Chapter 68

Shin was now back in the land of demons.

He ventured out and roamed the land in peace, exploring, taking ingredients.

While in a very large forest that ran from the border, he emerged to be greeted by a vast, dead, deserted plain.

He crossed this plain where he had the opportunity to experience violent sandstorms and tornadoes.

On the way he stopped when he sensed presences nearby and felt they were in danger.

On his way he could see a car surrounded by people who seemed to be soldiers even without armour but in suits.

But they were mostly in bad shape because of the monsters surrounding them.

Huge sand worms, several of rank A, AA and even one of rank AAA.

There was also a beautiful woman who looked to be 22-25 years old with long pink hair, beautiful green eyes and a beautiful dress.

She seemed to be protected by the soldiers like some kind of princess but Shin could see that she was a very good fighter and could kill A rank monsters even with a dress.

In fact, the soldiers and the woman were fast and physically strong enough to focus on hand-to-hand combat when they couldn't use magic.

'Vampires...' thought Shin after analyzing the status of a soldier.

But the number of worms was increasing and they were getting overwhelmed.

"'Well, I'd better help them,' Shin said as he made a big jump towards them.

--------

"Careful" said the woman to a soldier as she jumped up and gave a big kick to the worm that was thrown violently to the ground.

"Thank you princess" said the soldier as the princess responded with a smile and a nod.

"There are too many of them and the big one is too powerful for us" said the princess after analyzing the situation.

"Go away princess, we'll hold them off!" said one soldier as all the others nodded.

"No, I will not leave you to certain death" said the princess as she prepared to fight again.

Then with a single blow, a worm was sliced in half.

And a second worm, then a third, a fourth.

Everyone was surprised, even the worms who were trying to figure out what was going on.

This caused the AAA worm to move and burrow into the ground and spring up on the princess and the soldiers.

In front of the princess, a man hidden under a hooded cloak appeared and conjured up a magical shield in front of them as the worm took it on the chin while the shield had not a scratch on it.

As the worm leader was thrown, Shin's hand burst into flame as he effortlessly swung his hand.

A sea of green flame erupted over a wide area burning all the hundreds of worms on the surface, not even the worm leader could resist.

Shin's foot then glowed with magical power and earth element as the ground shook and huge spikes of rock shot out of the ground with the worms body at the end.

All the vampire soldiers and the princess were very surprised.

A person came out of nowhere from the deadly desert and killed hundreds of rank A worms and one rank AAA with ease.

The man in front of the princess must have been at least S rank, although he seemed to have mastered his power very well because he was not exerting any pressure.

"Thank you for helping us" said the princess sincerely.

"Hm, no problem" said Shin with a soft voice that surprised the princess.

"Well, I'll be going, be careful" said Shin as he was about to leave.

"Wait!" the princess shouted at Shin stopping him.

"We're going to the capital, do you want to come?" the princess asked with a small blush.

"Princess!" some of the soldiers said suspiciously.

"He saved our lives" said the princess with authority without aggression making the guards shut up.

'The capital? That would be a good place to gather more accurate information about this country' thought Shin.

"If you don't mind, then I will humbly accept the offer" Shin said respectfully knowing that she was still a princess even if he didn't really know which one.

"No need to be so polite, call me Moka" said Moka with some embarrassment.

"Alright, Moka" said Shin making Moka blush a little.

Entering the carriage, Shin took off his hood subduing Moka.

Her face had turned completely red but she came to her senses a little embarrassed as she glanced around.

"So, you're a princess?" asked Shin to start a conversation and find out a little more about Moka.

"Not really. Actually, I'm the daughter of the head of the Akashiya family, representative of the vampire race" Moka said as Shin asked for more details on how it worked.

"The demon country and demons in general are ruled by the demon king and his family but there are other big families that represent the different races of demons, like us vampires"

"I see," said Shin.

The demon race is quite large and has several "sub" races.

So each demon race has its representative and each family representative will sometimes attend meetings with the demon king.

The heads of these families are therefore the ones who hold the most power among the demons below the royal family, the family of the demon king.

In the case of vampires for example, there are many noble vampire families but the Akashiya family is the one that represents them and the strongest.

After chatting the whole way, they finally arrived at the capital where the demon king resided.

And Shin had to admit that it was quite pretty with the dark tone illuminated by the lights of the city, as the carriage ride had been quite long and so the night had had time to fall.

Moka took Shin to an inn following his request to spend the night.

"A meeting is going to take place with the royal family and the heads of the families so I came early and am waiting for my family" Moka said to Shin before going downstairs.

"You told me you came to have an audience with the demon king?" asks Moka remembering the surprise she had when he told her.

Having an audience with the demon king was very difficult but remembering his power, she was sure it was possible.

"If you want to thank you for saving us, I can ask my father to request an audience with the demon king for you."

"That would be great" Shin said with a grateful smile as he wanted the best material possible and no doubt the best material would be something complicated to get.

So asking the demon king himself was the best thing to do, but Shin hadn't really thought about how to contact him.

"Alright, I'll do that, I'll send someone tomorrow to let you know, good night" Moka said in a flustered tone when he saw Shin's smile and left, leaving Shin outside an inn.

Shin then entered the inn, paid with the money Moka gave him and fell asleep in his room.

-----------------------------------------------

Shin got up late in the morning as usual, got dressed and then went downstairs to have breakfast.

"Is there anyone here named Shin?" said a loud voice in the inn drawing Shin's attention and he raised his hand.

'They weren't hanging around' thought Shin as he hurriedly finished his breakfast.

"Good morning, Princess Moka asked me to give you this which will get you to the meeting in two hours" said a well dressed vampire handing him some sort of emblem then left apologetically.

So he spent two hours in the city exploring, remembering the location of places and having fun.

Then he headed for the castle entrance when the two hours were up.

"Halt" said two demons at the entrance preventing Shin from entering.

"I'll take care of it" said Shin taking the emblem without wasting time.

"Excuse us, we'll take you there" said the soldiers eagerly after seeing the emblem he was holding.

Shin walked through the castle as he attracted attention despite the hood.

Soon he arrived at a doorway that was quite large, but it wasn't even the throne room.

"My King, the guest has arrived," said the soldier beside Shin.

"Let him in," said a loud, deep voice from behind the door.

Probably the demon king," Shin thought at the power of the voice alone.

The door half opened as Shin stepped through it so that it closed quickly.

In front of him was a large long table with chairs around it and a throne at the end.

Vampire, werewolf, succubus, undead, yokai, witch, and of course, demon for the demon king," Shin thought as he saw all the heads of the families seated.

Behind them were also what appeared to be the children of each head of household as well as the demon king and his wife.

(A.N: Demons are a race in their own right just like vampires, etc., it's just that they are all put in the "demonic" category so we use "demon" in the general term. But to make the difference, the demon race will be called "pureblood demon" while "demon" will be used to categorize all "demon" races).

"I salute the demon king," Shin said respectfully, bowing.

"...You are very polite to a king who is not your own" says the man on the throne at the end of the table, the demon king with his wife next to him and the children behind.

"You are still a king" said Shin as he straightened up and noticed some superior looks from some of the head of the family's children.

"So I have received information from the daughter of the head of the vampire family but who are you and what do you want?" the demon king asked without hostility but with curiosity.

"If I'm here, it's to ask for a favor" said Shin politely.

"Which one?" asked the ever more curious demon king.

"I would like to have access to your most precious metal" said Shin unabashedly and honestly.

"You!"

"How dare you ask that, a complete stranger!"

The son of the head of the werewolf family and the undead both shouted at Shin's arrogance but were stopped by their parent.

"It's something precious you ask. And in exchange for what?" the demon king asked as the family heads looked at Shin with serious, stern eyes.

"Whatever you want if it's not immoral," Shin said confidently and without concern. He could see that the demon king seemed to be a fairly intelligent person.

"I have some small ideas but I don't know your power despite what the princess of the vampire family says" said the demon king with a slight smile.

"If that's all it is, I can show you" said Shin as his eyes glowed and he unleashed his magical power.

*BOOM*

All at once the castle, the entire city and even the entire demon country was under immense pressure.

Only the inhabitants and less powerful people were under less pressure due to Shin's control.

The children of the family heads and the demon king were on their knees while the family heads were struggling under the pressure as they tried to protect their children a little.

The demon king had the least trouble but you could still see drops of sweat on his face as he also protected his children while his wife was on the same level as the heads of the families.

Shin finally stopped, leaving everyone breathing heavily.

"You. Who are you?" the vampire family head asked with disbelief and difficulty.

"I am Shin" said Shin.

"No, rather, what are you?" asked the head of the witch family, fascinated by Shin's magical power.

"..." Shin did not answer.

"This power... SS rank isn't it" said the demon king looking at Shin with a different look, more respectful but not under shock.

"Yes," Shin replied without hiding it.

Everyone was even more shocked except the demon king because he was the only one who had ever seen an SS rank existence.

"Sorry, I couldn't think of a quicker way to show you" said Shin sincerely.

"Do you know about the monster hordes?" the demon king suddenly asked as everyone else took in the events, some of the children looked at Shin intrigued, some terrified, some with angry and envious looks.

"No," said Shin, intrigued by the hordes of monsters.

"For some time now, hordes of monsters have been appearing in the country and attacking the kingdom," said the demon king with great seriousness.

"The four royal generals are dealing with it of course, but the monsters are getting much too numerous and stronger so reinforcements would not be unwelcome" said the demon king looking at Shin.

"So you want me to help you against the hordes of monsters in exchange for the metal" said Shin seriously looking at the demon king.

"Absolutely" replied the demon king.

It looked like a staring match.

"Okay and for how long?" said Shin with a smile that took the demon king and the others by surprise.

They didn't think he would agree so easily.

But why would he refuse?

"Time... Honestly, I don't know," said the demon king, although it was clear that he himself was not very comfortable with the subject.

'It will allow me to become stronger, gain better materials from the monsters and...' thought Shin.

"But I have another condition" Shin suddenly said seriously, which still took everyone by surprise who was relieved.

Some were upset that Shin was taking advantage of so much, but they couldn't do anything against an SS rank existence.

Others, like the demon king, were apprehensive about what an SS-ranked existence might want in addition to the difficulty of the request.

"I hear you have a huge and rich library, I would like to have access to it" said Shin with a big smile and sparkling eyes eager for knowledge.

"Ahahahah" laughed the demon king after a silence.

An SS rank existence wanting to be able to read in a library?

"You're funny, I like you!" said the demon king wiping tears of laughter from the corner of his eyes as the queen smiled.

"Alright, I'll give you access to the entire castle library and also to the royal family book!" declared the demon king.

"My king! You can't...!" shouted a head of the family but was quickly interrupted by the gaze of the demon king.

"Thank you my king, I appreciate it" replied Shin with sincerity and a slight bow.

"I'll leave you to it, I wouldn't want to disturb you any longer in your meeting. Goodbye demon king" Shin said politely after a few seconds, nodded his thanks to Moka and prepared to leave.

"Wait! Where are you staying?" the demon queen who hadn't spoken since the beginning suddenly called out.

"Hm? I'm staying at a small inn in the city, demon queen" Shin said, still polite, as he turned around.

"How would you like to have a room as a guest in the castle?" asked the demon queen with appreciation for Shin's politeness and honesty.

Some of the family heads were even more jealous than before to see the privilege Shin was receiving.

But most understood that the demon king and queen wanted to be on the right side of this existence.

"Uh, sure if you don't mind."

"By no means" replied the demon queen as she received quiet congratulations from her husband.

"Take and give to a servant, she will take you to your room" said the queen as a paper appeared in her hand and floated towards Shin.

"Thank you, goodbye" said Shin with a bow as he left the room.

"I don't want anyone to offend this person" ordered the demon king with power and seriousness in his voice.

After that, Shin went to his room, settled down and wandered around the city again until nightfall, then fell asleep.

-------------------------------------------

\ In the divine kingdom /

"Daddy!" shouted Erza as her father entered the house.

"Hi princess, how are you?" said Shin with a big smile as he took Erza in his arms.

"Honey" said Irene who came out of the kitchen and gave him a kiss.

They all went into the living room and ate the meal Shin made while Shin talked about his adventures.

"A disciple?" asked Irene curiously.

"Yes, her name is Olivia, she is very good with a sword.

"Hmph, I'd like to see that" said Erza with a touch of jealousy.

"Ahah" laughed Shin and Irene.

"You've all gotten stronger" said Shin after seeing the new ranks.

"Of course, we practice every day!" said Erza with pride.

Irene and Zeref were now at rank S (high) while Erza was at rank S (low) and Mavis at rank AAA (high)

They trained by fighting each other, or else they fought either with the divine beasts of the forest of life who were obedient to the God of Life and lowered their level, or with the God-Kings who did the same.

"And how is your relationship with the God Kings?" asked Shin.

"Well, the God of Creation and the Goddess of Destruction are very nice and as for the Goddess of Death..." said Irene.

"What's wrong with her? She threatened you" asked Shin with some anger.

"No, she gets along with me but with mum... she seems jealous" answered Erza.

"Sigh..."

"Maybe you should give her a chance?" said Irene suddenly, which surprised Erza and Shin.

Irene was quite possessive and wouldn't let another woman get close to Shin unless she had really strong feelings and approved of him.

Polygamy also existed in the world of Fairy Tail.

"Don't be surprised. I can see that she really loves you and is suffering for it. The Goddess of Destruction told me that she talks about you all the time, that she really cherishes you and has natural feelings for you" Irene said with understanding in her voice.

After a couple of discussion between them, Shin said that he would go and talk to her and see what happens.

"Well, I have to go, I'll be back soon!" said Shin.

After several hours with them, he left the divine realm.

------------------------------------

"Mmh" Shin woke up with difficulty, he missed Irene's presence as he woke up.

When he got dressed, he could see a letter on the bedside table.

"An adventurer's guild?" said Shin as he read the letter.

In this letter, the demon king advised him to join the adventurer's guild so that he could earn money and the battles against the invasion he would do could count and be useful to increase his rank and earn more money.

"Hmmm.... Why not? After all, I also came to experience new things then it would be useful to have some money" Shin said as he thought and then left his room and teleported into the city.

"It's here" said Shin as he appeared in a dark alleyway where across the street was a large multi-story building with "Guild" written in large letters.

Still wearing his hooded robe, he entered the guild.

Why was he still wearing his hooded robe? Because he thought it was cool, his appearance avoided attracting attention and he prefers to remain anonymous for some things even if it might not be the case later.

When he came in, he attracted attention.

"Who's that?"

"A new guy?"

"He thinks he's all powerful by hiding his identity."

While many adventurers were talking about Shin, Shin walked towards the reception.

"Hello, welcome" said the woman at the front desk with a smile.

"Hello, I would like to become an adventurer" asked Shin politely.

"Of course, please fill out this paper" said the woman handing him a paper that asked for first name, last name, age, profession, etc.

Shin wrote everything down and hesitated about his profession since he used sword and magic but in the end he decided to go for mage.

"A mage, good" The woman took the sheet, put it in a kind of machine from which came out an adventurer card.

"By the way, I have a paper to give you" Shin said, pulling a paper out of his space but pretending to pull it out of his pocket.

"Hm?" The woman was confused and took the paper.

"W-What?" The woman began to stammer with wide eyes as she saw that the paper was from the demon king!

"I'll call the guild leader right away" the woman said as she left then returned after a few minutes and took Shin upstairs to see the guild leader.

All the adventurers were surprised and suspicious as to why he was going to see the guild leader.

The fact is that every country of every race was visited by travellers of other races, so the cities were diverse, although some races were less seen in some countries because of some friction.

"Hello" said Shin as he entered the room where the guild master was.

"Hello" said a female voice from the couch in front.

A witch...' thought Shin.

"Amenda" said the witch.

"Shin"

"So let me get this straight, who are you to receive a personal letter from the king?" the curious witch asked after telling Shin to sit down across from her.

"No one, just a passerby who helps the king in exchange for a favor" said Shin with a suspicious smile for the witch.

"A passerby hm? From what I understand, you're going to help during the monster invasion" the witch asked glancing at Shin who nodded.

"You know, the guild recruits adventurers for the monster invasion provided they have enough strength and given the invasions, adventurers of at least B rank are required." the witch explained.

"And to receive a letter from the king approving your participation, your strength must be of the highest order. But I would like to know how strong," Amanda said with obvious curiosity.

"I can see you've taken up the profession of mage so I'd just like to measure your magical power to get an idea," Amanda said as she pulled a device out of a ring.

"...Alright" said Shin. He didn't see a problem, especially since the king's letter already gave a hint.

"Put your hand there, insert some of your magic power and the device will assign a rank to your magic power. This device measures up to rank S" Amanda explained as Shin placed his hand on the device.

As he inserted some of his magic power, the machine projected a letter.

"S" Amanda whispered with shock in her eyes but she could not react as the machine broke.

"...You..." Amanda couldn't even speak.

The rank assigned was equivalent to the rank of adventurer you could have.

This machine was used to measure the amount and strength of a mage's magic power.

For swordsmen or other body-to-body professions, it was a test with another adventurer.

In Shin's case, this meant that he was an S-rank mage!

Only...

"The machine exploded... That means..." Amanda stammered in disbelief.

"Sorry," Shin said sincerely, scratching the back of his head.

Amanda took several minutes to recover and then let Shin go, approving of his participation.

Soon, a list of adventurers participating in the invasion was hung up in the guild hall.

And everyone was wondering who "Shin" was.

Leaving all this behind, Shin went into a dark alley and teleported to his guest room in the castle.

He came out of his room and asked a servant where the library was.

On his bedside table was not only the papers but also a badge that proved his guest title and gave him privileges including access to the library.

When he arrived at the library, he showed his badge and entered.

The library was circular and huge.

"It would take me years to read it all," said Shin with wide eyes sparkling at the size and number of books.

The library was very quiet and restful. Since it was the royal library, he assumed that it was less crowded than a public library.

Shin walked around the library, looked at the books, picked up several, floated them and looked for a place to sit.

While looking for a place, he came across a table with a woman on it.

She was 25 years old, about Shin's age if you didn't count his immortality, with long white hair and jewel pink eyes.

A beautiful woman wearing a white dress with golden bridles and jewels.

She was bathed in sunlight from the window next door and her face focused on the book in front of her gave her a rather sexy charm.

Shin remembered her from the meeting where she was standing behind the demon king.

'The elder daughter of the demon king' Shin thought as he remembered that she was the taller of his two daughters.

"Hello" Shin said as he approached her without any flirting or anything but he thought "why not?" then it would still be advantageous if he could become friends with the demon king's daughter.

The girl looked up as she heard someone calling her name and was surprised to see Shin.

"H-Hello" the girl said with a bit of a stammer and fear.

The only time she had seen Shin was during the meeting and with his display of power, she was quite intimidated. Especially when she saw that even her father seemed to respect him for his power.

"You don't need to be afraid. Sorry about the meeting, making you was not my goal" Shin said with a sincere smile that soothed the girl for some unknown reason.

"Can I sit down? I also came to read" asked Shin.

"Yes of course" replied the girl after calming down.

"My name is Shin, may I ask what your name is?" asked Shin with courtesy and respect, after all she was still the daughter of the demon king.

"Yue," the princess replied kindly with a smile. For some reason she didn't understand, Shin's presence felt welcoming and pleasant.

"You're wondering how I can be like this with so much power, aren't you?" said Shin surprising Yue who looked embarrassed.

"Don't be embarrassed, you're curious, I understand" replied Shin with a small laugh.

"You know, I wasn't always this strong. I was lucky enough to be able to become one" Shin said as he looked out the window as Yue began to be absorbed in his words.

"Despite becoming so strong and continuing to grow, I never thought of bullying the weakest or conquering the world. I have always been neutral and friendly, loving to enrich myself with knowledge, loving life, family, animals" Shin said as Yue could relate a little to some things.

"Be careful, I don't sell myself, I wouldn't dare because it's also a weakness, I'm not perfect, nobody is"

"But strength is necessary, to be able to keep himself and his loved ones safe" Shin said with a determination hidden behind his words as he turned his gaze to Yue.

A minute of silence began as they looked into each other's eyes but Yue quickly turned her gaze with a slightly red face.

"Anyway, I can see that you like to read" Shin said as he saw the pile of books beside Yue.

"Y-Yes, I like learning about the world, trying to figure out mysteries, understanding things that others can't, especially when you're locked up in this castle most of the time" Yue said leaving her blush aside and saying the last part of the sentence in a low voice with sad eyes.

"I see" Shin said as he smiled a little when he heard the last part, planning to help her.

"Say, are you an Elf?" asked Yue curiously.

"Hm? Why would you think that?"

"To achieve your power, you had to live a long time and elves are the ones with the longest life expectancy, plus you give off a nature-like and benevolent aura."

"That's not untrue, but are you sure they're the only ones with those characteristics?" asked Shin looking at Yue with amusement.

"Hmm.... Dragon? Although they have more of a powerful and destructive aura. But considering your power, the only dragons would be..." said Yue thinking before widening her eyes.

"Are you a dragon king?!" she shouted in amazement.

But Shin didn't react and she realized that it wasn't that.

"Other than dragons and elves, I don't see..." said Yue as she pondered even the extinct or rare species she would have seen in the books.

"I don't see," Yue said as she gave up.

"Maybe you'll find out later" Shin replied mysteriously, greatly disturbing Yue.

Then they continued to talk and read books, leaving the library in silence, but the silence was greatly appreciated by both of them. They found it soothing and quiet.

\ Two hours later /

"Is a Mr. Shin here?" Suddenly the library door opened suddenly and a man shouted.

"Yes," Shin said as the man at the door hurried over to him.

"The demon king wants you at the wall. The horde of monsters is here" the man said with some stress and fear.

"Alright, I'm going, goodbye princess" Shin said seriously as he got up to leave.

As he left, Shin patted the man on the shoulder and suddenly the man felt less stressed and more at ease to his surprise.

"Ah, princess, your father the demon king is also asking for you," the man said eagerly as he knelt down in front of Yue.

"Alright" Yue replied as she stood up and wanted to catch up with Shin but since he had already disappeared.

Next time, I'd like to see his face,' thought Yue.

For the past two hours, she hadn't dared to ask Shin to show his face out of rudeness.

"Demon King" Shin appeared on the wall as he walked towards the demon king.

"Ah, there you are" said the demon king seriously as he turned around but one could see surprise as he had not seen or felt Shin coming.

'I didn't even feel him coming' thought all the people next to the demon king with shock and caution.

With the demon king were the queen and her youngest daughter, the four royal generals and the family heads who were only there because they were there for the meeting at the time of the invasion.

There were a few adventurers on the wall who looked at Shin with curiosity about his identity while some recognized him as the new adventurer who had signed up.

"Indeed, it's a big horde... and powerful, why are there hordes like that" said Shin as he approached the edge of the wall and looked at the horde in the distance.

"All we know is that they come from a forest far away where they all swarm. We've already thought of exterminating them there, but the forest gives off a strange, dark power, and there are many monsters there, and many powerful ones. We lose less soldiers protecting here than going there" explained the demon king looking at the horde.

"Hmm" Shin looked at the horde, observed them more carefully and identified them all.

"They are corrupted" said Shin getting everyone's attention.

"Anyway, some of them are corrupted while others seem to follow and get caught up in the movement, some even seem to be afraid" Shin said with interest and thought.

"Scared? They are monsters" said one man, one of the royal generals.

"From your point of view yes. But after reaching a certain rank of power, monsters reach a state of consciousness that allows them to think sharply and reflect and express feelings" replied Shin.

During this conversion, Yue came to the wall and listened carefully to what Shin said.

"You speak as if they were human beings" said a head of the family with disdain and disgust.

"Hmph, I have my own definition of being human" said Shin breathlessly, tired of the head of the family's arrogance and imbecility.

Yue looked at Shin with a small blush and eyes sparkling with respect and appreciation.

"Anyway, I'll go alone" said Shin as he stepped forward.

"What?" said the demon king taken by surprise.

Everyone looked at Shin with surprise and shock.

"Are you crazy?!" said a woman, one of the royal generals.

"You think you can handle this horde alone?!" shouted one of the family heads angrily.

"I only want to prove to the king that he can trust me and that I can perform the service he asked of me against my request, nothing more" said Shin with a neutral voice as he jumped off the wall.

"He's crazy."

"What is he doing?!"

Several adventurers shouted as they saw Shin jump but did nothing as the king said nothing.

"Father, are you going to let Shin go like this?!" shouted Yue as she looked at her father angrily.

"Ohoh, my daughter is worried about 'Shin'" said the demon queen teasingly as she raised the word 'Shin' while the demon king looked at his daughter with shocked fatherly eyes.

"What? N-No it's not like that. W-We only talked in the library that's all. We became friends... I think," Yue stammered with a completely red face, she said the last sentence in a whisper with eyes of envy and mixed feelings.

'This is the first time I've seen my daughter like this' thought the queen.

"No one will have my daughters" said the demon king with a straight face as the mother and daughters looked at him like a fool.

"He's coming to the horde" said an adventurer in disbelief.

This put everyone back into silence as they all looked towards Shin who may have arrived before the horde.

No one was planning to interrupt him.

Shin walked as the horde was in front of him and moved forward.

Then he took a step forward and when his foot hit the ground, a powerful killing intent burst from his body and covered the entire sky.

"C-C'est" All the adventurers on the wall trembled with fear and fell to their knees.

The demon king and the heads of the families found the air heavy and had a sweat on their foreheads as he protected the others and the city.

The horde in front of him stopped as some of the monsters shook with fear, others shook but would not back down and some had nothing.

Shin stopped and sent out his life aura for those who would flee to reassure them and tell them to leave.

Those on the wall and in the city felt more comfortable with the Life energy, and all the monsters did the same as many monsters left but the rest did not change their decision.

"If I can avoid unnecessary casualties" said Shin as he was happy to see many monsters leave.

Even some monsters "corrupted" by the dark energy regained their minds and left while others stayed.

The Life Energy crushed and destroyed the dark energy without any problems.

Honestly, there must have been only about 50,000 monsters and almost ten thousand were gone.

"Now, I can't do anything for you so excuse me but... let the cleanup begin" said Shin as his spear appeared in the air.

*ROAAAAAR*

He grabs his spear, launches himself towards the monsters and instantly arrives in front of them as they roar.

*SLASH*

Immediately, Shin sliced the first one, jumped on its corpse and threw himself in the air to get a bigger view.

"Hey, who's next?" Shin laughed lightly to himself.

*ROAR*

In the air, a dragon headed straight for Shin.

Shin pointed his spear at the dragon as a ball of magical power appeared at the end of the spear and shot a beam that disintegrated the dragon.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

He swung his spear to the right as the beam followed its path and disintegrated everything in its path.

A humanoid monster with wings went towards Shin to punch him, but Shin did a high-speed backflip, coming up behind him and kicking him, sending him to the ground.

*BOOM*

Shin teleported to the ground and hundreds of monsters pounced on him.

He didn't move and as they came at him, they were all cut into pieces.

And he continued to slice all the monsters that came at him with a refined mastery of the spear.

When he had sliced through thousands of monsters in a few minutes, he swung his spear into the pile.

All the monsters took the opportunity to run at him and Shin responded by running at them.

As they were about to meet, Shin took a final step that summoned huge spikes of earth and ice as he dodged all the monsters and their attacks by leaping into the air in torpedoes.

A third of the battlefield was filled with huge earth and ice spikes as Shin landed on the side of one of his spikes.

A dragon took the opportunity to spit fire at him, he responded by jumping over the dragon, putting a hand on his back as he fired a fireball that destroyed the dragon before he launched himself.

*BOOM*

The fireball slammed into the ground and exploded killing thousands of monsters.

The rest of the fight was all about that.

Shin dodged the attacks in the air with ease by leaning on the monsters and attacked with his magic.

Fireballs, lightning bolts, arrows of light, even a huge sword of darkness that he swung at the ground crushing the monsters and scattering into thousands of small swords of darkness and of course, he didn't forget to go body to body with punches, kicks, ...

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

The battlefield had become ruins, craters everywhere, giant spikes of earth and ice reshaping the landscape, scorched earth and explosions in every corner.

"It's time to end this," Shin said in a serious voice as he stood atop a spike littered with monster corpses. He was overlooking the battlefield.

After thirty minutes of mostly fun fighting, he had decided to end it.

*ROAR*

*CROAR*

At that moment two distinct roars were heard.

To his left was a rather large white tiger and to his right a large bird that seemed familiar to Shin as they looked at each other.

"A Phoenix?" said Shin in surprise. This was the first time he had met a Phoenix besides himself, not to mention that they were rare in this world, more so than dragons.

"A Phoenix?!" said Yue to the wall, shocked and amazed.

"It's amazing, to see such a rare creature here... unfortunately, it must have appeared on this battlefield" said the demon king with fascination and sadness for the last part.

"These two look young yet powerful for their age" said Shin seeing that the two creatures were still only teenagers yet already S (low) rank.

"Oddly enough, they are still under the control of that dark energy... They must have arrived on the battlefield after the others..." muttered Shin.

The two creatures did not wait: the white tiger jumped with great power in its paws towards Shin and the Phoenix flew at great speed towards Shin.

Shin found these animals too valuable and talented to kill, and they had no control over their movements and thoughts.

Shin closed his eyes for a few seconds, made a decision, and opened his eyes, which glowed with power.

His wings appeared and opened several meters as his magical power roared.

The white tiger, controlled by the dark energy, continued and gave a powerful claw to Shin even though it was shaking hard against Shin's magic power but was parried by its left wing.

Shin shifted his gaze to the Phoenix and looked at it with a stern look, he was working his Phoenix bloodline and at the same time he sent a wave of Life Energy to rid it of the dark energy.

The Phoenix seemed to come to his senses and felt his body squeeze and his instincts scream to bow.

As he looked at Shin, he felt his bloodline and his entire body stir as if he felt the presence of the apex of his race, his king.

Then he stopped in flight and landed on the ground as he bowed his heads and lowered his wings in respect and submission.

Shin looked away to his left as he saw the white tiger still attacking his wing, so he gave a great wing strike sending the tiger to the ground.

*BOOM*

As soon as it hit the ground, Shin teleported in front of it, put his hand on its head and sent a wave of Life Energy to rid it of the dark energy as well.

Also coming to his senses, the tiger lowered his head with tremors.

He felt a different pressure than the bloodline pressure with the Phoenix, but it was a pressure one felt when faced with a being far more powerful than himself.

Seeing that both were subdued, Shin put away his wings and stopped unleashing his magic as he returned to a softer, friendlier face, even if it wasn't visible through the hood.

"Come on," Shin said as he turned slightly and looked at the Phoenix who hurried over.

As the two stood in front of Shin with their heads bowed, he patted and stroked their heads to their immense surprise.

"You two are very strong" Shin complimented as the two looked up and could see a smile. They no longer felt terrified and pressured but calm, at ease.

"I won't hurt you two. Your actions earlier were against your will and I'm sorry for making you" Shin said apologetically, surprising both of them even more, and for some reason, Shin's voice and words felt good and warm to their hearts.

"So are you going to stay here and keep fighting?" asked Shin as they both shook their heads "no".

"Then why not come with me? How about that?" said Shin.

The two were surprised, looked at each other for a few seconds and nodded as the tiger rubbed against Shin's arm and purred, making Shin laugh.

*BOOM*

*ROAR*

Suddenly, a loud roar was heard as a powerful magic beam came at them.

The three dodged as they looked at the spot from which the beam came.

A huge multi-headed creature, which was the head of the city castle and even bigger than the 300m wall, appeared in the middle of the battlefield.

"What?" said Shin with surprise, a creature that massive wouldn't go unnoticed so how could he not see it coming.

"Both of you, go to the wall and join the others" Shin said to the Tiger and Phoenix pointing to where the demon king was.

"This is not an enemy you can confront. At least not yet" Shin said seriously having seen the power of the creature.

The two hesitated but went ahead anyway with full confidence in Shin.

"An SS (weak) rank hydra, also corrupted by this dark energy" muttered Shin.

"This one though, even uncorrupted, I don't think it's very friendly" said Shin as he saw the demonic appearance and the savagery with which the beast attacked even the monsters.

"Well, when to go" said Shin as he flew at full speed towards the head at the end of its side.

----------------

"What is this monster?!" said one of the royal generals in disbelief.

"An SS rank monster..." muttered the demon king seriously but everyone could hear him.

"What?!" shouted an adventurer as he fell on his butt in fear.

"Sir..." said one of the heads of the family as he looked at the demon king with complexity.

"I know" said the demon king with great seriousness but also a little fear.

"A fight between two beings of SS rank... The damage could be devastating" said the demon king with difficulty and a drop of sweat.

"And so close to the city..." retorted the demon queen, not knowing what to do.

"Listen..." said the demon king in a voice loud enough for everyone on the wall to hear.

"If the attacks ever reach us, we will create a barrier to protect the city. Everyone should give their magic power" said the demon king seriously and authoritatively, not expecting any refusal.

"If you could also help, it would not be unwelcome," the demon king said as he turned his head slightly behind him.

There was the Phoenix and the tiger, sticking to Yue because she was the one who had the most of Shin's scent and aura imprinted on her since she had spent the most time with him.

Both nodded to the demon king in approval.

"Thank you," the demon king said sincerely as he returned his gaze to the fight.

------------------

When Shin approached the hydra, the head on the end turned around to see Shin approaching.

*ROAR*

Sensing the threat Shin posed, it roared and spat a powerful fire at him.

Shi created a small ball of concentrated light and threw it into the fire.

*BOOM*

The ball of light broke through the fire that had reached the ground and created an explosion.

Reaching his head, the ball of light exploded and blinded him as Shin teleported and sliced his head off.

This caused the other heads to react as they turned towards Shin and attacked him.

One head launched a roar of wind, the other of water, earth while the other was made of magic power.

"One element per head?" said Shin with surprise but he quickly made the three elements appear as well.

A ball of fire facing earth, a ball of water facing wind and a ball of wind facing water as well as a ball of magic power facing magic power.

The 4 balls of Shin faced the four roars of the hydra, the collision lasted a few minutes before the balls went through the roars and exploded the heads on contact.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

The collisions of the attacks had already created strong gusts of wind that destroyed the huge spikes of the battlefield that were felt all the way to the city.

But the explosions of the balls and heads intensified it even more and all the ground on a perimeter of a hundred meters was torn off while the wall started to have some cracks.

"The wall!" shouted one of the royal generals as he saw cracks appearing and growing in the wall over time.

Only no one could do anything about it because they were all busy protecting the city.

The huge cloud of dust prevented Shin from seeing the situation of the hydra but he was still on guard.

If this hydra was like in the games or mythology, then it could surely regenerate.

And as the dust cloud dissipated, Shin could confirm that the five heads had grown back as they looked at Shin angrily.

The huge body of the hydra turned slightly towards Shin as the five heads rushed at him to bite him or throw attacks at him.

Shin dodged each bite as he nullified each elemental attack from them to limit the damage.

"Maybe we should cut all five heads at once?" wondered Shin as he dodged or retaliated against the attacks without much trouble.

"We'll try," said Shin as he punched a head that was about to bite him.

Two other heads threw a fireball and a magic power ball at him in front and behind him.

"Whoa!"

Shin did a backward somersault as he caught himself and placed his hands on the magic power ball, imbuing his hands with its magic power.

"That's not good" Shin said as he saw that the two balls were about to collide.

He pushed on his arms to throw himself higher, enchanted his body to increase his weight by 100 and fell on a head only to remove the enchantment and use the head as a trampoline to get away.

The head he landed on was completely stunned with a huge mark on its head.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

As he moved away, the two balls collided and caused a huge explosion, fortunately in the sky.

But the huge and powerful sphere-shaped shockwave spread, decimating and turning over the ground and causing huge gusts of wind.

"The city," Shin said seriously as the shockwave came at him.

He did a long somersault backwards to avoid a hard collision and came within a hundred yards of the wall with enough force to embed his feet in the ground.

"Shin!" shouted Yue in distress from the wall as everyone panicked and stressed.

Even the citizens were in complete panic as they heard the explosions.

"I'll take care of it," Shin said seriously as he glanced back.

Shin held out his right arm towards the shockwave as in his left hand appeared a small golden ball with barriers spinning around it.

*BOOM*

A loud thud sounded as the shockwave collided with Shin's hand.

Shin felt a great pressure and a huge shock on his body but thanks to his powerful physique, he could easily bear it.

Then he threw the golden sphere in his hand towards the city.

The sphere left quickly, passed the demon king and the others and headed to the top of the castle.

The sphere began to expand and encircle the entire city with a golden barrier.

"This is..." said the head witch with surprise.

"A barrier" said the demon queen with astonishment.

"Hmm" The demon king thought as suddenly his hand was covered in magical power and struck the barrier with a mighty punch.

But the barrier didn't get a scratch, in fact, it didn't have a single fluctuation.

"Incredible" murmured the head witch as she saw that the barrier could withstand a powerful punch from the demon king without any effort.

*BOOM*

"This is not the time!" shouted Yue angrily with stress on her face.

Everyone was stunned and dumbfounded but they were quickly called to order by Yue as they returned their gaze to Shin.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

The shockwave seemed to pulsate causing thuds as she pushed even harder to get past Shin.

"Hm!" Shin snorted as he squeezed the point so hard that the sheer force of it created another shockwave that completely nullified and broke the huge shockwave.

"What?!" shouted the adventurers on the wall in surprise and fear.

"This is...terrifying" said one of the royal generals with difficulty and shock.

Everyone on the wall, even the demon king, had drops of sweat.

"Not only does he have super-powerful magic, but his body is strong enough to stop and withstand the impact of such a powerful shockwave as well as being able to destroy it with just a clenched fist" said the demon king with a shocked and admiring smile at Shin's power.

The hydra that was stunned and hit by the blast regenerated its heads as they looked at Shin with a raging rage and growled harshly.

"Now get ready," Shin said quietly but could be heard even by the hydra that was several hundred meters away.

An object fell from the sky to land next to Shin.

It was his spear that had returned from the battlefield after slicing through ten thousand enemies.

There were now a few thousand monsters left but none were attacking because of Shin and the hydra.

"That barrier wasn't for the shockwave..." said Shin as he took his spear in his hand.

"But for now" Shin finished as his eyes glowed brightly and his immense magical power was unleashed and transferred into his spear.

After a few seconds, the spear was filled with Shin's magic power and was giving off incredible power.

*BOOM*

Shin moved the spear into a throwing position and swung it so fast that no one saw him throw it at the hydra, but they could see that everything behind Shin was destroyed for about ten meters just by the force of his throw.

The hydra was about to resist and counterattack but was surprised and confused as the spear bifurcated its trajectory and headed skyward.

Once high enough just above the hydra, the spear stopped and pointed downwards towards the hydra.

Everyone was confused but said nothing.

Shin reached for the spear and suddenly.

*CRACK*

*BOOM*

*SCREEECH*

The clouds turned black and began to spin in a spiral shape.

A sort of huge vortex of several hundred meters appeared in which a lot of lightning crackled and roared.

Shin's magic power in the spear was unleashed and the lightning in the vortex attached itself and merged with the spear.

The image of the spear, with the overpowering magic power and the lightning-filled vortex, was terrifying, overbearing and impressive.

The spear was surrounded by overpowering magic power with lightning crackling all around it, merged with the spear and the magic power, stretching for tens of meters.

"Farewell" said Shin as he lowered his arm and the spear fell at great speed towards the hydra.

The hydra felt immense danger and tried to move but was shocked that it could not move its body or its heads.

Shin, in his left hand, had a ball of darkness element that was connected to the hydra's shadow, making it unable to move.

Helplessly, the hydra could do nothing as the spear made contact with it.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A huge explosion stretching for miles and the sound of thunder clanging and rumbling erupted.

Even protected by the barrier, the citizens and people on the wall could feel the power and even the gusts of wind caused by the explosion.

In fact, everyone was terrified that they didn't have the barrier to protect them.

Without this barrier to stop the explosion on their side, the whole city would have been absorbed in the blast and it would have spread even further.

The people on the wall could hardly breathe when they saw the power.

Even the barrier was struggling to hold, but it wasn't breaking.

After several long seconds, the explosion stopped and dissipated in a cloud of dust that engulfed the entire city and took several minutes to disappear.

The minutes were unbearable to wait until they died.

Some even wondered if Shin had survived.

How could anyone survive such power?

And finally, after dozens of minutes, the dust cleared, giving way to a terrifying scene that shocked everyone into feeling sick.

Some adventurers even passed out from the shock.

The landscape in front of them was unrecognizable, they could no longer see anything for miles except a huge crater. Everything had been destroyed, decimated, wiped off the map.

"Impossible"

"Monster"

"This power..."

"Divine"