“Arhg!” a White Knight exclaimed as I kicked him away from me, knocking him out and causing him to land close to other knights.

However, everywhere I looked, the hall kept filling with knights and soldiers, who would quickly pulled out the ones that were either dead or passed out. I was also unable to quickly check the status of each one of them to know who I should get rid of or not, so I was trying my best to avoid killing someone, but I couldn't avoid it every time.

“Ha!” Super-Demon shouted, using that same Soul Beam that he used constantly, hitting a soldier, burning him slightly and eventually knocking him out just like he did with Reeta.

Despite the amount of times I’d seen him use that same spell, I couldn’t understand exactly what it did. That spell could destroy other forms of magic with the same ease that I could with my Darkness and Hellfire Power, but at the same time, it seemed to not harm people as much as it should. I knew that it was doing something to the soul, but there didn’t appear to be much of a change in people after being hit by that, so I was having a hard time trying to understand it, and sadly, this wasn’t the right place to do it.

As for Nicole, she was busy doing the same as me, trying her best not to kill anyone either, but after a while, she stood back and decided to defend Super-Demon while I tried to push past the people here, so she was currently keeping a wall of fire between her and any other knight or soldier that tried to get closer to them.

A wall that was put to the test as a Knight with a golden glowing mace ran to her with the weapon held high. I slashed with my blade, empowering it with a bit of Hellfire, pushed away the handful of Knights that were trying to surround me, and burst ahead to the knight that was about to attack Nicole. In an instant, I reached the position, and with my leg stretched in the Knight’s direction, I pierced my boot to his side, sending him away and forcing him to crash with one of the far away walls.

But none of this did anything to deter the people shooting us, running to us, and using magic against us, so I was forced to create another Darkness Barrier to block the rain of attacks that fell upon us after my kick.

With a loud boom, everything crashed with the barrier. None of it was Holy Power, so I was easily able to withstand it; however, we were wasting too much time here, and Feng Liu and his people might be coming here soon to look for Eletha. I had to go over these people.

“Althea!” Nicole shouted from behind her wall of fire, causing me to half-turn my face her way. “I know that you need to get to that Eletha elf. I’ll handle the people here, you go ahead!”

“I can’t leave you here!” I loudly refuted, trying to speak over the barrage of magic, bullets and explosions. As much as I would like to move ahead, I would prefer not to leave Nicole in such a dangerous place.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve dealt with groups like this before,” she said with a confident tone of voice. “Besides, if you’ve been paying attention, nobody has popped out of the large doors at the back, and they’re all gathering as if to block the way there. You should go through it while I hold them back.”

I considered her words for a moment as Knights and spells crashed with our barriers. She was right in that nobody was coming out of a couple of large doors at the back of the hall, which also gave me the idea that perhaps that was where Eletha could be giving orders from, but we couldn’t be sure, and the best way to fight ahead would be if we were all together.

“Come on, Althy!” Nicole shouted, her wall of fire growing and forcing a few people away from it. “No time for hesitation now that we’ve come this far! What? Have you forgotten all the years of Hero-ing job you have on your belt?”

I bit my lower lip after she said that. She was right in her assessment, but I just wasn’t the same person from before, who would’ve gladly sacrificed everyone with her to do the Holy Gods’ bidding. But… the longer that we stayed here, the higher the chances of everything going wrong.

With a sharp nod, I followed her advice. If we just wanted to get to the back of the hall, then there was no need to kill or incapacitate everyone here. We just had to make a path. So I clenched my left hand in the direction of the barrier, causing it to shatter, and then manipulated my power to turn it into a mist of darkness. Immediately after, I spread it in a straight line to the doors we were aiming for, causing knights and soldiers alike to get out of the way, fearing that it was some form of deadly attack.

But it was just a darkness path, there only to obscure their vision and force them out of the way. “Let's go!”

Nicole grabbed Super-Demon by the wrist and pulled him along as she ran behind me through the path of darkness that I created. The young skeleton wasn’t prepared for that, so her pull caused him to fall forward, but since we were running so fast, he didn’t have a chance to hit the ground as Nicole dragged him along.

In no time, we reached the doors, and with a powerful swing of my Darkness and Hellfire-covered weapon, the large metallic doors were split in half, before I kicked them away. Nicole tossed Super-Demon inside and then turned to face the army of Knights and Soldiers.

“Ste—Super-Demon! You better look after Althy!” she shouted without turning to look my way as she raised a wall of fire. “I’ll keep your backs covered over here, so go do your thing!”

I looked at her burning back and fiery dress for a moment. I really didn’t want to leave her here… but I also knew that she was much stronger than she appeared. “Nicole, please be careful.”

She half-turned her face with a confident smirk. “Don’t you worry. I’ve grown strong enough to at least handle—” an explosion of golden light hit her fiery wall, interrupting her in the process. However, the wall didn’t even shake. “See? I’ll be fine. I’ll go find you as soon as I can, and I better not find you like last time, y’hear me?!”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

With one last look at her, and a strong nod, I turned to run deeper into the wide hallway that we stepped into with Super-Demon trying his best to keep up with me. Still, I couldn’t help but give one last glance back as I was running to look at Nicole. She raised her hands and the wall of fire turned higher, and then she punched ahead, causing a torrent of fire to shoot from the middle of the wall.

I couldn’t keep looking, so after seeing that, I turned once more to look forward.

This hallway was bright, with several metal doors to the side, but since nobody was walking out of them, and I wasn’t sensing any magic being used, I decided to ignore it and focus on what was ahead of me. At the back of the hallway, I just saw a wall, but beyond it, I could feel Holy Power being used. However, the same I could feel coming from several directions around that place, so I couldn’t be sure of where Eletha was, or what she was doing. The only thing I could do was push forward, and hopefully find her before anything happened.

Once I reached the wall, I turned to look at the hallways that spread to my left and right. The walls changed this time, making it look like these hallways were tubes instead. And yet, there was plenty of space to move inside, as even a car like Bo'guth's should be able to drive inside if it was needed. I couldn’t tell where they led as both of these paths curved slightly the deeper they went, but both of them turned in the direction that I needed to go.

“Should we split here?” Super-Demon asked, his eyes set on the left path.

I shook my head in response. “I don’t think that you can fight on your own—at least not yet. Besides, I need you for when I face Eletha, so we should stay together.”

“Then what? Do we toss a coin?” he asked, “Though, I don’t have any money on me.”

His suggestion was silly but… we still needed to pick a path and see where it led. Without knowing exactly where to go, I turned to the right and started running that way. Super-Demon followed after me, but after a short distance, his pace lowered. There was no time to rest right now, and I couldn’t leave him behind, so I used Flight Magic on him as usual and pulled him along.

Rooms with seemingly random numbers, barrels, crates, and tools that I saw now particular use passed by me. None of them were of interest, and it seemed like they were dropped in a rush, likely due to our attack on the base. There were other hallways connecting to this tubular path, but even when I momentarily stopped to feel around them, at most I could feel just normal magic being used. They were not in the direction that I needed to go, so I ignored them.

After a while, I finally reached a large path that connected to this one to my right. It was the only one from which I could feel Holy Power, which meant that this tubular path was like a closed circuit and I had reached the other side. It didn’t really matter, so I turned to the right and ran.

This one was like a normal rectangle hallway, with only a handful of doors to the sides, and the most striking one being the one at the back. It was just a pair of simple double doors, so as soon as I reached them, I burst right through them.

They opened to a dimly lit large room, full of unknown artifacts and equipment to me. There were glass tubes with apparently sleeping people inside; machines making noises while slapping other tools; and artifacts with pointy gun-like appearances that snapped on me as soon as I stepped inside.

And standing above it all, at the top of the room, was a long glass window that stretched from one side to the other. I couldn’t exactly see what was beyond the window, but I could see the silhouette of someone standing on the other side.

“Well, well, well,” the voice of an older man resounded all over the room. But I could easily tell that it was coming out from speakers. “What do we have here? A couple of lost test subjects? Knights that don’t know their place? Or… is it just idiots that don’t know right from wrong and just do what they’re told?”

I ignored the voice and focused on the room around me. That was definitely not Eletha’s voice, and yet… everywhere I looked, I sensed a great amount of Holy Power. This had to be the place where Eletha was supposed to be, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Is it ignoring me?” the older man’s voice resounded once more, and there were a couple of taps in the window at the top. “This is the point where stupid people ask about the situation they’re in.”

“Where is Eletha Dawnlight?” I finally asked, my eyes set on the windows.

“Looking for the boss?” the old man’s voice asked back, followed by a short chuckle. “I’m afraid that you juuuust missed her. She was here a few minutes ago, but sadly… as you might guess… she’s not here anymore.”

With a click of my tongue, I decided to leave this place, but as soon as I turned around, the doors that I used to come here immediately closed with a bang and a large steel plate falling on top of it, followed by a golden barrier being summoned to protect it all.

“Isn’t it kinda rude to just leave after invading my space? I mean, you didn’t even ask about all the great things that I’m doing here!” the old man’s voice said with a sarcastic tone, acting as if he was furious.

I turned a glare up at the window. “I have no time for this.”

“What? Not even to say ‘sorry for coming unannounced’?” he said with a sigh. “Kids these days… they’re spending so much time online that they don’t even know how to interact with other people, especially with their elders.”

My blade flared with both Darkness and Hellfire, and with a swift swing, I slashed at the golden barrier standing in my way. There was an explosion of my powers when I hit it, but the barrier simply trembled under my power. I knew that was a barrier made out of Holy Power… but it was strange that it was standing there without Eletha summoning it.

“Oh!” exclaimed the old man. “That’s really interesting! Most test subjects can’t even move one of these, but you managed to do it without any effort and…” from the top of the room a tiny camera-like artifact popped out, from where a golden glint appeared on its lens. “Would you look at that?! You have the same kind of magical signature that the boss has!”

I sighed and set my sights on the window up above. If he was going to keep me in here, then I guess I’d have to go out using the same door that he used to be up there. I gathered my power once more, and with a powerful jump, I leaped in the direction of the window and the silhouette. However, as soon as I was just a handful of steps away from it, another Holy Barrier formed around the whole window, forcing me to crash with it as my power exploded.

There was a loud laughter coming from the old man. “Tsk, tsk. Don’t be in such a hurry. Now that I have someone like you in here… I should put all your powers to the test! There’s much to be learned!”

Right after falling to the ground, all the tools, test subjects, and strange artifacts were sucked underground, replaced by a metallic plate, while every weapon mounted on the walls, and coming from the ground, started glowing with Holy Power. Super-Demon was frozen on the spot, but it seemed like whoever was behind all of this wasn’t interested in him at the moment, as they were all pointed at me. A good thing for me, since right after those weapons charged, beams of Holy Power were fired from them.

They were not too different from the ones that Eletha shot at me the first time I saw her, but this time, I was in perfect condition to fight, so by bending my body mid air, I was able to dodge a few of those shots, and by raising a Darkness and Hellfire Barrier, I was able to block the ones that I couldn’t dodge.

Once the barrier exploded, I turned the remaining power to spears and shot them to the weapons, managing to destroy a handful of them, before I stood on the ground once more with a glare directed at the window. “Your artifacts are gone now. Tell us now where Eletha is.”

“Gone?” the old man replied, after which a new set of weapons popped out, replacing the ones that were destroyed. “There’s plenty more to go!”