I was finally freed from prison after my friends have gathered enough evidence to prove the existence of a demon at the academy. Well, they bought it with Sofie’s death, but she was luckily resurrected by her patron goddess, revealing to the world that apostles existed.
At least we weren’t searched for right away as there was a much more pressing matter which arrived me in the form of bad news. Lucy, the person I would marry had decided to accompany Hannah and the newly reawakened saint on her search for Olivia, who turned out to be someone I personally knew.
But I knew that no matter what happened, I would defeat Olivia, so that Lucy didn’t have to live in danger. And in a sense, I did hope that saint wasn’t successful in finding Olivia, so that Lucy didn’t have to fight. I knew she could get around in the forest, even in there were demons, but fighting Olivia? When the three of them lost?
No way she could win that fight.
And so, I started training with the other three whenever they had time until we were given an even better opportunity to do so as the earth rumbled beneath the capital city and an entrance appeared in the commoner district.
Obviously, we knew from descriptions that these were dungeons and thus had our first opportunity as a group to fight against real opponents pretty darn fast.
And what can I say? We grinded hard. Spending at least six hours a day inside there once we were allowed in, meant that we levelled up considerably, some of us even tens of levels over the course of the month.
We could only go to floor eleven but that already meant we were in the top ten percent of all the other groups. And we were catching up fast as the other three started to get experience from killing demons for the first time.
But being the best wasn’t on our minds at all. Surviving was. During that whole time, we didn’t hear any news of the saint. Neither good, nor bad.
But we did hear about the distraction of several villages and a quest to fight the perpetrators in front of the vulnerable outer district of the city.
And naturally, we accepted that request, along with a multitude of others, including a multitude of others of course.
Together with them, we managed to set up fires in the night and patrolled the area, our weapons always close by and in distrust of whoever strolled around alone.
And then, on the fifth night of the quest, we could finally hear it, brought towards us by the wind.
“Come … you who seek to protect the others. Come into the darkness and I will spare them.” Confused, we looked around as soon as we heard Olivia’s voice, our weapons in our hands. Sofie immediately used a light spell to illuminate the area, which revealed a group of four nearby through the thick fog, their throats slit open from behind.
“We have to alert the others.” Sofie said, already looking around for the next group which we noticed near a camp fire.
“You heard her. If we hesitate any longer, even more people will die.” I said and dashed into the darkness as soon as I caught a glimpse if something moving.
“Wait! Schwarz!” Ellie shouted, but had no choice to run after me right away. I knew the others would do so as well, because that was our only chance we had to stop more bloodshed.
“Lars! I’m here! Let’s talk this over!” I shouted into the night shortly afterwards, surrounded by wheat without end. The moon illuminated our surroundings brightly, but I still couldn’t see him.
“Schwarz … its nice to see you again. And Sofie as well. Somehow you all keep on coming back.” Her voice resounded to my right but all of us turned their head in different directions, meaning we were hearing it coming from different spots.
“Lars. We need to talk. The path you are taking right now only leads to suffering.” I said and looked around frantically, searching inside the wheat field for anything out of the ordinary.
“And if I want exactly that? If I want this whole world to burn?” He asked, shouting angrily from all directions.
“For what reason? We joked around on the spaceship about this! Don’t you remember the promise we made each other? That we would give the other chance when one of us turned into a girl?” I asked, still remembering the day when we read a book about a guy turning into a girl very well.
“You are … no. Even if you are my old friend, we are enemies now.” He said aggressively, leaving me hardly any room to negotiate.
“But it doesn’t have to be that way. We could still work this out somehow!” I said pleadingly. There had to be a way to convince him. There just had to.
“Work this this out somehow? Everything is a lie, and we aren’t even allowed to talk about it. I have seen a friend of us turn into a puddle of blood, just because he spoke the truth! Schwarz, if you continue to stand in my way, I will make sure to deal with you myself.” He said aggressively, this time much more closer.
“Beacon of truth.” That was one of Sofie’s newest spells. She was probably the best mage out of all of us, but sadly focused solely on support spells, refusing to hurt anyone intelligent. But she could learn spells insanely fast, which allowed her to adapt to the situation easily.
A bright gentle light appeared above us, illuminating the surroundings brightly, piercing through the fog and showed a shadow-like being a few metres away from us.
“Now you have done it.” Lars … no. Olivia growled. The Lars I knew wouldn’t murder innocent people, no matter what had happened to him.
“Ice field.” But Louis wasn’t a half bad mage either. He stomped on the ground into her direction, freezing any wheat plant in front of him along with the ground until it hit the brightly glowing barrier.
Her feet must have been frozen as well, which was why I had no fear about approaching her at all. I was already close to her as my heart clenched and I could feel a cold blade stabbing into my guts. Stopping while screaming in pain, I held my guts and collapsed onto the ice sheet. In the corner of my eyes, I could see everyone collapsing in pain, including Olivia herself.
And then … I saw it. A streak of pitch black darkness covering the stars behind it, blasting into the air at a forty degree angle. Something huge flew into the air right as the ray dissipated again and the pain in my guts vanished.
“A … again?” Ellie mumbled, doing her best to stand up, right as a strong wind pushed against her, nearly toppling her over once more. Wheat blew into my face as I closed my eyes and looked towards the ground. It wasn’t on the same level as Hannah’s magic though, so I quickly stabbed my sword into the ground and stood up before Olivia could do so.
The wind dissipated after a few seconds, leaving most of the wheat bent over to the side.
“That was …” Olivia muttered, standing up slowly and gazing in the direction from where that came from.
She may have been stunned by the more than powerful attack, but I wasn’t. Brandishing my sword once more, I ran towards her and struck at her.
But even as she was stunned, she merely needed to hold out her hand and create a glowing barrier easily. Only then did I notice that her attire glowed in several places which apparently allowed her to create these without even chanting.
Stumbling a bit backwards from the rebound, I quickly found myself being chased by her, already swinging her sword at my neck.
“Barrier.” Thankfully though, we did have an equally strong barrier master on our side, repelling the attack that would have hit me otherwise easily.
“Oh?” Olivia said and looked over towards Elli, charging at her in light metal armour with a spear and her new round shield in her hands.
Olivia merely evaded sideways and tried to stab at Ellie right away, which allowed me to strike at her barrier once more.
“Blinding light.” It looked like floodlights had been turned on behind me, forcing Olivia to retreat right away.
“Hellfire!” Louis shouted, causing elven flaming hot balls to shoot out of his hands.
“Again? World of darkness!” The lights behind us dimmed considerably and the stars basically stopped spending us any light as Olivia activated the superior version of my magic.
“Frost storm!” Before Louis’ previous spell even hit, he was already doing his second one. Sharp ice shards started to blow from behind me, evading me by hairs width, and followed behind the fireballs which illuminated her nicely, thanks to her barrier which was now constantly activated thanks to the shards.
“Dispell illusion!” Sofie chanted once more as her beacon of truth had apparently lost quite a bit of effect thanks to the darkness. Luckily though, we weren’t shown an illusion this time, but rather the real Olivia. Nodding towards Ellie, we charged her once again, each of us striking at her barrier from a different angle.
Even if it was impenetrable for us, we still drained her mana this way. Clashing with her barrier, it glowed up nicely right away and we retreated immediately as Olivia apparently prepared her next attack.
“Air bullet!” She shouted and pointed towards Sofie who was nearly defenceless.
“Fireball!” Louis reacted quickly though and fired his attack against hers, causing both to dissipate in the middle. “Fire blade!” Louis continued and set my sword on fire. Swinging it against her barrier once more, I could see it cracking, if just a little bit.
“Enough!” Olivia shouted out angrily and swung her magical sword at me, only to see it blocked by one of Ellie’s barriers right away. “Air burst!”
Going out from her, I was hit by a wave of air, crashing into my body at an incredible place. I was thrown backwards right away, and landed in the mud shortly afterwards. My back hurt like crazy, but at least Ellie managed to make one barrier, not in front of her though. The only one of us standing was Sofie, who knew how to use this opportunity very well.
“Heal!” I could feel my body refreshing immediately and rejuvenated, I stood up once more to face her approaching sword. I blocked it horizontally in front if me and gave Ellie enough time to stab into Olivia’s shield once more. I could visibly see how the tip of her spear penetrated the barrier. There was only so much left of her barrier, while we could continue for far longer.
“Ice field!” And once again, Louis knew how to give us close combatants opportunities. Her shield didn’t activate as ice grew over her boots, rooting Olivia right between Ellie and me.
Ellie used that chance right away and shattered her shield with her thrust. And as Olivia made strides to turn around, I ran towards her, slamming into her front with my shoulder.
Yelping loudly, she fell onto her back, losing her sword in the process and with me following right away. Grabbing her arms, I forced them above her head and pinned them down while straddling her belly.
“Olivia … Lars. You lost. So please listen to us. Everyone faced hardships. Sofie lost her parents, I lost several colleagues while adventuring, Louis mum was hanged because she was accused of stealing, and Ellie needed to see how her village was pillaged by bandits … she was six and had to see everything.” I told her, hoping that she would understand she wasn’t alone with her pain.
“The gods are at fault for every bit of these problems. They are to blame …” But that was like saying that they did everything. Where was our free will then? No, I couldn’t accept her reasoning.
“But its not necessary to pull others into your fight. There are innocent people here …” I said while clearing my suddenly very dry throat. “… we have the … the chance to …” Coughing a little, I noticed how my vision spun a little and grabbed her arms tighter.
“Beacon of … truth.” A second glowing rod appeared right beside me, but what I saw didn’t change. In still had her in my grasp.
“H…eal.” My body was healed once more, but it didn’t help at all.
The first one to fall down was Louis who apparently had the least resistance against poison. I could feel my strength draining rapidly and collapsed on top of her shortly afterwards, just as Ellie fell down as well.
The longest one to stand was Sofie who apparently bad quite a lot of poison resistance, but even she fell on her knees a few second after us.
“… wh…en?” When did she poison us? I haven’t seen her use any magic in this direction from the very beginning. Could she have fooled our eyes as the battle started?
“Oh?” She asked, rolling me off her right away. “You know, I’m really more of a water mage. All the mist you see here … is my poison. But don’t worry, its not lethal.”
But then … she must have created it before we even saw the others. How … how did she do such a thing?
“But good job on defeating the barrier woven into my attire. That was done by a master craftsmen after all.” She said and chuckled happily. Standing up, she walked towards her sword leisurely and picked it up. “Now, Sofie. Can you remember how it was to have my sword in your heart? Well, don’t worry. I wont do that a second time.”
“Fl…a…re.” From her palm directed upwards a little ball of light flew towards the sky, creating a bright signal for everyone to see.
“That’s not going to help you. Nobody will come, right? Your orders were to stay in the city after all.” She said and laughed crazily. Just to show how useless Sofie’s actions were, she even waited a little before strolling over to her.
“And off with your head.” Olivia said and held the sword high above her. She swung it downwards faster than I had seen her move ever before, but her sword was still stopped just above Sofie’s neck by a glowing barrier.
“That’s why I hate you the most Ellie. You always have to ruin the fun for me.” Olivia said and struck the exact same spot right away, only to see her sword rebound once more. “That’s not your real gift, is it? Let me guess, that’s not how you are supposed to use it.” She said and swung onto Sofie’s neck once more. “So how long can you hold this? One more strike? Two?”
“S…top.” I muttered weakly, just as her blade crashed onto the barrier another time and Ellie spewed out a bit of blood.
“One more time!” Olivia said exited and let her sword crash into the barrier one lace more. Her sword rebounded, but the barrier vanished in the process.
“Hmm?” Olivia asked, turning away from her and looked into the distance. “Barrier.” At last, she was forced to use her own magic to defend herself as a silvery sword, glowing gently flew through the darkness, illuminating everything in its path until it crashed into her barrier and splintered into pieces without doing anything.
Olivia still faced this unknown person, unwilling to look away. Listening closely, I could hear a horse galloping towards us fast from the east.
Whoever that was didn’t care much about us laying on the ground, but rather steered the white horse directly towards Olivia, forcing it to stand upright in front of her at the last possible moment. Its hooves crushed right into Olivia’s barrier, producing a very distinct sound if metal hitting something sturdy. But I could also hear someone out of my vision falling onto the ground right behind the horse which quickly kicked the barrier to push itself to the right and galloped onwards into the darkness.
“You ..” Olivia growled and pointed her sword at the person who wore a completely white dress and stood up slowly.
“I think you great others with their names, not just an unfriendly you.” I couldn’t believe who I saw there. Lucy stood there, without any weapon in her arms and pouted unhappily.
“Who did this? Who killed Ricardo?”
“Ricardo? Oh, right. Do you remember the necromancer you hired to attack Atlantis? Well, that was him. And he is angry … real angry.” Lucy explained which didn’t make much sense for me, but Olivia opened her eyes wider.
“This guy … I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.” Olivia said, not even caring about attacking as the mist wold to the work for her.
“P…oison.” I muttered weakly in an attempt to warn her.
“You have poisoned them? Wow … that’s quite the underhanded move. Not that I didn’t expect it though.” Lucy said and clapped her hands. “Do you mind?” She said and nodded towards my sword laying on the ground.
“Go ahead.” Smiling brightly, Lucy strolled over towards me and picked up the black sword I had made someone craft after Hannah’s.
“That feels oddly familiar.” Lucy mumbled and weighed it in her hands. After nodding once, she took it into her right hand and swung it around for a few seconds. She didn’t even bother looking at Olivia, which proved to be a mistake right away.
Lucy could only dodge to the side awkwardly as she noticed the approaching sword. She did manage to avoid the strike, but there was more luck than anything else at play. Stepping a few times back, Lucy retreated away from us, still on a short lived defence. She lost the moment she used her sword to defend as she was far too weak to hold it properly. She even looked after it a bit stunned and smiled wryly at Olivia who didn’t go for the kill right away.
“You used a magical sword to attack me and that’s it? You don’t have anything more up your sleeve?” I could only beg she did. Otherwise, I would see her die in front of me which I couldn’t bear at all.
“Hmm … I wonder. Or right, I was supposed to tell you something. The boy you killed … Albert, remember?” She asked and rubbed her cheek.
“Obviously.” Olivia said with a rather monotone voice.
“He was an inventor.” Lucy said, looking over towards my sword a little.
“So what?” Olivia asked, following her gage for a split second.
“He showed me what progress humanity could do before you murdered him … and I am sure he will show you as well, because your time … is up now.” She said and threw herself onto the ground as fast as she could.
“Barrier.” Olivia said, right as hell broke out. The only thing I could see was a massive explosion right beside her, blowing all the mist away in an instant and setting the wheat fields on fire right away. The fire went right above our heads, far warmer than Louis could ever hope to achieve.
Ear shattering noises resounded from the epicentre, making my ears ring in pain.
And then, the fires dissipated and I saw Olivia, panting heavily but with a still intact barrier shielding her, and coincidentally Lucy as well. Lucy directly used that opportunity to stand up and run over towards us while Olivia needed time to collect herself.
“Get up!” She shouted and looked at Sofie in particular.
“Cure poison.” Sofie said, making us feel like before the fight right away. As fast as I could, I stood up and ran in between Lucy and Olivia, shielding the former with my own body.
“What was that?” She asked aggressively, but also incredibly tired.
“One of his inventions. I told you.” Lucy said, stepping to my side.
“You …” Olivia growled angrily.
“Olivia … let us talk this over.” Sofie said pleasingly. Even though I had given it up already, she didn’t.
“You have said everything.” Olivia explained, which basically summed everything up just fine.
“But we could listen! We can listen to your standpoint and try to understand everything! But you aren’t giving us any chance!” Sofie said helplessly, still trying to reason with her.
“Barrier!” Olivia said, shielding herself from the next massive blast right away. Even though we were ten metres way from her, we were still flung backwards before we could even react. This time, there was no fire, but rather red lightning licking everything around Olivia whose barrier shattered the moment everything dissipated and a broken spear fell onto the ground in front of her.
“Lets … talk.“ Olivia finally said as we stood up one by one. Sofie directly looked at Lucy who balled her right hand into a fist and lifted it up.
“Olivia, you need to stop this. Otherwise you will die.” I said helplessly. I didn’t want to see my old friend die in front of me, that was for sure.
“I know … I know. And I don’t even want to fight against you, but i don’t have any other choice! The gods forced me into this and now I can’t quit because the demon king would end my life.” She said, stumbling weakly and stabbing her sword into the ground.
“Then surrender.” Ellie proposed, already pointing her spear at Olivia once more.
“They would kill me as well.” Olivia said, looking downwards to the ground with a trembling voice. “I … I can’t do anything.”
“… hide. You are the master of illusions. There is no way anyone could find you this way.” I proposed right away. I knew for sure she could do that. She hid inside the academy after all.
“But … I want to stay with my friends from the spaceship.” She said, tears dropping down her face.
“When everything is over, we can do that. But before the demon king isn’t defeated, you have to hide.” I said, hoping to see her again one day.
“You promise? That you will search for me?” Olivia asked, finally looking up to me with red eyes.
“Absolutely. You are my old friend after all.” I said, smiling brightly and hopefully, encouragingly.
“You need to promise me that you will never harm any intelligent life after this. Can you do that?“ Lucy asked staring straight into Olivia’s eyes.
“I won’t … I swear.” Olivia said and looked back at her determined.
“Very well. You should leave now. Others will be here shortly and they will not be so kind.” Lucy said as kind as she was.
“Thank you … all of you. Wings of darkness.” I didn’t even know such a cool spell existed, but black angel wings really did sprout from her back. She only needed to flap them two times and was already in the air, flying away from us with breakneck speed towards the horizon.
“Soo … I do hope you know what you are doing.” Lucy said and raised her eyebrows a little, gathering all attention in herself. For a second, I thought that a star in the corner of my vision went dark, but as I looked there, I couldn’t see anything.
“I don’t believe she will attack us again.” I commented right away. I did have high hopes I could get my friend back after all.
“You also didn’t think about her using poison.” Lucy pointed out rightfully so.
“It was the right decision. Kindness wins the heart of others, and we showed plenty of that.” Sofie said happily. And with that, we had defeated the first demon general.
I was finally freed from prison after my friends have gathered enough evidence to prove the existence of a demon at the academy. Well, they bought it with Sofie’s death, but she was luckily resurrected by her patron goddess, revealing to the world that apostles existed.
At least we weren’t searched for right away as there was a much more pressing matter which arrived me in the form of bad news. Lucy, the person I would marry had decided to accompany Hannah and the newly reawakened saint on her search for Olivia, who turned out to be someone I personally knew.
But I knew that no matter what happened, I would defeat Olivia, so that Lucy didn’t have to live in danger. And in a sense, I did hope that saint wasn’t successful in finding Olivia, so that Lucy didn’t have to fight. I knew she could get around in the forest, even in there were demons, but fighting Olivia? When the three of them lost?
No way she could win that fight.
And so, I started training with the other three whenever they had time until we were given an even better opportunity to do so as the earth rumbled beneath the capital city and an entrance appeared in the commoner district.
Obviously, we knew from descriptions that these were dungeons and thus had our first opportunity as a group to fight against real opponents pretty darn fast.
And what can I say? We grinded hard. Spending at least six hours a day inside there once we were allowed in, meant that we levelled up considerably, some of us even tens of levels over the course of the month.
We could only go to floor eleven but that already meant we were in the top ten percent of all the other groups. And we were catching up fast as the other three started to get experience from killing demons for the first time.
But being the best wasn’t on our minds at all. Surviving was. During that whole time, we didn’t hear any news of the saint. Neither good, nor bad.
But we did hear about the distraction of several villages and a quest to fight the perpetrators in front of the vulnerable outer district of the city.
And naturally, we accepted that request, along with a multitude of others, including a multitude of others of course.
Together with them, we managed to set up fires in the night and patrolled the area, our weapons always close by and in distrust of whoever strolled around alone.
And then, on the fifth night of the quest, we could finally hear it, brought towards us by the wind.
“Come … you who seek to protect the others. Come into the darkness and I will spare them.” Confused, we looked around as soon as we heard Olivia’s voice, our weapons in our hands. Sofie immediately used a light spell to illuminate the area, which revealed a group of four nearby through the thick fog, their throats slit open from behind.
“We have to alert the others.” Sofie said, already looking around for the next group which we noticed near a camp fire.
“You heard her. If we hesitate any longer, even more people will die.” I said and dashed into the darkness as soon as I caught a glimpse if something moving.
“Wait! Schwarz!” Ellie shouted, but had no choice to run after me right away. I knew the others would do so as well, because that was our only chance we had to stop more bloodshed.
“Lars! I’m here! Let’s talk this over!” I shouted into the night shortly afterwards, surrounded by wheat without end. The moon illuminated our surroundings brightly, but I still couldn’t see him.
“Schwarz … its nice to see you again. And Sofie as well. Somehow you all keep on coming back.” Her voice resounded to my right but all of us turned their head in different directions, meaning we were hearing it coming from different spots.
“Lars. We need to talk. The path you are taking right now only leads to suffering.” I said and looked around frantically, searching inside the wheat field for anything out of the ordinary.
“And if I want exactly that? If I want this whole world to burn?” He asked, shouting angrily from all directions.
“For what reason? We joked around on the spaceship about this! Don’t you remember the promise we made each other? That we would give the other chance when one of us turned into a girl?” I asked, still remembering the day when we read a book about a guy turning into a girl very well.
“You are … no. Even if you are my old friend, we are enemies now.” He said aggressively, leaving me hardly any room to negotiate.
“But it doesn’t have to be that way. We could still work this out somehow!” I said pleadingly. There had to be a way to convince him. There just had to.
“Work this this out somehow? Everything is a lie, and we aren’t even allowed to talk about it. I have seen a friend of us turn into a puddle of blood, just because he spoke the truth! Schwarz, if you continue to stand in my way, I will make sure to deal with you myself.” He said aggressively, this time much more closer.
“Beacon of truth.” That was one of Sofie’s newest spells. She was probably the best mage out of all of us, but sadly focused solely on support spells, refusing to hurt anyone intelligent. But she could learn spells insanely fast, which allowed her to adapt to the situation easily.
A bright gentle light appeared above us, illuminating the surroundings brightly, piercing through the fog and showed a shadow-like being a few metres away from us.
“Now you have done it.” Lars … no. Olivia growled. The Lars I knew wouldn’t murder innocent people, no matter what had happened to him.
“Ice field.” But Louis wasn’t a half bad mage either. He stomped on the ground into her direction, freezing any wheat plant in front of him along with the ground until it hit the brightly glowing barrier.
Her feet must have been frozen as well, which was why I had no fear about approaching her at all. I was already close to her as my heart clenched and I could feel a cold blade stabbing into my guts. Stopping while screaming in pain, I held my guts and collapsed onto the ice sheet. In the corner of my eyes, I could see everyone collapsing in pain, including Olivia herself.
And then … I saw it. A streak of pitch black darkness covering the stars behind it, blasting into the air at a forty degree angle. Something huge flew into the air right as the ray dissipated again and the pain in my guts vanished.
“A … again?” Ellie mumbled, doing her best to stand up, right as a strong wind pushed against her, nearly toppling her over once more. Wheat blew into my face as I closed my eyes and looked towards the ground. It wasn’t on the same level as Hannah’s magic though, so I quickly stabbed my sword into the ground and stood up before Olivia could do so.
The wind dissipated after a few seconds, leaving most of the wheat bent over to the side.
“That was …” Olivia muttered, standing up slowly and gazing in the direction from where that came from.
She may have been stunned by the more than powerful attack, but I wasn’t. Brandishing my sword once more, I ran towards her and struck at her.
But even as she was stunned, she merely needed to hold out her hand and create a glowing barrier easily. Only then did I notice that her attire glowed in several places which apparently allowed her to create these without even chanting.
Stumbling a bit backwards from the rebound, I quickly found myself being chased by her, already swinging her sword at my neck.
“Barrier.” Thankfully though, we did have an equally strong barrier master on our side, repelling the attack that would have hit me otherwise easily.
“Oh?” Olivia said and looked over towards Elli, charging at her in light metal armour with a spear and her new round shield in her hands.
Olivia merely evaded sideways and tried to stab at Ellie right away, which allowed me to strike at her barrier once more.
“Blinding light.” It looked like floodlights had been turned on behind me, forcing Olivia to retreat right away.
“Hellfire!” Louis shouted, causing elven flaming hot balls to shoot out of his hands.
“Again? World of darkness!” The lights behind us dimmed considerably and the stars basically stopped spending us any light as Olivia activated the superior version of my magic.
“Frost storm!” Before Louis’ previous spell even hit, he was already doing his second one. Sharp ice shards started to blow from behind me, evading me by hairs width, and followed behind the fireballs which illuminated her nicely, thanks to her barrier which was now constantly activated thanks to the shards.
“Dispell illusion!” Sofie chanted once more as her beacon of truth had apparently lost quite a bit of effect thanks to the darkness. Luckily though, we weren’t shown an illusion this time, but rather the real Olivia. Nodding towards Ellie, we charged her once again, each of us striking at her barrier from a different angle.
Even if it was impenetrable for us, we still drained her mana this way. Clashing with her barrier, it glowed up nicely right away and we retreated immediately as Olivia apparently prepared her next attack.
“Air bullet!” She shouted and pointed towards Sofie who was nearly defenceless.
“Fireball!” Louis reacted quickly though and fired his attack against hers, causing both to dissipate in the middle. “Fire blade!” Louis continued and set my sword on fire. Swinging it against her barrier once more, I could see it cracking, if just a little bit.
“Enough!” Olivia shouted out angrily and swung her magical sword at me, only to see it blocked by one of Ellie’s barriers right away. “Air burst!”
Going out from her, I was hit by a wave of air, crashing into my body at an incredible place. I was thrown backwards right away, and landed in the mud shortly afterwards. My back hurt like crazy, but at least Ellie managed to make one barrier, not in front of her though. The only one of us standing was Sofie, who knew how to use this opportunity very well.
“Heal!” I could feel my body refreshing immediately and rejuvenated, I stood up once more to face her approaching sword. I blocked it horizontally in front if me and gave Ellie enough time to stab into Olivia’s shield once more. I could visibly see how the tip of her spear penetrated the barrier. There was only so much left of her barrier, while we could continue for far longer.
“Ice field!” And once again, Louis knew how to give us close combatants opportunities. Her shield didn’t activate as ice grew over her boots, rooting Olivia right between Ellie and me.
Ellie used that chance right away and shattered her shield with her thrust. And as Olivia made strides to turn around, I ran towards her, slamming into her front with my shoulder.
Yelping loudly, she fell onto her back, losing her sword in the process and with me following right away. Grabbing her arms, I forced them above her head and pinned them down while straddling her belly.
“Olivia … Lars. You lost. So please listen to us. Everyone faced hardships. Sofie lost her parents, I lost several colleagues while adventuring, Louis mum was hanged because she was accused of stealing, and Ellie needed to see how her village was pillaged by bandits … she was six and had to see everything.” I told her, hoping that she would understand she wasn’t alone with her pain.
“The gods are at fault for every bit of these problems. They are to blame …” But that was like saying that they did everything. Where was our free will then? No, I couldn’t accept her reasoning.
“But its not necessary to pull others into your fight. There are innocent people here …” I said while clearing my suddenly very dry throat. “… we have the … the chance to …” Coughing a little, I noticed how my vision spun a little and grabbed her arms tighter.
“Beacon of … truth.” A second glowing rod appeared right beside me, but what I saw didn’t change. In still had her in my grasp.
“H…eal.” My body was healed once more, but it didn’t help at all.
The first one to fall down was Louis who apparently had the least resistance against poison. I could feel my strength draining rapidly and collapsed on top of her shortly afterwards, just as Ellie fell down as well.
The longest one to stand was Sofie who apparently bad quite a lot of poison resistance, but even she fell on her knees a few second after us.
“… wh…en?” When did she poison us? I haven’t seen her use any magic in this direction from the very beginning. Could she have fooled our eyes as the battle started?
“Oh?” She asked, rolling me off her right away. “You know, I’m really more of a water mage. All the mist you see here … is my poison. But don’t worry, its not lethal.”
But then … she must have created it before we even saw the others. How … how did she do such a thing?
“But good job on defeating the barrier woven into my attire. That was done by a master craftsmen after all.” She said and chuckled happily. Standing up, she walked towards her sword leisurely and picked it up. “Now, Sofie. Can you remember how it was to have my sword in your heart? Well, don’t worry. I wont do that a second time.”
“Fl…a…re.” From her palm directed upwards a little ball of light flew towards the sky, creating a bright signal for everyone to see.
“That’s not going to help you. Nobody will come, right? Your orders were to stay in the city after all.” She said and laughed crazily. Just to show how useless Sofie’s actions were, she even waited a little before strolling over to her.
“And off with your head.” Olivia said and held the sword high above her. She swung it downwards faster than I had seen her move ever before, but her sword was still stopped just above Sofie’s neck by a glowing barrier.
“That’s why I hate you the most Ellie. You always have to ruin the fun for me.” Olivia said and struck the exact same spot right away, only to see her sword rebound once more. “That’s not your real gift, is it? Let me guess, that’s not how you are supposed to use it.” She said and swung onto Sofie’s neck once more. “So how long can you hold this? One more strike? Two?”
“S…top.” I muttered weakly, just as her blade crashed onto the barrier another time and Ellie spewed out a bit of blood.
“One more time!” Olivia said exited and let her sword crash into the barrier one lace more. Her sword rebounded, but the barrier vanished in the process.
“Hmm?” Olivia asked, turning away from her and looked into the distance. “Barrier.” At last, she was forced to use her own magic to defend herself as a silvery sword, glowing gently flew through the darkness, illuminating everything in its path until it crashed into her barrier and splintered into pieces without doing anything.
Olivia still faced this unknown person, unwilling to look away. Listening closely, I could hear a horse galloping towards us fast from the east.
Whoever that was didn’t care much about us laying on the ground, but rather steered the white horse directly towards Olivia, forcing it to stand upright in front of her at the last possible moment. Its hooves crushed right into Olivia’s barrier, producing a very distinct sound if metal hitting something sturdy. But I could also hear someone out of my vision falling onto the ground right behind the horse which quickly kicked the barrier to push itself to the right and galloped onwards into the darkness.
“You ..” Olivia growled and pointed her sword at the person who wore a completely white dress and stood up slowly.
“I think you great others with their names, not just an unfriendly you.” I couldn’t believe who I saw there. Lucy stood there, without any weapon in her arms and pouted unhappily.
“Who did this? Who killed Ricardo?”
“Ricardo? Oh, right. Do you remember the necromancer you hired to attack Atlantis? Well, that was him. And he is angry … real angry.” Lucy explained which didn’t make much sense for me, but Olivia opened her eyes wider.
“This guy … I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.” Olivia said, not even caring about attacking as the mist wold to the work for her.
“P…oison.” I muttered weakly in an attempt to warn her.
“You have poisoned them? Wow … that’s quite the underhanded move. Not that I didn’t expect it though.” Lucy said and clapped her hands. “Do you mind?” She said and nodded towards my sword laying on the ground.
“Go ahead.” Smiling brightly, Lucy strolled over towards me and picked up the black sword I had made someone craft after Hannah’s.
“That feels oddly familiar.” Lucy mumbled and weighed it in her hands. After nodding once, she took it into her right hand and swung it around for a few seconds. She didn’t even bother looking at Olivia, which proved to be a mistake right away.
Lucy could only dodge to the side awkwardly as she noticed the approaching sword. She did manage to avoid the strike, but there was more luck than anything else at play. Stepping a few times back, Lucy retreated away from us, still on a short lived defence. She lost the moment she used her sword to defend as she was far too weak to hold it properly. She even looked after it a bit stunned and smiled wryly at Olivia who didn’t go for the kill right away.
“You used a magical sword to attack me and that’s it? You don’t have anything more up your sleeve?” I could only beg she did. Otherwise, I would see her die in front of me which I couldn’t bear at all.
“Hmm … I wonder. Or right, I was supposed to tell you something. The boy you killed … Albert, remember?” She asked and rubbed her cheek.
“Obviously.” Olivia said with a rather monotone voice.
“He was an inventor.” Lucy said, looking over towards my sword a little.
“So what?” Olivia asked, following her gage for a split second.
“He showed me what progress humanity could do before you murdered him … and I am sure he will show you as well, because your time … is up now.” She said and threw herself onto the ground as fast as she could.
“Barrier.” Olivia said, right as hell broke out. The only thing I could see was a massive explosion right beside her, blowing all the mist away in an instant and setting the wheat fields on fire right away. The fire went right above our heads, far warmer than Louis could ever hope to achieve.
Ear shattering noises resounded from the epicentre, making my ears ring in pain.
And then, the fires dissipated and I saw Olivia, panting heavily but with a still intact barrier shielding her, and coincidentally Lucy as well. Lucy directly used that opportunity to stand up and run over towards us while Olivia needed time to collect herself.
“Get up!” She shouted and looked at Sofie in particular.
“Cure poison.” Sofie said, making us feel like before the fight right away. As fast as I could, I stood up and ran in between Lucy and Olivia, shielding the former with my own body.
“What was that?” She asked aggressively, but also incredibly tired.
“One of his inventions. I told you.” Lucy said, stepping to my side.
“You …” Olivia growled angrily.
“Olivia … let us talk this over.” Sofie said pleasingly. Even though I had given it up already, she didn’t.
“You have said everything.” Olivia explained, which basically summed everything up just fine.
“But we could listen! We can listen to your standpoint and try to understand everything! But you aren’t giving us any chance!” Sofie said helplessly, still trying to reason with her.
“Barrier!” Olivia said, shielding herself from the next massive blast right away. Even though we were ten metres way from her, we were still flung backwards before we could even react. This time, there was no fire, but rather red lightning licking everything around Olivia whose barrier shattered the moment everything dissipated and a broken spear fell onto the ground in front of her.
“Lets … talk.“ Olivia finally said as we stood up one by one. Sofie directly looked at Lucy who balled her right hand into a fist and lifted it up.
“Olivia, you need to stop this. Otherwise you will die.” I said helplessly. I didn’t want to see my old friend die in front of me, that was for sure.
“I know … I know. And I don’t even want to fight against you, but i don’t have any other choice! The gods forced me into this and now I can’t quit because the demon king would end my life.” She said, stumbling weakly and stabbing her sword into the ground.
“Then surrender.” Ellie proposed, already pointing her spear at Olivia once more.
“They would kill me as well.” Olivia said, looking downwards to the ground with a trembling voice. “I … I can’t do anything.”
“… hide. You are the master of illusions. There is no way anyone could find you this way.” I proposed right away. I knew for sure she could do that. She hid inside the academy after all.
“But … I want to stay with my friends from the spaceship.” She said, tears dropping down her face.
“When everything is over, we can do that. But before the demon king isn’t defeated, you have to hide.” I said, hoping to see her again one day.
“You promise? That you will search for me?” Olivia asked, finally looking up to me with red eyes.
“Absolutely. You are my old friend after all.” I said, smiling brightly and hopefully, encouragingly.
“You need to promise me that you will never harm any intelligent life after this. Can you do that?“ Lucy asked staring straight into Olivia’s eyes.
“I won’t … I swear.” Olivia said and looked back at her determined.
“Very well. You should leave now. Others will be here shortly and they will not be so kind.” Lucy said as kind as she was.
“Thank you … all of you. Wings of darkness.” I didn’t even know such a cool spell existed, but black angel wings really did sprout from her back. She only needed to flap them two times and was already in the air, flying away from us with breakneck speed towards the horizon.
“Soo … I do hope you know what you are doing.” Lucy said and raised her eyebrows a little, gathering all attention in herself. For a second, I thought that a star in the corner of my vision went dark, but as I looked there, I couldn’t see anything.
“I don’t believe she will attack us again.” I commented right away. I did have high hopes I could get my friend back after all.
“You also didn’t think about her using poison.” Lucy pointed out rightfully so.
“It was the right decision. Kindness wins the heart of others, and we showed plenty of that.” Sofie said happily. And with that, we had defeated the first demon general.
