"Damn it! What's wrong with these guys? Are they completely fearless of death?!" Ukel's two Wizards chanted spells ceaselessly, unleashing waves of wide-area attacks that swept away entire ranks of soldiers with each blast.
Yet more soldiers surged forward relentlessly, giving them no respite. Wave after wave crashed against the Wizards' defenses. After all, Jay was positioned at the heart of the army, and the assassination squad had already been completely surrounded. All Jay needed to do now was stand back and wait silently, letting his troops wear down the attackers' strength until they were slowly ground into submission.
Meanwhile, at General Ukel's command post, he observed signs of unrest rippling through the enemy ranks, but their formation remained intact. This confirmed the failure of the Array Core sabotage mission. General Ukel immediately ordered reinforcements: "Quick! Send troops to rescue the two Wizards!"
After all, both Wizards were Nobles, and in this era, every Wizard was an exceedingly rare and precious asset.
The Allied Forces began advancing toward Jay's position, which was exactly what he wanted. His troops likewise surged forward to meet them in battle, and the clash was imminent.
Yet, barely five minutes into the engagement, General Ukel sensed something was amiss. The enemy line was actually pushing toward his position!
In the thick of the battle, Allied soldiers felt it even more acutely. Their enemies seemed impervious to pain; even when struck, they would silently turn and counterattack.
No, that wasn't quite right. These enemies had never made a sound at all—no taunts, no battle cries, not even screams of agony. Each moved like a mute automaton.
On a battlefield, roaring while swinging one's sword was a tried-and-true tactic, bolstering your courage while intimidating the enemy. Under normal circumstances, a battlefield should be deafeningly chaotic.
But this battle was eerily silent. Allied soldiers could only hear the roars of their comrades charging into battle or the agonized cries of those struck down. The enemy line, however, remained as placid as a still sea, utterly devoid of any disturbance.
This eerie scene gradually instilled a sliver of fear in the hearts of the Allied Forces soldiers. Humans naturally fear what they cannot understand—the unknown. Moreover, fear is contagious. As the soldiers began fighting hesitantly, the battle lines naturally shifted backward, pushing toward Ukel's side.
However, casualties on both sides remained roughly equal, hovering around a 1:1.2 ratio. This meant that for every ten Jay soldiers killed, twelve Allied Forces soldiers perished.
Yet it's crucial to remember that the Allied Forces comprised the most elite troops from the five kingdoms, and their numbers far exceeded Jay's forces. To achieve such a casualty ratio was utterly absurd.
Witnessing this, General Ukel couldn't help but curse, "Damn it! They're all a bunch of worthless trash!"
He immediately dispatched more troops, but Jay's soldiers stood firm like an unbreakable wall, refusing to yield even an inch despite the relentless Allied Forces assault.
At that moment, a skilled Allied Forces soldier, a Centurion, struck off a Jay soldier's helmet, revealing a resolute face beneath. The Centurion immediately recoiled two steps in terror, shouting, "Ghost... ghosts!"
In truth, the soldier's appearance was far from frightening. The problem was that the Centurion had already knocked off the helmets of two other soldiers earlier, and all three looked identical!
After all, since Jay had magically conjured an army, why bother crafting unique appearances for each soldier? He simply needed to create one template and then copy-paste it across the entire force.
But the Centurion couldn't comprehend what he was witnessing, naturally leading to intense fear. With their leader retreating, the surrounding soldiers naturally began to fall back as well.
The battlefield situation was deteriorating rapidly. Bell's Squad, a seven-member team within the Allied Forces, observed the chaos and approached General Ukel. "Are you sure you don't need our help?"
After a moment's hesitation, General Ukel shook his head and said gravely, "This may be the most formidable army I've ever faced, but... it's still within manageable limits. We can handle this ourselves. There's no need for the Heroes to intervene."
Put bluntly, it was a matter of saving face. Having initially insisted they didn't need help, how could they now backtrack and ask the Heroes for assistance after just one battle—one that wasn't even finished yet? That would be utterly humiliating.
Though Bell was powerful, he was merely an adventurer. His strategic insight in warfare couldn't compare to that of a seasoned general like Ukel. So he nodded in agreement and departed.
Afterward, Ukel's adjutant remarked, "But sir, if we had accepted their help earlier, we might have been able to rescue the Great Wizard from encirclement."
Ukel shook his head. "No, it's already too late."
Indeed, by then, the two Wizards facing Jay had completely exhausted their Magic Power. Overwhelmed by countless soldiers, they were hacked to death by a flurry of swords.
If General Ukel had sought the Hero's aid immediately after realizing something was amiss, perhaps he could have rescued those men. But the same old problem remained: pride prevented him from asking for help. Moreover, he believed his army could break through enemy lines and rescue the Wizards themselves.
The result was a disastrous rescue attempt, and by then, it was too late to seek the Hero's assistance.
General Ukel said gravely, "Alas, there was nothing we could do. It was all the enemy's scheme. Those two Great Wizards fell into their cunning trap, but they fought valiantly to the very end. They are undoubtedly Ukel's heroes!"
The Adjutant: "?"
General Ukel fixed a stern gaze on the Adjutant. "Do you understand?"
The Adjutant jolted upright, nodding frantically. "Yes, yes! I understand!"
The war raged on. After the failed initial assault, General Ukel launched at least three more attacks that same day. He tried various tactics, including cavalry harassment of the flanks, archers launching long-range volleys to whittle down enemy numbers, and large-scale encirclement maneuvers, but all proved futile.
General Ukel remained unperturbed, confident in his overwhelming numerical advantage. If a swift assault failed, they could simply grind the enemy down. With only 200,000 troops, victory would be assured once the enemy's forces were sufficiently depleted.
Three days passed in a blur. As he listened to the intelligence reports from his scouts, beads of sweat began to dot General Ukel's forehead. "What?! You're saying the enemy still has 200,000 troops?! How is that possible?!"
The scout replied in terror, "General, those enemies aren't human—they're monsters! I personally witnessed soldiers materializing out of thin air from the ground! They're virtually unkillable! Or rather, they resurrect after a short time!"
General Ukel's face twisted in anguish before he finally barked, "Quick! Summon the Heroes! I need their help!"
Ten minutes later, however, General Ukel learned that the Seven Heroes had already left on their own that morning. They had skirted the vast plains ahead, advancing toward the Demon King's City along the periphery.
It was simple: they had been waiting too long. Bell had repeatedly inquired about how much longer it would take to defeat the enemy, but each time General Ukel replied, "Soon, soon!"
Eventually, the Seven Heroes grew weary of waiting. They reasoned that since the Demon Lord's main forces were already engaged here, they might as well find a way to bypass them and strike directly at the Demon King's City to confront the Demon Lord himself.
Surely the Demon King's City couldn't have much defensive strength left?
"We're doomed!" Upon hearing this news, General Ukel collapsed into his chair. Normally, at this point, they would press the attack, aiming to break through the enemy's blockade more quickly and reach the Demon King's City to support the Hero, right?
But after a moment of silence, General Ukel declared, "Halt the offensive! We'll await developments."
What was selling out his comrades, anyway? He had just betrayed those two Wizards recently, and he had no personal connection to the Seven Heroes whatsoever. Issuing this order carried not the slightest burden on his conscience.
-
Approximately five days later, the perspective shifted to the Grand Duchy of Augustus, now the Demon King's City. With only the final Century Gate remaining, Tribios couldn't help but sigh. All the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Augustus had been evacuated, leaving her and Olivia as the sole occupants of the entire city.
Maintaining over a hundred Century Gates simultaneously for such an extended period had drained Tribios's energy immensely. She felt as if she hadn't slept for twenty consecutive nights, utterly exhausted.
Despite her fatigue, Tribios turned to Olivia and asked, "Are you really not going to leave? We could escape together right now, couldn't we?"
Olivia shook her head. "If I left, the Heroes would arrive and find no sign of the Demon Lord. They'd immediately grow suspicious."
"Seeing a perfectly intact city, they'd undoubtedly search it thoroughly. Jay's magic is powerful, but aren't they Heroes? What if they discovered our secrets? Then everyone would learn that the Grand Duchy of Augustus hadn't been destroyed, but had merely fled somewhere else. All of Jay and Tide's efforts would have been in vain."
Tribios countered, "No, those people weren't heroes at all."
Olivia smiled. "That doesn't matter, does it? Just like this nameless city we're in right now—who would ever guess its first name was 'Demon King's City'?"
Olivia gazed up at the towering, pitch-black city walls. "Even though Jay designed this place in the Demon King's City style, I still don't think the name sounds very good. I'd rather call it..."
After a moment's thought, she suggested, "City of Hope. What do you think, Little Trib? Back in my grandfather's time, he led everyone here to build this city. It became a beacon of hope for all the escaped slaves of that era. Now, this place will serve as Augustus's 'double,' being destroyed in his place."
"Born from hope and ultimately destroyed while protecting Augustus's people—I think the name fits perfectly. Don't you agree, Little Trib?"
Seeing Tribios remain silent for a while, Olivia scratched her head. "Sigh, am I really that bad at naming things? I genuinely think this name is great, you know."
Tribios remained silent for a moment before nodding. "No, I think the name is quite fitting."
She was mainly pondering how the City of Hope in the present and the future Chaos City—the same place in different times—could bear such nearly opposite names.
Noticing Tribios's gloomy mood, Olivia said, "Little Trib, your prophecies are always spot-on, aren't they? Why don't you just prophesy here and now that we'll meet again in the future, after my reincarnation?"
But Olivia shook her head. "No, no, that's not quite right. How about prophesying that all four of us—you, me, Jay, and Tide—will reunite again in the future? Wouldn't that be better?"
"Too bad I have to rule a country in this lifetime, I'm swamped with work. If I could, I'd want to be an ordinary, carefree person in my next life. I'd join an adventurer's squad with you all, go wherever we please, and experience all sorts of thrilling adventures!"
Hearing this, Tribios couldn't help but smile wryly. "That's not a prophecy at all, is it? It's more like a wish, isn't it?"
Olivia pouted. "Eh, can't I?"
Tribios pondered for a moment about the events three centuries into the future, then suddenly declared, "No, your wish will definitely come true. I'm certain of it."
No wonder Olivia had felt inexplicably familiar to Tribios upon their first meeting. Looking at it now, she realized that the future Aria was very likely Olivia's reincarnation—the two were essentially the same person!
If that were the case, then what Olivia wished for now must inevitably come to pass, or perhaps it had already happened.
Thinking along those lines, could Feidric and Douglas be the reincarnations of Jay and Tide?
The resemblance between Olivia and Aria was striking, but Feidric and Jay seemed somewhat different in temperament. Douglas and Tide were even less alike; Douglas was lively and talkative, while Tide was quiet and reserved.
-
Spy- See you all tomorrow! We will meet again at the ends of the west winds.