Miserable Defeat (4)
It was over in the blink of an eye.
The Demon King swung her Demonic Sword. Two hundred soldiers died instantly from that single strike. And Yuli’s arm was ripped clean off.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
Yuli screamed and collapsed where he stood.
An agony he had never felt in his life crashed over him—pain so vicious he would have preferred to faint on the spot.
“Guh-heuk! My arm!? My arm!!”
Where the horrific pain radiated, the right arm that should have been there was simply gone.
Yuli flailed desperately, searching for the severed limb, but it was useless. His arm was already in the Demon King’s hand.
There was nothing he could do. All he managed was thrash about, desperately wishing for release from the torment.
The Demon King looked down at him with indifferent eyes.
“So. You’re the one who killed Hero Kyle?”
“Guh-heuk! W-wait. Just listen to me!”
“With skills this pathetic?”
She pressed her foot down hard on his severed shoulder.
Blood and screams poured from Yuli’s mouth.
“Guh-heuk, guh-heuk! P-please, please spare me! Let’s talk this out, please……”
“Ha.”
Yuli clung to her pitifully, begging for his life. The sight left her speechless with sheer disbelief.
A creature lower than vermin. Of all the humans she had ever seen, this one was the least worth dealing with.
There’s no way trash like this defeated the Hero.
With that thought, the Demon King’s gaze shifted to Damian, who held the Holy Sword.
That was unmistakably the sword that had belonged to Hero Kyle.
“Right. If it wasn’t you, then it must be him.”
She tossed the arm to the ground. Yuli scrambled after it on all fours. She didn’t even glance at him. She could kill a worm like that whenever she pleased.
For now she approached Damian, who held the Holy Sword.
“Kh…”
Damian, for his part, could do nothing even as he watched her come. In this state he could neither fight nor flee. All he managed was to clutch his slashed waist and glare. The Demon King stopped in front of him.
“Was it you?”
“W-what?”
“Hero Kyle. I’m asking if you killed him.”
“What?”
Damian blinked. He couldn’t comprehend what the Demon King was saying. What was the point of asking that in this situation? Why was the Demon King hunting for the previous Hero’s whereabouts like this?
As he pondered, Damian recalled Kyle’s crimes and let out a bitter laugh.
“Ha, haha. I see. So it was true that the former Hero was colluding with the Demon King.”
“……?”
“My master was right about everything. That filthy traitor!”
At Damian’s words she tilted her head. Colluding? With me?
All she had heard from the scouts was that Hero Kyle was dead. And that had been a complete frame-up cooked up by Yuli and the Emperor. So everything Damian said made no sense to her.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ha! Playing dumb, Demon King?! You cowardly, filthy bastards!!”
But there was no getting through to him.
“Well, fine. I’ll find out for myself later. First I’ll kill you, then think about it.”
“Huk!?”
Sensing death, Damian frantically looked around for help. But no one came to save him. His master Yuli was clutching his own arm, and the other soldiers were all wounded. Even Jain, who had been right beside him until moments ago, was nowhere to be seen. All that lay before him was death.
“Pay for that crime with your life.”
With that sentence the Demon King was about to slash his throat with her nail when—
Chaaeng!
An arrow from somewhere struck her nail aside.
“Damian, are you okay!?”
Emilia’s voice rang out from the direction the arrow had come. She drew her bowstring and loosed arrow after arrow at the Demon King.
Chaaeng, chaeng, chaaeng!
But she either dodged them or flicked them away with her nails. They posed no threat whatsoever to the Demon King.
“Tch.”
In the end Emilia discarded her bow and drew a dagger instead. The bow was her main weapon, but she couldn’t save Damian like this. The place had long since been reduced to a wasteland by the Demon King’s attack. Demons were attacking through the chaos among the soldiers, and screams still filled the air from every direction. Yuli, the one they could have counted on for combat power, was in that state, and Muni was busy supporting the soldiers from the rear. In the end she had no choice but to do it herself.
That damn Jain—why is she nowhere to be found at a time like this!?
Had she died in the Demon King’s attack just now? That would be convenient. But it was strange. She was sure Jain had been outside the attack range along with Yuli.
“No, this isn’t the time to worry about that.”
Emilia charged the Demon King along with her final arrow. Among all the races the elves were famous for being the lightest and most flexible. She was confident. Even in this complete mess she could dodge the demons’ attacks and close in on the Demon King.
Indeed, while the Demon King was batting away the arrow, Emilia got behind her.
“Heh heh. Have a taste of this.”
Shwaak—
Emilia’s dagger sliced the Demon King’s ankle. Of course it didn’t even cut a quarter of the way in, but that didn’t matter. What mattered now was getting Damian out alive. Even the Demon King wouldn’t be able to match her speed in that state.
Thinking so, she supported Damian and ran.
“Damian, are you okay?”
“Cough, th-thank you, Lady Emilia.”
Damian, who had thought he was as good as dead, offered his thanks in a voice thick with emotion. Emilia smiled gently at him.
“Heh heh. You’re safe now, so relax. Come on, let’s hurry back—”
—But the rest of her words never came.
Pook.
“…Huh?”
Mid-flight a searing pain bloomed in her abdomen. Strength drained from her body; she went limp, and she couldn’t even breathe properly.
“Ku, cough!”
When she opened her mouth, blood gushed out of its own accord. Her running legs had already stopped long ago, and her body trembled as if in a seizure. Only when Emilia lowered her head did she understand why.
“Ah, aah, uwaaaaa……”
The Demon King’s long nail. It had pierced straight through her belly and now jutted out before her eyes.
In the aftermath of the Demon King’s attack, the Demon King Subjugation Force’s encampment was pure pandemonium.
That single strike had split the ground in two and reduced the entire area to scorched earth. Roughly two hundred soldiers had died instantly, but the force still had about eighteen hundred left. The demons, on the other hand, numbered barely a hundred, and most of them were wounded. Yet the subjugation force was currently being overwhelmed by the demons.
“What the hell are you all doing!? Get back in formation already!”
“D-damn it! How am I supposed to join up when I can’t even see anything!”
“Where’s Lord Yuli!? Where in the world is the Hero!?”
“Everyone, snap out of it! Th-the demons are coming!! Hurry and attack— uwaaaaaaagh!!”
Having lost their commander, the subjugation force was in chaos. The demons seized the opportunity and ran rampant. Muni and the mages were providing rear support, but with friend and foe indistinguishable, there were limits.
“M-Miss Muni! At this rate our forces will……”
“Kh, that idiot Yuli. Where the hell is he and what is he doing!?”
What they needed most in this situation was a commander, and that man was currently crawling across the ground, fleeing—clutching his torn-off arm carefully to his chest.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it huuuuurts!!”
In the middle of the raging battle Yuli crawled along without pause, screaming the whole way. Even as soldiers died to demons right above him, he didn’t spare them a glance. Instead he used their corpses to stay out of the demons’ sight as he fled.
Damn it! This can’t be happening. It can’t!! The Demon King was as good as dead!
He had seen it. The Demon King stabbed and slashed dozens of times by Kyle’s Holy Sword. That was why he had been certain of victory and come this far. Where had it all gone wrong?
Even as he fled, Yuli couldn’t accept the present situation.
Damn it, I have to get back alive somehow. No matter what, at least me!!
For now, surviving came first. Crawling with desperate tenacity, Yuli finally made it back to the rear where Muni was. The moment he spotted her, he barked an order.
“Damn it. Muni, open a portal!”
“Yuli, you!? Where have you been and what were you doing until now……”
“Can’t you hear me, you bitch!? Open the portal!”
Yuli snapped at her in his panic. But Muni and the other mages stared at him as if he had lost his mind.
“What are you even saying right now? Can’t you see everyone fighting over there?”
“So what!”
“It’s not too late! If you go take command now, we can still—”
“Fuck, and what if I die doing that!?”
Yuli shouted, showing his torn-off arm. Of course, left like that he might die of blood loss or infection. But thousands of soldiers were fighting for their lives right now. They simply couldn’t accept his demand to abandon them all and leave.
“Even so, we can’t just go back like this……”
More than anything, she needed the Demon King’s black magic to revive Kyle. She couldn’t return empty-handed after coming this far.
“Hey, Muni! Didn’t you see that bitch Demon King’s attack just now!? She was luring us from the start! If we stay here, everyone here is going to die!!”
But Yuli’s words weren’t entirely without force. A single swing of the Demonic Sword had instantly killed two hundred. If she could unleash that attack a few more times, what then? Everyone here would die without even putting up a fight.
Thinking that, the mages—and even Muni—began to waver. The Demon King’s black magic could wait for another chance; dying here was not an option. If she died too, there would be no one left in this world who could save Kyle.
After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded.
“…Haa, fine.”
In the end she prepared the portal magic together with the mages. Confirming that, Yuli urgently searched for Damian first. Now that this expedition had failed, he had to bring the Hero back alive no matter what.
“Damn it, Damian!!”
The Damian he found was still caught by the Demon King along with Emilia. Emilia’s belly had been pierced by the Demon King’s hand, but Yuli couldn’t care less.
“What are you doing!? Get over here already!”
“Th-that’s, Lady Emilia is……!”
“Just leave that bitch and come!”
“B-but……”
Damian looked toward Emilia. She was moaning in agony, desperately reaching a hand out to him.
“De-Damian. S-save me. Guh-heuk, it hurts so much……”
Emilia coughed blood and pleaded desperately, so Damian couldn’t leave her side. But neither could he easily take her hand. Fighting the Demon King in this condition, there was no way he could win. Escaping alone might be the best option.
Still—
But Lady Emilia saved me……
“Damian! Are you trying to get me killed!?”
At that moment Yuli bellowed. Hearing that, Damian looked back and forth between Yuli and Emilia. Then his expression firmed with resolve, and he carefully took the hand she had stretched out.
“De-Damian……”
Emilia smiled as if she had trusted him all along. She squeezed the hand he had clasped tightly—
“I’m sorry. Lady Emilia.”
Damian released that hand at the same time,
“…Heh?”
and her smile froze solid.