"Leader!"
"The Golden Pond area has been completely secured!"
"All demons present have been eliminated!"
"The children who were kept as hunting prey have all been rescued!"
With each battle report announced, the surrounding crowd erupted into louder and louder cheers, like waves crashing endlessly against the shore.
Most of the people gathered there were still naive children. The numbers engraved on their necks had not yet faded, silent reminders of the fate that had once awaited them.
Yet now, their eyes shone with an entirely different light.
They gazed toward the slender figure standing atop the high platform, clutching a long saber—eyes filled with admiration, reverence, and something close to fanatic faith.
That figure… was only eleven years old.
And yet, in just a little over half a year, he had accomplished what no one else had ever dared to imagine.
He had gathered scattered human resistance groups—children who had once hidden in fear across forests, ruins, and underground shelters—and forged them into a massive resistance army.
He had given them purpose.
He had given them hope.
To them, he was more than a leader.
He was their belief.
The light that guided every edible child still trapped in darkness.
As a human, he had even defeated a titled demon with his own hands.
The monsters that had once been their greatest nightmare—creatures they believed impossible to overcome—had proven to be nothing more than prey beneath his blade.
He had shown them something they had never believed possible.
Victory.
And now, the Golden Pond hunting ground—one of the most infamous demon-controlled human confinement facilities—had fallen as well.
Along the path that led here, their leader had created miracle after miracle.
This time was no different.
Even the powerful demon who ruled this place—the terror whispered about in fearful rumors—now lay beneath Arthur's foot, completely defeated.
Which meant…
The liberation of all edible children was no longer a dream.
It was within reach.
"Cough… cough—!"
A strained, painful sound broke through the roaring cheers.
Beneath Arthur's foot, a heavy pressure rose from the chest of the fallen demon—an overwhelming aura that seemed utterly mismatched with the small body pinning it down.
Blood seeped from the demon's mouth as it struggled to breathe, its grotesque eyes trembling with disbelief and fury.
Even now, it could not comprehend how such a tiny human child had crushed it so completely.
Arthur said nothing.
His expression remained calm as he stood there, the long saber in his hand still dripping with dark demon blood.
Around him, the cheers of the children surged like a storm.
But his gaze remained cold and steady, quietly looking down at the defeated monster beneath his feet.
Because for him…
This victory was only the beginning.
Even now, as long as an action carried offensive intent, the attack power bonus of [Giant Killer] would continue to take effect.
Leuvis's vision had already begun to blur. His body was covered in deep blade marks, and every movement sent waves of agony through him, as if countless ants were gnawing at his flesh. It was a slow and painful death. And yet, from his throat came a series of weak, trembling laughs.
"It's been… cough… cough… a long time… since such a… fight."
His entire life had been devoted to hunting. Never once had he imagined that the day would come when he himself would become the prey—hunted by humans, lying on the ground like a dying animal. Yet strangely, there was no regret in his heart.
Since the [Promise] established by god, he had longed for the ancient era when humans and demons fought each other with their lives on the line. The thrill of true combat had always been what he sought.
He enjoyed hunting humans.
But he also enjoyed the feeling of being hunted in return.
Unfortunately, the humans who had once been released into Goldy Pond had never been able to satisfy that desire. To them, it had been a desperate struggle for survival. To him, it had merely been a game—one without excitement, without tension.
Just like a casual stroll… or dessert after a meal.
But the human standing before him today was different.
This one was no prey.
He was a beast.
He was a devil.
He was death itself.
The moment this small human child had stepped onto the battlefield and stood before him, Leuvis had already understood something clearly.
This was the fate he had waited a thousand years for.
"Cough! Cough—!"
A violent fit of coughing forced blood to spray from his mouth, staining the ground beneath him dark red. Even so, his fading eyes stared directly at Arthur.
"O young child of humanity… this fight is your victory."
"Come!"
"Cut off your enemy's head!"
"Enjoy the victory that belongs to you to your heart's content!"
"I have no regrets about this battle!"
Arthur silently looked down at the Archduke's pupils, which were already beginning to lose focus. Strangely enough, the demon before him did not resemble a defeated loser at all.
As a "villain" destined to be slain, Leuvis's existence was almost… too pure.
Without another word, Arthur slowly raised his blade.
The surrounding cheers of the resistance army swelled into a thunderous wave of sound, echoing through the ruined hunting grounds.
Then—
Blood splattered.
With the fall of Archduke Leuvis, the campaign finally came to an end. From that moment on, Arthur's only remaining enemies were the parasites seated at the very top of demon society—the aristocrats and rulers hidden within the Royal Capital.
During the past half year, Arthur had traveled across the world, gathering surviving edible children who had escaped the farms. From those scattered survivors, he had built the Resistance Army.
And with that army, he had begun hunting demons.
But their targets had never been random. They specifically eliminated those deeply involved in the construction, management, and operation of human farms, the capital class that controlled the entire human breeding industry.
Those demons represented the greatest obstacle to changing this world.
As for how an "army" composed of barely a thousand young humans could move so freely within demon territory…
The answer lay with another group.
After escaping the farm, a second team had separated from Arthur's forces and begun operating independently, quietly shaping the battlefield from the shadows.
"Eren."
Arthur had temporarily taken over Archduke Leuvis's residence as a place to rest. Just as he called out, the door opened and a young girl stepped inside.
"Yako."
For the first time in a long while, a faint smile appeared on Arthur's face.
Over the past months, Yako had remained constantly by his side. Although she lacked the convenient skills and weapons Arthur possessed, the endless battles they had fought together had pushed her strength to grow at a terrifying pace.
Now, even if she faced two high-level Great Demons alone, she would not fall into a disadvantage. In a one-on-one situation without outside interference, she could even hunt them down herself.
Because of these achievements, she had successfully unlocked the mission known as [Hundred Demon Hunt].
"Your hunting task should have reached Rank A by now, right?"
Saeko Busujima nodded. "Because I happened to know the time of this hunting game, and some Archduke-level demons were invited. I just happened to encounter one with relatively weak strength."
Through repeated verification over time, Arthur had confirmed that the [Hundred Demon Hunt] mission only required killing demons of the corresponding rank to raise the evaluation. It didn't necessarily require them to possess the actual combat strength that matched that rank.
The higher the rank, the more polarized demon strength tended to become, splitting into two very different extremes.
Some demons were passionate about combat and hunting. Those individuals constantly sharpened their abilities, growing stronger over time. Archduke Leuvis had been a typical example of this—though his terrifying natural talent and physique also played a major role.
Then there was the other group.
These demons indulged in the privileges of their noble status, spending their lives immersed in luxury and pleasure. Even though they could still maintain their bodies by consuming humans, their increasingly bloated lifestyles caused their real combat abilities to decline steadily.
Because of that, even Saeko Busujima alone could barely manage to deal with opponents like those.
"Don't worry," Arthur said calmly. "Once we reach the Royal Capital, there will be plenty of royalty there. You'll get to kill to your heart's content."
How could he fail to notice that her old bloodthirsty instincts had begun to surface again? Clearly, the useless duke-level demon she had just killed hadn't been enough to truly stimulate her.
"Mhm."
Saeko Busujima was far calmer now than she used to be, so she didn't allow her impulses to interfere with the overall plan. The burning excitement in her eyes gradually faded.
"I wonder how Liza and Coco's operation is going."
Arthur turned his gaze toward the distant horizon outside the window.
"Isn't it going smoothly?"
Since separating from them, he and the others hadn't seen Liza's group for more than half a year. Only once, less than two months after they split up, had they run into each other by coincidence while rescuing edible children from another farm.
At that time, Akane's group had also been planning to eliminate the demons stationed there, so the two sides ended up cooperating along the way.
"If it weren't for them," Arthur continued quietly, "our actions wouldn't be so unrestrained in this demon world."
That was the truth.
This was supposed to be a world ruled by demons. Yet a resistance force of just over a thousand humans had been freely hunting demon nobles and wealthy merchants across demon territory without ever being completely wiped out.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been impossible.
But Arthur knew very well that, given the current state of the world, it actually made perfect sense.
Because every demon in this world…
Was now struggling to survive.