Eliam had not heard any word of heroes. In fact, he had never spoken to anyone besides Nemina or Nolmus, both of whom were not reliable sources of information. One was deranged, while the other had been isolated for decades.

  So, it was rather safe to say that the face he was making at Adrian was not one of familiarity but shock.

  Adrian sighed. “I’m guessing not then, huh.”

  Eliam shook his head while Nemina gave the two strangers her classic glare.

  “Ugh, Adrian, they’re probably just some regular civilians who ended up here for one reason or another. We’re wasting time speaking with them! Let’s just go!” she said.

  At that, Nimena’s glare somehow darkened further, and she spoke, “Excuse me? I am Nimena Novak, descendent of…”

  “We’ll be out of your way,” Eliam tried to interject.

  “Did you say Nimena Novak… as in Sagmin Novak, the hero?” Adrian asked.

  “Now that you mention it, that katana looks mighty familiar,” the woman said.

  “Hush, Zoey, we both know that such a thing being the hero’s katana is impossible… although, that name…” He turned to Nemina.

  “Just a coincidence,” she squeaked, thankfully having caught on to Eliam’s worry.

  “Ah, I see… likely just some family having taken inspiration from the hero… In that case, we will be off.” Adrian nodded to them and motioned to Zoey for them to leave.

  Moments later, they sped off, leaving Eliam and Nemina with many questions. The first one on Eliam’s mind, Nemina could answer.

  “Are you really the daughter of Sagmin?” he asked.

  She blushed. “Yes, of course I am. What of it?”

  When Eliam thought back to his past encounters, he did recall her mentioning that she was his descendant from time to time. Why it took so long to click was beyond him. Probably the intensity of the battles or something.

  “Well, nothing really. Just… why do you refer to him so formally then? Why not just say dad?” he asked.

  She glared at him. “Are you an idiot? To disrespect the great hero’s name would be… would be treason! I cannot do such a thing!”

  Eliam frowned. “Is that what he wanted from you?”

  Nemina hesitated for a moment right before slamming her foot into the ground. “That’s none of your concern!”

  Eliam let out a sigh, deciding to let go of the matter. There were a lot of emotions running through her head, and trying to reason with her like that would not be useful.

  “So? We’re out of the cathedral. What, now?” he asked.

  “Like hell if I know. My duty is to protect the sword, so preferably something that will enable that,” she suggested.

  “What about that Denovere place you mentioned?” Eliam asked.

  Nemina scoffed. “We don’t even know where we are! We could be weeks away!”

  “Well, it’s probably our best bet,” Eliam said.

  “I guess… well, let's start with getting out of here and figuring out the way from there,” she said.

  They ventured down the main path of the cave, wary of any potential dangers. However, it seemed that the people who had come through before them had already taken care of many of the nemmites. This actually served another purpose as a guide out of this place. Eliam simply followed the trail of death, which led them straight to the exit.

  Upon their exit, they were greeted with a massive castle in the distance. A wall stuck pit from each end of it, forcing anyone coming through here to go through the castle. There were a multitude of figures moving around in it, and Eliam couldn’t tell if they were people or something else.

  Nemina was squinting, observing her surroundings. “It almost looks like we’re at the Denoverian Highlands…”

  “So, close to the city?” Eliam asked hopefully.

  Nemina rolled her eyes. “Relatively, but still multiple days on foot.”

  Eliam groaned. “Relatively my ass.”

  “Excuse me?” Nemina snapped.

  “Chill out, Miss Protector. Let’s go check out that castle. Maybe they will have some sort of quicker way to get to the city,” Eliam suggested.

  “Or they could all be demons and kill us on sight!” Nemina hissed. “But I guess that’s probably our best choice right now.”

  They walked closer to the castle, surveying the area. As they walked, Nemina took the time to explain the area.

  “This is definitely the highlands, but I don’t remember a castle being there.” She turned to look behind her back.

  “And there are the Glacidious Mountains… that cave we came out of was some sort of pass through them… but I’ve never seen it before,” Nimena muttered.

  Curious, Eliam glanced behind him. Indeed, there was a large mountain range spanning for miles. At the top were snow-capped peaks. It made for quite the beautiful setting.

  “Maybe they didn’t want to pass the big mountains anymore?” Eliam pointed out.

  As they neared the castle, various people started popping up around them, performing different tasks. Some looked to be soldiers, while others seemed like adventurers.

  At first, it was a little difficult for Eliam to take in all of this. It hadn’t been that long since he still believed this all to be a dream. He could verifiably say that he no longer believed that.

  Once they neared the gate, a group of men in uniforms stopped them.

  “State your business at Fortress Longguard!” one of them commanded.

  “We were just curious of this place,” Eliam said. “Also, we kind of need to go through to pass.”

  One of the guards pulled out a list. “State your names!”

  “Uh, Eliam Edward,” he muttered.

  “Nemina Novak.”

  The guard slightly changed his expression at Nemina’s name but didn’t say anything as he read the list.

  Once he reached the end, he frowned. “Neither of you is on here.”

  “Ok? And? This is our first time visiting this place,” Eliam said.

  The man’s face darkened as he handed the list to one of the guards beside him.

  “So? What are our options?” Eliam asked.

  The man stared at them for a second before placing his hand on his sheathed sword. “Death.”

  “What?” Eliam jumped backward, dodging a strike from the man.

  “To not be on the list… means to not have come from Denovere, the last city. That must mean…”

  “He thinks we’re fiends,” Nemina finished.

  “Sir, do you think they could be heroes…” one of the guards started.

  “Nonsense, draw your weapons!”

  The guards did as they were told and started to corral around them, all of their weapons drawn.

  “What? That’s ridiculous!” Eliam said.

  “Die, fiends!” one of the guards screamed as they swung down at Eliam. He easily dodged the blade and watched as the man’s head slid off his body.

  He gaped at the corpse that was now lying messily on the ground. Had he done that? He never even attacked! That’s when he remembered. He may not have attacked, but his aura did.

  “You damn fiends!” they screamed as they charged.

  “The bells!” the man from earlier shouted. “Ring the warning bells! We are under attack!”

  Eliam had completely forgotten about his aura. He knew that it wasn’t always on as he never attacked Nemina, but he had never paid attention to the control he had on it. He was paying the price for that.

  A swarm of soldiers appeared at the top of the fortress, all armed with bows and staffs. Even more poured out of the castle gates. In a matter of seconds, Eliam and Nemina found themselves against a small army.

  Nemina growled as she placed her hand on Frostlight, ready to fight to the death. Eliam held out his fists, trying to look menacing in his own right. He really needed to stop losing that damn dagger.

  With a roar, dozens of arrows and spells were let loose, all focusing in on Eliam and Nemina. At the same time, the soldiers charged at them.

  Nemina tried focusing on blocking as many as she could, but multiple projectiles ended up hitting her. Eliam, on the other hand, was completely fine, thanks to his aura. At least, he was physically.

  He tried to run over to Nemina, who had gotten separated while fighting, but a few soldiers stepped in his way. They crumpled a few seconds after they neared him, similar to how the previous guards did. He ignored them and continued to rush to Nemina, who was trying to fend off the projectiles and doing a miserable job at it. At least her aura prevented any soldiers from getting too close.

  Eliam watched as, right before he got into range to protect her, an arrow slid right by the Frostlight's blade and sunk into her neck. She gasped as she fell to the ground and started gurgling up blood.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “No!” Eliam screeched as he dropped to her side.

  She looked at him sadly as she choked on her own blood. She held out Frostlight to him and mouthed, “Please, protect it.”

  Seconds later, her body paled, and she went limp. She was dead.

  He turned toward the army of people, enraged. They hadn’t been fiends or trying to harm them. Yet, they attacked them without reason?

  He sliced the nearest guard’s head off with a clean cut and launched himself into battle. One after another, he cut them down mercilessly. If Frostlight didn’t taste blood, then his aura did.

  He continued to brutally slaughter everyone who got in his way until there was no one left outside. The soldiers in the castle quickly panicked and slammed the castle gates shut. They were afraid of letting a monster like him inside.

  Eliam looked to the sky, tears running down his face. What the hell? What was this world? Why was it so cruel?

  He dragged himself away from the castle, following the wall to the left. The right only led to the side of a mountain.

  He followed the wall for hours until, finally, it dropped off into a gloomy forest. Eliam stumbled inside, wandering around aimlessly until the sound of singing reached his ears.

  Typically, Eliam would have immediately taken this as a bad sign and left. After all, when was random singing ever a good thing? However, he was not in the right state of mind after his berserk, and honestly, he was kind of looking to die.

  He moved to investigate the singing, not bothering to be silent while doing so. That’s probably why the singing stopped as soon as he neared it.

  The forest became deathly still, and Eliam felt the premonition of something bad happening.

  Such a feeling came abruptly came true when a screech sounded and multiple shuffles sounded around him. Eliam drew Frostlight, taking in a deep breath.

  His aura suddenly slashed a projectile to shreds, as multiple screeches sounded from around him. A bird-human hybrid suddenly flew out of one of the trees and straight toward Eliam, its claws outstrected, ready to kill.

  He blocked it with Frostlight; however, another bounded toward him from behind. The one’s claws slice into his back like butter, flaying his skin apart.

  He yelled out in pain as he wildly slashed behind him. To make matters worse, his aura didn’t seem to be damaging the creatures at all.

  Another whipped by him, dragging its claws through his left arm. He felt himself lose control of it as it fell limply to his side. After another few flybys, Eliam was reduced to a harmless state.

  He glared at the bird creatures, his body torn to shreds. They seemed to be waiting to finish him. He soon found out why.

  A larger version of them landed in front of him. It seemed older, as its feathers were starting to fade and its face sagging. It observed him for minutes before screeching and sticking its claws into his neck.

  ***

  He was back in the canyon, staring at the dusty walls surrounding him. He had made it so far this last time, it almost felt hopeless to do it all over again. He had done it. He had finally escaped the damned canyon, only to end up in another impossible situation again.

  He would either have to fight those weird ass bird things or face off against an army, all while trying to ensure nothing happened to Nemina.

  Speaking of her, it was always a pain to convince her to his side, mainly because he had to defeat her. She was still incredibly tough to fight. One mistake with her could quickly lead to the end of the run.

  With some time to think, he pulled up his status. He remembered getting that bell noise detailing his level-up while fighting all those people. They each gave very little essence, but altogether, it was a lot. Enough to finally level up again.

  Stat points available: 1

  Eliam Edward

  Level: 51

  HP: 270/270

  MP: 65/65

  Life: 27

  Mind: 13

  Endurance: 12

  Strength: 3

  Dexterity: 30

  Intelligence: 3

  Aura:

  Razor Sharp→Air itself is sharpened, damaging foes and projectiles around you. Bypasses defense.

  He had a single stat point to assign, and he did so. This time, he put it into his mind stat as he found that he never had enough MP to use more than a few abilities.

  With that done, Eliam groaned and got back to his feet. He gathered the usual ring from the statue and rushed through the cathedral dungeon. He wanted to just kill Nolmus and get it over with, but he didn’t know if Nemina would end up trusting him if he wasn’t there. Knowing her, she would blame him for the tunnel to the Nircozonian Domain.

  So, he dropped down to the altar with the sword. He entered the room and barked, “Just come down already, and let’s get this over with.”

  Moments later, Nemina dropped down and frowned at him. “Do you know where you are? How dare you…”

  “Pick up Frostlight.” Eliam motioned.

  Nemina froze but did that all the same. Except as she did, something odd happened. She looked up at Eliam with wide eyes.

  “You… who are you?” she asked.

  “Huh? Why aren’t you using blink yet?” he asked.

  Her eyes widened further. “Answer me!”

  “What? What is going on?” he asked.

  “Frostlight… it doesn’t want me to attack you…” she muttered.

  Eliam froze and then started to laugh. That’s right, he had forgotten that Frostlight had showed signs of life. It must have been getting more fond of him as he slayed more fiends.

  He shrugged. “It must be like me.”

  She glared at him. “That’s… just not possible.”

  “Well, it is. Now, I think it’s pertinent at this point to mention that there is a necromancer likely making his way to our locations as we speak. He came from a tunnel he created from the Nircozonian domain,” Eliam explained.

  Nimena gasped at his explanation. “What?”

  She glanced at something behind him, and Eliam’s expression darkened.

  “However did you know that?” Nolmus asked from behind.

  Nolmus arrived here much earlier than usual, which seemed impossible. Why was he here so early?

  “I dunno, magic, I guess.” Eliam shrugged, showing no signs of his internal panic.

  Nolmus growled as he waved his staff around. Unfortunately for him, Nemina was not out for the count as she usually was. In a flash, she appeared next to Nolmus. In a single swing, she beheaded him. He collapsed to the floor, dead.

  That was pretty much how Eliam figured it would go. The only way Nolmus would ever beat her was by overwhelming her with hordes of skeletons and that skeleton-beast thing. Otherwise, there was no way he would ever stand a chance.

  Still, it was disturbing that something had changed. Perhaps, Eliam had done something slightly different. Yeah, that had to have been it.

  Nemina turned back toward him. “You! Explain yourself! Why does Frostlight not want to kill you?”

  Eliam shrugged. “I’ve used it before.”

  She snarled. “Impossible. I’ve been watching it my entire life. I’ve never seen you before.”

  “And I haven’t… not in this life anyway. Listen, I don’t have a great excuse, but trust me when I say I’m one of the good guys,” he reasoned.

  “I don’t trust you,” she hissed. “But I don’t have a choice if Frostlight wishes not to harm you. Going against its will would only lead to my death.”

  Eliam was playing it off, but he was stoked about this. It was a great relief that he wouldn’t have to fight Nemina from now on.

  “Great, now we need to get out of here,” Eliam said. He walked over to Nomus’s body and snatched the amulet off it.

  Nemina glared at him as he did this. “What is that?”

  He glanced at her. “An amulet.”

  “Its name?” she asked.

  “Uh, Amulet of the Hero,” he muttered

  She practically screamed as she sprinted at him and yanked it out of his hand. “How dare you! That belongs to the hero, Sagmin! The audacity to…”

  She glared at the sword. Not Eliam, but the sword in her hand. “Why are you! I can’t believe this!”

  She shoved the amulet back at Eliam with a huff. He slowly grabbed it and put it back on. Nemina winced at the sight but sighed in the end.

  “What a stupid sword… Ow!” she winced as she clutched the hand that was holding it.

  “Alright, are you ready? Now?” Eliam asked.

  “I suppose so. If there truly is a tunnel to the Nircozonian Domain, then this place is compromised,” Nemina said.

  “No, shit,” Eliam said.

  Nemina groaned. “You are so obnoxious! Do you not recognize that this a big deal for me?”

  “Big deal or not, we gotta go. The longer we spend here, the longer some eyeball thing or something else can pop in here,” Eliam explained.

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it… Let’s go,” Nemina said.

  They similarly left the cathedral as they did before. The only difference was that they didn’t rest as neither of them had spent themselves as much.

  The time came when Nemina saw Sara, and the same reaction occurred. Except this time, Eliam asked her if she wanted him to take care of it right away. She glared at him but ultimately nodded and allowed him to use Frostlight. It seemed that Frostlight ‘trusting’ him made a bigger difference than he had thought.

  He plugged up his ears and went down to face up against Sara. The battle wasn’t easy, but he never felt like he was in danger of losing his life. Soon, the deed was done. He once again noticed that Frostlight sucked up the essence from the kill.

  After that, Eliam and Nemina traveled through the temple, killed whatever zombies stalked toward them, and eventually made it back to the cave.

  This time, they were not interrupted by Adrian or Zoey. This would turn out to be more of a bad thing than good because it meant dealing with all the nemmites that were plaguing the cave. It also meant no obvious path as to where the exit was.

  Still, eventually, Eliam and Nemina were able to make it out. Nemina gasped once she saw where they were, and a similar discussion to the 1st occurred. Except this time, Eliam declared that they would not be going anywhere near the castle, right outside the entrance to the cave.

  “What? Why?” Nemina asked.

  “Think about it. We never came through from the city. They will probably think we’re fiends or something,” Eliam explained

  Nemina paled. “Ah, you’re probably right about that.” She carefully looked at the fortress and sighed. “There’s no way to the right and the left…”

  Eliam already knew what she was going to say. The left would lead to the forest, where all those bird people were.

  “Well, it’s not safe, even for someone like me,” Nemina said

  “Do we have a choice?” Eliam asked.

  “I guess not,” Nemina huffed. “The forest is full of harpies. They sing to attract people to their location and then ambush them. Worse yet, they are strong. Much stronger than what they should be based on the surrounding areas.”

  Eliam sure as hell knew that what Nemina was saying was true. He had gotten that experience first-hand.

  “Is there any good way to handle them?” Eliam asked.

  Nemina snorted. “Yeah, staying away from them… I guess if I had to, I could teleport above them with Frostlight and take them like that. Although, I’m not sure how long my MP could last like that.”

  With some semblance of a plan in mind, they walked along the wall. When it finally ended, deep inside the forest, Nemina’s eyes sharpened.

  “Be careful. They don’t all sing. Some just sit in trees, waiting to ambush anyone who passes by,” Nemina mentioned.

  “And what of the old one?” Eliam asked.

  She gave him an odd look. “Old one… do you mean a harpy mother? If one of those is here, then we will probably die.”

  Eliam froze, remembering the image of the older looking harpy the other ones seemed to have a lot of respect for.

  “Uh, why is that?” he asked.

  “They’re a type of fiend, so they can use magic. This, combined with their already powerful harpy abilities, means they become deadly very fast,” Nemina explained.

  “Perhaps we should go around the forest then,” Eliam said.

  Nemina shook her head. “Even if we could, they’re super rare. If we ran into one, it would just be due to really horrible luck.”

  “Why can’t we?”

  “Really? How do you not know anything? Past the forest is a chasm to the Nircozonian Domain. I’m sure could use that brain of yours to figure out why that would be a much worse option,” Nimena said.

  Eliam nodded, although he wasn’t feeling any of the options he had. He knew that there was one of those harpy mothers in there. This journey through the forest would be much more difficult than he thought.

  “Now, let’s stop dawdling and move out. The longer we wait here, the more danger Frostlight is exposed to.” Nemina started into the forest, ignorant of the true dangers that lay inside.

  “Wait!” Eliam shouted.

  “What is it now!” she hissed.

  “There’s a harpy mother in there… If we just waltz in there, we are going to die,” he explained.

  She looked at him oddly. “How would you even know that?”

  Eliam shifted uncomfortably. “Well, because I’ve done this all before.”

  Hello to everyone, and thanks for reading this far! Recently, I stayed up till 3 am in the morning and sacrificed sleep to do a big edit on all the noticeable flaws I have noticed in my story. None of these changes will affect where the story will go or would have gone, but they ruin immersion, which is unacceptable for me.

  Changes took place on 4/8/2025, so if you’re from after that, then you have no idea what I’m talking about, lol.

  List of changes:

  There is no " fiend slain” message. I removed it. The katana will still steal level up from essence of fiends, though.

  Included Nemina’s aura more often in battles. Mentioned Nolmus’s aura a few more times.

  Changed instances of ‘the sword’ to either ‘the katana’ or ‘Frostlight’.

  Fixed whatever grammar errors I found.

  Sara classifies as a fiend, so Frostlight takes essence from her.

  Add more context on the Amulet of the Hero. Eliam picks it up instead of forgetting about it.

  Edited the scene when he runs through the cathedral dungeon so that it better aligns with how the dungeon is when he goes through it.

  Changed some wording throughout to maintain vision and ensure consistency.

  The hero weapons, such as Frostlight, cannot simply be destroyed but can be taken to Quarlak or some other higher-up for them to try to destroy it.

  Removed the stamina bar as I felt it was just too clunky.

  For some reason, I put that Sagmin died in battle and of old age. He officially died of old age.

  I’ve put some random stuff about Nemina, but officially, she is Sagmin’s daughter.

  This should wrap up everything I’ve done. If anyone ever sees flaws such as this, please make sure to tell me. I always strive to be a better writer, so it is helpful for me to figure these out. if you have any questions, then please ask.

  Finally, be sure to leave a review on the story and comment. It really helps out a lot and promotes my journey to get on Rising Stars.