Chapter 224: Hope
The Demon Dragon was a predator.
It was the highest-ranking species in the Demon Realm, a hunter that always reigned above and hunted its prey.
Because of that.
The gaze with which the person opposite viewed him as prey was utterly unpleasant.
No, it was not rely unpleasant—it made rage boil up and felt repulsive. If possible, he wanted to take Jason’s head right then and there.
But he endured it. Because he was a patient Demon Dragon.
“I’ll return those words to you as they are. After killing you and conquering Arein, I will challenge the Demon Emperor.”
“That’s good to hear. Since we both have sothing we desperately want, I hope it’s achieved as quickly as possible.”
“Thanks to Lord Berje confessing everything to Archduke Arkaine, I think I’ll be getting rather busy.”
“It’s reaping what you sowed. Did you think you’d be safe after killing Demon Kings?”
“That doesn’t sound like sothing Lord Berje, who killed Draxon, should be saying.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
Berje rose from his seat.
“We’ll et again.”
“The next ti will be Lord Berje’s last.”
Berje did not reply. He swiftly left his seat.
“…Are you alright?”
Ernan glanced at Berje’s hand. Fingernails digging into his palm had drawn blood.
“I’m fine. What about you?”
“?”
“You learned the secrets of the Demon Realm.”
“Well. It’s subtle. It’s not sothing I was desperate to know. I suppose I’m the first human to uncover the Demon Realm’s dirty laundry?”
“Yes.”
“In a way, that might make a little happy. Are you going to fight?”
“I have to.”
Now that things had co to this, Jason would not stop. Either humans would block him, or Berje would step forward himself.
Otherwise, the entire continent would fall into that bastard’s grasp.
“False Demon King, Empire versus Lord Demon King, and the alliance of humans.”
“The humans won’t know that fact, though.”
“How about revealing yourself outright?”
“What do you an?”
“Instead of secretly helping from behind the scenes, you openly take humanity’s side.”
“You want to fight for humans?”
“I’m not saying to do it for humans. If you’re going to have to fight anyway, then use everything you can. For the sake of Lord Demon King.”
“That’s too vague.”
From the start, humans would not accept Berje. The False Demon King had suddenly gone berserk, but the fundantal cause of this situation was Berje.
“No. Think about it.”
“Think?”
“Until now, Lord Demon King has only defended against hero’s marches that ca to conquer the towers.”
“I did erase imperial cities and kidnap the First Crown Prince, though.”
“Exactly. But that was all the ‘Empire,’ wasn’t it? The Empire has been eroded by the False Demon King and will soon plunge into chaos.”
“……!”
It wasn’t wrong. But it was also overly optimistic.
“But I’ve already killed tens of thousands of humans.”
“A drowning human will grab onto anything in desperation. Whether it’s a rope, a snake’s tail, they don’t care. Surviving cos first.”
“So when humans in crisis want to grab even at a straw, I should help them?”
“That’s it. Humans are especially weak toward heroes who help them.”
“You want to beco a hero?”
“You don’t need to beco one. If you make people harbor a ‘maybe?’ feeling, that’s enough.”
A very faint but crucial foothold for cooperation.
“Humans may fight each other to the death, but when they et an external enemy, they unite as one.”
“I’m also an external enemy.”
“Turning Lord Demon King into an internal ally is what Lord Hillan and I have to do. Wasn’t that what you prepared for?”
“I won’t deny it, but….”
The Crown Princess of Hilderan and the Guildmaster of the Hero Guild defending a Demon King.
The impact would certainly be enormous. Especially since the Crown Princess of Hilderan was a contractor of the Spirit King.
“Of course, we need a proper trigger. The False will create that trigger.”
“The invasion of Hilderan.”
Jason had said he would invade Hilderan and Arkan. It was clear that he was targeting Ernan and Lavinia.
“So, about that. When will the Sky Tower you’re making be completed? A dramatic entrance is always important.”
Ernan’s eyes sharpened.
“Of course, before that, we’ll need to gather the Stars and get our stories straight.”
---
“We won.”
After Ernan flew to the lake, a wall of water divided the lake and the land.
And when it was withdrawn again, the False Legion began to move once more.
As if saying that everything until now had been a joke, a far more overwhelming number stained the world black.
Duke Olten sensed victory.
“Fire!”
Scatter shells, explosive shells, shockwave shells, incendiary shells. Every mana cannon fired regardless of type.
Mages spat blood as they chanted spells, and knights raised their shields and severed the necks of monsters trying to climb ashore.
Even so, the enemy numbers did not seem to diminish significantly.
But he did not despair. Rather, he found hope.
“When a Demon King dies, the monsters under them lose reason and go berserk! This is proof that the heroes have cut down the Demon King’s head!”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
Rough cheers shook the lakeside.
“We have won! So if you don’t want to remain fools who lost despite victory, do not even think of retreating!”
“If you break, the continent will be ravaged! Offer your lives for your holands and families!”
I as well.
Schring—
Duke Olten drew his sword.
“I will stand here with you. If we block them, peace will co to the continent!”
He steeled his resolve.
“That cannot be allowed.”
That was when the Stars, led by Hillan, arrived.
Hillan Cargill bleeding from a massive wound near his chest; Rozel Charnte and Aina Diaphrin with pale complexions; Ralph Schmitz bathed in blood; Watton Colo with his armor completely shattered and an arm broken; Cher with his entire body slashed to ribbons, and the princesses with disheveled hair and torn clothes; even a haggard man called Pale.
“…….”
The climax was the corpse of Pablo Barkat, transported by magic yet devoid of any sign of life.
This could never be called the return of victors.
“Could it be…?”
Duke Olten swallowed a groan. A deep sense of foreboding that his thoughts might be wrong flashed through his mind.
No. That couldn’t be.
“…We were defeated. We must flee and preserve our strength!”
“Defeated? There were six Stars, were there not? And a contractor of the Spirit King!”
That they would lose to just one Demon King?
He could not believe it.
Duke Olten thought Hillan Cargill was playing a cruel joke. He prayed it was a joke.
“It’s hard to believe, and I don’t want to admit it, but it’s the truth.”
Hillan ground his teeth in frustration.
“How could that be…!”
“A hundred years was far too long. While we were steeped in peace and looked down on the Demon King, the False quietly cultivated his power. He surpassed an ordinary Demon King!”
“Ah….”
Faced with the desperate situation, Duke Olten staggered.
“Your Grace!”
“Your Grace!”
Knights and adjutants hurriedly supported him.
“Did we truly, truly fail?”
“Yes.”
“Then these monsters now….”
“They are charging to celebrate their victory and devour the defeated.”
“My god….”
“We must retreat imdiately. Preserve our forces and stop them later.”
“You lost. Six Stars and a contractor of the Spirit King were defeated. Even if we retreat, will a solution appear?”
“If we’re annihilated here, the kingdoms will only be ravaged even more defenselessly.”
“Guildmaster.”
Duke Olten’s voice dropped low.
“…Is there a way?”
“We’ll make one sohow. That’s the duty of a hero.”
In the end, it ant there was none.
Duke Olten weakly gave the order to retreat.
Dreams and hope had all vanished, but as Hillan said, they could not afford to lose all one hundred thousand troops here.
At the very least, it was right to retreat to the nearby fortress and preserve as much strength as possible.
Kraaaagh—
P-please save !
But the retreat order soon ant failure. There wasn’t a soldier who didn’t know that.
Despite six Stars and a contractor of the Spirit King stepping forward and still being defeated, morale plumted exponentially, and despair and fear lingered.
Monsters and demons stabbed daggers into the backs of the retreating defeated troops.
Nearly twenty thousand soldiers died during the retreat.
It was an unimaginably painful loss.
---
【Hero’s march ends in failure. The alliance is defeated once again….】
【Pablo Barkat returns as a cold corpse. Why did he die?】
【Shock! Six Stars, and a contractor of the Spirit King. They could not handle a single Demon King….】
【The countless monsters of the False numbering well over tens of thousands. Beyond the level of a normal Demon King’s army….】
【Testimony from a knight who participated in the alliance, ‘It was a disaster. Dwarven mana cannons, heroes, even Stars couldn’t stop it. We cannot win.’ Shocking statent….】
【New Hero Guild Guildmaster Hillan Cargill, ‘I can only apologize to everyone. I will definitely subjugate the False.’】
【Monsters that destroyed Belogan Fortress and vanished, the Principality of Artian and the Trafarta Union plunged into shock….】
【Crown Princess of Hilderan, Ernan Hilderan, ‘The Demon King was strong. Perhaps humans gave the False too much ti.’ Remarks cause waves. Was a hundred years too long….】
Fwoosh—
The newspaper was burned.
Rozel Charnte ground her teeth.
“We didn’t lose! We only withdrew because the Demon King told us to! Who the hell wrote this article?!”
“Everyone knows.”
“Everyone who? You, them, and the heroes! That’s why they can boldly write this kind of bullshit!”
“It’s true that it was hard.”
“Hard fighting and defeat are completely different things. If we’d continued, we could have won!”
“You know that wasn’t the case.”
They were the best among heroes. There was no way they hadn’t felt the rank of the Demon King they fought directly.
Jason was different. He was unlike any demon they had faced before.
Deeper, and sothing indescribably dreadful.
“If it were just us, maybe. But from the start, Ernan Hilderan and the Demon King didn’t even fight together.”
If they had, the story would have been different.
“The Lord Demon King ordered the retreat.”
“And that’s why Belogan Fortress was completely ruined.”
“You may be a Star, but before that you are a retainer of the Demon King. You must not forget your duty.”
“Looks like you’ve beco the Demon King’s dog completely?”
“And since when did you beco so righteous, Lady Rozel?”
“From now on.”
The two heroes glared at each other.
“Hmph.”
Rozel snorted, smashed the window, and went outside.
“Why use the window when the door is fine….”
“Leave her be. Even if she talks like that, she knows. She just doesn’t want to admit it.”
Rozel had risen smoothly on the strength of her outstanding talent. As a mage of the Mage Tower and as a Star of the Hero Guild, she had lived a life not very familiar with failure.
Especially after engraving eight Sigils not long ago, her confidence was sky-high. The presence of a massive wall she could not overco no matter what she did must have been a trendous shock.
“I understand.”
Hillan nodded at Ralph’s words.
“So what exactly are the intentions of the Demon King and the Crown Princess? They told us to deliberately exaggerate and package the False.”
As a result, fear of the False grew even greater. Of course, it was an expected outco after the alliance’s defeat, but the degree had intensified.
“They say the False will attack Hilderan.”
“I heard that too. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”
Using the movent of monsters as a pretext, Hillan Cargill had led the heroes of the Hero Guild to the fortress city of Ruiyan in Hilderan, adjacent to the lake.
If the monsters began advancing from the lake, they would inevitably pass through here.
“I don’t doubt it since it’s the Demon King who said it, but why?”
Ralph couldn’t understand the situation at all.
If they had just all joined forces and fought back then, it would have been fine.
Why retreat, accept the disgrace of defeat, and deliberately endure damage?
“Because he’s a Demon King, after all….”
“Even if we had fought then, the chances of victory weren’t very high.”
“Of course I admit the False is extrely strong. But isn’t the Demon King of Dark Fla also strong?”
“I thought so too.”
“But now you don’t?”
“That confident Demon King spoke the word ‘defeat.’”
He was a Demon King with pride too strong to ever speak of losing, even as a joke. And yet he couldn’t shake off the False’s threat.
“That ans there’s sothing hidden within the False that we don’t know.”
“That’s right.”
At that mont, the door burst open and Ernan Hilderan entered.
“Your Highness.”
“If we had kept fighting, we would have lost. All of you would have beco corpses.”
“We are Stars.”
“That one is not the False.”
“…What do you an by that?”
“While you withdrew, there was a deep conversation between the Lord Demon King and the False. I can’t tell you the details, but I can say this for sure—the False is a Doppelgänger.”
“A Doppelgänger, you say?”
“If it’s a Doppelgänger….”
“A demon race that parasitizes other lifeforms, eventually devours them, and impersonates them.”
“…Then that ans.”
“What we fought wasn’t the False to begin with.”
“Then when did that Doppelgänger co to Arein?”
“Several hundred years ago.”
“Is that even possible?”
“That’s absurd!”
The heroes were aghast. They could not accept that the opponent they thought was rely a sowhat strong Demon King was in fact a towering mountain.
If they couldn’t do it, and even the Demon King of Dark Fla couldn’t, then there truly was no way.
In darkness without a single ray of hope, Arein would be destroyed.
“You experienced the result yourselves, didn’t you? An ordinary Demon King can’t do that.”
“…Then why did such a being let the Lord Demon King go so easily?”
“They made a deal. I can’t go into detail about that.”
“A deal? Don’t tell he sold us out?”
Watton’s pupils quaked.
“If that were the case, you would have died on the spot.”
“…Then.”
Aina’s voice trembled with anxiety.
“Is there a way?”
If the opponent wasn’t a simple Demon King, but a Doppelgänger that had devoured dozens of Demon Kings and countless heroes.
If they withdrew simply because they couldn’t win.
Would buying just a little ti really change anything?
“There is.”
“Really?”
“It seems Lady Aina lacks faith. It’s the Lord Demon King’s work. Of course, there’s a way.”
“What is it?”
“Hope.”
“Hope?”
The heroes tilted their heads, not understanding.
Ernan spoke again with conviction.
“The Lord Demon King will beco humanity’s single ray of hope. Appearing not on a white horse, but riding the Sky Tower.”
“…Sky Tower?”
“What do you an by that?”
“The sky flies a tower—no, the tower flies through the sky?”
“That’s exactly it.”
“…….”
The heroes stared blankly.
“So what exactly is supposed to happen?”
“I’m saying the tower flies.”
“…Uh.”
“I hesitate to say it, but it seems Her Highness the Crown Princess has gone a little crazy—no, strange.”
“I don’t think so, but I can’t quite deny it right now.”
“Could it be soone else wearing the skin of the False Demon King….”
“If that were the case, she wouldn’t have been able to summon the Spirit King.”
“That’s true.”
Aina and Ralph whispered quietly.
They were Stars who had co this far, fighting countless demons.
They had seen many towers, and they knew all too well how absurd it was for a tower to fly.
Because they had never seen a tower move itself, it was all the more so.
“…I don’t quite understand, but does that an Lord Berje has a brilliant idea?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Hillan accepted it readily.
The Berje he knew was not a Demon King who spoke nonsense. If he said there was a way, then there was.
In that case, there was no need to despair like this. They just had to do their best in their respective positions.
“…Entrusting humanity’s hope to a Demon King.”
“That’s not sothing soone who is a retainer of the Demon King should say.”
“Indeed, Your Highness. How ironic.”
Ralph scratched his head roughly.
That was when—
“Movent of monsters has been detected!”
Jason’s daggers began to fly.
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