Chapter 45: The Second Demon War [MOON]

Chaos ensued around me and it was certainly an unpleasant feeling. Now this is war. Humans, elves and demons were fighting all around us. Yet all I can do is focus my attention on how to stop this rampaging brute. One swipe from his enlarged right hand and both allies and foes were sent flying. Arrows, blades or spears were unable to pierce or damage his body at all. Not to mention he's acting like a mindless brute, attacking anything close to his vicinity.

There were a couple of cannons that shot at him but the cannon balls were mostly deflected by his muscular tough body. We need to stop this guy from destroying the everything. The army will have to deal with the other demons as we bring down this brutish Dragon Lord.

The Elementalist reactivated his Concentration while I reactivated Bloodlust with Frenzy. Hopefully this would cause the Demons to target their own kind instead. The Elementalist set both of his daggers with fire and ice respectively and charged into the fray with the Dragon Lord. I casted Combat Fortify and Fury to increase my strength, defence and attack power. Even though I don't enjoy seeing my body turning red, the situation was too dire for me to be picky.

I threw my axe directly at the Dragon Lord with all my strength. Despite the size being the size of a fire axe, it hit home. Somehow my axe was sharp enough to pierce through his body. I guess that's what a legendary weapon can do for you. The Dragon Lord flinched from the pain and attempted to remove my axe. I quickly teleported to my axe and leapt atop his shoulder after removing my axe. Should I decapitate his head right now? If I enlarge my axe large enough, I should be able to kill it right now.

I enlarged my axe and readied myself to swing its ginormous size. The voice of the Elementalist shouting "Watch out!" reached my ear and I barely dodged the giant palm that slammed on the shoulder where I was standing a second ago. The Elementalist slid underneath the Dragon Lord and began slicing on his heels and ankles. The Dragon Lord roared in pain and took a swipe at the Elementalist but he hid near the foot area causing the Dragon Lord to miss. The Dragon Lord was furious and lifted his foot in attempt to stomp on the Elementalist.

"Cannons!" shouted the Elementalist.

Multiple shots can be heard firing and all of them hit the Dragon Lord spot on. The Dragon Lord lost balance and fell to the ground as he was standing on one foot. Cheers erupted around us but neither the Elementalist nor I missed the opportunity to strike the killing blow on the Dragon Lord. Both of us rushed in as fast as we could to decapitate the head but he was protecting it with his massive right hand. All of a sudden, the Dragon Lord lifted his arm which started growing larger than it should. I instinctively shouted "FALL BACK!", grabbed the Elementalist by the arm, tossed my axe as far as I could and teleported.

Not a moment later, the Dragon Lord slammed his even more ridiculously large fist onto the ground, producing a huge shockwave and a crater. The surrounding buildings were shattered by the impact along with humans, elves and demons. Casualties were climbing up at a ridiculous rate. Body of dead beings were scattered all around for those who couldn't protect themselves from the shockwave. We need to kill this Dragon Lord fast or there won't be any army left to fight for us.

***

"You think you can take me on alone, Hawthorn? Did you forget how miserably you failed the last time? said the Demon Queen as she was gliding around throwing her blue thorn daggers at me.

"The way I see it, you failed to kill me as well so I guess we're even," I dodged her daggers while sprinting after her.

"I won't make the same mistake, ever again!" said the Queen as she raised her hand.

More pillars covered in red thorns started bursting out beneath the floor. Can she summon these at will? Don't she need blood to summon these? Wait, the city is full of blood and she seems to be able to control higher quantities of it after she broke her limiter. She have plenty of blood at her disposal now. Damn it!

I summoned Tengu-kaze with a flick of my left hand. I channeled power to it and used wind pressure to slice off the pillars obstructing my way, but she was nowhere to be seen. I scanned my surroundings to look for the Queen. I glanced upwards and saw her flying above me with her chest held high. I know what you're planning to do!

I instinctively leapt forward as far as I could as she released her intense scream which created a large hole through the floor. I breath a sigh of relief after making sure I had dodged it. I certainly have no desire to experienced that attack again.

Four more charges of "Lightning Strike" and two more "Lightning Charge" at my disposal. Night was approaching soon with a possibility of a thunderstorm judging from the sound of thunder I heard earlier. That will work considerable in my favour. But first, I need to find a way to stop her flight movements in order for me to deal the killing blow. And I know just the thing.

***

This captain is absurdly strong. Is he somehow linked to the Demon Queen? After breaking that piece of jewelry belonging to the Queen, he powered up even further. Even activating Focused Mediation could not match his speed and raw power. Both the Dark Lord and I were being pushed back by this captain. I hate to admit it, but we might not be able to defeat this captain.

"Elf girl! Wake her up! We need her help!" shouted the Dark Lord.

Indeed. We need Rose to help with the summoning circle inside the throne room. I am unable to close it myself as I need to support the Dark Lord in this fight. I told the Dark Lord that I'm falling back. He nodded as he knew what I wanted to do.

The Dark Lord started swinging his sword furiously to block all the attacks from the captain. I performed a quick chant and casted Light Blessing and Accelerate. I cannot afford to use Great Blessing as I will be out cold after the duration of the spell. Hopefully this will be enough to give us a little edge to beat this captain.

***

"Rose, wake up!" I shook her.

It would appear that she's knocked out cold. I doubt anything is going to wake her up now. What should I do? Is there anything I can do to wake her? I don't have a bucket of water with me. I can't move much either as my right foot still hurts. The adventurers are holding back the demons from reaching us, but for how long? As much as I want to help them, I can't leave Rose alone here. Damn it, think Lily, THINK!

Oh, that's right. I have my elven wine with me. Maybe, just maybe—

I removed the lid from my flask and place it near Rose's nose. C'mon, I hope this works. Please wake up, Rose. Wake up!

Cough cough!!

Yes! It works, thank goodness!

"W— what happened? It felt like something was burning my lungs," said Rose as she was continued coughing.

"Sorry about that, I needed to wake you up. The situation is dire right now and the guildmasters need your help," I explained to her.

"W— what? My— help? What's going on? W— why are there demons all around us? How long was I unconscious?" asked Rose as she was still in a daze.

"Rose, listen to me. We need your help. Steady yourself as I ask the guildmasters on what they need," I explained to her as I shook her shoulders. She needed to understand the current situation that we're in.

"Dark Lord, Rose is awake! What do you need?!" I shouted.

"Tell her page 30!" shouted the Paladin Lord.

"Rose, page 30" I repeated to her.

"W— what?" she replied while still trying to gain some semblance as to what is going on.

"Rose, your book. Open page 30," I clapped her face cheeks trying to wake her up.

"R— right. My book," she said as she rustled her pouch and took out her book.

She scrolled through the page quickly and started reading on the page. I took a peek on what the page was about and saw something about sealing.

"How long do you need?!" shouted the Paladin Lord.

"Just a minute!" Rose replied.

Rose was reading intently as she ignored her surroundings. She must focus herself entirely in studying that spell. I kept a lookout to ensure that no demons would disturb her. And true enough, some demons actually came to attack us. My foot might be injured but I can still fight. The adventurers were getting pushed back against the high number of demons that kept pouring out of the floor.

I eliminated the demons that attacked us. They were easy to defeat as only a few came after us. Hopefully Rose is able to study on how to stop the demons from coming out of that giant glowing circle.

"I got it!" shouted Rose.

She kept her book safely back in her pouch and stood up. She reached for her water pouch, drank some and poured some over her head. Pretty sure she's wide awake now. Good, we need her to win this war. "Let's go," I said to her to which she nodded.

We ran towards the glowing circle area while avoiding the adventurers and demons that were fighting. Some tried to attack us but we dodged out of the way or just pushed them aside. At some point, Rose jumped up and started stepping on the demons head or adventurer's shoulder to reach faster. One of them tried to grab her leg but she leapt far away and made it to the circle. I need to catch up to protect her but I just can't run that fast with my injured foot.

Rose stood close to the circle but hidden behind the hole where the demons were appearing from. Wait, what is she doing? Is she— Y-posing? I almost burst out laughing but held it in. If it was not for the situation we're in, I would had laughed on the floor. What ridiculous spell is this that requires her to pose like this?

The Demon Queen shouted some demonic language which caused the demons to turn their attention towards Rose. She was closing her eyes while chanting in a Y-pose. She won't realised she's in danger!

"Adventurers! Protect Rose like your life depends on it!" I shouted as loudly as I could.

A handful of adventurers went to protect her while majority of the others ignored my request. I am still some distance away from Rose. Damn it, why is it always distance that is my worst enemy?!

A giant silhouette appeared looming above the Dark Lord. "Protect the White Angel if you bollocks wishes to see another day," warned the Dark Lord as he used his Fear spell to convey the message. I didn't know you can do that using the Fear spell. I guess Zen didn't know about it either.

Immediately, nearly all of the adventurers rushed towards Rose in an attempt to protect her. Not sure whether it was due to the effects of the spell, the fear of dying or getting walloped by the Dark Lord that made them rush over to help her. At least many of them are protecting Rose now. White Angel, huh? That nickname certainly suits her and I'm pretty sure it's gonna stick around. Much better than my terrible nickname. Sigh.

The hole was starting to close. A yellow circle was formed and started to block the hole as the floor started to reconstruct itself. Demons that were trying to claw their way out of the hole was halted by the spell and fell back wherever they came from. The Demon Queen started targeting Rose by throwing some daggers at her but Zen knocked all of them away. She then extended the thorns wrapping around her arm towards Rose but Zen sliced one of her wings off, grabbed her horn and threw her to the floor with a loud bang. Zen must be furious that the Demon Queen tried to attack his beloved sister.

The glowing circle stopped glowing and it was as if the floor had never broke apart in the first place. Rose opened her eyes and was shocked to see so many adventurers surrounding her. Does the spell require so much of her focus that she have zero awareness of her surroundings? The remaining demons were slowly being killed by the adventurers. Things were getting more quiet now aside from those five fighting.

"White angel! Seal the other circles that you can find! There should be many of them around the city!" shouted the Dark Lord.

"Curse that woman. You Hawthorns were always a pain to deal with. Do you even have any idea what you're doing?!" shouted the Demon Queen.

"Ruining your plans obviously. And don't you dare insult my sister!" shouted Zen. Still trying to deny that you aren't a sis-con?

"W— white angel? Who?" asked Rose.

"That's you, Rose. C'mon, let's go. We need to close the other circles around the city," I told her as I started dragging her along.

"But what about Onii-chan and the guildmasters? Shouldn't we be helping them?" asked Rose.

"Just go! We'll hold them off!" shouted the Paladin Lord.

"You heard them, let's go," I said to her.

"We'll protect you, white angel. Lead the way," said one of the adventurers.

The adventurers all started pushing Rose out of the throne room. Some even tried to carry her but she wriggled free and decided to run on her own. I can hear her shouting "I'm not white angel!" as they were heading out of the castle. I stayed behind for a short while to gaze at Zen. He's giving his all fighting the Queen. I will only be in his way if I were to join the fight so I'll be following Rose to make sure she's safe.

"Please, stay alive. I love you," I whispered softly as I stared at him intently. Not a moment later, I headed out, following after the group of adventurers protecting Rose.