The Author's POV

[Planet Idoania]

Boom―!

The sound of metal clashing against the ground reverberated through the battlefield as Angelica panted heavily.

She stared at the bulky figure lying beneath her, trying to catch her breath.

"Haa..hha… This is too much…"

She tirelessly muttered to herself.

Angelica's eyes shot up as she saw over a dozen other dwarves approaching her.

Her face paled at the sight, knowing that she was outnumbered and outmatched.

She was only a Maquis ranked demon, and while it was considered strong, it wasn't anything noteworthy in the grand scheme of the battlefield. She had already taken over a couple of dozen dwarves, but she was almost out of energy at the moment.

"Fuck."

Her grip tightened around her weapon as she prepared to face her adversaries, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before she would be overwhelmed.

She was barely holding on.

Booom―! A beam of light headed in her direction.

It was so fast that she had a hard time avoiding it.

"Ahhhhghh."

The impact of the beam was so powerful that half of her arm blew off at that moment, causing her to let out a frustrated cry and glare at the dwarf responsible for her injury.

With a pale face, her arm wiggled and slowly regenerated itself.

"Shit..."

Angelica cursed under her breath as she looked around and noticed that she was surrounded.

'Where did all that arrogance go from before?'

When she looked down, and her gaze paused on her so called prospective 'fiance', she could only sigh in disgust.

He had only lasted a couple of minutes before dying.

She knew that she was in deep trouble, and her expression crumbled.

"So much for this strategist being great."

She thought to herself.

They had clearly fallen into a trap intricately set up by the dwarves.

When she looked around and noticed that the situation was like this for the other demons too, she knew that it wasn't just her that had fallen for the scheme.

It was clear to her that the strategist was at fault for this predicament.

"Fuck it, whatever."

She could only curse another time, knowing that there was no use cursing the strategist's incompetence at this point.

Staring at the dwarves that were surrounding her and loading their artifacts, she channeled all of the demonic energy within her body.

Her eyes started to glow a red hue as she prepared to make her last stand.

"Put down your weapons."

Her soft voice echoed within the surroundings and traveled through the ears of each and one of the dwarves in front of her.

For a split second, the dwarves' movements halted, and Angelica took advantage of that moment.

Fwap―! She flapped her wings and made a dash upward, the only area that wasn't covered.

But unfortunately, the dwarves' reaction was a tad bit faster than she had anticipated.

net was cast above her, trapping

tried to pass through the net, but it proved to be an impossible task as the

"No, shit!!!"

finally feeling despair. She knew at this moment that there was no way out

"Shoot her!"

aiming their

'It's over.'

the barrel of the artifacts, knowing that it

stared at

WOOOM―!

and approached Angelica, and there was only

looks like

Bright and large...

such

completely overtook her vision shortly after,

"Hu?"

she felt no pain, and light soon returned to her vision. Her vision hadn't yet fully cleared, but what she managed to catch a glimpse of upon opening her eyes

'Reinforcements?'

***

Swoosh! Swoosh!

towering trees overhead created a natural fortress, blocking out most of the sunlight and casting a murky green light

thick with the sweet scent of

"Follow closely."

was a tangled mess of roots, vines, and fallen

Squish!

soft and spongy, and it felt as though every step was filled with danger, sinking

sure to hide your

silhouettes of gnarled trees clawed at the sky, their blackened limbs reaching

and underbrush made it nearly impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction, adding

the right

just

grew thicker and closer together until

for

hand, and everyone stopped

Immediately, everything turned silent.

could hear were the occasional rustle of leaves under a breeze that lingered

stillness was oppressive, and I couldn't shake the feeling

using an

feel it with my senses. There was no one near us at the

I'll get in contact with the

watch to my mouth and

Have you all

We're currently

yet; we'll be there

―We have just arrived.

there. A couple of minutes at

reached my ears, and I nodded my head comfortably. Everything so

'This is good.'

unsettling feeling that I was being watched, I knew that

they most probably already knew where

I'd

are.

attention toward my group. It was a rather

Melissa, but considering the gravity of the situation, I decided to leave her in Ashton City, which… well, she

turned to look at the others behind

was rather normal, but I could

the

tore my gaze away from her and looked at the

city and do a proper check of the

and looked toward the distance, where I could see the faint outline of a city. It was currently masked by the fog, but I could feel it from where I

we'll find a way to let the others in. It's important that everyone is careful during the

very careful to put an emphasis on

gave Liam a glance, but then I realized that there was no point in doing so because he

as lethargic as he had been in the past, he was a lot more alert now and didn't forget anything that was

were all on the same page before turning around and

"Let's go."

***