Free Web NovelChapter 90: Chapter 67: Demon! Your Opponent Is Me, Reinhardt
War breeds grim terror through death, but through courage, it authors an epic of sacrifice and unyielding struggle.
Innumerable Demons swarmed forward.
They leaped high, all sharp claws and fangs, Chain Hammers and War Axes—a merciless, cruel tide of slaughter crashing down upon Reinhardt.
The rising sun was the color of blood, its dying light clinging desperately to life.
Albert gripped his sword with both hands, his eyes blazing with fury. He faced the heaven-shaking demonic war cries without retreating a single step.
Reinhardt stood tall, head held high, as the bloody maw of an Abyssal Hound filled his vision and a whistling War Axe hurtled toward his head.
The heavy footfalls of the charging Great Demon made the earth tremble in fear.
Time began to flow again.
The Giant Axe in Reinhardt’s hands swung viciously, cleaving into the Abyssal Hound’s head. The immense momentum split the creature in two, spilling its entrails and splattering blood across the ground.
The Demon’s War Axe crashed against the Morphic Armor, splintering and breaking.
Albert’s Extraordinary Armament, the Light-Cast Broadsword, hummed at a high frequency. Its blade cut through Demons as if they were butter, and their mangled bodies fell in droves.
The roar of the Furious Great Demon Hekatos was soul-shattering.
Its furious desire for battle and slaughter made it ignore friend and foe alike, hacking and tearing apart any living thing that dared to stand in its way.
"ROAR—!"
This Abyssal Great Demon, standing over ten meters tall, was a true behemoth of war. It fixed Reinhardt with a deathly stare and charged, aiming to crush him completely.
Albert faced death unflinchingly. He stood shoulder to shoulder with Reinhardt, fully prepared to die for the Empire.
Just then, the Radiant Beacon fixed to the side of his backpack, after a full day and night of silence, transmitted an order from the Imperial Military Affairs Department for the first time!
A handwritten military order on parchment shot out from the Radiant Beacon’s space-time waypoint.
Albert’s reflexes were sharp. He cut down a charging Convicted Demon with one slash, snatched the parchment out of the air, and roared.
"Reinhardt! Cover me—!"
He flicked the parchment open with one hand. The writing was hasty, spattered with the traces of dried blood. The upper right corner was completely soaked through with it.
The order from the Military Affairs Department was brief and to the point.
[Grillers World has fallen. Prepare for withdrawal in three minutes. Maintain the Radiant Beacon’s operation and hold your position.]
The Military Affairs Department’s phrasing prioritized information density and transmission efficiency.
When Albert saw the word "fallen" on the parchment, his brow furrowed slightly. He took a deep breath and stuffed the military order back into his pack.
Harassment, raid, invasion, contamination, fallen.
Five different words, each representing the intensity and danger level of a war.
For wars at the harassment and raid levels, the Empire would typically only dispatch an Infantry Legion to coordinate with the local Defense Army and protect the Empire’s territory.
At most, they would send a standard five-man Knight tactical squad as reinforcement.
Of course, if the local Provincial Governor Federation had sufficient connections and financial resources, they could hire a Mercenary Corps on their own.
The Iron Blood Battle Group stationed in Infinitis, for instance, was supported by the Grillers World Provincial Governor Federation and had a long-term garrison there.
After all, the Empire’s territory was vast and boundless, but its Main Battle Corps numbered less than 1.8 million active-duty Knights. If not for the long-premeditated civil strife, every Knight would be considered the Empire’s most precious war asset. The Regent Council and the Military Affairs Department would never have allowed them to die in a political purge.
When a war’s intensity reached the invasion or contamination level, the Regent Council would require officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to analyze and review the economic and strategic value of the conflict zone.
Only after a positive review would the Military Affairs Department consider dispatching Imperial Knights to take over the battlefield and cleanse the world of Alien Race or Demon contamination.
Once a war reached the "fallen" level... In all his years of service, Albert had never once received a military order using that word.
It meant the Empire was being forced to abandon this world.
It also meant that the enemy present on this world was beyond the capabilities of a typical Imperial Knight Order.
’Withdraw in three minutes.’
The Military Affairs Department’s timetables were never wrong. Any error not only risked the collapse of the front lines, but the responsible clerks and bureaucrats in the department would also pay a terrible price in blood and death.
He needed to inform the Radiant Angels and the other Imperial Knights immediately. They had to preserve their strength and wait for withdrawal.
But the roaring Great Demon was an insurmountable mountain before him!
The next second, a massive shadow blotted out his vision. The trembling of the ground and the palpable Demon Power grated on his nerves with every passing moment.
BANG—!
When Albert tore his gaze from the military order, the magnificent body and vast, fleshy wings of the Furious Great Demon had completely blotted out the sky above him.
In that instant, his pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.
The dark purple figure standing beside him was sent flying backward like a kite with a snapped string, shattering every body of flesh and blood in his path!
He even saw that the War Axe, radiating an ominous power, was stained with bits of dark purple, living matter that had not yet withered away.
THUMP—!
The terrifying sound of a heartbeat suddenly thundered in his ears.
Heavy breathing, as hot as the air from a volcano, washed over him.
Albert slowly raised his head and saw the Great Demon’s furious eyes, which burned with the Eternal Flame. In that instant, it felt as though his soul had plummeted into an endless ocean of blood.
He saw... a throne built from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
It was a horror that dealt a massive blow to his faith and reason!
It was a fleeting moment, yet it felt as though ten thousand years had passed. freēwebnovel.com
His heartbeat and breathing stopped completely!
This was the terrifying Mighty Power of a Great Demon.
Even an Angel of the Empire, a veteran elite with a Six-star Military Rank, and a most loyal believer of the Radiant Divine Emperor could not look a Great Demon directly in the eye!
The Avernus-blessed War Axe was already raised, but Albert remained frozen in place. A colossal fear contaminated his very soul, and he couldn’t even move a single finger.
In the distance, Sedon and Heinrich, who were coming as reinforcements, saw Albert standing stupefied before the Great Demon. They unleashed the power of their Domains, trying to intercept the descending War Axe.
But it was too late.
In the instant between life and death, a brilliant Mach Ring streaked across the sky. A dark purple figure shot through the wall of flesh and blood formed by the Demons like a cannonball, viciously smashing into the face of the Furious Great Demon Hekatos!
The Great Demon’s massive head was nearly the size of Reinhardt’s entire body.
But the impact was so immense that even this ten-meter-tall behemoth couldn’t stop its head from snapping back!
And in that moment, both Demon and Imperial Knight alike witnessed a scene of madness they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
Reinhardt’s right hand, trembling wildly, was latched onto a horn on the Great Demon’s face. His own face was a twisted, savage mask of fury, shoved right up against the fiery eyes of Furious Great Demon Hekatos—eyes that could kill a Mortal with a single glance!
What’s more, the massive wound on his chest still pulsed with the terrifying power of Avernus’s ominous curse!
He raised his left fist high.
An unprecedented, terrifying aura gathered madly around him.
The dark red blood mist that had once swirled around him now erupted into the sky like a raging inferno.
At that moment, the unyielding roar of an Imperial Knight overwhelmed the monstrous war cries of the Demons, tore apart the blood-red reflection of the Abyss, and echoed throughout the heavens—!
"Demon! Your opponent is me, Reinhardt!"
