They all had a small heating lamp with them that would keep on functioning as long as they injected mana into it. It wasn't as favorable as a campfire since they had to constantly provide mana for it, but under their current circ.u.mstances, it was necessary.

"Hey..."

"Eh? Celes? Shouldn't you be asleep right now?" Matheus questioned when he saw the woman suddenly standing right behind him.

It was probably because he was so focused on looking out into the darkness to detect anything unusual that he didn't notice when Celestina had suddenly arrived right next to him.

She was currently wearing a shawl over herself and not her magic robe. Celestina smiled at Matheus and asked, "May I sit?"

"O-Of course...but Celes, shouldn't you go back to sleep?"

"Hmm...It's alright. I'm not that sleep just yet... so is it alright if I accompany you?"

"Uh, sure...if you want..."

Celestina smiled and sat herself down right next to Matheus and leaned on him. Matheus didn't feel too bothered at her intimate gesture. On their few days of travel, they had grown accustomed to being this close to each other.

A few hours into the night, Matheus was still looking around cautiously. Celestina had already fallen asleep on his lap but it was a good thing that nothing had happened as of yet. It wasn't until he suddenly saw a pair of red eyes in the darkness that he felt a chill run up his spine.

"Celes, wake up, wake up," Matheus said while slowly shaking Celestina awake.

She woke up and tiredly asked, "Hmmm? What is it, Matty?"

"Something is staring back at me in the dark..."

"Huh?"

"D-don't move... I don't think it's noticed that I already know. I only saw the eyes glaring at me for a brief moment. It's gone now. Get up slowly, and alert—"

Matheus immediately circulated his mana and grabbed a hold of Celestina while shouting, "Sir Oscar, Sir Don, it's here!!!"

After jumping away from his previous location, multiple black spears pierced into the back of the landwyrm. It woke up and roared out in pain.

"GROOOARR!!!"

The roar immediately awakened the other landwyrms and also the t.i.tanwyrm as well as the people sleeping on top of it.

Matheus landed on the t.i.tanwyrm and quickly let down Celestina before turning his attention back into the darkness. Celestina quickly conjured multiple fireb.a.l.l.s and flung them all around the area.

They landed on the spa.r.s.e shrubbery in the area and immediately lit up the night. Matheus couldn't help but frown when he saw the monsters that were attacking them.

"Gargoyles?" He muttered to himself

The monsters had dark gray skin that melted into the darkness behind them. They had red eyes and were using all sorts of weapons and the only thing that Matheus felt odd was that they were wearing uniform equipment on their bodies.

Matheus frowned when he felt the strong mana emitted from the monsters. He wasn't able to accurately gauge what mana cultivation stage they were at, but he felt that they were all at the peak mana vapor stage cultivation and above. There was one that was emitting a ridiculous amount of mana that caused his breath to stall.

This monster was set apart from the rest because it was wielding two large battle axes and was wearing a very magnificent set of armor. It also had a much burlier body and unlike the rest, this one had hair flowing down from its head.

It was then that Matheus finally noticed the glaring oddity that he felt from these so-called 'monsters', "C-Celes, monsters shouldn't have cultivation stages, right?"

"...Matty, these aren't monsters...they're demons..." Celestina solemnly said with a pale face as she stared at the multiple demons flying in the sky. There were 10 of them in total and they were hovering above their group menacingly.

When Matheus heard about the new term, he frowned and asked, "Demons?"

"I-I'm not sure if you've heard of this... but do you know about the Helaife continent?"

"Heliafe? Yes, I've read about it in some books. It's the continent on the opposite end of the world, right?"

"Y-yes...but that's only relative to the Non-Continent that's located in the middle of the world. The Helaife Continent is close to our Midgard continent. Except that we're separated by a large ocean."

"Okay, so... why are they here then?!"

"...Th-That's what I want to know... they're not even supposed to be here!"

"One of them has a ridiculous amount of mana...are you able to sense what stage he's at?" Matheus asked when he turned his gaze to the leader-like demon.

Celestina tried to gauge the demon's cultivation stage but she failed to do so with her high mana sea stage cultivation.

"I-I don't know...that means this one is either at the peak of mana sea or is already at the mana core stage!"

"Dammit... I heard that demons that are at the same cultivation level are 2-3 times stronger than any other species at the same level..." Matheus cursed but still raised his glaive.

"...Sir Oscar has a cultivation stage at the peak mana sea...if that one is really at the mana core then we're doomed..." Celestina said with a strained look. Nevertheless, she still circulated her mana and prepared to cast a spell if the demons decided to attack.

'Ah, c.r.a.p... if only I was stronger, dammit...'

Matheus inwardly cursed at himself. He could see the fear on Celestina's face. Even he was shaking a bit. It wasn't that he didn't want to feel fear, but the pressure he was feeling from the demons in the sky was too much for him to bear with his low cultivation stage.

Oscar and the other knights were already in formation and were guarding Cecilia and the others. Matheus and Celestina slowly made their way to them and once they were together, the leading demon in the sky finally opened his mouth.

"Hrmmm... you lowly humans... I'll ask this of you, where on Midgard is this?"

Oscar frowned and yelled back, "What do you want from us?"

"Tch, didn't I already ask? I want to know which part of Midgard this is!" The demon bellowed.

"...This is the neutral territory between the kingdoms of Regulus and Revertia! I ask again, what do you want and why did you attack us?"

The demon didn't answer Oscar and only turned to the other demons and began speaking in an unintelligible language. Matheus was surprised to hear the demon talking in the same language of them and he presumed that the language he was using to speak with the other demons was their mother tongue.

After a brief talk, the leading demon turned his attention back to the group and said, "It looks like we're in the right area. Let me ask... is there a Cecilia in this group?"

Oscar was momentarily surprised and was a little late in responding, but Matheus spoke up instead, "No, there's no such person in this group!"

The others turned to look at Matheus, especially Cecilia and her older sister. The demon turned to look at him and ask, "Is that so?"

"Yes, so it would be best if you left us alone! We don't have the one you're looking for!"

"Hmmm... what a pity, if she was indeed amongst you people, then we would have just asked for her and spared the others...but now that you've seen who we are, then we're going to have to exterminate you all. We don't want anyone to know about our existence until after we've acquired our target."

The leader waved his arm and the other demons shot downward and directed their weapons at the group while some of them sent magic spells their way. The spells were much different than the ones that Matheus was normally accustomed to seeing. There were no chants and the way the demons handled their spells was similar to how his people used their mana.

However, unlike the golden mana of his people, the demons were using dark-colored mana of different hues. One of them had sent a dark fireball straight at Celestina who in turn conjured a water barrier to defend against the attack before counterattacking with an ice lance.

The 4 people who were constantly under protection by the knights alongside Cecilia immediately stepped up and conjured a light barrier to defend against the demons' magic spells. Matheus was rather surprised that these people had a use other than needing protection.

Cecilia had also stepped forward to help while the knights began engaging in a melee with the demons that had flown down. Matheus rushed forward to attack one of the demons but his opponent only scoffed and began mocking him.

"Haha, what's a pup in the intermediate mana vapor stage doing here?!"

"..."

Matheus kept silent and continued attacking the demon with a seamless flow of slashes, stabs, and sweeps. He couldn't determine what cultivation stage the demon in front of him had, but judging by the amount of mana it had, Matheus deduced that it was only at the early mana sea stage.

After being the one under constant attack, the demon could no longer laugh at Matheus, "Heh, so this pup has a little s.p.u.n.k in hi—"

Matheus made a large sweep with his glaive and cut the demon short of his mocking remark. The demon backed away and was about to take flight but Matheus had flung his glaive at the demon as it was about to take off.

"!"

The demon widened its eyes and smacked the glaive away but immediately it felt its body being pulled back down onto the ground. Matheus had thrown his weapon at the demon but it was only as a distraction for him to quickly close in on the demon.

He had rushed right below it. He wanted to grab its leg or something but when he saw the dangling tail, he immediately tugged and pulled on it. He slammed the demon down onto the ground and began pummeling its face. He pulled out a dagger from his leg, quickly wrapped mana around it, and stabbed the demon in the forehead.

It was relatively easier for him to wrap mana around a smaller object than his large glaive so the dagger was able to pierce right into the demon's skull, swiftly ending its life.

His glaive had landed not too far away from him so when he noticed another demon rus.h.i.+ng at him, Matheus circulated his mana and jumped back towards his weapon. He quickly grabbed it and blocked the other demon's attack.

He felt himself being pushed back so he let his feet off the ground and kicked at the demon's abdomen while sending a punch towards its angered face. He flew back from the impact of the demon's rush but he rolled himself on the ground and stably got back to his feet.

The other demons immediately pulled back their attacks and eyed their fallen comrade. Not even 3 minutes had elapsed since the start of the battle but one of their own had already fallen. The most important thing was that their comrade had died at the hands of the person who they sensed had the lowest cultivation stage in the group of humans.

"You..." The demon's leader growled in anger.

"..." Matheus looked up at the leader and readied his glaive. Everyone from his group was honestly surprised that he was able to quickly fell a demon after only a brief exchange of blows but they now grew worried since it seemed that his actions had angered the demons' leader.

The large demon that was still floating in the sky slowly dropped down in front of Matheus while maintaining a menacing and angry glare at him.

"Human...you killed one of us. Despite having weak cultivation, you managed to kill... I acknowledge you as a warrior, but you've angered me...that one was my nephew..."

's.h.i.+t...' Matheus inwardly cursed. He felt that fighting the other mana sea stage demons was still manageable but this one was beyond him.

No amount of martial arts could transcend the large gulf between their cultivation stages. Matheus was feeling stifled under the large pressure the large demon was exuding.

"This one's name is Saravkibah...and yours, human?"

"...Matheus..."

"Well then, Matheus. Be honored that you will fall under my axe!"

The large demon brandished his two axes and rushed straight towards Matheus.