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

proved to be an

"No, shit!!!"

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

"Shoot her!"

aiming their weapons

'It's over.'

barrel of the artifacts,

at the

WOOOM―!

approached Angelica, and there

looks like the

Bright and large...

such a

completely overtook her

"Hu?"

some strange reason, 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

'Reinforcements?'

***

Swoosh! Swoosh!

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

was thick with the sweet scent of decay and damp

"Follow closely."

forest floor was a tangled mess of roots, vines, and

Squish!

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

moving; we're almost there. Make sure to hide your presence as best as you

clawed at the

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

is the right way,

but just

forest, the trees grew thicker and closer together until their trunks were so close that

for

raised my hand, and everyone stopped at my

Immediately, everything turned silent.

deafening, and the only sounds I could hear were the occasional rustle of leaves under a

I couldn't shake the feeling that I was

using

explanation since I could feel it with my senses. There was no one

to rest, I'll get in contact with the other

brought my watch to my mouth and

current situation? Have you all reached

We're currently waiting for

yet; we'll be there

―We have just arrived.

we're almost there. A couple of minutes

nodded my head

'This is good.'

so far, I didn't let my guard down. With the unsettling feeling that I was being watched, I knew that the demons weren't completely unaware of our

fact, they most probably already knew where we were and were planning on

that I'd let

are. Keep your guard

my attention toward my group. It was a

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

turned to look at the others behind

rather normal, but I could tell

the weakest and not

tore my gaze away from her and looked at

city and do a proper check of the city before we

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

city and do a proper check of the place, we'll find a way to let the others in. It's important that

very careful to put an emphasis on

I realized that there was no point in doing so because he was no longer the Liam I

past, he was a lot more alert now and didn't forget anything that was said

to make sure that we were all on the same page before

"Let's go."

***