******
The ruined village street, which was previously filled with hopeless and starving villagers when Xylen and Lilith had ventured into the forest for training the previous day, now lay eerily deserted.
It was as if the entire population had suddenly vanished into thin air.
The silence was so suffocating that, combined with the devastation and creeping shadows around it, the village resembled a haunted graveyard rather than a living settlement.
At this moment, a group of seven demon guards marched through this wasteland, their heavy footsteps resounding like war drums.
Each step ground dust and debris underfoot, echoing through the empty streets like an omen of death.
The team leader, a hulking demon with two grotesquely twisted horns resembling a mountain lion's, strutted at the front, his overly long arms dragging twin great swords that scraped against the earth, leaving deep gouges in the dirt.
