After rescuing the 3 beast-men children from captivity and making sure they were comfortable and well fed, they were currently playing with the other kids, Ray, Lilly and the sword hero sat a few meters away, so they could discuss some important information.
“Now this is a long story and what I'm about to tell you is the upmost truth.”.
Ray and Lilly sit there, the sword hero, who they had found out was named Claire had their undivided attention.
“Well, this story starts 10 years ago when I was 10 years old, as you know, heroes are taken at the ages of 10 and trained for 5 years until the age of 15. This will not change no matter what, even with the death of a king and rise of a new one. So thankfully I wasn’t in the capital like most other humans were when the new king was appointed, which we were lucky for. We had no clue on what was happening on the outside for those 5 years except that there had been a new king who was dying to meet the heroes and so once we had ended our training we had travelled to the capital. Immediately we felt something was off, we could sense an ominous presence and the hateful gazes that came our way, at the time I had no idea why. When we arrived at the castle, we finally realised what was creating such an ominous pressure around the, it was the new king, but the being sat on that thrown was no human, he was darkness incarnated, true evil, a being we thought would never rear its head in this world again. A demon.”.
Ray and Lilly were shocked, a demon had taken place as King in the human plains, why? How? Why wasn’t there a massive uproar about this? Surely the humans wouldn’t sit back and follow orders from a demon. What was going on. Claire continued
“We were in shock, a demon had been sat on the thrown and there hadn’t been anything done about it, not an uproar? Something fishy was going on. And that's when it opened its third eye. Then we heard voices, suggestions, telling us to follow his rule, that Demi-humans were our enemies, beneath us, nothing but Cattle to be used, the thoughts echoed around our heads it was overbearing, but they were just thoughts, something they could easily ignore. Then the demon spoke, he stated that our mental fortitudes were too strong for us to listen and that if he couldn’t use us, he would dispose of us. It was then we came to a realisation of why the humans were staring at us weird, after all we had Demi-human heroes with us. We had realised that their minds had been plagued by this demon, they were under some kind of mind control, and it was up to them to save everyone as heroes. We thought we could win, but we were wrong. None of us got close to the demon, instead, we were stopped by what he called his 4 soul generals, he told us without killing them he was practically immortal and that we were to be his entertainment for the day. We fought our hardest, but in the end they all fell. I would have also been killed if it wasn’t for everyone putting themselves on the line to let me escape and as a result, I escaped with only a scar on my left eye, to remind me of my failure and what they did...”, and suddenly, tears weld up in her eyes, “I’m so sorry, I was useless, I couldn’t do a thing especially not alone, I was ashamed that we had let this happen and ashamed we couldn’t stop them. And so, for the last 5 years I have travelled all over the human plains, rescuing Demi-human children and secretly delivering them near their homes so they would be safe. I tried to communicate to some adults, but over the 5 years seeds of distrust were already rooted in and I was attacked before I could even speak.”.
She looked up at Ray and Lilly.
“Please, I beg of you, inform the Demi-humans, tell them of what has happened in the Human plains, and I beg of you, I know that we humans have caused so much harm and sorrow... but I beg you, help me kill this demon and free the humans.”. She bowed her head pleading for their help and forgiveness.
Ray looked at Lilly.
“Did... did they really kill Alysia, did these demons kill her. DO YOU SWEAR ON YOUR LIFE THAT WHAT YOU’VE SAID RIGHT NOW IS TRUE, TO THE GODDESS OF ALL LIFE DO YOU SWEAR.”. Lilly said, tears in her eyes.
“I swear on my very soul and to the goddess of all life, that an evil entity has taken over and brainwashed all the humans and I plead of you, to end this all, all the discrimination and to save all the humans... Please help me.”, she said as she sobbed.
Lilly was crying now, she couldn’t hold it back, “Then I, Lillyanne Meowlron, princess and heir to the throne of the Northern beast tribe, chose to believe you and trust in your story, Claire the sword hero. I will hereby escort you to the southern beast tribe with us where you can report this to the village head, my uncle and we can discuss further actions.”, she said, she crouched down and sobbed. Ray put his hand on her back and rubbed it, she turned to him and cried into his lap.
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“Could this demon... perhaps be the same one who brought me here”, Ray thought. He would have to wait and find out, but if it was, it made things a lot easier.
“So, you said the demon lord has 4 generals that need to be killed before he does?”, Ray asked Claire who had regained her composure.
“Thats what he claims yes.”.
“And how strong were these generals.”.
“They were all strong enough to defeat 5 heroes at level 200, given we were new and young, yet we had all been trained in combat and how to use our weapons.”.
“I see... so this won’t be easy. I’m going to need to get a lot stronger and faster. Claire... I have a request.”.
“What is it.”.
“Would you teach me the art of swordsman ship, as you know like you, I can't use skills any longer. But I believe your style would greatly suit me, you can still use your mana when attacking, I can use my flames in a similar way. So please. Teach me, I need to not only get stronger but improve my skills.”.
“Of course, I can feel that you have great potential, though I have never trained someone before so I may not be any good.”.
“Thank you.”.
“So should we get started then, the sooner the better right.”.
Ray smiled, “Sure. Let's go.”.
Ray and Claire stand of in an open field, Lilly and the children all standing a distance away to watch.
“What level are you currently?”, Claire asked Ray.
“84, I'm close to my next evolution.”.
“Evolution?”.
Ray then explained the story he had told everyone in this world about being resurrected by the goddess of life.
“I see, a chosen hero from the goddess herself as well as having the power of the Phoenix, you will truly be a worthy pupil and if it’s quick level ups you need, I know a place on the way where you could achieve that.”. Claire said as she summoned Excalibur.
“I’ll have to take you up on that, the sooner I level up the better, what is it?”.
“It’s a dungeon, I've explored many times, I’ll take you straight to the bottom floor, about 2 days down there and you’ll definitely reach level 100.”.
“Sounds exciting!”, Ray said as he finishes his stretches.
“I’ll right, give me all you've got, this Armour is extremely durable, one of the finest made in existences so don’t hold back.”.
“Alright, but I can only hold my best for about around 3 minutes before I pass out.”. it had increased since the last time he had used it.
“No matter, we will increase that in no time. Now come at me, use every trick in the book not just swords play!”.
Ray closes his eyes and his body is engulfed in flame aura whilst a wheel of flame appeared at his back, starting the count down to his eventual collapse. Ray darted towards Claire with groundbreaking speed and swung down his blade with all his force which Claire easily defended with Excalibur. As the ground at Claires feet cracked beneath them she smiled.
“Not bad.”.
She raised her sword, effortlessly repelling Ray, turned her sword to the flat side and swung it like a cricket bat, right into Rays stomach. She had put little effort in, but her power was mindboggling. Ray was sent flying, summersaulting through the air.
He stopped himself by building up flames in his feet and flew towards her, he put his sword in his mouth and charged up an Exploding pitch in each hand and threw them both at Claire. As she was about to bat them away, Ray clicked his fingers causing them to explode in her direction, however, as the smoke vanished, there was not so much as a scratch on her armour or her.
“God what was that? You really messed up my hair.”.
Ray took the sword out of his mouth and spun through the air, as he reached, he slashed at her midsection, which she once again effortlessly blocked, embers flying from their clash. Claire went for another attack, however Ray dodges it and flew up into the air.
“I’ll give you this, your speed may be greater than mine very soon.”.
Ray smiled, “yet it currently wasn’t, just how much was she holding back?”.
“YOU MIGHT WANT TO DODGE THIS ONE!”, Claire shouts, as she puts her sword down her back one handed, her light blue man flowing off it. She Swings her blade down and a giant Slash of mana in the shape of a crescent moon rockets towards Ray. It was too fast for him to, dodge, he’d have to counter it. Ray copied Claire using all his might he swung his sword down as a wave of flame in the shape of a crescent moon rocketed out. The 2 slashes collided in the air and although it slowed the slash down and decreased its power, Claires sliced through Rays and towards him.
Ray braised for impact, using his blade to defend the attack which defended the area he had blocked, however, as the slashed connected, he felt his stomach rip open. As Ray began to fall, Claire ran over and jumped high into the air and caught him.
“CRAP, I’m sorry, are you ok?”, she asked nervously.
Rays flame aura had now disappeared and what was left was a burning flame right where the wound was.
“I’m fine... healing powers.”, Ray said weakly.
Claire sighed as they landed on the ground.
“Not bad, for someone who’s only level 84 you had some real force, I recon you could probably beat someone over level 100.”.
“Well, I did manage to beat an or lord on the verge of becoming a disaster... with a little help.”.
“I see, looks like I have quit ethe unique pupil.”, Claire laughed.
“Ray, are you okay?”, Lilly said panting. She had just sprinted all the way over to them.
“Yeah, I’m fine... this just shows that I need to get much stronger.”, Ray said.
“Don’t worry, the dungeon isn’t too far from here.”.