Endless Leveling Done Right!

Chapter 526: Find Them Even If It’s The Last Thing You Do! [Part 2]

“I’ll stay as close as possible to the human camp without coming too close,” Alex said. “If you ever sense danger, just escape and hurry to me. I’ll take us away in a flash.”

Fran nodded and planted a kiss on Alex’s cheek before heading toward the human camp.

The teenage boy watched as his last family member went to a place he deemed more dangerous than the demon’s camp.

Human greed knew no bounds. If they were to ever target Fran for her ring, Alex vowed that he would make them pay the full, bloody price even if they were fellow humans.

When Fran arrived at the camp, the humans happily received her.

Of course, they asked about Alex’s whereabouts, but the Fairy stuck to her story about accidentally separating from the teenage boy during their escape.

She was then asked to help tend to the wounded, which she agreed to. However, before going, she asked about her deceased teammates.

“Yes, we have them,” the temporary commander of the human army, Luke, said. “We can’t possibly leave them behind. Who knows what those demons might do to their bodies?”

Fran asked if she could see their bodies and the commander agreed to take her there after reminding her to prepare herself emotionally.

When she finally saw her teammates, the tears she thought had already dried up fell once more.

She also noticed that their armors, weapons, and storage rings were now gone, probably taken by the humans who had retrieved their bodies.

Fran really didn’t care about those things, but it still hurt to think that the people she cherished so dearly were treated just like that.

Without bothering to ask for permission, Fran loaded their bodies into her own storage ring before heading to the infirmary to tend to the wounded.

Luke didn’t say anything and allowed her to do what she wanted. For him, having less corpses to deal with during this trying time could only be a good thing.

A few hours passed, and Fran soon finished tending to all the injured soldiers and adventurers in the makeshift infirmary.

She then waited for the right moment before slipping away to reunite with Alex.

Fran was very careful, ensuring that no one was following her when made her escape.

Not long later, she found Alex, and they both returned to their original hiding spot earlier.

Only after they had hidden themselves did Alex finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad you found them,” Alex said. “Now we can bury them properly.”

“Yes,” Fran replied. “But we need to find a better hiding place. Let’s rest for now and move again after a few hours.”

The Fairy then summoned six small wisps of light and ordered them to spread out to serve as lookouts while she and Alex slept.

Although they looked fine on the surface, they were reaching their limit and badly needed a proper rest.

Truth be told, both of them desperately wished that all of this was just a nightmare.

They wished that when they woke up and opened their eyes, the loved ones they had lost would greet them with bright smiles and cheerful voices.

Unfortunately, this was their new reality, and they would have to accept it if they wished to survive.

———

Three days later…

“Argh!”

“They’re here! Help meeeeeeeee!”

“N-No! I don’t want to die!”

Fran sneered as she unleashed a purple fireball at the demon begging for his life.

“If you didn’t want to die, you shouldn’t have come here,” Fran said coldly before glancing at Alex, who had just finished killing another demon without showing a hint of mercy.

The two had been actively targeting demons moving in groups of four or five, using hit-and-run tactics until they finished them all off.

Alex also looted their supplies, taking away their food, weapons, and their armors. Whatever valuable item he could remove from their bodies, he took and stowed in his ring.

They also interrogated a few demons in order to get a general understanding of the war.

And just as they expected, the humans were losing this battle. A significant chunk of their force had already perished during the past few days.

The demon they were questioning even said that as long as Alex and Fran surrendered, they would be spared by the Demon Lord.

He added that many humans had already surrendered to their King and were being treated well in the Demon Army.

Fran sneered at those words. If not for the fact that she had already analyzed the barrier of darkness, she might have believed him.

Unfortunately, she had already seen through the Demon Lord’s lies, so she and Alex would never surrender to the one who killed their friends.

“You already told the Commander, as well as the other officers in the army, what you learned about the barrier, right?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Fran replied. “I told them about it before I left so they will fight the demons to the death. But it looks like some of them didn’t believe me.”

Alex felt disgust at the thought of some humans betraying their own kind to become the Demon Lord’s lackeys.

But since this was something outside of their control, they decided to just focus on their own task instead.

Days passed…

Weeks passed…

Months passed…

The battle in the Shadow Forest ended with the Demon Army’s victory, and yet, none of them were happy about it.

Why?

Because the barrier that nearly covered the entirety of the Shadow Forest was still in place.

The Demon lord had already wiped out all the humans, including those who had allied themselves to his cause, and yet the barrier refused to budge.

“Have you still not found them?!” the Demon Lord, Vanaac, roared in anger.

“No, My Lord,” the demon that was kneeling in front of him reported. “We have already spread out to check the northern and southern parts of the forest, but we still can’t find them.”

“Useless fools!” Vanaac slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne, smashing it to bits. “Find them even if it’s the last thing you do!”

The other demons kneeling on the ground all bowed deeper before rushing out to execute his orders. None of them wanted to spend even one unnecessary second in his presence.

It had already been four months since the battle ended. There were still no signs of Alex and Fran, who seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

They had stopped ambushing the demons and had completely gone into hiding, frustrating Vanaac and his officers.

Not to mention, the demonic army’s food supply had been dwindling rapidly. The beasts in the forest were nearly extinct.

Before Alex and Fran had disappeared completely, they had raided the food wagons of the Demon Army, taking everything they could get their hands on.

Whatever they couldn’t take, they had set ablaze with Fran’s fireballs to ensure that the demons would have nothing to eat when winter came in two months.

Alex and Fran were also responsible for hunting down all the beasts in the forest, making sure that the demons would have a hard time securing food.

Unlike Fairies who didn’t need to eat, Demons had a very strong appetite.

In order to deal with the food shortages, they had started to eat the human corpses, a very common practice for demons during wartime.

Even so, the moment winter came, the Shadow Forest would become their mass grave.

This was what Alex and Fran were aiming for, which would deal heavy casualties to their enemies.

They were still playing that deadly game of hide-and-seek. The Demons were still it, except they were more like ravenous and desperate predators than childhood friends.

If they found Alex, and Fran, they would be free from the Shadow Forest.

If not, all of them would perish, not by the hands of the two vengeful Dawnseekers, but due to the force of nature that no one, not even the powerful Demon Lord, could contend with.