The vast Demon Realm of the frontier.
The Demon Realms ruled by Dantalion and Andras had merged.
“Quite the crowd. You’ve scraped together all sorts of vermin, haven’t you.”
Dantalion snickered as he looked at Andras’s territory.
Andras retorted with a single remark.
“Truly impoverished. Seeing my old friend’s ruined storehouse, I feel compelled to fill it for him.”
“…….”
Dantalion ground his teeth without another word.
“Shall I lend you my worms, perhaps?”
“Put them away. If I scrape around, I can gather that much too.”
Andras cackled and spread his hand.
“My worms!”
In an instant, the connected worlds trembled.
Every slave of the demons looked up.
“Your master commands you. Trample the Night World Tree once more.”
“Uwoooah!!”
“Kill them!!”
The worlds trembled, and a massive portal appeared before them.
“Keuk. Hey, why aren’t you adding yours?”
Andras had already used his Origin to open the portal.
Dantalion whistled and played dumb.
“You bastard. Hurry up!”
“Gods, you rush me so rudely.”
When Dantalion lent a hand, the portal grew even larger.
“Now! My soldiers! Go forth and trample! And thereby raise my glory on high!”
“Uwoooah!!”
As the thunderous cry rang out, Dantalion’s slaves also screamed.
Dantalion and Andras looked beyond the portal and whispered to each other.
“But who’s sending reinforcements after us?”
“Who knows. They’ll probably squeeze the bottom-feeders dry. Being weak is a crime at a time like this. To think they’d use up all those blood-sucking worms.”
“Right. You need plenty of worms for Demon Kings to emerge and all that, tsk.”
Whoooom.
The portal connected by the two shook.
“Hm? What’s wrong with that?”
Dantalion picked a fight with Andras, who had opened the portal.
“Open it properly, you bastard. The portal’s shaking. Are your hands trembling because it’s been so long since you used your Origin?”
“Hey, dammit! I’m telling you it’s not me! Someone’s interfering!”
Then, suddenly, the portal shattered.
“…….”
“…….”
The two demons’ expressions stiffened.
Dense divine power of night flowed out through the shattered portal.
“Damn it.”
“It’s him.”
The divine power spread out vastly and began to writhe.
Before long, it bit off a huge handful of troops and dragged them away.
“Kuaaaak!”
“My lord!”
The troops were abducted right before the two demons’ eyes.
They couldn’t take this lying down.
“Fucking hell! Chase them right now!!”
Dantalion and Andras opened another portal.
“Keuk.”
This time, both of them exerted their full strength.
It definitely felt like a more stable flow than the previous portal.
“Hurry up and cross over, you bastards!”
“Kill them all!”
At the two demons’ furious voices, the surviving troops at Demon King level and below rushed into the portal.
But once again, the portal began to crack.
“……!?”
“……!?”
Crash!
It shattered again.
“Kuaaaaa!”
Andras suffered damage to his Origin due to the portals shattering in succession.
“Damn it, the divine power of night……!!”
Another portion of the troops was abducted.
It was absurd.
Yet it didn’t happen just once, but repeatedly right before their eyes.
Dantalion watched with a bewildered expression.
“What, what the hell……! This is bullshit!”
* * *
“Now! Here they come!”
A single spaceship sat above a land of churning lava.
\- Main cannon charging commencing.
Sinhyeok was seated not in the captain’s cabin, but in the engine room.
“Ugh, to think I’ve been reduced to a battery.”
“Grrr.”
Of course, there was another.
Instead of the World Tree, Blue had accompanied him.
“This is unjust….”
“Grrr.”
Blue looked at Sinhyeok with an odd gaze.
“Don’t look at me like that! I’m sorry. But we can’t exactly pull out the World Tree, can we.”
“Grrrrrr!”
The two were having their mana rapidly drained while alive, their Origins violently plundered.
“E-easy!”
“Krrrr!”
\- 60% charge
\- 65% charge
\- 70% charge
\- Please hang in a little longer, Administrator ^^
The revived Obsir needled him in a most irritating manner.
“I shouldn’t have bothered fixing it.”
\- Rapid charging commencing.
“Keup! Hey!”
\- Charge complete.
\- Sharing external status.
Before Sinhyeok, the lava fields of the land were fully visible.
At its center, a gate towing engine was operating steadily.
Hung upon the towing engine was an incubus in a half-corpse state, parasitized by the Resurrection Herb.
\- K-kill me.
The voice was broadcast.
“Obsir. How long until the towing engine activates?”
\- Gate towing will commence in 30 seconds.
“Good. Launch the drones. And tell the residents to prepare for long-range bombardment.”
\- Affirmative.
They had ultimately succeeded in the upgrade.
Only, it had grown larger in size.
In exchange, its range had increased, and various functions to aid targeting had been added.
Naturally, its firepower had been increased as well.
[Essentially a failure.]
“Shh. That much is fine. It only got three times larger.”
[Is it reasonable for a cannon to be the size of a two-story house?]
“…….”
Since it was difficult to move, they had fixed its position and built it on the spot.
Naturally, when retreating, they would have to melt it down themselves.
It was an immobile, stationary piece of equipment.
[We must produce suitable weapons after finishing the first gate towing.]
“Let’s think about that slowly. The residents’ positions are vague right now.”
[I concur.]
In fact, the residents’ positions could be sufficiently replaced by this warship.
In the space remodeled from the cultivation chamber, drones were being steadily produced.
\- Portal generation detected.
\- One gate has been towed.
\- Portal opening.
\- Initiating break immediately.
Status updates were relayed in real time.
Sinhyeok gave the order with a sly smirk.
“Fire.”
\- Firing main plasma cannon at 10% output.
Light split apart and began converging at the ship’s bow.
The light began to condense.
“Kruk?”
The demons forcibly abducted and summoned looked around in all directions with puzzled expressions.
And the first thing they encountered was tremendous heat and a mass of blue light.
From the warship, monstrous energy was being condensed.
Whooooom.
“You bastards! Get out there immediately! Go kill them! What’s the matter with you!?”
One Demon King that had leaped out followed the demons’ gazes and looked up.
“Why is that…….”
Whooooosh.
Light poured down.
The Demon King watched the light with a blank expression before his entire body vanished.
Kwa-baaaaang!
The earth shook violently.
Screams of magical beasts and demons echoed everywhere.
\- Main cannon cooling initiated.
\- Main cannon temporarily suspended for magic circle stabilization.
“This is frustrating. No rapid fire?”
\- Impossible.
\- Second towing commencing.
Immediately, another gate was pulled out.
“Tell them to prepare the bombardment! Set the coordinates quickly!”
\- Coordinates transmitted.
\- Firing preparations complete.
The residents positioned around the lava fields began their bombardment with upgraded cannons.
Kwa-baaaaang!!
“Kill them!”
“Blow ’em all to bits!”
A frenzy of firing was underway.
Namgung Jincheon scratched his nose, having nothing to do.
“There’s nothing for me to do…….”
They finished clearing them out in an instant, and then another gate was pulled in.
This time, it was the warship’s turn again.
Whoooom.
It condensed energy and fired a light shot.
Kwa-baaaaang!
The earth broke apart severely.
The demons vanished in the light as soon as they emerged.
Then Graywain raised a flag high and shouted.
“Pergana Company, ready!”
The old knight who had heard about Earth’s army in the meantime formed the company with a playful expression.
But the company members wore tense expressions.
“Fire!”
When the gate was created and the break immediately occurred, they launched their bombardment.
Kwa-baaaaang!
“This is boring, friend.”
The giant watching this said gruffly.
Namgung Jincheon nodded as well.
“I feel the same. My, my. Nothing for me to do.”
This process repeated dozens of times.
Then, perhaps due to overload, the towing engine shut down.
The warship slowly descended into an area where the lava had cooled for maintenance.
Baek Arin shouted upon seeing this.
“Now, prepare to retreat! Clear the battlefield and retreat immediately! Blow everything up!”
They had pre-engraved explosion magic onto the cannons.
The residents packed their things with reluctant expressions and climbed down from the cannons.
“Darn shame. Can’t this be made any smaller?”
“Just you wait. Our commander will whip up another one in no time.”
Everyone began walking toward the cooled land.
Baek Arin shouted to everyone.
“Pergana Company will follow from the rear! The vanguard is Namgung Jincheon, Hong Ichan, Jegal Seyun, and Einri!”
The name Einri that had just been called was the giant’s name.
“Vanguard, move up and scout ahead quickly!”
The battlefield was swiftly cleared.
Baek Arin hurriedly dashed out.
“Find the Demon Kings first! We have to secure the cores first!”
Everyone nodded.
When the warship’s door opened, Sinhyeok wondered if this was truly the place where wyverns had died from the atmospheric heat alone.
“We flipped it way too spectacularly.”
The earth’s heat had cooled.
No, it was more likely that it had been forcibly overturned and covered in lava.
‘How did this cool down?’
Curious, he cast Mapping beneath the ground.
[Mapping in progress.]
[Numerous lava and fire spirits detected underground.]
He immediately canceled the mapping.
Sinhyeok realized they had passed out from the successive bombardments.
“Now, everyone! Let’s move quickly! We have to get out of here fast!”
If those who’d been hit hard from behind woke up, this place would become another hell.
Thanks to everyone’s hurried movements, the battlefield was swiftly cleared.
“Hurry and board! Einri and Sir Namgung Jincheon, please run!”
Einri frowned.
“I object. Why can’t I ride.”
“Indeed, my word. Tsk. We really must build a bigger spaceship. Tsk tsk!”
The giant leaped high into the sky, and Namgung Jincheon became a black bolt of lightning that split the earth.
“Let’s head back. Arin, how many cores did you secure?”
Arin opened her pocket.
“Exactly nineteen.”
“Throw half into the engine and come back.”
‘How long can we maintain on that much?’
\- Factoring in combat, we can sustain three engagements and approximately six months of flight and functionality.
“Good.”
Sinhyeok smiled as he pondered the next battlefield.
“I’m in a great mood. Where to next~”
* * *
Brrr.
The two demons trembled.
After the successive abductions ended, more than half—not just half—of their worlds had been ripped away.
“It’s half! Half the soldiers, half the Demon Kings!”
To Andras’s choked cry, Dantalion replied with a detached expression.
“You’re down to half. I’ve been completely wiped out.”
Thud.
Dantalion collapsed to the floor with a thud, face empty.
“Damn, damn, damn! Who said to come here! Uwaaaaak! My kin! I’m ruined now! I’ll be demoted back to a Demon King! Khaaaak!”
Andras looked at Dantalion with a pitiful expression.
“Poor bastard. That’s what you get for being a bottom-ranked demon. A mayfly’s life.”
“Shut it, you bastard. You think you’re unscathed? We’re in the same boat, you bastard.”
“…….”
At those words, Andras also choked up.
“My kin… that I protected with everything I had….”
A demon’s power tended to be proportional to their kin.
That was because they drew power from their kin.
“We can’t just take this lying down.”
Andras split a core and opened a portal again.
“Keuk!”
Dantalion muttered with an empty expression.
“It’s pointless. We’ll just get wiped out again anyway.”
“Kuaaak! Shut up!! I’ll definitely have that bastard’s head….”
Fwoosh.
Beyond the opened portal, tremendous heat washed over them.
It was literally scorching.
Flames that burned even the atmosphere surged through the portal in an instant and enveloped the surroundings.
“What? What the hell is going on!?”
Andras looked on, flabbergasted.
Beyond the portal, he saw a writhing mass of spirits.
“What the hell is that….”
“They sent them all. That’s the Spirit Realm merged with spirits.”
It was a rare phenomenon.
But the problem was that it had to happen right before their eyes.
“Damn it!! They’re crossing over.”
A world of pure flame invaded the Demon Realm.
There was no stopping their displaced fury.
“Put them out right now!”
“Kuaaaaak!”
Every corner of the world burned.
The spirits’ rage would not be easily quenched.
“Damn it, damn it! That damned bastard!”
Andras eventually used a core to draw his sword,
and only after laboriously slashing through space did the flames cease.
“Wh-what… what on earth is going on?”
All Andras had left was a handful of kin.
In the end, he had sacrificed everything.
“Kuaaaaak! Damned human! I’ll kill him! That son of a bitch!”
* * *
Sinhyeok felt his ear itching for some reason and scratched at it.
“Is someone cursing me?”
After everyone had returned, they took out potatoes once more.
“Everyone, enjoy yourselves for a bit!”
“Hurrah!”
Sinhyeok tapped on Obsir, who had become the spaceship.
“How’s the new body?”
\- It’s fine. In fact, it’s better.
Since Obsir seemed quite pleased, Sinhyeok was even more satisfied.
“Akashic, how many more times do we need to do this?”
[Core quality varies wildly, making it difficult to estimate, but based on available data, we project approximately 20 to 30 more engagements.]
“Hah, not much left in supply.”
[Selecting the next battlefield is urgent.]
[Furthermore, the towing engine must be repaired.]
[Additionally, proper weapons for the residents must be produced.]
To Akashic’s barrage of nagging, Sinhyeok nodded absently.
“I know, I know. So just, shh!”