Chapter Three - System Notice

The deep sound of the horn from the humans echoed the place to give them a signal that the barrier had been broken and they needed to start their countermeasures.

The air filled with the cold breeze and scents of blood as soon the blood sheds from their bodies.

There is Ravier, a tall demon with a pair of large horns in his forehead and sharp red eyes that pierce on his targets. He is wearing black leather in front while his pants and boots were made out of shiny black scales. His shirt was ripped at the shoulder and stained red with blood from the brave soldiers that he killed. The cold from the freezing weather of Shivergate never bothers him as long as there is blood, his body warms up.

The scent of blood from his opponent excites him, makes him feel more alive than he ever has before. It fuels him like nothing else.

He looks like an avenging demon who just happened to be sent by fate for one reason or another. He has no idea what the rest of the world is thinking, but he knows that there's something fun and interesting in the future.

From his point of view, his eyes went to the most crowded area of his forces. A light shines beautifully in the night snowy sky, his skeleton warriors turned into ashes. As soon as the light touched his forces they instantly faded. From the fading ashes, he saw a human with captivating armor.

His skin turned pale due to the cold and he was clutching on his sword so tight it almost snapped to keep himself warm. The sight made Ravier smile.

It reminded him of how he is like before. He was once a good soldier and only history knows what happened to make him one of the demon lords.

He steps towards the commander and waits for him to notice.

After Einar's little rest by catching his breath, he faces the demon lord who is waiting from his back. In a flash of movement he turns around to the demon lord, "You must have come here to die today."

"Is that so?" Ravier chuckled, amused.

Ravier felt more excited now and made a smug expression. "Well let's see where your courage goes when you're about to get trapped."

Ravier raises his arm. There are two thin lines that pierced through the snowy ground. They formed a perfect circle that surrounded Einar, trapping him inside. With just a simple flick of his wrist, a gust of wind blows from the right side of the circle to the left.

"Lord Ravier! You need to go back to the Demon's Lair! Our citadel has been attacked, the demon King needs your power!!" A winged cyclops reports from a far.

Ravier clicked his tongue in annoyance because he cannot refuse the order of their Demon King. He didn't say any word, he just wanted to complete the curse circle before he finally left the battlefield.

When the curse circle is finished, another knight jumps toward Ravier and attacks him. The curse circle seeps Einar's energy and transfers it to Ravier.

"Commander, get hold of yourself!"

The knight screams as they fight against each other. Ravier smirks as he dodges to avoid the knight's blade.

"You have an amazing knight there. I want to play more but I'm sad to say that this is my time to leave. Don't worry, I will leave my little servant to entertain you." Ravier said in amusement and that made Einar pierce his glare on him because they are close but this chance slips away.

A gigantic beastman with the appearance of a black bull and human appeared between them. A minotaur.

His muscles rippled and he looked ready to kill his prey. His voice reverberated through the battlefield with rage and fury as he snarled. "How dare you?!"

"Oh come on… please don't tell me that you can't handle a few humans?" Ravier mockingly said.

He is one of the underdogs of the Dark Forces, Nereus. He doesn't like fighting but he is under a slave contract with the Demon Lord, he has no other choice but to follow it against his will.

Even if he hated being forced to take orders, he can't. That would mean abandoning his people, and he doesn't want the worst thing to happen. So he has to obey, even though he hates it so much. He's trying his best not to show it though.

"O-of course! I can!" Nereus tried his best to stay focused. He tried to keep calm, but all he could think of is the fact that he is gonna lose everything he fought hard to protect if he loses.

"Good boy. Now I'll be leaving you alone, I'm going to return to my master." Ravier said with a mocking grin.

Ravier revealed his huge bat-like wings and fly away from the battlefield.

Nereus turns his head to the commander and his knight, he catches them staring at Ravier who is flying away. "This is a battlefield and it is not a peaceful place for sightseeing."

Nereus said and he prepared his body by doing a combination of offensive and defensive stance using his bare claw as a weapon. He is going to win in this battle. He needs to win. He has sacrificed everything so that he can save those he loves. No matter what, he will not let anyone stand in his plan. Not even the devil. Even the devil himself is behind this entire mess.

In an instant, the knight and Nereus attacked each other aggressively. Both of them are strong fighters and both can't be underestimated. However, the knight is faster and stronger because of his battle experience and technique that he cultivated from his previous battles. The knight is able to dodge the attacks thrown at him by Nereus and he is holding himself together until the very end. But in the end, Nereus manages to stab the sword that he picked up from the dead monster in the knight who was caught off guard when he tries to check how his commander was.

The knight falls down on the snowy ground.

Nereus turns to look at his fallen knight. Blood seeps from his wounds and slowly spreads all around the snow covered ground. If the wound gets worse then, he may lose his life.

Nereus decided to give his final blow to the knight but Einar interrupted it by jumping there and form a shield with his magic using his remaining mana that he managed to get back from the curse circle.

"Force Field!"

That made Nereus draw himself back and by that time he calculates the situation. He doesn't really know how powerful this human commander is but he does know that he is no ordinary human. At least he survived on that magic power and it only made him draw back.

As far as he knows, only humans possessing such magic abilities are rare and it means that the knight is one of the most powerful humans that exist on the whole land.

Even though he's not that good, with his determination, maybe he can get to Einar this time.

He quickly makes his move again and this time, he charges his fist with energy. He punches with full force and the force field creates a huge crater where he punched. He wants to make sure to crush them. He isn't giving up without having any reason too.

However, it seems like Einar wasn't expecting such a move and his shield managed to catch some of the impact by collecting it but it exceeded it's limit and made his force field shattered completely.

As soon as the Force Field shattered, the Einar's body became weak because of high consumption of mana and he had no other choice but to use his life force to maintain that skill when his mana got depleted.

In that moment, Nereus didn't waste his chance and he runs to reach Einar immediately, but a sword stops him and stabs him lightly at his center chest. When he looks at the knight where his hand holds the other end of the saber sword that stabs on his chest.

"Why you..." Nereus yelled and he tried to slash the knight's throat using his claws but it was useless. The knight fell to the ground as soon as his remaining energy was depleted.

"Keiran?" Einar tries to find out who is the knight who is protecting him from danger.

While the commander tries to recognize the knight, Nereus approaches them. He sees the knight, lying motionless. It seems like he is not breathing anymore.

Nereus laughs as soon as he sees Einar's expression. It's priceless.

When Nereus is close enough, he grabs the commander by his collar and lifts him away from his knight. He is about to throw him at the ground but an idea suddenly comes to his mind.

He lets the commander back down and kneels beside him. Einar is panting with sweat running down his face. He looks exhausted, exhausted like someone had used the last ounce of their life to protect someone else.

"You...what happened?" Einar asks in confusion, he doesn't understand what situation he is in right now.

Nereus smirks, "I came here to destroy this kingdom, your kingdom. You were in the way of my plans and now you must pay the price."

Nereus puts his hand on top of the general's head and starts whispering a spell.

Einar can feel a sharp pain on his skull, starting from his forehead and travels all over his brain. His vision starts to blur and his whole body feels numb.

[System Notice!]