Chapter 319: Breach and Betrayal

Commander Derniban of the 5th Corps successfully breached the walls of Sanguo Castle.

His decision to take action himself instead of relying on the useless troops below or the other legion commanders had paid off.

He scaled the walls by firing hooked arrows to secure his ascent. Sanguo soldiers noticed and tried everything to dislodge him, even causing him to fall. But before hitting the ground, he fired another hooked arrow, catching himself and avoiding injury.

His wolf-based physique was strong and agile, making scaling the walls an easy task.

Drawing on past experience, and before attacks could focus on one point, he kicked off the wall, swung sideways, and fired another grappling hook, moving his position and climbing again. Commander Belitan of the 6th Corps, observing this, murmured in admiration.

“Is he some kind of spider demon?”

His initial fumbles and falls were momentary. He quickly adapted, and before long, he was moving across the walls as easily as if it were flat ground—like a demon born to this terrain.

With the humans on the walls scrambling to keep up with that one demon, their formations became tangled, noticeably weakening their defense against us. It was definitely an advantage, though.

‘Well, if he’s making the attack easier, I suppose it’s fine.’

And he just made it over the wall.

The moment Derniban set foot on the wall, a deafening roar echoed from another section.

“What in the world…?”

His eyes, drawn to the sound, widened in surprise.

Commander Trober of the 9th Corps had succeeded in punching a hole in the wall, large enough for a person to pass through. It was an achievement made with his bare hands.

“Hmph…”

Trober, flexing his fist and checking his condition, smirked at the bewildered faces on the other side of the hole.

“This is payback for that damned ambush, you bastards!”

His condition wasn’t great to begin with, and that ambush had only made it worse. His body still throbbed all over, and Derniban’s glare was incredibly irritating and humiliating.

Gritting his teeth, he barked orders at his legion members.

“What are you waiting for? There’s a hole, get in there!”

“Waaaah!”

A cathartic charge followed, as if releasing all their pent-up frustration.

Beyond the breached wall, a Hero appeared amidst the chaotic soldiers. He stood as if to plug the hole, blocking the demons’ advance and mercilessly cutting down any who dared to approach. Hesitation rippled through the demon ranks as they advanced.

Just as Trober was about to intervene, a massive shadow loomed over him.

“Huh? …Whoa!”

Thump!

Commander Belitan, more frustrated than anyone by the stagnant battle, dropped down right in front of Trober and swung his axe at the Hero’s head. The Hero barely managed to raise his sword to block the heavy, powerful blow from the bulky demon, and his arm was forced back.

“Ugh!”

At this rate, he’d be cut by his own blade. The Hero, abandoning any thought of defense, immediately retreated. The menacing axe blade narrowly missed his chest, just tearing his clothes.

He heard another legion commander yelling from behind.

“Belitan! You almost got yourself flattened!”

“Please, as if I can’t calculate a simple landing.”

Two legion commanders… When would reinforcements arrive? The Hero’s eyes darted around frantically.

One of the Heroes still in the castle should be occupied with the 5th Corps Commander on the walls, and another must be guarding His Majesty the King. Even then, shouldn’t there be one Hero free? Anyone could see this situation was far more critical.

‘Where are they dawdling… Ah.’

Here they come.

He sensed more soldiers reinforcing the breach in the wall. And there, approaching the two still-bickering legion commanders from behind, was a fellow Hero, likely planning a sneak attack.

In the tense, chaotic space, the legion commanders’ voices continued to ring out.

“Anyway, I think we should cut the chatter. We are in the middle of a war, you know. Can’t get complacent, even if victory is in sight.”

“True, we still have to deal with that rat in the rear.”

…!

The Hero approaching from behind hastily backed away. A monstrous fist cleaved the air where he’d just stood, the wind pressure grazing his nose.

Just how strong was he to generate such wind pressure? Trober, misinterpreting the Hero’s widened eyes, smirked and boasted.

“Surprised? This is presence detection magic for you.”

“Always with the magic talk…”

Anyway.

Belitan shook his head, then tightened his grip on his massive axe.

Trober was going to handle the other one, so that left this one for him. He spoke to his tightly wound opponent, eager to end this tedious siege.

“Let’s wrap this up.”

***

“Whew… Done!”

Commander Sillua of the 7th Corps, having activated the mechanism and opened the city gates, threw her arms up and cheered brightly. It was a jarringly cheerful cry, considering the Hero’s corpse at her feet and the bodies of human soldiers strewn around, but she was unbothered.

Instead, she glanced down at the Hero’s corpse, which she kept tripping over, and muttered to herself.

“I expected the last Hero to be guarding the Emperor… How unexpected.”

Oh well, no matter.

She nudged the corpse aside with her foot, then pulled a communication stone from her robes.

“This is the 7th Corps Commander. City gates are open. Sorry for the delay, had to deal with a Hero guarding the mechanism—”

—This is the 1st Corps Commander. Just finished off two Heroes with the 12th Corps Commander.

“So, that’s all the Heroes…”

—None left. Already took care of one earlier.

Just find and kill the Emperor, and it’s over. With no Heroes left, that task should be easy enough for our troops.

It was over! The conquest of the Human Realm was finally within reach. A slight smile touched Sillua’s lips as she ordered her legion members to find the Emperor and started to move.

She was moving to join the other commanders, but…

Her light steps, almost like dancing, faltered and stopped abruptly as she found the other key players in the city’s fall.

…?

Sillua tilted her head, unable to understand the situation.

“Um, excuse me…”

Swords and spears clashed fiercely. Anyone caught in the crossfire, human or demon, died senselessly. A chilling bloodlust permeated the air.

This was no spar or game; this was a real fight. The air crackled with murderous intent as they tried to kill each other. She blinked, then quietly asked,

“What’s going on here?”

The two legion commanders who had just moments ago claimed to have defeated the Heroes together—Commander Jaykar of the 1st Corps and Commander Myers of the 12th Corps—were now fighting each other.

***

The Empire’s gates were breached, and the Heroes were dead. There was no need for the legion commanders to intervene further.

The same was true for Sanguo. Now that the walls were breached, the outcome was inevitable, whether the legion commanders acted or not.

With victory in sight, the gazes of several legion commanders turned towards their fellow commanders, allies until mere moments ago. A faint bloodlust flickered in their eyes.

Derniban, having scaled Sanguo’s walls and planted an arrow between the brows of the Hero who opposed him, lowered his gaze. Trober and Belitan, fresh from their victory against two Heroes, came into view.

…With that, only one Hero remained within the city. He could deal with that alone.

Decision made, his body moved. His slow steps turned towards Trober. Trober seemed to sense it too, subtly clenching his fist and tensing up while pretending not to notice. Just as the distance between them seemed to close, an attack from the nearby 8th Corps rained down on Derniban.

Not the 9th Corps, but the 8th. Derniban, having swiftly dodged the attack, asked, bewildered.

“Why?”

Jaykar, having breached the Empire’s gates, sensed the end was near but moved to minimize any unforeseen issues. …Or rather, he intended to move.

His intention had been to capture the Emperor himself.

Commander Myers of the 12th Corps launched an attack. As if it were a signal, the 12th and even the 10th Corps simultaneously turned on the 1st Corps.

He had planned to eliminate the other commanders once this was over, but there’s no way they could know that. Which meant there had to be another reason…

Jaykar parried the sharply thrusting spear, then spat a question at him.

“Why?”

***

Commander Myers, bearing the number 12, had pledged his loyalty to the Demon King.

Despite his timid nature, he had always faithfully obeyed the Demon King’s commands, supported by his adjutant, Dahar, who would grumble but always gave his best.

But.

If the price for that loyalty was the death of his loyal adjutant…

What reason did he have left to follow the Demon King?

The 8th and 10th Corps, having lost their commanders, felt the same.

Loyalty repaid with death. Their loyalty had been betrayed.

Thus, they readily agreed to the 2nd Corps Commander’s whispered proposition.

***

Rain poured down relentlessly, and the oppressive arrays were still in effect. Blood, whether real or hallucination, clung stubbornly to every step, accelerating their fatigue.

Deon Hart wiped the moisture from his eyes, then pushed back the hair plastered to his forehead. His neatly tied hair had long since come undone in the prolonged fighting, now a tangled mess clinging to his neck.

As the Heroes, Aletea among them, paused at his suddenly exposed face, he caught his breath and thought.

‘I’ve adapted quickly enough to the lag between thought and action, but…’

But it’s still just adaptation. Unable to reach his true speed, the combat felt sluggish. It was like fighting with sandbags strapped all over his body.

Even moving at his absolute fastest now, he couldn’t even match his average attack speed—it was maddeningly frustrating.

‘My power… probably cut in half.’

He dodged and parried the renewed onslaught of attacks, letting out a frustrated sigh.

Just failing to properly deal with Aletea Deserte, who was currently fighting at the vanguard as a key combatant, was enough to show how much his power had diminished.

‘…Though, to be fair, Aletea Deserte is no pushover.’

Right, Deserte. A royal, no less—the Crown Princess, of all people—was in the most dangerous place in the Human Realm.

If it were just that, he’d have dismissed it as a foolish, childish stunt. But the current Aletea was so completely different, comparisons to her past self were almost insulting.

Or perhaps she hadn’t changed at all, and this was the face she’d been hiding all along.

…Ha.

A sharp blade flashed, slicing upwards through the space he’d just occupied. The intense aura reminded Deon of the late Emperor Eudoard, and he reflexively recoiled, a hollow laugh escaping his lips.

“Why are you pushing yourself so hard?”

…?

“You’ve done more than enough, Your Highness.”

Aletea arched an eyebrow, as if to say he was asking pointless questions.

“I told you, didn’t I? I’m a Hero now. Do I need any other reason?”

“Not that, but if you were still just the Princess, wouldn’t it be trivial to hide the fact you’d become a Hero?”

“The goal is to kill the Hero, and even giving it our all, the odds are slim. In a situation where every bit of power counts, does it make sense to hide the fact that I’m a Hero?”

…

“And, I believe I said Crown Princess, not Princess.”

Deon twisted to evade another Hero’s attack from behind, but faltered as an arrow lodged itself in his shoulder. Aletea seized the opening, lunging with her sword aimed at his heart.

“More than anything… because you came here yourself, there’s a chance I can watch my enemy’s head roll, isn’t there?”

…Ha, damn it.

Thwack.