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.

huge net was cast

to pass through the net, but it proved to be an

"No, shit!!!"

out a frustrated cry, finally feeling despair. She knew at this moment that

"Shoot her!"

aiming their weapons

'It's over.'

the artifacts, knowing that it was

didn't close her eyes and simply stared at the artifact, wanting to see what would kill

WOOOM―!

and there was only one thought

like

Bright and large...

wasn't such a bad

completely overtook her vision shortly after,

"Hu?"

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 was a

'Reinforcements?'

***

Swoosh! Swoosh!

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

air was thick with the sweet

"Follow closely."

mess of roots, vines, and fallen leaves

Squish!

felt as though every step was

there. Make sure to hide

gnarled trees clawed at the sky, their blackened

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

the right

just keep moving for

the forest, the trees grew thicker and closer together until their trunks were so close that you could reach out and touch

here for a

raised my hand, and everyone stopped at my

Immediately, everything turned silent.

deafening, and the only sounds I could hear were the occasional rustle

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

using an

only explanation since I could feel it with my

get in

watch to my mouth

the current situation? Have you all

We're currently waiting

we'll be there

―We have just arrived.

see the spot; we're almost there.

of messages reached my ears, and I nodded my head comfortably.

'This is good.'

going smoothly so far, I didn't let my guard down. With the unsettling feeling that I was

they most probably already knew where we were and were planning

I'd

put where you are. Keep

the others on my watch before shifting my attention toward my group. It was a rather small

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

sigh, and I turned to look at the

was rather normal, but I could

to the others, she was practically the weakest and

my gaze away from her and

and do a proper check of the city

faint outline of a city. It was currently masked by the fog, but I could feel it from

of the place, we'll find a way to let the others in. It's

was very careful to put an emphasis on the

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

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 heading for the

"Let's go."

***