Chapter 48

Theodore leaned against a tree with his arms crossed while staring down at Miles on the ground, who was being surrounded by Merlin and Eugene in his human form. "So? Anything coming to mind yet?"

Miles pursed his lips, frowning before shaking his head. "I really can't remember anything…It's…foggy, ah!"

"What?" Theodore raised an eyebrow, feeling slightly hopeful at the sudden exclamation.

"I…I think I took a pill that Gabriel gave me…" Miles crooked his head to the side as he dug deeper into his clouded memories. "…I—That's all."

Theodore let out a tired sigh while his friends looked at each other worriedly, the information was completely useless as it basically told them nothing about what was supposed to be Gabriel's plan.

"Maybe it's just simple." Merlin spoke with a shrug. "I mean, he could be trying to create a sort of super soldier to try and defeat you."

"That's true…" Eugene nodded along, frowning slightly at the thought. "Beastmen are technically stronger than Berserkers…"

While Theodore could agree with that theory, he simply felt that something wasn't adding up. Why create a power-strengthening pill that has that bad of a drawback? Not to mention the fact that the person needed to be dead in order for the medicine to work too.

'…Why create corpses of strong awakens?'

Everyone went completely silent for a moment, Miles had seemingly given up on trying to recall his lost memories, it was practically a waste of time and mental energy at this point.

Miles decided to speak first, his voice slightly shaking due to what he was about to say. "Theodore…Can I leave—"

"The f*ck are you on about?" Theodore cut him off in almost an instant, his eyes gleaming with anger despite his expression remaining neutral. "Those five aren't even worth chasing, but you? You're still human and aware of what you've done."

"I—I'm sorry…!" Miles was considered to be even worse than Rhys in terms of personality, his background wasn't even considered the least bit tragic unlike him, which practically meant that he was being an asshole just because he could.

Miles would've stood up for himself if not for the terrifying aura that Theodore was radiating, and the cold yet anger-filled gaze seemed to be pushing his head down, as if trying to make him bow. "I was wrong! I'll…I'll do anything! Please don't kill me!"

Theodore couldn't help but scoff at Miles' words. "Guess the higher they are, the harder they fall. Rhys put up a lot of resistance than you, coward. Did you know how many times I needed to punch him until he stopped being annoying?"

His words caused Miles' eyes to widen in a panic, he spoke up in a quivering voice while trying to stop himself from crying. "N-No…Please don't hurt me either!"

"Wow, are you f*cking serious?" Theodore frowned although he didn't move just yet. "You want to get out of this scotch free? Why do you think that I would make you an exception?"

"I…!" Miles flinched as he began to back away slowly, although since Eugene was standing directly behind him, he didn't manage to get very far.

Theodore sighed again as he pushed himself from the tree, arms unfolding and he began cracking his knuckles. "Hold him down for me."

"Right away, boss!" Merlin spoke jokingly as he took hold of Miles' arms, who tried but fail to struggle out of the grasp since Eugene was lazily pushing down both of his legs with his feet, the strength of a Beastman was more than enough to hold down a mere Spellblade who's usually very weak without combining sword art and magic.

Although, as Theodore was about to throw the first punch, the System suddenly spoke up.

[Warning! The Temple 'Forest Troll Tribe' is under attack!]

[Warning! Your Territory 'Lake of Rage' is under attack!]

"Theodore?" Eugene raised an eyebrow at him as he pushed down harder on Miles' legs.

"…Something's going on." Theodore frowned as he turned towards the direction of the trolls' tribe, while it was very subtle, he could hear the bangs of explosions ringing out in the distance. "Change of plan, the Forest Trolls are being attacked right now, all three of you go help them."

With a wave of his hand, Theodore used 'Asclepius' Secrets' to restore everyone's stamina and any lingering injuries.

"Huh?" Merlin slightly loosened his grip on Miles' arm, the magic swordsman had stopped resisting anyway so there was no need for him to exert that much strength. "Why so suddenly? Who's attacking them?"

"I don't know…Maybe Gabriel somehow knows about them."

"That doesn't make sense…"

"Who knows? Just get over there quickly." Theodore was growing anxious, more specifically, he was wondering why both of the places he was affiliated with had been attacked at the same time.

'…It seemed to be planned.'

"What about you? Where are you going?" Eugene asked as both he and Merlin let go of Miles, focusing on their new task.

"My palace is being attacked too, it'll be quicker if we split up."

"Why don't you call Asmodeus?"

"It took them two days to get to the Lake, there won't be enough time, just go, quickly!"

"M-Me too?" Miles hesitantly pointed at himself and Theodore simply gave him a look, which he immediately took as a 'yes'.

He didn't waste anymore time, just as the three men moved out, he activated his magic and prepared to teleport back to the demon world.

To be exact, he couldn't care less if his palace gets destroyed, and the people of the Lake were strong enough to defend themselves so he barely needed to worry about them.

It was simply the fact that his father was still there that it made him worried.

.

.

.

Rhys was chatting with Sheridan while working on the many documents on his desk when suddenly the entire palace began to shake, as if an earthquake had hit them. "…What's going on?"

Sheridan didn't seem to be panicking at all and she simply made her way towards the door, opening it, she saw many guards and fully-armed demons running through the shaky hallway. "…Is there a fight outside?"

One of the demons stopped in his tracks and looked at Sheridan. "Ah! Miss Sheridan! There's an army outside the palace right now and we'll need everyone's help!"

"Are you insane!?" Rhys was suddenly standing next to the maid, frowning at the soldier as if he'd just heard the most ridiculous thing ever. "You're asking a maid to fight!? How bad can the situation be that even you guys can't handle it by yourselves!?"

The demon soldier didn't look impress by Rhys' words in the slightest, most likely because Theodore had told everyone of his status as a slave, which made his words mean practically nothing to the demon. "…The intruders outnumber us by the thousands, so maybe instead of complaining, you should come and help too, slave."

"Hey…Don't be so mean…" Sheridan frowned, which caused the male demon to flinch, a hint of fear glinted in his eyes before he quickly turned away as if fearing that something else might happen if he remained in eye contact with the maid.

"…A-Anyway…Please come assist us when you're ready," With that, the demon quickly jogged away with the rest of the group.

Sheridan turned towards Rhys with a calm smile. "Thank you for worrying about me, but I'll be fine, let's go."

"Wait…Wait!" Despite the woman's words, Rhys still couldn't help but feel anxious. "I—There's no need to force yourself if you can't fight! Let's just stay back for now and—"

Suddenly, a pair of dark feathered wings appeared behind her back, the end of each feather, shining scarily and showing off their nicely sharpened edges. Sheridan crooked her head slightly as she smiled. "Oh my dear, I can fight."

Rhys didn't even get the chance to react to her calling him 'dear' since the hallway had suddenly become empty enough for Sheridan to walk through with ease, and not wanting to leave her alone, he quickly followed behind while summoning his sword into his hand. "Okay…?"

They didn't have to walk for long until they stumbled across another person, seemingly heading towards the underground section of the palace as the man looked towards them with a hint of surprise.

"Ah, Rhys?" Lawrence gave the two of them a soft smile, waving with his free hand as the other was gripping onto a sword. "What are you both doing here?"

Sheridan bowed before answering. "Most likely the same reason as you, Mister Varon, are you perhaps looking to inform Her Majesty Asmodeus about our situation?"

Lawrence chuckled at the maid's question, giving her a nod afterward. "Yes…While I can't do much because of my inexperience I thought I could give myself something to do."

"I see, let us help you then, we'll—"

Before Sheridan could finish speaking, a thunderous explosion rang out from beside her as debris began flying from where the walls were destroyed.

Though she was luckily unharmed since Rhys had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the way just in time before any large pieces could hit her.

"Who the—" Rhys frowned at the exploded wall, noticing that a translucent barrier was keeping the water from flooding up the entire palace, although it would've been nice if it could prevent the explosion too.

Lawrence was the first to act, he briefly turned towards the two of them before he started to run towards the stairs. "I'll go ask Asmodeus for help!"

But the man would be stopped once another explosion detonated right in front of him, if he hadn't reacted quickly then he would've been buried under the debris along with the stairs.

No one had the chance to say or do anything else as Egyptian soldiers began pouring in from the wounds in the walls, surrounding the three of them entirely and forcing them into combat mode.

"...Is he not here?" A deep male voice spoke up, causing everyone's attention to shift towards the source.

Gabriel—Ra stood on top a pile of bricks and stones while his hands were stuffed inside his pockets, his golden eyes along with his equally as shiny radiance shone down on the people below him.

Rhys stared at his 'father' with widened eyes, slightly relaxing his shoulders before he spoke. "...F-Father?"

Ra looked back at Rhys and the boy instantly knew that something was wrong, he immediately went back to standing on guard while frowning with displeasure. "...No, you're not him. What did you do to my father?"

"What else? I killed him and took over his body as my vessel." Ra shrugged as if he saw nothing wrong with his statement. Not waiting for a reply, he turned towards Lawrence and looked at him as if he recognized the man. "...Where's your son?"

Lawrence frowned, raising his sword. "Even if I know, why would I tell you?"

Ra crooked his head to the side, a hint of annoyance visible on his expression. "You're quite daring, mortal. Let's see if you can still run your mouth like that when I break a few of your bones."

With a flick of Ra's hand, the once docile soldiers began to crazily charge towards all of them, swinging their weapons without a single care for the person right next to them, however, even when they had their limbs cut off by their comrades, their movements didn't waver one bit.

Rhys quickly summoned his armor and started engaging with the soldiers, easily cleaving through them with his sword and many bodies soon fell underneath his feet.

Sheridan shouldn't be judged by her frail looks either, her wings were deadly blades of their own and each of her feathers could be manipulated to her will. With each flick of her wings, dozens of lunatic soldiers would fall onto the ground.

Lawrence was having a slight trouble dealing with the enemy on his own, although Sheridan was also keeping a close watch on him so he was kept safe and managed to slowly push the soldiers back.

However, a single slice to the vital organs weren't enough to kill the soldiers, one even rose up without a head and most of them resorted to crawling or hoping when their limbs were severed. Luckily, Rhys was able to use his fire magic to burn all of them into ashes while Sheridan and Lawrence simply had to disembody them until they couldn't move.

While it looked like the three of them were winning, they would soon realize that the amount of soldiers kept increasing despite their best efforts to thin down the herd. Ra smiled as he saw the hopeless looks on everyone's faces as they noticed what was happening.

Portals were blocking their exit from all four sides while many egyptians poured through it, creating an endless wave of soldiers that their strength could simply not get rid off.

Sheridan was the first to go down, since her wings were spread wide, it gave the enemy more room for them to hit. They grabbed her by her feathers and dragged her down, causing her to stumble and fall while many soldiers pounced on her. She had to resort to using her wings as a shield, however with so many blades cutting through them it was clear that she wouldn't last very long.

Rhys instantly turned towards the demon and tried to get as many of the soldiers off of her as he could, but it would prove to be a major mistake since he turned his back to an army of ferocious fighters and soon they would knock him down too. His armor was the only thing that prolonged him from facing inevitable death as he used his arms to block his face.

With Lawrence being the only one standing, Ra jumped down from his post and he began leisurely walking towards him, causing the soldiers to make a path while backing away, no longer attacking their master's target.

"You can't die by their hands," Ra flicked his wrist and this time multiple whips seemingly created from fire rose from the ground around Lawrence before grabbing his wrist and ankles, burnin through his skin and causing him so much pain that he collapsed onto the ground while crying out. "I said I was going to break your bones myself."

Despite his current situation, Lawrence managed to laugh, looking up at Ra with a stubborn look on his face. "Ain't this nostalgic? You once did this sh*t to me too."

Ra huffed, a corner of his lips slightly curled up. "Well, technically I only watched, but the real difference from then and now is that you won't live long enough to see your son again."

'CRACK!'

Ra's foot stomped down onto Lawrence's left arm and a blood curdling cry rang throughout the halls, not only was his bones snapped in half, but his shoulder was also dislocated from its joint and it left his broken arm dangling uselessly beside him.

"Well? Will you tell me where your son is now?"

Lawrence didn't respond immediately, he took a minute to calm himself down before once again looking up with defiance. "Go f*ck yourself b*tch. I would rather die than sell out my own son."

Ra narrowed his eyes before stomping on Lawrence's other arm, earning him another painful cry. "...I can't tell if you're stupid or just that patriotic. Whatever, I'll get it out of you eventually, there's over two hundred bones I can break after all."

"Stop."

Accompanying a familiar voice, a burst of cold air swept over the entire area, freezing everything that it came into contact with, soldiers shouted out with surprise as they realized that their entire body was rapidly catching frost and blocks of ice were trying to encase them. However, they couldn't do anything about it at all and soon Rhys and Sheridan would slowly crawl out of a pile of frozen bodies before turning towards the source of the magic.

Ra was unaffected by the cold though as his heated aura simply defrosted his skin the moment the icy wind touched him. He calmly looked at the newcomer while retreating his foot from Lawrence's broken arm.

Theodore stood in front of one of the portals, glaring at Ra while his demonic aura surrounded his figure, he seemed to be on the verge of snapping as he was shaking uncontrollably while he clenched his fists tight in an attempt to calm his anger.

"I'm here now, so let him—"

Ra didn't let Theodore finish speaking, he simply stared back coldly as he flicked his wrist, causing another whip of fire to shoot up from behind Lawrence before it moved towards him, impaling right through his chest while taking the heart out with it.

Lawrence looked up at Theodore with widened eyes, his awakened body keeping him alive for a few seconds just long enough for him to take a look at his son one last time. Seeing the horrified look on his face, Lawrence feigned a smile. "...Sorry."

'Thud!'

When Lawrence's body fell onto the ground, everything went completely silent.