It had been a few days since we left town, and we spent it walking through trees and more trees. If we were keeping proper pace, we’d soon be in a town called Schubertz. But there were no towns in sight, or even anything that’d make you think you were close to one.
I activated my detection magic, but I couldn’t pick up on any people, only a large number of monsters.
“Hmm... You think we’re going the wrong way?” Yui, who was leading the pack, stopped her feet and turned around to speak with Daggers.
“No, I don’t think so. Are you picking up on anyone, Lloyd?”
“Nope. Not at all,” I replied.
“Huh. We should still be on the right track, then.”
We just couldn’t understand why we hadn’t arrived in town yet. But just as we were racking our brains, a white fog suddenly descended on us. It gradually grew thicker, obscuring our vision.
“F-Fog?!”
“Huh? But Abel never mentioned any fog!”
Abel had warned there’d likely be some ferocious monsters, but he had picked a relatively safe route for Claira’s safety. Right now, she couldn’t use any magic at all, which meant her getting separated from us could be disastrous. Plus...
“It’s blocking my detection magic!”
“Huh?! You’ve gotta be kidding!”
“There’s mana in this fog. I can’t detect a thing!” They told me not to panic, but I couldn’t hide my nerves. I had never heard of mana-infused fog before, and the only thing I knew for certain was that it spread out for what seemed like forever.
“We’ll have a hard time outrunning this...”
“No way... Did we take a wrong turn after all?”
“No...”
It was starting to seem like the worst-case scenario was the most likely one. There was clearly something weird about this fog. From what I could tell, this didn’t seem like the climate for it, and I had a hard time thinking it was natural considering it was infused with mana anyway. This had to be man-made, which meant...
“Yui! Run!” I shouted.
“Wh-Why?!”
“This fog is almost certainly the demons’ doing!”
“Huh?!”
There was no knowing what they might do next, but if my predictions were right, this fog was covering the entire area around the capital. That meant there was a demon with incredibly high mana reserves, which was something I didn’t even want to think about.
“Hey! You said ‘run,’ but to where, exactly?” asked Yui.
Now that I had lost both my sense of direction and my detection magic, I didn’t have an answer to that. For a moment, I considered waiting for the fog to clear, but I doubted the demons would let us, as I had a hard time believing they’d create this fog without a plan.
However, that led to another possibility.
“Lloyd! You don’t think they’re waiting for us to move, do you?” asked Daggers.
“I’m not sure.” I couldn’t deny it. It was possible the demons were trying to lure us somewhere—very possible. “But if we don’t keep moving, monsters will find us first. A lot of them have sharp noses.”
“Then we’ve only got one choice...!”
We ran through the woods, trying to outpace the monsters as we cursed under our breaths. We made sure to keep Claira in the middle of the pack.
“Damn it! Why the hell are there so many damn monsters?!” shouted Cross.
“They’re probably confused too! It’s making them more active!” I shouted back.
“For real?!”
Cross continued to shoot down the monsters jumping at us, admirably using storage magic to summon arrows as he drew back his bowstring, which allowed him to fire them instantaneously and greatly reduce the time it took to make a single shot. I should have expected nothing less from an S-rank adventurer.
“Damn, this is no time to get impressed, is it?” I cast strength up and MP consumption down buffs to help us maneuver through the trees more easily.
“Damn! What do these demons want?!”
Currently, we only had our guts to guide us, but I still had no idea what the demons were after. Maybe they were trying to tire us out and wear down our MP? But they had to be doing just that to keep this fog up, and given how much land it covered, the cost couldn’t be anything to scoff at.
“Hmm?” I froze once I caught sight of something near my feet. “Wait, this is...!”
“What’s wrong, Lloyd?” Yui ran up to me.
“Take a look.”
“W-Wait a second...”
It looked like a plate covered in bloodstains. After taking another look, I realized there were more streaks of blood along the ground.
That led me to a single conclusion, and I wasn’t the only one—Yui had caught on too. That’s right, this had to be...
“It’s the remains of a town.” I didn’t even want to consider this possibility, but given its location, it was likely one we were meant to visit. I looked around as a terrible feeling consumed my chest.
“I can’t see a thing...” The fog was so thick, I could only see a few dozen centimeters ahead. I couldn’t check what I wanted to. Trying to be kind, Silica began to cast a wind spell to clear the fog. As soon as I noticed, I commanded her to stop. “Silica! Don’t cast any wind magic!”
“Huh?! But I already did!” She didn’t speak with her normal formalities, which was enough to let me know she was panicking. “I-Is that bad?”
“No, maybe I’m just overthinking this.”
Once the fog cleared, we’d be detectable. The demons would know exactly where we were. While Claira’s mana was currently blocked, there were still four S-rank adventurers gathered in one spot, and that signal would be extra obvious to anyone accustomed to using detection magic to sense mana. They might find us suspicious.
Plus, I had never detected any signals here, even before the fog had appeared. That could only mean one thing—there had been no survivors.
I gasped. “No way...”
Before us were the ruins—or really, complete decimation—of multiple buildings. There were holes in the ground that’d make anyone wonder what had happened here, and corpses were scattered across the dirt. They were already a few days old.
What lay before us was pure misery.
“H-How terrible...!”
“Did monsters do this?” asked Daggers.
“No,” I answered. It couldn’t have been monsters, as the wreckage was too excessive. Some of the bodies looked like they had been tortured, like someone had enjoyed killing them. It was a pointless massacre, and the carnage was completely one-sided. There were no signs the townspeople had fought back at all.
“It’s technically possible an intelligent monster could have done this, but—” Suddenly, I sensed something cutting through the fog and barreling toward us. It stomped the ground so loudly we could hear it, toppling trees as it approached with unbelievable speed.
“Something’s coming!” I quickly shared my intel, but that’s when an impact suddenly shook the air, clearing the fog and creating a dust cloud.
“To think I’d find you here,” came a man’s voice from behind the dust. “I wasn’t expecting that, but you saved me some effort.”
The dust fell to the ground, gradually revealing the man behind the voice. He had dark skin, shiny blond hair, and was easily over two meters tall. He had a large stature—the brawny warrior-type, from what I could tell. Plus, he had insane levels of mana. Just standing there was enough to overwhelm me. He was clearly on a whole other level than the demons I had fought before.
“Hah!” The giant demon snickered as soon as he noticed Claira, who was hiding beneath her hood. Then for some reason, he chanted, “Illusion!” and transformed into a beastman.
Claira’s eyes shot wide open in disbelief. “Y-You’re one of the Five Commanders!”
“Long time no see, Your Highness.”
The Five Commanders? I didn’t know much about them, but I was pretty sure they were supposed to be the strongest five men in the imperial army.
“Huh? The Five Commanders? You mean of the imperial army?”
“There’s no fricking way. This guy’s a demon, not a beastman like all of them are supposed to be.” Cross was right. I had heard the same when I was still with the Hero’s party. But given Claira’s reaction...
“That voice, those looks...! You really are...!”
“Yup. This is the real me. I’m Grist, one of the Four Fiends of the Demon King’s army. It’s a pleasure, Claira.”