The path towards the entrance gates was long and filled with many creatures. Evlin in her current state was more than enough to deal with any possible threat of monsters that could try to attack her while still protecting Gustav.

"p.i.s.s OFF!!!"

The fact that she could not stop thinking about her sister alone inside a region filled with monsters was enough to flip her "compet.i.tive switch". She was using her magic and unnatural strength to eliminate all the monsters with as much speed as possible before any of them could even react.

"Evlin!! Slow down!!"

Piles of dead monster bodies would show up from anywhere she pa.s.sed by. Gustave was trying his best to keep up with her but Evlin was simply acting like a machine at this point. She would not stop running and attacking anything that appeared in front of her.

"I'm not going to leave Ashley enter that place alone!! Hurry up!!"

If the monsters were small she would simply attack them with her gauntlet and knock them against the wall of the mountain. For any larger threat she would use modeling magic to created ma.s.sive spikes of stone to pierce their bodies. One flying demon tried to attack her from above but she simply shot him at point-blank with raw magic.

"Would you all just get out of my way!!!???"

She was doing everything she could to avoid stop running for even a second.

"Evlin!! Stop!! Stop!!"

"What!!??"

Gustav finally managed to reach her and calm her down a bit. She was breathing heavily and couldn't stop shaking, and yet she still looked like she could run three marathons in a row.

"You can't use your magic like this!! We are too close to the gates, you will attract attention!!"

"But Ashley needs me!!"

"I know!! But that's no reason to start acting without thinking! Isn't that what she always tells us?"

"R- Right... You're right..."

"Look... We are almost at the gate."

"...!"

Evlin turned around and gazed upon the gigantic gate blocking their entrance. Two pillars connected by a bridge and under it an enormous door made of metal.

On top of each pillar, there was a serpent monster sleeping around it like a scarf on someone's neck and in front of the door, several horse monsters. Three centaurs, five pegasuses, and eight unicorns.

Among them, there was one monster who seemed to be some kind of mix of all three types of monsters combined. A man with a human body but horse legs on his lower half, a pair of wings coming out of his back like a pegasus and a ma.s.sive horn on its forehead like that of a unicorn.

The most impressive thing about this creature was its size. He was tall like a house and looked like it could lift one with one hand. He would have to since one of his hands was holding a ma.s.sive spear that was about as tall as he was.

Evlin couldn't recognize what kind of creature that was.

"What is that thing...?"

"A high-demon..."

"...?"

"He is the source of the small monsters we see around it. His children when they are born end up inheriting one of his features."

"So... He is the father of all the horse monsters...?"

"Indeed... Such an important creature... He must be the gatekeeper."

"Cool, wait in here while I go knock him out..."

"What??"

Gustav grabbed hold of Evlin and stopped her before she could proceed with her plan.

"Let me go!!! What are you doing??"

"We can't just attack him like this! We are trying to avoid attention remember??"

"But... My sister!!"

"Just relax... I'll call her out to check if she is safe."

"Ok... Thanks..."

"I just need to- Watch out!!!"

Gustav grabbed Evlin's head and they both ducked into the snow as a ma.s.sive spear went flying almost tearing their heads off.

Gustav looked behind him and stared at the spear that was now impaling the wall behind them.

"You two!! Who are you??"

Evlin was irritated by that line.

"Isn't that something you ask BEFORE attacking???"

The high-demon was talking to them. He was looking suspiciously at Gustav for some reason. Probably due to the fact that Gustav was wearing a disguise that made him look like a winged-centaur right now.

"I asked who you two are!! I never saw your faces before!"

[Gustav can I just attack him now...?]

[Wait... Maybe we can reason with him...]

"We came to warn you!!!"

"Warn us...?"

"There is a group of demon-slayers carrying silver metal approaching this area!! They almost killed us and we need to hide inside the kingdom!!"

"..."

[You think they will buy it...?]

[It's the only idea that I could think of...]

"Demon-slayers...? Coming here...?"

"Yes!! Please let us enter!!"

"You fools!!! You brought the demon-slayers to our home!!!"

"... Huh...?"

"You should just have let them kill you instead of revealing our location!!"

"Wait!! We just-"

"Kill them!! These fools brought the enemy to our gates!!"

"Ugh..."

[Well... You tried... Can I kick them now...?]

[Be my guest...]

Gustav finally released Evlin who was now wearing her golden form after combining with Sphinx, her pet griffin. She was covered from had to toe in golden fur and possessing two huge wings and one tail on her back.

Evlin stood up from the snow and prepared her wooden gauntlets fro battle. The group of horse monsters charged their attack towards her. Normally Evlin would feel conflicted about the idea of fighting animals, even monster animals, but her mind was focused on something else right now.

"Usually this is the part where I make fun of how I'm going to enjoy putting every single one of you down..."

She punched the wall of the mountain with her fist and several pillars of stone started to appear pus.h.i.+ng the monsters off the cliff.

"... But I'm kinda in a hurry right now..."

The high-demon stared at her with curiosity.

"You... You can use magic..."

"I can also sing, dance, and do party tricks, now GET LOST!!!"

She hit the ground with all her strength and a ma.s.sive rock spike emerged and moved to stab the high demon's body.

However, the spike was completely stopped before it reached him.

"Huh...!?"

The demon was staring at the spike that was a few inches away from his nose a poke it with his finger.

"... Was this... Was this supposed to harm me or something...?"

"...!!!???"

Evlin started to punch the ground again and again trying to release magic from her gauntlets, but nothing happened.

"I'm out of magic??? Now????"

Evlin stopped to think about it and realized that she had been using magic like a maniac for the whole day today. A few hours ago she used a lot of her power to change the appearance of all of her friends to make them look like monsters. Then she used even more power to make a bridge and help her and Gustav get across an absurdly large pit. And just a while ago, after hearing about Ashley's situation, she kept rampaging across the mountain's path killing everything she could meet eyes with.

She was honestly surprised she didn't run out of magic much before this point.

The demon was just looking at her wondering if she was going to do anything but he realized she was just a lost as him right now.

"... Anyway... Die!"

The demon started to rush towards her. His ma.s.sive size made the ground shake every time his legs would hit the terrain.

Evlin got out of the way before he could step on her but she realized he was going for a different target, his spear.

He grabbed his weapon off the wall and prepared to throw it at her again.

Evlin managed to dodge it in time but the moment the spear collided with the ground a huge shockwave was released and pushed her back.

The giant demon used this opportunity to pounce on her with his two front horse legs.

Evlin recovered herself and tried to leap away from his stomp, but the moment she did that the demon grabbed her with his ma.s.sive hands and started to squeeze her like a toy.

"I thought you were more powerful and would give me a nice challenge... But you are all bark and no bite..."

"Ughh!!!!"

Evlin couldn't react. She was focusing all her strength on using her arms to stop herself from being squashed.

Gustav tried to call the high-demons's attention.

"Stop!! We are not enemies!!"

"So...?"

"Huh...??"

"Who cares if we are not enemies...? A good fight is a good fight! And I want to see what else this little bird can offer!!"

"Stop!! Please!!"

"Come on bird!! You were doing some really interesting things a while ago... Show me what else you can do!! Show me your power!!"

"Ugh!!!"

Evlin couldn't even speak right now. She was too exhausted from using so much magic all day. The last time she felt like that was during her fight with the demon-slayers when she channeled all her magic in one giant attack. Right now, she had no more power to defeat this monster.

"Come on!!! Show me!!! You survived an attack from demon-slayers right?? You gotta have more fight than that!!"

"Ughhhhh!!!!!"

"I can give you a better fight..."

The demon, Evlin, and Gustav all turned their attention away as they heard a voice. They all turned their heads and spotted a green girl with vines on the place where hair would be and several leafs coming out of her clothes.

She was sitting on top of one of the pillars with a grin on her face and eyes filled with bloodl.u.s.t. Her left hand was a huge leaf-blade and was drenched with blood of the same color of the dead serpent monster that was just sleeping there a few minutes ago.

Evlin looked at the girl and tears came to her eyes.

"Ash...!?"

"Hey sis..."

Ashley dropped from the pillar and landed on the snow. She slowly approached the demon who still had Evlin in his hands and glared at him.

"Let... My sister... Go... Now!"

"Mmmm... A dryad... You friends with this little bird?"

"You have five seconds... Five..."

"Hahaha... Aren't you a c.o.c.ky one! Interesting!"

"Four..."

"Very well, let's see if you can give me a proper challenge!"

"Three..."

The demon placed Evlin in his left hand and reached to grab his spear on the snow.

"Two..."

"Get ready little dryad!! This is the power of a high-demon!!!"

The horse monster swung his spear to smash Ashley, but before he could, she simply waved her leaf-blade arm and slashed the spear in half.

"One..."

She then followed by turning her arm into several vines with spikes on its ends and stabbed the demon in several places until it fell on his knees.

"Guuhhagagag!!!!"

The demon lost all the strength on his body and finally released Evlin. She almost fell on the ground but Ashley managed to catch her with her vines.

The demon kept staring at Ashley with a body full of wounds all over it and release his last words.

"S- So... Strong..."

A slas.h.i.+ng sound could be heard as Ashley cut the demon's head off after turning her arm into a leaf-blade again. She simply stared at the head falling over like if it was a bag of trash.

"So weak..."

Evlin was so weak and tired right now that she could barely see what was going on. She could only hear the voice of her sister and a blurred image of her face covered in green.

"Ash..."

"It's ok Evie... I got you... I won't let anyone hurt you again..."

Evlin heard those words and finally fell into a deep sleep.

She then opened her eyes again and realized she was back at the white void.