[ ~ Chapter • Start ~ ]

In the far west, outside the Lands of Darkness, John Mandeville had wandered inside his castle, living comfily as he wandered around the all too familiar castle in this town of 6 thousand.

He, and his family were one of the most richest families in the Seven United Fortresses of Eostia, after all, and he was very, very close to passing his title to his son, born of him and a noble woman half his age of 82.

It was pretty clear that in years, he would eventually die naturally, so he had his biological son diligently finish his education.

Holding his crutch with the intent of walking towards the dungeon he hid from public eyes, he smirked with interest.

"Hoho... it does seem like I have gotten a newer toy, fufufu..." John muttered evilly, but before he could lead himself to his dungeons, a loud explosion appeared from somewhere in his town. "What was that?!"

He glanced at a window nearby him, and to his dissatisfaction, it seemed like an invasion from monsters have begun.

"An attack from Olga's forces, right at this very moment?! Tsk, not my problem, at least the forces now were just little." Sir John muttered under his breath, before he proceeded with his business.

[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]

Meanwhile, in the north of Sir Mandeville's town, several Orcs charged forwards through the walls that were broken by Jonathan, who currently was in a deep violet cloak that covered his whole body.

Right now, he is enshrouded in mystery, as nobody was able to see behind the cloak.Which obviously was good for him since he intended to keep his full identity a secret while pillaging the town and destroying most of it.

At least, for a very long while nobody would be able to notice him due to the chaos his troops had caused.

He proceeded to do a long jog forwards, blending around his troops and sneaking deeper in the town.

His imps were doing a great job stealing away materials, ingredients and even food while the Orcs skillfully murdered those who opposed them, and even those "innocent" people who were just in their way in cold blood.

Minotaurs recklessly charged through many buildings as instructed, killing anybody who crashed into it.

It did look like the humans were utterly flabbergasted, as they were in disbelief of the sudden attack that his forces made.

Once he was close enough to several knights, he manifested two daggers of pure psychic energy the moment he hear their last conversation.

"Lady Celestine help us... these monsters have suddenly become stronger and smarter than the usual!" One of the knights yelled out before she knelt down to a prayer.

"That Dark Queen has begun her attacks again, huh?! Damn whore..." Another knight muttered, holding his sword tightly.

The other knights had their comments, as they were becoming prepared to fight back, before a knight spoke these:

"Yeah, many different borders were also getting attacked by similar monsters, but not at this scale. Were they planning for a diversion?"

But before they could proceed with this last conversation further, two of the knights suddenly dropped to the ground, with two glowing daggers dug deep into their heads.

Now alert, the knights immediately turned to the direction where the daggers came, and they saw Jonathan shrouded in his robe.

They immediately thought of him as the one who led thus attack, and without questioning him, they charged towards him in superhuman speeds.

" [Holy Blessing] !" The female knight yelled, engulfing her allies in a soft radiance that temporarily increased their combat ability, before holding her spear and charging with them.

Soon enough, Jonathan took on a stance and covered his fists and feet with Psychic Energy, before he ran towards the knights and skillfully turned his body to the side to feint before retaliating with a powerful knee to the gut.

He saw the other knights fight him to their best, but their moves were barely easily readable.

But the moment the knights cleared out to let the female knight attack him, he was... completely shocked, allowing her to give him a clean vertical cut on his chest before sending him backwards with a kick on his wound.

The moment he crashed into a building, the knights began to cheer loudly in victory, but some of them still know he wasn't defeated right there and then.

"Taste the might of one of the elites of the Seven Fortresses' Templar Knights!" The female knight yelled, twirling her spear around a few times and slamming the tip of it to the ground, rousing the courage of her fellow knights.

She almost wanted to turn her back from Jonathan, but he just walked out of the building, with his cloak being damaged and a few droplets of blood falling to the ground.

"Damn... I was very surprised back there..." He spoke, staring at the woman who had wounded him just before giving a sharp criticism "... Honestly speaking, your armor looks like it tried a little too hard in the fanservice aspect, and the designer of that armor cared about pure mobility, but come on, that looks like a shabby prototype of a much better armor."

However, that criticism was seen mostly as an insult as the female knight recoiled in anger.

"And who even are you?!"

"Me? I'm Olga Discordia's right hand man, known better as my nickname, Dark Raven. And I'm here to give you a message, along with the destruction of most of this town while most materials here are plundered by me and my forces. Anyway, I have my question."

A wide, knowing smirk was given to the knights, as a part of his deeply tanned skin and several strands of gold-lile hair had been exposed to the group.

Which sometimes might surprise them, if he only had his entire head uncovered.

But even with a minor inconvenience on his part, he decided to pull his hood back down, before shooting his question.

"Are you just going to stay idle here, engaging in a conversation you shouldn't have had?" Was his question, laced with light sarcasm as he used his Psychic Energy to mend the wound he had. "Urgh! Mending my wound manually is much more painful than back then!"

The knights, having recently ignored what he said recently except his question, looked everywhere else, and their hopelessness began to settle.

Many buildings have already been destroyed and some were even set on fire. The roars of the monsters combined with the desperate screams of the humans trying to defend the town or even desperately trying to flee the town.

None were spared, except those lucky thousand that escaped.

"No, no... no way... bastard..." The female knight muttered, as she tightly held onto her spear and was about to lash out.

"Lady Celestine... please be my guiding light! Smite my enemy, make him repent! Let him know--" Her lashing out is just her frantically trying to cast a spell, yet with expertise and skill, Jonathan jumped forwards at speeds that were barely even seen by them.

"I suppose your lame chanting is enough!"

Not just that, it seemed as if he had gained wings of both black and purple, even for a mere moment.

And with a quick cut from an energy dagger, he cut open the throat of the Female Knight, before relentlessly hitting her legs and stabbing her stomach a few times.

"Ah, and your armor is brittle. Surely the designer and makers of your armor use rather weak metals." He commented just before slamming her head to the ground coldly. "And sorry lads, a job is a job. Blame me as much as you like."

And to finish one of his current jobs, he proceeded to kill off the knights without much problems due to their damaged morale.

Once he was done, he stared at the the small castle on the distance, nodding his head.

While his forces do whatever they were instructed, his major goal right now was simply to recover a Dark Elf who was possibly sold off to John Mandeville. There will also be people who were possibly sold to that person, though.

But now, sprinting towards the place, he focused on infiltrating the castle to ensure a low profile status while letting his troops run amok before they could charge to the castle.

First was simply busting through fortified windows, them blending in with the shadows and swiftly exploring the interiors, until he entered a room where several artifact looking items and other things were placed around it.

"Huh, these masks look unique." He commented, glancing at the masks that were placed on the walls, and as if admiring them, he spent as little time as possible finding a mask suitable for him.

Until he took a small violet mask that looked like the skull of a raven, adorned with gold markings around it.

"So he's a collector... Hopefully he just doesn't mind letting me take this mask, since he will die soon." He muttered, chuckling at the end of his sentence since he actually made a dark joke. "Dark Jokes aside, I need to move."

After taking the mask off the wall, he took on the short effort to inspect the item, before gaining a long frown.

"Tsk, this mask is cursed, better have Olga remove the curses before I could wear this..." With a distant mutter, he put aside the mask inside his cloak and proceeded deeper into the hallways.

And to prevent himself from getting lost, he sent pulses of Psychic Energy to the ground, before eventually entering a room with a long set of stairs that go down to the cold basement.

So he wonders, what would happen there? Who would be meet, aside from the dark elf child and John Mandeville?

[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]