With the appearance of another two SS-Rank adventurers and their teams, the situation has eased a little. Elius quickly took a glance around.

‘Hmm, I only know the two team leaders. And that guy, whose team he’s in?’

Elius saw Nelson ruthlessly slaying demons with his chainsword thing.

‘’Okay, let’s deplete our energy!’

Before he began to burn the demons again, he wanted to fix them in their places first. The ground crumbled, and the roots caught around twenty demons by their feet, restraining their movement. But something was weird. After he began to pour mana into controlling roots, the flames on his hands disappeared.

‘What the hell?’

He tried to burn the demons while they were rooted, but he couldn’t do it.

“You can only control one element at a time at your current level.”

‘What?! But while I was controlling wind back at the forest, I was able to mix it with fire.’

“All you did was create a tiny spark, and it grew by the influence of the wind.”

‘Damn! You should’ve told me that earlier!’

He took a look around again. The group was separated now. Liam and Ruvyn weren’t in his sight, Ian was following Jay around, and Eldron was with Neil.

‘Then let’s do like this.’

Elius quickly reached where Eldron and Neil were. The demons around them suddenly stopped.

“I’ll neutralize, and you will kill.”

Eldron nodded, and flames began to engulf the demons that were rooted.

‘I guess my limit is to stop 20 demons at a time.’

Neil smiled.

“Finally, you did something good.”

His katana disappeared. He opened his hands to both sides and focused. His palms began to glow, and when he clenched his fists tightly, the pillars of lights fell onto around ten demons. They immediately vaporized. Neil smirked and gave Elius a victorious look. Then all of the group members heard a voice. That was Jay talking to them via the communication stone.

“Currently, the whole empire is under attack. From now on, we are in a state of war. So I can’t guarantee your safety. Don’t act recklessly!”

‘State of war?’

Elius was surprised since the kids didn’t know anything about that. Then he realized that the number of demons was decreasing.

‘Hmm, it seems like they are not coming through the gate anymore. What happened?’

“I feel three powerful beings.”

As soon as Elly said that, he also sensed something immense. Even though he was far away from the gate, the scorching heat of the flames reached Elius. And a hell-like scene unveiled before his eyes. Blue flames rushed from the entrance and swallowed hundreds of demons instantly. In the middle of the flames, there was a person. After the flames turned the half-demons into ashes, they dispersed and revealed the person in the middle.

“Hey, isn’t that yo-”

Elius turned towards Neil, but he was already moving towards his dad. Unlike how he was at the academy, Aaron seemed different. That childish man was now dead serious. After seeing how Neil is going there, Elius and Eldron also begin to move towards there.

“Daaad!”

Aaron turned towards Neil.

“What are you doing here?!”

He frowned.

“We came here for a mission.”

“Tsk.” Aaron clicked his tongue.

“Where is Nora?”

“She is with your mother, helping the soldiers in the city. These demon-like monsters are everywhere.”

Aaron’s flames were still appearing from time to time. As soon as a half-demon entered a specific range around him, the flames appeared and turned them to ashes instantly.

“Mr. Aaron! How did you find us?”

Elius and Eldron came behind Neil.

“Idarin caught one of them and used a high-level spell to locate the others.”

“Where is he now?”

Elius curiously asked while looking around.

“Well… I’m not sure. You kids stay close to me.”

Aaron wasn’t the only one who came. There was also Leon and Helen, and they were rampaging outside the city. Ian realized something while following Jay around. Some of the demons were dropping to the ground one by one and not getting up again. But he couldn’t understand what was causing that.

“Oh, looks like Chase is also here.”

Jay said with a smile.

‘The King of Assassins? I can’t even see him.’

“I should also start. Watch and learn, Ian.”

Jay suddenly disappeared, and wounds began to appear on the bodies of the demons, but Jay wasn’t aiming at any vital area. Instead, he was randomly slashing the monsters.

‘What is he trying to do?’

Ian was confused. Instantly, almost 50 demons were wounded, and Jay reappeared next to Ian. The wound on the demons was just about to heal, but Jay didn’t let that happen.

“Erupt!”

He said with a smile. With that, the demons stopped like they were petrified. Then suddenly, shadow spikes erupted from every part of their body and blew the demons from inside.

‘…’

Ian was speechless.

‘It took only less than 2 seconds for him to destroy them.’

While he was in shock, he flinched with the sudden appearance of Chase.

“Nice technique. Current situ-”

Chase was about to ask what was the current situation, but a clapping sound stopped him.

“Nice technique indeed.”

Chase turned to look who it was, and he instantly frowned. Two people were walking towards them, and the half-demons didn’t seem to be attacking them.

“Floyd…”

“Hey, hey king, what kind of expression is that.”

Floyd had a dirty grin on his face. Chase pointed towards him with his blade.

“When I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for me to kill you.”

Then both Chase and Floyd disappeared. This whole time, Ian was standing there in shock. After seeing who the other person next to Floyd was, his eyes widened.

“Y-you!”

“Do you know him?”

“H-he is my dad.”

Harold stood there expressionless. He shook his head in desperation.

“Your dad? I see you still haven’t grown up.”

Harold sighed.

“You know, the only reason you are alive is that I felt sorry to kidnap you when you were a baby and convinced Floyd to let you live since you were the most incompetent child. How many nodes do you have now? Three?”

He smiled.

“Whatever, it’ll be meaningless after a few minutes later, so…”

A blade appeared in Harold’s hand, and both Jay and Harold disappeared like the other two. Harold’s words slapped Ian in the face. He was just standing in the middle of the chaos, but for some reason, the half-demons suddenly began to ignore him like he wasn’t even there. First, Ian panicked, then the panic turned into fear, and fear turned into rage. A rage that he couldn’t suppress.

‘So, my whole life was a lie?’

His hands began to shake because of anger, his breathing quickened, and when he was about to lose himself, he heard a voice.

‘Get a hold of yourself.’

* * *

Ruvyn and Liam were on top of the city walls, Ruvyn was raining arrows down, and Liam was protecting him from the incoming half-demons. When they tried to jump towards Ruvyn, the wall extended and blocked them from reaching there.

“Damn, this is not working.”

Even though he was constantly hitting demons, they weren’t slowing down.

“Yeah, we need to find a way to kill them like the others.”

After hearing that, Ruvyn sighed and turned towards Liam.

“When will you put your meaningless pride aside?”

“Meaningless? It is not meaningless. A berserker only needs his own strength to overpower his enemies. That was what my grandpa always said to me.”

“I don’t remember anything like that… You are the only berserker that keeps saying that. Then why do you use your earth element? Just go punch them.”

“To… make myself more durable?”

Ruvyn sighed again.

“You’ll eventually understand that your pure strength won’t be enough to survive in the wild. And as far as I’ve seen, you failed to overpower Elius and that monkey back in the forest.”

Liam pouted, but Ruvyn’s eyes began to glow before he could say anything. He saw someone in the forest, slowly walking between the half-demons. His sword was in its sheath, but whenever he took a step forward, plants and roots around him caught the half-demons and drained all of their life forces until only their skeletons remained.

“T-That’s, King Algor!”

He was just about to jump from the wall, but another person appeared in front of Algor. He was Sozgadan.

“Hey, hey. Stop draining them. You are making us look bad in front of the audience.”

Sozgadan pointed towards Ruvyn and Liam with his head.

“First, I’ll put you in a situation near dead. Then you’ll become the audience when I am tearing them apart.”

Sozgadan maniacally laughed.

“You disgusting creature.”

Algor unsheathed his sword and rushed towards Sozgadan. The collision sound of their swords echoed throughout the forest.

“Heh, is that all the power you can apply?”

‘Tsk, I overdid when fighting with the one who attacked my kingdom. I should’ve rested for a while.’

Algor inwardly clicked his tongue. Everyone had their limits: a king, emperor, royalty, or a commoner, no matter who you were. And surpassing that limit was only up to that person, but unfortunately, even though Algor had many good qualities as a king, he wasn’t ambitious enough to seek power. His level was at most an S-Rank. So Sozgadan was easily blocking him. After exchanging blows for a while, Sozgadan’s sword and the atmosphere around him began to heat up. He was radiating scorching heat. The ground around Algor crumbled, and roots flew towards Sozgadan, but it was ineffective. The roots burned even before reaching him.

“Petty tricks.”

Sozgadan was constantly smiling. He put more force behind his sword and pushed Algor back.

“Seriously, if all the other empires are a joke like you guys, it won’t be hard to take over.”

He began to attack Algor relentlessly with a dirty grin, and all Algor could do was defend himself. For Ruvyn and Liam, it was hard to track their movements.

“We can’t follow them with the naked eyes. We should get close!”

Ruvyn shouted.

“What can we do even if we get close? Stop being irrational!”

Liam tried to oppose, but Ruvyn was already on the ground, running towards them.

“Shit…”

Liam quickly followed Ruvyn.

“Hey, look. The rats also want a piece from the cake.”

An arrow flew towards Sozgadan, but he didn’t even bother to block it. Before the arrow could reach him, it melted away. While he continued to attack Algor, Liam approached him from behind and swung his sword, but it was futile. The more Liam’s sword got closer to Sozdagan, the more its shape deteriorated. Finally, when Liam understood what was going on and tried to stop himself, it was too late. Sozgadan caught Liam’s sword with his empty hand, and the metal immediately turned into liquid. There weren’t even flames. It was just the effect of the heat that he was radiating.

Now the only thing left was the hilt that Liam was holding. Before he could react, Sozgadan pushed Algor back again and punched Liam in the solar plexus. Even though he covered himself with the earth element, Liam flew back to the city walls with incredible speed.

“Oops, did I punch him too hard?”

Algor felt desperate against an opponent, maybe for the first time in his life.

‘I might not even harm him enough even if I go all out, let alone killing him.’

Sozgadan turned towards Ruvyn, but Algor entered between them.

“Run!”

Algor shouted, but after Liam got punched and Ruvyn felt Sozgadan’s demonic pressure from close, there was no strength left in Ruvyn’s legs, and he fell onto his butt.

‘What was I thinking coming here? H-how is Algor even standing against this much pressure?’

Unlike what Ruvyn thought, there wasn’t actually that much pressure, but something in his mind was screaming for him to run away like this was a familiar feeling. A weird expression appeared on Sozgadan’s face.

“Ahh, just like the old days. It reminds me of the parents that were trying to save their children back at the Ishonor Village.”

Algor’s eyes widened.

“The elven massacre 13 years ago at Ishonor Village, thousands of elves died, the culprit was never found. Was it you? You bastard!”

“Yes, yes, that look in your face reminds me of old days. More!”

Sozgadan slowly walked towards Algor. Ruvyn also knew about the massacre, but he kept forgetting it. After Algor mentioned that, an image flashed through Ruvyn’s mind. A village was burning, and a silhouette was in the middle of it. An unexplainable rage-filled Ruvyn, and his face distorted like he was looking at the most obnoxious thing in the world.

‘What the hell?’

Algor suddenly fell onto one knee. He felt like he was suffocating.

“Aha, you’re bowing to me to beg forgiveness?”

Sozgadan said in an arragont tone. But with the immense pressure he was feeling, Algor couldn’t even answer. Instead, Ruvyn got up and began to walk towards Sozgadan.

“The fuck did you say?”

Ruvyn voice was deeper and full of hatred. He looked like he was possessed.

‘No fucking way.’

No matter how much he tried, Algor failed to raise his head, and the ground beneath them began to shake uncontrollably.