Chapter 10: a Heroes Raid!

It's the dead of night and three figures are hiding behind some stoney rubble avoiding patrols of demon guards. Among the group of three is a knight dressed in light armor who is keeping his helmet off. A tall heavily armored looking warrior with a big shield. And lastly a woman Mage who is keeping her hood on.

"Hold it." The knight was looking from behind the rubble.

He glanced from around checking for any other patrols.

"Jarred, what's the clairvoyance telling you?" The Mage whispered.

"There's too many here. Its better if we tried sneaking around the patrols where we can." Jarred tried to be as quiet as possible.

"This is a Raid! We're here to kill the King of demons. We should kill as many demons as we can now!" The warrior tried to dispute with Jarred quietly.

"Ragnar. Just because we're the Heroes of Prophecy doesn't mean we're invincible. Did you forget what happened eighteen years ago."

The Warrior, Ragnar stopped for a moment before speaking once again.

"O-of course I remember Saintess Kalika along with her father we're slaughtered among all of the residence here in this very capital."

"I can't imagine how heart breaking it was for you," The mage said.

"Aye. I had Family that lived here. I was lucky to have left when I did. Another week I reckon I would've been among the dead."

Jarred patted Ragnar on the shoulder to comfort the tall man. "Sylph. Do you think you can make us invisible?"

Jarred glanced at the heavy armor of Ragnar. "And can you erase the sound from Ragnar too?"

"Sure, thing leader. But we won't be able to hear anything from him for a while." Sylph was starting to get her spell ready, and in a flash of light all spells were cast at once.

"It's a good thing that we could still see each other… otherwise we'd be lost really quick," Jarred thought.

The group of heroes expertly avoided the groups of demon's guards. It felt like child's play venturing through the broken and destroyed road and alleyways.

The castle was finally in sight. Unlike the destroyed city it looked to have much lighter patrols.

Ragnar is about to push forward when he's grabbed by Sylph. "Hold it. We should let Jarred check first." Jarred hearing his name steps up to look around the corner they were hiding. His brown eyes started to glow a blue as he glanced around.

"Everything looks fine. We can probably get in without getting detected."

"That can't be right." Sylph had her doubts until jarred pointed out the completely open door of the castle. With this fact they all reluctantly agree to move through discreetly.

Ragnar tried to say something to them nonchalantly, but Sylph had to remind him about her silencing spell. This embarrassed the man greatly, Ragnar just sighed, letting go of what he wanted to say.

They were finally inside the Castle. The Main Hall was grand and led to what they would presume to be the throne room. It was strange, however. There were no guards in sight at all.

"This is very strange. Is the Demon King even in this castle?" Sylph asked.

"Yes, he's definitely here." Jarred eyes glowed once more. And through his vision he saw a thread leading to a side corridor. "The Threads of fate!" he proclaimed silently.

"Follow me!" He went on ahead to the shock of his companions. Both followed close behind going from corridor to corridor.

Unknown to the group, however, they are being closely monitored by a green eye attached to the ceiling. This eye belonged to the Demon Rakon who was monitoring the Heroes with excitement.

"Yes. Keep going 'Heroes of Prophecy' your fate awaits you in that very courtyard."

The three companions scurried down the hall as quietly as possible. They took turns after turn seemingly going all the way around the castle to its rear. Jarred could see the line they're following becoming thicker and stronger. They were obviously getting closer to their destination than he would've imagined.

"This way!" he quietly shouted.

They all started sprinting seeing no guards up ahead.

 "That's right. All you need to do… is take that last right turn." Rakon smiled excitedly.

Inside that very courtyard, decorated with vibrant pink flowers. To the surprise of Lillian, Lucius is slipping a ring with red and blue gemstones onto her ring finger. Lucius is very content with the situation, as is Lillian.

Everything was lined up for a fateful meeting between Heroes and Demons!

The heroes finally made it to the corridor intersection. However, to the shock of Rakon, the heroes Kept running straight past the courtyard. A seemingly fated meeting, completely missed by both parties.

This turn of event completely shocked Rakon as the Heroes kept heading down the Corridor. "Where the hell are they going!?? The enemy of these 'Heroes of Prophecy' has always been the Demon King all these eons!!" Rakon thoughts were starting to race with the possibilities.

An eye on the ceiling started to melt into blood. "Grrr. It can't possible that they're after me, is it? No. This doesn't make sense… but just in case…"

The Heroes kept running as they were coming across a passageway that seemed to lead deeper down. They were also finally coming across some demon guards.

Ragnar pushed ahead of Jarred and Sylph ramming into one guard with his big shield to knock him. He quickly moved on to punch the other guard before he could realize what was happening. He gave a quick thumbs up to his companions who had just arrived.

They gathered at the spiral stairway looking down it. "So, the Demon Kings this way?" Sylph asked. Just then the spell finally wore off.

"Ah finally." Ragnar was happy to speak again.

Jarred looked back down and affirmed that the Demon King should be down in this direction.

"Why would he be down there?" she inquired once again.

"Perhaps there's a prisoner they're torturing. Perhaps the brunt of his forces are down here." Ragnar was starting to wipe some minor blood off his shield.

"If that's true, we can't let our guard down for moment. Sylph. Could you use your Appraisal eye from here?"

"Of course I can." Sylphs' eyes started to glow a blue as well. She felt the wall of the spiral staircase and emitted a pulse, practically scanning the dungeon below them. Sylph then grabbed a piece of Leather from Ragnar small pouch to his surprise. With her other hand, made a map of the Dungeon which looked like a maze.

"Incredible. So, this is the Great Lord's castle Dungeon! I've heard rumors of its size, but I never thought it'd be true." Ragnar started to look at the map, finding many red dot among them. "So, these are the guards."

"This is more guards than what a typical prison would have. It doesn't look like we'll be able to sneak by either." Jarred took a quick look behind them then turned back to grab the map.

"Then that just means we'll just have to brute force our way through!" Rangar readied his shield, Sylph was preparing some magic spells and Jarred had his platinum sword at the ready.

Wasting little time, they all got ready to ambush the guards of the dungeon. One by one they dispatched the guards as silently as possible. But this had only lasted so long until they were finally discovered.

Immediately upon seeing the three intruders the Guard sounded the alarm.

"Well, that didn't last long. At least we thinned the herd little." Ragnar took point and bashed into the enemy in sight. Jarred followed up with a slash.

Sylph followed up with an assist blasting two reinforcement in the face with fire magic.

They can start to hear the footsteps of a lot of guards starting to surround them. "Which way do we go ole leader of ours," Sylph sarcastically said.

Jarred didn't hesitate to lead through the enemies in front of them. Sylph just rolled her eyes and followed along as well as Ragnar. They all fought through fiercely through all the guards.

Despite the overwhelming disadvantage, the group kept slashing through the enemies. And with Ragnar blocking any incoming attack it made it all the easier for Sylph and Jarred to go on the offensive.

Once gain they are still being observed By a green eye on the ceiling. Elsewhere Rakon is observing the situation in safety and is analyzing the situation. "Tch! Now they're in the dungeon. There's no way this group are the Heroes. Still though, they're quite powerful. They're already killing the twentieth guard." Rakon looked very disappointed and bitter.

"Either way… I can't keep feigning ignorance to these people forever. What a shame. And just when I thought my brother would finally perish." Rakon leaned over to pull a rope. The sounds of a bell could be heard far and wide from inside and outside the castle.

"Intruder!" a demon guard yell.

The guards from even outside of the castle rush inside

Back with the heroes, they continue to thin out the enemies and are finally seeing the end of them.

Jarred stabs the last one in the neck. "I think that's the last of them. Can you confirm that sylph." Sylph touching the wall confirms this to be true. But she quickly retracts that as she senses even more guards heading their way.

"We have ten. No twenty-five?" sylph was starting to sweat profusely. "They're literally sending an army!"

"Crap. So where do we go now!?" Ragnar questioned.

Jarred squinted it eyes looking for the thread. "This way!"

Jarred started running, following the invisible thread.

"Hey wait!" Sylph yelled, trying to catch up with Jarred, Ragnar also followed suit. "Don't tell me we're still going after the Demon king! We have the entire Demon army alerted to us!"

"We can't flee now! Not when we're so close sylph! You said it yourself back then too. That we'd end this war and bring balance back even at the cost of your life. I feel the same way Sylph."

Sylph was surprised to hear this.

"Put me in on the same boat. I'll fight till my dying breath." Ragnar added.

"I guess there's no turning back now then…" Sylph resolved herself despite some of the doubts in her mind.

After some more time and heading deeper within the dungeon and battling even more guards, they finally came across a series of steel doors that's unguarded. The guard's station there was swiftly dispatched off.

"its leading through these doors…"

The group suddenly heard voices talking in the demons Language. They all hugged the wall in the corner of the pathway where the voice was coming from. There was some talking, then the sound of yelling as if one of the guards were being scolded. Luckly for the heroes, it wasn't long before the guards left.

"That was close." Ragnar sighed.

"Yeah. I wonder why they didn't come down here. You know what, let's not worry about that."

They all slowly pushed themselves in, unlocking door after door. it was quiet. Too quiet. Theres no way the Demon King could be sleeping or be held prisoner in this dungeon. Can it?

Jarred looked at the last locked door in front of them. "This is it. He's inside here."

"I don't know Jarred. I still think this is weird…" Sylph was very skeptical. "Are you sure that the demon King is in here?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out…"

Jarred brought out the keys that they took from the now dead guard. One by one he tried each until he found the correct one.

Jarred Open the heavy door that creaked very loudly. To the shock of the entire group, they didn't find any sort of demon of any kind. They found a young human lady with blonde hair and green eyes.

She woke up from the creaking of the door and looked at the group in complete confusion.

"W-what??" She was in complete disbelief. "Who are you people?"

The lady that stood before them was Kalika.

Jarred could only stare in confusion at the lady. "Where's the Demon King?"