Think, Melina, what could you do?
Her fists clenched, but Alistair put his hand on her shoulder and whispered. "Whatever you decide, I'm always with you."
His presence was both reassuring and a burden. She didn't want anything bad happening to him. The only way to achieve that was to avoid fighting. But was that even possible in this scenario? She needed to figure something out. To somehow incapacitate the System users while keeping the captured soldiers safe.
"We'll continue on," Melina said through gritted teeth.
"Excellent, I knew we could come to an understanding," Heiliger smiled victoriously. Melina had the urge to throw a fireball in her face just to wipe that smug grin off her face.
However, Melina understood that she was helpless in this situation. There was only one person who could make a change. She would have to trust that he would do the right thing.
It didn't take long for Elowen to realize that the Church was leading Melina straight into the Monster Lord's grasp. How did they know the way there? Elowen had no clue. Perhaps there was another spy who relayed this information to them, or perhaps they had sent a scout to the Monster Realm ahead of time. But how didn't matter currently.
What mattered was figuring out how to warn Melina about it. Elowen and his small group of elves were following some distance behind the expedition, remaining out of sight. They also made sure to spread out so that, in case any of the System users had a detection skill of some sort, they'd dismiss them as individual monsters skulking about the Monster Realm, rather than a group of organized elves.
Elowen let out a melodious whistle, mimicking the song of whistlewisps, thus signaling to other elves that trouble had arisen. A few moments later, Remi appeared next to him, her expression stern.
"Did something happen to Melina?" She whispered in a barely audible voice.
"They're heading to the Monster Lord tower," he replied in an equally quiet voice.
Remi's eyes widened in shock. He could see that the girl had a lot she wanted to say, but remained quiet out of caution. "What do we do?"
"We have to warn Melina," Elowen said. There was a chance that she had already realized it, but they couldn't take it for granted. They had only walked this path at night, so it was possible for her not to recognize it.
"Should I do it? I'm confident that they won't notice me," Remi said.
Elowen couldn't deny that Remi was by far the sneakiest out of all elves if she wanted to be. Small and nimble, she could effectively sneak up close and remain unnoticed. He would entrust this task to her, and, for the time being, continue tailing the group from a safe distance.
Some time passed, and Remi soon returned, her expression filled with worry. "Some of the Sinclair soldiers have been taken hostage. Melina and Lord Sinclair had no choice but to continue forward."
"What?!" Elowen exclaimed in shock. Hostages? How did that happen so quickly? "Are they still continuing down the same path?"
"Yes," Remi confirmed. "What do we do?"
Elowen thought about it. What could they do? Six elves against sixty System users. There was no way they could safely free all of the soldiers. Not to mention that Elowen was the only elf with the System. He alone couldn't overpower them, not even if Melina and Sinclair joined the fight. Sienna and Knight could do some serious damage, but it would be chaotic.
As powerful as they were, they were by no means invincible. Not even their memories could give them enough of an advantage to win. But there had to be something he could do.
Elowen frowned. He could think of only one scenario where they could get out of this situation without bloodshed. But even then, the chances of them succeeding were slim. But perhaps, the Monster Lord would listen. Elowen had to try. The groundwork had been laid.
"We're going to the Monster Lord. Ahead of the expedition," Elowen said to Remi.
"To the Monster Lord?! Are you crazy? Did you forget what he did to Melina?" Remi objected.
"But currently, we are in his domain. He's the only one who has the power in this place. The best we can do is convince him that we are his friends and not foes," Elowen said.
Remi frowned. "Are you sure that's the only way we have?"
"The only one without bloodshed."
"What if he decides to attack Melina again?"
"Then we'll do our best to stop him."
Although Elowen had no conviction that this plan would work, he kept his voice strong. Melina believed that cooperation with the Monster Lord was the right way forward. He knew that the only way to truly prevent the disaster was for Human and Monster Realm inhabitants to learn how to live together peacefully. This was the first real step towards that.
The expedition proceeded forward, but the atmosphere was completely different from before. Melina and Alistair continued forward, but their gait was tense, and it was difficult to keep Knight calm. Nightmare seemingly wanted nothing more than to attack the System users and free the captured soldiers.
But Alistair was able to keep him calm, if only barely. If it were just Melina, then the nightmare would have likely gone crazy already. On the other hand, his ability to hide in shadows would be invaluable once the fight did break out.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Melina prayed that it wouldn't be a three-sided battle among the Church, Sunglow forces, and the Monster Lord. That would be the worst possible scenario. First priority would be to free the captured soldiers. Ideally, they save them all, but realistically, Melina wasn't sure if she could.
Continuing to engage in the battle would be foolish, so Melina would try to teleport as many soldiers away as possible. Her teleportation point was still active, so it wouldn't take as much mana to teleport everyone. However, even then, teleporting fifty soldiers would likely take all of her mana reserves, even with the abundant mana of the Monster Realm renewing her reserves at an alarming rate.
Once all of them were back at the passageway, they called for reinforcement from the Guild. Perhaps even request more soldiers from Duke Sinclair. After that, they'd ideally force the Church forces to surrender, but no matter the outcome, the fallout afterwards would likely shake the whole country to its core.
While Melina ran these and a hundred other scenarios and possible spells through her mind, she realized that they were coming closer to the Monster Lord's tower. Even at the slow pace that the expedition was travelling it still took them less than a day to get close to it.
"Do behave, Melina. We must show unity in front of our enemy. Do you understand?" Heiliger called from behind, and the System users holding soldiers captivated pressed their knives deeper into their skin to emphasize the point.
"Of course," Melina replied mechanically, even
"Wonderful. Let's keep going, everyone. Today we're going to make history," Heiliger announced, and the Church members let out a loud cheer.
There was no way that the Monster Lord's drow hadn't noticed their approach. Most likely, the Monster Lord had already received the report of Melina approaching the Church. The only reason they hadn't reacted yet was that they were likely gathering forces and observing the situation.
"Forward," Heiliger commanded.
Melina's heart sped up. She was going through spells she could use to protect herself and Alistair, Knight, and Sienna, as well as the Sinclair soldiers. Why would Heiliger just openly approach the Monster Lord this way? Even if she was trying to pin Melina and the Monster Lord against each other, what about her own people? Did she have a plan for getting them out to safety? There must be more to her plan than just pure spite.
"Stop!" A loud voice reverberated through the forest, forcing everyone to stop in their tracks.
Initially, Melina couldn't see who had said that, but after a moment, she saw a lone drow standing near the top of a rockpine.
Heiliger snickered in response. "In the name of System God, step aside. We are here on a holy mission. Interference with it will be met with appropriate measures."
"This is your only warning, humans! Return to your realm," the drow called.
Heiliger smiled, then glanced at one of the System users. Before Melina could blink, they had unleashed a fire-empowered arrow straight at the drow. Before the arrow could hit him, the drow disappeared, reappearing right in front of their group. Right in front of Knight.
"You have been warned, humans!" The drow said, looking straight at Melina and then disappearing yet again.
"Be ready, everyone!" Heiliger commanded, and the System users withdrew their weapons. Some had swords, some had spears, but the vast majority were either magic users or rogues of some sort.
Once everyone had their weapons drawn, Heiliger turned to Alistair and Melina. "Would you do the honors of taking charge? You'd want to show a good example to all the soldiers, wouldn't you?"
The threat beneath her words was clear. If Melina took a single wrong step, then the soldiers would be the ones to suffer.
"We'd love nothing more," Melina spat, pressing her hand against Alistair's chest and signalling Sienna to move over to her.
The little wyrm sped out of his armor and under the long sleeve of her coat in the blink of an eye. Melina then jumped off Knight's back, taking a step forward. "You don't mind if I take the lead, Bishop Heiliger?"
"Of course not," Heiliger smiled.
"Perhaps it'd be worth moving the soldiers closer so they could see me better?" She prompted.
Alistair watched the exchange with pursed lips but didn't interfere, instead watching everything calmly. But Melina knew that he was ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. All she had to do was give him the word, and he'd act right away. The problem was finding the right moment to act.
"Once the time is right, I'd allow them to move forward," Heiliger said, indicating that she wouldn't free the soldiers unless Melina did exactly what she told her.
"Very well," Melina was forced to say. Taking a deep breath, she walked forward, preparing for the Monster Lord and his drow to attack her at any moment.
She didn't have to wait long. Three arrows flew straight at her, forcing Melina to erect a protective shield. The arrows bounced off the shield, and then all hell broke loose as a flurry of attacks struck from all sides. Fire, wind, and ice, aimed at those positioned at the sides.
Mages sprung into action, erecting protective force fields of their own, protecting others from the Church from getting struck. Melina protected the soldiers, although a few of them withdrew their shields, which reflected the magic away from them.
A lightning bolt flew at Melina, and she, instead of wasting mana on full block, hijacked the spell, taking hold of its direction and sending it back into the forest. She could see the drow aiming their spells from there, but made sure not to strike any of them. Killing one would ruin any chance of cooperating with the Monster Lord.
Knight and Alistair disappeared somewhere among the chaos, while Heiliger remained in the center completely unbothered by the ongoing chaos. A few arrows flew straight at her, but she merely waved her hand, and they disintegrated.
Oddly enough, despite the mayhem, Sinclair soldiers were still kept in tight captivity. Glancing back, Melina saw them unable to move. There was nothing she could do but keep repelling and redirecting the incoming spells.
"So the Archmage has come to kill me yet again?" The voice of the Monster Lord reverberated through the forest, and for a moment, the spells stilled.
Inwardly, Melina wanted to scream that it wasn't what she wanted to do at all. To somehow telepathically tell him that this was all part of Heiliger's plan. Hadn't Elowen warned him? Perhaps he didn't make it to the Monster Lord in time because he and the elves kept such a big distance.
"Your tyranny is going to end here, and the hand of the most powerful Archmage," Heiliger announced with unhidden glee.
The Monster Lord's hair flared turning from a calm misty into angry watery whips that crackled as if charged with electricity. "I will not let you bring destruction to our Realm."
He released a powerful burst of mana, which forced everyone to take a step back from the strike. Everyone except Melina. She used the mana to replenish the mana she had to protect herself from the magic strikes. But Monster Lord already knew that Melina had regained her magic. Why would he deliberately use an attack that would empower her?
Melina looked back, worried about Alistair, and then saw drow striking the System users who had held the Sinclair soldiers captive. The strong mana wave had disoriented from for long enough for the drow to strike. Alistair appeared from a shadow atop Knight's back, also unaffected by the mana strike, freeing two of his men at once.
"What is going on?!" Heiliger shouted, clutching onto her chest. The mana pulse must have been overwhelming for her.
"It is simple, Bishop. The enemy of my enemy is my friend," The Monster Lord announced, and the group of elves that had been tasked with tailing the expedition appeared behind him. Elowen was smiling broadly. He had succeeded.