The Demon Lord walked towards them calmly yet mightily. "We meet again, Hero."
Aric was in his fighting position, looking at the Demon Lord, confused as to why he was here. "Release the humans you've captured, Demon Lord."
"Humans I've captured? Now why would I do that when I can just kill them?" The Demon Lord looked at Aric with a smile.
There was a moment of silence as Aric glared at the Demon Lord. Tristan stayed quiet too, waiting for Aric to do something.
"Who else could have taken them but you or your army?"
"Ah, so the Empire doesn't know of them?" The Demon Lord looked almost confused.
"Them?" asked Aric.
"I take it they have been taking not only demons but humans too. So that's why you're here, Hero."
Aric just stood there and took a moment to think. What's he talking about? Who are they?
Then he asked, "What are you talking about??"
The Demon Lord's face turned serious again. "They are a secret organisation—enemies to humans and demons—but enough with the small talk. Why should I tell you that? Let's stop talking here and fight already. It's been so long since I've had the pleasure of fighting someone worthy of fighting me. Let's see how strong you've gotten."
The Demon Lord attacked him. Aric quickly blocked the attack with his sword. One of the commanders attacked Tristan while the others just watched.
You could hear the sound of swords clashing and sense the enormous mana being used. The monster-like demons around the area sensed the power and ran away in fear.
Tristan wasn't strong enough yet to fight a squad captain, but thankfully he had created a shield of light magic around his body, which still allowed him to fight with a sword. But his shield wasn't that strong and could withstand only around ten attacks from the demon commander, so he had to try and dodge the attacks too.
He's doing quite well against a commoner, thought Aric as he glanced towards Tristan for a bit.
The Demon Lord took his distraction as an opportunity to strike. "You should be looking at your opponent in a fight."
Aric dodged and attacked him, almost leaving a scratch on his body. "Don't worry, I am."
"Hah." Deitas smiled. "You've gotten stronger."
The fight lasted a while, but unfortunately Tristan ran out of mana and his shield broke. He felt tired and started to move slower.
Aric noticed but couldn't help. Tristan looks tired, but I can't help him while I'm fighting the Demon Lord. It's like he's getting stronger with every strike. Was the demon lord holding back from the start?
"You get distracted so easily." Deitas attacked him with a punch combined with his fire and dark magic, aiming at his stomach.
Aric was sent back and fell to one knee, but he had managed to make a small barrier around his stomach before the attack hit, so it didn't hurt that badly.
"Aric!" Tristan screamed his name, looking at him.
"Idiot, keep your eyes on your own fight!"
Just as Tristan looked at his opponent, the commander attacked him and punched him in the head.
"Should have listened to the hero," said the commander as he smacked him away, throwing him against a tree.
Tristan fell unconscious. The commander walked towards him slowly, preparing his final hit to finish him off.
"Look, Aric, as another potential hero dies in front of your eyes," the Demon Lord said to Aric.
Aric tried to go and help him but couldn't. The Demon Lord was holding him there.
Thoughts rushed through Aric's mind. Is another hero gonna die before my eyes? Why couldn't I help him? I thought I was stronger, but I'm still weak. The deaths of my comrades still haunt me to this day, but I've ignored it till now. I wasn't able to save the heroes back then, and now I can't save a person who was just about to become a hero?
The emotions started overwhelming Aric. The Demon Lord was enjoying the show when suddenly a flash of dark magic followed by light magic stars appeared around Aric.
The demon commander turned around, sensing the enormous amount of mana. "What? What the hell is that?"
A blast appeared that even pushed the Demon Lord away, injuring him with a burn mark on his hand when he tried to block it.
The captains from Squad 2 and 3, who had been observing the fight up until now, stood up.
"Was that dark mana? From a human?" said the 3rd Squad captain.
"Not only that, but dark and light mana? Such a thing has never happened nor been heard of," said the 2nd Squad captain.
Meanwhile, the 6th Squad captain forgot about his fight with Tristan and just looked at Aric.
"What… what was that?" Aric said, looking at his hands.
"No way… could he… could he really be…?" The Demon Lord looked shocked, but there was another expression on his face as well.
Aric thought quickly and took this opportunity to save Tristan. He took him on his back and ran.
Just as the commanders tried to go and catch them, the Demon Lord said, "No, let them go. Let's just return to the Demon Castle for now."
They started going back to the Demon Castle.
"Well, well… this just got a lot more interesting," the Demon Lord murmured to himself as he walked to his Castle.