During the trip, Zion moved according to the previous plan Noel had. He went to check the cities that were supposed to be affected by the current situation.
As they expected, the people in the cities were panicking. On those who hadn't been attacked yet, there were already so many people leaving the city to avoid all those battles. Meanwhile, the cities that were under attack could only lock them down until the situation became stable again.
Although the Demon Relief Squad could help them, they decided to head straight to the Demon Barrier Squad's headquarters to understand the situation better.
Finding their base was easy, but entering it was an entirely different case. From the looks of it, they were under a heavy attack. There were around five hundred demons surrounding the city. It looked small, but because they were located near the border, the strength of the demons was higher.
In fact, there were at least a hundred Advanced Level Demons and ten Peak Level Demons surrounding the city. Even with their fortified base, they wouldn't be able to kill all of them easily.
The Demon Relief Squad stood almost one kilometer away from the base. They were watching the demon attack carefully, trying to find anything useful to enter the city.
Paul glanced at Rose, asking, "Rose. How many squads does the Demon Barrier Squad have?"
"There are 21 squads, with a total of 243 people. Though, the report stated that there are only 15 squads around since those six are on a mission. And because there are many cities that get attacked, they have divided themselves further into five groups."
"I see." Paul narrowed his eyes. The Demon Barrier Squad had to be praised to be able to withstand all these attacks with only three squads each.
He could see the glowing inscriptions on the wall. There were also some ditches filled with demon blood. It seemed that they had a gruesome battle before their arrival.
"There is something wrong, Paul." Noel suddenly came to him while watching the demon's movement.
"What's wrong?" Paul asked. Since Noel had spoken, the situation might be more severe than they originally expected.
Noel said, "If we take a look at the report, it doesn't seem that they are in distress. However, take a look at the walls…"
"!!!" Rose, who had the sharpest vision as well as some of Noel's knowledge, could easily understand what he meant. "This is…"
"What's wrong, Rose?" Paul narrowed his eyes while the others listened to her, wondering what was happening.
"Although the Demon Barrier Squad's base doesn't have a lot of people, they should still have some trainees and normal people that help them with everyday life. And those people would have gone to the wall to help those soldiers."
"At the very least, there should be at least a hundred people on the wall for various jobs. But right now, I can only see approximately thirty people…" Rose gulped down. "It seems that the situation has gotten so much worse than reported. This must've happened within our travel since the report we received is not a distress message."
Paul's expression darkened. "Then, are you implying that the demons have dealt serious damage?"
"Yeah. I think they are already sending a few birds to call for help, but they might not last long." Rose nodded. She was also worried about the situation.
Paul glanced at Noel and asked, "What do you think? Should we enter the city?"
"Knowing that the situation is worse than we expect, we should immediately help the Demon Barrier Squad. However, we have to be careful since we are bringing precious medicine."
"So, it's better to find an opening. Also, we have to contact the people inside. Jonathan should be able to carry the carriages across the ditches, so all we need to do is for them to open the gate.
"For now, you and Stella should start making preparations for the charge. Zion and I will go around to check our surroundings, making sure there wouldn't be any second wave. Rose will stay here to formulate a concrete plan. Last but not least, Ben and Jonathan will take care of the luggage. We can't have the medicine to be destroyed or something during the charge." Noel explained his plan.
Paul nodded in agreement. "Alright. Let's move immediately. We have to be fast, but don't forget to be careful."
"Got it."
As soon as they received the instruction, they dispersed. Noel jumped around the woods while Zion tried to circle around the base.
There was another reason why Noel chose to stay near the woods. Using the trees as a cover, Noel poured some Spiritual Energy into the badge, calling his helper.
Noel looked around, wondering when Damian was going to make his appearance. But before he realized it, there was a voice coming into his head.
"What do you need? To think you would need my help so soon… I guess the reason for that is the assassin. You wouldn't have sent that assassin away for no reason."
Noel smiled. "So, are you going to help me or not?"
"What's the payment?"
Noel thought for a moment. "Two Runes with the new method, Rune Engineering. The ones that I use to move the object."
He paused for a moment before asking, "The task?"
"I am not one hundred percent sure, but there is a very high chance that the Supreme Devil Organization is behind this. They use this to bait us out. So, I want you to go around to find them if possible."
"You don't want me to kill them?"
"I do, but I have to measure the opponent's strength first. I'm not going to lose in this deal, you know."
"Then, I pray for a strong opponent to come."
"…" Noel could only shake his head helplessly. On the one hand, it was truly the worst thing to pray for him. On the other hand, Damian's purpose was to get the research from him. So, having strong opponents would give him more benefits.
But with this, they had reached an agreement.
