In this ghost town, a beauty appeared, naturally it was none other than Lilith, the current empress of the reunited demon continent. She left her empire incognito, disguising herself as one of her personas, she was planning to slowly enjoy her adventure while chasing after the fugitive but was stopped by Alex coincidentally, a lot of things happened, the world is slowly changing so she decided to quickly take care of this.
She pursued a trace into this city, Lilith frowned while using her senses to scan the city when suddenly she got a bad feeling, an ominous premonition, and looked in a certain direction, it was the direction the man who jumped into the abyss was.
''I shall go there.'' She decided before disappearing.
At the same time in another location, someone in a lab coat wearing goggles giggled.
''Huhuhu! Finally, someone discovered that place. Please don't disappoint me, stranger.'' The man in the lab coat said as a mad glint flashed through his eyes.
The following morning, back to the same Forest.
In a remote corner of the inner region, a ten members squad equipped with armor and powerful weapons was currently engaged in a fight with a giant monster. The squad was overpowering the monster with their superior numbers.
Only soldiers or adventurers affiliated with the three empires can enter this Forest. Unless the independent adventurers commit trespass or have a special status like Lilith nobody could easily enter. This means most of the humans in the Forest are soldiers or adventurers of the three empires.
This squad is an elite squad belonging to the Drexia empire.
They are here for one reason.
Hunt monsters according to the orders given by the higher-ups and also investigate some disappearance cases.
They are currently wrestling with a growing dumpster fire.
Five warriors used their magic at the same time. They also used their battle techniques on the monster several times bigger than them. They whacked the beast with their weapons
Roarrrr
The bear-torso, lion-head monster with three legs lashed around in anguish. Its red eyes are red with madness and desperation. It stomped the ground with its massive legs. With a mighty stomp, the ground fissured and a magically-summoned swamp replaced the ground.
"Retreat now!"
A veteran soldier issued the order to his squad.
"That monster is using magic. Warriors fall back! Magicians focus fire!"
The veteran was worthy of his position. He issued succinct and accurate orders. The soldiers also trusted the team leader. The 6 warriors immediately drew a distance.
The intelligent understood what the leader said and didn't agree to this battle plan.
Roarrrr!
Its wrathful roar echoed and the magical swamp responded to the chimera's bestial cry. It sprang to life and expanded outwards like a dark fishing net. The magic swamp net was aimed at the retreating warriors.
If they are caught then the magical ripples on the net will probably put them out of commission, permanently!
Things just took a drastic turn.
The veteran leader didn't falter. He waved his hand.
"Do it!"
Magical lights lit up behind the squad leader. The magical energy took the form of flame rings conjured by three magicians with staves. They shot the spell like a wave of missiles that landed in the magical swamp net.
Boom!
The dark swamp net collided explosively with the flame rings. A shockwave spread out as the two opposing spells canceled each other out.
"Now!"
The squad leader led the charge with his arming sword ready. With a blurry figure, the leader slashed toward the chimera's neck with his sword-filled mana.
Splash!
The glowing sword connected with the beast's neck. The sword tore through the chimera's tough skin like scissors through paper. Deep red liquid burst out from the monster's wound. That wasn't the end, the arming sword took an entire second to cleave through the beast's thick neck.
The chimera stopped growling as the monster's decapitated head fell to the ground. The beast died a frustrating death as it didn't close its eyes despite getting decapitated.
The headless body fell to the floor, gushing out a copious amount of blood that dyed the ground an eerie shade of red. This fight was finally over.
"We won!"
"Haha! The big guy's down!"
"Glory to our leader!"
"Yeah, nice job leader! The saint realm monster got decapitated by the leader. We can all boast about this when we return to the base..."
"Jeez, guys, we are still on duty here, stop messing around!"
The leader returned to the squad with the beast's head in tow.
"If you guys didn't help then this victory would have been impossible. I am only peak Level 134, not a peak Level Saint realm expert so there's some distance between myself and the monster's power."
"Don't be so modest leader, power is one thing and wits is another..."
The soldier continued.
"You seized the chance at the right time. If you acted too soon or too late we would have to resolve ourselves for a long fight..."
"Yeah..."
Another soldier chimed in while the leader rubbed his nose in pride.
The squad would have needed more guts and skills to bring down a peak Saint realm monster if the leader didn't strike at the appropriate time. They used superior numbers and cunning tactics to bring down the monster.
If the beast was a little bit stronger, the outcome would be up to chance. Most likely, the leader would have issued a command to retreat.
While the squad was celebrating their victory, a few malicious glints appeared in the bush nearby.
The leader holding the monster's head sensed something amiss and he turned around in an instant.
Roarrr!
Demonic wails and shrieks came from the bush. The lurking monster pounced on the leader.
"Captain!"
The others cried out while the leader quickly threw the dead beast's head at the incoming foe, knocking it to the ground.
The squad can finally see the ambush attacker.
It's a monster with black scales all over it and disgusting tentacle claws, it also had seven irises in its abnormally large eye.
The squad didn't expect to see something so grotesque here.
"What is that monster?!"
The others took a step back.
Roar!
The monster came dashing once more after bellowing once.
"Careful!"
The squad leader endured his fear but some of his squad members succumbed to fear. One of them had the guts to confront the monster with his weapon.
They wanted to tell that daredevil to retreat but the monster got cut in two by the bold soldier. Even when inflicted with a grievous wound, the monster still stepped forward two steps before dying.
The other soldiers gasped.
They had pale looks, the bold soldier also looked at his trembling hand in disbelief. He laughed out loud in a cracked voice.
"Wh-what the heck, it looks more threatening than it was..."
The other squad members also sighed in relief. The leader still had a bad feeling, he continued gazing at the dead beast on the floor.
Fswoosh!
A black wisp of light shot out from the monster and it merged with the bold soldier.
"Gargh!!!"
They were shocked to see something that came out of their nightmares.
Their trusty comrade got turned into an abomination in front of their eyes.
Roar!
A cruel battle begins once more.
The nearest members were attacked, and the abomination was too fast not giving them the time to put up any defense.
BOOM!
Two soldiers were sent flying like a kite with its string broken.
BANG!
Their bodies landed a few kilometers from their previous location. They knew they must go back.
Their body hurt all over. Their legs hurt, their arms hurt, the elastic of their underwear hurt, and even the band of their watch hurt. But nothing hurt as much as their chest. Cold shivers shot through their body and both their hands and legs were trembling. They paused for a moment and contemplated every answer to this pain, weighing each option and trying to find the best one.
Their vision went blurry as tears filled their eyes. Biting the pain was barely an option as agonizing cramps seemed to crush their insides from within. Sweat was pouring from their forehead, their hands were clammy and trembling and their teeth were gritted. They gently rubbed their injury and, with eyes staring at their hands, tried to figure out a way to relieve themselves of this pain.
Their entire body was trembling now. Weak and exhausted it cost them all their remaining strength to keep fighting. But they managed to block out some of the pain by keeping their mind occupied with other tasks. It wasn't ideal, but by the time they're done, the pain will hopefully have subsided again.
Meanwhile, the battle on the other side was chaotic with many of the soldiers transformed.
Almost as if chaos had descended.
Outside people weren't aware that inside the forest chaos had descended the black lights claimed more than the lives of just monsters, growing powerful, a storm was brewing, and in the depth of the bottomless pit filled with black lights, something terrifying was about to be born.
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