The routine of standing guard continued until dawn, and as soon as it arrived, the group packed their belongings and headed toward the sky island.
Purgatory was a weird place that didn''t seem to be what it looked like. It appeared to be a smoldering hot place, but it wasn''t. In fact, at night it was unbearably cold.
As Kenny looked around in curiosity, he noticed that there seems to be some kind of valley in between the massive mountains that surrounded Purgatory. He was curious as to what it lead to, but eventually paid it no mind since it would probably take at least a couple of months to reach that place based on what he saw.
After a five long days of constant travel, the Vanquishers had finally reached the massive sky island.
It was truly spectacular.
Kenny had many questions about the place, Like how is it floating? who created the sky islands and why do they contain the keys to sealing a pathway?
A sudden voice erupted from the elite Vanquishers.
"Two demons incoming!" One of the elite Vanquishers yelled.
The elite group got into their formation. Two demons emerged from the back of one of the giant rocks.
The creatures resembled something like a giant dog or rat, it had spiked fur on its back and legs. It''s claws looked like they were sharp enough to tear through flesh like butter. Every demons seemed to be quite ugly.
The demons began to charge towards the elite Vanquishers. A large man stopped one of the enemy in its tracks, as the other swung its claw to the man. Another Vanquisher prevented the attack from connecting as the rest swooped in to attack the beasts.
A couple landed a few slashes on the enemy but not enough to seriously harm them.
The demons stood there for a couple of seconds, growling at the Vanquishers.
The demons rushed towards the group in another attempt to attack. The same two men stopped the creatures as the rest surrounded the demons and began to slash at the them.
The demons were overwhelmed by the Vanquisher''s numbers and coordination which resulted in their quick defeat and death.
Kenny had previously tried to reanimate the demons that had been defeated, but to no avail. He had come to the conclusion that either it was more rare to able to reanimate a demon now, or that mabye there was a limit and that he would have to grow his gift in some way in order to reanimate more.
On the bright side of things, the Vanquisher’s had already arrived at the island just before they were attacked.
With the defeat of the demons they looked up at the sky island, and prepared themselves for yet another long and difficult journey.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
In front of the sky island was a flight of stairs leading all the way up to the island.
When they first entered into purgatory, they were extremely far away from the island and couldn’t see the stairs. Now looking at it up close, it’s pretty big in width, fitting at least eight to nine people side by side.
"Do we really have to climb all these stairs after all that walking?" Said Claire with an unmotivated look.
"How else are we supposed to get up there?" Kenny responded.
The sky island was miles off the ground which made the journey up the stair a grueling one.
After about over an hour of climbing up the stairs, Kenny began to feel tired, he looked up the stairs and then down and saw that the other inexperienced Vanquishers looked the same.
He could only go on, step after step, minute after minute. Eventually the team sat down on the stone flight of stairs to rest for a while and recuperate their energy.
"This is damn tiring." Victor said.
Kenny leaned over the edge and saw that they were really high up in the air which made him quite uncomfortable.
"Yeah." Kenny responded.
Kenny backed up from the edge. He looked up the stairs and felt a little unmotivated by the distance that was still to be climbed.
''We''re only half way their, this is damn tiring.''
Kenny sighed and looked over to Claire. She was huffing and puffing, she looked like she couldn''t take another step. William looked very tired but not quite on Claire''s level.
Kenny turned to the elite Vanquishers.
''Damn machines aren''t even tired.''
"Alright we''re moving! Get up!" One of the Elite Vanquishers yelled.
The recruits stood up and continued their ascent to the sky island.
But before they could get moving, Kenny spotted a small black dot in the distance. It quickly went from a dot to a figure. Kenny''s face filled with concern. He turned up to the Elite Vanquishers and screamed:
"There''s a flying demon coming our direction!"
All the recruits looked around in panick. The elite Vanquishers turned to the flying demon.
The thing was flying straight towards them. It wings flapped in the air as it let out a loud screeching scream, and readying it''s talons to tear the human flesh.
''Shit! We’re to vulnerable right now!''
The demon was not heading for the elite ones this time, it was heading towards the recruits. The elites tried to make their way down but it was too late for any of the ones on the bottom to be saved.
The demon grabbed one of the recruits with its talons and took him into the air. The recruit yelled in pain as the demon tore his entire body in half, and his innards falling down the the sky. The sight was horrifying and extremely gruesome for the recruits. They could only watch as they were taken one by one.
The elite Vanquishers spread out in the group. The demon circled back to find another victim, charging towards one of the Elite Vanquishers. The Vanquisher prepared his sword and swiftly cut off one of the demons legs, making the demon screech in agony.
Thankfully, the demon had made a retreat, but damage had already been inflicted upon the group. In that single attack out of the 35 recruits, 5 had lost their lives.
They could only continue to move forward, not wanting another attack to befall them.
The recruits still had a horrified look on their faces.
Being a Vanquisher and going on an expedition was not at all like Kenny had imagined. He didn''t expect simple E-Rank demons to be able to inflict such havoc and damage.
Was he a fool for wanting to make this his dream profession? Perhaps he was blinded by the idea of having power and recognition. Even Kenny ridiculed himself for having this naive dream.
If E-Rank demons could cause this much terror, he could only imagine what the higher rank demons could do. This thought only made him more terrified.
Fortunately the ascent up the stairs from the point of the demon attack onward went with no trouble.
The hours put into the ascent upwards had finally paid off for the group as they reached the top of the stairs, and glancing upon the sky island.
The sight that they had laid their eyes upon made them flabbergasted. Even the elite Vanquishers had been shocked by the sight.
It was unbelievable how such a phenomenon was even possible.