* Rylin Evaron POV *
The gateway burned red with crimson flames, a spiralling wound in space forged from the combined efforts of the entirety of the human kingdom's ancestors. This was one of, if not the greatest creation of mankind, since the human kingdom had banned most dimensional magic they could not progress in the magic of said dimension, hell was one of these dimensions.
But that wasn't going to stop humanity from not having a way to access these dimensions whenever they wanted to, and thus…this monstrosity was created.
It stood tall in the ruins of the cathedral where Elatina had first conducted her titan experiments, the stone itself was adorned with runes that were so ancient no one in the entire human kingdom knew anything about them.
Every possible reinforcements and preparations were made by the queen, everyone was ready and even the queen herself was here.
And with all possible preparations made, we stepped through the portal.
I was the first to vomit.
As soon as I stepped through the portal I knew many of us were going to die today. The heat wasn't the worst part. It was the way the air hummed, like it hated you. Like it knew your secrets and waited to whisper them into your ear when you blinked.
How Latina didn't go mad while being here was either a testament to her will or maybe she was just that naive, and through that naivety, found some way to force her mind into thinking she was better than this place and the demons that lived here.
My boots sank slightly into scorched ash. The sky above was terrifying to look at, everytime I did I could feel the almost palpable hate that emanated from whatever that eye was. It was to the point where some of our soldiers, the physical fighters specifically, were fainting.
'Maybe princess Latina died due to the environment?' I thought
Then my mind suddenly paused and realised that only the physical fighters were being affected by this. Even myself who cant compare to even the weakest soldier physically isn't as affected as some of our strongest soldiers.
We continued walking for about two hours until we stumbled upon something that caused everyone to instantly stop moving.
In front of us was a girl with a giant hole through her stomach, her organs were open to the world and dried blood was all around her.
Suddenly a chilly aura descended upon the entire army,everyone started unconsciously trembling without realising. Everyone looked to each other, wondering what was causing such an aura to overcome them.
But I knew better…
The queen…
She suddenly appeared near the corpse of the princess, falling to her knees
"Latina." She whispered, tears seemingly struggling to escape from her eyes
The general of the army, Kaela, slowly walked up to the queen and placed a hand on her shoulder. Her mouth opened to form words, trying to say something but nothing came out.
The queen silently picked up the corpse of the princess and brought it to her carriage, placing her body on the seat.
…
…
Night fell, or so we assumed, the sky darkened as if it had a day and night cycle. The heat seemed to come alive now and was even worse, we passed literal giant patches of rock that spewed out what looked like liquid fire.
I took another stamina pouch from my pouch, downing it in one go and started re-casting my mana shield spell. The literal dimension was draining my mana and made any spells I cast a little weaker.
The queen agreed we would only travel for 6 more hours since she had already found the princess since not everyone was the queen or the general. The rest of the army were getting tired and we haven't even seen a single demon.
Our army continued traveling for another four hours before we stumbled upon a site that caused everyone, myself included, to instantly go on guard.
There was what appeared to be a village made entirely out of wood, how demons of this layer built a village was beyond me and caused me to nearly have a panic attack. Infant demons were not supposed to be this smart…..
'Unless its a Lesser Demon.' I thought in horror
I quickly shook off my fear, remembering that the literal queen of the entirety of humanity was here, alongside the general. Those two should be able to put down a Lesser Demon along with us.
We silently advanced towards the village, seeing bones and blood towards the path of the village. Our army finally arrived to the entrance, already used to the blood and bones and so we ignored the two skulls impaled upon a spike.
Suddenly, a wet squishy sound started to echo inside of the village. Out of the corner of one the small houses in the village, a disgusting little demon emerged. It had no eyes, no hands or even feet and only supported its body with what I assumed were tentacles.
Even worse, where its face was at, there was just…teeth.
Safe to say, our army instantly unloaded on it, causing the creature to instantly lift two of its tentacles and form something that looked like a shield, a red shield to be exact.
The red shield absorbed all the army's attacks like it was nothing, causing me to wonder if this was the exact demon that killed princess Latina.
The demon suddenly lifted another of its tentacles, forming a red orb in its raised tentacle and then shooting it into the sky, causing it to explode after it flew about three meters.
"Mages!" I shouted, causing every mage in the army to instantly start casting an ice bolt. Since demons were naturally resistant to fire there was really no point in using fire magic against them.
We even have some priests with us to imbue our attacks with an energy that would do extra damage to creatures like demons.
'I need to prevent as much of our soldiers from dying.' I thought.
My right hand slowly moved across the air, in a circular motion. Eventually, lightning started to appear at my fingertips. I continued moving my hand in that same motion until the lightning crackling at my fingertips was now echoing across the battlefield.
The queen or the general had not yet joined the fight, or this demon would have most likely been dead and attacks from our regular soldiers were not really doing much due to the red shield it could create.
The lightning finally increased to the level I was used to and I had to stop and take deep breaths due to how difficult this was to control. At this point my lightning becomes as fast as pure lightning and carries the destructive properties of it too, and with the amount I was wielding I doubt this demon would survive it. If I could even get a full hit on a Lesser Demon, I might be able to seriously injure or maybe even kill one.
My heart hammered in my chest, knowing that each second we hesitated, there was a risk of the demon retaliating. So far it was just tanking the hits from our mages and not doing anything else.
Eventually, the build up of my lightning magic was becoming too much for me to handle now and I decided that now was the time to release it. I moved my right hand slowly, aiming at the demon that was just blocking, and unleashed the full fury of the most powerful attack in my arsenal.
The air crackled, and the ground trembled beneath my feet as my attack zoomed across the battlefield and the next thing I knew, the entire upper part of the demon was just….gone. There was no blood, no organs, it looked as if the lightning had just eviscerated everything it touched for the demon
I wasn't all that surprised though, I knew it would die if my attack hit. That ability that can even severely injure young dragons., it would be weird if an infant demon was able to tank it, powerful or not.
"Good, no casua-"
Before I could finish my sentence, a dreadful aura descended upon the entire army. Seemingly knowing what was going to happen the queen and the general huddled up together and ordered everyone else to back away and provide ranged support.
A powerful presence made itself known as the sound of footsteps echoed across the empty battlefield. The queen already had her staff out and the general was always battle ready.
The dreadful presence intensified as the form of the demon came into view, stepping out of the village. It was surprising not as tall as I had expected and….didnt have wings?
Then I realised
"M-My queen, it isn't a Lesser Demon. It's on the cusp of evolving…we can win!" I shouted excitedly
Hearing that the worried face of my queen instantly morphed into a savage grin, causing the general to do the same.
I felt a giant load magically disappear from my back as I realised….we might survive this.
That was until the demon suddenly smiled and caused a tentacle to slowly crawl out of its shadow, along with this his eyes which were already pitch black seemingly lost even more light and his entire body took on a darker hue.
My queen raised her staff and slammed it into the ground, instantly turning the entire area into ice. She didn't waste any time and instantly launched ice crystals that would have most likely instantly killed the the demon before.
Kaela followed up, charging at the demon and swinging her axe at him when in reach, it didn't seem to care that it was getting attacked by two powerful foes which worried me but that was most likely a demon's arrogance.
The demon's body bent backwards, dodging the general's axe swing. Its tentacle seemingly seeing an opportunity, instantly lashed out at Kaela nearly causing her to lose an arm as she had to back away quickly.
The demon did not let her rest however as the same dreadful aura came back again in full force, the demon threw out a punch that Kaela tried to parry but only caused her to let herself get open to an attack.
It tried to take advantage of Kaela's momentary weakness but a rain of ice lances prevented him from doing that.
Then the demon suddenly stopped, and that same dreadful feeling engulfed the entire battlefield again.