Havoc in the forest

The world is as peaceful as ever, too peaceful.

Footsteps on the muddy road were vigorous, it was a whole army stepping forward at a border, clouds filled the sky, the sun gleaming, inking it with a bright

golden blue, truly a magnificent sight. It was as if it were heaven itself, and it was. The army held about ten thousand warriors dressed in silver and platinum

armor holding spears and swords up to their chest, declaring war over the heavens.

After a whole ten years of world peace, the earth rumbles once more, monsters forced underground rose to their feet, lacking proper position. The heaven held a

barrier that could not just be destroyed by at least five hundred men at once. The war against the demons and heavens have once, again, started.

A man on a throne, in a hall with glamorous decorations, banners made of gold and beige cotton were hung across the hall. Crystal flooring filled the extensive

hall, the place was just like an Ancestral hall but more magnificently vast. It was the heavenly palace itself.

All the generals and gods were huddled together, some spread out across the hall.

"August," the man powerfully said.

He had brows that defined his eyes with sharp double lidded ocean blue eyes. This man was dressed in a cloak which covered his black with a blue and gray

robe. The man he was calling to, August, had a colorful rich brown hair, with highlights of a light tan, up his shoulders with loose bangs. His eyes were round

with the color blue with the lining of yellow filling his eyes. He wore a lavish ornate robe, but still was ordinary compared to what the others were wearing.

"Yes, sire," August replied.

He had his head bowed, anyone who spoke with the Emperor with their head held high would be stripped of their status and be brought to the mortal realm once

more. It was a sign of respect towards them.

"Investigate the demon lord, if you are to fail, your punishment will be not only death but suffering if you are to be caught," though sounded worried, the

emperor still said this in a powerful manner.

"Your majesty, It would be possible for me to do this alone, but may I ask to be accompanied by some companions of worth?" He insisted.

"Sending underlings to accompany him? How ignorant,"a woman said.

"Truly malicious, what a waste, the underlings surely will speak a fate such as his," a man said.

"Truly unspeakable," everyone started to side talk with the people next to them.

"Silence, that's enough," the Emperor said.

"August, I assure you I can assign you this task without fail?"

"Yes your majesty, whatever harm may come will be paid with punishment,"

"Good then, everyone is dismissed, August wait here for your worthy companions," the emperor dismissed everyone from the hall, leaving only him and

August inside a vast hall.

The doors were soon to be barged open, three cultivators were standing in front of the door. One had their hair tied in a ponytail, with upturned brown eyes and

a white cultivation robe. Another next to him was wearing the same thing but with hair tied in a braid with almond shaped green eyes. Lastly, one behind the

two was shorter with long hair, half up half down, downturned hazel eyes.

The three of them Introduced themselves, the short one spoke, "Vasyl, pleased to meet you Senior. The one with the ponytail is Arthur and the one next to him

is Fedir."

They all didn't look pleased at all, a common look August already got used to. Though August didn't think much of it, the emperor was very displeased. Either

way, he couldn't tell them to kowtow in front of August and himself.

"You all know why you were brought here together, or do I need to explain."

All four of them received a personal letter from the emperor, but the Sophomores were careless and mistook it for another piece of trash given by mortals or a

paper flown by from the literature palace.

The emperor sighed and rubbed his temples, "The reason why I summoned you here is because of the demon lord's sudden rebellion. I want you to investigate

the situation over there. If there are any mistakes, punishment shall be waiting."

"Yes, your majesty," all of the sophomores agreed.

As they exited the heavenly hall, the sophomores followed behind August, talking behind his back, "Do you even think we could complete the mission with

him by our side?" Arthur whispered.

"We can't complain since the emperor personally assigned him with us, besides we need a Senior to guide us anyways," Vasyl whispered back.

"It's not like we're mortals, we can't die easily like those ants, plus we have tons of mana to defeat anything that gets in our way!" Fedir exclaimed.

"Hm," August joined in their conversation, "Haven't you seen beasts and monsters before? They may look weak, but trust me, they are loaded with mana and

strategies. They're not so easy to defeat."

Arthur argued back, "Well it's not like we've had any experience since ascending, it's always paperwork we have to fill out and no hunting."

"There's the yearly hunting festival," August hummed.

"It's not like we can! Our generals give us a thousand paperwork to do when they're out there having fun!" Vasyl exclaimed.

August started laughing.

"You really don't know why they give you so much paperwork?"

All three of them nodded in disagreement.

"Haha, they give you it because they don't want to hang out around children like you, trust me I've been there," August laughed with joy in his heart.

All three of them were shocked, they didn't know if they wanted to laugh or cry. They hang their heads low.

All of them were distracted until they were surrounded by mountains, Strident voices were heard in the distance.

Arthur was about to draw his sword out, but August threw an arm against him.

"Wait, don't be so reckless yet. Remember we are here to investigate, not cause havoc," August steadily whispered.

August pushed the bushes for a hole for the sophomores to see, "Look here,"

They peeped through the hole only to find a whole army of creatures with devilish tails and sharp ears, some had long ears and some had short tails. They wore

silver armor all over with spears in their hands.

They all stood still until they were given the command to move positions, the commander was standing on top of a rock, it'd look to be a woman with puffy

hair tied back, wearing armor that covered her upper area with skin showing to her waist, a belt with a sword tied to it. A skirt flowing down covering below

knee length. Her face was just as warriors, cold tempered, and monstrous. She had horns like sheep on both sides of her head, but the left side was seen to be

broken.

"Were you really thinking of taking down all of these guys by yourself? Do you really want death to be near?" August scolded.

The sophomores avoided eye contact with each other, then looked back at August with a question in their mind, "Since we found where they are, shouldn't we

report it to the heavenly palace?" Vasyl implied.

"Before that I want a look, I want to see how tough these guys really are!" Arthur jumped up, brandishing his sword, swinging it around and dashing forward

into the army.

"You idiot!" August yelled.

"He's always like this, he wants the experience of hunting monsters like these, though this time he really was wishing for death!" Fedir exclaimed.

"Well, we can't just stand here, we need to take him away quickly!" August ran quickly into the bushes, around the campus the demons were in. Meanwhile

Arthur was surrounded by all these demons, waiting for their first meal of the day, fresh human flesh! The commander woman hopped down the rock, "Ya

wishin' for death? Cause that's what it looks like here!" she exclaimed.

"Just wait till I can taste that glamorous human flesh!" a demon from the side happily grinned.

"Silence! You monstrous beast! Just wait till I cut all of you into a thousand pieces!" Arthur got too giddy and ahead of himself. It's true that he has one of the

biggest egos in heaven.

The commander woman looked back, behind herself, she heard some sort of rustling noise in the bushes. All of the animals were gone due to the racket the

demon army made, she knew something was off and that something was coming eventually. "Everyone! Stay on guard, there's more of these pests!" she yelled.

"Pests? Who said we were Pests! We are–MMMPH" Arthur tried to speak but his mouth was covered by someone's hand. It was Vasyl who came down to help

Arthur escape but now he too was surrounded by these demonic creatures.

"Learn to shut your mouth, idiot!" Vasyl whispered.

"MMMPH!...MMMPH!!" Arthur harshly patted Vasyl's hand, signaling to let go, he still needed air like every other human.

After some time had passed, Vasyl finally let go of Arthur, but they were still surrounded. The commander woman had her suspicions and went forth toward

the bush making those sounds.

After one step at a time, she put her hand on the handle of her sword, then lifted it out, at the same time August popped out of the bush swaying his sword,

brandishing it in the wind.

The commander woman grinned, "So, it was you. Ya pest!"

August made a "hmph" sound at her and quickly went past the demons, grabbing onto both Vasyl and Arthur, Hugging them into the air. He quickly searched

for a safe spot deep into the forest. August was finally out of breath, he used up too much of his mana to continue any further. "You guys are really troubling,

don't be so rash next time. I probably won't be able to save you guys." August scolded.

Both Vasyl and Arthur had their heads hung low, but then Vasyl remembered something. "Wait! Where's Fedir?!"

Arthur then remembered, "We left him there, all by himself? Shit!"

August had already pushed himself a little far, going back and finding Fedir was a no-go for him, but still he knew what he had to do. He asked the two

sophomores to give him some mana each, they both agreed since he was basically the older and more experienced one that could save Fedir.

August then vanished from the two sophomores' sight, running as fast as he could.