And (N)one Shall Remain

It took a while before the dust settled from the impact of Sir Henri Inolet’s blow.

 

The blow was so forceful that the land itself trembled beneath its might, and several of the fighting humans and demons nearly lost their footing, forcing a temporary break in the fighting. Compared to the humans, the demons recovered faster from the shock, and could also see better through the dust cloud. As such, before the human side could react, they had already turned tail and ran for their lives.

 

Alissa and the others already noticed that the demons found their balance faster than them, and thus had braced themselves for a renewed assault. Because of that, they were collectively caught off guard when they noticed that the demons were not attacking but were fleeing instead, and could not mount a chase right away, giving the demons precious time to gain distance from them.

 

It was not just the lower tier demons that were fleeing either. They all saw two of the fourth tier demons that had fought against Sir Inolet fleeing as well, one of them sporting a grievous wound as a lance of ice the size of a human arm had pierced through their left shoulder from behind. Similarly, the shadowy demon had also used the distraction of the tremors to disengage from their opponents and vanished.

 

As the dust settled, Alissa and the others saw the reason why the demons retreated in such haste. Three dead fourth tier demons lay before Sir Henri Inolet. One of them looked as if he had been flash-frozen on the spot and then shattered into countless pieces by the mighty blow the old knight delivered, as only shards of frozen flesh was left of that particular demon.

 

The other two demons were not in much better condition. The second was sliced in two halves at the waist, with frost and ice already covering most of the corpse, the blood of the dead demon only leaking out from the waist area where the largest openings allowed for the still-warm blood to flow out instead of getting frozen immediately.

 

Magus Drummond was clearly the one responsible for taking down the last demon, as that one looked more like a pincushion than a person, with dozens of ice lances piercing their body. The old Magius must have used the distraction of Sir Inolet’s blow to sneak in a fatal burst of attacks of his own, which netted them another kill.

 

It made sense for the demons to beat a hasty retreat since they had lost half of their fourth tiers, and it was not like the rest were doing well. Only around twenty of the third tier demons were even able to run away, with the rest having been taken down in the fight. Most of the kills on that side was due to the fourth tier temple guard who barged over, with Alissa’s group only taking down a few.

 

Before someone could suggest chasing the fleeing demons, the shadowy demon emerged once again near the rest of the demons and used some sort of skill which made them vanish from sight. It was probably the same skill that had allowed the demons to ambush the party unnoticed before.

 

“Well… Knew they were going to bolt once I did that,” said Sir Inolet with a sigh. The old knight exuded far more power than Alissa and Ethan had ever seen during their spars, and it was only then that they realized how much he had been holding back on them. Sir Inolet had sparred with them only using his physical capabilities instead of tapping into his clearly devastating magical means at all.

 

“Not like it could be any other way when they got that damned [Shadow Fiend], old friend,” replied Magus Drummond from beside him. As the fighting ended, the powerful fourth tiers regathered to where Alissa and the rest were standing together with what remained of the second tiers as well as the harvesters they were trying to keep safe.

 

Out of those, the harvesters took around twenty casualties, less than half of which were fatal, which were minor issues given the healers present amongst the party. The hardy men and women mostly shrugged it off when Alissa offered her condolences, claiming that it was the risks they were well aware of when they signed up for the mission.

 

Their job was far from a safe one, and in fact, it was already pretty much a miracle in their minds to only lose so few despite coming under a demon attack. Such an attack more typically wiped out entire parties, and if there were survivors, it was typically the stronger ones, not defenseless harvesters like them. Most parties would have left them behind as bait or stumbling blocks than try to defend them, so they were already very thankful to Alissa’s help and feelings.

 

On the other hand, the second tiers that followed the group in the vain hopes of acquiring a special class were far worse off. Only two of the twenty were standing on their legs by the time the battle was done. More than half of the youths lay dead, while the survivors all sport some kind of grievous injuries on their bodies.

 

Alissa’s party of twelve got off very lightly by comparison, only having lost Joshua, who was a negligible loss in the long term since he would just [Respawn] in a few minutes anyway. All of them had wounds on their bodies, but none had lost their lives otherwise.

 

“Anyway, kids, that’s that for this trip. We can’t afford to stay here until you’re third tiers anymore, I’m afraid,” said Sir Inolet as he walked towards Alissa and Ethan. “Those demons found our presence and are definitely on their way back to report, and after that report, they’d be making a hard push this way. The border should hold, but it would be trivial for the demons to sneak in a couple dozen fourth-tiers around here regardless.”

 

“Did they… recognize us as [Heroes]

?” asked Ethan, the question an obvious one that hung over both of Alissa and Ethan’s minds. 

 

“Probably, probably not. It was a messy fight and I bet none of you got that clear a look at the demons you [Analyze]d either, didn’t you?” asked the old knight as he sheathed his sword after breaking off the layer of ice that still coated it. Both Alissa and Ethan shook their heads at his question. “If some of they did notice that you’re both second tiers and it wasn’t his eyes playing tricks on him, your performance in that fight would likely clue them in, yes.”

 

“But they won’t need that clue anyway. They already have a better confirmation that someone very important was present here amongst our group regardless,” added the old knight.

 

“How so, Sir?” asked Alissa with some curiosity. Other than her and Ethan’s strength – which was ridiculous for their level – she did not think that they gave away their presence that much in other ways. “Are there special ways to detect a [Hero]’s presence or anything like that which they used to identify us then?”

 

“Oh no, it has nothing to do with you kids. It’s me,” replied the old knight with a sigh. “You kids must have noticed that I didn’t use my magic-related skills until the end of that fight, didn’t you? That’s for a reason. I was hoping we could keep our identities under wraps, but when the fight on your side was going badly, I decided it wasn’t worth losing one of your group for that.”

 

“You see, kids, I’m the only one in the Kingdom who received the [Blade of Sorcery] class, and while there are artifacts that could obfuscate the results of [Analysis] or [Identify], there are none which could hide the skills I used back then, which might as well announce my presence with a huge banner,” he added with a shrug. “Murdock being here could be excused as him having a pupil in the group, but my being here is a telltale sign that I’m protecting someone very important. Any demon with half a brain would be able to guess that it’s the [Heroes].”

 

“What would happen now that the demons know we’re… here, Sir?” asked Ethan somewhat nervously, his face slightly paling at the implications behind the old knight’s words.

 

“Now that they have confirmation of your presence? They will definitely intensify their activity, provided that their [Champions] are up to par against you kids. They would try to sneak in infiltrators more, and would try to kidnap you if they saw a chance,” said the old knight honestly. “I would recommend carrying some way to conveniently commit suicide at this point. You really do not want to be captured, and you can respawn in safety afterwards.”

 

“As for more immediate impacts to you… We would have to reschedule to a different dungeon in safer areas to get you kids to your third tier. I’m not letting you near the front until you’re at least able to hold your own against me, now that the demons know you’re around, so expect a lot of training and dungeons in the near future. Might have to cut some of your free time, I’m afraid.”

 

“Does the kingdom have any… records on what happened to [Heroes] that were captured by the demons?” asked Alissa with some wariness.

 

“Nobody knows for certain what happened to them, but given that we need to capture the [Champions] of the demons to fuel the ritual that would send you [Heroes]

back to your home, I would expect the same happening on the other side,” replied Magus Drummond to the question. “As for what we do to those captured [Champions], I can at least brief you a bit.”

 

“They would be kept in a secure place, where we would then keep them unable to resist or escape, but alive, since we can’t afford to let them kill themselves after all,” continued the old Magus. “This usually involves removing any method for them to do any of those, like removing their limbs but healing the stumps, as well as removing their tongues.”

 

“That sounds… excessive…” said Alissa, even if she understood the logic behind the cruel treatment. A [Hero] or a [Champion] could just [Respawn] if they died, so to keep them captive, their captors needed to remove any means they had to hurt themselves, not just means they could use to escape. After all, death itself was a literal way of escape for them.

 

“I do not doubt that the demons have their own, similar methods, so I believe you see why I suggested having a way to kill yourself quickly and conveniently,” added Sir Inolet into the discussion. “It might not be that bad if you were the last of the [Heroes] or [Champions] to be caught, as at least you wouldn’t have to suffer too long before you’d be put out of your misery, but if you’re the first one caught? All I could say is that it would not be a pleasant experience to be you. Similarly, if you see one of your fellows about to be captured and have the leeway to kill them, do it, for their sake.”

 

“We understand, Sir,” replied Ethan with a bit of a shudder as he digested the implications and seriousness of the matter. The thought still disturbed him, even if he understood the logic behind the grim contingencies set up to avoid a capture by the demons. Sometimes, there were fates that could be far, far worse than death after all, especially when death was more of an inconvenience than anything for some.

“Good that you understand it,” commented Magus Drummond as he went to wait where Joshua’s body started to decay into particles of light, leaving his clothes and equipment behind. The phenomenon apparently happened around five minutes after death for the [Heroes] with [Respawn]. “What you dealt with before, those were just games compared to the storm that will come to our doorsteps in the near future.”