Time went by slowly. The Emperor died and hundreds of knights rushed to retrieve his body. After the knights let out a series of onslaughts on the Emperor's killer, the demon of the Hell Corps collapsed. His grinning smile persisted on his face even as he died.
At that moment, the knights were all thinking the same thing. They must retreat. Fighting in disorder on such a vast land was too disadvantageous for the human encampment.
“Get inside the rampart! We have to fight inside!”
A knight covered with demon’s blood shouted out loudly, his voice drowned out by the noisy battlefield. More demons appeared after tearing apart and being covered in the blood of the demonic beasts, their numbers were increasing.
The average soldier could not keep up with the strength and speed of the demons. And even if they were lucky enough for their attacks to hit, it was still difficult to kill the demons because of their large sizes.
A young knight ran with his teeth clenched toward the knight of the Emperor, who was in a state of disbelief on the front line. The young knight hit him with his body.
“Get a grip! We need to get inside the rampart! Are you planning to die here?”
It was not an action that a mere knight could do to the Emperor’s guard commander, though no one took issue with it.
Barely coming to his senses, the old knight looked back. There were no demonic beasts left, only demons slaughtering humans after appearing from the demonic beasts’ stomachs.
“Everyone…”
The old knight breathed heavily and said.
“Retreat into the rampart. Focus on defense! Go tell them! Take this and go tell them!”
The old knight handed his sword to the young knight who hit him.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“Go tell them. Retreat as far as you can to protect the soldiers. If the demons try to enter the rampart, do not try to rescue the rest. Just seal off the city.”
“What?”
“Hurry!”
The old knight smacked the young knight’s helmet. The young knight turned around and ran. His voice that was telling the other people to retreat and go inside grew farther and farther away.
The old knight held his comrade’s sword in his hand in place of his own—a sword of a knight who rushed and died alongside a demon after the Emperor’s death.
“For the Emperor!”
The old knight raised his sword and ran forward. Countless people stood in front of demon troops with the determination to not let even a single demon in. The guard commander, his comrades, and the retired-bound knights advanced with their backs to the fortress.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
Isadora was on top of the rampart. Despite Sebastian’s earnest request not to come out because of the danger, she did not falter, saying that she could do nothing unless she saw the battlefield in person.
The Emperor died. Hot tears formed in Isadora’s eyes. Though her tears did not flow, the mercenaries protecting her could hear her rough and irregular breathing.
“Madam, please allow us to go to the battlefield.”
The wolves said.
“Please, Madam. We will help retrieve His Imperial Majesty’s body.”
The intensity of war had reached every corner of the vast battlefield, but the place where the Emperor’s body was at seemed to be particularly disadvantageous. If left alone, all of the Emperor’s knights might die.
The captain of the mercenary wolves walked forward. He was about the same age as Isadora and had been by her side since he was young.
“Madam, just because we’re not from the Tarragon Empire doesn’t mean we’ll let the Emperor have a funeral without a body.”
“You all could die.”
“We’re not knights. We’re just going to force our way in and clear the path without fighting.”
“Is that as easy as you say?”
“The knights of the Hautean kingdom are ready.”
The mercenary captain pointed his finger down. The elite knights of the Hautean Kingdom were in charge of defending the fortress gate, and they were taking steps to go outside with piercing eyes.
“We will go with them. We have had experience working together when we were hunting for the black sorcerers so you don’t have to worry.”
The captain of the mercenary wolves tapped Isadora on her shoulder.
At that moment, Isadora listened to the voices of many people—the voices of the wolves begging to go to the battlefield knowing they might die, the Emperor’s knights calling for retreat, the Hautean knights telling the others to help the Imperial army and bringing in as many people as possible inside, and a mournful cry.
The Emperor of Tarragon was Isadora’s friend, or rather, a bad companion would have been more appropriate. The Emperor knew Isadora’s youth, he was an adult who was both hated and respected by Isadora. She knew that he would not live long but she did not expect his death to come this early. She vaguely believed that he should have been seen off by countless people on a large bed.
For a moment, Isadora gazed at the distant sky to hold back her tears. Then, something caught her sight. On the other side of the battlefield, a group of people was running down like bulls from the middle of the mountain.
Aarrgghh.
It was such an ignorant charge. They were the Barbarians. With a ringing sound coming from the ground, the Barbarians jumped into the middle of the battlefield and began dealing with the demons.
Usually, just barely dealing with a huge demon would require dozens or even hundreds of soldiers, but the Barbarians fought equally with numbers fewer than that. Lampion in particular was very fierce, he jumped here and there as though dancing with his huge halberd.
“Nice!”
The wolves shouted with happy faces. With the Barbarians on the battlefield, they could break through the path. With the Barbarians charged in a rampage on the other side of the battlefield, the wolves and the knights of Hautean could run out of this side. With that, they could divide the Hell Corps.
“Sebastian.”
Isadora opened her mouth.
“Yes, Madam.”
“Send the wolves to the battlefield. Let them clear a path with the knights of Hautean. And tell all the workers to look for Valentine.”
The wolves moved quickly at Isadora’s orders.
The mercenary wolves were the guards of the largest trading company and the richest woman on the continent. They said that the reason they became mercenaries was that they did not want to be soldiers or knights bound by an individual, but in actuality, most of them were forced to become mercenaries due to their low status. Still, their abilities were as good as the knights of any other kingdom.
The wolves ran out of the gates with the royal knights of Hautean with their mouths shut. They had only one goal. Piercing the way for the Emperor’s knights to retreat.
“Let’s go!”
Another strong wave of enemies increased on the chaotic battlefield. The Imperial soldiers were sent back just as they were about to collapse from exhaustion. And the knights of Hautean went on the spot.
A way out was opening.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
The gates of hell had opened. A black, sticky fog filled the deep valley of the Gorgon Mountain Range. The trees that grew on rocks, soil, and cliffs, and the valley that flowed under them were now gone. Only black fog remains, rising from the endless abyss.
Lara was looking at the demon worshippers that had gathered in the valley.
At first, there were only hundreds of them, but they quickly grew to the thousands, and now, they had surpassed the tens of thousands. Describing them as just ‘a lot’ was not enough. There were still many demon worshippers moving toward Gorgon so it would be difficult to estimate their total number if all of them had gathered there.
At first, Lara was curious about the reason why they worshiped demons, and why they rejected humans and committed sins. She assumed that they had some reason—rebellion against oppression or to avoid a poor and unhappy life.
But now she knew that reasons were not everything. There were countless people with a hard life and a broken heart. Perhaps everyone who existed in this land was living a hard and painful life. But that did not mean all of them became demon worshippers.
Those demon worshippers were just villains. Lara clearly saw the faces of those who sacrificed her alive in her previous life. After Prince Sidhar became mad for power, he joined forces with those black sorcerers and demon worshippers.
Sacrificing a human was an unforgivable sin. Even if it was something a demon wanted, the burden of sin lay heavier toward the humans. A demon was a beast born that way, the same could not be said about humans. Lara shot a cold look at the demon worshippers that filled the valley.
“Master, it’s half-open.”
Vassago returned and reported to Lara. The gates of hell were not fully opened yet. Still, despite being only half open, the atmosphere in the land was murky as if hell had arrived. The acrid smell of ash and the fishy smell of water was mixed from an unknown source.
“What happens when the gates are fully opened?”
“The owners of the Hell Corps will come over. Old demons that Valac could not deal with will appear and invade this land.”
“How strong are they?”
“You can just think of them as dozens of demons like me.”
Vassago grinned and muttered. Lara was lost in thought for a moment and asked him again.
“How long do you think it will take for the gates to open fully?”
“I don’t know that. The gates opening doesn’t just mean the entrance gets bigger, it also tells us how many demons have come over to this realm.”
Paimon nodded at Vassago’s explanation. This time, Lara asked Paimon.
“What’s the way to move from this side to there?”
“Pardon?”
“The Hell Corps just crawled up here from hell. If I were to go there, do I just have to fall down that valley?”
“Perhaps…so?”
Paimon also had a confused face. He was also a demon, when the gates of hell opened, he only thought of the Hell Corps’ invasion of the human land, he never imagined a scenario in which the humans would invade hell.
Lara was looking at him with a face questioning why he thought that was impossible.
“Go and test it.”
“Pardon? Test what?”
“Grab someone and throw them down. Check whether they fall to hell or not. They should not fall from the sky or get burned with sulfur. So check where and how they fall.”
“Who…”
“Since they love human sacrifice so much, tell them to sacrifice themselves this time.”
Lara pointed her finger at the demon worshippers.
Paimon excitedly went down to catch them, saying that it would work. Vassago remained next to Lara and asked, the look on his face seemed to indicate that he was enjoying the situation very much.
“Are you going into hell? But the humans are retreating right now, aren’t they? Preventing destruction with just human power is already too much. Would that work? The demons are stronger in hell. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know. I have thought of something ever since the day I heard that the gates of hell are going to open here…”
“What is it?”
“Those demon worshippers.”
Lara raised her fingers again and pointed to the demon worshippers who were gathered in the valley. On the day of her death in her previous life, those who scorned her as she walked toward the altar as a sacrifice, and those who wanted to offer the saintess alive to the demon, they were just like them.
She did not know if they were worshiping a demon at that time. But she could only be sure that those people were eventually influenced by demon worshippers.
“I want to send them all to hell.”
Since they liked demons so much, I should let the demon worshippers live among them.
Lara murmured in a cold voice.
