It took a couple of minutes until I was healed enough to satisfy Lillia. By the time she was finished the pain was almost completely gone, just a slight dull ache to remind me of my mistake. We gathered our belongings and got on the move again. We had lost a lot of time due to the unexpected encounter and we now had a lot of ground to cover with less time that the girls had planned. This meant picking up the pace.

It wasn’t easy going over the uneven forest floor, with a heavy bag and we were all a little worn out from having three fights back to back. Then again, if we didn’t make up the lost time, we would have to find somewhere new to camp for the night. The girls didn’t want this, they had carefully planned all of our camping spots in relatively safe areas for being out in the wild. Camping somewhere unknown greatly increased the risk of being attacked in the night.

After about an hour and half of trekking at a punishing pace we made it to the far side of the forest. Thanks to Altria’s scouting skills, we made it through without attracting the attention of any more monsters. It was nice to be out of the forest, it was easier to walk for one thing, but we still had a long way ahead of us. Not having the time to stop for a proper lunch, we made a brief stop once we had put enough distance between us and the tree line. We only paused long enough to have a drink and get out some salted meats and bread before we set out once again eating as we moved.

The sun beat down on us as we crossed the grassy plain. The ground rising slowly towards distant mountains. We were starting to lose the light by the time we eventually made it to the planned camp spot. We threw up the tents and built a fire in a hurry. Once we had set up camp we could all finally rest and the four of us sat around the fire, glad to finally be able to take the weight off our feet.

“How are the ribs?” Altria asked as she sat down next to me.

“Better now thank you. I’ll try not to do something so stupid in future.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much, Lillia was just worried. You saw Serin on the back foot and you stepped in to help, like she said, you created the opening for bringing it down. You just need to work on your distancing and timing, but that will come with practice.”

“Don’t worry, you get plenty of that over the coming days.” Added Serin as she sat across the fire from us.

“I just I hope I don’t get hurt in the process.”

“Just be careful, and we’ll all do our best to look out for you, but no recklessness.” Lillia explained as she sat down with the rest of the group, passing around a wine skin.

Lillia took a seat next to me so I was sandwiched in between her and Altria. As Lillia passed on the wine skin and everybody seemed to be in a good mood. I decided to ask some questions of the group.

“I was wondering, have any of you ever seen the demon lord?”

I thought that being among three of the Adventurer’s guild’s ranked adventures, that it would be unlikely if one of them hadn’t actually spied them in the flesh.

“Well…” Lillia answered eventually. “None of us have ever seen them. No one that has ever lived to tell the tale.”

“So, it’s like that. Do you have any idea what powers they possess or what weaknesses they have?”

The group all looked at each other before finally Lillia answered yet again.

“No, we don’t.”

“What is the plan to beat them then?”

“Well, we’re told that we need a summoned hero to do so, but all of the summons so far haven’t been strong enough to stand a chance.”

“Not strong enough how?”

“Well most have never made it far enough to confront them themselves. Most have gotten themselves killed in the process of gaining the strength that they needed.”

“Most? Have any of the summoned heroes actually challenged the demon lord?”

“As far as I am aware…. None have made it that far.”

That was concerning to say the least, but for now I had no getting out of this task I’d been given so I pressed on with my questions.

“That’s pretty terrifying… Okay, so what is your plan for me?”

The group all looked at each other in silence for a little while once again. This time it was Serin’s turn to speak up.

“Well, and this is something that we have all spoken to each other about for great length. We decided that we would band together. We would make sure that the next summoned hero from either Lillia or Altria, would have our utmost to help them gain the skills they needed and when the time came face the demon lord with them. For the time being this means taking on smaller quests and hunting down lower ranking members of his army.” She told me.

“That’s all very well and good, but how will we ever know what we are up against? How can we prepare to battle something we have no idea about?” I asked still not satisfied.

“That’s why we are targeting the lower ranking members of their army. Most adventurers simply spend all day killing off monsters terrorising the local area. There are plenty of quests that go unnoticed, mostly because people think that they are too dangerous and want nothing that might involve themselves with the demon lord. That’s where we can come in, if we can take any of the low-ranking members prisoner or extract information from them, then we have a much greater chance of finding out what power they possess.”

“If all of this went to plan, what do you think the alliance would do?” I pressed.

“Probably nothing. There is no way that any of the nobles would put their lives on the line. This is for the heroes to tackle.”

“Right… What do you think would happen if a hero did manage to gain enough power to defeat the demon lord, what do you think would happen then?”

“Well everyone would rejoice.” Sein replied.

“After that. What about the hero? Do you think the alliance would allow someone that was able to overcome the demon lord roam free, or would they destroy their relic before they had the chance to use the heart?”

All three girls looked at each other once again, but it was clear from the glance that only Lillia would be able to give any kind of answer.

“I suppose I should be answering this.” Said Lillia. “I’ve told each of you here part of the story about my previous summon, the hero before Theo here. Most of you know that he left his duties when it first became known to him just how much of a task it would be to defeat the demon lord, perhaps even impossible.” She paused for a moment.

“I managed to hide this fact from the guild masters for quite some time, but eventually his secret was given away. I begged my farther, one of the heads of the guild council to buy me time to change his mind. He promised me so, but it would never be. The moment that I caught up with the poor boy was the moment that they shattered his relic. The timing was too perfect, it was a message to me at the cost of his life. He died in my arms. So no, I don’t think they would let any hero that defeated the demon lord go free. I think the first thing they would do once their victory was assured, would be to destroy their relic.”

“That has been one of my concerns since Liz told me part of that story.” I answered.

“Can you be so sure? I know they have done things in the past, but this is….” Questioned Serin.

“The thought might have never crossed your mind Serin, but remember what happened to the armies when the nobility fled back to the cities. They didn’t even offer them shelter.” Lillia added.

Altria responded this time. “As you know most of the other summoners only treat the heroes as tools, they don’t even aide in their training, happy in the knowledge that they can always call another. Do you really think any of the guild masters would allow someone with greater power than the demon lord and perhaps even a slight grudge against them wander free?”

Serin thought for a moment before finally responding. “No, I suppose not.”