After paying our fees we left the inn and what were the cheerful and busy streets of the town had turned silent and everyone had shut themselves in their houses. The inn we were staying in had also been fully checked out and it was going to be closed for a while due to the incident with the demons. We left the city and headed to the capital but we changed our course and we had to go through very rough terrain and forests so it would be harder for the demons to track us and follow us.

As we were passing through the forest we stopped to take a break and we had food we had bought from the city and we also picked some fruits from the trees. We also wrote a letter to the king back at the capital and sent it there tied to a bird. We then started our journey again we were careful going there as we didn’t want to be spotted soon the sun started to set and we decided to set camp at the forest, we set up a tent and ate our dinner we decided to keep guard at night turn taking turns. Brooke and I were the first to keep guard.

We were talking so we wouldn’t fall asleep. Brooke’s behavior had changed from the last few days since we reached the city and the inn. At the start he did not like me coming with them. But now he seems totally different. All of a sudden he whispers“why do I have to be the one to do this?” thinking that I hadn't heard it. When he said that I felt suspicious towards him. But I didn’t talk about it at that time. Soon after Signa and Caltis woke up and we switched turns with them and soon after we went to sleep

After we woke up in the morning we continued our journey to the capital. As we were passing by we reached a small town about halfway on the way to the capital but it was completely abandoned as the influence of the demons from the capital had spread and there were demons roaming around even in that small town. They were trying to attack anyone they saw. Unfortunately there were a few people on a carriage there and the demons tried to kill them.

We hid from the demons and seeking an opportunity to attack. When they were turned away we went ahead and attacked. They were easy to defeat as although they were big and violent they weren't skilled at combat or strategies. The group thanked us,we saw that one of them was hurt and we did first aid.We asked the group of people what they were doing In such a place infested with demons, they told us that they were merchants headed to the capital but they heard about the demons attacking and were hastily returning but were caught when they tried to see if there was anyone in the town.

They thanked us once again and offered to give us a map of the city's layout, we accepted their offer and thanked then. After that we parted ways and we once again began to head to the capital.

After a long and tiresome journey we finally arrived near the capital surrounded by tall walls where we saw many demon guards blocking all the entrances into the city. After looking around we confirmed that the capital was completely under the demons control.

We were trying to come up with a plan to enter the wall without being seen and we looked at the map we received and Telantus notices that there was a river flowing out from the city walls which we could use to enter. It would be tough as we would have to swim upstream fighting the current but we had no choice so we all dived in and through swimming skillfully we all managed to safely reach inside the walls.

After looking for a place to hide we spotted a small wooden shed in the outskirts of the city next to a swamp and forest. That place was not being patrolled so we decided to hide and coordinate our attacks there, we went inside the shed and dried our clothes. Then we decided to investigate the positioning of soldiers and any suspicious activity and we decided to form groups of two but one of us would be left out.

I volunteered to be the one left out and at first Gadreel and Telantus were hesitant but they agreed at the end. We decided the groups to be Gadreel and Telantus, Signa and Drester, and finally Brooke and Caltis. We decided to go in separate directions and meet at the shed again in around three hours. After looking around I found that the demons were destroying property of the people, stealing their belongings, looting the government reserves, assaulting females and other cruel deeds. When I found out I was very angry but I contained my anger and didn't do anything careless.

After a while everyone returned to the shed and we exchanged the information we gathered Gadreel and Telantus confirmed that the Royal family was being held hostage, Signa and Drester found out that the demons were spreading out to the South in an attempt to get to the other kingdoms of the realm. Brooke and Caltis found out that the demons were stealing goods, money, gold, minerals and other valuable items from all over the kingdom and imprisoning people to torture them. Upon hearing all of the horrible things demons were doing we were feeling disgusted and enraged

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We tried to make a plan but then we heard a loud noise like a tree fell down and footsteps coming towards the shed we were in. It was clear that demons had found out our hideout and were approaching. We were on high alert and cautious about attacks. Suddenly an unexpected spear attack shattered the window and landed o a wall. We took the spear and shot it at one of the demons but he noticed and managed to dodge. This made the demons angry and they charged at us but we fought back and killed half of them so the others ran away into the forest

After seeing so many demons Drester trembled in fear and started mumbling "I shouldn't have come here, I'm gona die" Caltis slapped him and said "the people of our kingdom are putting their hopes on us to save them from this tragedy

Are you just going to abandon them and leave them to despair? We were chosen as warriors to protect our kingdom and we must give it our all even if it costs our lives"Hearing this Drester calmed himself down and although he was still scared he didn't let it bring him down and he said "you're right, I am ashamed of myself for saying something like that after pledging my life to protect our people, our people have their hopes on us and its our duty to live up to it and protect them with all our might."

Then he noticed that the demons finding out about was very strange as when we were roaming around investigating none of them noticed us but when we were inside the shed and also it was night and outside of their view they suddenly found out about our hiding place. There's no way we wouldn't notice if a demon followed us here as we were constantly keeping watch so there must be someone giving the demons information about us and the demons hoped to get us all together when we were grouped at the shed.

After we discussed this I said to everyone that I knew who the traitor was. Hearing this they were all shocked and asked who it was and why I thought it was him. When I tried to say about my thought about who the traitor was Drester suddenly collapsed and fell and we got shocked we quickly checked him and found out he collapsed from exhaustion as he hadn't slept the night before and exerted all of his energy. Drester was known to be a very amazing strategist but although he was physically strong as well due to him not being used to it he overexerted himself.

We all gathered around him and let him rest and waited for him to regain consciousness. Then I stood up and asked Brooke to come outside with me to talk about something. He looked nervous and hesitant but to avoid suspicion he agreed to come with me. We went outside and Brooke looked very tense and he said "Wh...... What did you want t-to ask...?" in a shaky voice. He looked nervous and I asked him "what did u do to Brooke? Who are you and why are you doing this?" the supposed Brooke looked at me and said "wh-what are you talking about...... as u can see I'm Brooke I-I'm standing right Infront of you"

"then why are you sweating so much Brooke? Don't tell me you're hot in the middle of this cold night" I said. Brooke got even more tense and tried backing away. "you can't be Brooke because I noticed you don't have the mark on your shoulder we all secretly carved on our shoulders, did u think we hadn't thought about this possibilty" I said. Hearing this the imposter realised he can't say anything to prove me wrong anymore so he considered running away to be best, when he tried to run away he bumped into a person he ran the other side and bumped into someone else, no matter where he went he couldn't escape. The people he ran into were the warriors that were surrounding him.

In a last attempt to escape he returned into his actually monster body which looked like a slime. The monster told us that he killed Brooke in the Inn and transformed into him and impersonated him. Hearing this we got very angry at the lost of Brooke and how we couldn't do anything to protect him. The demon looked around himself looking temse but then noticed some silhouettes then laughed and said we were surrounded by his allies. The demons started to attack and a fierce battle took place and in the midst of the combat the slime managed to escape but we managed to kill the attacking demons.

Now that our hideout was revealed, we looked for another place to hide it was hard to find a place in the middle of the dark night but with the help of the map we managed to find an empty stable. After this incident we wrote a letter to the king about the dangerous abilities of the demons and monsters which we didn't know about. We also wrote that we might have underestimated their strength and might need backup sooner. We sent this letter to the king by tying it through a string on a pigeons leg.

We decided we needed to infiltrate the castle and attack sneakily or we'd be killed and so we needed a plan. The others looked tensed and worried and it would be a lie to say I wasn't as well but I decided to not let my fear tie me down and to raise the morale of others I had to motivate them. I said "the situation might look dire and our chances may seem small but even if there is even a small chance, even if we may lose our lives we must overcome this for the sake of everyone and to keep peace in the world we have to keep going even if we might lose!" The others agreed and got motivated once reminded of the true goal of our mission which was to protect everyone dear to us.

We came up with a new plan according to which we would infiltrate the castle, Caltis, and I would go to look for a way to assassinate Nova and the others would sneak into the prison and free the hostages and kill the demons around there then meet up with us to attack the top leader along with Nova. Nova however was getting impatient and one of his minions asked him why he was waiting when he could destroy the hole city and take the artifact. Nova replied that they could only take it once the demon lord arrives only the has enough magical energy to handle such a thing. If we wanted to attack the whole province then their forces would be divided and be vulnerable to enemy attacks.

The minion was curious as to why this artifact was so important however Nova couldn't reveal this information as if the minion was captured their plans would be revealed. However he did tell him that the artifact holds immense power and ancient magic. They were crafted through centuries of magic research and creation of forbidden spells during the Second Great War 3000 years ago, even the gods took notice of their power, hence the gods and the elder spirits formed a pact and sealed these artifacts into the heart of the four provinces and if all four artifacts of the four provinces were gathered and their powers unlocked then it'd reveal a terrifying power only for the demon lord to possess.