The Novel's Draft

Pulling out her eye that had the color of crimson purple, she placed it over my eye socket that had been carved out by the earth spell.

"What are you–?"

"Just take it... this is my final act, so please accept it."

With a frown, I belatedly accepted.

Tentacles wriggled from the eye of the true truthseeker, pulling out of what seemed to be my old eye.

With a stimulating shock, my brain spiraled.

Is that what she saw?

I started seeing the future movements of everything, as if they were animated frames.

The overload of information gave me a headache.

Closing my right eye, it slowly subsided.

"You’ve talked about how outliers are the exception and how only they have the power to shift the world... Ring, become the outlier that saves the world." Alleus smiled faintly.

Caressing my cheek, her voice was growing fainter:

"...Ring... please, smile for me..."

Forcing a smile on my face, tears kept running down my face.

"You... should... smile more..." Her hand then dropped, her eye became empty.

Sniffling, I cried out.

Everyone had tilted their faces away, hiding their expressions.

Slamming my sword on the hard ground, a hole appeared.

Picking Alleus from Vertere’s hands, I gently placed her down before covering it with the rubble, as gentle as I could.

Suppressing my rage to not show through my tone of voice, I opened my mouth:

"Acro, stand up and heal my hand."

Joka and Kacon had recovered to a substantial amount, enough for them to move.

Seeing my expression, he forced himself to stand up, raising the wand.

"Healing light." A barrier that only covered my arm, started to heal the damages.

It was warm.

***

After my arm fully healed, Acro wiped the sweat off his face.

There were now enough soldiers that arrived at the bottom to stand a chance against the onslaught of demons.

The demons that were attacking had shifted to physical types, to ones that wielded magic.

Thankfully there was a mage who was holding all of them back, standing on even terms of fire power.

An impressive mage.

There has also been a chain of command established.

It seems that soldiers who had a high ranking took charge since the generals were focused in combat.

"Change back to normal." I tapped on the force armor.

’If that is your will.’

This form should not be wasted, there will definitely be an instant when I need to use it again.

Just when I thought I could rest, all my expectations were crushed.

I had forgotten that we had been resting by the dead dragon’s rib bone.

A giant demon had peeked its head around, its eyes were inverted black with yellow pupils.

Horns from its mouth peeped out, the demon’s body was deprived of any muscle meat but I could tell.

This thing wasn’t like the other giant demons.

With a creepy smile, it reached out a hand.

Shit! My body wouldn’t move.

Jumping up, Kacon had swung his giant battle axe at the demon but his axe had been shattered.

"Impossibe!" Joka retorted, his face painted with fear.

Laughing, the demon grabbed Kacon who was struggling to break free.

"You bastard!" Joka pulled out his dual swords, but his body was shaking in fear.

Just as Kacon was being crushed, Incus had come down from the sky and severed the demon’s arm.

Dropping to the ground, Kacon coughed.

"Are you okay?" Joka rushed to him, helping Kacon stand up.

Nodding, the brute tank looked at his shattered battle axe.

"You won’t be able to engage in combat." I said, as Incus engaged in battle against the skinny demon, "Scales, turn into a battle axe for Kacon to use."

Upon my command, a black axe appeared in his hands, the length of my blade decreased considerably.

Flying around the air, Incus stood on top of the wind hero sword.

Multiple arcs of flame shot out, swallowing the demon in a fiery ember.

But the giant demon was cunning, because it was frail, the movements of its every attack was swifter than the normal giant.

Running away, the demon faked a flee and threw the back of its fist at Incus.

Getting sent slamming into the giant ribcage of the dead dragon, Incus picked herself back up and continued the momentum with countless arcs of flame.

Blocking the attacks, the demon swatted the attacks after the flame was distinguished.

The demon’s pupils jumped around, seemingly searching for something... someone.

Looking up, he saw as Incus was spinning in the air before slashing down with thunderous speed.

Landing on the ground, Incus was covered in sparks of lightning.

She switched to the lightning hero sword.

Picking up Acro, I placed his arm over my shoulder.

"Incus is likely going to start moving soon, we should hurry up and catch up." I said with a plain face.

There were so many different kinds of emotions within me that I could no longer feel anything.

Limping, everyone started chasing after Incus with slow movements.

Continuing to walk towards the hero, the sound of knights grunting and shouting as their blades collided against the demons filled the air.

The amount of Knights and Mages has increased to a considerable degree.

Marching to the side, Kacon slammed the dragon scale axe downwards at a demon who was reaching for us.

Picking up Vertere and Joka over his shoulder, Kacon picked me and Acro up.

Jogging, Kacon was kicking demons away as we were slowly catching up to Incus who was clearing the path for the knights to the area where she had carved the man made cave.

***

Reaching the temporary base camp, the generals who had stayed over were covered in wounds, a demon in a fancy yet demonic looking attire looked at us with distain written over its face.

Immediately, Incus took action and stabbed the demon.

"You’re just as the reports say... you’re quite powerful, but was it wise to kill someone like me who possibly has information–?"