Meanwhile—
One carriage was still moving, desperately withdrawing toward the gate, guarded tightly by the knights. Yet even as it pulled back, the horde of demons pressed relentlessly from all sides.
"Hold your ground!" Faller roared as the knights moved forward to become a defensive line and cover for Corre and the others who had arrived to regroup.
Faller still could not believe it. 'Is that really Lord Lewis…? How? Why?'
Looking up, that was definitely the younger brother of the Duke that he serves. He had watched the man grow up since childhood—and to think this would be his fate!
With his broadsword, Faller surged forward, massive frame intercepting the faster lesser demons before they could reach the carriages. His broadsword—nearly three-quarters his height—howled, weaving a bright silver light in the air as it cleaved ten lesser demons into two!
Without pause, Faller swung again, his expression ferocious and utterly focused, striking down two more demons with ruthless precision.
"Stay alive—that's an order!" he shouted.
After another went down, one of the two true demons in their area attacked again.
It was a fat man. Without warning, the fat man lunged at him, flesh warping as a demon spoke through him.
"I like your body, old man!" the demon crooned. "It'll make a fine vessel for my brother—"
Seeing this, Faller poured more mana on his arms.
It was one of the highest and most controlled so far.
CLANG!
Faller's hexagonal shield snapped up, mana surging through his arms. The impact shattered the demon's fingers!
The fat man screamed.
Then before the fat man could react, Faller's sword flashed from behind the shield with a silvery light, cleaving the body cleanly in two.
Swoosh!
The true demon had died.
But Faller fell to his right knee then. He exhaled, cycling his mana through his body and collecting the mana he had spread to his large sword and shield.
Still, the demons pressed on. His sweat dropped. The same happened to the others.
Hamon roared, his massive axe glowing faintly as mana reinforced every swing. Lesser demons rushed him—only to be crushed apart in seconds as if there was a tiny tornado. Against lesser demons, the knights showed their true worth. Still, they were being pushed back by numbers.
"Captain!" a knight shouted. "We need to retreat and regroup!"
Faller clenched his teeth. "Run! I'll draw them away. I also have to bring young master Gary back!"
Everyone of the knights then gritted their teeth.
"Alright!" Hamon was the first to shout out a reply, jumping up onto one of the lesser demons crushing it with his weight before lopping of its head.
"It's time to fight for our lives!" another muttered to himself.
"We'll stay!" others echoed.
Looking at the scene before him, Corre had woken up and noticed that the members of the knights had been halved. They were also all had been injured one way or another.
Corre hissed. 'Is this the end?' he thought.
"There's no way out!" Ellie screamed as the demons circled them, who was laughing, striking whenever an opening appeared.
"We fight together!" Hamon roared, charging and sending a lunging short child demon flying.
Mike continued firing arrows, but his quivers were nearly empty.
"Shit!"
"Tch! Damn it!"
Then—
A woman with grotesquely long arms seized a knight who was shouting just earlier and tore into his neck and laughed in mockery. It was the other true demon! For several minutes now, she had been picking apart the defensive formation, striking with deadly precision, taking lives as if it were nothing more than a game. She was the most annoying because she doesn't care about the demons and even the true demon earlier who had perished.
Doctor Angelo had also stepped into the battle, casting healing fire again and again, mending flesh on the knights.
However, his right arm was missing, and a hole in his chest could be seen. There was the green fire burning on top of his wounds, allowing him to move, but it was clear his death was imminent. The old man would die here.
Yet the old man kept healing the knights and his whole body trembled under the strain.
Then another knight died onto the true demon's hands who smiled as she let go of the knight. His face showed that he had died with opened eyes and in despair.
"Pathetic humans…" She said.
Of course, Ard could see everything clearly, watching every death, watching the people die.
Then just like what had been happening since earlier, seven demons suddenly rushed toward him—
Only to be intercepted by charging knights, blades flashing as they cut them down.
'This is funny…' He murmured to himself as another demon went to get him. But a knight surged past him, his sword blazing with silver light as he cleaved the lesser demon in two.
While the battle was ongoing on the background, Ard then raised my hands and looked at his palms. He tilted his head and caressed the ring on his finger.
I didn't understand what I was feeling.
Why is this irritating me?
What is this unease gnawing at my chest?
In the past, I did not care how many died. When someone got their head cut off or when I executed someone, I felt nothing.
I never understood why people fought when defeat was inevitable. Even the Demon King—I never understood his obsession with conquest, nor the hero's resolve to oppose him and save the world from his grasp or whatever.
At that time, the lesser demons were thinning. So were the knights. Even the coachman Albert who first talked to us was gone.
Such was the nature of this life. The strong kill the weak.
Doctor Angelo then collapsed and spat blood. Corre and Faller staggered back into formation, bloodied.
Then they saw someone who wasn't supposed to battle and their faces showed confusion.
The young man had sighed as he had picked up something from the ground and started walking for reasons he does not know or understand. Before anyone realized, he was holding a short sword he had taken from a fallen knight who had died as he was sent flying towards his direction.
"I need to protect Zayn too," The young man said calmly to Doctor Angelo who was looking at the young man, as he stepped out of the circle and continued walking further.
"You—what are you doing here?!" a knight shouted. "Get back!"
He didn't.
Instead, he walked past them, placing himself between the party and the demon lord.
The demons in front laughed altogether, a deep, mocking sound.
The man exhaled slowly.
'Ard…' Jane murmured to herself as she tried to get up but in the next second, the young man took one step—and the ground barely whispered beneath his foot.
"Vrrr…"
In a split second, mana flowed through his body as naturally as breath, threading into muscle and bone without a ripple. There was no flare, no distortion in the air. Even those sensitive to mana felt nothing—until it had already formed.
Shing!
He raised his hand and a blade of condensed energy with attributes of shadow traits extended from it in a clean, silent shining line, cutting forward with terrifying precision. It didn't roar. It didn't explode.
It simply passed through.
Tenths of lesser demons in its path collapsed before they realized they had been struck. The line continued, unbroken, and punched straight through the chest of the annoying true demon who was playing with the defensive formation.
The annoying true demon froze and wasn't able to react at all. Then its body split apart, mana dispersing soundlessly as it fell with a confused look on its face.
"You…" Mike choked. "You can't be serious."