After Zelda finally let go of him after exactly the same amount of time Nadine had. Tyler knew he didn’t have any time to waste or come up with a decent plan so he decided to improvise. He made quick decisions based on the information he had on hand right now, he didn’t have to worry about the undead army for a while as it would take them at least a week to March all the way to the eastern parts of the darknar forest so all he needed to do now was deal with the ones attacking the castle.

There was no way it would be one of the Great Five as if that was the case, Tyler was sure Albert would’ve died without a chance to contact him. Moreover, they would’ve been cautious brought to set up an anti-communication barrier around the castle just as a precaution so the other Great Five families wouldn’t be able to interfere.

Meaning the next possibility was a behemoth that was either secretly working for one of the Great Five, or was being manipulated as there was no other reason he could think of for a behemoth to attack the demon king’s castle unless they were idiots that actually believe they could defend against the Great Five’s fury.

At least in his case, he hadn’t known the gravity of the situation he was getting involved in. The problem now was he didn’t have time at all and he didn’t know the strength of the behemoth’s forces. If they had a hundred strong demons then everyone in the castle would be dead before he even got there and if the behemoth was stronger than him, he would end up just going to his death.

However, if it wasn’t for his various limitations right now and his lack of proper attack methods, there would be no behemoth that he couldn’t at least force into a draw. Tyler didn’t have the skill, Thought Acceleration but he could think pretty fast based on his speed alone.

After not coming up with a good enough plan for the unknown entity that was attacking the castle, he decided to just do his best now and adjust depending on the situation he encounters. The bad part was he didn’t have time to see if he could still use the skills granted to him by this so called monarch authority, whatever that was.

“Nadine get ready, we’re heading back to the castle.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, You and Zelda gather the sleeping dwarves.”

The five dwarves he had brought with him were still lying on the snow sound asleep. Perhaps they had high cold resistance but it looked as though this was the best sleep they had gotten in weeks.

Thinking of the best ways to fully prepare himself, Tyler then stretched his arm out and reached into the void, pulling out a single scroll from his spatial storage. His success in accessing his storage space even without the ring gave him some confidence. At the very least he still had the skills from that artifact in his arsenal which would improve his chances against the said behemoth.

“Conjure Celestial – Dark Garuda”

Conjuration spells were very different from summoning spells as summoning would only call forth creatures, mostly unintelligent creatures that exist in this world and bound them to the summoners will for the duration of the spell, while conjuration calls forth intelligent (mostly malicious) being from another plane, connecting the casters mind with the called creature in a binding contract that was more complicated than summoning Magic.

This type of magic was both a control magic and spirit magic. Creatures conjured by this spells were unpredictable and generally aligned to evil and thus had high potential for treachery. Therefore using a conjuration spell instead of a summoning spell was very dangerous. However, as outworlders, most conjured creatures were more powerful and had much stronger special abilities.

A conjuration spell creates a connection with another dimension and thus, the energy it generates could also attract other more powerful creatures other than the one that was called forth. Such a thing could easily results in an otherworldly invasion.

However, as a newbie magic castle, Tyler was currently unaware of the massive dangers of conjuration.

The scroll in his hand burned in a black haze and disappeared as unlike with summoning, no magic circle appeared anywhere. Rather, a black void opened up in the air and rapidly expanded until it was large enough to fit a ten foot giant.

As the black void opened completely, an oppressive aura suddenly exploded from within the gate as a dark creature slowly walked through it and the gate slowly began to close. The creature was a large humanoid bird like monster with claws and talons. It had large black wings protruding from its back and the head of a falcon.

A dark and ominous aura surrounded it and it’s birdlike eyes scanned the surroundings in distain and arrogance that belonged to a superior species. His eyes lingered on the man in front of him, whose mind he was now connected to and it spoke in an ethereal voice without moving back t mouth:

You! Human? No, demon, you have summoned me.

Tyler stared at the large birdlike creature in surprise as he hadn’t expected a sunmoned creature to speak. Perhaps summoned creatures by means of a ritual or items could do it but he had only used a scroll. It was surely the strongest summoning scroll he had and had thought now was the best time to use it.

The dark creature had a malicious glint in its eyes as it stared at Tyler with an hidden intent, scanning his entire being and even his soul.

Tyler could feel the malice in the creatures mind and didn’t like the feeling of that, since he didn’t know of any way out of this, he figured he’ll try out something new on this guy. He moved the mana from within him and gathered it on his fingertips, letting it float in the air and compressing as much as he could into a ball the size of a golf ball.

With only a thought, the ball shot forth like a bullet and slammed into the Garuda’s chest, sending the massive creature tumbling back as a gaping hole opened up there. He had learned how to do this thanks to his magic sword. One needed sufficient mana control to be able to move mana out of their bodies and manipulate them and Tyler hadn’t learnt that yet but he figure if a weapon could do it just because It was made with a magic crystal, there was no way he wouldn’t be able to do the same.

The garuda shrieked and stood back up, the gaping hole in his chest had already begun to heal. It glared at Tyler in clear malice and its aura flared up. Tyler however, wasn’t sure why he had done that as well. He just hadn’t like the way his own summoned creature looked at him and shot it with his new skill, something he would call a magic bullet.

How dare you, a mere mortal, How dare you Damnage me boy!

“Boy? Just so you know, I’m technically more than a thousand years old so I’m quite the old man. And are you sure you want to address your summoner line that.”

Tyler’s eyes narrowed as another magic bullet rose up and floated in the air in front of him, much denser than the last one. The dark Garuda that was originally trying to deceive what he believes to be an inexperienced summoner to release him befor killing him and then everyone else here, hesitated and reduced the intensity of its aura.

The reason he had known Tyler was inexperienced was because he had not immediately Issued an order to him that would activate the binding spell and set the terms of the contract. No experienced summoner would make such a mistake.

However, it would turn out this master of his was no ordinary demon. One would not attack a conjured celestial as they risked voiding the contract themselves and risking the celestial breaking free of the binding and killing them. Yet it would seem the man was unworried.

Perhaps, his confidence came from the fact that he did not believe he would lose to a celestial. So why was he summoned if not to aid a weakling as it had always been.

After seeing his summon calm down, Tyler motioned for the creature to move closer and it did albeit cautiously. Once it was close enough, and Nadine had also brought the five dwarves closer to him while Zelda was hiding in his shadow.

Tyler confirmed that they were all touching him and he activated his spatial teleportation skill. His destination, the inner ward of the demon king’s castle.

He had chosen this place because he wasn’t sure where in the castle was concealed and where was not so if they were attacked upon arrival, this place was wide enough for a fight while having the least possibility of being ambushed.

And as predicted, upon thier appearance in the inner ward, no such attack had come their way. Tyler was a little relieved the invaders hadn’t made it this far as it meant he still had time to act so he quickly issued an order to Nadine.

“Take the dwarves to one of the training halls and protect them just incase. Don’t leave their side no matter what.”

There was a look of hesitation in her face as Tyler knew she wanted to fight as well but he couldn’t let her. She was still not used to her increased strength so it would be bad if she made another slip up in such a dangerous situation.

As Nadine left with the five sleeping beauties, Tyler told the summoned Garuda to follow him as he walked towards the castle. He could sense only a few strong presence in the outer ward which was a good thing. But strangely enough, he could sense two relatively strong presence inside the castle with a faint but familiar one that he couldn’t recognize for some reason.

Not wanting anything bad to happen to whoever that was, he picked up his pace and entered the main hall of the castle from the side entrance. Upon entering, he saw a figure get slammed by some type of electrical attack and flew in his direction.

He didn’t hesitate to move, as he easily caught the figure. His movements smooth and graceful. To his surprise, this wasn’t just one of the weaker members of the settlement that had gotten out of in over ther head as he had thought but Erin.

Her presence was a lot weaker than he remembered and her lifeforce was quite low. She her presence also did not feel the same as her usual self which was why he hadn’t recognize her aura earlier. Her blue dress was torn as slight burnt marks cut across her back down to her chest and a bruise from where that last attack had hit her was clearly visible on her abdomen.

Tyler’s expression didn’t change and neithe did his aura. His eyes left the now half conscious Erin who seemed relieved to see him as he coldly stared at the two maggots that had committed this crime. They seem to be saying something but Tyler didn’t care what worms had to say, neither was he interested in who they were.

“Rip them apart.”

Finally, something I can enjoy.