Approximately two weeks had passed since everyone departed from Fuera.

The Grat Team, led by Cylia, Elsa, Lereon, Harik and Lisa, headed to the port city of Rostanta and embarked on a ship there.

While they were on the sea, they strangely did not encounter an enemy ship and luckily they did not come across Leviathan. Still, the group thought that they would at least see a few enemies on the sea as they expected them to depart to Grat, too.

Thus, they arrived in Yurt, a port town in Grat. From there, they quickly hurried to Youra, the capital.

On their way, they did not notice anything suspicious, however, none of them could shake off their uneasiness.

It was only when Youra was in sight that the group’s greatest fear turned into reality.

"W-what the hell...?" Harik muttered completely in disbelief.

"H-how terrible..!" Lisa gasped stunnedly.

"Tch...!" Elsa clicked her tongue as she clenched her fists.

"Are we already too late?" Lereon pondered.

They stopped in their tracks when they saw the flames of war having already spread in the capital with smoke rising to the grey sky.

"Keep moving!" Cylia shouted firmly, taking charge of the whole group as she led the way.

Everyone came back to their senses and followed her, including other people like volunteering students and soldiers from Rostanta.

"..."

Because she was at the front, no one could look at her face. However, she, too, was anxious and tightly gripped the reins of her monster lizard.

And as they drew nearer to Youra, the panicking and despairing screams of the citizens echoed all over the place.

The Grat Team looked at their surroundings but they had to see an enemy yet. However, once they directed their gaze at the palace, they saw a group of silhouettes of demons flying above it.

Thus, they picked up their pace to the palace but they soon had to slow down again as they noticed a group of people blocking their way.

"..."

Lereon frowned sharply upon their sight.

"Looks like you finally made it here." Loram scoffed.

Beside him, Eliza and Werena were taking up their fighting stance. And behind them, in turn, were their hand-picked candidates from the Grand Order. Even the candidates of Lereon and Elsa were on their side.

"..."

Neither Elsa nor the others had the need to exchange some words with the people who betrayed them.

"Your Highness, captain and you two. Leave them to me and head toward the palace." Lereon suggested with a serious tone.

"Are you crazy, Lereon?!" Elsa scolded him.

"I will fight, too!" Harik announced out of nowhere.

"Hey, wait a minute, you two!"

"The longer we stay here as an entire group, the faster we will be surrounded by more enemies. Now use the chance and move forward until our ways are completely blocked off." Lereon stated.

"..."

Elsa hesitated for a moment.

"Fine."

She turned her back to him and ran.

Lisa and Cylia followed her, however, Lisa still looked back at Harik concernedly.

Despite a few soldiers and students following them, their group was pretty small.

"Don’t look back." Elsa said calmly.

"They resolved themselves to do this." she added.

"..."

Bitterly, Lisa looked to the front.

"Are you sure?" Lereon asked after Elsa and the others left.

"Yes." Harik replied both nervously and firmly.

"I see."

Lereon took off his robe and threw it into the air.

"I respect your decision." Lereon praised Harik.

Lereon’s group was superior to them in numbers but it only took one glance to realize that the enemy’s group consisted of stronger individuals.

"Prepare yourselves!" Lereon shouted vigorously.

Harik, too, threw his robe to the side, revealing his new and customized clothes.

He abandoned his Loogam attire and now wore a fully black outfit. His pants, whose lower leg parts were armored, were loose and paired with boots. His shirt was skin-tight and he wore chest armor. While his left arm was exposed, his right arm was partly covered in armor, especially his hand.

"..."

Harik took a deep breath before he charged at the enemies.

In the meantime, Elsa’s group almost reached their destination.

They noticed along the way that there were fewer and fewer people the further they headed to the palace until there was not a single soul in sight. However, instead of people, the group encountered a different species.

Elsa looked at the new wave of enemies tensely with nervous students behind her back.

"What now...?" Elsa muttered with a tense smile.

Ahead of them were four demons. Two were most likely B-ranks whereas the other two were definitely A-ranks.

"Capt-"

"Lisa. Take everyone and move forward." Elsa commanded sternly.

Everyone, including Cylia, widened their eyes.

Lereon’s proposal back then already sounded crazy but Elsa topped him.

"We’re currently lacking information here. That’s why we should get a clear image of who’s leading them and how big that army is."

As of now, the army appeared small but the army consisted of elite individuals in return.

"This is our opportunity to find out everything we need. We don’t need to fight that army back today. Just focus on gathering information." she added.

During their trip to Grat, be it on the sea or on land, the group did not learn anything about Youra’s current situation nor did anyone know that the capital was under attack. Even Cylia did not notice any strange movements of a group before heading to Loogam.

In other words, the only way to get their hands on the information they wanted was to see it with their own eyes.

"The moment you feel that the situation turns for the worst, launch a signal. We will retreat immediately then."

Lisa was still reluctant to leave Elsa on her own.

"U-understood..."

Nonetheless, she obeyed her captain.

"Now move!"

Gritting her teeth, Lisa and Cylia led the others to the palace.

"..."

Meanwhile, the demons let do as they pleased.

They looked at them running with an indifferent expression.

Elsa noticed their attitude and wondered why none of them chased after them although it was better for her that they did not do that.

Instead, the demons all descended to the ground.

"You should have retreated the moment you set foot in Youra." one of the demons huffed arrogantly.

"I’m starting to feel pity for you all." another one chuckled.

"I acknowledge the strength of your army, however, it doesn’t matter how big or strong that army is."

"In the end, you will all die here and now anyways!" the fourth demon finished with a wide and eerie grin.

Elsa raised her guard to the maximum and readied herself.

Moments later, Lisa’s group entered the palace. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The group was tense and inspected their surroundings thoroughly as they headed deeper inside.

The interior of the palace was a complete mess. There were traces of deep sword cuts in the walls right beside trails of blood. The stench of corpses and rotten flesh also polluted the air in the building.

Strangely, there were no signs of enemies being in the hall or any other rooms.

"..."

However, the closer they came to the throne room, the more corpses laid on the ground. And the shocking thing was that all those corpses belonged to the soldiers here. None of those corpses belonged to an enemy.

Unbeknownst to Lisa, her body began to tremble slightly.

She reached her hand out to the door of the throne room.

"!"

But the moment she touched the door, she flinched and drew her hand back in an instant.

"Haa... Haa..." she exhaled raggedly.

Lisa broke into a cold sweat.

"..."

Cylia already took her fighting stance as she had her hand on her sword’s handle already.

She was as nervous and scared as Lisa, however, as the queen of Grat she could not allow herself to run away from her own throne.

"E-everyone, l-leave..." Lisa stuttered with her eyes glued to the door.

"L-leave quickly... N-now...!"

Her tone sounded more desperate. The students and soldiers noticed that and ran away.

Their words were stuck in their throats and it felt like they would fall to their knees if they had stayed a second longer. And although they felt ashamed for running away, they were glad that Lisa ordered them to leave.

"Are you going to enter or not?"

"?!"

Suddenly, a voice was heard from inside the throne room. Lisa instantly knew that the voice belonged to the person who was the cause of the pressure she was feeling all the time inside the palace.

With a shaking hand, she opened the door reflexively.

"..."

They thought that the halls were already a mess but the throne room was even levels above that.

There were corpses of soldiers and rubble scattered around the room. Puddles of blood in some spots. The walls were partly destroyed and slashed. The roof also had holes in it.

But Lisa and Cylia’s attention was drawn to the black-armored individual sitting on the throne.

And that individual was none other than Dreyar, the S-rank demon.