“Sister!” Elwin gasped. He didn’t know that Astoria got kidnapped, or that she caused such a mess in the village of Leon, nor about the conspiracy of dark mages. He only came here to investigate the strange behaviour of the demons.

Never in his wildest imagination did he think that he would find Astoria here!

She was nailed to a cross, and her blood was falling to the floor. However, the floor was covered in a strange inscription and right next to the bottom of the cross were several centipedes. The centipedes drank her blood, grew, then suddenly split into two, quickly multiplying. As they did so. The centipedes burrowed into the ground and made their way out.

Elwin was furious and slaughtered all the centipedes on the floor before destroying the magic inscriptions. He took down the cross and told Brain to fetch the elves. Everyone soon arrived at this scene.

“This is the work of dark mages!” the elves hissed.

Astoria was still unconscious but was alive. Elwin was glad.

He pulled out the nail on her hand at which point Astoria woke up screaming. Her hand was quickly healed by the elf, and she fell unconscious again. This was repeated on her other hand and her foot, which were all nailed to the cross. There were other cuts on her body that were all bleeding, but the elf soon healed them all.

Elwin gently shook his sister awake. Astoria was slowly recovering consciousness. She rubbed her eyes open to see so many people before her gaze focused on Elwin.

Suddenly she remembered many things and understood her situation.

She hurriedly sat up and said, “Quickly we must leave. We are in extreme danger!”

“What why?” Jin asked.

“Long story short, I was kidnapped by two dark grand mages and brought here for some spell. However, they had to leave soon after, maybe to collect other girls like me for their sick use. Anyway, they left a commander class demon on guard which is still here!”

“WHAT!” everyone gasped. They didn’t see any commander class demon on their way here. However, as if to dissipate their doubts, a roar that shook their entire building resounded from the woods. Some of their knees gave way under this pressure as they fell.

This was a commander class demon - they were all going to be toast!

“What are you all waiting for, RUN!” Elwin screamed, immediately standing up with Astoria. She had just woken up and was still unable to walk properly but with Elwin’s help, she managed to make it out of the building.

Boom! Just as the group left, the entire building was torn out of its roots by an immense force. Standing behind it was an armoured mountain bear. Its figure was huge, twice that of the elephant demon that they had fought earlier. Its eyes were red as it stared at them with deep killing intent.

The group did not need to be told to run. Their survival instincts kicked in which naturally told them to avoid this demon at all costs.

They ran for their lives.

The armoured mountain bear roared in fury as it gave chase. But all of them, except of Astoria, were either expert martial artists or mages. They used various techniques to boost their speed while Astoria herself was carried by Elwin.

They ran with all their might, quickly reaching their previous resting spot, and sprinting back to the region with the azure lion. The azure lion initially sensed the presence of the humans, and then it felt a far greater threat behind them.

The azure lion roared, warning them to not approach.

One of the reasons why the group survived before was that they would often lure demons into each other’s layers and get them into fighting each other which greatly reduced their burden. This was what Drake also did all those years ago when chased by that minotaur.

But commander class demons were slightly intelligent and would not fight unnecessarily. So, they didn’t know if this plan would work out.

The group ran helplessly but the demon was rapidly approaching. Bear type demons weren’t known for their speed like wolves and this bear was covered in heavy armour which further decreased its speed, which is why they could run for this long.

The armoured mountain bear had impenetrable defence and a strong offense. It’s true strength laid in battle, not chase. However, due to the large power gap, it was still quickly catching up.

The group entered the territory of the azure lion, but the lion didn’t attack them, it was focusing on the armoured mountain bear. However, the armoured mountain bear skirted around the boundary of the azure lion’s lair while chasing them.

The two did not fight!

“There’s no choice! We must split up!” said Elwin at once. Everyone nodded solemnly. This was their only hope.

“We’ll split into four groups,” the tall swordsman spoke as they sprinted. “One group will have one member from each village. They will fight together to hold the demon back for as long as possible. The rest will split up into the groups based on their respective villages and head in different direction. That is the best option to ensure the survival of most people.”

Everyone agreed helplessly. The mission was already completed so they wanted to retreat but nobody expected to end up in this kind of a situation. However, what was done is done. The information they had must reach their villages; else their sacrifice thus far would be in vain.

They quickly decided, the tall swordsman, the healing mage, and Brain would go engage the demon whilst the rest split up. This left Jin Tong all on his own, but he didn’t complain. Everyone knew that death was inevitable, so they quickly acted according to the plan and split up hoping against hope that at least one person will be able to make it and carry their information through.

Three weeks later, two weeks after Sam told everyone about Astoria.

Two figures approached the Jain village gate. It was a young boy and a girl. Their clothes were tattered and dirty, their bodies were covered in innumerable wounds, and they were struggling to take even a single step. However, they pushed each other forward. The boy used a sword as a cane to support himself while the two walked forward together.

A few guards noticed this peculiar sight and immediately went to help.

“Who are you tw- ah!” the guard screamed. “Young master Elwin! Miss Astoria! It is really you! Quickly someone come help!” After hearing his words, the two knew they were safe and immediately collapsed.

At the same time, in front of the elven village, a lone figure was walking forward. It was covered in wounds and missing an arm. The hole was covered by a cloth that had long since absorbed the maximum amount of blood. Half of the face of was covered by a long scar that cut through one of its eyes. It was a miracle that this figure was still alive.

The figure spotted several guards approach it from the village gate and with a smile, collapsed onto the floor.

‘Finally made it…’ it thought.

In the village of Leon, Byron’s face as full of worry.

‘Where is everyone?’ he thought to himself.

Two mages wearing dark hooded robes were standing inside a wooden cabin with dark expressions. This cabin was none other than the cabin that was destroyed by the commander class demon but had later been restored by these two mages.

There were now standing in the basement. That cross was once again erected and nailed onto it was another person.

This was a man around sixteen years of age. If Elwin or Astoria were here, they would quickly recognise him.

Jin Tong!

Several days later, in the Jain village, a servant was cleaning a room. In that room there was a large bed, on which lay a young man. He was the young master of the village, Elwin. The servant turned around to go clean another table when he noticed something about the young master. Elwin was moving his fingers!

The servant ran out and called Holt frantically.

Holt arrived to find that Elwin was slowly opening his eyelids.

‘It seems, I actually made it’ he thought. He felt very weak, but also strong. When he saw that armoured mountain bear, he really thought that he would die. He just wanted to save Astoria at the very least.

Astoria…

“Astoria!” he yelled, sitting up. “How is she?”

“She’s fine. Just unconscious like you were,” Holt replied warmly. “How are you feeling son?”

“I’m… okay” he replied. His physical wounds were all healed by Holt, and he was lying in a new pair of clothes.

“Call everyone, I must inform you of what happened,” Elwin declared.

Holt felt something different about him. He spoke more authoritatively, with confidence. He no longer had an innocent look, childish look, but was sharp and mature.

Holt was happy, ‘it seems that the risk I took was worth it’, he thought, as he left to assemble everyone else.

“So that’s what happened,” Drake said.

He was standing along with Ray, Hazezel, and Holt, in front of Elwin’s bed. They had just listened to the whole story. After they split up, the group that went to engage the demon was quickly eliminated. However, it still brought them precious time to escape. The demon was furious and wondering which group to chase when it suddenly ran towards Jin Tong as if wanted to take out the weakest group first.

Everyone assumed that he was dead by now. Afterwards, it went after the elves. Although its main task was to protect Astoria, in its mind, none of these people could get away. Elwin’s group had three people, and Elwin and Zhao were both strong fighters.

However, Jin Tong was a lone, spent force and the elves were primarily long-range fighters. Especially the investigative elf was extremely weak in close combat. It wanted to make quick work of them before chasing after Astoria.

This gave them some time, but it still wasn’t enough. Eventually the demon started catching up to them at which point Zhao decided to stay back and keep it occupied.

They kept running and running, purposely going through many demons and onis’ territories. These demons didn’t dare to fight against the commander class demon, and they all ran away. This whole section of the woods fell into absolute chaos as demons were running everywhere and ended up fighting against each other while the commander class demon was rampaging. This chaos was another reason that slowed down the armoured mountain bear as it inevitably got drawn into some fights by accidents.

By the end of it all, the two finally managed to make it out of the woods and even the commander class demon didn’t dare to recklessly charge out of the woods. Though it was powerful, if it left the woods, the other villages would sense it and it would get surrounded by many powerful humans simultaneously. So, it could only abandon them.

They didn’t know whether the others survived at all, but that wasn’t too important to them. So long as they were safe, who cared about others? That was their problem.

At this point, Holt also started informing Elwin about what happened in his absence. Just as they were talking a visitor arrived at their door.

“Father,” came a voice.

“Astoria!” everyone cried. Except for Ray and Elwin, the rest rushed towards her. After a long time, Astoria felt the loving embrace of her family and was happy.

They were all laughing and catching up when Astoria suddenly had a question.

“What happened to Sam?”

“He…” Holt hesitated before telling her about the state that Nala was in, and how he sacrificed himself to save Astoria. As it turned out, despite her body being healed, Nala ended up dying a few days later. She was already too weak and there was nothing more they could have done.

“Where is he now?” she asked worriedly.

“From what I know, he has been running around bars, drinking away. He is still in mourning.”

Astoria immediately dashed out the building.

“Wait!” Drake called out before following her but was held back by Hazezel.

“Let her go brother, she needs some time alone,” he said.

Drake thought about it and agreed. Too much had happened recently, they were all trying to get through it. However, one thing was sure, the events of the past few months had changed all of them.

They were about to leave when a messenger came through the door.

“Lord Holt! I have urgent news. A horde of demons have left the woods and started attacking the outskirts of the village!”

“WHAT?!”

Meanwhile, in an empty bar, a lone man was seated while ordering one drink after another. He was consuming them at an alarming rate. He was about to have another drink when a figure burst through the door.

It was a small, but beautiful young figure. A girl that he was very familiar with. He almost couldn’t believe his own eyes when he saw her.

“Astoria? Oh, it seems I’m really too drunk,” he said before drinking another mug. However, Astoria didn’t go away but marched forward and grabbed the drink from his hands.

“Huh?” he said before looking at her again. “It really is you!” He didn’t know what to do anymore.

Though they worked together, they had their own interests so he didn’t even know if they could be called friends. Either way, he didn’t really care. Nala was already dead. So, everything that he did before was completely meaningless right? So, what if he succeeded in getting revenge on Henry or saving Astoria, his primary goal failed. Though everyone else had some gains in the past events, he was one who had lost everything. He didn’t get his happy ending.

And there was nothing he could do.

Life was unfair at times.

He could only drink.

But now Astoria was holding his mug, so he didn’t know what to do.

She looked at him but also didn’t know what to do now. An awkward silence began, which was broken by Astoria who suddenly started tearing up. She dropped the mug and gave Sam a deep hug.

“Thank you. Thank you very much,” she said. “And I am so sorry about what happened. I really wish I had known about this sooner; I would have saved Nala.”

Sam didn’t reply. He had thought like this to himself, about what he could have done differently if that could have changed his present. But what was the point? It was already too late now. He had to accept reality. But how could he accept it? He wasn’t ready yet. He just had to drink.

Or so he thought but Astoria randomly showed up and hugged him. And being hugged by Astoria made him feel so many things simultaneously.

As a child, he often saw children hugging their parents and wondered if he could have also hugged his parents if they were alive. But he never got the chance. Many memories, thoughts, and emotions were flowing out and at once he started crying loudly.

This was the first time he cried properly in a long time. He cried and cried and cried while Astoria held him. Though she was short and young, she was now a pillar of support that Sam could use, that he needed. He kept crying for a long time, but Astoria didn’t mind at all, gently patting his head.