The blue skies dazzled with the rays of the morning sun. Warm sunlight fell onto the earth, where various grass, plants, and trees grew. The scene of blue and green gently rocked from side to side with the morning breeze. Nature was beautiful, calm, and serene.

However, within this picture of calm, two figures were in a hurry.

“Hiya!”

They whipped their horses and sprinted across the field at breakneck speeds, their rush at complete odds with the apparent peacefulness of their surroundings.

The two were naturally Ray and Drake who were making their way to the elven village. Pushing their horses to the limits, they were now more than halfway there and wanted to join the front lines as soon as possible.

However, at this point, their well-trained battle instincts were screaming at them as if a huge threat was approaching.

On reflex, both of them dashed sideways. The earth in front of them which they would have stepped into, suddenly cracked and two huge monsters broke out of it, rising over twenty metres into the sky.

The two monsters blocked out the sun as they stared down at them. They had no eyes but two large and curved horns were protruding from the sides of their circular heads. A huge mouth containing rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth took up most of their heads. From the centre, a forked tongue slithered out like that of a snake’s.

“Demon earth worms!” they cried.

These were worms that resided in the earth that became demonic and turned into these monsters. Usually, their length was only around five to ten metres. The fact that these were so long only meant one thing – they were warrior class demons!

Ordinary people might have been helpless before these monsters, however the duo was anything but ordinary. Ray’s strength was almost equal to a grand mage, so he could fight even against commander class demons. As for Drake, if he went all out, even pseudo commander class demons would find it difficult to kill him.

Despite being taken by surprise, the two immediately calmed themselves.

Drake summoned an iron boomerang, but made it extra large and sharp, whereas Ray unsheathed his sword.

The earthworms towering into the skies looked down at the tiny humans drawing their weapons with a look of hunger. The scene of two people fighting a monster twenty times their size was bizarre, however there was nothing but confidence in their eyes.

The worms roared and charged at the duo.

Drake saw the huge worm approaching him at an unbelievable speed. He used his boomerang to attack the worm from the right. A large gash formed at the side of its neck but the boomerang could not cut straight through its head. However, the impact still pushed the worm down.

The worm roared in pain and quickly burrowed into the ground.

Acute sense!

Drake couldn’t see the worm but he heightened his sense of sound to the maximum. The noise of Ray’s battle become very loud in his ears but he ignored that and placed his full concentration underground. While observing the ground, he was making the boomerang move in circles above him at faster and faster speeds, building up power.

‘There!’

He sensed that the worm was about to pounce from his back and immediately turned around and jumped back. He brought the boomerang down as fast as possible. The worm jumped out of the earth, eager to devour its prey in its jaws, but the moment it appeared, it felt a chill run through its bones.

The worm tried to turn but it was too late. Its head was severed cleanly from its neck. It couldn’t even scream, before its life came to an end.

Glad at having dealt with his demon, Drake turned to face his master. However, just as he was doing so, his battle instincts screamed at him once again. Without hesitation, he pulled his horse backwards, but at that moment another chill went through his spine.

Drake kissed his teeth and jumped out of his horse, only to see the part of the ground he jumped from and was about to jump into both break apart. Two new, twenty-metre-tall worms came out, the latter swallowing the horse in one gulp.

But that wasn’t all!

The ground around him all broke and gigantic worms started coming out one after the other.

Ray wasn’t in any better position. He had just dealt with his demon worm too before being surrounded by a dozen of them. Ray looked worriedly at Drake. These demon worms were troublesome to deal with due to their ability to hide underground. Plus, they were individually strong due to their size, and these worms were especially so due to being warrior class. And now being attacked by a dozen of them was something that he wasn’t sure if Drake could handle.

However, one look at Drake showed that he had no hint of fear. He also saw a dead worm lying next to Drake and was surprised that he had also dispatched of one of them so quickly.

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Ray smiled to himself with pride.

‘A master will never lose to his disciple boy,’ he thought. He then looked at the dozen worms surrounding him, completely confident of his victory.

“Come! After not having fought for a few years, you guys can give me a good warm up!” Ray yelled.

Enraged, the demon worms started charging at him one after the other.

On the other side, Drake was having a dilemma. He knew he could take on all these demon worms, but doing so would require him to go almost all out, and he would end up revealing his artifacts to Ray. He was hesitant to do so, but decided he didn’t have a choice.

So, when the first worm charged at him, he took a deep breath and stood his ground. He let the worm appear just inches before his face, its mouth wide open to eat its prey.

“Drake!” Ray yelled, thinking that his disciple was about to be eaten. However, what happened next stunned Ray even more.

Drake dug his legs into the ground and grabbed the ends of the demon’s mouth just as it was about to swallow him. He had activated metal legs and hammer fists and also poured mana into his robes to increase his defence. The force of the collision pushed Drake back almost fifty metres, however the worm was unable to close its jaws. The tiny human which it wanted to have as a starter was holding its jaws open like they were nothing.

Then, even more surprisingly, the worm felt the hands of the tiny human become warm, and then scorching hot. Before it could think, its entire body caught on fire.

The worm rose into the air and roared in pain as it was being burnt alive. It tried to go back underground to use the earth to put out the flames, however Drake wasn’t going to let that happen.

As it approached the ground, Drake appeared directly underneath it and jumped, attacking under its chin with metal leg. The twenty-metre-tall worm was kicked upwards and by this time, had been burnt so much that it lost all its strength. It fell weakly to the ground as it continued being burnt to a crisp.

Landing elegantly back to his feet, Drake turned to face the remaining worms who were behind him.

“Which one of you uglies want to die next?”

…

After Hazezel’s encouragement, Astoria went to visit Sam again; except, her intention wasn’t to break up with him anymore.

Astoria went to the inn Sam was staying in and spotted him having his late breakfast. Sam saw Astoria from the corner of his eye and happily stood up to greet her.

Astoria went up to him and, without hesitation, kissed him. Sam was taken by surprise. They had never kissed in public before as they wanted to keep their relationship a secret, so Astoria’s boldness was unexpected.

However, he decided to trust her and joined in, kissing her back passionately. The two lovers kissing in public drew some attention, but it wasn’t uncommon for people to do so, especially now in war time when nobody knew whether or not they would live to see tomorrow, so nobody cared much.

After a minute, Astoria pulled away but continued to hug Sam, laying her head on his chest. She could feel his hand on her waist and they just quietly embraced each other. Feeling his warmth, his heartbeat, Astoria didn’t want to let go at all.

No matter what happened, no matter what anyone said, what she wanted more than anything was to be with Sam. Even if the whole world opposed her, that is what she would do.

Thinking so, Astoria hugged him for a long time, leaving Sam confused on what had gotten into her.

Eventually, Astoria released him and took his hand in hers before looking into his eyes. She could feel his gentle and loving gaze reflected back.

She thought about what Holt said, about what her actions meant, and then thought about what Hazezel said. They were all incredibly important, and irreplaceable people in her lives. Her father, brothers, and Sam. She couldn’t choose between them; she wouldn’t choose between them.

If her father forced her to choose between them, then he was the one who was in the wrong!

He was being unreasonable!

She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She fell in love with an incredible man and wanted to live with him.

What was wrong in that?

There was something wrong with her father, but it wasn’t her job to fix him.

He would have to realise on his own, however long it may take.

Thinking so, Astoria continued to be silent, but now started walking, pulling Sam behind her.

“Where are we going?” Sam asked, unable to bear with the silence. However, Astoria continued to ignore him and walked up the stairs. Soon, she arrived in front of Sam’s room and pushed the door open, pulling Sam inside and closing the door behind her.

“What’s going on Astoria, are you okay? Is everything -!?” Astoria stopped Sam’s question with another kiss. After a while, she pulled away again and this time, started undressing.

Sam was surprised again, “Wait, what are you doing? Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied with one word but stared with the utmost conviction.

Sam had seen Astoria in various ways.

He had seen her as a scared and helpless girl who was about to be assaulted in their first meeting. He had seen her as a scheming woman when she came up with one plot after another to steal the Zenith pill. He literally saw her as a bloody, devilish goddess when she rescued him from prison, a moment which scared him even now.

But he also saw her courage and resolve when she offered to go with the dark mages. He saw her love for her family and her unshakeable will when she marched into the Beast Woods on her own, without hesitation, to try to help her brothers.

He wasn’t sure where in the middle of all of this it happened.

At some point in time, he started seeing her as something else.

He saw her beauty, love, kindness, affection, and warmth. Even the day when she murdered the guards, the day that scared him, remembering it now, there was no evil in her eyes. Maybe you could argue what she didn’t wasn’t very heroic, however, what she did, what she always tried to do, was the best she could for the people she loved.

That was the one constant about her.

She would go to the ends of the earth to protect those she cared about. And if anyone chose to harm her loved ones, she would cut them down mercilessly; not because she was a vengeful and hateful demoness, no, she was more like a protective, guardian angel.

That’s how Sam saw her now.

Combining her beauty, her resolve, her determination, her strength, her love, her affection, and her ruthlessness, she was basically a guardian angel. A guardian angel to him and his family, and a ruthless devil to her enemies – that’s who she was.

That’s the girl he loved.

He didn’t know what she liked about him. He was all in all, quite an average guy, or so he thought. So, he wasn’t sure what this incredible woman saw in him. However, he was happy. He was happy that she loved him as much as he loved her.

Till that time, Sam didn’t have a family or anyone important to protect. The only significant person in his life was Nala, and once she died, he wanted to just drink his sorrows away. The girl who brought him back from that, gave him a new life, gave him hope and love, was standing right before him.

Looking at her now, Sam also took a vow upon himself and kissed her.

No matter what happens, I will always be with you. I will always protect you.

As the two went to their room, a shadowy figure had watched the whole interaction – from Astoria appearing and kissing Sam, to them going into the room together.

The figure which no one noticed, crept silently back into the shadows, disappearing from the inn.