for you! I will use telepathy to talk to you, so if anything important happens to inform me using it alright?”
“Yes, Lord!”
She then disappeared using a skill she had: Shadow Step, she had already left to complete her mission. Before Misfortune faded away Ashen put his hand into his pocket dimension and pulled out a small black rod, the rod was perfectly cylindrical and made of smooth obsidian. The object was a cash shop item that, when used, prevents all detection of the user, basically making them perfectly undetectable until they attack. Ashen handed the rod to Misfortune, she used it and it turned into a quickly disappearing black mist then she disappeared to continue her mission. Ashen nudged Aeyrs and they both walked in the opposite direction of Arlen, into the Rib Cage Mountains.
The entire mountain range gradually became more barren the farther they traveled in, where there would be ores and plants commonly were now very scarce. Eventually, they noticed a large gathering of undead and demons along with other monsters. They were all gathered into a hoard surrounding a large demon in dark greyish-purple plate armor. The demon was speaking in demonic tongue but due to Ashen's race he could understand and Aeyrs had a -1000 karma so he could speak demonic as well. The demon said:
"Today, we cross the mountains and start our invasion!"
The crowd of monsters cheered, Ashen used telepathy to talk to Premium and quickly told him”
"The invasion is starting today, make sure none of them cross the mountains! Use all of the castle's troops to ensure It!"
"Yes, Lord!"
Ashen ended the spell and nudged Aeyrs to get ready to engage, they both were still fully equipped with their god-level gear and still had the cash shop item effects active. This was the perfect time to fight, Ashen and Aeyrs rushed up to the demon that had spoken a moment before and was now behind him without him noticing. Although the crowd noticed and cried out for their commander to "Look out!" And "Behind you!" This caused the demon to turn around and draw his large black sword from bis back and said:
"State your name and purpose here!"
Ashen, although not showing it on his face, smiled and then said aloud in a mocking tone
"Who am I? I am Ashen Fur, and just whom would you be?"
"I am the demon commander, Ichabal! What are you doing here, and who is that at your side!"
"This is Aeyrs Dragonheart, and we are going to kill all of you. Although any who wants to can become our subordinates if they don't wish to be slaughtered!"
"Ha! Let me see you try to kill me! I am a level 203 archdemon, and there are only 6 people stronger than me!"
Ashen started laughing, slowly and quiet at first then gradually louder, after a few seconds Aeyrs joined in on the laughter. The demon then asked
"What's so funny? You just realize how worthless your resistance is?"
"Please, we are just laughing at how low your level is! You see where we come from, level 740-770 were the most common, and well, we are both level 1000!"
The entire crowd started to doubt if their commander could win but was quickly assured that he wouldn't when he tried to slash Ashen with his sword only for the blade to shatter and the commander to lifted by the throat by Ashen's left hand. Ashen spoke out again and said
"Those who wish to fight may do so, but those who don't shall become our subordinates if they bow their heads and drop their arms now!"
All but one of them followed his words, the one who didn't soon say out
"Level 1000? Exaggerate much? All you did was break the sword and grab his throat!"
Aeyrs quickly dashed behind the demon and stabbed him through the chest with his claws on his right hand. The demon quickly fell lifelessly to the floor. The crowd now more nervous than before, was now visibly and audibly frightened. Ashen called out to the group and said
"Is there anyone here who knows where your leader is?"
One frighteningly stood up and said
"I do, sir!"
"Alright, you can show me the way to him, Aeyrs take the rest to the castle and tell premium to take as many prisoners as he wants!"
Aeyrs nodded and lead the group in the direction of the castle, there were nearly 800 demons altogether. Ashen looked back at his left hand which still had the demon in its grasp, he then released the demon and lowered his arm and started to walk away in the direction of the demon that would lead him to their leader. The demon commander said
“Wait! What exactly are you going to do?”
“Me? Oh nothing much, just thought I would go kill the leader and take control of his army, land, materials and... what? Is there something wrong with that?”
“Of course! Just because you kill a leader doesn’t make his people loyal! Besides he is far stronger than you! The demon lord is a Level 250!”
“Oh? That's neat, I've killed about 41 enemies over level 1000. So I believe it won’t be a problem!”
Ashen followed the demon to where their leader was but was soon stopped by eight demons. Six had full black and red plate armor and large molten axes while two wore dark purple robes and had large black staff that twisted up into a blue orb at the top. One of the one in plate armor spoke out and said
“Halt! State your name and purpose for traveling here!”
Ashen took no time in quickly saying
“Oh? Well, I see word doesn’t travel and there were no witnesses… that’s nice to know.”
“You sure got one mouth, maybe I'll have to straighten your attitude!”
He struck Ashen straight in his left shoulder yet nothing happened, He looked at Ashen and struck him on his left arm but once more, nothing happened. The axe didn’t break but neither did Ashen’s armor, Ashen himself took no damage and the axe couldn’t leave any sign that he struck Ashen on his body.
“What? Wh-Who are you!?”
“Ashen Fur, but please, call me Ashen. As you can see physical attacks like that will do you no good. If you continue, I might accidentally end up ripping out your spine and end up beating you to death with it!”
The demon in plate armor took a step back, the other demons in plate armor looked at one another then they all charged at Ashen while the two in robes cast several buff spells on them. Every time Ashen was struck by the axe, it seemed to have just bounced off and after about 50 strikes Ashen finally snapped. He quickly ripped out the spines of all eight demons, killing them near instantly. Ashen, although without a trace of filthiness on his armor, brushed off his chest armor and said
“I did warn these men did I not?”
The demon that was serving as his guide that was several steps to his side said:
“Y-y-yes that is true! But…”
“Ah, It’s fine, let's go!”
They continued to walk through several hallways which all recreated the same scenario that just occurred, several times. While Ashen was going to the castle, Aeyrs had already gotten back to the castle with a large group of monsters. The drawbridge opened and Aeyrs lead them all inside and was quickly greeted by Premium which Aeyrs had communicated with as he walked back to the castle by using a telepathy spell. Premium took all of the monsters and lead them to an underground portion of the castle which was mostly prisons, catacombs and torture chambers along with few other rooms for item creation and restoration purposes. Aeyrs then used telepathy to talk to Ashen, he then said
“Yo! It’s me, Premium just took them to the underground Chambers. Can you teleport me to you?”
“Yeah, alright, gimme a sec…”
Aeyrs was then teleported directly next to Ashen, and they continued to walk down a hallway, that seemed to never end or change in scenery, until they only had one set of large black doors guarded by two very large demons that both had complete dark blue plate armor and had gigantic black swords and large black shields. The demon that had been guiding Ashen finally spoke out and said:
“Guards, listen to me, These two wish an audience with the Lord of this region. So if you would just let them through, I am more than enough verification for them!”
The guards looked at each other then back at the demon, one soon spoke out and stated:
“And just who might you be?”
“I am Miamoun, Vuras’ top subordinate. I have come here with these two for important discussions with him, so if you were to let us in, that would be appreciated.”
“Hmm… Very well, we grant you access to Lord Vuras’ Chambers, but we shall have an eye on your two little friends you have with you, so keep that in mind.”
“Thank you, and don’t worry about them, they shouldn’t do anything if unprovoked…” He followed his statement with a quiet and unnoticeable “I hope…”
Ashen, Aeyrs and Miamoun all walked through the now opened set of large black metal doors and they soon shut after they entered what now was a large room with several desks, chairs, tables and plenty of papers and books scattered around. At the opposite side of the door, there was a large desk made of silver-colored materials and a large red chair that had a large demon sitting upon it. The demon dawned large black plate armor, which was adorned in many spikes coming out of the shoulders and curving upwards, similar to Ashen’s but not the same. The Demon was Vuras as there shouldn’t be any other demon that would fit the standards of a “Lord” that the other demons spoke of. Ashen broke the silence and without giving Miamoun a chance to speak first he said:
“Hello there, Vuras. I am Ashen, and this here is Aeyrs, you should know this man, am I right?”
“Ah, yes, Miamoun is it not?”
Miamoun quickly nodded and looked back at Ashen while starting to feel uneasy about the situation at hand. Ashen once more broke the silence and said:
“Well excuse us for barging into your chambers unannounced Vuras but you see, we are here for some simply negotiations with you. You might not know who we are but rest assured the feeling is mutual.”
“Hmm? So you don’t know who I am, You Barge into my chambers unannounced, You request negotiations and don’t even bother to put in the slightest effort regarding respect? Listen up before your lives are on the line, I'm still in a good mood for what we are doing today so I'll let you off easy this time, but don’t, for a second, think that my generosity can be so long-lasting.”
“Wow, you sure do like to monolog, don’t you? Well, that is common for those who are overconfident in their abilities, well we aren’t here to fight, but we could kick your ass without trying. Regardless, let's get to the point here. Listen, Stop your invasion of the neighboring countries and we won’t obliterate your entire arm-no your entire Existence from this world!”
“Hmph! And what makes you think that I would take orders from a runt like you!”
“Oh? I‘m a runt now? Well then, Aeyrs, go show him what I meant please.”
Aeyrs nodded at Ashen and then completely disappeared and was no directly behind Vuras and already had a small grey blade to his throat, in fact, the blade had already cut Vuras’ Throat as a small trickle of blood started to flow from his neck. His skin was coarse and black and had a small scale-like pattern on it. Normally you would hardly notice the scales but due to the blood following the edges of the scales, it was more visible. Vuras’ face was visibly frightened, then in an instant Aeyrs was back next to Ashen. Vuras eventually sighed and put his hand over the small cut on his throat, he then said with a noticeably scarred but still affirmative voice:
“Alright, you wanted negotiations right? Well, what is it that you wanted specifically?”
“To stop your entire evasion on the neighboring countries, and to speak with the demon lord, if you could arrange that.”
“Hmm, I don't think I have the authority to stop the entire army from invading but I could at least stall them until I can grant you an audience with our lord. Will that be suitable?”
“Yes yes, that should be fine. Just keep in mind that I protect the entire mountain range, so if any demons or undead start to come near the other side or our castle then we will gladly kill them. Another thing, I know you would never lie to me, right? Well just keep in mind that we don’t want a war, we just don’t want to have the world ruled by demons and undead alright?”
“Yes of course! I wouldn’t lie, and even if I wanted to you two already have more than enough power to attempt an assassination on me, so I'd prefer you just trust me on this task.”
“Hmm, very well, I'll trust you as a token of my... generosity. Now Vuras, Miamoun, we shall take our leave, I trust you two should have everything under control?”
“Yes, of course, everything will be taken care of.”
Ashen and Aeyrs started to walk out of the room as Ashen waved slowly with his right hand while facing away from Vuras, as to indicate him saying ‘until next time’. After Ashen and Aeyrs had left Vuras’ room they turned a corner where there was nobody but themselves and Ashen teleported them inside their castle. They appeared inside of the great dining hall of the castle, there were several very long tables with well over 300 seats, the table was made of wood and so were the chairs. Although you couldn’t tell due to the tables being covered in large white cloths and the chairs were all black with green cushions on them.
On the opposite side of the room than the doors that lead into the room, there was a larger table that had 50 seats to it. All except for two were larger more elegant versions of the normal chairs. While the other two were much larger, almost larger than thrones and had been adorned in gold trimmings and a fancy colored and decorated exterior. Aeyrs immediately walked over and sat in the best chair on the left, so Ashen followed suit, and sat in the seat to Aeyrs’ right. They took a long sigh of relief and Ashen turned to look at Aeyrs who had already been looking back at him. Ashen then said aloud:
“Well, that was… Entertaining wasn’t it?”
“Aye, it was fun, I do suppose… Well, what do you say will happen now? Do you think that Vuras guy will get us a meeting with the Demon Lord?”
“Without a doubt, I mean, if he didn’t he would just be killed. And he knows that he won’t let us down, besides I don’t want the army to stop the invasion…”
“Hmm? Why not?”
“Simple. If the invasion stopped, the countries would think they were regrouping and would attack all at once, so they might come up here to the mountains and try to attack them. And without a doubt we would be involved in the battle so it goes without saying, we need them to continue their invasion. Besides, thinking about it, a Grand Archdemon shows up out of nowhere, and suddenly the entire dark legion has stopped attacking, that would get us into even more drama and the alert of all countries.”
“Sheesh, you sure like to over-analyze situations don’t you?”
“Being prepared, won’t hurt you in a war.”
“War huh? Do you think we will be dragged into one?”
“With the way, we are heading…”
Ashen and Aeyrs both turned back to face forward, then several maids entered carrying plenty of trays with food and after the table was fully stocked, the majority of the maids, guards and NPC’s had entered and begun eating. Before Ashen was noticed he teleported both him and Aeyrs back to Arlen, as it was approaching midnight. They both Transformed back into their human forms and they entered the Silver Apple Inn, they walked upstairs and entered their room. Eldrick Took no time to crawl into his bed and fall asleep, but Kurtz, He stayed awake lying down in his bed thinking to himself. War? Has it come down to war already? Well, whatever happens, I at least got my brother. No matter what, I refuse to lose him... And with that, his mind drifted into sleep.
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(Erik von Ranznedese POV)
Inside of the Royal Castle of the bandarainian Empire, Sits a king adorned in luscious embroidered clothing and small gold and silver adorned cane. Standing around said king there is a lone administer preparing to discuss the terms of the recent situation, The king sat, a plethora of emotions visible on his face, disgust, anger, nervousness, depression and a very small hint of borderline crazy. The administer himself being both nervous and his mood dampened by the recent news of demons invading. But pushing down said emotions, the man started to speak.
“Your Majesty,” He said with a bow, “Due to recent events there seems to be both a demon and Lizardman of sorts wishing to meet with you, a group of high ranking and high-level adventurers from the city of Arlen had an encounter with them.”
“A Meeting?” The king said in almost disbelief
“While there is no way to solidify if they will be hostile or not, the adventurers said that they weren’t just defeated in battle, no. They said they were slaughtered, each one died and they said that the demon revived them, and set them free on the condition of informing the king of the country about requesting a meeting.”
“I see, resurrection is a high-level spell, but there is just one flaw with their story isn’t there?”
“While I do understand your point, your majesty, I know a demon shouldn’t be able to naturally cast and spell of life variety but for all five adventurers to all say the same thing even under truth spells, and after confirming that their bodies were resurrected. There was no trace of magic on them besides the resurrection magic.”
“How strange, how strange indeed… Then I suppose I've no choice but to accept their offer of a meeting, send word for my royal guards to escort them here, and in the meantime have the city of Arlen locked down and have no person near the mountains.”
“Yes your majesty, as you command. There is one last thing to discuss while still on the topic.”
“Hmm?”
“The demons on the opposite side of the mountains seem to have been increasing in their activity, while we can’t say if it is directly related to the recent appearance of this demon and Lizardman. We know that an invasion is likely due, within the near future, and as you know, we should unite with the other countries yet again.”
“What timing! Very well, as it pains me to have to do so, have a formal treaty made and offered to the other three major countries. And have all countries summon the Heroes! We have no time to waste now, That shall be all for today, you are dismissed.”
The ambassador bowed slightly and left the room, The king sighed and leaned further back into his luscious throne trying to both relax and understand what just happened. A demon and a lizardman? Not, maybe a Dragonoid, but to be with a demon? Unlikely but what else could explain their power? And is the demon just that or is he the demon lord? The king frowned at that thought but didn’t want to underestimate his new foes like the adventurers had. But he thought to himself once more, If a Demon that strong exists and isn’t the demon lord, the entire world would be in danger… and with that thought he soon found himself shaken to his very core.