Indra flew over the foaming Great Southern Sea, and then her wyvern wings flapped over the arid peaks of immense, sky-reaching mountains.
Many years had passed since she was last seen on the continent, and the matter at hand was trivial — enough so that she did not desire her old acquaintances to notice her arrival. A magical ring — powerful and ancient — blocked her aura from escaping her body. Now, from a distance, she would appear to be a weak wyvern — lost and lonely.
"Grass and more grass. Sigh. What did I get myself into this time..." she complained, flying over vast herds of bison and various species of grass in a multitude of colors and shapes — from dense green shoots and soft, almost flowery white meadows, to smoking weeds full of fiery aura, among which fiery creatures circled.
The famous forest was just ahead. She could feel faint auras, even though she herself was like a scentless beast, an existence that not even the greatest expert in aura detection could sense — yet she had no problem doing so herself.
"Sigh, who would have thought that Daralis, at her age, would make a mountain out of a molehill over some nicknames... After all, children throw unkind words at each other; in the end, they are just little babes."
The wind brushed against the dark purple scales of her elongated body, and every second brought her closer to the whereabouts of that troublesome vampire girl who was pestering Daralis. She wasn't flying there because her little daughter had burst into tears. She wanted to see the daughter of her pal, Varyn, with her own eyes; after all, the last time she had seen her, she was still in her cradle. To think that nearly three centuries had passed, and a damn wild S-rank dungeon had finished off the poor old vampire...
In the early summer, the trees were so green, and the pleasant scent enveloping her was so delightful that she felt like landing on one of the meadows just to lie down; to doze, lounge around, and do a proper workout, as she was accustomed to doing every day.
"Get a grip, Indra! There's no time! That bald fool would surely nag me about it for a whole week if I were late," the thought crossed her mind, after which she accelerated toward the northeast, until the trees creaked like they were being crushed by a gale.
The double golden eyes of the wyvern Demon Lord turned toward the indescribable thickets, the place from where she sensed auras other than those of weak goblins and wild beasts. She herself was a great expert not only in manipulating and utilizing aura, but also in sensing it — surely, there were only few better than her across all three remaining continents...
Something felt off about what she was seeing. It had already been dark for some time. She viewed the world through her demonic eyes and through aura detection — even tracking the smaller, insignificant ones. To her, even plants possessed some aura, though it was so faint as to be virtually imperceptible. It was for this exact reason that even if she were to go blind, she would still see the world to almost the same degree...
"Where are you rushing off to, pretty boys?" she joked, though she knew full well that those dozen or so auras were still far away from her — distant enough that they wouldn't be able to hear her.
She decided not to startle them like a lion running among antelopes. She assumed her fully humanoid form — without horns or a tail. The immense silhouette of the wyvern shrunk, enveloped by a purple aura that moments later succumbed to the S-rank whitish ring on her finger, an artifact older than many a kingdom. She turned its strange, clubfooted, seemingly decayed fragment to ensure that not a single shred of her aura would leak out, and rushed on two legs, wearing high boots with a twelve-centimeter sole, straight toward them. Her long hair billowed in the wind, and her light leather armor and earrings gleamed with the radiance of the southern gold-and-silver with which they were adorned. Even in the wilderness, she looked like a mystical queen of an exotic land — voluptuous and imperious.
That red-violet aura of hers accumulated in her legs and fists; her entire being rejoiced at the thought of a little brawl. Who knew? Perhaps she would even stumble upon someone who wouldn't fold at the mere sight of her. The thoughts made her ears — still pointed in her fully humanoid form — flush slightly pink. An outsider would take her for a half elf, yet she belonged to the lineage of the royal southern wyverns, creatures so powerful that the Sword God himself had taken them under his protection and granted them the power of humanoid transformation. He alone out of the five had not restricted himself long ago to blessing only the human tribes that followed him. Cunning monsters and beasts could become demons, just as humans could.
Soon, she felt strong auras beginning to close in on her direction. They had sensed her presence — though certainly not her might. Had it been the latter, they would be fleeing as fast as their legs could carry them, as far away as possible.
"Look, Adolf, what is a babe like that doing all alone in a place like this? It's downright suspicious!" a mustachioed youth said, grinning lewdly. He had a sword at his hip and stood upside down on a branch, holding himself up through a sticky manifestation of aura and sheer willpower.
"Probably a herb gatherer or a goblin hunter! Ha! Maybe we should have some fun with her, eh? Captain?"
A group of seven damnably strong-looking humans, among whom were definitely two demon cultists, laughed uproariously. One of them was stroking his crotch and already loosening his belt, eager for a little something...
"Fool!" a masked assassin figure emerged from the shadows — a vampire. "I allowed you to join this mission because you wanted to avenge your brother! We have no time for such games! Kill her and move out! The King ordered us to hurry, hmph!"
Indra laughed, her hands joined and resting against her healthy breasts. She observed the merry company.
"Avengers and assassins, huh?" she asked with a chuckle.
One of those with an uncovered face leaped down from above, sword in hand. The weapon flashed with a fiery aura, burst into flames, and missed its target. Indra evaded. Her eyes were legendary due to her lineage tracing back to Valar the Conqueror, capable of seeing the future, and even without that, she would have had time to yawn and avoid an attack that was so incredibly slow to her.
She countered without mercy. Spinning around, she shattered his skull with her boot, the crunch audible to everyone. Blood soaked the grass; the blond man's aura vanished entirely.
"Avengers and assassins, huh?" she asked once more, thoroughly irritated. "Ugh, I stepped in some crap. Gross, my new boots..."
"Attax! Noooo!!!"
The second one — a twin of his by the look of him — leaped down all tearful and furious, his aura of fire billowing with rage and shock. The fire that erupted across his entire body suddenly dimmed. He slashed his sword at Ridens, but his blade became coated in a green substance and melted like a cookie dropped into boiling water... He didn't even manage to stammer before a fist landed on his face. He died on the spot, painlessly, instantly.
"Ah, the forest. Some vermin flying around..."
"Who are you?! You killed two B-rank adventurers with a single blow! You beast!"
"A maggot that knows how to speak? Fascinating!"
The masked vampire who appeared to be the leader drew his blade. He was shrouded in a grayish-black aura; his heart beat faster, and his fingers trembled.
"I am the Captain of the Second Unit of the Silent Death! Atto Rays! King Varyx of the Misty Isles sent us to eliminate the traitress and murderer of the late king, Valeria Nocturne!"
"And I am known as Stone Fist Vitko! My brother was murdered by that bitch while he was catching goblins here, so said the famous seer! I came to slay her along with my party!"
"The bugs sure are noisy this summer..."
"My brother was a famous lancer, a prodigy among the Stone Titan Guild of Brec!" the enraged man howled. A gray, stone-like aura enveloped the entire tree he was standing on, until it petrified and came to life. "Such a weakling will not stop my revenge!"
Indra stretched, looking completely indolent. A massive tree moving like an elven ent did not make much of an impression on her.
"Weak? Oh, I'm sorry, I almost forgot, silly me."
She caught the tab of the ring on the index finger of her left hand, and the moment she turned it to the left by two full turns, the full might of the Demon Lord's aura exploded, sowing sheer terror.
"Hmph, better, little maggots? You'll feel less ashamed being trampled, hmph?"
The remaining seventeen survivors froze like stone. Not a second passed before scrolls, potions, and projectiles were set in motion.
"Oh! If you lick the dirt off my boots, I'll let you live! How does that suit you, Atto Rays?"
"Go to hell!"
Indra laughed, her face twisting slightly in anger. "I just arrived from there and you're already sending me back?! Pff!"
Her red-violet aura blanketed several hectares of the surrounding forest before returning, tightly concentrated. Indra exhaled a green cloud of poison gas, hitting one of the masked assassins. Sixteen remained.
Three closed the distance. Three black monsters rose from the corpses of the slain, but within a second they fell, killed by another breath of wyvern poison from the Demon Lord's mouth. She coated her entire body in a slightly purple sludge made of aura and went on the attack, paying no heed to defense. Every single one of her blows killed, and if a strike missed, the trailing mist of purple poison would do the deed if inhaled by the enemy. She struck like a maniac, and when the stone ent drew near, she laughed, concentrated the bulk of her aura at its feet, and a pillar of poisonous concoction and fumes exploded hundreds of meters into the sky, killing the ent and ten assassins in a single second.
"The Stone Fist survived? My, my? Quite the powerhouse you are."
The bearded adventurer lay coated in the poisonous substance, burning alive and howling in agony.
"Not so fast, avenger, go show your strength!"
A green sludge bathed him, turning him into a will-less machine that attacked the rest with immense speed and force. Indra merely gestured with her finger and spat acid at those who fled, like a cat playing with a mouse. They ran, begging for their lives, until finally only Atto and the already lifeless corpse of the A-rank adventurer from Brec remained...
Atto had both of his arms broken, his ribs too.
"Well then? Eager?"
She pressed her blood-stained boot sole against his mouth — the very same one she had used to stomp and massacre his allies.
"Come on, vampire, nothing but delicacies, your favorite!"
She saw the fear and terror in the eyes of this vampire-assassin, who looked quite handsome and young without his mask, possessing gray eyes and a delicate nose. He did not have the courage to say a word. He stuck out his tongue and licked the blood mixed with dirt, licking frantically, as if his life depended on it.
Indra clasped her hands behind her back and told him what to do.
"A bit more over here on the side, put some effort into it! It's blood, your vampire delicacy, come on! I'm giving you a chance to live and grow stronger, and you're slacking off so much, sigh..."
In the end, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, looked at her gleaming boots and the exhausted vampire, and then threw him into the thickets.
"There! That will do! Begone, and tell that fool Varyx that Valeria belongs to me. If he has a problem with that, he can send more weaklings or come collect a beating himself!"
Atto only nodded his head, ashamed and terrified, and fled as fast as he could, howling with pain, sobbing, completely battered and broken.
"Sigh, they wasted so much of my time, and Varyn's little daughter is waiting..."