The Demise of the Gray Barony
In the open sky, thousands of demonic beasts from the Demon World had appeared. The wicked demons of the Demon World had shown up in full force, and the Gray Barony had become a cauldron of chaos.
The humans on the walls—knights and soldiers alike—were desperately fleeing without regard for their distinctions, and the demons had easily slipped inside the fortress.
With thousands of demons charging in, the interior of the fortress turned into a battlefield of pandemonium in an instant.
Although the population of the Gray Barony was considered a newly developed territory, it numbered a staggering 200,000.
Despite its status as a newly developed territory, the inhabitants had been a mix of the original people from the Holy Habsburg Empire and those who had fled from the territories of the former Frankish Kingdom.
Generations later, the population would have swelled to 300,000 or 400,000. Yet even after ten years, the population had barely recovered to 200,000. This fact alone revealed how devastating the war against the Dark Army had been.
And in the Gray Barony, the people were about to experience that same horror once again.
Giant-bodied demons toyed with the fleeing soldiers, hunting and slaughtering them for sport. Some swung spears that impaled four people each, using the victims as makeshift weapons, while captured young women with striking beauty were torn apart and devoured on the spot if they were not to be taken as spoils.
It did not end there. Demons plucked out the necks of children alive and drank the blood that gushed forth beneath them, laughing cruelly as they savored every drop.
Within the brutal hellish scene unfolding before them, only chaos reigned supreme.
People desperately sought to escape however they could, yet no matter how hard they ran, they could not outrun the demons.
“Save the people!”
“Someone, please save us!”
Screams of terror echoed from every corner without end, mixing with the demons’ gleeful laughter and the people’s cries of despair and sorrow. In the heart of the Gray Barony, the citizens finally understood one fundamental truth.
The opposite gate in the rear.
The massive iron chains used to open that gate had been severed, and the entire structure had been frozen solid by ice magic.
Whoever had decided to freeze the gate completely, along with snapping the chains, had clearly intended to trap the people in the barony while they themselves escaped safely during the slaughter.
“Kyaaak!”
“Uwaaah!”
Only the people were dying, of course.
“Damn it! They blocked the gate!”
“Are you trying to kill all of us?”
“You cursed Gray Barony bastards! Even as nobles and lords, you do this!”
“While always squeezing us for taxes, you abandon us to die and run away to save yourselves!”
The people raged in despair, cursing the Gray Barons, but by then countless others had already been killed.
“Aaaah!”
A woman was being torn apart alive, screaming in agony, while a young girl beside her wailed and shrieked.
“Don’t eat Mommy, you monster!”
“Ho-ho! A monster? How bold of you, girl. Hehe~ You taste delicious, don’t you?”
“Aaaah!”
Then the mother and daughter were torn apart alive, slowly and painfully devoured by the demons, becoming nothing more than a gruesome meal.
And behind them, countless others perished one by one amid their screams.
Some were slain for mere entertainment, others torn apart and eaten, while still others were killed simply because they were in the way.
The population of 200,000 plummeted to just 206 in an instant under the wicked demons’ hands.
These 206 were the only survivors—captured beauties, whether virgins or married women, collected purely as spoils of war.
Demons who had gathered these women because of their striking beauty now wore triumphant, joyful expressions on their faces. After all, any woman not exceptionally beautiful would have become the demon’s personal property.
These captured beauties would soon bear demonic children, and their immortal bodies would forever produce the demons’ offspring, swelling the demonic ranks.
With the exception of these 206 women, no one else remained alive in the entire Gray Barony.
The Gray Baron family had seized their wealth and fled secretly among themselves, leaving the people of the barony trapped by the nobles’ selfish actions and forced to meet a miserable end.
Currently, the demons were only hunting those inside the barony, so if the gate had been open and the people had fled toward it, at least dozens or even hundreds might have escaped.
But perhaps the Baron had issued a command from afar to halt the demonic slaughter and instead redirect the people’s hatred toward the Gray Baron family. By presenting 200,000 new armies ready to exact revenge on the cowardly baron, the demons could turn the people’s rage into fuel for their own victory.
Simply abandoning the people to save themselves was cowardly, yet the people would never fully understand that—though they might feel deep anger. At least it was enough to earn the demons some degree of resentment.
However, the Gray Baron family’s action of severing the chains and completely freezing the gate was nothing short of mass murder. It meant they would kill every last one of the 200,000 people, even if it cost them their own lives. This was not mere cowardice or cowardice—it was pure, indiscriminate slaughter.
The demons, following the baron’s distant orders, freely slaughtered while ensuring the people heard their own deaths.
Once the people were dead and no longer alive, their vengeful spirits naturally heard the sounds of their passing.
Thus, the 200,000 citizens of the Gray Barony died cursing and bitterly resenting the Gray Baron. Of course, many would have died even without the frozen gate, but they still believed the baron was to blame for their fate.
Even the dead souls cursed the baron, resenting him, hating him, declaring that the baron was responsible for their deaths.
The Gray Baron, having delayed his escape by throwing the 200,000 people at the demons as bait, had not escaped for long.
Eight luxurious carriages raced desperately forward, while 120 knights rode alongside at a measured pace to protect the wagons.
As lavish nobles, they would never swallow ordinary food, so the carriages also carried high-ranking servants—magicians and chefs.
Though heavy ingredients and cooking tools took up space and weight, they had been stored in spatial storage bags. Even the most massive items could be carried safely, and perishable ingredients remained fresh inside the bags.
With the chefs aboard, the nobles could enjoy gourmet meals of their own refined taste anywhere, at any time.
They all prayed that the slaughter of the 200,000 people would take longer, buying them more time to survive.
But someone blocked their path of escape.
“Stone Wall.”
Ron, the mastermind who had blocked the Gray Baron’s path, cast the 4th-circle spell Stone Wall. He summoned rocks and boulders to form a towering wall.
Ku-gung—
The rocks on the ground rose into a colossal barrier, forcing the charging carriages to stop dead in their tracks.
The knights chasing alongside met the same fate.
“Whoa! Whoa!”
The coachmen and knights pulled their reins tight, bringing their mounts to a halt.
With a stone wall blocking their way, continuing to run forward would mean charging straight into it at full speed—an insane act, especially at the carriages’ pace. The impact would be far beyond what a human could endure even with full-force ramming.
“Who are you? Speak!”
One of the knights guarding the Gray Baron drew his sword, identifying the spell’s caster and demanding Ron’s identity with a threatening glare.
He sensed the danger radiating from Ron and did not dare press the attack further. Yet by now, all 120 knights had drawn their blades.
“It’s a good thing the number of Death Knight materials has increased.”
Ron viewed the 120 knights before him not merely as fodder for creating Death Knights.
“What?”
“As expected, you’re a dark sorcerer!”
“You wretched dark sorcerer!”
The knights glared at Ron with eyes burning with hatred and roared, but he simply sneered and raised his hand.
“Puri of the Dark.”
At that moment, a torrent of black darkness erupted and swallowed the 120 knights whole. Although a Grand Master-level attack would normally be ineffective against such wide targets, none of these knights had reached that pinnacle. As a result, they were ensnared in the darkness in an instant and wracked with excruciating pain.
“Uwaaah!”
“What the—?!”
“Kyaaargh!”
Its power far surpassed any 8th-circle magic, even that of a 4th-circle dark sorcerer like Ron. Dark sorcerers had always been evaluated as superior in offensive capabilities compared to other magicians.
Even an immature 8th-circle dark sorcerer like Ron could not be resisted by anyone.
The Gray Baron’s people inside trembled in terror, not just the knights but the hired magicians as well.
With Ron’s 8th-circle aura present, even a 5th-circle magician like him had no chance of resistance.
“Everyone out. In five minutes, I’ll blow up every carriage. If you’d rather watch your bodies melt away uselessly inside, that’s fine. It won’t matter, hehehe!”
Before his words had even finished, the Gray Baron’s people inside scrambled out of the carriages in a panic.
In the eight wagons were the baron’s direct family, collateral relatives, specially favored maids, and stewards handling the family’s major affairs—people from every corner of the lineage.
When they finally emerged, Ron recognized familiar faces. Though slightly older, he had not forgotten the man for even a single second since they had first met at age five, across thirteen years.
He had become a dark sorcerer, honing his power in secret while waiting only for the day he could avenge the happiness stolen from his family and the pain inflicted on himself and his sister Rin.
If the man were dead, he would force his soul back and make him suffer in some way.
And at last, it was Andrew—standing before Ron.
But the woman cradled in Andrew’s arms, her eyes unfocused with power, was an image that haunted Ron for life in a different way.
If Rin had seen her, she might have wept tears of joy.
Mother!
She was none other than Ron and Rin’s biological mother.