The Dark Elves' Onslaught
The female dark elves locked eyes with them, offering only the faintest nod of acknowledgment. Their figures faded into the night once more, and the angelic women who had watched their departure slowly rose, weapons in hand, stepping out from the makeshift shelters.
Chaos had erupted everywhere outside.
The dark elves, who valued their own lives above all, had summoned the spirits of the Demon World to confront the men of the Heavenly Race. They had also taken charge of holding back the mages, relying primarily on the Demon World’s spirits for that role.
For the lower-circle mages, they had even forced five-circle spells down their throats to crush them mid-battle, but those of higher circles were simply pressed back by the sheer numbers of spirits.
Naturally, the dark elves themselves only killed the soldiers lacking in strength.
“Aaaah!” “W-where? Where are they coming from?”
Even the soldiers, who had originally possessed stealth abilities, found themselves unable to see the dark elves clearly when darkness magic was layered atop that talent.
“Haaap!”
The male angels, while battling the Demon World’s spirits that attacked them, also fought fiercely to protect the nearby soldiers whenever possible, trying to save at least one life. Their holy power clashed violently against the demonic energy of the spirits, yet the Demon World’s spirits, fueled by corrupted and darkened holy power rather than pure spirit energy, far outmatched the spirits of the Intermediate World in combat prowess.
For example, a pure water spirit born from the Intermediate World’s natural energies not only possessed combat ability but also healing capabilities. The water spirits of the Demon World, while wielding vastly superior combat strength, lacked that healing.
The spirits of the Demon World specialized in battle, and that was why most of the male angels had already been slain in the dark elves’ surprise attack. By now, after hours of intense fighting against the spirits, their numbers had dwindled from two thousand to barely one thousand.
“Kuk!”
One male angel barely blocked an attack from a fire spirit of the Demon World with a holy-power barrier, then swung his aura infused with holy power to slice the spirit in half. The fire spirit screamed in agony before being forcibly reversed.
Slowly, the Demon World’s spirits began to fall one by one, with more than half of them being reversed. The tide of battle was gradually turning in favor of the male angels.
As the situation shifted, however, a few hundred dark elves broke away from their hiding places. Leaving the human soldiers behind, they moved toward the male angels, wielding dark magic to restrain them. Naturally, once their dark magic was visible, the dark elves themselves had been revealed.
If they had been well-versed in dark magic, it would have been different, but they had only recently received this power directly from the Demon King Jae-hyun and were using it in a roundabout fashion. They were not skilled in its use.
It was impossible to cast magic while moving, so they could only stand in place and chant.
‘Elves?’
When the true faces of the attackers were finally revealed, the angels and humans alike were stunned to discover that these were elves. They wielded dark magic, yet their hair was not pitch black. Golden, silver, and emerald-haired elves with varied complexions. They summoned the spirits of the Demon World while attacking with dark magic. The angels and humans who knew something of dark elves could not hide their astonishment.
In that very moment, the two thousand female angels appeared. Their arrival brought a surge of hope even to the soldiers who had been fighting for their lives and to the faces of the male angels.
They thought that if these female angels joined the battle, they could break through the current crisis.
“Oh!” “We’re saved!” “The female angels have arrived!”
Some soldiers even cheered at their sudden appearance.
The soldiers had no doubt that the female angels had come to help. After all, they all possessed pure white wings.
But the world was not always what it seemed on the surface.
The female angels spread their white wings, brandished their weapons, and charged or flew in. Their blades cut down the humans with blinding speed, striking so fast that most soldiers barely registered their presence.
The soldiers who had been cheering in relief now screamed in agony within moments.
“W-why are the angels—!” “This can’t be!”
The shock was not limited to the soldiers. The male angels also died by the hands of the female angels. The number of male angels slain by weapons wielded by those women was considerable.
“What is this?!” “Has some kind of hypnosis been cast?!” “Gah… why is this happening…?”
The male angels died without understanding what had gone wrong. They had assumed the female angels were attacking the Demon World’s spirits, and they had let their guard down completely. Now they were being slaughtered indiscriminately by their own comrades.
“Hohoh~ Please die.” “Die for the sake of the Demon King!” “Die for the sake of the Demon King!” “It’s the Demon King!”
The sight of these angels praising the Demon King made the male angels realize the truth: they had been dominated by him.
“This can’t be! If they’re dominated by the Demon King… they should be Fallen Angels…”
No matter how deeply brainwashed or hypnotized, if a holy angel followed the Demon King, it was corruption. Moreover, it was not mere brainwashing; they could sense that these angels were using demonic energy.
They were definitely Fallen Angels.
Yet these angels still possessed pure white wings.
‘Could it be that the Demon King of this generation is special?’
The male angels never imagined that the reason their wings had turned black was simply because the Demon King of old had been fond of black, or that all the dark elves had changed into black-haired, black-eyed beings.
For example, the Demon King Laylana, who focused solely on pure combat in the Intermediate World, had no Fallen Angels or elves under her. If she had corrupted them, she would have made all of them red-haired and red-eyed, just like her own.
In a twisted way, their logic was correct.
The male angels assumed the Demon King of this generation possessed the power of both light and darkness, which was why such a thing was possible. In truth, it was simply because Jae-hyun naturally kept his unique colors and enjoyed diversity.
And now, with two thousand female angels all turned into Fallen Angels, there was no hope left for the humans or the male angels inside this fortress.
There were thousands of dark elves, and their strength had far surpassed that of the elves they once were. Having acquired five-circle dark magic and demonic power, they could summon far more spirits than before.
No matter whether they were pure spirits from the Intermediate World or corrupted spirits from the Demon World, once summoned to the Intermediate World, they would draw their power from the summoner’s own aura.
The dark elves, who had reached five-circle dark magic, could now summon even more Demon World spirits while sustaining them longer because they possessed abundant demonic energy.
Moreover, even though they were not yet fully accustomed to it, just facing these dark elves with their five-circle spells was enough to push back the humans and male angels. Adding the two thousand Fallen Angels to the equation sealed their fate: total annihilation.
This was not only true in this fortress but in every other fortress as well.
The dark elves had launched their surprise attack at night, and where there were higher-ranking angels, at least two high elves moved as well. The angels suffered heavily from the nighttime ambush, despite it not being a direct confrontation. In particular, the female angels who had been stationed in the fortresses were enveloped in black smoke and transformed into Fallen Angels, turning against their former allies.
In a single night, twenty fortresses fell. The dark elves’ efficiency—masterful assassination, dark magic, and the power to summon spirits from the Demon World—had been more than proven in this assault.
The forces of darkness had also successfully corrupted more than fifty thousand new female angels, turning them into Fallen Angels and adding them to their ranks.
The existence of that hideous monster that spewed black smoke, immediately turning humans into members of the dark forces, was already well known. But never in their wildest dreams had the archangels imagined that even angels could be corrupted so easily.
Moreover, the dark elves were experts in stealth and assassination, capable of striking at any time and from any place. The humans finally understood just how terrifying and dangerous the dark elves’ raids truly were.
In the war ten years earlier, Laylana had not used dark elves in such surprise tactics. She had preferred direct, open confrontation, never revealing the target in advance.
On the surface, it seemed like a foolish strategy, but because Laylana was overwhelmingly strong, it had no real meaning. Surprise attacks and assassinations had happened from time to time, but they were usually orchestrated by the high-ranking demons under her command, not by Laylana herself. In the rare cases she had issued direct orders, the number was minuscule.
In her battle against Jae-hyun, Laylana had accepted defeat cleanly, claiming only that her opponent was stronger and she herself weaker.
Her breathtakingly beautiful face and lavish dress had hidden her true nature as a warrior-type Demon King.
In contrast, Jae-hyun was a Demon King who deceived others without hesitation and employed all sorts of cunning tricks. While possessing strength far beyond Laylana’s, he had deliberately ordered such surprise attacks as a way of playing with her.
The fortresses had indeed prepared for the possibility of surprise attacks, keeping strict watch. Yet they had no defense against the thousands of dark elves.
With their exceptional stealth skills and dark magic now concealing their presence, even sword masters could not detect them.
In the end, the only ones who could solve this problem were the dragons.
When twenty fortresses fell, the dragons moved at once to reinforce the fortresses. They had cast alarm magic and detection spells everywhere, designed to detect stealth.
Thanks to the defenses laid by these nine-circle grand mages, the dragons, the humans finally felt safe. They no longer feared dark elf raids and could relax within a single day.
However, the dark elves’ raids had already demonstrated their excellence in this war, and all twenty fortresses within the Habsburg Empire had fallen into the Demon King’s hands.