Retired Heroes Against A Demon Lord

-----

The former Heroes had been interrupted from celebrating my birthday thanks to the remnant of the Demon King's army, Beelzebub, the King of Flies. A demon I would assume could be catalogued as a Demon General.

The dreadful power he exuded from within his body was purely chaotic. This being was perhaps a dozen times as strong as that dragon my father fought before. On top of that, he commanded a dozen giant flies with a level of power similar, if not a bit higher than the red dragon…

I looked at the scene with concern. Unconsciously, I gripped my little fists tightly as I began to hope for the best.

Was this what my parents fought against in the past before I was born? What kind of monstrosities did they face against back then? It's pretty obvious to imagine that they would want to take it easy after everything was over.

But there were some within the Demon King's army that escaped in the last battle, with Beelzebub being one of them. After hiding and perhaps training for six years, he had come back here for revenge. He casually proclaimed that he wanted to devour all of us so he could become as strong as a Demon King.

For some reason, I could not help but ask myself… are we really that tasty?

CLASH! BOOM! CRASH!

A battle quickly started as father began immediately leading his two friends. His flaming blade clashed against a giant dark scythe that one of the giant flies serving Beelzebub used to fight. Unsurprisingly, his blade easily overpowered the scythe after a few seconds, his presence exuding searing flames.

SLAAASH!

"GRRYYEEEGGH…!"

The fly was slashed in half and burned into a crisp. From the looks of it, father was going all out.

FLASH!

A large lump of energy reached me and almost made me fall over my butt. In fact, Ijust barely maintained my composure because of it.

Was that EXP?

So, I still get shared EXP even from so far away? As long as they're considered my "party" and I can look at them fight, I get a small share of the EXP…

However, even a small share was this enormous… this energy entered my body like a cannon! What the hell…

The fly that father killed turned into ashes and dropped a large black crystal as he moved like a blazing meteor towards his next victim.

Beelzebub was clearly a bit surprised. Did he expect my parents to become rusty after just a mere 6 years?

"Go on! Fight harder!" Beelzebub roared, his command generating a devilish and dark power that showered his servants with energy. From what I could see, it was enhancing their power?

"BBZZZZ!"

The giant flies grew to double their size out of nowhere as three of them began to overwhelm father, attacking him with darkness and poison from basically all sides.

"Nnngh…!"

Father was being showered with deadly poison and corrupting darkness. In response to this, his flames began to dim…

However, this only lasted for a few seconds. Wanting to break free, his eyes blazed with fire as his entire body erupted into a blazing explosion, releasing a powerful shockwave of flames around him. Naturally, he burned the three flies around him!

FLAAAASSSH!

His blade swung to the left as the fly being burned was suddenly slashed in half with ease, its body turning into ashes right after.

"I got your back!"

Shade rushed towards the fly that was about to pierce father with a blade made of darkness. He literally spun through the winds, using his daggers to slash through the entire fly's body as the shadows within his daggers infected the wounds of the fly. In fact, it made them open more easily as well!

"GRYEEAAGH…!"

BOOM!

At that moment, the fly was filled with shadows thanks to a way of fighting I never thought possible in the first place as the entire creature exploded into pieces.

Another fly fought against Nepheline. Unlike the flies father and Shade fought, it used its gigantic body to slam her away and fired venom bullets at her from time to time. Unfortunately for the fly, she was incredibly resilient. The venom didn't even affect her, while the fly's body slam was pathetic. In fact, it was received two times with her giant hammer. At the second time, the fly splattered into pieces…

"Heh, as feeble as a fly…" she said with great pride. Her shiny metallic body seemed to be invincible.

She rushed in front of the trio and decided to act as a tank, taking all the hits and even the magical blows from the flies. All the while, mother's familiar healed her continuously.

On the other hand, father used his flames to slash through the flies as they came, letting the group move in front of Nepheline. Shade helped him at the side, with his movements being incredibly fast. He was able to shower a fly with multiple attacks in a mere second. From the looks of it, he specialized in hitting a target multiple times in a short time. As for father, he was someone that was able to unleash a single and powerful blow.

All three of them complemented well with one another. Nepheline was particularly slower, though. The flies were faster than her, sadly. Although her hammer attack was able to kill them with two hits, the flies were fast enough to evade her most of the time. In response, she conjured boulders of earth and large blades made out of ore at times, which were faster and pierced the flies' eyes or wings, letting her catch them off-guard.

Her slow movements were easily complemented by her husband, Shade, who was faster and flashier. Because of that, she roared and used a special type of spell that provoked the flies to attack her and prioritize her over the others. My father, in the meantime, used his strong blows to finish off the larger and more annoying ones while the duo fought the others by themselves.

Like this, this wondrous battle continued, and with each fly that died, I received more and more shared EXP. I felt like I was cheating at this point.

Sadly, I cannot grow stronger out of it, but this energy will go to the System so she can repair her own errors. In any case, it's still a win-win situation.

I think Aquarina, who's pretty perceptive, noticed my presence at this moment and how I was getting EXP. In fact, she looked at me with surprise after she stopped feeling fearful.

CLASH! BOOM! CRASH!

As the battle continued, the last fly was defeated, and Beelzebub was the only one left…

"Kukuku… I've been waiting for this moment! Now come forth, the souls of my servants!"

FLAAASH!

Now what the hell is he doing?

-----