Their loyalty, aside from the education they received since childhood, was also maintained by the omnipresent shadow warriors, assassins who could be lurking anywhere, and the Holy Wand Court that kept them in check.
And after learning that the order from the opposing nobles was actually to capture him alive, Ash couldn't help but feel both amused and exasperated.
Still, he didn't pay it much mind. He simply had them taken away, and then stayed on the other side, waiting for the analysis to finish while lying in wait for incoming enemies.
———
Five days passed in the blink of an eye.
Around where Solitar stood, the surroundings were already soaked in blood, stained a dark crimson. Even after the soldiers carefully cleaned up and collected the bodies, there were still plenty of broken swords and fragments of armor scattered across the ground.
Before and after, at least a thousand people had died here.
There were shadow warriors, and another squad of magic special forces, but no one had been able to hinder the progress of the analysis in the face of Ash.
A thousand-strong cavalry unit had launched a suicidal charge, only to be reduced to dust in an instant. After that, the place fell completely silent, with no one left to interfere with the analysis... or rather, the defenders had already realized that going out would be no different from throwing their lives away, and were forced to give up trying to stop it.
"To perfectly combine ancient origin magic with modern spellcraft. I almost feel reluctant to destroy it."
Solitar finally completed the analysis. She placed her hands over her chest, a look of regret on her face, which made Ash feel a headache coming on.
"Stop feeling sorry for it and hurry up and finish it."
"You really don't understand how to appreciate art at all."
Even as she said that, Solitar still raised her hand and lightly tapped the glowing barrier.
Bang!
The impregnable national defense barrier now cracked like floor tiles. The moment the magic circle in her palm touched it, spiderweb-like fractures spread across its surface.
Immediately after, the dual-layered defense barrier centered around a core collapsed and disintegrated entirely.
The sky that had been covered by aurora-like light returned to its usual calm in an instant, replaced by a clear blue expanse.
But when the defenders of Demont Fortress in the distance noticed this, they all fell into a deathly silence.
Under normal circumstances, analyzing the extremely complex and intricate national defense barrier, something considered a treasure of humanity would take even a first-class mage over a year without rest.
Because of that assumption, the defenders of Demont Fortress had simply sent people to request reinforcements and then waited quietly for the Empire's army to arrive.
However... no one could have imagined that before the reinforcements even arrived, the national defense barrier that had been holding up their morale would shatter first.
This caused everyone to waver. Even Baxter, who had taken power in place of his son, couldn't hide the shock on his face.
"Grandfather! With things like this... what are we supposed to do now?", The spirited young man, Kainz, looked at his grandfather with fear written all over his face.
"Withdraw first. Take the family and retreat back to our territory."
"But Kessman doesn't have a national defense barrier, it absolutely won't be able to hold—"
"It can't hold here either! I'll stay here and hold them off as long as I can. By then, maybe Kessman can hold out until the Empire's reinforcements arrive."
"Can you really hold them?"
"Even if I can't, I have to! If we all leave and surrender without a fight, the family is finished."
Baxter slammed his palm against the stone of the city wall and made the final decision in a tone that allowed no argument:
"..Of course, if necessary, if I truly can't hold them, you all run to the imperial capital. Our family still has some connections there. As long as you're alive, there's a chance to take back our land and rise again. And maybe... just maybe, I can hold out here until reinforcements arrive."
"Grandfather...", Kainz still wanted to say something, but in the end he opened his mouth, then lowered his head unwillingly. After taking one last look at his father's corpse outside the city, gnawed beyond recognition by crows, he could only turn away, carrying grief and overwhelming hatred with him.
Because he knew this was the only way, and also the safest one. He could only obey his grandfather's orders, even though he understood that the old man who had raised him since childhood had already resolved to die... and held no hope of surviving.
After all, with the barrier gone, Demont Fortress could barely rely on its tall walls and prepared defenders. Whether it could last even three days was uncertain. Holding out for a week until the fastest reinforcements arrived... the hope was extremely slim. But at this point, there was no other choice.
Baxter could only stand on the wall, watching his grandson leave. Soon after, he gathered the defenders and prepared for a desperate last stand.
———
On the opposite side of Demont Fortress, in a temporary camp raised by magic and further reinforced using prisoners of war, a large number of kingdom troops had already received news of the barrier's collapse. Fully prepared, every soldier stood ready for battle.
Solitar, who hadn't slept for five days, was still immersed in the brilliance of the barrier's structure. But after returning to camp, she went to sleep in her tent at Ash's urging.
As for Ash, after learning that the enemy had once again refused to surrender, he sent Linie back to rest as well and took control of the magical beasts himself.
With a wave of his hand, the large amount of stone already prepared in the camp gathered together, forming hundreds of rock spheres over two meters in diameter, which slowly rose into the sky.
The next moment, all the rock spheres fell like a meteor shower, streaking toward the enemy camp in unison.
Under immense propulsion, the rock spheres surged forward at incredible speed, accompanied by a barrage of various spells from their own mages.
Atop Demont Fortress, the hastily erected defensive barrier flickered a few times before shattering, allowing the attacks to crash directly onto the city walls.
In an instant, rubble flew everywhere, bodies were hurled into the air, and cries of pain and screams filled the air.
But the defenders didn't even have time to regroup before they saw another object rise into the sky, a massive rock sphere over three hundred meters in diameter, almost the size of a small mountain.
"Y-you've got to be kidding?"
"M-mom..."
As they stared at the enormous object rising high before suddenly plunging down toward them, blocking out the sun and sky, every soldier's face was filled with despair. Some even unconsciously thought of their mothers. Their armor rattled endlessly from their trembling.
At that moment, more than half of them didn't run.
Aside from their legs going weak and their minds going blank, they all understood one thing.... There was nowhere to run.
So under those circumstances, some fled in panic, while others stood frozen in place, waiting for death to arrive.
The meteor-like rock sphere descended in the next instant, carrying terrifying force. It tore through the earth as it slammed into the city walls, unleashing a catastrophic disaster.
KABOOM!
The thunderous explosion sounded like countless bolts of lightning striking at once.
The shockwave pierced through everyone's organs, shaking every inch of space.
Just its overwhelming mass alone unleashed destructive power like a raging flood, mercilessly sweeping away everything in its path.
In the blink of an eye, the ancient fortress was blasted into ruin, completely unrecognizable.
As the impact spread, dust and debris poured down like torrential rain, obscuring the sky.
For the defenders farther away who had narrowly survived, the entire world seemed covered in a thick gray curtain. The entire fortress was swallowed by smoke and dust.
Only after a long time did the dust slowly settle, revealing a landscape that had been utterly transformed.
The thousand-year-old fortress that had stood firm for ages was gone. In its place remained only devastation and a massive crater.
All its former strength and glory appeared utterly fragile before such nightmarish power.
As for the soldiers who had once defended the walls, their fate needed no explanation.
One only had to look at the enormous crater left by the "meteor" to understand the cruelty of the disaster.
In this land shrouded in despair and destruction, the word "war" no longer seemed enough. Perhaps only divine punishment could describe it.
The soldiers who had survived in the distance, trembling as they struggled to stand, hadn't even recovered from the catastrophe when enemy troops and large numbers of magical beasts charged in as if no one was there to stop them.
Ash naturally walked at the very front, marking the beginning of utter despair. Under the roar of explosions and the surge of violent magic, the defenders' last will to resist was completely crushed.
———
To force surrender, Ash had once again taken to the battlefield, unleashing his ultimate move to destroy the walls and break their will to fight.
But now, looking at the surrendered soldiers kneeling all over the ground with their weapons cast aside, he couldn't feel happy about it.
"They knew there was no hope, so why didn't they surrender? How foolish... no, wait. To them, I'm the invader. Resisting like this could be called bravery," Ash muttered to himself, shaking his head before remembering his own position, not knowing what else to say.
At that moment, among the kneeling prisoners, one man quietly tightened his grip on the sword beside him as Ash approached.
Baxter, Ludwig's father, had survived thanks to the desperate protection of the mages, precisely for this moment. Seeing Ash, protected in the middle by heavily armored guards, his face twisted silently.
His left leg shattered the stone beneath his foot. In an instant, he crossed the less than ten-meter distance between them and thrust his blade toward Ash's abdomen.
Though he was already nearing old age, as one of the former Three Great Knights, no mage could possibly react to his sudden attack within such a short distance.
At a time like this, it depended on the guards, but ordinary guards couldn't possibly stop him. The ones beside Ash were just elite soldiers.
Which meant—
'Got him!'
Hearing the alarmed shouts from the guards' helmets, Baxter's twisted face flashed with joy. They clearly couldn't stop him.
Even if he didn't know who had killed his son, killing this important figure protected by the guards had to be right.
Even if it was just the son of someone important, it didn't matter. At least he would make them taste the pain of losing a child.
But at the very moment his blade was about to strike his enemy, he suddenly found the tip of his sword veering upward, slipping out of his control.
Even his arm and body stopped obeying him. He couldn't move at all, and his vision began to tilt.
'Was I just beheaded? When? How? Why?'
As his head fell and Ash sidestepped, Baxter saw his own body, along with his severed arm, finally understanding what had happened.
But he couldn't understand why he had died so suddenly.
His consciousness faded quickly, not giving him time to figure it out.
However...
"What's with this guy? So rude. Just rushing in out of nowhere. Another shadow warrior? His ability to hide his presence is way worse than the previous ones."
In that split second, Ash had drawn a guard's sword and struck. Now, looking at the man lying not far away, already separated head and body, he wore a puzzled expression.
But he didn't care, nor did he bother to think about it further. Casually returning the sword to the guard, he led his troops onward, preparing to gather prisoners, rebuild the fortress, use it as a stepping stone for further attacks, and get ready for a counterattack from the Empire.
After only a short rest, he left the local legion stationed near the magical city to oversee the prisoners and reconstruction, as well as to serve as the garrison.
He himself led the remaining three elite legions, drawn from other regions, and continued advancing beyond the fortress toward the Empire's largest frontier city, Kessman City.
———
Along the way to Kessman City, not a single town or village dared to resist.
With over ten thousand cavalry as the vanguard, Ash led them forward. After only a brief rest on the road, by the next morning they arrived beneath Kessman City together with the magical beasts, completely unopposed.
Compared to typical fortified cities with at least two layers of walls, the barrier here, though a city defense barrier, was only a slightly improved version.
After all, even during the past full-scale invasions by the Demon King's army, Kessman City, located in the Empire's southern region, had never directly faced the northern demon threat. It had always been a safe rear area, protected by other regions' national defense barriers.
For a thousand years, it had never fallen, nor had it directly faced danger. As a core city during the Empire's unified era, even after losing vast territories, the Empire had never lost this city.
But now... after a thousand years, for the first time, enemy troops stood beneath its walls.
The Imperial soldiers who had escaped, along with Kainz who had returned to his family's territory, looked down from the walls at the enemy forces that had pursued them like ghosts, arriving in an instant. Their faces were filled with shock and anger.
The enemy's rapid advance meant that his grandfather... hadn't even managed to hold out for a single day.
And now, no one even bothered to ask them to surrender.
From the kingdom army, a cloaked and masked man flew out directly.
Seeing this, no one dared to be careless. Archers on the walls immediately loosed a barrage of arrows, while mages formed various magic circles, intending to shoot him down.
But beside Ash, eight black-purple orbs appeared.
In the next moment, beams of black-purple light over two meters in diameter, the glow of killing magic, swept downward.
Arrows and spells alike vanished like foam along the way, as the dark light struck directly onto the barrier that had just been activated.
"This is... demon killing magic?"
From the color alone, it was clearly not human-reversed engineered magic. Human imitation spells were white, while this was unmistakably the genuine killing magic of demons.
The mages on the walls, upon recognizing it, were so shocked they couldn't even close their mouths.
"The Kingdom is colluding with demons?"
"Don't they remember what happened at the fortress city of Weise? They still dare to deal with Greater Demons?"
Cooperating with demons was rare in the human world, but not entirely forbidden.
The battle-hardened mages despised it, and the Church condemned it as betrayal of the race, but they couldn't stop powerful nobles or nations from doing it. At most, they could criticize it morally.
Previously, in the Empire, the Golden Land Macht, nominally loyal to a local lord, had killed remnants of the Demon King's army and even a demon general. The convenience and usefulness of demons fighting demons had pleased everyone in the Empire, and no one had criticized the lord back then.
Now that it was happening to them, they couldn't help but curse in outrage.
Some even feared that, judging from the overwhelming magical power and continuous bombardment, this was clearly another Greater Demon.
Would the entire city be wiped out? After all, more than fifty years ago, an unnamed Greater Demon (Solitar) had single-handedly destroyed an entire fortress city.
"N-no way it can break through! After developing counter-defense magic, killing magic has already been fully analyzed. This barrier has overcome its penetrating properties. He can't do anything to us!"
Seeing that Ash hadn't changed his spell at all, Kainz, whose heart had been in his throat, slowly felt it settle.
Most demons spent their entire lives studying a single spell. This one was a freak, using killing magic that had already been analyzed and countered... there shouldn't be anything to fear.
At least, that's what everyone thought at first.
But when the killing magic struck the barrier, it instantly unleashed a violent surge of light. The glow of dawn and the barrier twisted together, while intense waves rippled across its surface, as if it were about to collapse at any moment.
[T/N: For me the best part of bringing you chapters everyday is reading your comments. Be it anything witty or a simple "Tftc", they all keep me motivated to keep posting chapters. So, do comment and please give a REVIEW.]
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