"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
With a maddening grin, the demon assassin continued to slash down one officer after another. She was fast enough to dodge bullets, her armor durable enough to withstand a hail of gunfire, and the more enemies she slew, the more blood she absorbed and strengthened her drastically.
"ALL OF YOU HUMANS ARE SO WEAK! I DONT GET WHY THEY KEEP TELLING ME NOT TO EXPOSE MYSELF YET, BUT THIS IS REALLY PATHETI-!"
BOOM!
Before she could react, a large golden fireball slammed into her abdomen. To her surprise, she noticed cracks were formed on her armor as she was launched back.
"WHAT!?" The demon assassin was startled. Blood and internal organs spilling from her mouth from the impact of the magical attack.
Looking ahead, the possessed human met the cold eyes of the Elf Queen, who summoned a sword of magical energy in her hand.
Sensing the massive amount of mana within the elf, the demon went pale and staggered several steps back.
"...So you were the one who single-handedly fought the demon generals? You are stronger than those weak primates."
"Those weak primates you talk down on are stronger than you can imagine," Melian said indifferently, "Now, if you still have a bit of sanity left on you, stop resisting. Whatever you try is useless. Just die quickly so I can bring back peace to this place."
"Oh, an elf who reeks false righteousness. That's what I hate," The demon stared at the elf with a trace of disappointment. Then chuckled, "I know I'm going to die in this battle. However, resisting is not useless. In fact, it already achieved its objective."
Melian frowned. But before she could understand what the demon meant, a blood-red aura started to ooze from the demon assassin's skin.
The aura was like a cursed flame, burning with sin. It seemed ominous and cruel, and carried the power of a demon at a Noble-class
Then, the demon smiled, "The little bit of time I gained will be useful... to kill you!"
With those words, the demon roared. Instantly, her mana turned into a horrifying dragon-like fiend that opened its mouth and attacked Melian.
The fiend was so powerful that everyone who witnessed it paled. It had already surpassed the power of a Tier-1.
However, Melian did not panic. When the dragon-like fiend was about to touch her, she raised her hand.
"[Heavenly Flames]"
Instantly, a small white-hot flame was shot from her fingertips and completely ignited the dragon-like fiend whole. The flames burned so fiercely that the fiend the demon created was instantly turned into nothingness.
"What!?"
Before the demon could move, the elves behind Melian raised their hands and cast their spells, unleashing tens of magical attacks all advancing towards the demon.
"PATHETIC!" The demon cried in fury, creating a barrier of mana in front of her. The barrier managed to stop all of the magical attacks, but the last one from Melian shattered it with ease.
Behind the barrier, the demon looked at the elves with bloodshot eyes. With a wave of her hand, she summoned dozens of blood-red spears.
"DIE!"
When Melian saw that, she shook her head.
"How pitiful."
Then, she gripped the energy sword in her hand... and slashed toward the spears.
The slash seemed strangely slow, but for some reason, it was completed before the spears could arrive in front of Melian. When the slash finished, all the blood-red spears had been sliced in two.
Seeing this, the demon opened her eyes wide, but that didn't stop her.
"Stay back!!!" The demon snarled and created several more blood-red spears, but Melian just shook her head and took a step forward. That step put her in front of the demon.
Calmly, Melian wielded her sword, destroying the blood-red spears around the demon and stabbing towards her heart.
Spurt!
The sword pierced the demon's blood-red armor and her heart before exiting through her back.
"This is your end," Melian said.
The demon vomited a mouthful of blood, glaring at the Elf Queen with rage. Then, she made a decision.
"No! I have survived from the war until now! I've grown too close to the Viscount-rank when I possessed this girl's body!! I AM NOT DYING TODAY UNTIL LORD ANDROMALIUS RETURNS!!!"
With a thought, she released all her power and let it go berserk!
But Melian's gaze remained completely indifferent.
Without giving her even half a second, Melian instantly cut the demon into hundreds of pieces at a speed almost too fast for anyone to react.
After slicing the demon's body into little pieces with only her head remaining, she turned her back and waved her hand again.
And the head of the demon exploded into a bloody mist.
————————————————————————
After the intense battle, which would be known as the Mendiola Massacre, which stands out not only for its unexpected violence but also for the shocking revelation at its heart.
During what at first appeared to be a protest against the government's decision by a large crowd of Satanist protesters, that is until an officer was shot, and the chaos began.
No one except for the Imperial Secret Police expected a demon to be among the crowd, a Baron-rank to say the least, which are classified to be extremely dangerous demonic entities that is beyond the capabilities of local law enforcement, and only a large military intervention to contain the threat.
This incident resulted in 58 deaths, including 25 police officers, 2 civilians, and 31 protesters.
But the most surprising of all is when they investigate the shooter, or rather, the demon and her background.
It revealed that this woman was raised as a Catholic, a complete Saint, and had no criminal records nor anything bad, not even curse in her whole life according to her family.
But there is something interesting. They stated that she seemed a bit different and strange, until it was proven when she cursed... to Jesus, of all people.
According to them, the change of behavior began after the New Year Tragedy.
With this revelation, it prompted increased vigilance from the government, Imperial Secret Police and every department, emphasizing the need for heightened security measures and more investigations into potential demonic influences within the population.
Watching as the police reinforcements and paramedics attended to help the injured police and the remaining protesters, Melian noticed a lot of civilians watching the scene, and couldn't get closer with law enforcement in their way.
Then she began to notice many people, both civilians and News Reporters, picturing and cheering for her. Widening her eyes as if to realize something, she glanced at the elf who had the ability to use illusion magic.
Noticing Her Majesty's gaze, the Elf looked at her and noticed something.
"My apologies, Your Majesty, I might've canceled the spell when we fought the demon," he sheepishly admitted.
Melian shook her head and shrugged it off, turning her attention back to the crowd. For the second time, she felt a wave of adoration from the people and never thought she would be loved by many.
"This is nice," she remarked with a smile.
There were many things that Melian was able to witness during her month-long stay in the Austronesian People's Empire, she was able to see the lively faces of the people of the land, despite having succumbed to a catastrophic tragedy, never before seen on a scale of their nation, where the people were as still lively as them.
Their crops were all but destroyed, and so food became scarce. The industry has effectively halted, and the energy that they call electricity and its produce the generators stopped supplying most of the areas in the Empire.
The death toll of the tragedy amounted to over one-fifth of the Empire's population. All these tragedies and economic fallout, would force the people to abandon the nation.
However, these people that she had seen around her and talked to some were all but sure that they would never abandon their home and nation, and so they persisted in rebuilding their nation. Such patriotic fervor burns immensely bright in the eyes of Melian.
Furthermore, she once doubted the leadership of the Emperor of this nation. Their first conversation doesn't seem great with the Demon Lord's Heart, but upon having undergone such tragedies, he wouldn't start to point the blame at others or any excuse. Instead, he and his entire government made a rousing speech while also taking the blame for the shortcomings of the Empire.
With such a leader with such a good conscience won the hearts of the people of the Empire.
Melian had also thought that with such a large number of casualties, they would also dump the bodies of the deceased into mass graves. But to her surprise, it wasn't the case. They gave all the casualties a grand ceremonial funeral. For those who had to lay down their lives fighting for the Empire were all given a simple yet emotional military funeral.
Such military funerals were very foreign to her but deeply moving. Those who died on the battlefield back in her nation would be left to rot in the battlefield's area. Only those who are ranked higher in the military high command and aristocracy were given the treatment of being sent back home.
Not only that, they gave all the casualties, even those civilians were given a gun salute that was only reserved for the highest of the nations, which includes those of the President, Prime Minister and the Emperor.
While those soldiers who had sacrificed their lives were given another gun salute however, it was not for the majority but for each soldier, and so each coffins of soldiers, had a set of soldiers that would perform the military gun salute, and they all did that in unison, which so as to say very impressive and such discipline were unparalleled. Such a massive amount of resources wasted would be the thought of the higher-ups in her nation.
She thought the masses would get pissed and angry at such a lavish display of wasted resources. Yet, they all were grateful for their Emperor, and in that moment, she saw that the eyes of the people on every person who she saw on that day were filled with a burning passion to get back up. To get back up and rebuild and make those who made them suffer pay a thousandfold.
Not only that, as she saw that the prices of commodities were on the free fall, the government and the Emperor made a move that was so revolutionary, she would never have thought of it, unless she actually saw it.
That is to freeze the price of each commodity in times of crisis. Back in her nation, merchants and nobles would use this opportunity to squeeze the masses out of money and to enrich their pockets with money.
Since the Empire has undergone such a tragedy, there would be of course who will try to take advantage of the situation and to move their pieces for their own self interest. To prevent that from happening, the government and the Emperor made a move on them, which they never had expected as the government was too busy fixing the problem. They would never have thought that they were a national security concern.
And within the past few days, multiple cells of people who intend to rebel against the government were all but raided and were promptly executed for those who didn't surrender. As to her surprise as she thought, there were people who sided with the government among the rebels, which made the job much easier for the government, and those who surrendered were pardoned and were reintegrated back into the society.
She didn't have much knowledge of the history of the Empire, though she could guess that it is a newly born nation borne out of chaos and war. However, contrary to her thoughts, the empire seemed very much stable, except for those who were trying to take advantage of the situation.
All over that, she concluded that the Emperor and his government were decisive people, and those people only exist in times of hardships. Which means they were reliable and goal-oriented with the people's interest in their mind.
She came to another conclusion that the Empire attained where they are now, through pure effort and perseverance from the flow of time. No matter how tough the sanctions of time were giving them, they were able to come out of the problem.
Thus, she was now very interested in how the Empire would change, as they met the other races of this world. How would they react? With such advanced technologies and ideas that threaten the very foundation of each society in this world. Would they still stay the same, or would they also fall into degeneracy and immorality?
Now is not the time to think that, and the first thing she has to do if she wants to see where the Empire would arrive at its own conclusion, she firstly needs enough authority and power to remain significant in the changing landscape.