“Manna, get behind me!”

Without thinking, Matthias placed himself between her and Soleil, who was writhing on the ground. At the back of his mind, he hoped that the first attack was the end of it. But he knew for sure that the demon lord was a special being. If it had been that easy to defeat one, then humanity wouldn’t have warred against the demons for centuries.

Demon Culling was a magic sword. Its effects were instantaneous and cannot be prevented, so long as one was hit by it. However, perhaps to balance a weapon that could theoretically defeat thousands of demons in one swing, it had a significant weakness. While the magic it released had an extremely potent effect on miasma, the effect dropped sharply with distance such that a demon half a kilometer away would only feel a slight burning sensation.

Soleil had stood a mere two meters away from Matthias when he attacked. She would have definitely taken the full brunt of its effects.

But she was still alive. Even when she was so close to him, she was still able to scream out.

His mind raced. He tried to imagine every single possibility that could occur. For sure, he would fight a bitter battle against the demon lord if the latter managed to recover and decided to retaliate.

“Matt...? Matthias! What’s happening?”

“It’s Soleil! She’s a—“

“That was so bright! What gives?!”

Matthias turned his head back in shock. Soleil struggled onto her feet with her eyes closed while moaning in pain. She was teary-eyed and dirtied with the whole ordeal, but otherwise completely unharmed. Matthias blinked in a mix of disbelief and relief. But as he came to terms with what happened, the latter feeling somehow completely overpowered the former and he felt his tension loosen.

Oh. Right, he thought. That flash of light was quite intense.

“Next time you use that, tell me in advance!” Soleil complained while rubbing her eyes. “I wasn’t prepared at all...”

“Sorry. I didn’t know it could spread that far.”

Matthias lied through his teeth while rubbing the back of his neck. What would they say if he told them what his original intention was?

“But that was a good skill! It will definitely be useful!”

With her eyes still closed, Soleil completely forgot about what she had suffered, and was suffering through, and gave Matthias honest praise. She gave him a sincere thumbs-up in approval.

He suddenly felt like shit.

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

After they let Soleil rest her eyes for a bit, it was finally her turn to show off.

The team learned their lesson after the “accident”. Matthias and Manna positioned themselves at an angle behind Soleil, completely clear of anything she might point in the general direction that lay ahead of her. Unless she purposely targeted them or she released some sort of area of effect skill, then they should be completely safe.

At around twenty paces from where Soleil stood was a large tree. The trunk was thick enough that it would take all three of them to encompass the entire thing with their arms. And apparently, she wanted to punch it.

“She... doesn’t have anything to protect her fists?”

“Nothing but those gloves.”

Her stance was weird. She didn’t look like a brawler like she said she was, and instead she looked like an Olympic sprinter. Did she plan on hitting the tree with a running strike?

Before the two spectators could properly form ideas, Soleil’s voice cut through the ambient sounds and announced that she was ready.

“I’m starting.”

Right as she said so, the ground underneath her feet exploded!

Her figure disappeared from view and a shockwave blew their hairs in disarray. Almost at the same time, the side on the tree’s trunk shattered into a thousand pieces and sent wooden shrapnel shooting towards the other side. The larger pieces that broke off even embedded themselves into the surrounding trees.

“… Amazing!”

Manna was clearly impressed and so was Matthias. In terms of speed alone, she was much faster than anything they’ve ever seen. Matthias estimated that her speed easily exceeded the best sports cars on his world. And to be able to reach that velocity in a near instant was insane.

The power behind her blow was no joke either. The section her fist carved through the wood took up almost half of the tree’s entire girth. A vast amount of kinetic energy went from her hands to the tree in such a short moment in time that the wood simply shattered like glass upon making contact. Matthias lamented the fact that there were no scales in that world. He was curious about just how much was delivered in that one blow.

There was, however, one major problem.

“That’s her, right?”

“Oh yeah, no doubt about that.”

They approached the limp body of their partymate. She was lying at the end of a long skid mark on the ground after hitting a couple of trees along the way. Though she was conscious, her eyes kept rolling around and her complexion was far from the best.

Stolen story; please report.

“She... doesn’t know how to stop?”

“Yep.”

God truly doesn’t deal every card.

The next part of Soleil’s exhibition went without a hitch. For that, she simply punched the ever-loving daylights out of an unfortunate rock; obviously without its consent. There, they learned that the power that managed to gouge a chunk of a tree clean off came mostly from her speed. When she was stationary, the power behind her blows dropped drastically. It was by no means weak, however. She was quite a bit stronger than Matthias in terms of arm strength, which shamed the latter greatly. But it wasn’t significant enough of a performance to be called out of that world.

Curious of her skill, Matthias challenged her to unarmed combat. She accepted, all the while saying “a demon lord does not turn down a fair challenge.” Soleil easily beat Matthias down.

“So you’re fast, strong, and can even grapple...” Matthias listed her abilities with his fingers. “Anything else, like, ranged attacks?”

“I can throw anything with amazing force, especially mugs and plates,” Soleil proudly declared with her chest raised. Matthias and Manna narrowed their eyes.

“You sound more like a bar fighter than a martial artist,” they thought.

Laughingly, she declared: “As long as it’s in a straight line, no enemy can run from the righteous wrath of the demon lord!”

But despite their misgivings, it was a fact that she was incredibly strong. Being able to defeat Matthias, who had physical abilities destined to rival heroes, in single combat without breaking a sweat commanded immense respect. Matthias knew for a fact that no normal person within the first two ranks of adventurers could defeat her one on one, even with the help of magic. And being young, she could only become stronger as time passed.

Without a doubt, she would reach a height that people will admire and envy her for… once she learned how to step on the brakes.

“Perhaps she’s also a future hero like me...?”

It was entirely possible. He never asked the god if it had brought other people into that world to become heroes. But after giving it some thought, he decided that it was highly unlikely.

What kind of future hero would call herself a demon lord?

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

Their subsequent journey through the forest was uneventful. Though there were monsters to be found there, all of them were weak like one would expect from a location so close to a major settlement. Manna effortlessly sniped or cut the necks of any small monsters that attracted her attention as she skipped through the branches, while the larger ones stood no chance against both Matthias and Soleil.

There was no doubt that they were strong; as expected from two teenagers who trained since they were children, and a self-proclaimed “demon lord”.

The entire quest took almost half the morning. The only reason why they returned so late was because of the time they wasted showing off to each other.

But overall, it had taken close to seven hours for them to finish.

Yes, that world didn’t have Matthias’ previous world’s twenty-four hour days. Instead, it was just a bit over forty hours. That meant twenty-hours each of daylight and night. But despite that, people still only ate three main meals a day. Matthias didn’t understand if the contrast stemmed from a difference in physiology or the food they ate, but it is what it is.

Also, if the books were correct, then the planet they were on was roughly over twice the size of Earth.

After over a decade of living in that world, Matthias had become used to the native cycle. But he imagined someone who was spirited away there would have quite some trouble adapting.

Successful in their quest, each of them carried a bag of glowstones to surrender to the guild. When they got back to the walls, a long line had formed at the checkpoint. Without any choice, they took a place at the very end and awaited their turn.

Matthias swore to himself that he would treat Soleil later to a hearty lunch as an apology. He could just pass it off as a celebration feast for their first quest done.

But even after half an hour of being in line, they haven’t gotten any closer to the gates.

“What’s taking so long?”

“How dare they make the demon lord wait?”

The two women started to get impatient. Matthias would have spoken up as well if something else wasn’t occupying his attention.

The northern walls had two gates; a large main gate wide enough to let three carriages pass through at once, and a smaller gate for regular civilian use. Normally, the former would be open and busy, with several carriages lined up at a time waiting for their turn to be inspected. However, at that time, no carriage can be seen going in or out of the gate. Instead, several soldiers stood in a line to block the traffic.

“What’s that all about?” he thought to himself. “Did something happen?”

A carriage passed them by and headed towards the main gate. Matthias perked his ears to his utmost in an attempt to hear what would happen. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t blessed with a skill that increased the sensitivity of his hearing, so that was the best he could do.

Upon arriving, the carriage was predictably halted by the awaiting soldiers. The carriage driver smiled at them, perhaps thinking that it was the regular inspection of his cargo and brought out his money pouch to bribe them. But instead, as the soldiers talked to the driver, the latter’s face became more and more displeased. After a while, the driver sighed, turned his horses and left towards the eastern side of the wall.

“Why are they blocking the entrance?” Manna, who had also noticed the event, leaned in to ask. Matthias could only shrug in response.

It took them another half an hour of staring at the empty sky before something else happened.

Suddenly, hundreds of soldiers started to march out of the main gate. The center column consisted of infantry, while two columns of cavalry flanked the formation. After a couple hundred meters of regular soldiers passed, the procession gave way momentarily to a man in shining silver armor mounted on a winged horse. He wore a cape that shone in different colors, and upon closer inspection, his armor, too, was magical.

Roughly a hundred of the county’s flag flew proudly on the spears of the cavalry. Their synchronized steps shook the earth. Though they were silent, they gave off a very real pressure that made people take many steps back.

“Hmph. Useless show of bravado by humans.”

Matthias ignored Soleil’s comment and focused on the star of the march. Despite wearing a full-faced helmet that only revealed his eyes, Matthias immediately recognized the man.

“Hey, isn’t that your uncle?”

Manna’s keen vision picked up on that fact. Matthias nodded in response. But that was the only thing he knew.

“But where is he going?”

His question disappeared amidst the thunderous sounds of the march. He watched his uncle pass him without sparing him a glance. Though they weren’t close, it did hurt... slightly, to not be acknowledged. But, well, it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t know what to say anyway.

It took almost half an hour for the entire procession to pass them by. After that, the gates resumed their normal operations. In order to make up for the time they had lost, the city dispatched additional guards to screen the people. The line moved fast and within minutes they had passed through the gate and entered the city. Everything was going well.

But he couldn’t get rid of a bad feeling after seeing that army march past them.