CHAPTER ONE

 

“WATCH OUT!”

A massive ball of dark fire sunk into the stone streets, cratering the surface with a hundred, minute fissures. Black lightning exploded out an instant later, shredding the houses around it like they were made of paper. The shock wave crushed through the structures, turning what were once homes into pieces of meaningless rubble on the dusty ground.

Multiple piles of burning debris sat before me, and the flames consumed them whole.

I thrust my hand forward. “Vapireo Giola!”

A water twister surged out of the ground, picking up the loose debris and trapping it within its flow. I brought my arm down a second later, breaking the attack. The rubble fell back, no longer consumed by the dark fires.

A few pieces of stray debris came flying out of the twister, and crashed into what was left of the houses, breaking through their roofs and smashing through their walls. I winced at the sound of the collapsing houses.

“Great job, you idiot,” Nyx sighed, his snarky voice clear in my mind.

Well, I was trying to put out the fire okay?

“Yeah, and you managed to take out the few houses the attack didn’t.”

A sharp whistling entered the air and I glanced up. Another ball of dark fire came flying through the sky. Damn it. I shot forward toward it.

Suddenly, an elf jumped into the sky, and shot through the fire. The flaming ball of darkness shattered, exploding in the air, and dissipating in less than a second. A smoke cloud descended down to the ground, and spread around a ten-yard radius.

“Freya!” I rushed forward.

A young woman coughed as she emerged out of the smoke cloud, with her jet-black broadsword at her side. Her red-skinned body was bruised in multiple spots, and her tunic and pants were torn in a few places. The wind blew past her, and her black hair flowed along with it, with the sole silver streak reflecting the orange rays of the setting sun.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine, Zoran.” She glanced at the fallen homes around us, with her eyes of blood-red staring at them in utter disappointment. “That’s the fourth of those flame attacks they’ve launched at us,” she muttered. “And the fourth of those attacks we’ve been unable to contain.”

“I know.” I grit my teeth. “We’re going to have to launch an assault on them.”

“That is close to impossible. You and I are the only ones capable of handling the enemy right now.”

“Acnologia too.”

“Well, yeah, but he’s not here is he?” she said. “We’re the only ones who can take on the enemy right now. Everyone else is merely manpower at this point. We can depend on them to handle the village defense mechanisms and nothing else.”

I sighed. “Which is why I said we’d let them defend and attack the enemy ourselves.”

A battle cry came from one of the broken streets to the right, and two of my Knights ran out toward us. Behind them was a long line of enemy Knights—all of them clad in black armor and all of them charging in.

The men of the Dark Alliance.

A few more of my Knights ran out of an adjacent street, and more battle cries came out from behind them. My fists clenched. They’ve taken over that path as well.

I looked at Freya. “Can you block that street?”

She nodded. “Get this over with in five minutes,” she said. “And don’t hold back. The houses can be rebuilt if they’re broken. The land can’t be taken back if we lose it.”

I grinned. “I’m aware.”

The enemy rushed towards me. There were about a hundred Knights, and on a quick use of my Analyze skill I could tell that they were all around Level 300.

Easy pickings.

“Asgionis, Peliosia!” I yelled out, using my Chain Casting skill to render multiple spells at once. I buffed my agility twice, and now stood within a dark flame—the same shade as the fire that bombed the village.

I shot forward, and slid my weapon out. The blade of midnight black—Dawnbreaker—swung out as I brought it to my side, with a purple, glowing jewel studded where the sword met the hilt.

“You could just use one of your spells and finish this off you know,” Nyx said.

I gripped the sword hilt tight. “But this is more fun.”

The army of enemy Knights charged right up to me. And I returned the favor in kind. I hunched down, with my knees bent, and exhaled. One second I was fifty yards away, and the next I was right in the middle of their formation, with my blade half-sunk into the closest man.

I swirled around, swinging my sword with ease. The blade passed through metal and flesh, cutting into the enemy like they were butter on a hot day. Strikes came my way as well, but they didn’t bother me. Even the attacks that managed to get me didn’t do enough damage. My health regeneration recovered it all back in an instant.

This was a one-sided battle.

And everyone knew that.

Twenty seconds passed since my first strike and zero Knights stood on the street. Red and black coated the stone as the dead men laid collapsed on the surface, bloodied, and robbed of their breath.

 

DING!

 

Congratulations! You have defeated Dark Knight Squadron (Lv. 403)! Reward: Spear of the Dark Knight (x10). Reward: Sword of the Dark Knight. (x7). Reward: Staff of the Dark Mage (x10).

 

Wait, there were mages in that group? I blinked.

“I guess you just killed them off without noticing,” Nyx said. “How surprising.”

I rolled my eyes. Tone it down with the sarcasm, would you?

Screaming sounded from the street adjacent to me, and the sounds of clashing metal echoed from it a moment later. I rushed up to the houses separating us, and jumped onto the roof.

I looked ahead and then grinned. Freya is at it again.

The demon-elf surged through the streets, with her massive broadsword crushing into multiple Knights as she charged through their ranks. The Dark Knights all fell to the floor, some dead and other unconscious. Freya, however, was not as stubborn as I was. She was willing to use her spells as well.

With only twenty or so Knights left she put her hand into the air, and her lips moved. A twister of wind burst out from the center of the enemy ranks. It widened to occupy the streets, and collected every Knight standing and every Knight fallen.

She cut off the attack a second later, and the men rained from the skies, dropping to the floor with a characteristic thud of metal meeting stone.

Not a single one of them could have survived that. I gazed at the sea of still forms.

Nyx sighed. “Why can’t you be like her and actually use your powers in a battle like this?”

A high-pitched whistle sunk into the air. Two balls of dark flames flew through the sky, ready to crush into the buildings around me.

Not this time. I put my hand up toward it, focusing all of my energy into my palms and feeling the moisture around me. “Tritus Oceanus!” I yelled.

A massive blast of swirling water surged out of my hands. The attack struck into the balls of fire, but the projectiles moved through—slower now, but burning nonetheless.

“Zoran! Cut it off!” Freya yelled, and I immediately obliged, breaking the spell.

The flaming blobs dropped down onto us, but the elf intervened quickly, just as she had before. She jumped up, meeting the first one in the sky and sinking her broadsword right through it. The flaming ball exploded immediately, sending fire through the air. The second one came down fast, just as Freya dropped back to the floor.

And I took over from there.

I jumped up, before she could even flinch, and swung Dawnbreaker hard at the sphere of dark fire. The blade pierced through its rocky center and slashed it open. The thing exploded, and pushed me back as I returned to the ground. I slid as I hit the streets, and went ten yards before friction brought me to a stop.

I rubbed the dust off my cheek. “That’s two we took down.”

“Okay, you were right.” Freya walked up to me. “We need to take the fight to the enemy forces. We can’t be battling at our home base right now.”

I grinned. “Glad to have you on board with that idea.”

“Everyone is protected, right?”

I nodded. “They’re all taking shelter right now.”

We charged down the third street on our left, the one where the enemy forces were most concentrated. The street had many Dark Knights in it, with my own Knights pushing them back as best they could.

Two men stood at the front of the forces and held back the enemy, like a log of wood would an army of dogs.

“That analogy makes no sense,” Nyx said.

Shut up.

We shot to the exchange, and I gripped my sword, ready to attack.

“Raffiel. Oris,” I yelled. “Switch!”

The two Knights fell back, and the rest of their forces moved to the side as well. I shot through, with Freya behind me, and cut into the enemy. These ones were a little weaker than the previous set I’d faced, but I took just as long getting through them all. My sword whirled around the bodies, and red splashed everywhere.

When I was finally done, every single enemy body laid collapsed in their own pools of blood. I stared at the sharp shade. I didn’t feel any kind of pain while seeing a scene like this.

Why can’t I empathize anymore?

“Wow.” Oris gazed at the scene before him. “You really let them have it.”

“I need you and Raffiel to man one of the cannons,” I said. “Can you do that?”

The Knight stared at me, and then nodded. “Are you taking on the enemy forces?”

“Yeah.”

“Zoran, time is running out,” Freya said. “The next wave of Knights will come soon.”

“Got it.” I jumped onto the rooftops, and ran to the edge of the village. The closer I got, the farther past the border I saw, and the more uneasy I turned. I’d had a little fun battling the enemy, but knowing how big the enemy forces actually were was nothing short of alarming.

Five thousand men stood beyond the village, keeping a good two-hundred-yard distance with its border. The enemy Knights were all filed into neat ranks, and there were all sorts of warriors in there – swordsmen, archers, mages and more.

Why are you people attacking us? My fists clenched.

Words echoed into the air and a large circle of black runes emerged, hovering above the center of the ranks. Twenty mages stood underneath it, chanting profusely as the circle turned brighter.

My shoulders tightened. A mass spell.

A flaming ball of darkness, just like the ones I’d seen before, surged out of the circle, and headed right for the village.

So that’s how they’ve been doing that. I tracked the projectile’s path with my eyes. Damn it, it’s going to fly over me. I took a step back.

A form whooshed past mine. “I got it.” Freya called out from behind.

I planted myself at the edge of the village, atop the roofs, and closed my eyes. I concentrated on my surroundings, feeling everything around me. I could visualize the enemy ahead in vivid detail. I quickly focused on their ranks, and noticed the stronger Knights that stood at strategic points within the formation.

I smiled, my eyes still closed, and focused hard, summoning my inner energy to my mind. I imagined it spread out, like a wave of water within a clear summer pond.

An explosion sounded above me. Freya had taken out the flaming ball. Hot winds swirled around for an instant, and disappeared in a heartbeat. My eyes opened, and I held my hand in the air, pointed at the enemy.

“Au Ferah!” I yelled.

My voice boomed, and a characteristic bell sound echoed a second later, out of nowhere. Silence rang through for a moment, and then the Knights quickly turned on each other. Battle cries were yelled out as two hundred of them went against the rest of their forces.

 

DING!

 

Congratulations! Your Mind Arts spell ‘Au Ferah: Mask Hypnosis’ has increased to Level 2! You will now be able to influence 250 beings at a max of Lv. 400. If you try to take control of enemies at a level higher than this, then the total number of enemies you can influence will fall.

 

DING

 

Congratulations! Your skill—Mind Arts—has increased to Level 4! You now have greater control over your mind waves, and know of better ways to use them. Mana regeneration increased by +3%. Intelligence increased by +5%. Wisdom increased by +6%.

 

I closed the screen and looked ahead of me, at the collapsing formation. If it was a fight of two hundred versus four thousand eight hundred, then it would be a pretty one-sided fight in favor of the large side. However, that was not the case. I’d focused and picked out the stronger ones in the bunch, each of them around Level 390ish.

Sure, there were Knights stronger than that as well, but it was clear to me that summoning more Knights was favored over summoning marginally stronger ones. Numbers always had the advantage.

The enemy Knights quickly dropped, falling prey to their own men. Most of the two hundred I’d taken control off had also quickly died off, but a good thirty of them remained, and still stood strong, taking down as many of the enemy men as they could before they fell. All in all, I’d managed to get rid of a thousand enemy Knights, and considering those numbers were a fifth of their forces, that had worked out pretty well.

I smiled. That was kind of an Evil Overlord move to pull, wasn’t it?

“Glad you’re actually realizing that now.”

I rolled my eyes. Thanks for the consolation.

“Fire away!” A voice yelled from behind me.

Oris was seated on a tower cannon protruding out of a rooftop. A massive boulder surged out of the canon mouth just as I turned to him. The projectile shot through the air and crashed into the enemy forces, rolling through bodies before coming to a stop.

Mechanical noises sounded at the edge of the village. More cannons made their way up from the rooftops, and now about ten of them stood right within the boundary, each manned by a Knight from my forces.

I grinned. That village upgrade was totally worth it.

“One more time. Fire!” Oris yelled, and everyone else followed his lead. A plethora of boulders blasted into the sky, and crashed through the enemy forces like before. More Knights went down this time, falling to the brute strength of the attacks.

The boulders, though, didn’t do as much damage to the enemy as my Mind Arts skill had done. I’d say about another five hundred or six hundred men had gone down, but definitely no more than that.

So we still had three thousand people to deal with.

And that was a lot of people.

The enemy ranks were coming towards the village now. Ugh. I thought we’d be able to get rid of them before this happened.

“I was worried about this.” Freya stood beside me.

“I know.”

“What do we do?”

“I’m casting a spell,” I said. “Stand back.”

Her eyes narrowed, but she stepped back anyway. The Knights jumped off their cannons and stepped back, as if even they had realized it was time to go.

“You’ve got the stage, Diablo,” Nyx chuckled.

I grinned. Let’s do this.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. There were a good thirty seconds left before the enemy made it all the way into the village, and I only needed half of that time.

I lifted my hand into the air, and counted down in my mind as I built up my concentration.

My eyes shot open. “Qeteria!” I yelled.

The ground between the forces shook, and the tremors turned into an earthquake in a mere instance. The men collapsed to the floor, and their formations fell apart.

However, the worst was yet to come.

The ground opened, with a large fissure tearing through the ground. Flames of red fire burned within, and rose into the air, enticing death to anyone that touched them.

The enemy men spilled over as the tremors pushed them down, and fell into the flames. Screams echoed through the air as man after man sunk into my fiery trap, burning to ashes before their yells even finished echoing through the air.

“You’re definitely doing justice to this Evil Overlord image of yours,” Nyx said.

I rolled my eyes. Really? I’m just getting the job done.

A wave of pressure passed across me, and I froze. My eyes darted to the sky. What was that?

Dark clouds collected over the enemy, and swirled in an odd pattern, like a spiral, but a chaotic one.

I frowned. A Weather Spell?

A bolt of black lightning struck down, and right into the fissure I’d made. The flames within the crevice all turned black, and rose high into the air, spilling onto the ground. A screeching noise sounded and the fissure closed itself, long before it was supposed to, and long before I had wanted.

“What the hell?” I whispered.

“Well, well,” a voice chuckled.

A bolt of lightning struck again, right in front of the entire enemy force, and a black flame emerged from the impact point, rising high into the air. It molded itself, and slowly formed a humanoid shape.

“Hello, Diablo,” he laughed.

“You.” My voice shook, and I stepped back. “You’re not supposed to be here. How…”

“It’s wonderful to see you too. Did you miss me?”

Panic flowed through me as my mind processed what I was seeing. This wasn’t just any annoying flame of darkness. It was the most annoying flame of darkness.

The Dark Lord had returned.

 

***