The sounds of a stampede rang in the ears of the Hero, though funny enough it sounded like the group was running away. Maple quickly hopped on the back of Syrup and chased the runaway herd. Syrup was a surprisingly fast steed compared to the monsters and eventually was positioned to prevent any attempts at an escape. Maple was not alone on the shell, Rishia was holding onto Maple for dear life as Syrup was somehow traveling faster than she had experienced before.

"This way Rishia?" Maple asked looking back to Rishia with a smile.

"Y-yes! W-wee don't have long." Maple felt Rishia's grip on her arm grew even stronger, so strong in fact that Maple worried she might injure herself on one of the many spikes protruding from her armor.

Within a few moments they could see the light coming out from the other side of the brush in front of them. A simple message popped in the peripheral of Maple's vision catching her attention.

[Rishia Ivyred: INCOMING!]

Not a second later they and the herd pierced out of the woods at max speed. In the place of the clearing was a new pit that the monsters started diving in head first. The pit was impressive with it being 6 feet deep and 10 feet wide, though the important part of this was the length which measured to 360 ft on the side next to the forest with two small ramps on either end of the ditch. Obviously it was not meant for a true defense, but instead a trap laid out for the slaughter of fleeing foes.

The system was in full swing: several men and women manned the pit, wooden spikes and odd swords in hand as they ran towards the numerous Boars, Wolves, and Goblins who were dumb enough to go diving in. Or were more scared of the One-That-Eats-The-Living.

As for Syrup, the mighty Abomination simply leaped over the death trap. The earth gave a rumble when Syrup returned to the earth with a hard crash. Neither of the riders fell, one was used to Syrup's antics and the other due to holding on to the other for fear of death.

"Yata, it worked! Alright Syrup, let them have it!"

Syrup had picked its heads up, an odd sound coming from the maw. Golden lightning formed in each of the mouths and was sent towards a patch of unoccupied Goblins.

As the Abomination made its way forward, Maple swiftly hopped off of its back. With her Shield in hand, she cried out, "[Cover]!" A slight glow engulfed Maple as she quickly covered what would have taken her ten seconds in a single bound, her Shield receiving the impact from a boar with a satisfying clang.

She had placed herself between what was a simple plebeian and a raging [Interdimensional Boar]. This creature was similar to ones that have been encountered before, though the snout glowing with an odd purple that seemed to be ever so radioactive. With the creature stunned, Maple swiftly bit into the creature's exposed neck, severing the head and instantly killing the beast.

It was not just Maple who was making a slaughter of the Monsters. All about her the once weakened towns folk drove spears into the Monsters and were able to overwhelm them two to one. There was an ease to how the town folks were quick to aim and hit the vital areas of their prey.

With such a force, most of the Monsters were able to fight back. Some did manage to get off a ram attempt, but those were soon ganged up upon by the villagers.

As the massacre started to wind down, Maple raised her head to look over everyone, "Looks like your plan worked really well Rishia!"

"Y-yeah it did." She meekly answered as those present cried in victory.

"Do you all have it handled here? It's getting a little late."

"Y-yes, everyone's got things handled here."

"Perfect, let's go!"

With a small hop Maple got herself onto the top of Syrup, the beast still growing an even bigger. At this point, the Abomination was at least two horses tall. And what made Maple both confused and maybe a little happy was it hasn't even hit level 20 yet!

The ride back to the mansion was mostly uneventful, as they passed the people finishing up their work in the fields. A group of them had stopped harvest and were starting to walk towards something in the field with their weapons drawn. The workers in the field and everyone else in the town was carrying some kind of weapon. Most were wooden spears made from the branches in the nearby forest but some were from mob drops that Maple randomly received and the tools that they used in the field.

While she could not tell much from here, she could tell that they were encircled a section of field. With whatever it was they were surrounding, they all advanced into the spot with a rush and attacked.

The sound of wolves being killed rang into the air.

[+15 xp, Rusted Interdimensional Sword Added]

"Did the Monsters always attack people in the Fields?" Maple could not help herself from asking.

"Well, sometimes." Rishia answered with a courtesy glance at the same event taking place, "Though it was more common for farmers to be attacked by Bandits until a week ago."

"Yeah, you Father said there were Bandits. Where are they?"

"I… don't know." Rishia slowly lowered her head with a solemn expression, "Ever since you came they never attacked us."

"Yeah… I guess that is a good thing though right?"

"Indeed."

With that they traveled to the walls of the City. Within the week that Maple was here, the old gates have finally been cleared away and replaced with large wooden walls. Such walls did not move very well, and as far as Maple knew they were only supposed to be placeholders. Any replacements would take anywhere from a few months to a year to be finished.

"Saint Maple, are you turning in for the night?" the man who manned the front gate asked with a smile.

"Y-yup." Maple grew an unsteady smile, "Uh, sorry Syrup but you are going to need to shrink."

Responding to its master, the Abomination shrank and fitted itself through the simple crack left within the crack was only as large as a horse, but since the city had been devastated nothing larger than a small horse drawn cart would be able to travel between the fields and town.

Soon they were inside, the sight of people bustling about. Most were hard at work, either creating spears to use as weapons, processing of recent kills, or making some wheat from the fields. When they passed, everyone gave Maple a smile and a hand wave, just like one would an army returning home from a victorious war.

"Uh, Rishia…" Maple called out to her friend with a blush red face.

"Hmm?"

"W-why is everyone looking my way so much," She humbly looked down with a pout, "And call me a Saint…"

"Well because you are a Saint!" Rishia answered with a smile though she quickly noticed Maple's face getting even redder than it was before, "F-fue! You help us out so much why wouldn't we call you one!"

"It's… embarrassing…"

"Well, uh, lets get home! I am sure Father had something cooked for us already!"

The mention of food quickly made Maple drool. Embarrassment for her was below to the need of food, and with an unending stomach she would never truly be satisfied with eating.

"Let's go then!"

"Right!"

With that they returned to the Manor that stood among the series of Guilds Halls in the middle of the city. For the quality of the outside, nothing much has changed sans the pair of guards standing guard outside.

As they walked in, the pair could smell their dinner already coming out to the table. Coming into the room, they saw the Father sitting peacefully with a small stack of papers next to him.

"Oh, Maple, welcome back!" He announced with a smile, "I have heard there were several successful raids today?"

"Yup!" Maple announced while taking a seat for herself, "We were able to get about 25 boars in total. But there are still so many of them."

"Is that so, I can't really say I understand how the Monsters think honestly. Maybe it was because of not understanding the monsters that it took several days to put down the Wave."

"Several days?"

"Indeed, it was a… harrowing experience." He admitted with a slight frown, "As I understood it, they were only put down when the largest of them all, a Three Headed Hound, was slain in combat."

"I will keep that in mind…" Maple began to stew on the information as the Butler came from the kitchen. Upon the plates presented were a combination of bread and sausage, something that was now plentiful in the city.

Most of the people at the beginning of the food surplus came dowm with a harsh stomach ache , but people had found that eating it with 'Saint Bread' seemed to settle one's stomach. It was rumored to be another Miracle of Saint Maple, though whenever Maple heard that she felt embarrassed about the claims.

As they were well into the meal the father seemed to have a sudden realization, "I received a message from the Royal Court today, it seems the King himself wishes to see the recovery of our city."

"Really!?" Rishia cried with widening happy eyes, "Why would he come out of his way to see us?"

Mayor Ivyrid simply gave a shrug of the shoulders, "He said it was supposed to be an inspection. What he was hoping to inspect, I could not say for certain. Uh, Maple would you by chance know?"

The group turned to the Hero, who was in the middle of eating her second serving of food. If she was not so preoccupied with food, she would have started having a coughing fit over the news.

Luckily she was able to finish what she was chewing, "Well, uh, he might be checking out what I have done. We don't really have the best relationship."

"Is that so, well he is a good man so whatever problem that you two have I am sure he will forgive you in time."

At such an idea, Maple tilted her head, "What do you mean by that?"

"Him being a good man?" the Mayor gave a hearty laugh, "Well he was the reason we won the Great Siltvelt War."

Maple pondered on what the mayor said, "I think I've heard about a war. What is that war exactly?"

"You don't know about it? Well, I guess you might have been a parent's dream when it happened. Really all you need to know is that Siltvelt, a Kingdom that is roughly west of here through the Oraughast Swamp, tried their best to take over both Melromarc and Faubley."

The man laid back in his chair a little, "They had successfully overran Faubley when the King, only a simple lad in the levies, took the Staff from the recently deceased hero and led a counter offensive against the Demi-Human Horde. After that, he would lead as a General until he married the Queen when the war officially ended."

"I guess he did a lot." Maple answered the spew of information given to her.

"Indeed he did." The older man sighed with a smile, "The man even held off from having children until after conflicts ended. It would be after the throwings of the Siltvelt scum that the First Princess Malty was born to him."

As the man finished talking about the King, Maple could only wonder what must have happened to the man. Was it simply that being a War Hero not make him a good King, she didn't really think about it much more to know.

"Well me and Syrup are going to go to bed, thanks for dinner!"

"I-I'll be there in a few minutes Maple!" Rishia announced while quickly scoffing down the rest of her plate.

"Alright, see you then!" Maple and the Chibi sized Syrup rushed down the hall and went to their beds.

Maple quickly went up the staircase and through the rooms, landing herself inside of their shared bedchamber. Maple had taken the bed on the right closest to the window, while Rishia had the one to the inside.

They were not the most comfortable things on the planet, Maple would admit, but they were surely better than sleeping on the going through her night routine and wishing Rishia night Maple settled in. However, neither Maple nor Rishia were aware of the happenings outside.

What could have first been mistaken as wind battering the window did the noise eventually stop. There was not even an audible click as the assailant slowly lifted the window open.

The assailant paused a few seconds to see if they had awakened the occupants inside then proceed to go in when nothing stirred inside. Darkness seemed to encapsulate their entire form as they shifted slowly towards the beds. Their eyes looked over the faces of Rishia and Maple, though they easily put their attention on the latter.

Slowly the person drew a dagger and an amulet, both made of some type of Gold and Silver. Ritualistic they were intended to be, and the person held the amulet close giving a swift prayer.

They quickly raised the dagger above their head, eyes targeting upon the neck.

However as the weapon descended, the victim's eyes flashed open as she raised the Shield against the attacker. There was a sharp ring through the room, and without even thinking Maple did what was only natural.

"[Devour]!"

The Shield she boor became animated, easily consuming the upper half of the assassin. The amulet and the ritual dagger feel to the floor near the bed. It had all happened so swiftly that Rishia and Syrup were just waking up as the remains of the body fell to the ground.

"..."

"..."

"..."

All stood in the room for a few moments, their eyes plastered to the corpse as it spewed the last bits of human blood. It was a surreal state that Maple was in where only a few seconds ago she was deep in sleep.

Before they could even utter a noise, the sounds of men screaming could be heard outside their window. Half lucidly Maple wandered over and looked outside. All she could see was a large ball of fire where the gates she entered just last evening were.

~~PT 3~~

It was just its luck that a freaky huge moth was making its ways to outer space and was caught up in the wind behind it. That thing came out of nowhere for the Entity and was going like there was a flame on its tail or something.

Know its luck it will somehow die in now a second world (universe?) in a stupid way. Its looking like that might be suffocating in space due to Overgrown furry butterflies.

The thing did not know how much time passed and banked that maybe it was able to live without air when the speed it was moving started going faster. The Entity hoped it was the moth coming back so it could go inside it and stab it to death. The speed though started going faster and faster as if free falling back down to the ground. The Entity was not able to form eyes to see what was going on with its material so far apart, but the pressure around its parts started getting stronger.

Suddenly, something collided with its dust particles and somehow made the entity think that maybe it got a concussion. As dust.

When thinking was finally in order the Entity realized it had stopped moving with something nearby so it morphed to see what it was dealing with. All around it was a strange crystal rock. It was hard to tell if the crystal were white or due to the type of light here it was a different color, but something else caught the Entity site. It could feel material on this rock base that it could use to form another body. A plan began to form in Entity's mind.