Rumble—!
At that moment, the ground trembled.
The first person to notice this was one of the soldiers in the fields near the east wing of the first layer wall.
"What's happening!?" a panicked soldier shouted.
"It's probably just a random earthquake or something," another soldier replied calmly.
"I highly doubt that. With giant storms, sea monsters, and demons from hell? Definitely, this is not just some random ass earthquake!"
"Calm down, comrade. The Austronesian Empire had earthquakes constantly because we were near the Pacific Ring of Fire, so it's not that uncommon."
"...Are we even near that same Ring of Fire? You do realize we are not on earth anymore, let alone the Pacific."
The soldier was about to respond, but paused. He lowered his gaze and went deep in thought, until his usual calm expression turned to one of deep fear.
"Oh... shit, you got a point."
Crack! Crack!
Suddenly, cracks began to form beneath the soldiers. Before they could utter a word, the earth ruptured upwards, and something massive emerged from the ground.
[GIF]
"ROARRRRRRR!"
Hearing a sudden loud commotion behind him, the commanding officer on the eastern wall turned around and his eyes widened as he saw a giant demonic crocodile had somehow breached the perimeter.
He pressed the comms and shouted, "I want all forces stationed within the perimeter of the east wing to take that thing down! Now!"
A minute after the command was sent, a battalion of soldiers, armored vehicles, and main battle tanks arrived on the front and flanks of the crocodile, surrounding it as they immediately began firing everything they had onto it with thousands of bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles.
"Roarrrrr!" The giant demon crocodile roared as it was pummeled from all sides.
"Fire!" shouted a soldier, launching a rocket from an RPG on his shoulder. The projectile struck the crocodile's face, exploding on impact.
"ROOOOAAAAAAAARRRRR!!!!"
Roaring in rage, the giant demonic crocodile began to move forward. The commander, noticing this, turned to his men and shouted.
"Fall back! Fall back! Everyone fall back, or else you'll get stomped by a fucking lizard and died like the army on one of those giant monster movies these Japanese made! NOW!"
Following his orders, the battalion began a slow retreat while continuing shooting at the crocodile in an attempt to hold its advance.
While they were doing so, the commander noticed one soldier standing still and approached him.
"Why the hell are you standing there, private!? Do you want to get stomped or eaten by that thing!?"
"Um... sir, what is it doing?"
Looking back at the crocodile and wondering what had caused the soldier to freeze, the commander noticed the crocodile was acting strangely, as though it was building up something.
"What the-"
[Sonic Beam]
BRRRRRRRRR!
Before the commander knew it, the giant crocodile unleashed a giant beam of sonic waves, obliterating everything in its path. The beam tore through the battalion, sending hundreds of soldiers, dozens of armored vehicles, several tanks, and countless trees flying like ragdolls.
After dealing with the army in front, the giant crocodile leaned down and prepared to leap forward.
BOOM!
To the shock of everyone who witnessed it, the giant crocodile created a massive shockwave with its mighty leap, obliterating the wall and all the soldiers on it behind it.
"Stop it! Keep it away from the city!"
In a desperate attempt, the rest of the battalions on the flanks and those further ahead in the crocodile's path continued firing at it, but no matter how many rounds they unleashed, the creature remained unstoppable.
"[Infantry, stand back! Air Force, deploy the muscle-paralyzing bombs! Fire!]"
Seconds later, ten AH-12 Thunderhawks flew overhead and began bombarding the crocodile with a rain of hydra rockets and hellfire missiles. The once peaceful and tranquil forest turned into a sea of flames as the air strike pounded the monstrous threat with a hundred bombs.
——————————————————————————————
In one of the watchtowers guarding the perimeter, two guards, casually looking over the horizon and feeling bored, were in the mood to shoot some monsters.
"Hey man, take a look at that," one of them said, pointing at something in the distance.
"What? Is that... smoke?" the other replied, noticing a plume of smoke rising over the horizon.
Their radio suddenly crackled to life, and a man's voice, full of static and intermittent cuts, came through.
"This is watchtower 3, what's the matter? Over," the guard wielding the radio said.
"[Easte-... wall... breached... eading over... ur location]," the voice on the radio struggled to communicate.
"What? What did he say?" his counterpart asked.
"Something about the eastern wall, a breach, and then something about our location?"
"Oh god... We have to alert everyone!"
Before either of them could go down the ladder, a Thunderhawk helicopter flew toward them with a trail of smoke coming from its engines. The rotors appeared loose as if it's going to detach at any moment. Soon enough, they detached and spun uncontrollably toward the watchtower.
"OH SHIT—"
The rotors sliced the watchtower in half, sending it tumble down to the ground as the body of the helicopter exploded in the distance.
The city erupted into full panic. Alarms blared as over a thousand soldiers rushed to the second layer wall to defend the city. A dozen attack helicopters took to the skies, providing air support and reconnaissance.
Sounds of earth-shattering were erupted by something big, and are approaching them.
"Got visuals on the enemy! East Wing!" a soldier reported over the radio. Men sprinted to reinforce the eastern wall. Auto-turrets were quickly set up, and LMGs were mounted on the walls. As the beast drew closer, it roared, demoralizing some of the new recruits, but the veterans were still strong.
"OPEN FIRE!"
The order rang out over the radio, and the entire East Wing lit up brightly in the night as bullets left a trail of tracers that streaked through the darkness and the roar of gunfire filled the entire scene.
The beast is getting hit everywhere as bullets pelted its legs, body, and head, but it was not stopping.
"AIM FOR THE EYES! STALL IT!"
Snipers focused their shots on the eyes of the creature, managing to blind it. The beast let out a screeching roar and stopped, trying to protect its eyes as it recovered.
"Thunderhawks! Fire all of your arsenal!"
Twenty AH-12 Thunderhawk attack helicopters immediately executed a bombing run on the beast and unleashed all of their hydra rockets and Hellfire missiles as soon as they heard the command. The sky lit up with explosions, and a sea of flames engulfed the beast and its surroundings. The men on the walls kept shooting into the smoke and fire, determined not to take any chances.
They kept shooting and shooting until it was dead, but they began to run out of ammunition. The auto-turrets stopped firing and fell silent, making useless clicking sounds, indicating that it ran out of bullets, same with the rifles. One by one, the soldiers' rifles stopped firing as their magazines emptied. The smoke slowly cleared out, and they ceased their assault.
The beast, though heavily injured, was still alive.
"ROOOAARRRRR!!!"
[IMAGES]
"We failed..." one soldier murmured in despair.
To add more despair and loss to the soldiers on the wall, they watched as the beast was enveloped with a massive wave of mana, and its wounds began to heal. With its strength returning, it stood back up, strong as ever.
A recruit opened his mouth. "We can't give up! There's got to be something we can—" He was cut off as a veteran soldier patted him on the shoulder.
"There's nothing we can do, kid. That thing is fucking invincible," he said.
The lizard roared. As it had returned to its full strength, it started charging the East Wing wall. Soldiers immediately ran away as the beast rammed the wall with its nose, and obliterated it without an effort.
The beast is now inside the city.
"ROARRRRR!"
The Demonic Emperor roared in delight. It looked at the city that was finally open for it to enjoy its feast.
But suddenly...
Slash!
BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
A terrifying sword light slashed down from the sky, so powerful it seemed to stop time itself. No monster nearby had a chance to react.
The Crocodile Emperor and all the monsters within several kilometers of the gate were instantly annihilated, over 10,000 creatures, big and small, obliterated in an instant.
Spurt!
At the same time, Melian spat out a mouthful of blood. She had used up all of her mana, especially with the full power of her trump card, [Light Streak], a Tier 2 spell, an ancient art reserved for the chosen rulers of High Tarxan. Now, she was as vulnerable as a normal human, and she could only wait for her body that would need a full day to automatically agglomerate the magicules from the surroundings and recover.
Half an hour later, the battle was over. All the demons had been driven out, but the casualties were immense with over 15,000 soldiers and civilians having lost their lives. The most troublesome one is the giant demonic crocodile as it had taken down nearly all the tanks and other defenses in the east wing of the perimeter. It alone has killed 1000 soldiers and it took nearly hundreds of bombs, rockets and missiles just to heavily injure it.
If it wasn't for the help of the Elven Queen, the number of casualties and the situation would have been a hundred times worse.
When Melian returned to the city, all the humans showed their gratitude toward her. They welcomed her warmly, showing hospitality and treating her as one of their own, which warmed her heart.
After healing the humans that were injured, Melian went on her way to the building she was supposed to visit earlier. She received warm greetings and kind eyes from everyone she encountered. Despite being unable to revive the dead, nevertheless, they were happy for her help and treated her like family.
They provided her with a luxurious room to stay in and taught her how to use a shower and bathtub, which she enjoyed immensely. Even with her status as a captive, they extended their trust to her, which she deeply appreciated. They even gave her a dress called a Kebaya, it was apparently one of the national dresses of the Austronesian Empire.
As she touched and felt the dress, she realized it was made of materials that didn't exist in her world. The intricate design and beautiful fabric filled her with joy. She was delighted to experience the culture of another nation, finding happiness in the beauty and generosity around her.
After she wore the dress with the assistance of some of the human women, there was a knock at the door. Moments later, a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes entered. She glanced at the other women in the room and gestured for them to leave, which they did without question.
Once alone, the blonde woman turned her attention to Melian, who suddenly felt awkward in the silence.
"Hello, miss. My name is Agent Amelia, and I work for the Intelligence Division of the Austronesian Constabulary," she began with a mature tone. "We are incredibly grateful for what you did out there."
"Oh, it was nothing, really. I'm just here to help and to get the attention from your leaders so I can discuss with them," Melian replied.
"Fortunately for you, my leaders were already eager to hear from you. That's why I'm here, to gather information."
The next moment, the blonde woman, Amelia, brought out a small folder and placed it on the table, which Melian picked it up and examined its contents, finding a series of images with impressive quality that could make their best painter envious. Aside from those, she noticed they were all various types of demons in each picture.
"Do you know anything about these creatures?" Amelia asked.
"Yes, I do," Melian nodded. "I've studied demonology before, and I'm familiar with most of these demons. The last time they invaded this world was 2000 years ago known as the Ashkari War."
"Good, that makes it easier. Now I want you to explain everything about them in great detail, including which ones are less dangerous or not. We're only seeking information to minimize casualties when facing them in the near future."
For a brief moment, Melian already knew the obvious answer, which she affirmed with a nod.
For the past half-hour, Melian had painstakingly explained the details and information of each demon shown to her. Meanwhile, the blonde woman, Amelia, diligently wrote down her sketch notes, capturing every detail and turning Melian's wealth of knowledge into what seemed like a comprehensive book.
As Melian spoke, she revealed something interesting about the world they were in. A tier system based on the concentration of a new type of molecule called magicules. According to Melian, this system depends on the amount of magicules a being has, and the more magicules they could hold, the possibility of enhancing their bodies that reach beyond human capabilities and cast more powerful spells.
"I think I've heard enough," Amelia finally said. "While I thank you for your cooperation, there is one image I would like to show you, to see if you know anything about it."
Melian nodded. "Sure."
With that, another picture was presented to Melian. As her eyes landed on the image, her face froze in complete horror.
"A-A Demon Lord?"