Seated atop a majestic wyvern was a small cohort of warriors dressed in intricate outfits. Expensive slick armour covered them in an aura different from that of the warriors below.

Resting in the elegantly designed scabbards at their waists were expertly made weapons of potent capabilities.

Among these individuals was a silent girl with an indifferent expression on her perfect face. She stared at the world below her without saying a word. Her right arm still buzzed slightly with the power of her guardian’s abilities.

“It wouldn’t kill you to smile a bit, Darla. You just killed a demon that a whole cohort of Elite Guards had failed to kill,” a girl at the back called out.

Darla regarded the girl for a bit. Her pleasant looks were accompanied by light makeup which only made her appear more angelic. If it wasn’t for the brutish warrior armour beneath her cloak, she could have entranced all men. Instead, weak men were afraid to approach her.

“There is no celebration to be made on a battlefield like this, Amber,” Darla responded coldly. She then turned to a blonde man casually dressed in golden armour behind her, “Julius, why didn’t we depart faster?”

Julius yawned, then wiped a hand through his shiny blonde hair, “Because we’re indispensable. Like you just demonstrated so beautifully, one of us is worth hundreds of them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking we can be in so many places at once.”

Darla turned her attention back to the battlefield down below. An entire town had been ravaged by the demon scourge. She’d seen what the demons could do many times before but nothing on this scale. It made no sense to her… Was the Demon King perhaps on the move?

The biggest and most perilous of the demons had been defeated and now all that was left was to clear the smaller ones. Of course, this was no easy job. Demons had insidious powers and their bodies were tougher than iron, sometimes being tough enough to shatter the steel of an ordinary sword.

It went without saying that the rest of the battle would be hard. On top of what was already a difficult battle, Darla witnessed the remaining bulbous boulders on the now-defeated demon pop and release more abominations. The battle was far from over…

Taking a deep breath she walked to the edge of the luxurious saddle atop that giant wyvern and looked down. It was a steep drop but not one that could injure her supposing she used the right spell to smooth her descent.

“Darla, have you forgotten who you take orders from?” Julius growled. His aura bubbled and he looked ready to kill someone and yet, his rage was met with a mere shrug.

“Of course, I know. I’m not dumb,” with a slight chuckle at the end of her words, Darla jumped.

The rider at the head of the giant wyvern chuckled as he brought a device to his lips, “Call the Priest. And tell them to bring extra hands and a lot of Spirit Water. There will be a lot of exorcising today.”

Amber giggled, “I’ve never seen the Great Julius take this long to tame a maiden he’s set his eyes on.”

Julius looked away from him with an angry expression, “She clings to the delusion of this all-powerful slayer with an S-class guardian. Alaric, she calls him… Tch! A complete hallucination if you ask me. If not a hallucination, then a coward of the highest calibre.”

“Delusion or not, she loves him more than I’ve ever seen a woman love a man. I’d consider it adorable if the person pursuing her was not you, Julius. She doesn’t even realise how many girls would wish to be in her shoes,” Amber sighed.

Julius smiled at the compliment, “Don’t worry. She’ll see it soon enough. I have faith that this… Alaric won’t be showing up any time soon. Not even the Tower of Seekers will speak of his existence anymore. With him out of the way, she’ll be mine soon enough.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

……………………

On her way down, Darla sneezed a couple of times, ‘He must be really angry to say my name so many times. Achoo!’

[ Can we focus on the battle ahead? Julius sickens me ] Apollo piped in, not doing anything to hide his dislike.

[ Sure thing ] the girl responded, drawing her sword from its scabbard. A few words of the Ancient Tongue passed her lips before the enchanted sword was wreathed with arcs of electricity. With one slice of the air before her, an arc of lightning went sailing straight for the swarm of insect-like demons she was hurtling towards.

The swarm lit up with the explosive force of the attack. Being so close to each other, the demons conducted the electricity through the whole swarm, causing a large swath to get sizzled by the same attack. A hole opened up in the horde of demons through which Darla slipped through and slammed onto the ground with a shockwave.

“Need some help?” she called to a commander recognized.

The bearded man nodded with a fond smile, “Men, this is no longer a battlefield but a competition for credits. Let’s show these monsters not to mess with the Elite Guardian Academy.”

Darla’s mind short-circuited, ‘Uh… what?’

It took her some time to register that she was meant to collect credits for all the demons she killed. ‘What a pain!’

[ We need those credits to buy more time in the Tempering Chamber ] Apollo mentioned.

She sighed, ‘I hear you, Apollo.’

In the next moment, her figure echoed through the battlefield as she zipped around the battlefield, cutting down demons like they were made of paper. The more credits she could get, the better. Her only regret was that she’d come late… Perhaps if she’d come earlier, this demon attack wouldn’t have gotten this bad.

As the battle raged on, nearing its conclusion, an angelic screech announced the arrival of another group. The air itself seemed to get cleaner and more pleasant with this group’s arrival. A glowing moth, larger than Garin’s stingray broke through the white carpet of the clouds, arriving with a group of people dressed in white elegant garments.

At the head of the creature, a woman dressed in white with a white veil over her head held her hands together in prayer, mumbling words of comfort. The crew she’d come with disembarked, each one of them flying off with mothlike wings attached to their backs, an extension of the great moth’s power.

The white-clad descended, each of them holding vials of glowing liquid which they poured on the bodies of the fallen demons in chorus with prayers in the Ancient Tongue. The liquid sizzled and spread, covering everything that was black and vile, turning it white, ethereal and wispy.

The battle ended soon after that.

As the sun travelled across the sky, the battlefield turned from a grim dangerous place with a dark miasma tainting the air to peaceful ruins cleansed of the demon scourge. A barrier in the plains far from the village dropped to reveal a large group of people, many injured and receiving treatment from the white-clad warriors.

Darla, having handed in the mountain of demon cores and getting her credits worth, made her way to these plains. Tents had been raised with several people darting in and out of them, transporting supplies needed to make treatments as well as delivering messages.

The warriors who saw her greeted her with respect as she walked through the camp, showing no reaction to the results of the demons’ carnage despite her bleeding heart.

‘If only we’d showed up earlier…’ she thought to herself.

[ No… Don’t go there. We did what we could ] Apollo screamed into her mind.

As she walked through, she found a slayer wrapping the wounds of an injured old man, “There you go, man. With that portion, it should heal in a day or two.”

Darla tilted her head at the boy’s words, “Why so long?”

Finn turned to her with a look of surprise, “Oh, Darl… Lady Darla. The high-grade potions have been reserved for the severely injured. There was a lot of destruction… some people lost limbs. The sort of stuff only high-grade potions can handle. But I guess you didn’t see that from all the way up there.”

“I helped…”

“Yes, Darla. We all saw your grand entrance. Kinda hard to miss an arrow that literally cuts through time and space,” Finn picked up the towels and equipment he’d been using and closed the first aid box, moving on to the next injured civilian.

The next person he tended to was a young boy, probably an orphan, who was still caught in a daze after all that had happened. “You okay, little boy.”

The boy snapped at him… and pulled his singed hand away, “I’m… I’m fine. Save my sister. She… she…”

Tears pooled in his eyes before he crumpled to the ground, reliving the horrifying moments at the start of the attack.

[ I hate this, Apollo ] Darla announced.

[ You hate the fame and fortune of having an A-class guardian or having your best friend treat you like a disgraceful noble? ] Apollo asked.

[ No… I can take Finn’s attitude. I deserve it… I hate my weakness… ]

[ Hey, I said we did what we could… ]

[ Alaric wouldn’t have let this happen. ]

[ Alaric is not here… and he hasn’t been here for six months. ] The guardian responded with an angry huff.