Now That He’s Gone (Part 1)

CHAPTER 7 Part 1: The Least I Can Do

--Aishita's POV—

The moon shined brighter on my eyes as the snow below our feet reflects the moonlight, the cold winter breeze ate away at my exposed skin forcing me to bury myself deeper inside my warm clothes. It was a peaceful winter night in our village, just us girls walking along the shoveled path of snow leading to Ophelia-sensei's home. The stars glitter in the night sky, sparkling in my eyes.

We arrived at our destination. Their home can be called modest, not so different from the hut near the marketplace. Wooden and old fashion. Snow decorated the front yard, shoveled away from the entrance door, medicinal herbs were cultivated at the base of their home, a variety of colorful flowers are neatly placed near the windows providing a gentle fragrance as the winter wind blew past. A cobblestone path leads to a tree that is planted on the right side of their house, creating a scenic view. It is a lovely home.

Magic candles provide light inside every house in the village, turning on as soon as Ophelia walks through the wooden door, lighting the place. Magic candles are commonly used for safe illumination, though they can be a little expensive, most are willing to buy these candles to avoid getting their houses burned, well it will cost more to rebuild than to just buy these magical candles.

***

We were about to say our goodbyes when a spell was sent our way. With demi-human enhanced senses, Ophelia noticed just in time informing Yuna of the danger that's to come. Ophelia grabbed Mary by the hand and Yuna grabs mine. Ophelia cast wind magic to quickly dodge away from the explosion, while Yuna used earth magic to launch both of us, getting both of us to safety.

BOOOM!!!!!

"KYAHHH!!"

The blast sent us several meters away from where we were.

[Ouch! My body hurts, it hurts so much… but I have to stand up… Quick!]

As I was trying to stand, a tall demon appeared in front of me, jet-black armor and sword occupied my vision, I scanned him and met his red glowing eyes, peering into mine. I froze in place, it was the first time I saw something so menacing, so terrifying. I wanted to flee, to get as far away as possible but my legs won't move, my heart racing as if I had run a mile.

It raised its sword about to cut me down, I could only flinch as Yuna and Ophelia-san came to my rescue, still calm even in this situation. Ophelia used water magic to send the demon away, but it didn't work. Realizing that her magic was ineffective, she cast Permafrost, a B rank area of effect spell that completely freezes an opponent.

In a matter of seconds, the surrounding area became even colder as an ice terrain formed beneath our feet, the Demon instantly frozen in place, Yuna followed up by covering her fist with earth magic and charging at the frozen demon.

The moment Yuna was close enough to strike, a fire attribute spell was sent her way. Before the explosion came in contact with her, she quickly covered her body completely with earth and stone. She blasted away from the explosion of the spell, parts of her earth armor were breaking off.

She was able to land on her feet, reducing the damage. Her armor now crumbling away, overwhelmed by the attack that was sent her way, burns were visible on both of her arms where the spell directly hit. Even though she's a B rank Earth Specialized Elementalist, she still couldn't rely on Mana Armor as Ophelia could.

I scanned our surroundings and saw 5 demons standing where the spell came from. 3 of them had a knight-like appearance just like the first demon, the remaining ones wore armored robes. One of the mages defrosted the frozen demon.

We were forced to make a run for it, knowing that we are outnumbered and outmatched. We discussed where to go while running from the barrage of spells that came from our backs, dodging and weaving through the chaos enveloping our village.

We ran south, towards a large lake, I wanted to go where Sura was, but Mary pointed out that Griffin is with him right now and reassured me that he can protect him better than anyone in Gadvell, the strongest man in our village.

I'm less experienced than my brother in terms of combat and my brother is weaker than Yuna, if Yuna and Ophelia can't beat a single demon, what chance do I have?

So I obeyed, staying with them was the smarter idea.

I began to realize that I had seen one of those demons before, they had black mist coming from them, I'm not sure, but they looked just like a Shadow summon from a manhwa my brother once showed me. I can't remember the name, it had "leveling" in it… I think.

We eventually lose the demons that were pursuing us. The lake is fairly far from Gadvell but reachable. Ophelia mentioned that it is safe from monsters for an unknown reason, monsters don't seem to wander in that area. Because of this, Ophelia suggested it to Mary while deciding where to hide.

"I don't know how many demons are there attacking the village, I estimated about 50 or so, however eventually more than 100 thousand demons will join them… I think. But this is just a village so maybe less. Still, I don't think we can fight them. All we can do to help is get out of the way, create and provide shelter to those who we come across, and let the guards handle things. I think I can handle a demon or two but more would be impossible."

Ophelia seems to know a lot about situations like this. But 100 thousand!? Isn't that too much? we hadn't done anything against them, so why?

[I hope Sura and Griffin are ok.]

Mary said, that after things have calmed down a bit we will go and look for Sura and Griffin as fast as possible and escape.

Just before we were out of the village, a winged demon showed up and created a huge explosion that blasted us so far, we landed on the lake itself.

***

I carefully exited the lake, soaking from head to toe, looking left and right for any signs of the demons before.

[It's quiet… it's kind of creepy how quiet it became]

I flinched from the splashes I heard from behind me, I quickly turn around and saw Mary trying to stop Ophelia from rushing back.

"THEY TOOK MY DAUGHTER! LET ME GO!"

"we can't fight them Ophelia-san! You'll get killed if you rush back!"

"DO YOU THINK I FUCKING CARE?! Let me save my daughter! I'm begging you!"

[what's going on?!]

I scanned searching for anything out of the ordinary

[Wait… Yuna's not with us?!]

"Aishita… help me… calm her down."

"what's going on?"

"The demons… ack… they took… Yuna away"

The usual calm demeanor of my teacher was now replaced by a panicking mother ready to march back to the village to save her adopted daughter. Tears ran down her cheeks, her body trembling while my heart ached.

"Sensei… she's going to be okay… what we need to do now is calm down and think. We can't fight those demons right now… please…"

I helped my mother with assisting Ophelia to reach the shore.

"There are still guards fighting over there… and there were a lot of demons over there, let's just hope for now that one of the guards save Yuna. Luke is still missing, there's still hope that he could save her," I said, hopeful that Yuna is safe.

"I… agree," she said reluctantly "but can we at least go to someone I know, they live inside the forest… with them, there might still be a chance we can save Yuna ourselves."

Mary agreed to her plea.

***

We walked silently inside the dark forest, soft crunches of snow overpowered the screams coming from our village, when a demon suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was far larger than the ones we encountered earlier, it gave a menacing look, it had a beast-like appearance, silently blocked our path.

Ophelia immediately began chanting a spell not wasting any time, however, before she could even finish, the beast demon was already in front of her, it swung its claws towards her. Ophelia blocked the attack with Water Mana Armor, a blue aura enveloped her body, protecting it from the claws of the beast. I used water magic hoping it would lessen the damage, but she still got injured, I tried to freeze our opponent, but it dodge away. The demon thrashed around and headed straight towards us.

All I could do was close my eyes.

…

"huh?"

I opened my eyes and was surprised that I'm alive.

I was startled to see the demon on the ground had 5 arrows on its head, bite marks visible throughout its body, it was dead. I continued to look around and saw a silhouette of a man who dropped down from a tree branch. He had this black leather armor from top to bottom, leather gloves, shoulder pads, a cape of fur, leather boots, a quiver full of arrows were on his back, in his left hand he held a wooden bow, he also had a sword attached on his left side and a cloth-covered the lower portion of his face. I think he was the one who took down the demon.

When he came close enough, two shadows swiftly came to his side and walked with him, the height of the pair barely reached the kneecap of the mysterious man, as they got closer, I started to recognize their form, wolves, Dire Wolves to be exact. These Dire Wolves seemed to be different as black mist surrounds them, similar to how those demons looked. 2 pairs of sharp blue eyes stared at me, they took a stance that indicated they were about to pounce, both barring their fangs at us, they're on guard ready to protect their master with their lives. I, myself couldn't move, terrified at what they're capable of.

[I hope he's the one we were looking for. ]

He slowly walked up to us and gestured to his familiars that we're non-hostile.

"what's happening?! Why are there demons here?!"

The man spoke to Ophelia, they seem to know each other.

[Is he the one we were looking for?]

"They took my daughter! Please help us get her back! PLEASE…"

Ophelia drops down to her knees, head on the ground.

"I'll go… it's the least I can do for an old teammate and my soon to be sister-in-law"

"THANK YOU… thank… you…"

I felt heartbroken as my teacher weep in tears, her head glued to the hard cold ground, thanking the man.