POV: Lestul Rigarium

"Are you sure that you should be leading this attack?" my sister asked, concern written all across her beautiful, freckled face.

"It has been six months," I responded, flexing my muscles to prove I had fully recovered from my fight with Demon Lord Barion.

It was a fight that I looked back upon with regret. I was weak, compared to so many in this world. I had to be saved by him, even though he was so much younger, so much less experienced, yet so much stronger than me. That was the moment I truly realized why my sister had no problem doing anything for him, just for the slight chance he might become a saint in the future. When talking about him it was truly not a matter of whether or not he can do it, the question one should ask instead was when he would do it.

Altair Oberon Lyrius, a descendant of one of the five great wood elven families, of the creators of a type of magic typically regarded as one of the strongest, people that have created the ability to call upon the strength of one's ancestor... He was the last hope my family had in regaining the status it once held within the ranks of the church.

I sighed as I stepped out of the massive wooden entrance gate and onto the rudimentary wooden platform that had been set up in a hurry. In the blink of an eye, I activated my magic mark around my throat area and began my speech.

"Welcome everyone! I have news that concern those currently here. We have gotten a report, a report that states that a certain demon lord has begun moving his entire army towards the capital. We have been called in for reinforcements. That means we will immediately depart for the battlefield that has been designated by my superiors!" I said loudly, enhancing my voice.

I heard groaning from down below. Only about fifty people were here, only my best and my brightest. Among them were the top powerhouses of this fort. Sarl Elkal, also known as Smoke. Duwal Hermil, Nara Signia, and, of course, Altair Oberon Lyrius, the only one that didn't seem surprised or bothered by all of this. The others were notable, but not notable enough for me to remember their names fully, all I knew was that they were powerful enough to be part of this mission. I regretted not having Servil Akuma and Evergreen Goruma Epsilon here, but both of them had been sent on a mission already.

"I know that some of you are still recovering from the last battle, but this time we will be reinforcements, our duty will be to stay at the back of the army, that means we will not necessarily need to fight!" I said, in hopes that they would buy it.

In truth there was no way we wouldn't be required to fight, the demon lord we were facing wasn't just any demon lord... it was Arch Demon Lord Eden, known as the silver flame.

"Which demon lord are we facing?" Altair suddenly asked.

His voice always seemed to overpower every other noise, my father had the same ability, and now he even asked a question that I didn't want to be asked.

"We are facing A-Arch Demon Lord Eden..." I said, defeat in my voice and on my face.

"What? We are supposed to fight an arch demon lord?!" Sarl Elkal yelled loudly.

"I know it sounds bad, believe me. But as I said, we are reinforcements in case anything happens... but since we are facing an arch demon lord we will also get support from the private armies of the saints," I said, hoping that it would get them to just listen.

I was their commander, yet I felt like they all looked down upon me.

Why am I acting like I'm giving them a choice?

Before anyone could say anything I coughed loudly.

"Listen, this is an order, not from me but from those above me! I know this is not an optimal solution but it is what we must do!" I said, trying to sound as commanding as possible. "Now prepare yourselves, you have an hour before we leave, I expect everyone currently here to be inside one of the carriages by then or else I will find you and drag you out here, IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!?" I said, finally having found my old tone, finally able to sound as commanding as I did during the battle six months ago, when I commanded them to not falter in the face of what, back then, seemed like certain defeat, what seemed like certain death.

That hour that I had given them passed a lot slower than I thought. I waited alone, in my carriage while my sister was somewhere, talking to Altair, leaving me all alone to my thoughts. And my thoughts weren't exactly something that I wanted to be left alone with at this moment. There was too much relying on this mission going well, not only the honour and standing of my entire family but possibly also my survival. If this mission failed I, and everyone coming with me, would die, my sister, Duwal, Sarl, Nara, who all were part of rich families... and then, of course, Altair, someone who had such a bright future, someone who managed to defeat a fully grown male drake, a feat that he still didn't tell anyone about, he simply said that he found a weak spot but doesn't remember where it was.

I always scoffed when I thought about that, there was definitely something about that man that he kept hidden from all of us... that is also something that Ilaria had said before we sent her to the capital to be executed, she would always say that he is not what he seems to be, that he is hiding the truth from us about something, but she never told us what it was, she just teased us, never revealing what she called the truth about him.

Once the hour I gave them had passed they all arrived and got into the carriages designated for them. My sister and Altair were, as usual, the only ones in my carriage. I had hoped to at least strike some kind of conversation, but both of them fell asleep quickly, Elsa even fell asleep on Altair's shoulder. At least it meant that our plan was succeeding. After the death of Ivory Malkes we had feared he would shut himself away, but it appeared that he never had any close feelings for her and never considered her anything but a friend.

During our carriage drive to the battlefield, I stared out of the window, watching as the landscape went by quickly. We only rested for short periods of time, so the horses could recover some of their energy. It took us a few days to finally arrive close to where the battle was supposed to happen. It was a wide, open field of grass, a hill on both sides and completely surrounded by forest. In the distance I could see mountains that towered above the land, that towered even over the clouds that surrounded them. And I could see two armies. One on the side of the mountains. It seemed rather small but even from here, possibly hundreds of kilometres away I could feel the mana, radiating off of the arch demon lord known to so many as the silver flame. On the opposite side, resting nearly a kilometre away from us was the army of the church, a good one hundred thousand soldiers, all standing there, waiting for the battle to begin.

All of my men got out of the carriages.

"It is our job to catch stragglers that come this direction, so just stay here and rest until the battle begins, I will go to the other army and tell them of our arri-" I said.

I was interrupted by a loud sound, a war cry of sorts. And then the heat hit me, a heat so strong that I almost melted away right in front of my men. I only had to turn my head slightly to see what happened. The forest had mostly been turned to ashes in an instant and the demon lord's army was charging towards the army of the church, which had also begun charging towards the enemy.

"It would seem I don't have time to do so, everyone get in positio-" I began, but once again I got interrupted.

This time I was interrupted by a voice, a familiar voice.

"Listen, I know that this is the chance! No need for you to fucking say it, Ira!" Altair said out loud.

I turned my head back to look at him, black and white mana radiated off of his body and his eyes were widened and a strangely wicked grin was plastered across his face.

"Mister Altair, what are you ta-" I began, only to be interrupted by him once again.

"Oh shut it you fucking piece of shit! I've had enough of acting like I can stand your very existence!" Altair yelled.

"What are you saying?" I asked, my voice not enhanced anymore.

"Do you remember, that little wood elven village atop the Ilvaldira mountain pillar?" Altair asked, completely ignoring my question.

"W-What?" I asked, confused by the question.

"Do you remember slaughtering everyone there?" Altair asked.

"What are you talking abou-"

That was the moment I remembered that day, it was around ten or so years ago, one of my first missions as the commander of Fort Kalrim, the day that we found the golemancer.

"H-How do you know about that?" I asked.

The grin on Altair's face grew into a crazed smile as he approached me, more and more mana gushing forth from his body at such a high rate that I couldn't believe it.

"I was there that day... I fell off the mountain pillar... I'm the only survivor of your slaughter!"