The Start of the War
Gabriel had brought the Heavenly Sword, granting him the power to embody the Hero’s might. Now he had to rush to seize the sacred artifacts scattered across the Intermediate World.
“It’s time to summon my family and wives on Earth. Griffith, contact Jason and Kyle right now. We must acquire the sacred artifacts before the Demon King’s army moves in full force.”
“Understood.”
After Griffith’s reply, Jae-hyun nodded and turned his gaze to Ferdinand.
Possessed of imperial authority as the Emperor of the Habsburg Empire, he had already given commands to the commanders. With their obedience secured, the heavenly race and humans would gradually unite. If the dragons, who had received the Dragon Lord’s orders, lent their strength, victory would come swiftly.
Even if the angels merely blessed the soldiers and imbued the weapons with holy power, the military strength would multiply several times over.
And when Ferdinand met Jae-hyun’s eyes, the crown prince let out a long sigh and began his report on the task assigned to him. As the Emperor, doing exactly as ordered and then reporting was humiliating, yet he rationalized that under the circumstances there was no choice.
At least by accepting Jae-hyun as his ancestor, he could now view him as a noble figure rather than a lowly creature. With that small comfort, he delivered his report without further hesitation.
“I sent envoys to the elves and dwarves. The dwarves have declared their intention to participate in the war. But the elves…”
“Is something wrong with the elves?”
While Ferdinand hesitated, Jae-hyun asked whether any problem had arisen among the elves. Ferdinand sighed and nodded.
“Yes. It is a very serious issue. It appears that the elf race has effectively become extinct across the Intermediate World.”
“What?!”
“No?!”
“What?!”
At those words, Jae-hyun, Griffith, and countless other comrades alike, along with the Archangel Gabriel who had been praying to the goddess Astraea for the peaceful rest of the dead elves, could not help but jolt in unison.
The extinction of the elves was an astonishing development indeed. Although hundreds of thousands of elves had died during the war with the Forces of Darkness, the total number of elves remaining on the continent combined barely reached eight hundred thousand. Nevertheless, the World Tree forests had existed in various nations.
Within the Habsburg Empire alone, there had been three such forests. One bordered the Dark Empire, which was a source of unease, yet fifty thousand elves lived in one and forty thousand in another, deep within imperial territory.
If even those elves were now extinct, it was no ordinary matter.
Jae-hyun, rather than showing shock, calmly demanded a detailed explanation.
“Ferdinand, explain it so we can all understand.”
He could have simply read the memory, but it was better to have Ferdinand explain than risk needing to do so himself. Ferdinand nodded with a gloomy expression.
“That lowly… no, that evil Demon King must have done something. The whereabouts of Gale Sword Emperor William Rodriguez within the Gallia Kingdom have become mysterious. And now not a single elf remains in any of the elf forests—it is clear he must have employed some scheme.”
“Not just the elves within the Habsburg Empire. All elf forests across the entire continent have been emptied?”
Jae-hyun asked for confirmation out of concern. Ferdinand nodded.
“Yes, Your Majesty. My investigation confirms it. The other nations have checked their elf forests as well, and they too report that the elves have vanished. And…”
“And? Did something happen to the World Trees?”
Jae-hyun immediately recalled the World Trees upon hearing reports concerning the elves.
The World Trees derived from the branches of the legendary World Tree Yggdrasil were not the original World Tree itself, yet they were sacred trees capable of great power. They could manifest powers that directly affected reality, such as erecting barriers to protect the elf forests.
The World Trees were among the first things that came to mind when elves were mentioned. Jae-hyun’s assumption proved correct.
“…Yes. The World Trees have become corrupted.”
At Ferdinand’s words, Jae-hyun bit his lip for a moment before speaking.
“Huu… this may have occurred before I came to this world. Or perhaps it happened while I was sealed inside the barrier. If the World Trees have fallen, most elves would have either been corrupted or died. But given the treatment I inflicted upon the Holy-Astraea Empire, it seems most have become dark elves, which carries even greater weight.”
Jae-hyun judged the situation coldly, combining all available information to arrive at a conclusion that felt like truth itself.
“If every elf has become a dark elf… that is dangerous, is it not?”
Ferdinand asked cautiously, but Jae-hyun shook his head.
“Not necessarily. The Forces of Darkness simply grew by several hundred thousand dark elves. High elves may be troublesome because they can still contract with the highest-ranking spirits of the Demon World, but the other elves—only capable of shooting a bow and using a few spirits—have become dark elves without much issue.”
Of course, Jae-hyun spoke this way to boost morale. In reality, if the elves had turned into dark elves and joined the Demon King’s subordinates, it would have been extremely perilous.
“The war has already begun. To them it may be nothing more than a game of revenge, but to us it is a desperate struggle. We have no choice but to arm ourselves with sacred artifacts and advance to the front lines.”
“Jae-hyun, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel have already prepared in the Heavenly Realm and are descending.”
“Good. If they are Archangels, they will truly be of help. Even eight thousand years ago they had considerable skill. With the martial arts I taught you through them, they should have grown much stronger.”
Jae-hyun asked Gabriel expectantly. Gabriel nodded with her characteristic gentle and kind smile.
Her sky-blue hair swayed lightly, and her deep, clear blue eyes, reminiscent of the lakes formed by such blue hair, combined with her smile to make her appear even more beautiful than usual. Though she could not match Irene, and certainly not Lucrezia, she possessed an astonishingly close level of beauty that approached that of the saint.
While maintaining her faint smile, Gabriel continued in her soft voice.
“For over eight thousand years, I and everyone else trained diligently. Although our learning speed is slower than humans’, we promised the humans we would return as quickly as possible. When more than a thousand years passed without them returning, we began to feel reluctant to leave. It was almost disappointing that we could only strike them twice.”
“…Unfair.”
Though her anger had not fully subsided, the sharpness in Gabriel’s words made Jae-hyun feel an honest grievance and muttered. He had not come to the era eight thousand years later because he wished to. It was merely that the time period had been unfortunate.
“So we finished them with two strikes. Originally I had planned to use the accumulated power in various ways.”
Smiling softly while saying that, Jae-hyun realized how much stress she must have endured. He cleared his throat.
“Ahem… setting that aside, the other Archangels have grown quite strong as well?”
“Yes. The martial arts you taught have spread throughout the Heavenly Realm. Though not as strong as humans, they have developed in accordance with the Heavenly Realm.”
“Excellent… then as long as we familiarize ourselves with the war, our victory is near. We must simply hurry to acquire the sacred artifacts.”
Jae-hyun had received the report that the angels were beginning to appear on the battlefield in full force. Yet his expression remained cold, with no trace of confusion.
The Holy Sword could protect at most one thousand targets from holy power. In that light, the appearance of angels wielding the power that opposed demonic energy would only make the war more difficult.
Nevertheless, Jae-hyun sat on a throne at the official venue outside the Demon King’s Castle. His exposed white tank top and very short black leather skirt revealed the thigh and head of Irene, who sat with her knees drawn up, as he gently stroked them while looking down upon the countless subordinates gathered beneath the stage.
The area beneath the stage was vast enough to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, as it was the official venue. Within the capital Pantheon of the Holy-Astraea Empire, it had long been a world-famous tourist destination.
Originally, it was where the Pope delivered speeches and the Saint bestowed blessings, drawing vast crowds to worship the gods and offer prayers. New Year greetings had also been held here, and the place was strictly managed as a sacred site. Now, however, it had been transformed into a venue where the Demon King placed his subordinates.
In this location, every woman beneath the stage belonged to the Forces of Darkness and was a dark elf.
Until recently, these had been the elf women who once inhabited the corners of the continent. Using the power of space linkage without corrupting the World Trees, Jae-hyun had traveled to the elf forests across the land, slaughtered countless male elves, and corrupted most of the females into dark elves.
Just as with the Remiars, corrupting the elves had been easy for Jae-hyun. As a result, most elves remaining on the continent were now dark elves.
Ferdinand believed the elves had become extinct, but they had not.
There had been one hundred twenty-one elf women who refused to swear loyalty, just like the high elf Remiars in that forest. Those who resisted remained elves rather than becoming dark elves.
Countless dark elf women wore the exact same attire as Irene, their hair and eye colors unchanged from when they were elves. If they concealed their demonic energy, they appeared as perfect elves without any trace of their true nature.
Even the high elves had all become dark elves. The elf race could no longer survive independently in the Intermediate World. Once the elves disappeared, the dark elves would adopt the name “elves” while naturally being recognized as a race tied to darkness.
Jae-hyun’s gaze turned toward the dark elves at the front, specifically Remiars among them. The dark elves who had fallen first among the high elves had all completed their contracts with the Demon World’s spirits and were preparing for war.
Addressing those dark elves, Jae-hyun declared:
“I have already sent legions of undead. I have also released several of the monsters I created myself. And now that the heavenly race is beginning to appear in the Intermediate World, I, as the Demon King, command you. Kill and devour as you please.”
The command given to the dark elves, the representative race of beauty in the Demon World, was to kill and devour to their hearts’ content. Dark elves did not particularly enjoy raw meat, but they favored roasted meat.
Jae-hyun’s words also meant that the dark elves would lead the vanguard in this war.
The war in which the demonic race moved directly had finally begun.