It was morning, the sun was shining. Aric and Kail were heading towards the guild to take a quest.
"What kind of quest should we take today?" asked Kail. "I want a hard one that will help us both get stronger!"
"I'm not sure, let's just go and check what kind of quests are left first," Aric replied. "Lately there haven't been a lot of quests coming."
As they continued walking, they saw a familiar face on their way.
"Is that Lady Viorel?" murmured Aric.
"It looks like her, but what could she be doing in the town, so far from her mansion?"
"Kail's right. Nobles don't usually leave their house, especially to go to the commoners' part of the town. No way that's her," thought Aric.
Then the woman turned around and saw Aric and Kail.
It was Lady Viorel. "Hello Aric, hello Kail." She ran towards them.
"Lady Viorel?" Both of them were shocked to see her. "Hello, it's our honor to see you again."
"No need to be so humble. We're friends now, aren't we?"
"Yes, I guess we are," said Kail. "So what brings you here, Viorel?"
"How can he be so casual with a noble this fast??" thought Aric.
"I actually come here quite often. I enjoy looking around the town," she answered.
"Alone?" asked Aric. "What if something were to happen to you?"
"I'm not alone, Cedric is here with me. He just went on a quick toilet break. Also, I'm quite strong myself," she said proudly.
They continued talking. Cedric arrived soon after that.
"Cedric, look, Aric and Kail are here. Can I go to the guild now?" Viorel asked.
Cedric gave a small smile to them as hi and then turned towards Viorel.
"Ah..." sighed he. "I've told you many times you can't, it's dangerous for you. But considering Sir Aric the hero is here, I guess you can, this once."
Viorel was so excited. She was allowed to go to the town sometimes but not to go in guilds where stronger adventurers who could put her in danger were.
"That's great!" said Kail.
"Yes," Aric agreed. "We were just heading to the guild now."
They went to the guild. The moment they entered, they saw some adventurers and staff members of the guild were gathered around a table.
"What's going on here?" Aric went towards the table. The others followed right after him.
"Hero!" The receptionist was there too. "You came just in time. Please check this out."
There was a strange item in the middle of the table. Books and papers about demon item drops and Demon Forest materials were open on the table as well.
"An adventurer found this on his way back from a quest. He brought it here to see what it was, but we couldn't find anything about this item," said the receptionist.
"It does look familiar..." thought Aric, then he said, "It might be a new item from a new type of demon?"
"Yes, that's what we thought too, but the adventurer didn't find it in the Demon Forest but in the city. If this really is from a demon, then that means that demon might be in the city!" said the receptionist with a worried look.
"That is bad," said Kail. "We need to make search parties to find the demon and protect the people."
"Wait, something doesn't add up here. If a demon was here, there's no way I wouldn't be able to sense his dark mana," Aric said with a worried look. "And that means if a demon is here and I haven't sensed it, it is a demon from the Demon Lord's army. A high-ranking one who can suppress his dark mana."
"Let's not jump to conclusions. This item might have fallen off a bag from an adventurer on the road. And as to why there isn't anything about it in the books—it might be a secret item," said Viorel.
There are twenty secret items that exist in the Empire. They are items that are found in the Demon Lord's area of the forest and only demons can use them because they need dark mana to be activated. Only high-ranking nobles have books about them and are able to keep them if they find one.
"My father has a hobby of collecting them and sends high-ranking adventurers to get them sometimes," added Viorel. "Why don't we go to the mansion and research about it in any of the books in my library?"
"I guess it could be that too," said Aric.
Then they went to Viorel's mansion. On their way there, Aric sensed something near the guild. When he turned around, nothing was there.
"What's wrong?" asked Kail.
"Nothing," replied Aric.
"This whole thing is getting to my head, I'm starting to imagine things. Let's just go to the library for now," Aric thought.
After a bit, they arrived at the mansion. The library there was very big, all the bookshelves were filled with books. An elderly man was there putting them in the right place.
"Lady Viorel, what brings you here today?" he asked.
"Hello, we are looking for the book about the secret demon items. Could you bring us the book about them, please?" asked Viorel.
The old man did as she said. "Sure, young Lady Viorel."
He took the book from one of the bookshelves and gave it to her.
"Here it is, Lady Viorel," said the elderly man.
Then they went to Viorel's room to read it. It was a big room with large windows. A big bed was in the middle of the room, a desk to do her work, bookshelves filled with books, a sitting area, and a lot of decorations. A room befitting a noble.
"Wow, your room is amazing!" said Kail, amazed.
"Yes," Aric agreed, "it really is."
They all took a seat and opened the book. They looked page after page until they arrived at secret item number 17. On one page was the description and what it is used for, on the other was an image of how the item looks. The moment they looked at it, they recognized it.
"It's the item that we saw in the guild!" yelled Kail.
"Yes, it is," agreed Viorel.
Aric couldn't shake this feeling as if he had seen it before. "Why does it look so familiar?" he continued asking himself.
Viorel started reading the text.
"The 17th Secret Item, The Mallus"
"Much isn't known about this item, but it's very powerful. When dark mana is combined with it, it gets the power of invisibility. It hides one's mana and presence. If a demon were to walk in front of you and had this item, you wouldn't be able to notice them at all. There is said to be only 16 items of this kind. Twelve of them belong to the Demon Lord and the Empire possesses four of them...." continued reading Viorel.
Everyone was looking with a worried look on their faces while thinking what this could mean. And at that moment, Aric remembered.
"I remember," said Aric. "The same item was used against us, heroes, when we went to fight the Demon Lord. It was used to sneak up on us so they could attack us first! I knew I had seen it before."
"This is bad. That means a demon is in the town!" said Kail with a worried face.
"Where is the item now?" asked Viorel.
"In the guild. We left it there," replied Kail.
"That means the demon might go there to get the item back! We need to go fast before the demon gets there!" said Aric with a worried face.
They explained the situation to the butler Cedric and told him to call the knights. Before Cedric could say anything, Aric, Kail, and Viorel had already gone fast towards the guild.
"Damn it, we're too late!" said Aric.
The guild was destroyed and so was everything around it. Some adventurers were still standing and in the middle of this chaos was a demon, holding the item in his hand.
"Those red curvy horns and red tail. A human-like appearance and dark black eyes. There is no doubt about it, that's the 7th commander in the Demon Lord's army, Nythos!" murmured Aric.
"What!? T-the 7th commander?" said Viorel in fear.
"What could he be doing here? Are you sure that's him?" asked Kail.
"Yes," Aric responded. "I remember him from my fight with the Demon Lord!"
The demon turned towards Aric.
"Well, well… if it isn't the last hero."
He smiled darkly.
"I've been waiting for you to arrive."