Hero of Darkness

?989 Old Friends

As the Hero of Nature's party finally completed their objective to pass the final trial and defeated Marcus Brutus, the 7th Hero of Nature, a similar scenario could be seen in multiple peninsulas inside Babylon.

Meanwhile, in a particular peninsula filled with lush greenery, sky-touching trees and wildlife filled with monsters, unique plantlife, and species of various beings unseen anywhere in Vantrea… a terrifying battle between multiple ginormous golems made of different elements of reality had concluded.

Thud!

Thud!

The nearby 20-kilometer span was now a devastated battlefield with 8 mountain-like figures fallen on the ground, being the golems that were defeated by 8 warriors of different classes.

The one common factor among all these people was that they were a combination of verdant and white cloaks with the golden emblem of a full-grown tree on their backs.

The tree's design itself contained multiple archaic runes and patterns specific to a particular race known for their mastery of magic in Vantrea.

"Phew! Finally, we are done with this drawn-out battle." spoke a tall 6'3" warrior with two curved blades in his hands.

One of these swords had lightning running across the blade while the other one was covered in smoldering dragonfire.

There were two massive 100-meter-long slashes on the body of the titanic golem that lay before this warrior with long waist-length silver hair, each slash meeting the other and forming an X-shaped cross while leaving traces of crackling lightning and scalding fire.

"This last trial was especially harder because all these guardian golems of the God's Domain were comparable to legendary rank monsters while we are stuck at Semi-Saint rank.

It would have been very easy to defeat them if we could transform into our true monster forms or at least use our domains." spoke this man with a black right arm with wolf claws.

[Shh! Not so loud, Omega. Others might hear you.

Besides, no one can know that we are not like other saints and can use our domain-related skills inside God's Domain either.

Besides, turning into our true forms or even using the Pendagron Formation would have ended things too easily.] replied a slow and eerie voice in the Samurai warrior's head.

[Shut up, Ronin!

It's not like I don't know. But I'm tired of playing weak and restricted compared to the battles we usually had with master.

Holding back just to not raise suspicion about our identity is just too… Vexing.] replied Omega with an incredulous tone while assuming his persona as Raiden Hrodvitsson.

[Besides, those two useless bums are getting on my nerves.

Mainly that bitch of a priestess who is utterly useless and can't do anything other than cling to that Hero.

All she does is act weak and pretend to be out of mana when she has to support us during battles.] responded Omega again.

Right then, another voice joined their conversation telepathically.

[I agree with the Wolf on this one. Hell, even Armin is better at supporting, healing and even fighting others on his own compared to that High-Elf bitch.

And why the hell is an incompetent nuisance like her still in the Hero's party?] spoke a warrior with two purple horns on his head.

In his hands was a black and golden colored trident as he faced his fallen opponent; a 500-meter tall and four-legged tortoise-

like golem that was now split into two halves.

To his misgivings, another voice responded…

[Because she is from the High Kings class of High Elves and was part of the Hero's Party before they were massacred in the Immortal Dungeon.

Although they blamed our master, based on what we heard from the Lightning Dragon Emperor, Vildred… the Hero of Life was there before we arrived and got killed.

His party must have died during the journey.] responded Blackwall in his Sigurd Suttungr persona who had cut off the head of a water elemental golem with 4 heads of shark-like creature.

[Yeah, yeah. I remember those bastards who made me bow in front of them.

Had it not been for the human, I would have wrecked those fuckers right there.] replied Rudra, regretting the fact that he didn't get to kill the Hero of Life's party for them insulting him outside the Immortal Dungeon.

[And you would have brought us a heap of trouble too, Snakey.

Thanks to our master handling the situation, we didn't have to flee from there too.] replied Ceril as he masqueraded as Loki Vitkisson in his mage robes as he stood on the corps of a flying red golem with wings similar to an Archaeopteryx.

[You guys are worried about insignificant things.

I'm more concerned about this good-for-nothing hero who got injured while fighting.

Seriously, even I have better control of my mana and spells while I'm only a Healer.

And this 'Hero' ran out of it during the fight despite being a Mage.

How come I'm the one with more battle experience than a chosen Hero even though I practiced Alchemy day and night all these years?] iterated Armin in his Darwin Groedari persona as thousands of roots and a small army of Treants had brought down a gorilla-like golem made with metal element.

[Haha ha! Why are you guys even surprised at their incompetence and inadequacy as warriors?

Unlike our master, most of the saints or even Heroes who had the support of powerful forces, clans, noble families, and even empires at that… Most of them relied only on resources and learned only the basic skills to raise their ranks and become a saint.

Their total battle prowess and holster of skills are nothing worth comparing to our master who trained countless hours in raising his mastery and actual combat experience despite acquiring skills for free from other beings such as warriors and monsters.

The game is not too hard… it's their Skill issue.] spoke Oliver in his humanoid form as Icarus Vedrfolnir who had put dozens of 20-meter-wide circular holes through his archery skills inside his opponent.

His declaration was met with a nod as all of them agreed wholeheartedly.

[But I do feel bad for her. She is also injured but still had to protect those useless cunts since we were all busy taking down these golem guardians.] said Ronin who was in his persona of Scorpion Banamadr.

At this moment, there was a beehive-shaped violet magical barrier 10 kilometers away and a figure of a woman covered in cuts and bruises protecting it from the outside.

Inside the barrier, was a fainted figure of Ervalen Baaslark, the Hero of Life, being healed by Myrienne, the priestess of this Hero's Party.

And the one woman with Nordic tattoos across her body and wore brown armor made from the hide of a wyvern.

In her hands was a large and black battleaxe, dripping fresh blood while her gaze was full of warrior's spirit as she faced the corpses of hundreds of monsters that now colored the ground red with their blood.

If Kahn was present here, he too would have been surprised to see her of all people present inside this party.

Because this fearless woman who enjoyed this battle against the army of monsters despite being on the brink of death was…

Lagertha Skjoldottir, the guildmaster of 12 Valkyries.