Marcus ran through the forest as quickly as he cooked. Before parting ways, Linguis had put a spell on Marcus which gave him unlimited stamina for a few hours. She had warned him that the crashout from the spell would come in a few days and it would be bad. But now was not the time to think about it. Now was the time to get to Una.

  Linguis and Harados had told Marcus who had been teleported to Una; and it did not portend well for Una. If the demon lord that was sent was not stopped in time, she could create quite the destruction on the planet. Non adventurers were going to die in droves.

  Linguis and Harados had decided to go their own way. Marcus did not ask where. Marcus did not care at that moment. He had to make his way to the other adventurers and Tasha. He hoped that they had not used the way through the Realm out of Space and Time already.

  Marcus reached the edge of the forest in no time. He looked at the flat desolate red desert like plain in front of him and groaned. Where the fuck was he going to find the others now?

  Memory, can you help me? It’s an emergency.

  It’s always an emergency with you Blank. Fuck off. I can’t help you anymore. Let me rest.

  Marcus swore and suddenly a voice called, “Marcus!”

  Marcus turned to his right to see the adventurers and Tasha standing there, looking at Marcus with surprise.

  “What the fuck! Did you just get out of the forest?”

  Tasha said, “Did you run all the way here? How did you get here before us?”

  Marcus shrugged, “I ran. Were you guys seriously fucking walking?”

  “What’s the rush?” asked Selena with slight concern in her voice.

  “You saw the light and shadow display, did you not?” said Marcus pointing at the sky, “That was a demon lord that got sent to Una. And I have a feeling that it is going to fuck up Una.”

  “What do you know, Marcus?” asked Tasha in a very serious tone.

  Marcus took a deep breath, “You know who the leader of the rebellion was?”

  Tasha frowned and then raised her eyebrows, “NO!”

  “Yes.”

  Tasha swore and looked around. Then she pointed in a direction diagonal to the exit of the forest, “There. It is about a few kilometers away. We can open a portal there.”

  Marcus nodded. There were questions from others but Tasha stopped them. Time was of the essence and she had gotten it.

  Everyone ran as they followed Tasha, who was running the fastest. It hardly took them minutes to reach where Tasha wanted to go.

  Marcus said as they stopped, “Do you think we will all be able to sneak through the realm?”

  Tasha gave him a look and said, “I will have to make a deal. I do not like this but there is no other option. We have to get to Una as soon as possible.”

  “Will someone explain who the gork was sent to Una?” said Tamara exasperatedly, “I mean, they would be gorking strong considering your reactions, but shouldn’t the adventurers be able to take care of her? Will the Game Masters not intervene if something goes wrong?”

  Tasha gave Tamara a look and shushed her as if she was shushing a child. Tamara huffed but did not say anything. Tasha opened a portal into the Realm out of Space and Time and gestured to everyone to step through.

  “You will see when we get there”, said Tasha as a means of explanation as they stepped through.

  They were immediately surrounded by durloghs. The others seemed surprised to see them, tensing and readying themselves for a fight. Marcus and Tasha were the only ones who seemed relatively relaxed. Marcus was still wary of the durloghs. They had attacked Marcus and Tasha when they were coming to Twarftha from Una. Given that they had been trespassing.

  Selena drew Marcus’ attention and asked, “Do you have any idea what is happening on Una?”

  Marcus saw that Tasa was communicating with one of the durloghs who seemed to be the leader in their language and turned to Selena.

  The other adventurers also closed in on them, curious to know Marcus’ answer.

  Marcus said, “The leader of the rebellion, who led the assault on the Demon King, was the Demon Lord Manalith. She is called the shadow that engulfs the world. She is a very strong and a huge demon lord who does not show her true form unless it is absolutely required. It is said that her true form spans five kilometres length and breath wise. And it seems that Lucifer has sent her to Una. If my guess is right, then Tasha is worried that Manalith would be at max level when she will be on Una. And depending on where she has been sent, she is going to wreck unimaginable havoc. The Game Masters should stop her but they usually do not interfere directly. And considering how they have been behaving lately, I don’t think they will.”

  “What do you mean, how have they been behaving lately?” asked Tamara sharply.

  Marcus said, “I cannot explain in detail. But I have been reading up on the history of Una, the system and how the Game World was in earlier times. I have also ready a few books on the demon wars that happened on Una about 500 years ago. Long story short, this should not be happening. The demonic war scenario. The demons are able to send their people to Una without the authority of the Game Masters. The stats are changing and with it the adventurer description too. Too many changes, too little time. That does not happen.”

  They all looked thoughtful at Marcus’ explanation.

  “So, what do we do?” asked Tim.

  “We wait for Tasha to negotiate a safe passage for us”, said Marcus, “We go back to Una and try to take care of the Manalith problem. We somehow convince Tasha to help us because I don’t think we will be able to handle Manalith without her help. And then we continue our adventuring life. The problems of Game Masters are way above our pay grade.”

  There was silence after that and they all waited for Tasha to get them safe passage. It was taking a long time according to them. Marcus was feeling anxious now. He knew that they were in a realm out of space and time and they would be able to reach Una as if no time had passed since they left Twarftha. However, considering the way Tasha was arguing with the durlogh, he was getting less hopeful of his chance of getting back to Una.

  They all watched Tasha and the lead durlogh now. The durlogh seemed calm but Tasha was getting agitated with each passing minute. Finally, it seemed that the argument seemed to come to an end. As she turned her back from the durloghs and made her way towards the adventurers, Tasha smiled. It seemed that the agitation had been an act.

  “I have secured a passage for all of us to Una”, said Tasha, “The durloghs have agreed to deposit us where it seems that the demon lord was sent.”

  “How do they know?” asked many of the adventurers together.

  At the same time Tamara asked, “Is the demon lord not in Urtor?”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Tasha just grinned and said, “Magic. And the demon lord in not in Urtor.”

  She did not explain further and gestured to them to follow her. They all started off after the durloghs. Now that they were not sneaking around, they did not need to be focused and alert. Marcus looked around the realm.

  The orange sky and the purplish nothingness beneath them had a unique beauty as they made their way jumping across rocks. They finally reached another large rock which seemed to have portals for exit. The durloghs pointed to one of the portals and told Tasha something.

  “That’s our exit”, said Tasha pointing at the portal the durloghs were pointing.

  “Are you sure?” asked Tim uncertainly.

  Tasha nodded, “We have struck a deal. The durloghs do not back out of a deal. That is something that they simply don’t do.”

  They all made their way towards the portal. Tasha nodded to the durloghs and stepped through. Tamara was next. Shania and Thalia went after her and then Selena. Tim was uncertain and Marcus had to almost push him through. Marcus was last. Before he stepped into the portal, he looked back one last time.

  He caught a flash of purple and red humanoid figures traversing through the realm, without the durloghs. Marcus grinned as he stepped through. Then he blacked out.

  ***

  Charles Bushford, the president of NAIF, woke up to a beautiful morning. He got ready, had his breakfast, kissed his wife goodbye and went to work humming his favourite tune. He settled himself in his office and was reading the daily updates when alarms started blasting in the NAIF facility.

  “What the gork!” exclaimed Charles as he got up. He got out of his office and went to the command room.

  “Status”, he said to one of his fellow employees. He had no need for asking. For on the large screen of the command room, a shadow had fallen over Una and a humungous demon lord was blotting the sun in a region which Charles could not identify.

  “An unscheduled demon lord. Just popped out of nowhere. Wrecking havoc in Karzasham”, said one of his employees.

  “Has non-adventurer protection been activated?” asked Charles.

  “Yes, but there was a slight… delay. There have been deaths.”

  “Gork it. Have the Game Masters been notified.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “What is being done to handle this?”

  “The remaining champion and the remaining team members of the champions have already been notified. They are being given priority for teleportation. Their level has also been increased to max till this demon lord is defeated.”

  “Why max level?” asked Charles a bit surprised.

  “The demon lord is max level.”

  “Gork it!”

  Then Charles added, “Continue managing the situation. I am going to meet the gorking Game Masters. More adventurers need to be temporarily given max level till this demon lord issue is sorted.”

  Charles went back to his office. He called Rauros Shadowfang.

  Rauros picked up the call immediately, “I am fucking aware.”

  Charles said, "Permission to temporarily raise all adventurers' level to the max in and around Karzasham.”

  “Fucking granted.”

  Rauros hung up the call. Charles relayed the order immediately and focused back on the screen. Karzasham was burning and he hoped that the adventurers would be on time to stop the fiasco. NAIF would continue to do its job and not interfere, but they will make it easier for the adventurers. Or else, Una was gorked.

  ***

  Tanniv was now leading all the team members, his and Tamara’s since the disappearance of the five adventurers. They had continued their quest on Urtor after Tasha had taken Marcus to save Tamara and others. They were now done with Urtor.

  They did not have any update in their major quest and so they teleported from Urtor to Melancholia, to take a break from all the quests and fight with the demons. It had been a quiet couple of days. Tanniv was enjoying spending time with his family.

  That was when the world changed. He got an urgent message from Lady Leyda and his level went up fast. He raised his eyebrows as he looked at his level. He was at max level and his stats were adjusted accordingly. Sanna looked at Tanniv with an inquiring gaze.

  Tanniv said, “Major catastrophe in Karzasham. I have to go.”

  “Aw! Please don’t go daddy!” said his daughter, Tuanna.

  “I am sorry little one”, said Tanniv, rubbing his paw on her head and nuzzling her, “But I will be back soon. This is important.”

  He said goodbye to Sanna and Tuanna and exited their house. He messaged the others who seemed to have reached max level too. He messaged them to get to the portal. They had to get to Karzasham. Fast. Else, there would be no Karzasham left to save.

  ***

  Kyrie opened her eyes to find herself in the guild hall. Galvin Silvershroud was looking at her.

  “Are you alright lass?” asked Galvin with concern in his voice.

  “What happened?” asked a very confused Kyrie, “I was fighting in the tournament. How did I get here? There was an explosion. What happened?”

  “We are under attack”, said Galvin pointing outside the window.

  Kyrie looked at what Galvin was pointing at and all she saw was darkness. She walked up to the window and looked up. The sun had been covered by a large shadowy thing which seemed to be circling over Karzasham.

  “What is that?” asked Kyrie.

  “From what we know, it is a demon lord”, said Galvin, “All the adventurers have gone to fight it before it destroys all of Karzasham. We have readied our defences but we are hardly putting any dent in it. It is at max level.”

  “Was I the only one resurrected here?” Where are the other adventurers?” asked Kyrie, turning to Galvin.

  Galvin pointed at the demon lord, “All adventurers are currently trying to fight that thing in the sky. It seems that of the adventurers who have set their resurrection point as this guild, only you seem to have died.”

  Kyrie nodded, “What happened to the tournament, though?”

  “Why the gork are you worried about the tournament when there is a gorking demon lord tearing through Karzsham!”

  “Well it’s not exactly tearing through, not yet but it does seem to be causing some damage.”

  Galvin shouted, “Are you going to gorking help or not?”

  At the same time Kyrie got the notification that her level was raised to max and her stats had been adjusted accordingly. She looked in surprise at Galvin who was glaring at her.

  “I am max level now”, said Kyrie slowly.

  “Then go and gorking help”, said Galvin pointing at the demon lord.

  “What about the non-adventurers?” asked Kyrie.

  Galvin waved away her concern, “We’ll be alright. We have gotten a temporary buff. Immortality till the demon lord is dead. Go. Hurry. The non-adventurers may not die but the destruction of property is going to be massive if that thing is not stopped.”

  Kyrie stepped out of the adventurers’ guild. As soon as she stepped out it began to rain. Dark black inky rain fell on the ground all around her. It was not water. Kyrie could tell.

  The puddles soon began to converge and a shape emerged out of it. It was a humanoid shape, pure black, shimmering and flowing as if liquid was given a fixed shape. No face, no distinct features, just inky blackness.

  Kyrie examined it.

  Manalith Spawn

  Level 275

  Health 10,000 / 10,000

  Well this was just perfect. She got her bow ready. This was going to be a long fight.

  ***

  Orin Gurnhold looked at the demon lord in the sky. He was surrounded by his brothers and other dwarves. The tournament was over. The result was not final because the demon lord had destroyed the stadium when it had emerged from it. It was a good thing that they had decided to hold the finals in one of the outside stadiums. The royal stadium and the mountain of Karzasham would not have survived if the finals had been inside.

  Orin looked at Throwrin Gurnhold, his father, to see him contemplating something. Finally, his father gave the order to attack. The demon lord seemed to be attacking too. The order for evacuation of the non-adventurer non combatants to the emergency shelter was given. A system wide message was sent asking all adventurers to help.

  Orin wondered how they were going to attack the demon lord in the sky. Not all adventurers had flying mounts. Moreover, the demon lord was at max level. Orin had examined her.

  Manalith

  The Shadow who Engulfs the World

  Demon Lord

  Level 275

  Health ??? / ???

  No identifiable numerical value of health. That was never a good sign.

  Orin turned as he heard the magical cannons come out of the mountains and point at the demon lord. Beams of magic shot at the demon lord. Orin had no idea if it was doing any damage or not. The question marks did not move.

  It started to rain black inky rain. And out of this rain came the monsters at max level. Just before the rain he had gotten a notification that he was now max level and his stats had been adjusted accordingly.

  As the Manalith spawn attacked, the Ori brothers and some adventurers went on the offensive. The battle for Karzasham had begun and Orin was not going to let his city fall.

  As he charged, the young dwarven prince prayed for a miracle.