Free Web NovelChapter 29: Three fronts
Demons.
Cruel beings that torment humanity.
They are not the cruel beings that we know because they are the demons; the demonic beings are called that way because they are cruel by nature.
They want to destroy the nature that humanity protects. And... They do so in forms that are simply too complex for the human mind to comprehend.
Even right now, as the demons walked out from the forest– dashing towards the wall that stood between them and the people of Sungrade, the people who had seen all kinds of creatures in their lifetime, gasped in shock.
Their twisted forms, the uneven structures, the way they had hands where legs should exist and tongues where eyes are supposed to be... their very forms, made of gooey darkness spilling from their bodies, disgusted them.
"BEGIN!"
We fear that which we do not understand.
They started their attacks with magic.
Since physical attacks hardly damage the demonic beings, magical attacks were the most effective after the attacks with ’pure’ elements.
"Mages!"
Lady Markeet took charge of the mages, the pride of Sungrade.
Their spells, made specifically to target the demonic beings, rained down fire on those creatures from above the wall.
"SKAAAAAAA!"
The demonic creatures that had varying forms ranging from a horse with a giraffe’s head as its legs or hens with a rhino’s body and snake head as their eyes, feared the flames and hesitated.
Still, the march towards the castle walls did not stop.
"GHAAAAAAAA!"
If the humans had magic, the demons were the personification of that very magic, the root from which these humans had developed their magical knowledge.
-OOOOOOOOOOOONG!
The demonic creatures started firing dark, murky flames towards the wall.
Some of them turned the entire ground in a two kilometer vicinity into a pool of darkness.
Every tree, the grass, or the soil that this pool of darkness touched, it corrupted into something similar to itself.
The scent that oozed from the corruption started suffocating the creatures that were supporting the people and soldiers. The sensitive spirits started shivering inside their magic spheres as well.
The corrupting powers of the demonic creatures was not something one can deal with on their own. If there were demonic beings, one most certainly needed the protection of light.
Thankfully, the Sungrade had produced many light element mages and priests along with the people who possessed the ’pure’ element within the elemental powers of their bonds.
"Oh lord, the savior and protector of the world, oh goddess, mother of abundance, oh holy flames, the medium to the divine..."
-Oooooooooooooong!
As chanting began on all sides of the wall, the sky above sungrade cleared up.
-Zaaaaaaaa...
A humongous magic circle as big as the entire city was materialized above the city, and at the same time, the Sungrade patriarch looked down upon the wave of demonic creatures that threatened his people.
"You damned fools!"
He roared at the demonic beings, calling out his (SSR-rank) partner, the Dragonfly that burned the sky: Jules.
Being a strategic weapon-rank beast of ’pure’ fire element, the creature flew with its buzzing wings.
Waves of green flames similar to the dragonfly’s body, were released each second it fluttered its wings.
-Zuuuup!
These waves flew directly downwards and crashed into the hoards of the demonic creatures that continued pouring out of the forest.
Lady markeet had also summoned her partner: the golden sword made of magical butterflies that contained the light element.
These creatures were called [Brilliance Shortwings] and they had condensed into the form of weapons like every [Form beast] around the world does.
They were a singular being, a single sword, but there were many of them that acted as a unit.
"Haaa!"
She could use this golden sword of light to cut down the demonic creature herself with her superior physical abilities.
She did defend against the flying creatures that found their way to the wall faster than the creatures on the ground.
-Swish!
She cut through the dense bodies of these (U) rank demonic creatures flying towards them with a single slash of her sword, decapitating their wings in an instant.
The butterflies dispersed from their sword form and shot out towards the falling bodies of these creatures like short rays of light and destroyed the ones that could still fight without their wings.
"Barriers!"
While the patriarch and his lady commanded the front of the wall, the sides that were left vulnerable were overseen by Miss Flora.
"Right front! Mages!"
With her ability to connect with natural elements and see the entire battlefield at once, the Naturalist was using her abilities to command the forces that were still flanking to the sides.
’Father was right.’
The demons would never act in such a manner.
Flanking, using decoys to gain advantageous positions, using the larger creatures to make a better platform for themselves, and even going as far as using the terrain to their advantage... this wasn’t how these demonic creatures acted naturally.
The ’lord’ that had appeared among them was using them. It was their leader in this war, and it knew how to use them.
"Still!"
Their defenses were solid.
Just like how they had a strong leader, they had her father.
He was fighting on the frontlines himself right now. His flames had already covered the forefront of the castle walls.
In a place where the creatures had made a puddle of dark mess, now only flames of green and orange remained.
’Patriarch...’
His presence on the frontline gave strength to the soldiers that were fighting the creatures.
When a hog-like creature with spring-like legs jumped all the way on top of the walls, the knights surrounded it.
They enhanced their bodies and weapons with the Aura produced from their tamed beasts.
With the enhanced physical abilities and the destructive power of the Aura, they strategically wore down the beast and cut off its limbs before getting rid of its body.
Killing the creature was not enough either so, they threw it off the wall and into the sea of flames that had covered the ground.
"There’s more coming."
Flora watched the scene and felt relief for a moment before informing the knights about the creatures that were approaching the walls.
Almost an hour had passed since they started the battle and yet they had barely killed fifty of these demonic beings.
"There’s no end to them..."
Flora was already concerned about the situation here so when she looked away at the forest, her heart shook for a long moment.
’Sam...’
The third front of the battlefield: the forest.
Elite parties had ventured into the forest to locate and destroy the enemies from within.
Strangely enough, her youngest brother was among this infiltration force.
"Shrrrrrrrr..."
They were ordered to finish the creatures without being noticed. And someone with the powers to create a pocket reality was more helpful here than any stealth expert they had among them.
"The limit is five minutes and then we must take a break."
Prism had already trained his mystic arts enough to maintain it for five straight minutes.
He had also decreased the time needed for recovering from the fatigue to fifteen minutes with the expensive potions that he made himself.
He made enough of them to survive this whole ordeal so when the infiltration group was inside the forest, every time they located a hoard of demonic beasts, they finished them off before they could understand what had happened.
Since they stayed still under the effects of his ability, killing them all became an extremely simple task.
"It’ll get worse from here on out."
Commanding this group was the Green Falcon, the retired captain that acted as a boast until an hour ago.
Things would have been much worse if Prism wasn’t here, so he was intrigued by his abilities even more.
But more than that...
"We will have a few more in a minute."
His ability to command people much stronger and older than him so naturally made the veteran admire the young boy far more than any person he had met until now.
"Meow~."
Not only was he strong and skilled, he strangely seemed used to a ’war’ like this one.
He was thinking like how a commander would, and acting as if he had fought in as many wars as he did.
It didn’t make any sense... but, he was a Sungrade.
At the end of the day, it was easier to justify the abilities of an anomaly like him because of the name he carried with him.
{ "Our lord was right..." }
Right when the party was about to enter the predicted combat zone, a voice rang in their minds.
{ "Wretched things." }
-Swiiiiiiiiish!
Out of nowhere, the ground froze solid and spikes of freezing ice shot from the ground.
-Zap!
The spikes pierced their bodies whole, some poked their eyes while some landed directly on their throats.
"Cough!"
The party leader, the war veteran, coughed up blood, not realizing what had happened just now.
He did not want to admit it, but the boy was right this time as well.
"You should at least show yourself, Miss Demon."
His body, which had experienced unfathomable trauma, his mind that was already hazy, and his soul that would have existed his body right in that instant... froze in its place.
It wasn’t ice that stopped them this time, but something that he had experienced when they entered this damned forest a while ago.
{ "What...?" }
The demonic voice that spoke in their heads was stunned to see the ice spikes piercing their bodies vanish into a strange gray fog.
At the same time, the owner of that voice, the creature hidden as a small frog, met the blue glowing eyes of a strange gray cat.
-Zaaaaaaaaaaaa...
The scene that portrayed the dying humans on the bloody icicles turned into a scene where the creature was surrounded by those very insignificant humans. Only this time...
"That seems about right."
The one that was bloody and butchered was the demonic creature itself, its foxian body chopped into pieces, and its dark blood burning with a strange purple flame.
No strength was left in its body. It could do nothing right now...
Even though it was an (SR-Rank) demonic beast until only a moment ago, nothing was left of it now.
"Huuuu."
The creature lost its soul with the same surprise as the ones before her.
None of them had understood what had happened to them at that moment.
And, the ones who fought and made them like that were the same.
Except, they were alive and well right now.
"Let’s move."
The powers that this boy was using went beyond stopping the creature or showing them strange illusions.
In a battle where life and death mattered more than anything else, despite its strange nature, his ability was game changing for their side.
’If it’s him...’
The commander knew it by now.
If it was this boy, then this seemingly impossible mission might just bare sweeter fruits than what he had anticipated while entering this damned forest.
