Chapter 66

Lilith POV

“Hold the line! Mages cover fire, second unit, fall back, third unit advance from the left!”

I ordered around as I saw my people being massacred. Those damn council members did not even give me a single soldier to help defend their asses and now they wait, in their safe and high palace for my defeat or triumph, either way they will put the blame on the death of my soldiers on me, and will be more than glad to force my hand into giving them more of my power.

Damn politicians, I should have hanged them all when I had the chance. The day I took the throne, a and the day my father passed away, I should have gotten rid of all of them… they were the reason for his early death, and are going to be the same reason I might die today.

We were fighting against the Human army for almost two days now, though we are higher level than most of them, and better equipped, they vastly outnumber us, Like they say, numbers beat courage. And we are lacking in numbers.

About two thousand and two hundred royal soldiers and mages with the addition of three thousand mercenaries against ten times the number of the humans. The worst part is, they are accompanied by a number of heroes.

One of them is proving quite difficult to handle. A whole platoon was wiped out before they knew what was going on.

He was wielding a sword of great power, able to dissolve one of my kind from a single touch, something that powerful should not be allowed to exist, even worse, he is fast, too fast for me to see.

“Demon king! Show yourself! where is that dreadful, powerful and frightening being? Why are you hiding behind your army? Come! I challenge you to a duel!” said the blond man with the frightening sword.

He stopped for a single second, and it was enough for me to inspect him.

Yuji Sakamoto

Hero

Level 262

A chosen of The divine, here to help against the tyranny of the blasphemers.

Just a level 200 and capable of doing this amount of damage to my troops. God damn it, these heroes have cheat abilities, he is able to move fast and can kill with a single strike… I will need to be serious fighting against him.

“I accept your challenge!” I roared and the fighting halted, my troops opened the way, and the enemies did the same. Though they outnumbered us, we proved difficult to handle. However, many of my people died today, and I need to get rid of this nuisance myself if I want to have a chance in this fight.

“Oh, so the great demon king is but a man, I thought you would look more like a monster” sarcastically said the man.

So he cannot see my real form, very well. Then I might have a chance here, though he is fast, it seems that he cannot see through illusions, something which I excel at.

I didn’t fancy weapons much, but I took extra care in using my late father’s favorite blade.

The Devourer

Required Level 500

250-300 Damage

Can cause Laceration Effects

A blade forged from the blood of an old demon, it is said that the Devourer fed on other weapons to become stronger...

It was a red curved blade with a dragon shaped handle, it looked like a scimitar, but was quite powerful. And more than enough in the hand of an expert.

I held out the blade and made a lunging stance, and waited for the ‘Hero’ to attack first, it took but a split second for him to disappear and pierce my chest with his blade.

Only a second and my body was fading to nothingness, the man thought he won, but his brow twitched once he realized that what his hand struck was nothing but empty air.

I swung my blade at his exposed neck and he dodged in the nick of time with a duck, retaliating again with a thrust that met another copy of mine. I was just testing the waters, this man’s blade work is sloppy, untrimmed and lacks precision, he relies on speed and barbaric strength to kill his foes, but against an experienced fighter, he will suffer, and will probably be defeated.

“Fight fair you coward!” roared the boy as he jumped back a few steps, his people began to boo and whistle in distastefulness

“We are demons, we are supposed to be tricky, right?” I taunted the boy.

And he fell for it, enraged he jumped forward with a rapid thrust that struck empty air again, I slashed at his exposed left arm, right between the opening of his armor, cutting off a major artery, his left hand went limp and he groaned in pain.

Yet before I could finish him off, he vanished from sight and chugged down on a healing potion.

And he says he wants a fair fight…

I didn’t pay it any mind and kept on focusing on the fight, dodging another thrust and making a copy of myself I attacked in unison with my duplicate.

The boy looked startled at first and almost gave away his life as he couldn’t move in time.

However a ray of light shot towards me and my duplicate that managed to force me to my knees, apparently there was a High priest or someone of a cardinal’s level within their rank, protecting the youth from my attack.

-2200 Hp

You have been struck with a light attribute spell

You have been dazed

3 seconds

My vision blurred and my sight went dark for a moment.

“Kill him! Now!” said someone from the human’s army and the boy as if on queue took the chance to strick at me.

God damn it…this is how I go huh?

*Clanng!*

I heard the loud sound of metal hitting metal, and once the dazed status went away, a man was standing in front of me, it was Jiouray, he is back.

“My lord! We need to back away now!”

I regained my composure and stood up, another hero joined the blond, he was huge, almost half a meter taller than me, he had a great-hammer on him and was ready to kill.

“Yuji, We need to go back, let the fodder fight for us… there is no need to risk your life now… you are not strong enough” said the big man wearing full armor

“Yeah, I know, but I wanted to test my chance now, it seems I will need more time…Demon king, we will meet again, that is if you survive this fight”

“We need to last one day!” said Jiouray “Just one day!”

“What do you mean? Is Daiki going to help us?” I asked

“Daiki?” asked the blond man, “What do you mean by Daiki?”

“None of your business, scum!” I hissed as we retreated, the boy somehow looked agitated hearing that name, perhaps he is one of those that betrayed Daiki.

“If I live or die, it changes nothing, The Herald comes for you!” (Volume title)

“EVERYONE! CHARGE!!!” roared the boy.

The humans began to roar while Jiouray and I backed away, the second unit made a small wall and blocked the advance of the charging humans while we went to the back. Though alive, I felt defeated, to not have managed to kill that boy that time, I should have taken into consideration his accomplices and his helpers, if I had killed him, I could have spared my troops this terrible fate.

“Explain the situation Jiouray!” I asked the man while my people died trying to clear a way for us,

“I met him back at the elven kingdom, He is frightening, more terrifying than ever… and his slaves, I have seen became much stronger, much, much stronger than you can believe…they only spent few days with him and they are probably stronger than me…”

How is that man capable of doing such thing in such a short period of time?

“What did he say?”

“He said that in six days, he will bring the human kingdom to its knees, it means that tomorrow, something terrible will happen to them…we need to survive until then…”

“What do you suggest then?”

“Let's retreat, for now, it will take them a lot of time to make pursuit and follow us all the way to our city, and if we are lucky, they will need to prepare and wait here for orders to make pursuit or head back…in either case, they will fall…”

“Are you sure about this?” I said

He nodded, he never tells lies and I trust him the most out of the none oathed royal guards.

Just one day…

“SOUND THE RETREAT!”

We lost more than enough men…more than 800 mercenaries and 300 royal guards were lost, though we killed thrice the number, it was still heavy on the heart…

The soldiers began to back away while the humans made pursuit, some fell, some climbed over another, some were trampled, but they all ran for safety.

I rode with Jiouray on his wyvern, and dove back to the direction of the capital, the army followed suit, some used their war mounts, and some ran on foot, the slow ones died while the ones that could make an escape did so fast and without looking back.

We were bombarded with spells from away, and we fired back to humper the pursuers, but all in all, we still failed to escape unscathed, too many lives were lost, lives that were gone in hope that we survive, all of this, just so that the Herald would come…

Haruka POV.

I woke up, two days after having met the Queen, and in that period I spoke with the girls about what happened. They told me that Daiki went away and won’t be back for some time.

That idiot… why did he have to say it like that, he should have been a bit more considerate…

The girls told me about the severity of the situation, that the Queen was not to be trusted and that we are probably being held, hostages. Though these are just the speculations of Misaka, I knew her for a long time and I know she is not one to speak nonsense. Analyzing the behavior of the queen, her rather rigid reaction to Daiki’s work, this all seemed plausible. She is probably thinking that Daiki will lose his mind before the time period ends… something I hope that won’t happen.

“When I was away, did you see any strange behaviors of the Elves that came to serve you?” I asked

“Nothing in particular, however, the food they served us was untouched, we didn’t dare eat something that we didn’t see being cooked, we had to eat some food we had stashed in our inventories that day, some dried jerky and military rations we got from the demon capital before we left”

Looking at the side of the bed I saw a small plate with green porridge, I wouldn’t have eaten that even if it was untouched.

I inspected the soup

Elven bark soup.

Made by a professional Cook.

A soup made by adding the bark of the tree of life to the mixture of grass porridge.

+50% mana and stamina regen

Reduces stress and relaxes the body.

Counters Nightmares for a blissful sleep.

“Well, it is just a regular soup… and a good one actually, but its smell and looks are quite repulsive, I wouldn’t have eaten that anyway…”

“Well, it's better safe than sorry,” said Haruna.

“We need to meet the Queen,” I said

“Why?” asked Misaka who was brushing her hair.

“We need to find a way to cure Daiki, if she refuses or is unable to do so, we need another method…that curse is no joke, I was just touched by it and I was suffering, Daiki was submerged in it…I can’t even think about how much pain he is feeling right now.”

“He should be, he is enslaving us for god sake…” said Haruna

“What is wrong with you?” I asked

“What? I am telling the truth, we are bound to him and cannot be left alone, he is using us.”

“No, he is protecting us,” Said Misaka.

“Of all people, why would you say that?” said Haruna “He almost killed you that day, did you forget? He is an abusive and arrogant prick, that loves to kill and fight and is dragging us with him, you girls need to wake up to the truth, he is not someone we can trust, I say that if I ever get the chance I would kill him myself”

“What the hell are you saying?” I said with a high pitch “He protected us, gave us armors and saved us, even healed me and saved us from a terrible fate…yet you still call him all that? Are you mad?"

“No, I am not! You think he did so of the will of his heart, no he must surely need us for something… And I won’t be here when that time comes…”

“When did he ever do something to you to make you so spiteful and ungrateful to him?”

“He did when he treated us like slaves, we are humans not toys, or are you so madly in love with him that you cannot see the obvious truth”

“Me? In love? I think you ate something bad”

“Everyone knows it, the way you look at him, the way you speak to him, even that jittery attitude of yours when you are near him…It makes me sick…” said Haruna and left the room while slamming the door shut

Is she jealous?