As the three travelers finally breached the perimeter of the village, the very first sight that greeted them was a massacre.
Countless corpses of the original villagers littered the ground. Every single one of them bore a gaping wound in the center of their torso, a brutal hole punched straight through the stomach that reminded Geehrt vividly of the fatal injuries suffered by Ace and Rengoku.
Geehrt's stomach churned violently as the metallic scent of blood and the rot of the corpses began to assault his senses. The smell was becoming an overwhelming miasma that hung heavy in the air.
They had barely stepped foot inside, yet Geehrt could already feel the heavy presence of the demons occupying the village. His senses honed in on the strongest mana signature gathered in the town square.
"There are twenty of them. Hmm, I thought there would be more given the density of the mana," Geehrt said quietly to Frase and Kanone.
The two women immediately trusted his assessment, for not once had he been wrong in his mana detection since his training began.
"Most of them are not particularly strong, but the one standing in the middle is powerful. He feels perhaps closer to your strength, Grandmother," Geehrt added as he calmly assessed their situation.
Frase and Kanone did not react outwardly to the news, as they had already suspected a commander was present. However, sensing a flicker of worry in Geehrt's mind, Frase decided to ease his tension with a lesson.
"Let me teach you something, young man. A mage's victory does not rely solely on the amount of mana they possess, nor just their mastery over spells. True victory is decided by a mage's experience.
The victor in any battle will always be the one willing to sacrifice more to win. That is something demons do not understand, as they have a narrow view on who is going to be the victor between two sides," Frase said.
Beside her, Kanone's expression shifted into a cold, focused mask as she entered her battle state.
Without any further delay, a massive blast of pressurized air suddenly slammed toward them. Geehrt reacted instantly.
He created a multi-layered magic shield and simultaneously conjured a heavy golem covered with its own defensive barriers to block the mass of pressurized air.
As the attack collided with his defenses, Geehrt launched a counteroffensive, firing countless beams of Zoltraak toward the source of the wind blast.
Geehrt did not stop there. He fired additional Zoltraak beams toward the flanks where he sensed demons attempting to encircle them.
While Geehrt managed the defense and suppression fire, Frase and Kanone launched their own precision spells toward the hidden enemy positions they could feel in the distance.
After a few minutes of intense exchange, Geehrt, Frase, and Kanone ceased their fire. They sensed that their initial barrage had only killed five of the lesser demons, and they did not want to squander their mana reserves needlessly before the main engagement.
As the dust settled, they saw the fifteen remaining demons emerge from the shadows. A massive demon stood at their rear, towering over the others as they walked directly toward the trio. Frase and Kanone seemed to recognize the looming figure immediately.
"Hmm, a Demon General. Schorner, no less. It seems the demons really planned to take this village as a forward base to attack the Empire," Frase commented as she looked up at the giant.
The demon's name was Destructive Schorner, a general known for fighting exclusively with his two fists. Geehrt could see the dense mana coating the demon's hands, and his Six Eyes revealed that the energy was incredibly volatile in nature.
"Why have you trespassed on our land?" Schorner remarked. His voice was completely devoid of emotion as he looked down at Geehrt, Kanone, and Frase.
He stared at them not as threats, but as if they were mere insects.
"This is not your land. A demon does not have the right to own anything. You are monsters, not living beings," Kanone replied sharply.
Her insult did not earn a reply. Schorner, like all demons, did not understand the concept of insults or honor in the human sense, nor did he care. He only cared about the elimination of the obstacle in front of him.
"Geehrt, can you handle five demons at the same time? Kanone will take ten, and I will face Schorner myself," Frase said calmly.
Geehrt nodded. Kanone offered a curt nod of her own, and the three of them turned to face their respective assignments.
When Geehrt faced his opponents, he saw that the five demons had already formed a balanced party.
Two heavily armored demons acted as the vanguard, wielding massive axes, while three mages stood in the back ready to cast long-range spells.
All of them wore emotionless faces, yet Geehrt could sense a distinct feeling of pride radiating from them. They looked at his small figure and concluded that killing him would be a trivial task.
Geehrt decided to draw his sword. It was a weapon Wehrlos had crafted for him as a birthday gift, a direct replica of the blade Himmel had used. Wielding the Sword of the Hero made Geehrt incredibly happy.
Despite having lived in this world for ten years, he still had not forgotten his past life or the stories he had learned from the anime and manga of Frieren.
Without wasting another second, Geehrt launched his attack.
He utilized Jilwer to move at blinding speeds, vanishing from sight. He reappeared instantly behind one of the rear-guard mages and sliced its head off before it could react.
The demon never saw it coming, caught off guard by the speed of the spell.
It was one of the most popular spells in the Empire, and every Imperial Mage had the capacity to use Jilwer, but few could use it with such lethality.
As the first demon fell, Geehrt immediately swung his sword toward the second mage.
However, the third mage reacted quickly, summoning a burst of wind that knocked Geehrt back.
He quickly summoned a shield to absorb the impact while simultaneously ducking under a massive axe swing from one of the vanguards who had rushed to intercept him.
Geehrt used the momentum of his duck to pivot, kicking the flat of the vanguard's axe to block an incoming attack from the second vanguard.
While balancing on one foot, he summoned a Zoltraak magic circle and fired it point-blank at the mage who was preparing a follow-up spell.
The Zoltraak hit the demon squarely in the chest, interrupting the cast, but the residual mana from the interrupted spell caused ice to violently erupt around the area.
The mage who had summoned the wind fired a stream of fire toward Geehrt, attempting to incinerate him.
Instead of a shield, Geehrt directly created a wall of ice to battle against the stream of fire.
Steam exploded into the air, creating a smokescreen which Geehrt used to his advantage, activating Jilwer again to reposition.
From the mist, Geehrt summoned multiple Zoltraak magic circles and began bombarding the remaining mages while engaging the two vanguards in melee combat.
The demons looked at him as if he were a fool for fighting in close quarters when he had the advantage of range, but they failed to see his strategy.
As the battle dragged on, Geehrt's movements became more polished. He was analyzing them.
One of the demon vanguards grew impatient. Seeing a false opening in Geehrt's stance, it tried to capitalize on it, intending to use its innate magic to crush the boy.
When Geehrt moved to block the axe, the demon suddenly shifted the weight of the weapon mid-swing, a technique designed to bypass a guard.
However, Geehrt, the user of the Six Eyes, saw the flow of mana shift within the axe before the physical movement even happened. He did not block. Instead, he surged forward with explosive speed.
"Lightning Strike!" Geehrt yelled.
A bolt of lightning crashed down, imbuing his blade as it cut the demon cleanly in half while it was still mid-swing. Shock finally appeared on the demon's face as its body separated.
The second vanguard tried to use the large motion of Geehrt's attack to strike his blind spot, but Geehrt was already moving.
Using a fencing maneuver he had copied from the dissipating demon moments ago, he thrust his sword backward with surgical precision.
The blade pierced directly through the second vanguard's eye and out the back of its skull. The two vanguards died as easily as the others, their bodies crumbling into mana particles.
Now only the two mages remained. They struggled to adjust to the relentless barrage of Zoltraak that Geehrt was now firing with increased intensity.
Geehrt focused his control, narrowing his eyes. He manipulated the trajectory of the Zoltraak spells, causing them to curve and bend in the air like the Snakeman form of Luffy.
The beams twisted around the magical barriers the demons had erected.
When one demon shielded its front, a beam of Zoltraak curved around from the side.
It collided with another beam, ricocheting off it at an impossible angle and striking the demon in the back of the head, killing it instantly.
The final mage fell seconds later, unable to track the chaotic trajectory of the attacks.
With his enemies vanquished, Geehrt turned his attention to the rest of the battlefield.
He saw Kanone still engaged in a fierce dance against her ten opponents, though she seemed to be holding the upper hand.
Further away, Frase was locked in combat with the Demon General Schorner.
The massive demon was punching the empty air, sending devastating shockwaves that battered against a massive golem Frase had conjured to hold him back.