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nThe wind blew through the grassy plains as five figures could be seen walking towards the horizon with nimble steps. They could see the sun setting and night was upon them. This was the last night of the year and the new year would begin in only a few hours.

nNormally, this would be a time of celebration. A time to welcome in the new year with their loved ones, but after the hardship they’ve endured, the bloodshed they’ve witnessed, and the sacrifices they’ve made. They all knew they would rather be here right now. It may not be poetic, but this was the time they had chosen to put an end to it.

nAn end to the war that ravaged the entire continent. They would put their lives on the line to save the world and usher in a new year with the sounds of victory.

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nAfter taking the path through the Darkin mountain range, the group of five had finally made it through the most dangerous part of their journey.

nThe group traveled through the plains as they approached a giant castle in the distance, they were approaching from the rear and as expected their path through the mountain range was the most difficult aspect of their journey, there were a lot of rock monsters living in the mountains.

nThese monsters weren’t a magic beast but they were increasingly hard to deal with, not only were they immune to magic their resistance to physical attacks were also very high, this made it almost impossible to kill them.

nTheir attack power was also impressive, the only weakness they had was their lack of speed, still, their numbers made up for it. These monsters were called mountain golems, they were over 5 meters tall and blended in well in the mountains with their bodies made entirely of rocks.

nThese factors amongst many others made the mountain range a very dangerous place for anyone, it was hundreds of times more dangerous than the old Darknar forest and was therefore labeled as a forbidden zone, no one in their right mind would even think about approaching such a place, yet these five figures had exited from there looking like they had just taken a stroll on their dusty backyard.

nThe five continued their journey as they approached the castle ahead, they had no scratch on them as they dusted the dust the monsters had covered them with off their armor. “That was easier than I thought it would be, I can’t believe they thought this path was that dangerous.” The one who spoke was a large bald young man in silvery-white exquisite-looking full plate armor.

nHe had a large black hammer on his right hand and an even larger white shield on his left. “The only reason it was easy was because of my special ability blockhead, any other party would have been wiped out by that many mountain golems.” One of the only two females in the group retorted loudly.

nShe was quite short and petite, wearing red light armor, she had short red hair styled to the side, her face was a little round and her big bright scarlet eyes glittered like the stars, making her look like a child. “Children should not speak when adults are talking.”

n“You overgrown buffoon!” she snapped.

n“That’s enough guys, we’re already close to the castle this is not the time for your usual bickering.” The young man leading the group spoke in a soft voice as he turned his head to look at the two, he knew if he didn’t intervene now this could continue for quite a while. “Besides, we were blessed by the goddess of luck, we didn’t encounter any of the true terrors of the mountains.”

nHe was a young handsome man with short blonde hair, a slightly longer nose, sky blue eyes, and a well-defined jawline. Being 5’10 he was quite tall, wearing a set of pure gold armor, the armor was designed with white runes and markings that made it looked ancient yet magical. The longsword he carried on his back was equally as amazing, the blade was made of some kind of crystal, the hilt was golden and had similar markings as the armor.

nThe other guy in the group chuckled and just kept walking. “What the hell are you laughing at Rey!” the short girl yelled angrily at Rey, he had long black hair and wore a dark blue robe, he was holding a wooden staff in his right hands and had a slim face with grey colored eyes, the wooden staff looked like it had been broken off a tree, but had an ancient aura that gave it a terrifying presence.

nRey just ignored her and kept walking, this seemed to anger her more as she was about to yell at him in response but was cut short by the other female in the group, “Alright Rosie, that’s enough, John already told you to stop. You should also know better than to engage her, Leo.”

nRosie was completely quiet after that she muttered something under her breath but didn’t make another fuss as Leo scratched his bald head in embarrassment.

n“Looks like I’m still no match for you Elsie, you always know how to calm them down,” John said with a smile as he looked at Elsie, she was a beautiful woman with dark purple long and curly hair. Wearing a long purple dress she only held two iron fans on both hands, the dress did nothing to hide her curves and the mountains on her chest looked like they would bust out of her dress.

nShe smiled and the group continued their mission to invade the castle from its rear. They weren’t that far off after exiting the mountains, they were already closer to the castle than they’ve ever been.

nThanks to the frontal attack by the allied forces they had gotten so close without being noticed, it was a simple plan, draw the enemies attention by launching an all-out attack from the front while an elite group of the strongest people in the world would circle straight into the enemies base and assassinate their leader.

nThe instant they arrived within a hundred meters of the outer castle walls, the sentries on top of the wall finally noticed them. They were undead knights wearing a full set of silver plate armor they had bows in hand and a short sword attached to their belts. One of the sentry immediately ran towards a single golden bell at one of the towers in the wall while the others prepared their bows to fire.

nTheir reaction speed was impressive, luckily for the group, Rey’s concealment spell had gotten them too close for the enemy to use the large artilleries in the towers at the ends of the outer wall. It was why the team had chosen to walk instead of fly, because of the dangers in the Darkin mountain range, the enemy would consider it as a line of defense, which meant they would set anti-flight magic and detection spells in the area as that was the only way to cross the mountain range relatively safe.

nDoing that would have played straight into the enemy’s hands as they would be used for target practice and even though they could survive the bombardment, there would be no point as the mission would be considered a failure.

nThe sentry arrived before the bell and was about to ring it, just then a white streak of light went through him as the top half of his body fell to the ground.

nJohn swung his sword again and another white light sliced through a different sentry who had run after the previous the moment it notices he was dead. The rest of the undead knights fired their arrows as a red aura enveloped each arrow as it left their bows.

nLeo moved in front of the group as he raised his large Shield and banged it with his hammer. “Come at me!” he yelled with a big smile on his face, his shield glowed brightly as the multitude of rage arrows rained down on him.

nHe raised his shield and blocked every single one of them, his hammer started to glow red as the strange red aura from the arrows enveloped it. “Not bad,” he said as he dashed forward, but before he had even moved a gust of wind blew past him.

nArriving at the top of the wall in an instant was Rosie, she took a low stance, holding two silver daggers with a reverse grip. “Flame dance” the daggers in her hands caught fire as she moved around on the wall in a strange but fluid motion, she slashed any undead knight that came close to her and they bust into flames with one swing.

nLeo scratched his head “She’s stealing my thunder.”

n“Not the time Leo, we should end this as soon as possible.” The group ran at full speed as they jumped on the top of the wall to give Rosie a hand, the wall was at least 15 meters tall but they had no problem scaling it. There were only about 7 sentries left, Rosie had taken care of more than 30 of them in so little time.

nRey pointed his staff at them and cast a single spell “Sunlight” the tip of his staff glowed brightly like the sun, the seven undead on the wall were reduced to ashes. They all jump down from the castle’s outer wall and as expected there was less protection here than the front entrance. Still, they didn’t have time to waste, it would only be a matter of time before the generals in the castle can sense them. Rey’s concealment would not be able to protect them for long, there were only about a hundred enemies in the ward.

n“Ellie, we’ll go on ahead, can you handle things here?”

n“Hehe… You insult me.”

n“Sorry… sorry… that’s my bad, alright Leo creates a part for us.”

n“Aye… aye, captain.” Leo roar as his body emitted a faint aura, he dashed straight for the side entrance to the castle, smashing the heads of any undead or beast that came in front of him.

nThe others followed closely with John behind, protecting their flanks, all except Ellie who just stood there with a faint smile on her face. Most of the undead knights and beasts had ignored the others for some reason and focused on her, they all ran towards her waving their weapons in the air, the tamed beasts roaring as loudly as they could.

nThe others had finally entered the castle, thanks to Leo they had managed to evade any traps in their way almost as if they could see them. Ellie then brought one of the metal fans in her hand and covered the lower parts of her face, She mumbled a word silently and her eyes glowed in a seductive light. All the knights and beasts that ran towards her were now visibly slowing down.

nThey seem to be aging at a rapid rate, which was strange because undead creatures didn’t age. They slowed down to a crawl as they all collapsed on the ground and turned to dust.

nThe others had made it into the castle, although according to their information they were in the South Wing of the castle and needed to make it toward the top floor of the North wing, they ran through the hallway of the castle trying to make their way to the other side, at this point, there was no need for Rey to keep his concealment spell up anymore, no matter how powerful he was, the demon generals in the castle would’ve already noticed them by now.

nHe needed to save his mana for if and when they were ambushed by any of the generals. They followed the map they had made of the castle making sure they were always on the right track. The castle was massive, it covered over a million square meters and had all of the strongest tamed beasts, monsters, and undead protecting the place, not the mention all of the insanely strong demons that served under the master of the castle including the six demon generals.

nLuckily they didn’t have to worry about most of these, especially the six generals, by now the war was at its peak and if the demons didn’t want to suffer any massive casualties that will dome them even if they won, they would send at least five of the generals to key locations and have them supervise the war, and if they were lucky all six of them would be sent out. The generals were the key to the war, although the group was confident in handling them even if they had to face three or four at a time, they would be in trouble if they faced all six of them.

nRight now their only goal was the master of the castle, they didn’t have to kill the generals, with that in mind they would be able to hold off the generals while aiming for their master, they had also received the blessings of the goddess, this meant that their Luck would be almost supernatural, and the effects were already visible. So far they had only encountered a handful of stone knights, this meant there weren’t that many entities in the castle, meaning everything was going according to plan.

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