It was the dead of night, and three figures were hiding behind some stone rubble, avoiding patrols of demon guards. Among the group of three was a man dressed in light armor, a tall, heavily armored burly warrior with a big shield hooked on his back, and, lastly, a woman mage who was keeping her hood on.

"Hold it." The knight was looking from behind the rubble. He glanced around checking for any other patrols.

"Jarred, what's the clairvoyance telling you?" The Mage whispered.

"There's too many demons here. It's better if we sneak around the patrols where we can." Jarred tried to be as quiet as possible.

"This is a Raid! We're here to kill the King of demons. We should kill as many demons as we can now!" The warrior tried to argue with Jarred quietly.

"Ragnar. Just because we're the Heroes of Prophecy doesn't mean we're invincible. Did you forget what happened eighteen years ago?" Jarred pointed out.

Ragnar stopped for a moment before speaking once again.

"O-of course, I remember Saintess Kalika along with her father. We're slaughtered among all of the residences here in this very capital."

"I can't imagine how heartbreaking it was for you," The Mage said.

"Aye. I had family that lived here. I was lucky to have left when I did. Another week I reckon I would've been among the dead."

Jarred patted Ragnar on the shoulder to comfort the tall man. "Sylph. Do you think you can make us invisible?"

Jarred glanced at Ragnar’s heavy armor. "And can you erase the sound from Ragnar too?"

"Sure. But we won't be able to hear anything from him for a while." Sylph was starting to get her spell ready, and in a flash of light all spells were cast at once.

"It's a good thing that we could still see each other… otherwise we'd be lost really quick," Jarred thought.

The heroes expertly avoided the groups of demon guards. Venturing through the broken and destroyed roads and alleyways. It almost felt like child's play avoiding the guards patrol, one after another.

The castle was finally in sight. Unlike the destroyed city, it looked to have much lighter patrols.

Ragnar was about to push forward when Sylph grabbed him. "Hold it. We should let Jarred check first." Hearing his name, Jarred steps up to look around the corner where they were hiding. His brown eyes started to glow a blue as he glanced around.

"Everything looks fine. We can probably get in without getting detected."

"That can't be right." Sylph had her doubts until Jarred pointed out the castle's completely open door. They all reluctantly agreed to move through discreetly.

Ragnar tried to say something to them nonchalantly, but Sylph had to remind him about her silencing spell. This embarrassed the man greatly. Ragnar just sighed, letting go of what he wanted to say.

They were finally inside the Castle. The Main Hall was grand and led to what they presumed was the throne room. However, it was strange. There were no guards in sight.

"This is very strange. Is the Demon King even in this castle?" Sylph asked.

"Yes, he's definitely here." Jarred's eyes glowed once more. Through his vision, he saw a thread leading to a side corridor. "The Threads of fate!" he proclaimed silently.

"Follow me!" He went on ahead to the shock of his companions. Both followed closely behind going from corridor to corridor.

However, unknown to the group, a green eye attached to the ceiling is closely monitoring them. This eye belonged to the demon Rakon, who was monitoring the heroes with excitement.

"Yes. Keep going 'Heroes of Prophecy'. Your fate awaits you in that very courtyard."

The three companions scurried down the hall as quietly as possible. They took turns after turns seemingly going all the way around the castle to its rear. Jarred could see the line they were following becoming thicker and stronger. They were obviously getting closer to their destination than he would've imagined.

"This way!" he quietly shouted.

They all started sprinting seeing no guards up ahead.

“That's right. All you need to do… is take that last right turn." Rakon smiled excitedly.

Inside that very courtyard, decorated with vibrant pink flowers. ToLillian's surprise, Lucius slips a ring with red and blue gemstones onto her finger. Lucius is very content with the situation, as is Lillian.

Everything was lined up for a fateful meeting between Heroes and Demons!

The heroes finally reached the corridor intersection. However, to Rakon's shock, they kept running straight past the courtyard. Both parties completely missed a seemingly fated meeting.

This turn of event completely shocked Rakon as the Heroes kept heading down the Corridor. "Where the hell are they going!?? The enemy of these 'Heroes of Prophecy' has always been the Demon King all these eons!!" Rakon’s thoughts were starting to race with the possibilities.

An eye on the ceiling started to melt into blood. "Grrr. It can't be possible that they're after me, is it? No. This doesn't make sense… but just in case…"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The Heroes kept running as they came across a passageway that seemed to lead deeper down. They also finally encountered demon guards.

Ragnar pushed ahead of Jarred and Sylph, ramming into one guard with his big shield to knock him. He quickly moved on to punch the other guard before he could realize what was happening. He gave a quick thumbs up to his companions who had just arrived.

They gathered at the spiral stairway, looking down it. "So, the Demon King is this way?" Sylph asked. Just then, the spell finally wore off.

"Ah, finally." Ragnar was happy to speak again.

Jarred looked back down and affirmed that the Demon King should be down in this direction. "Why would he be down there?" she inquired once again.

"Perhaps there's a prisoner they're torturing. Perhaps the brunt of his forces are down here." Ragnar was starting to wipe some minor blood off his shield.

"If that's true, we can't let our guard down for a moment. Sylph. Could you use your Appraisal eye from here?"

"Of course I can." Sylph’s eyes started to glow blue as well. She felt the spiral staircase wall and emitted a pulse, practically scanning the dungeon below them.

To Ragnar’s surprise, Sylph grabbed a piece of Leather from his small pouch. With a gesture of her other hand, she made a map of the dungeon, which looked like a maze.

"Incredible. So, this is the Great Lord's castle Dungeon! I've heard rumors of its size, but I never thought it'd be true." Ragnar started to look at the map, finding many red dots among them. "So, these are the demons guarding this dungeon..."

"This is more guards than what a typical prison would have. It doesn't look like we'll be able to sneak by either." Jarred took a quick look behind them, then turned back to grab the map.

"Then that just means we'll just have to brute force our way through!" Rangar readied his shield, Sylph was preparing some magic spells, and Jarred had his platinum sword ready.

Wasting little time, they all got ready to ambush the dungeon guards. One by one, they dispatched the guards as silently as possible. But this only lasted so long before they were finally discovered.

Immediately upon seeing the three intruders, the Guard sounded the alarm.

"Well, that didn't last long. At least we thinned the herd a little." Ragnar took point and bashed into the enemy in sight. Jarred followed up with a slash.

Sylph followed up with an assist, blasting two reinforcements in the face with fire magic.

They could hear the footsteps of many guards starting to surround them. "Which way do we go, ole leader of ours?" Sylph sarcastically asked.

Jarred didn't hesitate to lead through the enemies in front of them. Sylph just rolled her eyes and followed along with Ragnar. They all fought fiercely through all the guards.

Despite the overwhelming disadvantage, the group kept fighting through the demons. Ragnar blocked the incoming attacks, leaving the guards open for a complete counter offense.

Jarred slashed and hacked with his sword through the demons before them. All the while Sylph used every element of magic known with deadly efficiency. She sliced with wind, burned with fire, crushed with stone and even dragged and thrown demons around, with water!

floods of the demon guards continued to pour in surrounding the heroes.

“Damn! It looks like we’ll have to go all out!” Jarred hissed.

Suddenly many guards attacked Ragnar from behind. catching a glimpse of their shadows flickering in the fire, he quickly turned. He grinned widely.

To the demon's surprise, his shield suddenly turned itself into an ax!

With a wide swing he cut through them like fruit in the air. He let out a hardy laughter. “And what's wrong with that Jarred?” The newly transformed ax caught fire by some mysterious force. “All the more fun for us!”

Sylph sent an explosion of fire into a group of demons. “You make it sound so simple Ragnar.”

Jarred’s sword glowed red, charged by some magic. Both He and Ragnar dashed forth, slaughtering the demons in their way, both of them attacking, blocking and parrying with every inch they took.

Once again, a green eye on the ceiling was still observing them. Elsewhere, Rakon was observing and analyzing the situation in safety. "Tch! Now they're in the dungeon. but they’re not traveling deeper in?”

Rakon narrowed his eyes. “Hmmm… Are they truly the Heroes of Prophecy that Lucius was so concerned of?” he now grumbled to himself, watching attentively as the Heroes slaughter of his kind, increasing the casualties minute after minute.

"Grrr… Even if they are the heroes, I can't keep feigning ignorance to them forever. What a shame. And just when I thought my brother would finally perish." Rakon leaned over to pull a rope. The sounds of a bell could be heard far and wide from inside and outside the castle.

"Intruder!" a demon guard yelled.

Even the guards from outside the castle rushed inside.

Back with the heroes, they neared the end as the last of the guards seemed to flee.

Jarred stabs the last attacking demon in the neck. "I think that's the last of them. Can you confirm that Sylph?" Sylph touching the wall confirms this to be true. But she quickly retracts that as she senses even more guards heading their way.

"We have ten. No twenty-five?" Sylph was starting to sweat profusely. "They're literally sending an army!"

"Crap. We can’t hold them off forever!” Jarred said.

“So where do we go now?" Ragnar questioned.

Jarred squinted its eyes looking for the thread. "We’ll find the Demon King and end this war! This way!"

Jarred pressed forward, following the invisible thread.

"Hey, wait!" Sylph yelled, trying to catch up with Jarred. Ragnar followed suit. "I swear, He’s gonna make martyrs out of us!"

“That’s fine by me,” Ragnar shouted. “As long as we avenge the lord, “I’ll fight to the bitter end!”

"Yeah!” Jarred agreed, “We can't flee now! Not when we're so close, Sylph! You said it yourself back then too. That we'd end this war and bring balance back even at the cost of your life."

Sylph was surprised to hear this.

"You did say that." Ragnar laughed.

"Hhhhnnghh…I guess there's no turning back now then…" Sylph resolved herself despite some of the doubts in her mind.

Seeing even more demons further ahead, charging at them, Ragnar speed past Jarred. Her turned his ax into his shield, Bashing them with it!

Sylph launched earth spikes into the demons, killing them.

Another demon jumped above the shield, but this was easily intercepted by Jarred, as he cut its head off.

Their fight continued until they finally came across a series of unguarded iron doors. The guard's station there was swiftly dispatched, leaving them with a rare peace.

Jarred looked from the thread, seeing they were getting closer. "It's leading through these doors…"

The group suddenly heard voices talking in the demon's language. They all hugged the wall in the corner of the pathway where the voice was coming from. There was some talking, then the sound of yelling as if one of the guards were being scolded. Luckily for the heroes, it wasn't long before the guards left.

"That was close," Ragnar sighed. He converted his ax back into a shield once more

"Yeah. I wonder why they didn't come down here. You know what, let's not worry about that."

They all slowly pushed themselves in, unlocking door after door. It was quiet—too quiet. There was no way the Demon King could be sleeping or being held prisoner in this dungeon. Can it?

Jarred looked at the last locked door in front of them. "This is it. He's inside here."

"I don't know Jarred. I still think this is weird…" Sylph was very skeptical. "Are you sure that the Demon King is in here?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out…"

Jarred brought out the keys that they had taken from the now-dead guard. He tried each one until he found the correct one.

CLANK

Jarred opened the heavy door that creaked very loudly. To the shock of the entire group, they didn't find any demons. Instead… They found a young human lady with blonde hair.

She woke up from the creaking of the door, opening and revealing her eyes to be an emerald green. She oriented herself quickly, not recognizing any of them. She looked on, in complete confusion. "W-what??" She asked in complete disbelief. "Wh…Who are you people?"

The lady who stood before them was Kalika Archelion.

Jarred could only stare in confusion at the lady. "Where's the Demon King?"