The double doors connecting to the royal palace suddenly flung opened from both sides with a loud thud as a young knight drench in sweat came frantically running in. 

"Y-Your majesty there is an emergency!" 

The young knight screamed, gathering the attention of all those still within the room.

"Hm, did something happen? Speak!"

The king ordered, furrowing his brow. He didn't understand what had happened on the outside during these past hours as he had been too engrossed into Mona's training.

"I-It's the kingdom of Zestril, they are currently attacking the capital as we speak!"

The young knight explained, in a hoarse voice. However, upon hearing that the king's expression changes abruptly, 

"What did you just say?!" 

He roared.

Without even thinking twice the knights all ran onto the balcony on the training room and gazed off into the distance where black smoke was visibly rising into the air while the damage buildings down below were being attack by beasts and monsters!

"Th-This... How could this be possible?!"

"Th-The defensive barrier has been destroyed!"

"Th-That shouldn't be possible! The defensive barrier is the most powerful defensive type artifacts."

"Are you blind? They are attacking the capital so they must have bypassed the barrier!"

"How did the knights from Zestril arrived here so fast?!"

"Even if they had flying mounts, it should still have taken them sometime to get here!"

"... Did our plan got leaked through some inexplicable means?"

As they watch helplessly as the city was being attacked by summoning beasts, they all murmured among themselves, their eyes widening in disbelief.

However, the king clenched his fist as his anger surge forth! He was furious to say the least! "Unforgivable! Those bastards!"

He bellowed. He swore he will never forgive the Zestril kingdom for this.

As a ruler of a country, he had his dignity as king to protect his subjects but now, someone dared to not only try and harm his family but also targeted his home as well. A blazing fury burnt intensely within his eyes as he clenched his teeth.

"Th-This is awful..."

Princess Adrianna looked at the miserable state of the capital from the balcony of the royal palace with a pained expression on her beautiful face. As a princess she naturally loved her kingdom along with its people, seeing them suffering like this caused her heart to ache badly.

"Why is this happening! What are the royal knights doing?" Matthew, the strongest knight of the Alberta kingdom asked, with furrowed brow. 

"... They were wiped out... Unfortunately, many of our strongest knights were already stationed at the grassland on the outskirts of the forest. With their absence we couldn't dispatch many personnel to fend them off." 

The young knight explained.

A heavy silence fell over the room once the knights gave his explanation. The king and Matthew both had stern expressions on their faces as they thought about the abnormalities of the situation.

(How did they get here so fast? And even if they came here sooner than expected, they would have to confront the knights that were stationed at the border of the forest... Don't tell me something had happened to those knights?)

The king wondered, of course, he also thought of the possibility that they were wiped out, but he quickly discarded that thought! It was too depressing to even have such a thought in the first place.

Matthew also seems to share the same sentiment as his expression was rather ashen.

"... I have a feeling something is wrong about this situation, there could be a spy, or traitor among us."

The king said, his voice took on a cold tone. Matthew nodded his head with a serious expression on his face, he seems to have the same thought as the king.

"There weren't that many high-ranking individuals who knew about our plans that had connections with the Zestril kingdom, but finding the one responsible will be very difficult. Especially now that he has suspected them already."

He continued.

"Your majesty I will interrogate the few individuals who are aware!"

A knight said.

"No need, they are already capturing the capital there is no telling when they will reach the royal palace, there is no time to do an investigation."

The King said, sighing as he shook his head.

"Thats not all. There is also a very strong summoner out there, considering the sheer number of beasts rampaging it seem to be a very talented one."

Matthew added.

Everyone had stern expressions on their faces. Mona who was listening to the explanation frowned as she notices how bad the situation was.

(What should I do? I'm the hero, shouldn't I be able to do something...)

She wondered to herself. While she didn't mind doing mock battles, competing in a war where death was imminent wasn't something she could do so readily.

The very thought of taking the lives of other humans filled her with fright, after all before she came here, she was just a regular student living an ordinary life just like any other girl.

"Sh-Should I do Something?"

Mona muttered, listlessly. Princess Adrianna seems to have overheard her as she gently held onto Mona's trembling hand and showed a faint smile.

"I'm truly sorry you have to experience such a thing, Mona this wasn't our intention."

The princesses voice was so soft and soothing that Mona's fears seems to have lessen a bit, but her expression was still that of worry.

"... You are still inexperienced in the field of combat, so of course we have no intention of letting you go onto the battlefield. You should stay here where it's safe."

"A-Are you sure?"

Mona asked dubiously. Judging from the sound of the conversation so far even the king didn't seem to be very confident in their victory.

"Y-Yes... It's fine."

Princess Adrianna said, turning her face away as though she didn't want to meet Mona's eyes. Meanwhile, the king gritted his teeth in frustration. Completely ignoring everyone around him. His anger was increasing more by the moment.

However, despite that his brain was moving in full gear as he desperately searched for a way to overturn the current situation into their favor!

"Tsk, damn it! Those bastards will definitely regret making me their enemy!"

The king fumed.

"Your majesty please allow me to deal with them."

Matthew said as he bowed his head solemnly with his hand placed against his chest.

Hearing that the king's eyes finally lit up; indeed, Matthew was currently the strongest knight who served under the king. If there were anyone capable of overturning the current situation into their favor it was him!

Finally, he could see a ray of hope amidst the despair he felt moments ago. Usually as the king's strongest knights Matthew never left the king's side but this was a special occasion.

With the current state of the capital, he had no other choice but to leave temporarily.

"Take the rest of the remaining knights and take care of the ones running amok in the capital."

"I trust that you can handle it?"

"Of course, aside from that powerful beast summoner there doesn't seem to be anyone within the enemies who seem particularly strong."

Matthew muttered as his eyes narrowed.

He then placed his hand against the hilt of the sword sheathed at his waist, its blade shone with a dazzling light as he unsheathed his sword.

"Very well... Make sure you teach those scoundrels their place!"

"As you wish, my king."

Matthew once again bowed his head as he left along with the few knights that were still within the training ground, only three knights were left to guard the king, princess and the hero as the others left.

Mona shifted her gaze to the ruined capital that had destroyed buildings and littered with the corpses of the civilians as she brought her hands to her chest with a pained expression.

...

Sometime later...

Matthew and the rest of the remaining knights finally arrived at the garden of the castle were currently heading towards the entrance by foot.

After surveying the surroundings area Matthew confirmed that the invaders have not yet arrived at the royal palace as they gradually left the inner zone of the garden.

"Oya, it seems I didn't have to lure you out myself, you came to me, hahahaha! How perfect!"

Matthew turned his gaze upwards towards the sky where the figure of a man dressed in black flew with bat like wings spread outwards from his back.

The man had slightly long silver colored hair and deep red eyes. Matthew observed him with a serious expression etched on his face as the silver-haired man slowly descended onto the ground.

"Who are you? I don't recall ever meeting you before."

Matthew said, frowning.

"I'm not surprised, after all this is the first time, we have met face to face."

Alister replied.

"This is our first meeting; in that case could you tell me what your intentions are for coming here?"

Matthew asked, his eyes were fixed on Alister's bat like wings as his gaze became piercingly cold.

He would have to be a genuine fool if he didn't know what kind of race Alister belong to.

Over the past centuries the demon race and human race as always been on constant odds with each other.

Their hatred for that race was something that the humans couldn't let go no matter how many years went by.

Just how many humans suffered by the hands of that race?

Just how many humans died by the hands of that race?

It was too many to count. Even though the ones who had suffered had already long left this world the hatred was deeply rooted into the hearts of humanity as countless generations still continued to hate them!

Seeing the look, he was receiving from Matthew Alister cackled gleefully as a grin appeared on his face.

"Hahahahahaha! That's it! I like that look! Indeed, it is as you think, I am from the demon race. I am Alister, the one who controls shadows."

He introduced himself.

"So you are from that cursed race, then allow me to vanquish your existence from this world for good!"

Matthew's eyes flashed with killing intent as he got into a battle stance with his sword!