Somewhere on the FrontlinesOne Month Later

Zephyr shouts, “The Warden is here!!!” And almost immediately, every last demon in his battalion of griffons, wyverns, and drakes starts roaring their defiance at the sight of the blood lycan child as she slowly walks towards the battalion standing at eight hundred demons. Meanwhile all around them blood can be seen falling down from dark rainclouds filled with an evil crimson glow, blocking out any sun that would otherwise mark the day.

But the roars don’t last long before the plagues spread by the Warden of the Red Plague, an unofficial title created by the demons who had survived their battalions being assaulted by the blood lycan gave the dangerous girl, begins to ravage their bodies at a much faster speed than it had when the girl first started slaughtering her fellow demons.

The windstorm griffin narrows his eyes at her with a grimace at the sight of her level, uncaring about the blood raining down around him being blocked by a barrier of wind surrounding his body.

|[REDACTED] – Hu/bl-ood-ma/\ly-/cann – Level 742|

She’s been terrorizing us for a month now, and we still don’t even know her name! And her level… oh Demon King, her level… she was brand new to Class IV at the start of this, right?

His fae nods its head from atop Zephyr’s own large head in agreement as he answers in his mind, “Yes, she was. This advancement is downright terrifying.”

Zephyr watches with a mild amount of horror in his gaze as the girl suddenly sprints forwards while lines of life energy suddenly stretch out from every demon within thirty meters of her straight towards the girl. And she doesn’t stop there, tearing straight into the demons with abandon, bubbles of blood forming and popping on dozens of demons’ skins around her, blades of metallicized blood forming and launching at all of the demons, and a black, red, and blue electricity running across her skin with some steam along with it.

After watching the Warden tear through his demons without much struggle for several seconds, Zephyr finally snaps out of his daze and lets out a loud screech while rearing back on his hind lion legs, letting his two large wings flap behind him as the screech echoes out of his eagle head. Then he sends dozens of blades of wind magic towards the girl who is nearly two hundred levels below him.

But to his surprise, the girl just performs a backflip, ignoring the blades to instead go after other demons of Zephyr’s battalion.

She’s… ignoring me? Why?

Zephyr decides to take that as an invitation and rushes straight through the air, his wings folding up against his body to let him move faster through the air towards her. But when he gets close to the girl, she just jumps straight into the air and turns to face him, a wolfish grin on her wolf-head. One that sends a chill down his spine.

Despite her clear smug arrogance, she doesn’t attack him like he was expecting, instead rushing to kill off more of his demons.

“Face me blood lycan!!!” he shouts, his voice resonating over the battlefield of several hundred sickened demons versus one blood lycan. And once again, the blood lycan surprises him by ignoring him.

What happened to her curse of Pride?! Is she somehow ignoring it?!

The two continue their game as the girl rushes around killing hundreds of demons in his army, starting with the Class IIIs, and moving onto the Class IVs. And it isn’t until over half of Zephyr’s battalion is already wiped out that he realizes through the blind rage his Wrath had begun driving him into that the girl is growing stronger with each kill.

That’s why!

But the moment he slows down and considers fleeing to head back to the base instead, the girl changes directions and rushes straight to him with her fist raised.

Zephyr lets out a loud screech when the fist directly hits his wing that he brings up to defend himself, sending him falling to the ground.

I need to escape!

Before Zephyr can even get back up from the ground though, the dust and blood in the air clears up enough for him to see the girl grinning widely while falling through the air towards him, her glowing crimson eyes illuminating the blood as a terrifying power builds up within her, making Zephyr realize that it’s too late.

Then Blood of Ruin comes for the battlefield.

A News Station in the Capital City of the Terran RepublicDays after the death of the Battalion

Chloe Martinez smiles widely at the camera pointed at her as she exclaims, “And news has just come to us that the great Scarlet Wolf, the Apex Predator of the Guardian World and the newly dubbed Warden of the Red Plague has destroyed a fourth battalion in just a month! This is extraordinary news as this one Class IV Guardian is making more progress towards the progression of the war than any of the Class Vs on the frontlines except the Knights!”

“But Chloe, don’t you think this is to be expected from the Guardian who’s managed to reach Class IV before even turning twenty years old?” Chloe’s cohost and brother, Jackson Martinez says with a wide smile of his own as he sits across a table from her. He, unlike his long-haired sister, has short black hair elegantly combed to one side and is wearing a black suit just like his sister. “Not to mention the White Knight of Humanity’s daughter.”

“I guess you’re right there, Jack,” Chloe answers with a smile and a shrug, using her brother’s nickname. “Ever since the Warden made it back from her training, she has been fighting directly on the frontlines of the war. Fighting so long that the demons themselves dubbed her the Warden of the Red Plague thanks to her usage of a type of corruption magic to spread plagues through the battalions of demons in order to weaken them.”

“But why do you think they call her the Warden? Why not Bringer of the Red Plague or something like that?” Jackson asks while tilting his head, acting as if he doesn’t already know.

“I believe it’s because she’s acting as a Warden, keeping the demons locked away on their side of the frontlines and away from our territory,” Chloe answers with the prewritten script.

“Oh, I think that fits her rather well,” Jackson says with a wide smile. “Even if she has never been particularly known for being the most social of Guardians, the Warden has always loved going out and defending the world against demons, hasn’t she?”

Probably not. I think she just likes fighting.

Chloe doesn’t speak her thoughts out loud and instead answers, “Of course! Who else would keep those disgusting demons in check while the main forces push them back?”

“But…” Jackson starts before hesitating as planned, “have you heard the rumors?”

Chloe tilts her head this time and asks, “What rumors?”

“Rumors that the Warden may not be what she seems,” Jackson says in a whispered voice.