Breaking the barrier of sound, Michael flew towards the rampaging dragon with his golden lance clutched tight. His eyes, brewing with rage from the incident back in the emperor's domain, were ready to see the dragon's head served on a platter. But as he flew even closer, he noticed the scorched scales and the lava seeping out from the dragon's skin, and that was when he realized that the dragon was exactly whom he'd feared it to be.
"Roselia?" He muttered, his eyes wide open in shock.
The sudden revelation made him break the spell that allowed him to travel through the air. So despite falling down to the earth, his eyes were fixed on the dragoness wreaking havoc all over the already ruined city.
The moment he hit the ground, Michael shook his head to think more clearly about the situation. However, throwing him off further, a clash of monster screeches began echoing behind him in the forest.
"What's happe-" As he turned to look, even though he couldn't see the battle, he finally felt the presence of the warlock now that his rage had subsided.
'Shit, what the hell did I run into?' Gripping his lance tighter, he tried to piece everything together, but given the lack of information, his mind only ran in circles. 'If the warlock is approaching then I can't waste my time like this.'
Shifting his attention back to the dragoness, he decided to take the monsters amongst monsters one after the other. Drawing his lance back, he fixed his eyes on Roselia's heart, and although he felt hesitant to kill the head maid of the Frosts, he had no choice but to go through with it.
'Where's the kingdom's army? Or the dukes and nobles from the duchies?' His questions kept piling up, but the screeching from the approaching army snapped him out of the state of doubt.
"There's no time," he muttered, and a rainbow glow emanated began emanating from his lance.
Keeping his eyes closed shut, Michael chanted an incantation, and with each prayer done, a magic circle of pure gold surrounded the length of his weapons. Finally, as the earth under him shattered into a small crater from the force of his magic, the clone of the dragoness noticed the war general.
Flying towards Michael who was still busy with the attack preparation, the dragoness opened her jaws and readied a ball of flame to be unleashed from her mouth. That turned out to be the last mistake that the clone would ever make.
"May this battle end in light's favor, GUNGNIR!" With his lance thundering in his hands, he threw it in an arch toward the dragon's belly. Creating a stream of water in its path, the lance cackled like lightning and went straight through the clone's heart.
But the golden lance carrying thunder and water didn't stop there, and so after making the clone disappear into a puffy mist, it soared through the sky and cut through reality itself. Creating a tear between realms, the morning sky was torn in two, and through the gap, the glister of the night sky was presented to everyone around the place.
"Where did she go?" Ignoring his own spell, Michael was dearly confused by how the dragoness turned to mist.
'A clone?' Finally figuring it out, Michael began to wonder why someone would make a clone of a dragon, but then it hit him. 'Did they want to draw me here?'
Turning to the screams from battle happening behind him, Michael was driven to suspect the only person present who could be responsible for the matter.
"The warlock…It has to be him!" Having not given an ounce of information about Snow's real identity, he jumped to the wrong conclusion.
***
Watching everything unfold from afar, Haruki, as well as Asuka, were both baffled by Michael's Gungnir attack. The tear through the realms had turned part of the sky into the night, and peeking out of that space was a giant singular eye. With a shimmering golden iris, it peered down at its master Michael, seemingly ready to unleash all hell upon anyone who dared to oppose him.
"Master, w-what is that?" Asuka asked, stuttering.
"An angel, an archangel to be exact," having read accounts of Michael's battles dating back to times when he wasn't even born, Haruki had some understanding of his powers. "It can blast everything to dust, and our invisibility is useless now, that thing gives so many buffs it's inhumane…"
The last word of his own sentence clicked something in his head, but brushing it off for the moment, Haruki decided to carry out the rest of his plan.
"Anyway, let's mask ourselves and go help him," opening a dungeon portal in mid-air, he brought out the Silver storms, and Nue's eye falling to the ground.
"Mask presence: Arnold," being under the impression that his identity was still hidden from everyone outside the demonic kingdom, Haruki transformed into his mercenary form. Thankfully, however, Michael was the only one whom he could potentially slip past pretending to be Arnold.
After everyone was done masking their demonic features, and Asuka turned to Rise the Adventurer, Haruki created a hoard of soldiers that would pretend to be reinforcement sent by the Larian duke. Glancing over the handful of battalions, he knew that it wouldn't be convincing enough, and so to make it more believable he added fake injuries on the clones and their bodies to pretend that the rest of the reinforcement had perished in battle.
"Stay close, and if it comes between you and me or Asuka, then I hope you know whose life is more important," ruling with an iron fist had turned him into a cruel ruler, but under the charm of his servitude, none of the demons could bring themselves to disagree with him.
Giving everyone their orders, Haruki climbed down the hill they were on and headed straight for the battlefield. The effect of invisibility being useless on him, he along with Asuka put it off since Michael was bound to find it suspicious. And by the time they got to the battlefield, Michael was standing before the warlock with an invisible barrier protecting him from attacks from the invisible monsters.
While most of Haruki's army was capable of adhering to orders, some were too dumb to focus on Almuld and not touch the man trying to help them get rid of the demon lord.
"Sir Michael!" Called Kane from behind him. "We're here to help!"
Pretending to be the same leader figure as before, Kane led the charge so everyone could stand beside the general.
"Stay back," Michael, however, seemed to have different plans. "I do not need help from monsters."
Slowly turning his head to the side, his eyes glowing golden had seen right through the demonic mask.
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