Under the banner of alliance, the nations joined hands.
Even the insular other races took part.
Demons are strong. Demons appear anywhere.
Fight them alone, and you would wither away.
A heavy log must be lifted together.
That was why a somewhat ramshackle alliance began.
“Hurgh! Kack!”
Villages along the southern border of the empire were burning.
The garrison could not even put up a proper resistance.
The demons were more numerous. They were stronger.
They held out for a moment, but all were offered up as bloody sacrifices.
Those who remained had to flee to safety.
A race of death began, with pursuers and pursued.
“Run, you idiot!”
“Uuugh!!”
Hans, a conscript, came to his senses at the voice of his partner.
Even if his chest felt like it was being torn apart, he could not stop.
If he was caught, his limbs would truly be ripped off and he would become chunks of meat.
The demons were diligently harming people and devouring them.
The garrison commander. The soldiers. And even every last villager.
He had to report the situation here. That was no defeated remnant.
The offensive they had thought abandoned was about to begin again.
“Aaagh!”
One staggering soldier was snatched up by a brutish hand.
After the scream came the sound of bones breaking and flesh being chewed.
Death drew near. The stench of corpses came from behind him.
“Uwaaagh!”
His body pitched forward. It seemed he had tripped over a stone.
Though he rolled and tumbled, Hans did not give up and kept running.
He ran on all fours like a beast. Then he barely managed to get back up.
At some point, the presence of the partner running behind him vanished.
There was no need to ask why. He had simply been slow.
The price for that had simply been getting chewed up in a demon’s maw.
‘What the hell are the knights doing!!’
Just two days ago, he had never imagined this would happen.
He had not even dreamed that a massacre would unfold.
Those who wielded mana. Monsters called superhumans.
They had joined them, radiating a clear, pure aura.
It’s all right now. The captain’s words, telling them not to worry, flickered in his mind.
All we have to do is clean up after the esteemed knights.
Stay sharp so you don’t get in their way for nothing.
He had believed it. He had heard so many stories like that.
Saviors who appeared in moments of crisis. Splendid knights.
He had thought they were tales told to please little girls.
But when he was truly thrown onto the battlefield, he realized it.
How reassuring beings called superhumans were.
That all hope could be placed on even one of them.
Kihihihi!!—
That very hope shattered and scattered.
Even as the garrison died, and the people of the empire died.
The knights did not move from their positions to the very end.
At some point, Hans realized the cold truth.
They had not come here to help.
They had come to find some very magnificent, dazzling achievement.
In their eyes, it was not yet time to step forward.
A more decisive time. A more dramatic moment. Only that.
“You sons of bitches!!”
For reference, Hans’s childhood friend had died after cursing a knight.
So until now, he had lived carefully, ever so carefully.
But this time, with all his might, he cursed them again and again.
“You bastards aren’t even men! All you do is do weird things with young ladies’ handkerchiefs!!”
Kraaaaah!!—
He heard the sound of a demon greedily swallowing a person.
He desperately hoped a knight who heard this abuse would come running.
But death had no intention of moving away from Hans.
“Uuuh. Uuuugh!!”
He was going to die. He was really going to die. He would die without doing a thing.
He would be eaten by a demon. Become a meal. Become shit!
“Fuuuuuck!!—”
Hans, who had been fleeing, turned and faced the demon.
If he was going to die anyway. He would at least land one blow before he died.
Then he would feel a little less wronged. Then he could at least allow himself to die!
Kihihihi!!—
The surrender of prey was as fine a spectacle as its struggle.
The demon lunged, flashing yellow fangs.
There was nothing tastier than a human who mistook surrender for madness—
“You pass.”
Crunch!!—
A man tore the demon’s head off with his bare hands.
***
The desperate screams of people. The laughter unique to demons.
“…”
“…”
The knights were watching that scene in silence.
That was right. They were watching. Only watching.
Despite having sworn to protect the weak.
Though demons were the very root of evil that had to be destroyed.
The knights merely looked on to the very end.
“Do not act rashly.”
Had he noticed that some of the knights were wavering?
A man who appeared to be the senior knight spoke in a stern tone.
“Even if not today, they are people who would have died someday anyway. Do not think it pitiable. That is their fate.”
“…”
“This is not yet a battlefield worthy of us. Knights are not beings who clean up after others.”
When demons first appeared, everyone had envisioned destruction.
To survive, they cooperated, and at times even accepted losses.
But as the tide of war became favorable, one truth emerged.
There was no need to do so. Profit was something to be taken at such times.
Many nobles seized this moment to amass enormous wealth.
Most knights chose their battlefields and piled up victories.
In their eyes, that place was no gold mine.
It was a place where they would gain nothing. A place where they would merely sweat.
“At any rate, the damage will be, at most, conscripts and commoners. There are plenty of those.”
The logic was sound. A single knight was more important than a hundred conscripts.
And even that was being generous. For reference, commoners were beyond comparison.
“If the demons move farther, they will soon reach the Laon River. It is an important place responsible for the water source of this entire area. If the demons occupy it and spread poison, things will become very troublesome. We will stop that.”
Water was as important as life in times like these.
It was needed for washing and drinking. For wiping and cleaning.
That much was suitable to be called a battle for knights.
They slowly checked their arms. They soothed their horses.
They circulated their mana, preparing themselves for battle.
“Then, shall we—”
“Shall we, my ass. You lot should just never step forward.”
At first, they wondered if they had misheard.
But when they realized a stranger was among the knight order.
When the senior knight’s two arms were rolling on the ground.
Only then did the knights realize it was no mistake.
“K-Kraaaagh!!”
The name superhuman was not given simply because one was strong.
Mana did not merely increase destructive power.
Those who could heighten every sense to the utmost limit.
A gift from the gods that allowed one to surpass humanity.
That was what a superhuman was, and that was what mana was.
A knight was a superhuman. A knight used mana.
For knights, a surprise attack was something far, far removed from them.
“My arms! My arms!!”
That was what the uninvited guest before their eyes had done far too easily.
He had been the senior knight with the greatest skill among them.
That knight was now wailing pitifully like a boy.
At the shocking sight, no one could open their mouth.
“Feel ashamed.”
Slowly sheathing a sword they had not even seen him draw.
The man spoke to the knight with emotionless eyes.
“From the moment you refused to step forward even with demons right in front of you, you lost the right to be called knights.”
In the hearts of the knights, their past investiture ceremonies arose.
The day they overcame every trial and finally became knights.
They had sworn to become the strong who protected the weak.
“You bastards got drunk on your own strength and even lost your way.”
They had promised to protect justice. Romance. Will.
And we. What are we doing here now?
“Wh-what are you all doing! Attack! He attacked a knight! Attack, I said!!”
At the senior knight’s words, several knights drew their swords.
Attacking a knight was an unforgivable grave crime.
On top of that, he had even cut off both arms of an important fighting force.
In practical terms, it was enough to regard him as a demon. Or a contractor.
“Do it.”
But not a single one of them could move recklessly.
“Try it.”
The man’s hands were far away from his sword.
Crossing one’s arms against a knight meant one of two things.
Either he meant to give up resisting. Because his level was that low.
Or he meant there was no reason to bother resisting. Because he was that overwhelming.
“…”
“…”
Gulp—
The sound of someone swallowing rang out loudly.
Thump, thump—
Only one minute. But to the knights, it was an eternity.
‘A monster.’
Once one awakened mana, one could use supersenses.
A knight was a superhuman. That was why they could tell immediately.
They would die. The moment they moved here, they would all die.
Strong. Such a word did not dare even begin to explain him.
‘I don’t know.’
By what method. Which place he would target.
They could see nothing. They could feel nothing.
Only one thing became certain. That they would die.
“Cowards.”
Whether or not dozens of knights were lined up behind him.
The man turned to head toward the demons.
Alone. By himself. Toward those wicked beings.
At that sight, a small number of knights tried to move.
They were those who had wavered even at the senior knight’s words earlier.
They had questioned not stepping forward despite being knights.
They had asked themselves whether this was truly what a knight should be.
“Please wait.”
There were at least dozens of demons there. Perhaps over a hundred.
Even for a superhuman, many demons were difficult opponents.
“We will accompany you.”
“You fools! What are you doing! Come back this instant! Do you want to be stripped of your titles?!”
They had only just received their investiture and ascended to knighthood.
If they were stripped of their titles, the rumor would spread in an instant.
It would be a path that ruined their efforts until now. Their future.
And yet the small number of knights were willing to sacrifice—
“Get lost.”
“…?”
“They’re mine.”
For a moment, the knights thought they had heard wrong.
“I said they’re mine. Mine alone. I won’t give them to anyone.”
The man was not going to dig up some treasure right now.
He was going to fight demons. A struggle with life and death on the line.
And yet what he said was, they were his? He would not give them up?
“If you interfere, I’ll kill you.”
A blue madness gleamed in the man’s two eyes.
It was a threat he had not even made to those avoiding battle.
At most, he had merely provoked them by calling them cowards.
But when they said they would help, he sincerely declared he would kill them.
Was he insane? All the knights wondered that.
“Ah.”
Soon, however, the knights realized the answer.
‘So it was him.’
As they watched the man crush those countless demons.
As they witnessed demons screaming and fleeing.
The knights did not dare even think of stepping forward.
“…A monster.”
That was worse than a demon. Another demon.
***
The people who had been fleeing. The knights who had only watched.
Everyone held their breath at the overwhelming spectacle.
“Kyaaahak!!—”
“Human! Wait!!—”
“There is no wait.”
No matter how much of a knight one was, they were not like this.
Dozens of demons literally melted away and disappeared.
Clean movements without the slightest waste continued.
With a single sword strike, demons were bisected and collapsed.
He pulled out a dead one’s heart while looking at another demon.
This is a demon heart. Fascinating, isn’t it?
Soon, I’ll let you see yours too.
The demons resisted. Even if they resisted with all their might, it was useless.
Before the man, they were swept away equally.
Demon Slayer. God’s Right Hand. Just as those names proclaimed.
An unparalleled hero born of war. A living legend.
A battle that would have taken even the knight order at least half a day.
The man ended it perfectly in just ten minutes.
“This is insane…”
“Gods above.”
“That. That is a human…?!”
All of it was frightening, but the most frightening thing among them?
Not a single one of those many demons was still breathing.
Demons were strong. And they were exceedingly tenacious.
They could endure injuries that would certainly kill a human.
Even after battle ended, they might survive and tempt others.
But for the man. For Cain, there was none of that.
While fighting the demons alone, he even confirmed every kill.
From beginning to end. Without a single exception.
Their heads had been stomped into complete mush.
“Ah.”
I killed them all. This time, too, there wasn’t one worth fighting.
Cain sat down on top of a demon corpse and pondered.
With a strange gaze where madness and cold reason coexisted.
‘Should I hold back, or not?’
There might be circumstances, right? I should at least hear them out.
They call me a mad dog, but I’m not actually a dog, am I?
I’m human. So I should at least talk first and then decide—
“Let’s not.”
A little while later, the sight the newly arrived reinforcements saw was.
“What the hell is this?”
Knights, every last one of them, planted upside down in the ground.
Meanwhile, the severed stumps of those arms had been neatly cauterized.
At the same time.
“Your Imperial Highness? Where are you? This humble subject has something to say.”
A mad dog began prowling the imperial palace with a sword in his mouth.