A mysterious group of armed strangers clad in the most beautiful armour that they had ever seen, wielding incredible weapons and unfathomable power.

Within mere minutes of arriving, the Wave that had been just about to slaughter everyone present was being slaughtered instead. Monsters were being cut down by the hundreds, spells caught hundreds at a time.

A Wave that would have washed over them with barely any issue, stopped in its tracks entirely by just ten people.

Within a short time, the Wave began trickling out and they all began cleaning up the stragglers remaining in this place, while priests began tending to the wounded and moving around the dead into one space.

It was an unfortunate truth, but people had died. The arrival of the strangers had saved the rest of them, but those that had already perished could no longer be saved. The priests present were not yet powerful enough to use any amount of resurrection magic, a realm only for the most powerful among them.

By the time that the Wave had cleared up, all corpses were gathered. 18 people had died. Considering their initial size, a large percentage died.

Considering the situation, this percentage was a miracle.

And the catalysts of this miracle had set themselves up between the people that gathered around the corpses, and the forest, keeping up a defensive line in case that more creatures come. Seven warriors and three mages. Only those ten had secured the lives of those that survived this.

Only the one that sat atop their horse had their gaze directed somewhere else.

At the new stranger that just arrived.

The Knight left the formation and went towards this figure, only to jump down from their horse and kneel before the hooded figure and begin paying its respects to them. Everybody remembered the person’s words that had given them hope. And this new stranger must be Master that they had mentioned.

A wave of dismissal, as the newest Mage moved towards the corpses and inspected them without a word. It was a serene scene.

As if nothing else in the world mattered, the figure only moved around the corpses, inspecting them all and touching them lightly, as if caressing them. At times they could be heard whispering something, as if talking to the dead. The voice that leaked out was mystifying, as if it didn’t belong in this world.

Everybody was enraptured by this person and nobody dared begin questioning them. The compassion they were exuding while looking at the dead was not something that warranted suspicion. A single thought permeated them all.

A Saint had come to their aid.

As they stood up from the eighteenth person, they could only see everybody that had survived kneeling to them, the priests praying, and everyone else paying their respects in their own ways.

“…Master. It appears you will be worshipped here in the future.”

“…Right. Well, it’ll make my job easier.” The apparent leader and the Master spoke to each other, before the Master turned to the crowd and finally pulled down their hood, revealing flowing silver hair that seemed to glow with a mystical light. Calm and quiet eyes, shining a gentle blue like clear ice. A face that seemed stoic but had a gentleness to it that would catch anyone’s attention.

“Everyone. I am one of the Twelve, Kuna.” She spoke. It was not a yell or a shout, but it was still loud enough to be heard by all present. Her voice, still carrying this otherworldly feeling became the only thing the crowd could focus on.

“The ones that saved you are the wonderful and compassionate people that chose to follow me into battle. They are my children and my friends. They… are people I don’t deserve with my lacking strength. But I will become worthy of them one day. And I only ask that you help me.”

The commander stood up, the only person left that held any position of authority and could act as the spokesperson. Although it was only a formality. All of them held the same thoughts anyway.

To help the Saintess, they would do all they could.

“Of course, Saintess. It is the least we could do to repay your grace.”

“…Saintess.” She sighed to herself, while the Knight next to her turned away, their body heaving up and down slightly but without sound.

“Please don’t call me that. Only one among the Twelve deserves that title, and it’s not me. But let me get straight to the point. The dead… I think I could revive them, but I’m not sure.”

The crowd was stunned into silence, only the Commander barely held his composure and spoke his mind.

“…T-that…. Would be more than we could ever wish for. Please, Saintess. Even if it doesn’t work, you and your comrades have already done more than enough just ensuring no more deaths.”

Kuna groaned to herself, aware that she was being misunderstood.

“No, it’s… not like that. I can do it. There is no chance of failure but…”

“Now, now. What’s all this?” A new voice rang out, from the direction of the forest. A terrible foreboding entered everyone’s minds. Even before seeing this presence, they could feel it. It was a disgusting and sticky feeling, as if they were stuck into a pit of tar.

“The creatures I so lovingly let loose all taken out by just this small group? That can’t be right. Hmm? Oh… so that’s how it was.” The origin of the voice passed by one of the trees and into sight.

Folded, deep-black wings that seemed to let no light escape. A long tail that pointed from person to person, moving like it had a mind of its own. A large figure, but lean, with two horns sticking straight out its forehead and three eyes, fully onyx-coloured inspecting the area.

Despite the objective beauty of this being’s face and body, its existence was disgusting.

A Demon had appeared.

And the worst kind for Kuna at that.

“It seems some of the Twelve have made it in time. Although… hah. The Goddess has such terrible hobbies, thinking that mere Humans could catch up to us.” The Demon clicked its tongue while throwing out its arms in both directions. Black tendrils of Mana were released from it and entered the nearby corpses, which promptly began standing up.

“Well, not that it matters. I would love to let you grow and eventually enslave you all, but I suppose I’ll just have to stop you right here instead.”

A lot of things congealed.

The fact that this Demon was behind the Wave.

The fact that it planned to hurt the others.

The fact that she could hear the screams of the Undead that it summoned.

There was no other way in her mind.

Today was the day.

She would kill a Demon.

***

“Hey, Stalker Girl. You’re not that good at your job, are you?” Ray commented as he dodged another ray of black aimed at him, concentrated Mana fired from the Demon. He lost count of how many he already dodged after the hundredth.

Meanwhile, the person he was talking to had a hard time just barely keeping Undead at bay. In fact, the Demon and the Necromancer were fully focused on fighting Ray, leaving her to the army of expendables. Luckily, despite his words and the indifference shown to her, she was still competent enough to ensure no Undead wandered over to him.

“Shut… Up! It’s your fault… anyway… FUCK!”

“Hah, that reminds me of when I started… Like what, about a month ago now? Always swearing at my enemy when it annoyed me.”

“BASTARD! “

“Don’t worry. I’m not saying I changed, it’s just that there isn’t really anything that annoying right now. I mean…” He moved to another area in a blink, just in time for his previous position to be blown apart by a fireball. “… This isn’t that bad. A little irritating, but not that serious.”

This was the general course of things for the past hour. Ray was actually very impressed, despite his words. As much as he put her down, she could still fight an hour into a never-ending siege battle.

By the point where he was dodging another dozen light rays that came all at once he decided to call it there, thinking that there was nothing else to gain from this. He had gotten some proper training and found somebody that wouldn’t be too bad to work with for a bit.

So, he turned up the heat.

Immediately the crowd of Undead around her was cleared by a tornado of Mana, freeing her up to take a breather. And in that same moment he was already head-to-head with his target, swinging and swinging at the barrier that had formed around him and the Demon.

Cracks spiderwebbed through it with each attack, but before the next swing connected it had already restored itself. But instead of being discouraged, he just swung faster. And within seconds he hit twice within the timing.

It wasn’t quite enough to break it fully, but he wasn’t done yet. No attacks were coming as the both of his targets had their hands full with just maintaining their defence against his aggression. So he just sped up even more. And now he hit three times.

Crack.

Shatter.

The barrier was gone and his hammer on course to disconnect the Necromancer’s head from his body. Within moments their head’s contents would splatter all across the ground and then he could have some fun with the Demon, before quickly dispatching them as well.

His victory was assured.

So, when his hammer was caught by the flat of their hand, pushed back and he was struck by a fist, all within a blink of an eye, he was perplexed for a moment. Such martial arts could probably be at least some match for Polly, so it confused him even more.

“Shit! They merged, be careful! That Demon has a physical body now!” The information that cleared up this sudden change was shouted at him from the side, now that the ‘Stalker Girl’ had some leeway with the disappearance of the Undead.

“So he can fight at full strength?”

“Not quite, but close to it!”

“Good. I was itching for a challenge anyway.” He cracked his neck, hammer thrown to the side and halberd in hand.

The Demon, now merged into the body of the Necromancer, resulting in a Human-sized shadow, did not say anything. Whether it could or couldn’t speak in the first place didn’t matter to Ray.

It was just prey anyway.

Even that surprise hit could not break through his defence or put a dent in his armour. It really only served to push him back a little.

The Demon would die, without question.

Ray would survive, without question.

And then he would get answers.

Even if just to be there to answer him.

He would save the city from the Demon.