From his spot in the sky, what Astaroth saw was nothing short of the worst scenario possible.
Walking toward the shelter, oozing demonic miasma, size bigger than usual with its head towering over the forest's trees, Teraria, second guardian of the forest.
Silent Light's face had already changed to one of absolute horror.
"What the heck is that?!"
"That is the worst possible thing that could have happened…"
Silent frowned at Astaroth's response.
"Can you beat it?"
"Hah! I doubt anything can. That is one of the two forest guardians. They are mythical grade, and I can assure you their level isn't under one hundred, at a bare minimum."
Silent Light gulped as he looked back at the monster. A mythical monster…
He hadn't met one yet, and he wasn't sure any player could even think of fighting one. Especially not one twice their level.
Astaroth was having similar thoughts, thinking the shelter was doomed. He thought about diving into it and just teleporting everyone away with Ipos' power.
The problem was that Ipos could only swap things on the same plane, so he would end up sacrificing the same amount of people to make the trade.
A couple of players flashed in his mind that he wouldn't mind exchanging against the lives of the Natives in the shelter. But when he thought of the death penalty for dying to a mythical grade monster of this level, he would condemn these players to a fresh start.
And that was not ideal, in the grander scheme of things. So he shook the thought from his head.
Even though he would love nothing more than to take a few of those players down a peg or two, killing any chance they had at being useful later on was a waste. He had to think of something else.
His next thought went to the ring on his finger. He knew of at least one demon with sealing abilities and other spells that could lock in place a foe of this might.
But it would require Solomon to unlock their full power, and he wasn't on the greatest term with that demon, either. Which meant the chances of that happening were next to nil.
From the images Genie had sent him on Arborea's state, she was unfit to fight her brother to a stalemate, let alone a win. His options were getting shorter and shorter.
He thought of getting Leon through teleportation, but that wasn't much better. Leon would probably exercise no control, and he didn't want to kill the guardian.
He thought of using all his spells and abilities, which would maybe boost him enough to fight the guardian, if only temporarily, but he was also afraid the whiplash would knock him out of the game for a while. And he couldn't afford that.
His list of options was growing thinner and thinner, and desperation was slowly creeping in. Astaroth was still a minute out from the shelter, because he had to detour around Teraria, and he was about to lose his wings.
At this pace, he would reach the shelter at the same time as Teraria, and by then, it would be too late.
'Think me, think!'
A thought suddenly popped into the back of his mind.
'What about Lady Anulo?'
They were theoretically on her turf, and Astaroth had plenty of access to her powers through proxies. He might be able to call on her, if only so she could save the residents of the shelter.
It was worth a try, that much was sure. But would he be able to reach her in time?
Astaroth quickly landed, using the last few seconds of his meld to Morpheus to stop their descent into the forest, so the duo didn't crash. He then immediately melded with White, since his options were either a demon or waiting.
Silent Light pushed him away from himself, shouting at him.
"Go! You'll be faster alone. I'll catch up! Go!"
Astaroth nodded his head, grateful for his understanding, and pivoted around. With all the power in his legs, when he took his first step, the ground caved in under his feet.
He was running at his full speed in a couple of steps, his acceleration putting drag-race cars to shame, dashing through the forest, barely dodging the trees and stones in his path.
The remainder of the distance was covered by him in about thirty seconds, and he reached the shelter a bit before Teraria would. But he still didn't have a guaranteed solution.
Since he had no time to think much more, he closed his eyes and prayed to Lady Anulo.
'Lady Alantha Anulo, Goddess of the Stars, protector of the Ash Elves. I call to you for help. Lives are at stake and we cannot win without your help. Please answer my call.'
The players that saw him arrive like a bullet train wondered what he was suddenly doing, closing his eyes so tightly, but they had no time to ask him. The ground started reverberating with the footsteps of the giant stag approaching them.
They could already see its complete body at the top of the valley's hills, and they started shaking without control.
"How the fuck are we supposed to beat that?!" The Orc barbarian, Bjorn Greenskin, cried out.
The rest of his party didn't even bother answering, since they knew not.
Two people appeared next to Astaroth, as he was opening his eyes. When he saw them, his eyes widened.
"Kloud! Aberon! What are you doing here? You should be helping the others evacuate. Aberon, don't you have a teleportation spell you can use?"
Kloud pulled out his sword, walking toward the guardian.
"I can't sit by while you youngsters fight this threat on your own. I will help as much as I can, slow it down as much as I can."
Aberon, in the meantime, looked at Astaroth.
"It's too late for me to use any teleportation spell I can use. I may be called the omni-mage, but that doesn't mean I am well-versed in all magics.
"Spacial magic takes decades of studying and practice to become fluent in. Any spell I can use would require me to chant for at least ten minutes. So unless you can buy me ten minutes, I might as well be here, fighting the guardian to a stalemate."
Astaroth cried inwardly, cursing fate for screwing them like this.
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