In the evening, the five members of the Courage and Justice Adventuring Party were gathered in a guild room, excitedly discussing the hottest topic in the royal capital.
They were now the unsung heroes who had saved the kingdom!
Lu Qiuchen sat nearby, her left hand curled into a loose fist as she leaned her head against it on the sofa. Her whole demeanor looked as if her soul had left her body.
Why did it turn out like this? Why would Grand Duke Seccis surrender so easily?
This doesn’t align with his usual behavior at all. Was the intel wrong? Or has he just given up completely?
Lu Qiuchen’s brain was running so fast it felt like her CPU was about to burn out, but she still couldn’t make sense of it. She had to see Grand Duke Seccis in person.
Leaving the guild, she activated a disguise spell and pulled up her hood before stepping into the crowded, festive streets.
Tonight, the capital was throwing a grand celebration to commemorate the day’s glorious victory. Banquets were being held at numerous street corners, open to all citizens.
The adventurers who had arrived at the critical moment to save the capital were treated as honored guests by the king himself and invited to the palace feast. Strangely, Grand Duke Seccis had not been imprisoned but had also received an invitation to attend the palace banquet.
As she walked, Lu Qiuchen heard citizens speculating aloud—perhaps the king admired the duke’s talents, or maybe it was a form of public humiliation for a defeated enemy.
As dusk settled and the banquet neared, people gathered on the streets. The city guards, who had been on edge for days, could finally relax; some were even nodding off at their posts.
The palace was brightly lit as well. Aside from the heavily guarded front entrance, security elsewhere was sparse. Lu Qiuchen found a deserted corner and vaulted over the palace wall.
She had been to the palace before and was fairly familiar with its layout. Pulling out her adventurer’s ID, she disguised herself as a lost adventurer seeking help. The guard, seeing her credentials, didn’t suspect a thing and led her toward the palace banquet.
Lu Qiuchen blended into the group of adventurers, keeping her presence as low as possible. She took a seat at the edge of the hall and quietly observed the banquet.
Unlike the last palace feast she attended, this one had noticeably fewer nobles—many had fled the capital in advance. High-ranking officers and adventurers made up most of the attendees. Compared to the previous elegant and refined gathering, this event had a much rougher atmosphere.
Fortunately, the banquet layout was almost exactly the same as last time, making it easy for Lu Qiuchen to locate her target. Now that Grand Duke Seccis had fallen from power, the other nobles were deliberately avoiding him, creating a small empty zone around him. That made it simple for Lu Qiuchen to pinpoint his location.
Since Grand Duke Seccis was a Saint-rank class holder, he wore a magic-restricting bracelet on his right wrist for safety. Other than that, he had no restraints; his clothing was clean and tidy, making him seem nothing like a captured rebel.
Is King Tara truly magnanimous, or just a complete fool?
But Seccis himself didn’t appear the least bit bothered. He showed no awareness of his status as a prisoner and wandered the banquet as if it were any other evening, holding a glass of red wine with his head held high.
Because the banquet had already begun when she arrived, Lu Qiuchen had no idea what had happened earlier. It wasn’t the right time to ask around, so she could only wait and watch.
Before long, a servant entered the hall and whispered something to the king.
The king stood up and clapped his hands. The attendees paused and looked to him, waiting for a speech.
“Ha-ghap!” The king let out a strange syllable, and in an instant, every wax lamp and torch in the hall was extinguished, plunging the room into complete darkness.
Panic spread through the crowd. Some nobles shrieked in terror at the sudden change. Fire-aligned class holders were the first to respond, summoning small flames into their hands.
But the flash of fire lasted only a moment. Darkness quickly reclaimed the hall. Even the people right beside them couldn’t see what had happened—only the dull thud of a heavy body hitting the floor echoed through the air.
Lu Qiuchen, who possessed night vision, adapted the moment the light faded. Her vision cleared, and she instantly saw everything that had transpired.
In the spot where the king had stood now crouched a Shadow Fiend. It had killed a Saint-ranked fire-attribute Magus in an instant. The corpse now lay in two clean halves on the ground, and the heavy stench of blood began to fill the air of the grand hall.
The nobles were still screaming, but their voices soon died out. The adventurers understood what was happening—but all their efforts, all their preparations, had been completely meaningless.
I promised the guild I’d try to protect these adventurers…
With that thought, Lu Qiuchen pulled out a teleportation stone and poured mana into it. A faint glow appeared in the air, drawing the Shadow Fiend’s attention immediately.
“Teleportation stone!” the Shadow Fiend’s eyes flashed. In an instant, it darted to Lu Qiuchen, claws slashing toward the stone in her hand, trying to destroy it. But Lu Qiuchen wasn’t about to let it succeed. She teleported to the hall’s entrance and sprinted outside. The Shadow Fiend hesitated briefly, then gave chase.
Once outside, Lu Qiuchen finally prepared to go all out. This Shadow Fiend had kept its distance while disguised as the king—she hadn’t been able to detect it earlier. But now, face to face, her killing intent surged.
She transformed into her draconic form and soared into the sky. Spells rained down like a storm.
The Shadow Fiend was caught off guard by the barrage. And when it looked up to see the silver dragon—still relatively small in size—memories of its fallen kin from just months ago stirred hesitation in its heart. But even so, it still leapt up to attack the dragon.
The battle between dragon and demon quickly grew fierce, shaking the heavens and the earth. Naturally, the chaos drew attention from outside the palace. The nearby palace guards only saw a black blur locked in combat with a massive dragon. Afraid to approach, they circled around the fight and entered the pitch-black banquet hall to assess the situation inside.
Inside, things weren’t much better.
Once the Shadow Fiend left, the adventurers relit the wax candles and took in the full scene—an expanse of blood and carnage. As they regrouped, they realized with horror that half the guests were already dead in the short time that had passed. The nobles had been completely wiped out.
The military officers, hearing the fierce battle outside, chose not to rush out. Stifling their nausea, they began searching for the king and Grand Duke Cesis—but found no sign of either. Both were missing.
“Tap. Tap. Tap…”
Just as the group was preparing to evacuate, a crisp tapping echoed down the corridor that led deeper into the palace. It was the sound of heels striking the marble floor.
Everyone turned toward the sound—and saw a woman emerge.
She had curved ram horns atop her head, wings sprouting from her back, and her legs transformed below the thighs into cloven hooves. Her outfit was scanty, and her figure eye-catching.
“A Succubus!” someone among the adventurers shouted.
Though Succubi were considered high-ranking demons, their combat ability was notoriously low—even among lesser monsters. Immediately, several adventurers had the same thought. Eager to earn some quick merit, they readied long-range attacks to finish her off quickly.
But then they noticed strange shadows had silently crept up around them.
Before they could react, their consciousnesses began to blur, and their thoughts grew sluggish.
The invading Nightmares rolled their necks, stretched their bodies—and once more vanished into the darkness. Soon, only the Succubus remained visible in the hall.
*****
Outside, the street festival was still in full swing.
Civilians gathered quietly before a makeshift stage, cobbled together from a few wooden boards. On it, a troupe of performers put on acrobatic acts, drawing all eyes toward them.
“Attention, all adventurers! Attention, all adventurers! The Tara region has issued a continent-wide war assistance quest!”
The Imperial Adventurers’ Guild was enormous compared to branches in other regions. There were three separate quest halls alone, and the facilities here were far more luxurious and advanced. Even the newly developed communication magic had already been implemented.
This magical communication method, which enabled extremely fast information transmission, quickly became popular. However, due to its cost—higher even than teleportation magic circles—it was only used for special or high-risk missions. Ordinary epic-ranked quests were still delivered via floating spell by Saint-ranked Wind Mages or through teleportation arrays.
“A continent-wide war assistance quest? What the hell is that? Never heard of it before!”
The First Quest Hall of the Adventurers’ Guild burst into chaos.
“The Tara Kingdom’s Druid Defense Battle. Objective: eliminate the infected rebels affected by berserk magic…”
“Tara Kingdom? That’s way too far! It’d take over half a month on horseback to get there!”
“What? Berserk magic? Isn’t that one of the demons’ wicked mind spells?!”
Gasps of shock rippled through the adventurers. Since the Church’s warning a few months ago, most high-level adventurers had gained a general understanding of demonic magic.
“Participation Reward: 20 Adventurer Points. Minimum Requirement: Saint-rank strength. All participants will be teleported to the destination by the Guild.”
“The Guild covers the teleportation? And it gives points? I’m in!”
“Damn it! I’m just a step away from reaching Saint rank…”
*****
For the people living at the bottom of society, this was one of the few joyous moments of the year—a chance to witness such a grand performance. So no one noticed that, at some point, blurry figures had silently appeared among the crowd.
As the performance ended and the actors exited the stage, the audience responded with thunderous applause.
A large, peculiar mirror was rolled onto the stage. Several event organizers placed strange props on the ground, forming a circle around the mirror.
Moments later, a faint glow began to shimmer within the mirror. The light gradually shifted and transformed into a three-dimensional illusory image that slowly changed and flowed.
The crowd fell silent again, captivated by the mysterious sight—none of them had seen anything like it before.
And scenes like this were playing out at all outdoor banquet sites across the kingdom.
*****
Lu Qiuchen was still locked in a fierce battle with the Shadow Demon. The teleportation stone Auduin had given her wasn’t working at all. No matter how much mana she pumped into it, it only gave off a faint glow and vibration.
The two had been fighting for quite a while, and the battle had grown increasingly intense. Both sides were fighting in a frenzy.
Lu Qiuchen was injured—several dragon scales had shattered, and her wounds had begun to crust over with dried blood. But the Shadow Demon wasn’t faring much better. A large hole had been blasted through its chest, and its left arm was completely gone. It was now fighting with only one claw.
Lu Qiuchen spun around and whipped her tail, slamming the Shadow Demon into the ground. She followed up with a blast of dragon breath, intending to finish it off. But just then, a figure crashed down from the side.
She squinted and saw that it was that repulsively obese king—he had clearly been blasted here by a powerful force. Yet despite his bulk, he was still a high-ranking professional and barely managed to steady himself just outside the range of her dragon breath.
‘No disgusting demonic aura. Looks like this one’s the real deal. Who knows where he ran off to earlier.’
Though Lu Qiuchen found the useless king distasteful, he was still the King of Tara. She withheld her breath attack to avoid hitting him by mistake.
Just as the dragon breath ended, the Shadow Demon suddenly leapt up and lunged at her. Alarmed, Lu Qiuchen tried to teleport away—but found the surrounding space sealed by some strange force.
It was too late to use any other escape method. She could only raise her left foreclaw and take the hit head-on. The Shadow Demon’s claw pierced clean through her limb, and the leftover force carved a deep wound across her chest.
In pain and fury, Lu Qiuchen finally dropped all restraints. She unleashed a close-range frost breath directly onto the Shadow Demon’s face—freezing it into a solid block of ice on the spot.
But then, the king—who had just escaped that area—suddenly screamed. His body began to move against his will. He turned and leapt toward the silver dragon, diving straight into the fading remnants of her frost breath. Even just brushing against the lingering mist turned his body snow-white—and then to solid ice.
Crack! Crack!
Two frozen blocks crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces. The king’s head, still frozen in a look of disbelief, rolled away with a dull thud.
Lu Qiuchen winced in pain, completely ignoring the mess. If the king was stupid enough to get himself killed, she had no obligation to save him.
She had done everything she could for this mission. Auduin’s promised dragon reinforcements never showed up, and now she was severely injured. She had to return to recover—what was happening here had gone far beyond her control.
Wings trembling, Lu Qiuchen struggled to lift off and escape the palace.
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