After a speech soaked in hatred and the promise of vengeance...
The echo of blades being drawn thundered through every corner of the forest. Arrows stood ready. The weapon stores emptied out completely. They marched straight for the west, while Rosa and Miko made for the Jewel.
While the Elves prepared for the invasion, Diablo's story was unfolding differently.
As Diablo made his way toward them, his power pressed down on everything in his path — beast, human, even wandering spirit. No living thing could pass before him; the sheer weight of the aura he radiated made it impossible.
A demon stepped forward from the ranks and said:
"I've grown tired of all this walking and waiting. Please, Your Majesty, transport us to them."
While Diablo kept walking, the demon's head was suddenly in his grip. Diablo began crushing it, his voice thick with fury:
"Don't you dare give me orders. You're nothing but a lowly demon — not worth being compared to me. Know your place, and respect it."
The moment he finished speaking, he crushed the skull to pulp. The body dropped, and the soldiers simply kept marching, walking straight over it.
As Rosa made her way toward the Jewel, she felt Diablo's aura hit her.
Her body shuddered. Half her hair turned white from sheer terror.
The instant she felt it, she started running. Her breath caught, her vision narrowed — that was all Rosa could feel in that moment.
She ran, Miko clutched tight against her chest.
The forest shook.
Trees collapsed behind her.
And with every step...
she felt something drawing closer.
She stopped.
She heard nothing.
She took a breath...
Then heard a whisper right behind her ear:
"Where are you going?"
Her body froze solid.
She turned, slowly...
Diablo was standing right behind her.
She hadn't heard his footsteps.
She hadn't felt him coming.
He was simply... there.
The barrier had been punctured. The trees around them had died. And his hand was already reaching for the Jewel.
Rosa couldn't believe what she was seeing. Diablo — standing right in front of her now. The one who had killed her brother, who had razed the forest, who had butchered her entire people... right here, in front of her.
Diablo smiled, and calm, demonic words slid from his mouth:
"Hello there... you must be the new Queen of the Elves. Have you come to hand me the Jewel yourself?"
Rosa began backing away, breaking into a run toward the west — but she didn't even make it a full step before Diablo was suddenly right in front of her. He seized her by the throat and said:
"What a disgrace. Your former King didn't retreat. He didn't run. He faced me — face to face."
Rosa laughed despite herself.
"You're the disgrace. You talk about shame while you killed him through treachery and broke your own word. Do you honestly call yourself a King?"
Diablo laughed, a laugh laced with fury.
"Sharp tongue you've got. Your words are stronger than you are."
"Where's your army?" Rosa asked.
"My army? Fifty thousand demons strong. They're already on their way here. I've given you one piece of information — now it's your turn."
Worry crept into Rosa's voice. "But if your army is elsewhere... who's leading them?"
"I came here only to take the Jewel and leave. They'll handle the rest on their own. Leaving you alive twenty years ago was a grave mistake on my part — one I don't intend to repeat."
Rosa was afraid — but the fury on her face was far more obvious than the fear.
Diablo's anger flared. He tightened his grip on her throat.
"What's with that look you're giving me?"
While Rosa fought for her life...
Miko entered the clearing around the Jewel and saw her mother on the very edge of death.
Miko's cry rose into the air.
The air itself began to churn around her.
Leaves lifted off the ground.
The air grew heavy, dense.
Diablo glanced down at his arm.
Green cracks had split across its surface.
The cracks widened...
Then—
his entire arm exploded outward.
Both Diablo and Rosa stood frozen, stunned by what had just happened.
Rosa scrambled back toward the Jewel and realized, in that instant, it was the safest place she could be.
Diablo's laughter began to rise, filling the entire forest, and he said:
"This power... no. That's not possible. So... the new Guardian... it's you. I've found someone who can wield the Jewel. I'm not letting you go."
His gaze turned toward Miko, dark with a malice beyond words.
"You're mine. You're not staying here. You're coming to my palace. I'll take you — and the Jewel comes with you."
Rosa screamed with everything she had.
"NOW — Jewel!"
A pillar of light tore through the sky and the clouds above.
Diablo's body shuddered — the memory of his fight with the former Elf King flooding back to him. Fear and unease took hold of him. His eyes locked onto the light, and he lunged toward it with everything he had.
As Diablo surged toward the Jewel, Rosa was already waiting for him. He nearly touched the light — but couldn't. A sword of pure light burst forth and severed his left hand. Diablo staggered back, fear plain on his face.
"Impossible... impossible, impossible. How can you use this technique? You're not even wearing the royal robe or crown the former King wore."
Diablo was gripped by fear and unease — but he was still ready to do whatever it took to claim the Jewel.
The light washed over Rosa's body.
The old wounds scarring her skin faded away.
Her hair shifted, flowing.
The royal robe wove itself into being, thread by thread.
The crown descended slowly onto her head.
Then...
she took hold of the sword.
For the first time...
she felt her fear disappear completely.
She surged toward Diablo with absolute resolve. Diablo regrew his hand and drew his sword, meeting her first strike — but he never saw what came next. Rosa's fist caught him beneath the chin and sent him flying skyward.
Rosa positioned her sword at her side, as though drawing it from an invisible sheath.
Diablo, in that instant, wasn't looking at Rosa at all — he was seeing the former King. Rosa gathered every ounce of power she had, drew the blade free, and cut Diablo clean in half. His body dropped to the ground, motionless.
Rosa collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath.
Slowly, her breathing steadied. She looked down at Diablo and said:
"I didn't expect our fight to end here."
She rose to her feet again — and felt a surge of power coming from the west.
She left the Jewel's clearing behind and ran toward the source of that power... and somewhere in the shadows, something smiled.
As Rosa made her way toward her army, tears of joy spilled down her face. She couldn't believe it — she had finally avenged her brother, avenged everyone who had died.
When she reached her army, she told them Diablo no longer moved.
Everyone rejoiced, breaking into tears. Rosa spoke:
"There's an army approaching. I don't know who's leading it — but I believe it's one of his lieutenants. He wouldn't leave an army that size under the command of some ordinary demon. I'll face him myself. The rest of you — take on the remainder of the army."
The demon army continued its advance, facing off against a force of two thousand Elves led by Rosa.
The demon army entered exactly where Rosa had predicted. And what met them there was a small group of only five hundred — two hundred and fifty archers, and two hundred and fifty dual-magic casters. A strong opening for such a small force.
The demon army pushed into the border of trees.
There was no one there.
No sound.
No movement.
Just...
a silent forest.
Their commander smiled. "Looks like they ran."
In that same instant...
a single whistling sound rang out.
Then...
the light vanished.
The forest plunged into total darkness.
The demons froze.
Some looked up toward the sky.
There was no sky anymore.
Massive branches had sealed off every opening, every trace of light.
One demon asked:
"Where are we?"
No one answered.
Then—
the first arrow tore through a demon's throat.
Then the second.
Then the third.
No one could tell where they were coming from.
The commander screamed:
"Spread out!"
But the ground itself...
moved.
Roots tore up from beneath their feet, coiling around their legs, dragging dozens of them straight into the trees. Nothing was left of them but screaming.
The demons hacked at the roots.
But they never noticed...
that the Elf archers weren't trying to kill them.
They were herding them — toward a single point.
—
One of the Elf mages stood atop a tree.
He raised his staff.
Then shouted:
"NOW!"
In that same instant...
hundreds of mages emerged from among the trees.
Magic circles overlapped above their heads.
One circle...
then a second...
then a third...
until the entire sky turned green.
An Elf elder spoke:
"Burn our years into it... don't let a single one of them escape."
Blood began streaming from the mages' mouths. Their hair turned from white to ash-gray. The light faded from their eyes.
But not a single one of them...
broke the spell.
—
The demon commander screamed:
"GET OUT OF THIS AREA!!"
But time had already run out.
The trees sealed every path. The roots locked around every foot. The small spirits circled the army like a closing noose.
Then—
the light struck the ground.
It wasn't an explosion.
It was—
an entire forest detonating at once.
A column of green light tore straight through the sky.
Thousands of trees were ripped from the earth.
Demon bodies were flung dozens of meters through the air.
Everything vanished inside that light.
Silence fell.
Then...
the rain began.
A rain of blood.
—
The demon commander stood at the center of a massive crater.
He looked around.
All he saw...
was wreckage. Helmets. Swords. And bodies too mutilated to recognize.
Of Diablo's army...
only half remained.
The commander's fist clenched. He smiled — a smile soaked in rage.
"Now... the war truly begins."
What had just happened was only the first ambush.
What remained of the demon army emerged from the smoke and dust, reorganizing their ranks with brutal speed. And from the opposite side, the remaining Elf fighters stepped out from among the trees.
Rosa surged in from behind with blinding speed and force, driving her blade into the commander's stomach and hurling him clear out of the forest. The commander caught her arm, his face making it clear he hadn't expected this at all.
Rosa followed him out and squared off against him face to face.
Every archer loosed their arrows at once. Every mage emerged and encircled what remained of the army. Archers fired, mages fused magic into every arrow. Fifteen hundred Elves poured out, swords drawn, spells blazing — and the slaughter began.
Once Diablo's army had been surrounded, the mages began dropping, one after another. Blood poured from their mouths. Their mana was consuming their own lifespans. And still... none of them stopped. Not until the spell was complete.
Every remaining mage fused whatever mana they had left into a single detonation spell and unleashed it on the army. The explosion that followed was so immense the sky turned black, and the light it released lit up every kingdom for miles.
The forest was hit by winds unlike anything it had ever known. Rosa stood there, stunned, speechless — while the enemy commander seethed with rage.
"What a pack of fools. Wiped out by a force that size."
Rosa laughed. "What you just witnessed is the fate of anyone who tries to mess with us. Get ready — you're about to join them."
The commander laughed. "You're actually comparing me to them? That's exactly why you were slaughtered twenty years ago."
Fury flashed across Rosa's face. "I won't let that filthy mouth of yours speak again."
The commander laughed. "I'm Sebastian. And I dare you to try."
Rosa charged at Sebastian, raising her sword to cut him down. Sebastian dodged the blow and caught her right hand.
"You don't seem too attached to that arm. So I'll just take it with me."
He moved to sever it — but the sword vanished from her right hand, reappearing in her left. She cut off his right arm instead and said:
"Looks like you're the one who doesn't need it."
Then she kicked him square in the stomach. He staggered back but didn't fall.
Sebastian's fury exploded. He regenerated his arm in a fraction of a second and drove his fist into Rosa's stomach.
Blood burst from her mouth, and she was thrown backward with brutal force. Her body slammed into the ground, then crashed into a massive tree, shattering it, and she landed against its broken stump.
As she struggled to catch her breath, the only sound she could hear was a familiar one, echoing through her mind...
Diablo's laughter.
(End of Chapter 55)