“Hey.”

“Hey…”

“Is something wrong, you look a bit down?”

Isabella called out to Beatrice that was leaning against the railing of the large elven flying ship. The battle with the two remaining demon lords was now over. They were resting right outside the barrier to the demonic continent.

After Zhang Dong had taken care of the Demon Lord of Blood, the larger Demon Lord of Destruction went down with ease. There was no need for Zhang Dong to get involved as Takeshi and the rest of the heroes were enough.

The large monster only had size but was clearly not very intelligent. It was unable to contend with all the firepower that the people of the races threw at it. Takeshi only needed to utilize his magical sword to slice off the monster’s head after it had been weakened. The whole battle took a while but it wasn’t that dangerous thanks to the flight advantage that they had. Zhang Dong was sure to snatch the last cube fragment before it was absorbed by the group of heroes instead.

Now the elves were making preparations to get this barrier out of the way. The dwarves and humans slowly set up the perimeter around here to block out any demonic monsters that might want to disturb them. The fog was still there and it was thick. Even though the demon lords were dead, that didn’t mean that the lesser demons wouldn't try their luck.

“Oh it’s nothing, just thinking about the future, everything is going so fast. It feels like the summoning ritual was just yesterday, then Mr. Leigong appeared...”

Beatrice lowered her head and slumped against the ship’s railing, it was clear to Isabella that was right next to her that something was wrong. The girl decided to place her hand on Beatrice’s shoulder as she moved right next to her.

“It’s going to be fine, we’ll be fine. I’m sure that Demon King will have no chance against your great spirit!”

“I know that… it’s just…”

Beatrice gave out a sigh while looking out in a random direction, there she saw the dwarven golems moving some magical equipment closer to the barrier. This barrier looked like a giant mirror, it reflected whatever was on their side. Due to this, it was impossible to know what was on the other side. The possibility of monsters being there was quite high.

“It’s going to be fine, we are going to make it through this together!”

Isabella placed her hand on Beatrice’s while moving closer, she could clearly tell that her friend was getting emotional but she wasn’t sure why. Beatrice looked at Isabella’s hand that was placed on her own and then up which caused the girls eyes to meet.

“You know, I used to hate you…”

“Oh....”

Isabella didn’t pull her hand away and Beatrice didn’t seem like she had anything against this treatment either.

“I wasn’t the nicest person before, this journey opened my eyes up to many things. I used to think that people were below me, that nothing else mattered than noble status.”

“I remember how angry you looked whenever Prince Ludwig gave me attention.”

Beatrice replied while chuckling a bit. The two girls thought back to their old relationship, if it wasn’t for their common dislike for what the prince did they might not have been friends now.

“Well, that idiot did one thing right.”

“Oh, and what would that be?”

“He opened up my eyes…”

Isabella started leaning up towards Beatrice, the two girls were looking into each other's eyes. Time seemed to slow down for the two, it was as if all the noise disappeared and only the two remained in place.

“Beatrice?...”

“Huh?”

The two finally snapped back to reality and looked to the side. There, a Takeshi with a confused expression on his face was standing.

“What were you two…”

He asked as Isabella jumped back as her face was really close to Beatrice’s.

“Oh, she had some dirt on the shoulder…”

Isabella coughed into her hand once before moving to the side. Beatrice just nodded while laughing nervously.

“Is there something you wanted, Lord Takeshi?”

“Oh, The elves were asking for Leigong’s help. He seemed to go away after the battle between the demon lords.”

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Zhang Dong returned to his soul dimension to conserve energy. He was taking his time to cultivate so he didn’t really notice what the two girls were doing. Beatrice knew this as well, whenever Zhang Dong cultivated he needed to be called out several times before he noticed.

“Ah, I’ll call him over now.”

With a little crackle of thunder Leigong the Spirit Emperor was out and about.

“Hm… what’s with this mood? Did something happen?”

Zhang Dong was greeted with uncomfortable silence. Beatrice and Isabella were blushing for some reason, their heart rates were also through the roof. After a quick checkup, it didn’t seem that they were affected by any kind of illness.

“N-nothing happened, the Hero just wanted to have a word with you Mr. Leigong.”

“Alright…”

He removed himself from the scene, him being there seemed to make everyone even more uncomfortable. His thoughts were more on the mission before him as this was almost the end of the journey.

“Great spirit, we have made the preparations, we can open up a gap in the barrier but it won’t be enough to get our ships through…”

“Oh, is that so? Let me take a look.”

He floated over to where the magical devices were placed. Many dwarven golems were stationed outside with their cannons pointed at this very spot. This was the section of the barrier where all of the known demonic beings came from.

Now with the eradication of the five archdemons, the people of the races could take a knee and relax. Even if the demon king wasn’t destroyed they future was assured as the demonic armies could not advance into their lands.

Some felt that invading the demonic continent wasn’t a smart idea. No one knew if any more powerful demons resided on the other side of this barrier. It was unwise to poke the hornet’s nest but Zhang Dong needed to go forward. The last cube had to be there where the last boss was. He was now in control of this expedition so even when the princess protested they were quickly silenced by the others.

“It does seem that the entrance size will be limited…”

After scanning the mirror-like barrier he could see that the elven assessment was true. It seemed that even if he was in his most powerful state he wouldn’t be able to destroy this barrier.

The entrance was about two meters in height and one meter in width. It wouldn’t even allow any of the golems to pass through just regular human beings.

‘It looks like this was purposely made like this… Probably to have a small team of heroes enter. I wouldn’t be surprised if the barrier closes instantly after Takeshi and the others go through it…’

He didn’t like the looks of this. There was a big possibility of not being able to turn back if something went wrong. It didn’t look all bad though, all of the demon lords were slain and he had recovered the cube fragments himself.

Sometimes in situations like this, the old boss monsters would return for another fight. He had their power sources though so this was an unlikely scenario. Due to him being here things had changed, the possibility of the demon king on the inside being weaker than he would normally be was also high.

He was banking on this being true, nothing in this world had really been a challenge to him. The girls were constantly pushing their own mana capacities up and he was also getting stronger.

‘I think I should go in there alone…’

Even with that, he didn’t feel like he should endanger the girls or anyone that came with him. He would not risk other people's lives to get what he wanted. He would rather try getting home with the current number of cubes than have Beatrice or Isabella pay the ultimate price.

“Okay listen up, I need you to do something…”

With this, he called out to the elven magicians that came along with him. Now was the time to use all of the extensive knowledge from both of his worlds.

“I came to serve, great spirit!”

“Good, get everyone, I will announce the plan. Have all the ships come together, we will need to take them apart for this to work. Also, get me some paper to write on.”

He rubbed his chin while thinking about how they would be progressing. Within an hour he had all the people of the races gathered. Beatrice, Isabella and the party of heroes were here. The members of the royal family were also here but they kept their distance.

“The entrance to the demon continent is far too small for a large force to enter. Thus I have decided on…”

“Yes, we will gladly go in!”

Before Zhang Dong could proclaim his plan Takeshi jumped forward with his sword raised. Zhang Dong could see the youth sneaking glances at Beatrice while trying to seem gallant and heroic.

“Be quiet you idiot.”

Before this could get out of hand he received a smack to the head.

“None of you will be entering the demonic continent, I alone will face the demons.”

“You alone? We know that you are strong, but how will you face the demon king alone and without the help of your summoner?”

The one asking the question was one of the older princes. The other people gathered here also started mumbling with each other. Everyone knew his strength but they knew that he required Beatrice and Isabella to power him constantly.

“Don’t worry about that, even you will be able to help out, we will do it like this…”

With that said Zhang Dong took out a large piece of parchment that had a strange spell formation with many magical runes on it. This was of course a greater version of the spell formation he utilized during the fight with the first Archdemon that he faced. He expanded on the design which would allow him to draw his power from even the ship's mana engines.

“That is?”

“This is how I will defeat the Demon King, now listen up...”

He quickly explained the gist of his plan. Just like before Beatrice and Isabella would need to sit in the middle of the formation while everyone else was used as sub energy sources. This time around though there were proper powerful mages and machines he could draw his power from.

For some, the plan seemed too good to be true. Sending in a summoned spirit to take out the demon king while everyone stayed behind and was safe sounded outlandish. Most of the people and soldiers here were ready to give up their life for the cause but it seemed that they wouldn’t get a chance for that.

“W-why were we even summoned here if it ends like this…”

Takeshi grumbled while sitting down, he was still hoping to show off his fighting form in front of the ladies.

“Isn’t this fine? We’ll be able to go home if this is over.”

Ami commented while trying to calm down Takeshi. The people from this world were already working. The ships were being taken apart for their mana engines and the golems as well. Zhang Dong had the last say here so the plan would be going through.

“Playing hero isn’t all fun and games Takeshi, leave it up to me. Sometimes you should rely on the adults.”

Takeshi looked a bit down, probably not finding that he wouldn’t get to be the big hero this time around.

“With that, I’ll be leaving the girls up to you. I bet the demons will figure out this plan sooner or later and send a strike force over. Protect them with your life while I’m gone.”

He gave Takeshi a small smack to the chest which seemed to reinvigorate the youth.

“Leave it to me!”

“Okay, let's get this over with!”