[Tekoa Town]

Pushing off the rocks that is currently burying him, Jabarin then slowly stood up from the rubble, as he grabbed his greatsword from underneath the earth and pulled it back above the surface alongside him. After doing that, he then stabbed the sword unto the ground, as he catches his breath while taking off the pieces of broken armor on his body.

He couldn't believe that in just one attack, that monster was able to break some of his armor that was herald as one of the toughest armor in this kingdom. He doesn't know what happened to Ester but upon seeing just how easily he overpowered the durability of his armor, Jabarin then came into conclusion that Ester might have the capacity to even destroy the kingdom.

Luckily the place where he transformed was in the outskirts town of this kingdom, with that he could do something about this incident before it could blew up and started to cause chaos in the other territory, much more before he could get criticized by the leaders of this kingdom and held him responsible to this incident.

In that moment just as he was about to get ready to head back and confront Ester who had transformed into a monster, Rueben then showed up at the place where he crashed as he called him out.

"Commander Jabarin!"

"???... Captain Rueben"

"Thank God your alive, I saw you crashing to this place, so I chased after you in hopes that I can atleast save you"

"I appreciate the thought captain, but I can carry my own weight, this much is nothing to me"

After that he then looked at the monsterfied Ester before he pose a question towards Rueben.

"By the way, captain! You've been the assisting captain of Ester in the past for quite a long time right? Do you know what type of monster he had transformed into this time"

Hearing his question, Rueben then once more look at the monsters direction as he came to know that such monster was Ester himself. In fact this revelation came to a surprise for him as he didn't expect Ester could turn to such monster before nor has he have any knowledge of such transformation. What's more the monster he had transformed this time is so hideous that it instill fear on anyone who sees it.

As far as he knows, Ester never had such transformation throughout the time he was together with him, so which begs the question, where did he get such transformation? After all Ester only transformed into monsters that he had already seen in the past, so meaning at some point in time he must have met such monster in his past, cause aside from that, there was nothing that could explain how Ester could transform into such monster.

"I... I don't know, this is the first time I see that transformation... but your telling me that monster is Ester?"

"Yes, since you don't know that transformation, then that mean I will have to fight it completely blind... by the way where is Mayor Zoabi? Is he safe?"

Upon hearing that, Ester hesitated to answer the question for a moment as he doesn't know how to convey to Jabarin that the mayor is dead, especially since he had seen from afar how the monster killed the mayor brutally with no mercy. Nevertheless he had to answer it.

"The mayor... the mayor is dead"

With that Jabarin took a moment of silence as if he had a lot of things on his mind, before replying.

"Alright, since that is the case then all I have to stress out with is how to kill that monster... Rueben, call the members of the group, tell them that we need to kill Ester now before he could run off to the other territories near this place"

"They... they are also dead, all of them are dead" said by Rueben as if he is afraid at the same time getting ready for Jabarin's outburst.

However instead of hearing shock and curses all over, he then noticed that Jabarin is simply silent as he noticed him shaking in anger after hearing the news. At first Jabarin wanted to deny the news of his members death, but seeing that it was useless to deny such truth and nothing can be changed about it, he then tried to confirm the news to Rueben before making his next decision.

"Are you sure they are dead?"

Hearing the anger in his voice, Rueben then swallowed his saliva, before he then answered.

"Yes! The troops under my command saw the bodies of Segel, Amit, and Vaknin lying on the floor dead, as for Adri, there was no confirmation yet, but we just assumed that his dead since the people helping Ester are all still alive"

The moment Jabarin heard that confirmation, he then held in his anger as he replied with a suppressed anger.

"Alright! Let's take care of the monster first... after that I will avenge you guys with the enemies heads" ordered by Jabarin while silently muttering the second half filled with anger.

As for Rueben who didn't catch the second part of what Jabarin said, he simply nodded accordingly as they really needed to take care of the monsterfied Ester. Even though him and Ester had a history, he has no choice on this matter as the person himself is currently uncontrollable.

No matter what Ester had to be stopped, as for its helpers, that will be a topic after dealing with Ester.

Meanwhile on another area, as the souls of the deceased gathers towards the monster, Asagi then quickly decided that the monster had to be stopped as she begun to give out command so that the monsters rampage could be restrained into the town itself and not towards the other territories.

"Alright heads up! We don't know what it's doing, but we know that it isn't good, for starters Azrael, me, and Zaheer will try and take down the monster while Sato, Takahashi, and Ban will gather all the residents of the town and protect them at all cost"

Hearing that Sato then raised and objection as he called out towards Asagi.

"I can't accept that, let me fight too"

"I can't, have you looked at yourself on the mirror? You are in no shape to fight, all you can do now is protect the people that are meant to be protected... I don't know why, but I got a feeling that if we let the residents of this town die, something bad will happen"

"... No please, I'm a hero, let me prove myself, I can fight that thing with you guys... this is the reason why I am here"

Hearing Sato's words, Asagi then realized just how much the title of the hero been bugging Sato throughout the journey. In his vocabulary, a hero is someone who always faces challenges no matter how hard they get, they never gave up, and mostly a stubborn bunch which is quite a popular description for modern literary of a hero.

However reality and fiction is always different. Even though it is stated in the fiction that a hero is always brave when confronting a crisis, how can one be sure that the hero doesn't feel fear when put in that situation where the possibility of dying is high?. A hero is also a human and for humans, it is quite impossible for them to lock up their emotions at all times

They may train for it, be born without it, but in times where they are put in a spot and the stakes at high, a human would always fail to contain their emotion, such is human nature.

This time by the looks of it, Sato isn't fit to fight at all. He had just finished one tough battle and almost depleted everything he had, as a hero he had already done enough. Unfortunately with this crisis at hand it seems like he wouldn't take being in the sidelines and wanted to fight the monster. However if he does that, there is a high possibility of him dying, simply put he is still not strong enough to endure this long battle.

"No! You will protect the residents of this town Sato, that is your duty of a hero, always remember you are not fighting alone, plus your side will be put in an even greater pressure since the one combatant your side has is you and Takahashi, the other two is still unconscious and Ban is busy healing them... as for Asmaveth, you know full well we can't use his powers here... I'm not saying your useless, but all I'm saying is that your not strong enough for this yet"

"....."

"Protect the people"

After Asagi said that, he then motioned to both Azrael and Zaheer to begin the operation, as both of them ran off towards the monsters direction, as for Asagi he then let go of Sato and turn to face Ban.

"Ban as a saintess, I trust that you will protect them"

"... I will your majesty!"

With those words Asagi then took flight as she opened up her wings and flew towards the monsters direction. As for Sato when he saw the other group going towards the monster with the intent to take it down, he then felt bitter on his mouth as he can't believe that he is worthless in this situation.

"Am I really a hero?"

While Sato was muttering this, Takahashi tapped his shoulder as he said to him.

"Let's go! We need to gather everyone towards this area, we need to save as many residents as we can"

"Don't worry about me! I'll put up a domain in this area to serves as a safe point" assured by Ban

In accordance to her, both Asmaveth and Talia nodded at her words, giving Takahashi a sigh of relief since everyone is so cooperative. As for Sato, after thinking it through, he then nodded to him, as he followed along when Takahashi begun to move.

In this very moment when all sides are making their move on how to deal with the situation, the monster then soon finished absorbing the soul as various pops could be heard all over its body as its muscles are being adjusted to the new found strength it has discovered. By absorbing the souls, the monster had grown stronger as his figure became even more intricate and detailed as it was finally taking form.

Upon seeing this, Asagi's fear came through as the monster grew stronger the more it absorbs the souls of the deceased. With that she then stopped towards a building that quite a few blocks away from it, as she raised up her hand into the air and conjured a huge magic circle that is made up of 12 smaller circles containing luminous projectile spells, after casting that huge circle, she then called out the name of the spell, as she launched a barrage of attack which bombarded the monster itself.

"Light Rain!!!"

As the monster got hit one after another with her spell, it then grew angry as the aggro shifted to her and the monster rushing up towards her while tanking her spells.

In response to this, Azrael quickly intercepted the monster, as it swing up its sycthe to create a massive mana wave which assaulted the monster and blowing it off its feet to crash to the ground.

The moment the monster fell, Zaheer then quickly went in to deliver his attack, Asagi quickly followed it up with a restraining spell.

"Cross slash!!!"

"Heavens chain!!!"

Getting injured by one attack and getting his arms coiled in golden chains, the monster then roared so loud that it caused a shockwave, as it tried to move its whole body as if ignoring the restraints on its arm.

Due to this display of strength that even the chains are having a hard time restraining, Asagi couldn't believe her eyes as the monster forcefully pulled the chains while trying to rush towards Zaheer.

"Just what kind of strength that is have? The chains are having a hard time restraining it"

"No use to ponder it over, we need to take it down before it could free itself from your chains, your majesty! Don't hold back"

"Alright! Alright! Just make sure it won't be able to reach me"

In this moment as Zaheer switched to his bow for a ranged attack while kiting away the monster, the monster on the otherhand became annoyed of the chains, as he grabbed it with its hand and forcefully snapped it away from the magic circle where it came from and used it to whip an attack towards Zaheer.

Due to this Zaheer was unable to dodge the attack,as he raised his defenses to an unimaginable degree while holding up a shield that he carries on his back. With one attack the whe street was destroyed, as Zaheer was blasted away through two houses before landing on the third house walls.

As for its chains that it used as a whip, since it was made out of mana, it soon dissipated into the air as it left a long a crater where the chains used to land to cause massive destruction.

***ReadAtWebnovel***