Zayn ignored them.
My eyes caught movement at the front lines.
Gary.
He was still fighting.
He swung in the air lopping of a lesser demon's head, but in the next moment, his blade was stopped cold. The baroness demon's hand filled with long black sharp nails clamped around him, while a lesser demon slammed into his back moments later, sending him across walls.
He slid across the stone floor. The armor shrieked; it scraped the stone. Blood splashed his face. The baroness had been hurt badly as well, badly enough to be barely alive from the attacks of the blonde knight. But for reasons Gary could never understand, she didn't kill him and was instead playing with him, playing as if he owed her a debt—and she meant to collect it.
Then—
My shadow extended overlapping with them and they froze.
As if invisible strings had seized them.
Gary didn't waste the opening.
A powerful surge of mana burst out of his body and travelled to his rapier. Twisting and lunging, he drove his rapier deep in one thrust through the center of the baroness demon.
It was over. He lay there for a moment, breathing hard, his sword clattering to the ground.
"Thank you," he said in hoarseness, looking at me while laying down.
I gave no response as my gaze shifted to the top of the tower.
Gary spoke quietly, as if he could hear my thoughts. "Don't even think about provoking it. You're strong—maybe stronger than any of us—but that thing is on a completely different level. Unless you're a hero or something… you'll die."
I gave no response. Instead, I leapt onto the roof of a nearby building.
"What a fool," Gary said as he pushed himself up with one hand—then froze.
Despite the height he had jumped from, the floor beneath him hadn't even cracked.
'What mana control…' he couldn't help but admire it before going away.
The baron—no, the demon lord wearing him—was watching me now. He looked…shocked and then amused. Then he came down.
"Well?" he asked, lips curling. "Who are you?"
"I am just your ordinary human traveler." I replied while wiping the blood off the short sword in my hand. Honestly though, I was asking myself the same thing about this demon lord. No matter how hard I tried, the aura spilling from the demon lord didn't match any demon lord I knew.
Then it clicked.
'Has he devoured this city? Every soul? Every life? If so, this is a newly-awakened demon lord.' He thought calmly and then looked at its eyes directly, 'He should blame his bad luck he met me.'
Seeing him not back down and staring coldly right at his eyes without any shred of fear, the demon lord smiled in genuine amusement.
Then without warning—
Bang!
With a gesture that made the earth itself obey, the demon lord unleashed his first attack.
The ground convulsed. Stones, shattered walls, and debris tore free from the terrain and rose around him. With a casual flick of his fingers, he hurled them one after another at absurd speed.
I moved.
My reinforced body held its ground as I dodged, my sword flashing. Steel met stone—each swing cleaving projectiles apart, fragments exploding past me as I slipped through the gaps.
Burst!
Bang!
As a blade skidded across the ground near my feet, I picked up a blade on the ground mid-motion. Upon my touch, it shimmered in a silvery light as it pierced through the air and went aiming at his face. But the demon lord easily deflected it effortlessly.
The ricochet tore through a wall, reducing it to splinters.
He rose higher into the air, unfazed, and opened his mouth—his expression no longer amused, but curious.
"Do you even understand who you're up against?! In your human terms, I am a demon lord! You could die," he said, quieter now.
'He is more talkative than I expected.'
I didn't respond and merely glanced over my shoulders.
The lesser demons were nearly gone. More than half of the knights were dead or dying. But they were winning.
Then for some reason, the demon lord started to laugh as if he was speaking to the bright full moon in the sky.
"Foolish human! What can you possibly do?" he roared. "I am a demon lord! I will devour this city—and the next—and the next after that—and there will be nothing you can do to stop me!"
As if to mock me, he rained another barrage down from above, attacks falling carelessly, like a predator toying with its prey.
Then he spoke again, his voice lifting with manic devotion.
"Are you watching, my Liege?!" the demon lord cried eagerly. "I did this for you! To be worthy of your army—of your name!"
With calm, I watched him.
"Should I tell him?" Ard murmured, his sword tracing a brilliant arc as it shattered an incoming chunk of debris.
The demon lord suddenly accelerated, closing the distance in an instant.
It was clear he believes he can take care of me any time he wanted.
"What is it?" he said with a grin. "Your final words? Let's hear them."
Ard smiled, his eyes glinting—as if savoring the moment of revealing a secret no one else knew. The thrill coursed through him. He felt exhilarated.
"That person you're talking about," I said quietly, just loud enough for him to hear, my voice cutting through the chaos, "no longer exists."
His smile faltered.
"Valier, the Demon King, is dead."
His face went dark.
"Have you not heard?"
The air shifted.
"I thought everyone knows by now. He fell to the Hero and his party."
It was as if he had heard a very dark joke about him—no, worse. As if he had taken my words as an insult. He was smiling but then it got wiped with the wind. I didn't understand why, but I'd seen this reaction before.
Those who worshiped the Demon King usually did this. Any slight against their liege's name drove them mad. Even if it came from a low-level demon. Even if it was from a goblin.
The ground detonated beneath his feet as he launched forward, demonic mana erupting like a tidal wave. Stone shattered. Corpses and debris were flung aside.
"How dare you utter his name!"
I calmly coated the sword in my hand with magic.
Then I glanced back.
Zayn was watching me.
He understood immediately.
"You can leave the rest to Ard!" Zayn said loudly, his voice carrying across the square.
The knights and adventurers hesitated—then the knight on the driver's seat snapped into motion, yanking the reins as the horses reared and turned.
"But—" Faller started, but choked on his words.
Gary had appeared beside him, brushing dust from his dented and destroyed armor as he hopped onto a moving carriage. It was like he had been doused on a well of blood. He smiled widely for the first time seeing the old knight worry but his own blood was leaking out of his torso and limbs.
"Worried about me, old man?" he said with a crooked grin shocking the adventurers who saw him smile for the first time. "I nearly died, sure—but not today it seems. Not when he is fighting that thing." He gestured ahead. "Let's leave. That thing's way beyond our pay grade. If we stay, we'll really die here. Besides…"
His gaze flicked toward the battlefield.
"That mysterious guy is a master in the world of sword and magic."
The demon lord somehow flew into rage.
Ard's figure blurred as he moved at high speed, executing flawless sword techniques midair cutting through a barrage of demon energy waves. In brief bursts, his mana surged out of control but deliberately, each strike sending vibrations rippling through the air itself.
Corre clenched his teeth, then nodded.
"He's right. We'd only get in the way."
He turned to his companions.
"Let's fall back! Move!"
"Senior…" Hamon muttered.
Faller looked at the fallen knights—bodies broken, torn apart, flung against walls. His jaw tightened. Finally, he put his sword back on its sheath and placed the shield on his back.
"Men," he said hoarsely, "retreat!"
They ran.
"Annoying. You all are annoying." The Demon Lord Baron snarled like a mad dog as he noticed. "You think I'll let you escape after what you've done to my subordinates?!"
He twisted mid-sprint and hurled himself toward the fleeing group.
Clang!
Just inches from the female archer's back, I intercepted the attack as my blade met the demon's long dark nails with a deafening crash for the first time. The shockwave rippled outward, tearing fabric and hurling her to the ground alongside the others.
Clang!
Clash!
Each impact sounded like steel colliding with a mountain. The shockwave rippled through the air seemed to tear clothes.
Jane staggered back, the fabric supporting her shoulders sliced open by the sheer force ripping through the air, her eyes wide in stunned disbelief.
'And here I was,' she said inwardly, 'wondering if he even knew how to hold a sword. He's freaking the most powerful person I've ever seen…'