Ahem...

  “TO THE INVADING SOLDIERS OF THE EMPIRE! IF YOU CROSS THE BORDER COUNT YOURSELF AS ALREADY DEAD!!”

  Ugh... my voice is too high pitched to be taken seriously, they just continued their march towards us, interestingly enough that they’re able to react so quickly, if I were to take a guess, they’re information network is amazing, and realized about the western attack, so I guess the only choice left for them was try to beat the town by circling the long way around, it’s smart, it’s what I would do in their shoes.

  “I don’t think they heard you”

  “So it seems, they are pretty far”

  That they are, I have incredible eyesight but they’re far! Still it’s more than obvious they’re coming towards us. They just rushed headlong into our pce, but I have to say there’s a lot more people than I expected.

  “We are gonna get completely obliterated, we should retreat!”

  The adventurers are freaking out a bit, it is a bigger army than I thought, is the empire stupid? Or maybe they thought it better to do so since, if this bit of our terrain falls they could pincer the dwarves and take them down no problem, is that why they sent so many people?

  Should I try to get the adventurers under control? As long as I’m here it should be fine, but also, Celestial kinda told me to keep a low profile, I don’t think that will be possible anymore.

  “I expected something like this to happen”

  Said the cloaked women, It’s amazing how the adventurers listen to her, just who might she be anyways?

  “If you want to leave it’s fine, prioritize your life, but you should have expected this much from the pay and the description of the job”

  The adventurers pondered, not for long since time is running low, still, I can feel the anxiety and fear of the people, I now see that it might have been a dick of a move, but then again, they knew of the risks, and still decided to become adventurers AND take the job, I agree with the little cloaked girl, surprised that she’s the only one that isn’t panicking, which gives me more of a reason to distrust her.

  For now, I better make good of my word, and I used magic to create wind, wind that forcefully pushes down, creating a solid foot long line on the desert, as a cloud of sand puffs up as it was pushed by my spell, is this the border? I don’t know, but it’s the line I set, if they cross, they shall be killed without any remorse.

  “Impressive”

  “This is nothing, that way we can know when they cross the border, and thus attack them”

  It’s still a rather formidable distance, so the adventurers started to quickly go into formation, they seemed to have all pnned for the worst, which to them it was, getting ready to face the impending army, as for me, I pced myself in front of all of them.

  “Hey! Get into formation!”

  The adventurer in charge yelled at me, but I paid no mind. The small army people more than know who I am, so they didn’t even say a word.

  Well, no biggie, as soon as they started crossing the line I used magic from all the way here, and just sliced them up like minced meat.

  They started to panic and scattered, but I still sliced everyone that crossed the drawn line in the sand. It's a bit obvious I’m the one doing it, since I’m using my arm and moving it around in front of me, this helps me visualize it better, which means that Celestial csses were helping, it feels like I’m getting better! But speaking of visualizing, the visage is... quite something I’ll tell you that! The body parts of the soldiers and their guts spilled on the ground as the red stained sand was an ominous reminder of the massacre happening, honestly there were a lot of them so I couldn’t be clean, it was like they tried to walk through a meat grinder, the adventurers and army are terrified, as for me, it made me hungry for some reason.

  Fortunately the opposing army realized when their soldiers got turned into paste, that I’m not harming people behind the line, so everyone stopped, with the grim image of their fallen brethren in front of them, honestly I felt a bit bad, but also, I warn them, they’re the one invading AND the war needs to end, besides is not even a tenth of the army that died as casualties, which is a necessity, shock and fear is important as it’s the only way to drive my point across, war is brutal, you see the hell in front of yourself, are you guys willing to carry on, or would you rather we have peace finally?

  The empire stopped, they have a guy analyzing the line, they think it’s the line? Don’t remove that please, it’ll be hard to see if you’re trespassing if you take it down, it’s already hard to see with the corpses on top. They then send a single person through, he’s literally pissing his pants and trembling, but crossed the line either way. I pity this guy, he got sent as a sacrifice this much is obvious.

  “HEY DUDE!! DID THEY JUST SENT YOU TO YOUR DEATH!?”

  I screamed at the top of my lungs, as he didn’t get turned into paste when he crossed the line.

  Oh! he did hear! He just yelled ‘yes’ in an euphoric and trembling voice.

  “IF YOU DEFECT THE EMPIRE I'LL SPARE YOUR LIFE!! COME WORK FOR ME!!”

  With his shaky voice he just yelled ‘ok’ and came to me.

  The empire forces then realizes it’s not the line that’s killing them, but rather me.

  So the obvious answer was to throw arrows and use catapults, shame for them they all got deflected back, wind magic is useful as strong enough winds can just stop the projectiles in their tracks, I didn’t kill them in their territory of course, but they did nd at the line, piercing their already defiled troop corpses.

  It’s obvious they’re scared. But realized that they’ll be fine as long as they don’t cross.

  “Wow! You’re amazing girl!”

  “Just who are you!?”

  “You’re keeping the army at bay by yourself!”

  The adventurers morale got up again. Despite the catastrophe, it seems that they were ok with the outcome, everyone just cheered and continued to look at the troops, still all behind me I should add.

  While I was basking in the glory a certain something caught my attention, yet another attack from the empire, this time the mages, robbed people, but not hiding like the ones I know as I can see their faces, started to shoot elemental attacks towards us, the electric attacks were obviously too fast to stop, so it hit me and it tingles, outside of that, it most certainly lost power from the distance, we are pretty far away, some of them couldn’t even reach, others were obviously better made and certainly would look like they would hit, I then tried to stop it with random attacks like rocks and fire, but things like fire ck a physical aspect to be stopped easily, and the amount of attacks is not something I can stop easily, I turned around to the adventurers, the priority is to protect them and maybe Celestial can help, but before I could say anything, the cloaked girl came to the front as well.

  “Guess I’ll have to earn my pay as well”

  She then pulled a staff from inside her cloak, and lifted it, making the spells shot towards us disappear in thin air. I simply turned to see her.

  “I don’t agree with the needless murder, but it’s a good way to stop any other death. Don’t worry about us, I’ll protect everyone, you take care of keeping the pressure to the empire so they don’t attack anymore”

  Well the cloaked girl is useful, extremely so, which helped me to scare them even more by making spikes of sand in front of the line to remind them that they shouldn’t, under any circumstance, cross the border.

  And like that we reached an impasse, at least the empire army is not moving anymore.

  I did decrease their size by a bit, I’d say some 200-300 people died in the first attack, albeit it’s not a lot as previously stated. Compared to that we’re about 200 adventurers and a few officials from my army. But I’m more than enough so who cares.

  The battle has gone cold, but we have done what was our goal, as we stalled enough, as I was thinking this, a cold voice rang through my ears, giving me a chill down my spine and made me turn immediately to the source of the voice.

  “This is bad, I can’t let you finish this so easily dear~”

  Eh? At what moment!?

  A woman appeared behind me! I sensed her appearing out of thin air! But she moved so fast I could barely turn around, she then used a bde to attack me, I managed to stop it with my hand but it was strong enough to make me stagger and my hand bled as well!

  I tried to ssh her with magic as I did the soldiers but nothing happened to her.

  I got a good look at her, but she’s the same cloaked dy that was on that auction house back then, I say a look at her but really, she’s wearing a hood that’s so big and covering her face too that at this point she could use a mask and it wouldn’t make a difference, I really can’t see any feature from her.

  For now I jumped back and her bde slid down hitting the ground with an enormous force.

  I’m a bit scared but I used the opening to try to kick her, but she simply dodged, I could see the bde for a split second going to my face, fortunately I also dodged by a hair.

  This is bad, I don’t know who she is but if she can keep up with my speed then she’s a menace, even if I realize that she doesn’t have much strength behind the sshes, they’re speed only, which make them terrifying nonetheless!

  “Sharp aren’t we~”

  “Get lost!”

  Ugh... I can’t hit her! Fortunately since she lost the element of surprise I can dodge her attacks easily, but I can’t nd a blow to her at all! I tried using magic but my spells just evaporate in thin air near her, I have to make do somehow, however something caught my attention, the empire army decided to advance since I’m busy right now, I simply stamped my foot on the ground and spikes of sand impaled everyone who crossed the line.

  Hup! I knew she was gonna attack at the first opportunity, so I dodged her bde, but she simply twisted her body and kicked me back, sending me flying, this is bad! Don’t cross the border line, me!

  Ugh... barely, right on edge.

  “Don’t get cocky you guys, even if she’s strong I can kill y’all with a wave of my hand!”

  I’m just a couple of feet away from the empire army so I didn’t have to yell for them to hear me.

  “She’s right boys, killing ants it’s an effortless endeavor~”

  So fast! Is she toying with me!? If she can move this fast then I wouldn’t have a chance to dodge!

  “I-”

  “Ah! Don’t say a word dear, I really don’t care much about the armies, I’m just here to have fun~”

  I thought the hooded dy was with the empire but not quite it seems, as with her words, she also made an explosion, which made me jump back and also exploded a few of the empire soldiers.

  “Even so, a demon lord shouldn’t personally massacre this many small fry, they don’t deserve your time sweetie~”

  “What? Who’re you anyways!?”

  “That’s a secret~ let us take care of them~”

  “You!”

  As I was gonna pull another spell, the gut wrenching screams of the empire army made me flinch. They were a bit unexpected, so I turned around and saw the other cloaked men, tearing through the empire army, mercilessly punching people into paste, the fight is brutal, as no attack seems to be able to actually damage him, they just bounce off of him, the army panicked and started to run, but he would chase the running soldiers and kill them instantly, even tearing peoples limbs and using them as weapons, he’s dexterous to a fault, he took a soldier’s head off and lob it towards another one, both of their heads exploding in blood from impact!“Hey you!”

  “Now, now, don’t get distracted~”

  This woman! She’s getting on my nerves!

  “You!”

  Before I could utter a word, an electric shock flew towards her, which didn’t disappear from thin air, as she had to actually dodge it, it was the covered adventurer girl from before.

  “Please don’t get involved if you value your life~”

  “I don’t give a damn about my life, that doofus over the border is your ally right? Tell him to stop or we’ll kill you”

  Speaking of life! What the fuck happened to my soldiers and adventurers, I worried but as I looked to them, they’re completely intact and no one is attacking them, They simply look with terror to us 4 monsters fighting.

  “Try it!~”

  The woman went to attack the adventurer with her bde but a barrier made of bones appeared in front of her, blocking the attack. No time like the present, I dashed and tried to air kick the living lights out of her, but she dodged and counterattacked, only to have to stop said attack as the adventurer girl made an explosion near her, forcing her to retreat to not get hit.

  “You kids~ don’t get carried away~”

  Her voice was as mellow as always, but I felt a hint of anger in the tone, which means we were pressuring properly! As I was gonna continue fighting her along with the other girl, a sudden roar caught us all by surprise.

  “Tch...”

  The bitch we were fighting just clicked her tongue, I turned around and saw Celestial flying up in the sky in her dragon form, Her mouth wide open as a bright light emanated from it, almost as if she would shoot an outrageous attack at any second!

  “Waa!”

  I got out of the way, so did the fellow adventurer and the hooded woman, but the beam of the attack tracked her when she moved away.

  Phew... good thing it wasn’t for me I got scared there for a second, Celestial can be pretty unreasonable from time to time, the destruction is awe inspiring, literally burning the desert into a hellish ndscape, good thing my dress nullifies the heat, because it looks awful.

  The ser beam followed her when a sudden fsh happened and the beam exploded, it was quite fshy. I had to look away for a second.

  When the sand settled the other hooded man appeared, he seemed to have stopped the beam apparently as I can see his clothes slightly burnt, and his hands smoking.

  “Let’s retreat for now, no way we can beat Celestial and Marisa in a fight”

  “Yeah, it was good seeing you in good health dear~, well then, until we meet again~”

  “As if I’d let you!”

  With a hoarse voice and rage in her manner of talking, Celestial rushed to the two cloaked figures, she prepared to stomp them but her cw was stopped by the man, and the woman then shoot a spear of bckened dirt, to which Celestial fpped her wing and deflected it, before roaring once again and a bright light felt like it engulfed the entire desert, pilrs of ice started to form as tall as the sky as she pelted the figures with ice spears, to which they responded with a fme burst so strong even I started to feel the heat now, the sand is literally turning to gss, It really turned to hell, but Celestial is not letting them slip up, which means I should also help! I quickly jumped towards them and tried to stab them with ice spears as well, just to coordinate with Celestial, I managed to grab the woman off guard and pierce her arm, she looked at me and prepared a spell on my face, so I jumped back and Celestial then burned the desert in light, I couldn’t help but jump back once again, Celestial is clearly going all out!

  “That’s enough of that!”

  The man screamed, and after looking to the woman, they got something from their sleeves, and a sudden explosion occurred, pitch bck clouds of smoke raised to the sky, making it unable to see anything, then suddenly globs of dark goo scattered everywhere, I recognize the goo, it’s the same from the curses that Celestial mentioned, the desert got bathed in this stuff, but more so near the two figures, Celestial was bathed in this stuff but she glowed for a second and it all evaporated into mist, it also hit me as well but it simply slid off, the troops however, weren’t so lucky, the empire was decimated by the man, and the goo was the cherry on top to their demise, it fell on top of some, and their presence would fade immediately, it’s obvious they died immediately, and the goo is even stronger than with Ellie, it moves around almost as tendrils and try to reach out, our army on the other hand, went unscathed, it got close to them sure, but it wasn't enough distance to reach them, the goo is crawling is way towards them though, but it’s not that fast so they’re keeping their distance by backing away.

  As for the two perpetrators, they’re nowhere to be found, and I can’t feel their presence either.

  Celestial on the other hand growled in anger, as she was gonna fly away, I quickly yelled her name!

  “Celestial!!”

  She intends to go look for them obviously, but I stop her, the mess we made, it’s nightmarish, and I need to clean this stuff, but more importantly to help the empire army, if there’s survivors I want to help them, and Celestial knows this ‘curse’ better than I, for now I’m going around, disintegrating it by crushing it with my body, but it’s a lot.

  “Saving people is the priority, so come and help!”

  Celestial groaned, but turned back into her human form and burnt the goo with light, making it disappear.

  “Celestial, who were they?”

  “That’s, I don’t know, I thought they were ghost from the past but that doesn’t seem to be the case, you don’t need to worry about them, don’t even acknowledge them please”

  “That’ll be hard if they’re attacking me, even so”

  I looked at the empire army, they’re all basically gone, it was a bloodbath, fortunately there are survivors, even if it’s less than half of the original army, still I can’t help but feel a bad aftertaste from that fight, it’s somewhat frustrating, I can see frustration in Celestial too, as we go around helping them, they were petrified, and their eyes were bloodshot, scared beyond words when we approach, some tried to flee, but their injuries didn’t allow them, I took the curse from their bodies and healed them as much as I could using magic, Celestial went around doing the same.

  “Sigh... I’ll just, wait here for a bit”

  Celestial mentioned once we cleaned up the mess, we allowed the empire troops to enter our border and receive care and food from us, the adventurers were all very sympathetic, with such a disaster, it wasn’t about us versus them anymore, we were just people, trying to help each other, still I kept my distance now, I couldn’t stomach the thought of harming them mentally any further.

  “Where were you anyways Celestial?”

  She was with our troops, but when the attack started, she wasn’t around, which I found odd now thinking in the aftermath.

  “I was a couple of mountains away, I felt a disturbance simir to what happened here, I realize now it was a distraction to pull me away for a minute, sorry”

  Celestial can be so shady at times, if it wasn’t for the fact I can tell when people lie, I would distrust her in a heartbeat, although I don’t know, Celestial is clearly hiding a lot more of stuff with each passing day, and she refuses to speak about it, which worries me a bit.

  “Hmm, I feel like you’re hiding something”

  I better confront her about it.

  “I am, but you do not need to know or worry about it, I’ll take care of everything, I made a promise, that I will fulfill even if it cost me my life”

  Her determination is astounding. I wonder sometimes what does Celestial knows that she isn’t sharing, instead of all the boring talk of the past. No point in dwelling any more like this, morale is low as it is already, at least for me, So I rather continue my pns.

  “I doubt the empire will strike here again”

  I said to the army officials, I think it’s a fact after such a massacre, the empire wouldn’t be able to gather another army anytime soon, it really is a shame what happened today in the desert, but like that, the desert battle was finished without any loss from our part, heck we even got one more soldier, I’ll deal with him ter.

  And speaking of talking to the adventurer that helped me in the fight was extremely useful, I would like to have her on our side. I wanted to talk to her but according to some adventurers I ask, she left already.

  “Adele, she left already, in all honesty she took the job because she was short in funds probably, she loathes violence”

  So the girl's name is Adele, interesting. I wish I could dwell on this further but the sun is setting, and the day is soon to come to an end. I wonder how Heather is doing... I hope she’s ok, I think it’s about time I head to her, I trust that the army can take care of themselves and the rest should be fine.

  “I’m going with Heather, Can you take care of people here please?”

  “I would rather not leave you alone Marisa, wouldn’t you want me to accompany you?”

  “No, plus I think everyone would feel safer, and in the worst case scenario where those two show up again, I’m sure you would notice right?”

  “Yeah, ok then, take care of yourself and miss knight then, and don’t do anything too reckless, the situation is clearly out of control already”

  “Will do, Thanks for the concern, but I’ll be fine!”

  And with that, I teleported to the western border. It's been a long day, but the war is soon to come to a close, just one final push.

  Joanne_carper