The third assailant was the unnamed S rank adventurer who seemed to be close with Guild Master Dasyra as she brought him to the meeting with Evan and the other dignitaries a few days ago.
"So, you are a 'demon', huh?"
Heinr was the first to speak, wiping the sweat off his brow as he flicked the black liquid off his sword before filling it with a staggering amount of divinity.
This action instantly made Zacular realise that Vazgan's undead servants that were posted to block reinforcements had been dealt with by this paladin.
The demon instantly flared his magic power and aura, but before he could move his hand and construct his undead summoning circles, Heinr kicked off the ground and dashed towards him while swinging his divinity-infused blade.
At that same instant, Ralphie blitzed in behind him, moving so fast that Evan and the others who just arrived saw and heard the sonic boom that was created as he moved.
Both Heinr's and Ralphie's unique skill attacks hit Zacular at the same time, sending the Demon's body flying and his blood spraying in the air.
The demon crash-landed on the floor and rag-dolled for a few metres before spreading his wings and shooting up into the air, just in time to avoid the unnamed S ranker's punch.
**BOOOM!!!
After the explosion, a sudden silence descended on the battlefield as Zacular who was down on one knee, stared at the three men while cleaning the blood on the side of his lips.
"Handling one of you Is one thing, but taking on all three of you at once? That's not something I can do at the moment."
He retracted his wings and winced slightly in pain upon doing so, but he kept his eyes on the three men as he continued speaking.
"A High ranked Paladin and two S rankers who were not in the original report.
Adding the Duke and Bultom's Guild master, I see that you have five S rank-level forces, huh?"
Zacular's words made the eyes of Ralphie and Heinr widen in slight surprise as they instantly grasped one of the demon's goals in coming here tonight.
He had succeeded in forcing them to show their hand, revealing that they had two more level 400s that the Demonic Hand was previously unaware about.
Ralphie was about to take action, however, his sharp senses noticed that something had changed in the city.
'The presences of the undead all across the city; they've disappeared!'
He also noticed that all the black patches of darkness on the ground had disappeared, all except the one under Zacular's feet.
"I'd leave you guys with a little parting gift from my collaborator, hope you enjoy it."
Right after Zacular spoke, Heinr caught sight of something shiny appearing under the man's feet, with his eyes widening as he rose his sword to move.
However, Ralphie beat him to it and blitzed in, delivering one last slash to Zacular at the same instant the demon crushed the teleportation stone under his feet and vanished.
**BOOOM!!!!
…
"Did you get him?"
Ralphie looked at the blood on his sword and flicked it off before sighing and replying to Heinr's question.
"It was too shallow."
"An undead pushed a teleportation stone under his feet, huh?"
Heinr explained exactly what he saw before Zacular disappeared, clicking his tongue slightly as he lowered his sword, only to remember the demon's parting words.
"Wait…the attack might not be over. Remember the last thing that he s-!!!!"
The paladin's words were cut off as he, Ralphie, and the unnamed S ranker sensed it first, with Evan and the rest reacting a beat later.
Looking up at the sky, they could see another large round object beside the moon floating up there, except that this second one was closer and had an enormous amount of energy building up inside it.
The gigantic orange and black portal that suddenly appeared in the sky glowed brightly, like it could be seen from all major points of the large capital city of the Falos County.
The grandmaster-level existences all sensed it and instinctively understood, that if that attack was launched, then saying that the entirety of the Falos County's capital city would be completely wiped out was not an understatement.
"Shit…it's Vazgan!!"
Heinr didn't care who Evan said it was, instantly flaring all his magic power and activating his unique skill.
There was a thunderous noise as a pillar of golden divinity surged from his sword, shooting so high up into the sky that it looked like it was piercing the clouds.
Ralphie also took action, activating his aura storm skill as the two of them kicked off the ground and into the air, attacking the orange portal with their full power before it could launch the energy that was building up within.
What came next, was a bright flash of light that was blinding to look at, followed by a thunderous explosion that was loud enough to pop the eardrums of any normal human being. (Normal by Evan's home world standards)
◇ ◇ ◇
Ruined City Saunau
Unnamed County
Cheverton Duchy
April 26th
Year 1052;
A slender, yet fairly muscular, average-height man with a slightly melancholic appearance sat at the large L-shaped table that once belonged to the lord of Saunau city and the county that encompassed it.
He had long, neatly styled black hair, kept up with intricate white headpieces that contrasted his black clothes, and cat-like opal eyes.
The man flipped through a stack of papers while listening to the person on the other end of the magic projector on the table.
[How much information have you collected on the people who have recently risen to fame due to your undead attacks?]
"Enough to successfully execute some assassination attempts."
The man casually remarked as he crossed the name on one of his papers before tossing it onto another pile on the desk.
This man, was the orchestrator of the Undead Crisis plaguing the Great Western Empire's Cheverton Duchy, The Eighth Finger of the Demonic Hand, Dominik Velak.
[It's amazing how you can find time for such side jobs when things aren't going well.
Some unexpected variable has disrupted everything.]
"A variable?
What did you see with your skill?"
In response to the opal-eyed man's question, the person he was speaking to, a person he referred to as 'Uno', replied after a short pause.
[With all the players we're aware of, a frontal attack is our best bet.]
"The players we know? Meaning we may not know about some."
Dominik put the stack of papers he was holding into an empty folder, then picked up another stack and sighed exasperatedly.
[What's wrong?]
"Well…like you said, nothing has been going as expected. Such is the same here for me.
The undead forces I spread across the Duchy were decimated by the Churches faster than I expected. They even moved faster than the adventurers who were the first to notice what was wrong.
Then there's the Emperor and the Duke. I didn't expect the Duke to easily ask for help from the Emperor, who responded and sent more reinforcements than planned. The Prime Minister also assisted.
Almost like it was premeditated.
Then there are the Mages of Kasteblum that I honestly have no idea why they would possibly take action.
To make matters worse, the plan to trap the Duke in the 'Labyrinth of Death' that I still had hopes for has been scrapped for multiple reasons.
Methik's corpse puppet that we planted near the Duke was discovered.
Although the puppet escaped, I received a report that it "perished" a minute before you contacted me."
[Perished?]
"Yes…there's someone with the ability to harm souls lurking among the Duke's forces. They destroyed two of Methik's corpse puppets, one of which contained a sizable chunk of his soul.
[I'm presuming he's now completely useless?]
"I agree even though it sounds bad. Methik's soul is too damaged to heal in a short time frame, and If I give them any more time, the Duke may recruit more soldiers and adventurers.
Notwithstanding the fact that he has already assembled thrice what I predicted on such short notice.
He was prepared; His reactions when I simultaneously attacked the Duchy's major cities prove it."
[Information Leaks?]
"Indeed. They launched a similar attack as a form of retaliation recently, and I'm pretty sure where they received the information on the locations of my undead from.
In other news, I received info that knights of the Bowthe Ducal Family were detected heading towards Cheverton."
[The Bowthes?!]
"Yes.
If we give the Duke more time, he might get the Emperor to send the Bowthe Family head."
[That'll be bad.]
"Just 'Bad' doesn't even begin to cut it.
Despite them not all being at level 400, there's a reason why those ten were chosen to be the 'Ten Great Swordsmen', they're anomalies capable of easily taking on people higher level than they are.
The Duke is already and we menace can't let him invite another. Especially if it's one who served 'that' Former Emperor."
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