[Hekima]
Hekima was anxious, the boy was eerily calm as he saw him, as if he knew that he would win.
And indeed, Hekima had been preparing for weeks but had slowly become more and more certain that he would be crushed in an actual clash against the ehetrian.
Said ehetrian was senselessly powerful.
Something was wrong, Hekima knew that, but he had no idea what that could be and he was too scared to talk to him about that.
During the battle he saw something that definitely wasn't right.
The child had madness in its eyes, of course it had, but there was something else... something much worse, something that Hekima was sure that he had seen before.
He felt fear, he was terrified as he began to remember "nowhere".
But Hekima quickly forgot that and began his lesson.
[Hilgo]
Hilgo knelt down, a fairly difficult task with his bulky, white armor, and dug through the bloodied dirt next to a decaying corpse resembling a humongous, dark bird.
He looked up to his side, towards the few knights and mages that were following him in his endeavour and began talking with a stern but ever so slightly scared expression.
"He... was here, the 'Demon of the unknown' was here, he fought and killed the monster."
The few smaller boys at the sixth sequence or higher that were here next to the high ranking paladins, most of which were at the apex rank and some even slightly above, seemed terrified.
They were probably right.
This bird was a horrid, disgusting, evil creature but it helped keep all of them safe.
Beyond the mountains there were countless monsters and the only thing that had kept them there, away from the easiest prey for many miles, the humans, had been slain.
And that in an epic clash that must've been seen for miles.
Many of them must've already crossed the ancient mountains and even more of them must have seen that the demon of the skies is dead now.
It had been alive for over five hundred years.
It was part of the ecosystem through which this forest, this entire continent functioned, one could not such take something like that away and expect everything to go well.
As Hilgo was thinking about the dangers one of the mages, the one that would hopefully take care of this new threat, a divine scholar of the high lord rank with a unique allowance by the great goddess, began speaking in a hollow and yet serene voice.
She was a beautiful woman with beige skin and black-dotted grey wings, her whole body was covered in white robes and her head decorated using the classical pointed witch hat that any normal being thinks of when they hear of a witch.
The woman had long, golden hair and weirdly yellow eyes that exuded a calming presence and everyone was listening to her as she began talking.
She belonged to a species reminiscent of the ehetrians and yet not exactly the same.
Her face was slightly off, to beautiful, too living, as if someone had made something that was supposed to be better than the ehetrians but they had been too forceful during the task.
"Some of us will have to stay here and take care of the adventurers that strive for survival in this godforsaken forest and, more importantly, the villagers that have lived here, beyond the forest, for generations. Seven of us will need to stay back."
Four of the mages and three of the apex ranking knights including four boys that they had with them as their disciples decided to stay back, probably the best decision for their survival.
The nameless divine mage proclaimed one thing as she saw off the seven heroes that would stay back and protect everyone in the name of the goddess.
"We will protect this world, as we have done with countless unsurmountable foes before, we will banish the demon of the unknown.
They will never again be able to hurt anyone that serves the gods, anyone that deserves to life, anyone that is innocent.
All those that have faith and trust in the gods will survive, all those that serve the gods will be saved.
And we were chosen, we were chosen to send the horrendous demon to 'nowhere' !
And even if we fail, the goddess will banish the monster herself, in her glorious, glorious compassion for all of our lives.
Follow me."
Hilgo didn't know where she wanted to go but he estimated that the demon had become unimaginably more powerful, so powerful that only the mage would be able to save the innocent people.
Hopefully.
[Frianis]
Frianis was a renowned avian. He owned a guild where artificers could sell their wares and buy materials to make them, a very profitable business as there weren't many people that would be an artificer and still hunt for their own materials, neither were there many that wouldn't want to buy an artifact, even if just for a status symbol.
A few weeks ago there had been a nightmarish message across the continent, announced by the great church of rescue and safety.
There was a new demon.
As the entire world heard this catastrophe chaos broke out.
Children screamed for weeks, warriors refused to go out because they felt irrational fear of that very same monster, the priests prayed the whole day, so much so that even the daily mess was denied to the devout believers.
Frianis had seen how many mothers had hidden their children under their dresses as soon as anyone with black wings came near them.
That was all they knew.
The demon of the unknown was an avian with a false head resembling that of a goblins, with the same skin as themselves.
The demon had killed six paladins, wounded about three hundred and almost killed one of the most honoured paladin captains in the world.
He had not discriminated by rank or past.
Everyone was affected by this.
Everyone was terrified.
[Bila]
Cades had met Hekima, and with that the second part of her task was completed and the third was soon to follow.
Bila was no longer of the lord rank, she was at the level on a "transcribe" and yet Cades sometimes seemed to almost feel her presence.
This was good.
He would have to be capable of much more than what she was capable of right now, she knew of what was going to happen next, after all, she was part of the plan.
She knew her future and his.
"He" had told her what to do after all, the "Feared".