Checking the time, Lena realized it was almost time for Alisa’s birthday party. She rose, preparing to take Celia and the others out to buy gifts, when a thunderous boom suddenly echoed, and the ground began to tremble violently.
“What was that?”
“An earthquake?”
Lena, losing her balance, steadied herself against the handrails. Within the opera house, many lingering audience members stumbled and fell to the ground, their faces etched with alarm, unsure of what had just occurred.
Just then, two figures burst through the opera house exit, frantically waving their hands at the audience inside. “Run!” they screamed. “Monsters have appeared in the city again!”
“What?”
“Monsters?!”
The Demon Scorpion’s attack from a few months prior was still fresh in their memories. Its terrifying destructive power and oppressive aura were enough to haunt their nights with nightmares.
Hearing of monsters appearing once more, they instantly descended into chaos, screaming as they surged towards the opera house exit.
In their desperate scramble, the pace of their escape from the opera house ironically slowed.
Celia and her two companions exchanged glances, a silent understanding passing between them.
“Lena, you should go with them to the shelter and stay safe,” Celia urged, gently nudging Lena. “Don’t wander around the city.”
As she spoke, a flash of light emanated from her hand, materializing into a longsword.
“And what about you?” Lena asked, her voice laced with concern as she grasped Celia’s wrist.
“Of course, we’re going to deal with the monsters! We’re aspiring heroes, after all!”
Isha, too, drew her twin-wielded ring blades. The weapons seemed to possess a strange sentience, shimmering with an eerie, faint glow.
“But you’re still injured…”
“Oh, don’t worry, Lena! These monsters are a piece of cake for us. This is the perfect chance to show you what we can do!”
Patting her rather modest chest, Isha’s lips curled into a mischievous grin. “Don’t treat us like children anymore,” she teased. “Now, I could pin you to the ground with just one hand!”
Hearing her words, Lena didn’t argue. Instead, she released Celia’s wrist, placing a hand over her own chest as she earnestly warned, “Then you absolutely must be careful.”
“We will.”
Nodding, Celia channeled her magic to forcefully part the panicked crowd, with Isha and Aurora following closely behind her.
Upon recognizing them as heroes, the frantic crowd instantly felt a surge of relief, and their rush towards the opera house exit involuntarily slowed.
As soon as they exited the opera house, Celia felt cold raindrops on her cheek. She looked up at the sky, observing how the day had begun to darken, with clouds obscuring the stars in the night sky.
It was a light rain, cool and refreshing against her exposed skin, easily calming her nerves.
Just as it had been months ago when the Demon Scorpion appeared, Celia, soaring through the air, witnessed mirror-like spatial rifts tearing open. From within these fissures, monsters exuding a chaotic magical aura began to emerge.
While the monsters this time were nowhere near the size of the Demon Scorpion, the sheer number of spatial rifts far surpassed that of the previous incident.
With a quick scan, Celia spotted no fewer than five spatial rifts.
This implied that at least five monsters were attacking the city.
“There’s a monster heading towards the theater, and it’s moving quickly,” Aurora stated, her gaze fixed on the distant horizon.
Even with the interference of the encroaching night, she seemed to discern the scene with remarkable clarity.
A moment later, she added, “It’s an unfamiliar Tier 3 monster, very strange-looking. It doesn’t seem like the kind found in the Silent Forest.”
An unfamiliar monster meant a lack of information—no known weaknesses or attack patterns. For their Tier 2 squad, this was undoubtedly a formidable challenge.
Their ability to swiftly defeat Tier 3 monsters in the Silent Forest relied entirely on the monster knowledge imparted by Silverbloom Sword Princess. However, facing a Tier 3 monster about which they knew nothing, victory was far from guaranteed.
Glancing at the panicking crowd still fleeing before the opera house, Celia drew her longsword. “We cannot let it get close to the theater,” she stated coldly.
Lena was still inside the opera house. Should a Tier 3 monster attack, her life could be in grave danger.
No matter what, they had to ensure Lena’s safety!
With their decision made, they soared towards the Tier 3 monster.
****
In the night, streetlights flickered erratically, casting intermittent illumination upon the frantically fleeing crowds below. The cries of children and the screams of adults filled the air ceaselessly.
“Everyone, quickly take shelter in the beast tide refuge!” Celia called out loudly.
Below, people looked up, and upon seeing the heroes in the sky, their faces lit up with joyous surprise.
“It’s the heroes!”
“We’re saved!”
“Heroes, you must teach these damned monsters a harsh lesson!”
The appearance of the heroes dispelled the despair in their hearts, and their frantic movements gradually became more composed.
The rain intensified, yet the cries of infants grew much fainter. Beneath the dim streetlights, people leaned on one another, fleeing towards the beast tide refuge. Even if someone stumbled and fell, they were quickly helped back up by those behind them.
Witnessing this scene, Celia suddenly began to grasp the true meaning of a hero, as Silverbloom Sword Princess had once described.
Clenching the hilt of her sword, her resolve in her chosen path grew even stronger.
Rain and fog blurred her vision, but at the far end of the street, a shadowy figure began to materialize like a phantom.
Yellow lamplight illuminated its form, stretching its shadow long and distorted. At that moment, only the sound of falling raindrops broke the eerie silence on the street, making Celia inexplicably nervous.
Only after it had glided forward like a specter for a short distance did Celia finally get a clear look at its form.
It was a humanoid creature, roughly three meters tall. Its face lacked a nose, its eyes were deeply sunken into its skull, and its upper and lower lips were fused together. Its palms and soles seemed to be ethereal, almost impossible to discern clearly.
From its back sprouted a single, enormous bat-like wing, while the other side remained eerily empty.
Noticing the figures blocking its path, it slowly halted its advance, standing dejectedly in place and exuding a strange, decaying aura.
Celia and her companions had never encountered a monster like this before. They knew absolutely nothing about it; it hadn’t even been covered in Silverbloom Sword Princess’s theoretical lessons.
Nevertheless, Celia raised her longsword, imbuing it with golden flames.
“You won’t take another step forward, no matter what.”
****
Meanwhile, after Celia and the others departed, Lena followed the flow of people out of the opera house.
The rain persisted. She moved away from the main crowd, out of sight, and took refuge beneath a roof overhang.
Her red eyes shifted to a luminous gold. Donning a black robe, she stepped out into the rain.
With her Tier 7 magical perception, she knew that the monsters appearing this time were only Tier 3. Relying on the city’s heroes to resolve this crisis wouldn’t be difficult.
However…
She turned her head towards Celia’s direction, her gaze seeming to pierce through countless walls to fall upon the Tier 3 humanoid creature before them.
Celia might not recognize it, but she did.
It was neither a demonkin nor a mere monster, but a legendary demon.