Cut them down,
then cut down some more.
I sent every demonkin in sight to the grave.
Their stronghold, which lay inside the collapsed barrier, was shaped like an anthill.
Maybe that was why demonkin kept pouring out endlessly from somewhere or other.
‘This is a human dungeon. How is this a place people live?’
It was definitely a path I’d already passed through, wasn’t it? But maybe there was some hidden door, because enemies ambushed me from behind.
I thought, Oh, his head’s been cut off, so he’s dead, right? But they could revive up to three times.
‘These bastards are not human.’
Seeing things like this, the reason they called themselves demonkin was honestly quite reasonable.
I’ll admit it.
You’re no different from monsters with intelligence.
Thinking that, I walked around inside their stronghold as if it were my own home.
But still...
‘It’s really strange that guys like this are more passive in their activities than I expected.’
Judging by how they were hurling every insult imaginable at me, calling me an ignorant fool who didn’t know the greatness of the demonic,
if you looked only at the nature of their group, it felt like even causing trouble all day long wouldn’t be enough for them.
‘Then there’s a high chance someone above them has them firmly under control, and that they’re an organized group moving with some goal in mind.’
This was probably one of the reasons the Holy Kingdom had chosen this place as our practical training site.
The enemy happened to be human, and their level was fairly decent.
They could also dig out important information about the demonkin and instill a sense of caution in the Hero’s party.
Ah,
the reason I thought we might be able to uncover important information
was because the scale of this stronghold was quite considerable.
This connects to what I said about this place being formed like an anthill, with demonkin constantly swarming in from somewhere.
If the stronghold is larger than expected and has a lot of demonkin stationed here?
Whether this place is a forward base aimed at the Holy Kingdom or something else,
it means this is somewhere they consider fairly important.
But now that I think about it,
‘If the Holy Kingdom left them alone until they grew to this scale, that means the strategy of hiding right under their noses might’ve worked.’
Of course, they might have intentionally left them alone until they grew in scale...
But no one could know that.
Anyway,
“Keheok!”
“You lowly wretch who was not chosen by the Demon King... Kugh.”
I was slowly clearing the place step by step, from the entrance down into the depths underground.
As I said before, originally, I’d planned to infiltrate secretly and break through explosively before they could even begin preparing to respond to an intruder.
But right now, because of William’s personal philosophy of raising me into an all-purpose problem solver who could find a way out of any situation, the enemy had probably already finished all their preparations.
Rather than pointlessly going, “Let’s break through even now!” and charging in, it seemed right to approach carefully like this, as if defusing a bomb.
In the first place, what William told me was “Go in,” not “Go in and do a time attack.”
All-purpose problem solver or whatever, it was right to first slam my head into things that had a chance of working.
If I failed to take care of my own body while resolving a problem, then that was obviously wrong.
No one can force sacrifice on another person.
Sacrifice is always the noble judgment of the person themselves.
That was why no one could say anything about my method right now.
Even without those reasons, judgments made on-site were basically something that should always be respected.
???: You should have done this here, and you should have done that there!
Most of that was results-based reasoning,
and since it was something said after everything was over, through analysis in a calm environment over a long period of time rather than on-site,
my method still deserved to be respected.
“Tsk...”
Anyway...
After meeting the demonkin, it definitely did put me in a bit of a mood.
“Second Circle necromancy—Summon Ghoul!”
The black magic they used,
“Die!!!”
and the energy rising from their bodies,
‘Ha... fuck. Why did it have to be black?’
That’s right.
It was all black.
No... black is luxurious and nice.
It’s cool.
When nobles wear suits, they’re usually black.
If things like that had expanded so that black generally had a premium, positive image,
Holy Kingdom: Oh! Black flames! No questions asked, you must be a good person!
That’s how it would have been.
Holy Kingdom: Black...? Lock him up first.
But now it had become that. Because of you demonkin and everything else.
Until now, no one around me had said anything about it, so I hadn’t paid attention,
but after being investigated once in the Holy Kingdom and hearing the reason, I kept thinking that it really could be seen that way.
It was somehow annoying.
No matter how good of a first impression I made,
???: His aura is black-red!! There’s black mixed in!! What relationship do you have with the Demon Realm???
it felt like my relationships would fall apart the moment I showed my aura.
‘Since I have to kill them all anyway...’
Let’s think of this as a movement for black rights.
Then I’ll have a little more motivation.
—Whoosh.
Look at this.
Even looking at it again, it’s just pretty.
Black-red. It’s kind of cool, isn’t it?
It’s slick as hell and classy, that’s what it is.
—Tap!
While thinking thoughts that made me question my own sanity, I jumped down into the open space I had arrived at.
Seeing how quite a few paths led to this clearing, there was a high chance this was probably the central area.
And that meant...
“There he is!”
“Don’t let him go any farther in!”
From within the paths shrouded in darkness, demonkin swarmed in like ants.
There were also some standing still behind them, watching me.
When I roughly checked with my energy sense, they seemed to be martial artists who had reached Expert level and mages around the Fifth Circle.
‘Now that I’ve made it this far, they’re finally sending in proper officers.’
Their gazes were all equally deranged,
and yet, seeing as they weren’t rushing at me directly but were trying to induce a war of attrition, I became even more certain that there was someone else above them.
To control everyone here, they’d probably have to be upper Expert level... or if I was unlucky, a Master.
I couldn’t sense his presence, but William was probably still watching from behind.
If the enemy happened to be a Master and the situation started flowing strangely, he would help me.
I just had to trust him and do my best here.
Right.
And there was something I hadn’t mentioned.
“Fourth Circle fire magic—Fire Storm.”
—Wooooosh!!
I reached the Fourth Circle.
As I trained with William, my sense for handling aura improved.
And because of that, my magic seemed to have improved along with it.
“Graaaagh!!”
It was a spell Signica used when dealing with mobs, and it was definitely effective.
The low-ranking demonkin whose only purpose was to drain my stamina were swept away helplessly by my magic.
“He’s a magic swordsman! Create distance!”
One of the officers gave that order,
“You idiot. We sent them in to die anyway. Just charge!!! Running won’t let you live! Bite him to death!!!”
but another officer corrected the command, which was a little disappointing.
If the demonkin had turned their backs and run away, I could have cleaned them up much more easily.
Well... either way.
—Sssss...
There were mages on their side too, so they would have spread demonic energy and canceled my magic.
It wasn’t a spell I’d cast with high expectations anyway.
I had planned to cut down the small fry with my sword, following the standard method.
But then,
—Fwoosh!
when an arrow mixed with aura and demonic energy flew toward me, my thoughts changed a little.
My caution level toward these guys shot up in an instant.
I didn’t know whether the Holy Kingdom already knew about this,
or whether they knew and still sent me here.
But as I explained before, using aura and demonic energy together makes no sense.
Because demonic energy weakens aura.
And yet these guys were using the two together.
‘This is what you’d call true sorcery and black magic.’
That black mage over there was probably the same.
“Third Circle necromancy—Make Undead.”
After using demonic energy like that to cast black magic, there was a high chance he could use ordinary magic later too.
By aiming for a moment when I let my guard down, for example.
Anyway,
I decided to change my priorities and deal with the officers first.
There seemed to be too many unexpected variables for me to take it easy against them.
It was common sense that the more time I gave them, the greater the risk would become.
‘First, let’s check whether my hypothesis is right.’
—Whooosh!!!
I released wind and launched my body forward, rapidly approaching the black mage.
“!!!?”
Startled by my sudden action, he tried calculating black magic for a moment,
“Tch...!”
then cleanly gave up on bluffing and used ordinary mana to cast Blink, fleeing behind another officer.
—Thud.
I rested my sword on my shoulder and approached them.
“Let me ask you something. Just what kind of group are you people?”
When I’d only heard the common rumors about demonkin, I had defined them as ordinary terrorists, just as I explained before.
But now that I had experienced their power and the force they commanded, I could feel it clearly.
‘There’s no way bastards like this are acting passively in the Empire for no reason.’
There is something here. One hundred percent.
It was just that no one had found it until now.
“Hah. It is not something unchosen filth like you needs to know.”
“If you’re saying I don’t need to know, that means you are doing something, doesn’t it?”
“....”
The officer I had been talking to suddenly fell silent after I struck a nerve.
“Sigh, you moron. I knew that would happen.”
Another officer beside him spoke with an expression that said he’d seen this coming,
“You. Consider yourself unlucky. We had no intention of letting you leave alive in the first place, but now that intention is even stronger.”
then raised his weapon and charged at me.
‘Then shall I clean this up lightly?’
The realms I had sensed from them with my energy sense were all lower than mine,
so I took my stance without much tension.
Demonkin behind me, demonkin in front of me.
An area-of-effect technique perfect for a situation where demonkin were on all sides.
“Thousand Sacred Flame Sword, First Form: Divine Bird Blossoming.”
Aura formed in a circle and occupied every direction, sweeping the enemies in.
—Kagagagagak...!!
“Nngh...!”
“What, you’re withstanding this?”
Contrary to my expectations, the officer held out longer than I thought.
When I observed him a little, I saw a black haze rising from his body.
“Oh, right. There was physical reinforcement through black magic.”
At that level... mid-to-upper Expert?
He was at a level where he could more or less face me.
“Kreuk!”
But,
I’ve already been officially recognized by the Holy Kingdom as having an anti-demonic attribute in my aura too, you know?
I didn’t think the result would change.
For the normalization of black... no, for peace, you’ll have to die.