Novels2Search
One with Betrayal
08 - Returning Heroes

08 - Returning Heroes

Slightly Edited

The moon hung high overhead radiating a brilliant light that lit up the walls of the inner castle. There were two people currently in the inner courtyard.

“Elizabeth, I tried my best. I… I just couldn’t save him. I’m sorry...” James stuttered, his face was distressed. He didn’t think that Elizabeth had grown this much on Dante.

“I… I understand.. but please, just leave me alone James.” She replied with emphasis on his name. She knew that James never really liked Dante, and he would always cause problems.

Just recently, she recalled the events before she left through the portal. Nick had placed her down, and she was told to go through before the rest. She knew that this was to protect her, she was the 2nd weakest in the group of heroes. She also knew that James speed could excel Nick’s if he tried his best, and his strength may be less but he was still capable. If Nick could do it, he could do it as well, and hours ago Nick made it through the portal with Sean easily, James only following afterwards with his head down.

James had thought that his plan would work, but it had failed. Dante was out of the picture and Elizabeth was in denial. James hung his head down after taking one last look at Elizabeth thinking that one day she would truly be his. He left through the gate leading out of the inner court yard and went to the training room to let out his anger.

“Dante…”, Elizabeth stared at the moon wishing that the event never happened. She shook her head, she had to stay resolute. She grabbed her staff that laid next to her leaning on the table and got up to leave. She was going to check on Sean in the infirmary. On the way back to the castle, James carried Elizabeth and Sean was carried by Nick. They cut the amount of speed that it took the first time while travelling, they could easily do that with their strength.

The reason that they went slow the first time was because Dante had been with their group. Nick was stressed, and had a defeated look on his face on the way back and when he arrived he dropped Sean off in the infirmary and went straight to report what happened directly to the King. He knew that he couldn’t do anything besides hope for revenge on the Demon.

--------------------------

In the Infirmary, Sean was laid the bed surrounded by the Kingdom’s finest holy priests. They were working their best to cure the wound. The wound was surging with demonic power and it was surprising that he was still alive. Sean was only a level 14 and his physical body was pretty meagre , and the reason he survived even a blow to the leg was even mind boggling to everyone present! The head holy priestess was at the scene, scanning his body with holy power. When Elizabeth was about to enter, she heard the sudden shrieks coming from inside the room.

The priest were laying on the ground, and the holy priestess was covering her mouth with her hand. Elizabeth turned to see a bright light surrounding him, it was emitting a powerful aura that slowly subsided into his chest, his body convulsed but he calmed down afterwards. The wound that was emitting demonic aura subsided and visibly disappeared. Demonic power was known to stay attached like a leech and it would take even the best priest days to get rid of! This was an astonishing rate of recover! The holy priestess slowly lowered her trembling hand over the body to emit another scan, but she was even more bewildered once she found out what happened.

Elizabeth was shocked at the scene at first, but was glad that Sean was okay afterwards. If she lost another person that came from the same world she did, she wouldn’t know what to do. She worried for everyone in their group and hoped that everyone would be safe in this foreign world.

“Is he okay?”, Elizabeth asked with concern.

The head holy priestess shook her head in return, “Yes he is okay, but this is amazing...“. She was extremely glad and she looked towards Elizabeth, “You stay here incase he wakes up, I have to directly report this to the king!”

Elizabeth watched as the head holy priestess hurried out of the room. Afterwards, she knelt by Sean’s side and looked at him. His breathing had returned to normal, his eyes slowly opened.

He slowly opened his mouth, “...huh Elizabeth?”, He sat up his body, and looked around and then his eyes fell onto the place where he was wounded hours ago.

“Wh… What happened?”, He was confused but also glad that his leg was fine.

“I’m not sure, check your ID Card though to see if you can find anything out.” Elizabeth was just as confused as he was.

Sean pulled his ID Card out and had it in his hand.

ID CARDName:SeanRace:HumanHealth:1000/1000MP:2800/2800Alignment:GoodEXP:75%Class:HeroLevel:20StatsStrength95Intelligence122(+61 [183])Endurance110 (+9 [119])Magic200 (+100 [300])Agility55Active SkillsWater Bolt - 150 MP (110 MP) - Harnessing the power of the water in the air, you can form a bolt of water to damage your enemies.Icefield - 250 MP (220 MP) - Summons an Icefield that encompanses enemies within.Ice Shard - 220 MP (200 MP) - An upgraded Water Bolt that can easily pierce enemies.Waterbind - 170 MP (150 MP) - Sends a torrent of water to an enemy chaining their movement.Passive SkillsA Hero’s blessing: Since you are a hero, you have a 25% experience boost.(new!) Ice Skin - Strengthens the body forming a layer of ice when attacked.(new!) Ariel’s Protection: Resistance to Demonic Power and 50% increase to intelligence / magic.EquipmentWizard Hat (Magic Item)

MP Regen Increase

Robe of Water (Magic Item) Slightly Damaged

Water Magic MP Cost decrease

1 Endurance

Normal Leather Legs

5 Endurance

Normal Leather Boots

3 Endurance

Seans face brightened up as soon as his ID card was revealed under his eyes. “6 whole levels!”, he yelled out and jumped out of his bed. His body felt brand new, he didn’t feel his previous injury. Elizabeth stood by confused.

“Sean show me your ID card too.” Elizabeth wanted to see what the commotion was about. Sean reached out his arm displaying the ID Card to her. She was surprised as well, this was quicker than when Nick leveled while training with the Elite Guards! James also trained with the Elite Guards but his leveling speed was slower than Nicks. The Hero’s blessing buff was just a little extra boost, the key for a lot of EXP was motivation and hard work.

Nick only got to his level by nonstop training, blood and sweat. Elizabeth and Sean had to go to classes on the background of Magic and learn before they got to field test and get experience. Mages found it a lot harder to level than warriors did, but their hard work pays off in the end. A lot of powerful mages could overcome warriors that were past their level. This all depended on equipment and skills though, mages were an asset for the human kingdoms as they had powerful multi target spells that could be used in big battles with the demons.

“Elizabeth, where are the others?” He was happy, he was now closer to Nick and James.

“Sean before that…” Elizabeth's face paled, her eyes began to tear up.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Elizabeth, what happened?” Sean was confused on what he did that made her cry.

“Dante… he didn’t make it out alive…” she stood teary eyed looking at Sean.

“What! Didn’t James say he was going to grab him?” Sean looked at Elizabeth.

“James told Nick that he almost died trying to do so, and could only escape with his life…” Elizabeth muttered.

Sean tried to recall the event, but when he did it was murky, he didn’t remember much. The only thing he could remember was the pain of having a spear go straight through his leg.

“Elizabeth, it will be alright. We don’t know if James was telling the truth or not.” Sean shook his head, he knew that Dante was probably dead but the this was the only way he could comfort Elizabeth, hew knew she had feelings for Dante before, and he also knew that James secretly liked her.

“I’ll figure everything out, you go get some rest.” Sean patted Elizabeth’s back. She turned and began to walk slowly to her room. Sean walked with her back for awhile but was taken away by the head holy priestess, she said that he had to start training immediately to become accustomed to the large amount of magic power that he gained in a short amount of time.

---------------------------

After the meeting between Nick and the King…

Nick was looking out his room’s window staring at the moon, “I’m sorry Dante…” He regretted that he couldn’t defeat the demon and protect his party. “Fang and the others as well…” The memories ran through his head like they happened only seconds ago. Fang was decapitated, Nick had used identify on Fang before to find out that he was level 57, he was highly skilled among the Elite Guards. He tried to use identify on the demon as well, but for some reason the information displayed was jumbled up.

He tightened his fists staring out the window, demons were cruel villainous creatures. When he was training with the guards he had heard countless stories about them. He knew that he was brought into the world to destroy them, it was his duty.

Knock, Knock

Nick turned to the door only to hear, “Hero, I come with a proposal.” He stopped looking out the window and wandered over to the door to open it.

The aura filled the room after it was opened, behind the door was a old man wearing dark black armor that seemed to devour the moonlight that touched it. His aura was thick and powerful enough to make Nick’s knees weak.

“Who are you?” Nick was confused and had never seen this old man around the castle before.

“I am the leader of the Black Wind Knight's, hero.” He entered the room, “I am here to ask you to become my disciple, I heard what happened and training with the elite guards of the castle will do you no good for revenge.”

“Black Wind Knight’s?” Nick was confused.

“Yes, the Black Wind Knights. It is a group that I made years ago, it has 15 genius warriors who have been gathered from our Kingdom. I am their master, Raven”, Raven paused to make sure Nick got everything, “also, the reason you never have heard of us before is because we are the silent protectors of the kingdom.” He nodded in praise, he was generally proud of his accomplishments in the Kingdom. He held himself high above others.

Nick let the information sink in before he opened his mouth, “What will I have to do to get my revenge?” Nick was set on getting his revenge for Dante and the others. He vowed this night that he would win the war for the humans against the demons.

“I will train you personally at Black Castle,” Raven turned to look at Nick who was staring back at him. “We will leave when time comes, I have business in the castle. In this time, you can relax, train or do whatever you want.” He nodded in satisfaction, if he was to train a hero, he could raise a powerhouse for the Black Wind Knights!

Raven left the room afterwards, leaving Nick alone. Nick saw his path that was set, and decided to follow it. All he could do now was protect the surviving members of the group and the human race.

-----------------------------

Sometime after James training session….

“God dammit, how come my plan didn’t work!” dirt flew up from the kick James delivered to the ground. He was standing outside the castle in the nearby woods. He was still stressed from the situation between him and Elizabeth.

“If only she just became mine!” James sneered at the thought of not being able to have her, before he came to this world he was a rich kid who was given everything from his parents. He was suddenly whisked away, he knew that he had been chosen because he was special in the first place. When he saw Elizabeth, she was cuter than any of the girls that he had in the past! He was furious when he saw that she hung out quite a bit with Dante. He then vowed that he would do anything to make her his. This is the reason he felt that Dante had to die.

In the middle of the woods, a cold breeze passed through the leaves of the trees. This breeze caused James to shiver.

“You, child...” Suddenly a red mist emerged from the darkness which caused James to freeze up in terror.

After the red mist settled, it changed its form revealing a humanoid. It was the Demon that had killed Fang and the others. The Demon smiled, it was looking at James with murderous intent.

“Wha… What are you doing here!” James shouted, but he knew no matter how much he shouted the castle was far away and no one would hear him.

“Quiet.” with one word James mouth was trembling but it was forced shut.

“You. I sense that you are a good candidate for the new Demon King.” The Demon was smiling, he was glad that he finally found the person that capable of fulfilling in the prophecies.

James was standing still stunned, his knees were shaking. The Demon smiled at the sight, “If you are the one to become the new Demon King. You can do whatever you please, and have anything you want.” James looked at him, his eyes were filled with fear.

He was scared but when he heard that he could get whatever he wanted, something rose from the back of his mind. “I can have anything?” He asked weakly.

“Yes, you can have anything.” The Demon said once again, his voice was firm and unwavering.

“What does it take to become Demon King?” James asked.

“You seem to have fulfilled most of the requirements, you need to go through the ritual to become a Demon. Afterwards, you will slowly gain the power through hard work and dedication.” The Demon nodded his head as he explained.

“And what if I don’t want to do this ritual?” James asked.

“Then you will die here.” The Demon held out his arm, and in it appeared the red spear that pierced Sean in the leg.

“I will become the Demon King then.” James smiled weakly, he didn’t want to think of what would become of him if he didn’t agree with this Demon.

“Then wait a few weeks, train more and become more powerful or else you will not be able to undergo the ritual. When time comes, there will be a envoy coming here to fetch you. There may be a few problems on the way with that old man if he stays here, If I am forced to fight him I may not even survive without going all out. Tsk “ The Demon sneered, then he looked towards James, “You start training immediately, I’m going to watch over you for the next couple of weeks.” The Demon slowly turned to red mist and disappeared.

James stood for awhile before tightening his fist, he had always desired more power. He was always discontent with being under Nick all the time. He finally found that the way he would be able to gain Elizabeth as well. He slowly then made his way back towards the castle to go to start training.

There was without a say how the next couple of weeks would go for the group of heroes.

***************************************

This was finished later than I anticipated, but nevertheless I got it out :3

Hope you enjoy the read, this time not following the main character

If you have any suggestions, fixes, concerns or anything else.

Feel free to comment! I read everything.