The group observed the village of Lapithathon from a safe distance.
A wall. Solid. Imposing. Completely surrounding the village.
Two guards were posted at each entrance.
"It's well protected," Lena murmured, hiding behind a bush.
Hiro held the hunter's axe in his hands. He had finally accepted it.
A weapon is still a weapon, he had thought.
"Look," Lucia said, pointing.
Someone was approaching the village.
A man. Black hair falling to his shoulders. Adventurer's clothing. Quality gear.
The two guards at the entrance were talking amongst themselves.
"I can't take it anymore," sighed one of them. "Nothing ever happens here."
"I know," replied the other, yawning. "It's so..."
He stopped short.
The adventurer was approaching.
The two guards immediately straightened up, hands on their weapons.
The group was too far away to hear the conversation.
"Why is an adventurer there?" asked Cassian.
"Is he here for the quest too?" added Lena.
"I thought we were the only ones who took it," said Cassian.
Lucia shook her head. "We did take the quest at the guild. But usually, a quest can be posted in multiple guild branches."
"Multiple branches?"
"Yes." Lucia nodded. "We took the quest in Leefside, but someone else could take it in another town where the guild is located. In those cases, the first to complete the quest gets the reward."
"That's poorly designed," said Cassian.
"Information doesn't travel fast enough," Lucia explained. "The distances are too great. Means of communication are limited. Sometimes, a quest stays active for weeks in multiple towns before it's completed somewhere."
She continued explaining the technical details of the guild system.
"The adventurer probably didn't meet the hunter on the way," Hiro interrupted. "So he's likely unaware of Lapithathon's situation."
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"This is an opportunity to truly confirm their hostility."
---
The adventurer was talking with the guards.
"I request entry into the village," he said politely.
The two guards looked at each other.
"We've never seen you before," said one of them, suspicious.
"We need to check your identity," said the other guard.
"Of course." The adventurer took out his adventurer's plate. "I come from the adventurers' guild. The guild is worried about your village. You haven't given any news for years."
The guards didn't know the guild.
But they were sure of one thing.
This guy wasn't from the village.
He was a demon.
"This demon really has the nerve to approach so close to Lapithathon," murmured the first guard.
"If we eliminate him," whispered the second with a smile, "we'll surely be promoted to a very high position."
The adventurer frowned. "What? I didn't hear what you..."
WHAM.
A spear thrust aimed at his head.
The adventurer dodged by stepping back sharply, his eyes wide.
"Explain yourself?!"
"DEMON!" yelled the first guard.
"DIE!" cried the second.
The adventurer kept retreating, dodging the blows.
Why am I being attacked?!
He thought quickly.
This place is clearly not a normal village.
He looked at the wall.
Something shady is going on inside.
It might not even be a village anymore.
None of the villages he had visited in the past were this well-guarded.
He began to imagine.
Behind this wall is a complete criminal organization using an entire village as a base while pretending it's a normal village.
He smiled internally.
I'm so smart for figuring it out so fast.
Besides, the guards. They're wearing strange robes.
Probably the criminal organization's uniform.
The guards kept attacking, but they couldn't hit him.
"On top of that, this demon is strong!" exclaimed one of them.
"The reward for his death will be very generous!" added the other.
"STOP ATTACKING ME!" shouted the adventurer.
The guards stopped.
Then burst out laughing.
"The demon is still trying to pass himself off as human!"
"He hasn't realized he's already been found out!"
The adventurer drew his sword.
The blade shone with an intense orange glow. Like steel heated to a high temperature. It gave off a suffocating heat.
It was like opening a lit furnace.
"HE'S FINALLY STOPPED PRETENDING TO BE HUMAN!" cried one guard.
"HE'S FINALLY REVEALING HIS TRUE FACE!"
The adventurer had lost patience.
He murmured something. So low the guards couldn't hear him.
"What?" said one of them. "Repeat that, demon!"
BOOM.
Two columns of lava erupted from the ground.
They engulfed the two guards in less than a second.
Their screams were drowned out by the roar of the magma.
When the columns disappeared, only ashes remained.
The people in the village saw the lava columns at the entrance.
The alarm sounded.
DONG. DONG. DONG.
---
"That adventurer is extreme," murmured Hiro.
But an idea sprouted in his mind.
"Girls," he said quickly. "We have to stop him."
"What?" Cassian looked at him. "Why?"
"The only enemy is Haloy," Hiro said seriously. "Not the villagers. They're just being manipulated."
He stood up.
"We need to save them."
---
The adventurer ran into the village.
Guards rushed at him.
SLASH. SLASH. SLASH.
He killed them with sword blows. Without hesitation. Without mercy.
The group took advantage of the chaos to enter the village.
"We can't get close to the adventurer," Lena said, observing the scene. "There are too many guards on him."
"We'll see later," Hiro replied. "For now, we need to focus on finding Haloy."
Internally, he was thanking the adventurer for drawing attention.
They kept running.
Then stopped abruptly.
A crowd. Large. Dense. Completely blocking the street.
About a hundred meters away, the guards were fighting the adventurer.
But the people here didn't seem to care.
They were listening to someone at the front.
A man on a small platform. Dressed in a golden robe.
"Haloy is the strongest of all!" he was shouting passionately.
The crowd applauded.
"He traveled outside! He faced thousands of demons! Entire hordes!"
"GLORY TO HALOY!" yelled the crowd.
"He cut down armies! Saved worlds! But even he, the greatest, had to come to Lapithathon to rest and heal from his war wounds!"
The crowd was in a frenzy.
Cassian listened, incredulous.
Haloy went all out, she thought. He straight-up invented feats that everyone here gulps down like water every day.
She didn't know if she should be impressed or horrified.
Hiro approached a villager.
"Why is no one worried?" he asked, pointing towards the fighting in the distance.
The villager looked at him as if he were stupid.
"There's no reason to worry," he said confidently. "The nine Archons will quickly kill the demon who got inside."
"The nine Archons?"
"The ultimate elite of Lapithathon." The villager puffed out his chest proudly. "They're invincible. There's really no reason to..."
He stopped.
He had just noticed Hiro's equipment. Lena's. Lucia's.
Nobody dressed like that here.
Then he looked at Cassian.
Her ears.
Pointy.
The villager frowned.
"You are..."
CRASH.
Something crashed to the ground in the middle of the crowd.
People screamed, jumping back.
A body.
A man wearing a white robe stained with blood.
An Archon.
Badly wounded. Barely breathing.
No one spoke.
Everyone was speechless.
One of the nine Archons. The ultimate elite.
Lay there. Defeated.
The silence was deafening.
Then someone screamed.
"ARCHON DARIAN!"
"HE'S WOUNDED!"
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!"
Panic began to spread.
