Chapter 473
Chapter 473
Chapter 473
'How? There wasn't even a trace of movement?'
Anastasia urgently examined the fortress that Zeke had occupied.
WOOOONG!
Surprisingly, they were moving troops directly from the castle to the fortress through portal transport devices.
She gaped at the human race's portal transport devices.
"The human race had something like that?"
She had never properly assessed what abilities and equipment they had, thinking the human race was weak from the start.
While she was taken aback, troops who had moved through dozens of portal transport devices created in the castle set up positions right in front of Anastasia's fortress and lined up in rows and columns.
Zeke's side had already taken the crucial high ground important for siege warfare.
While impressed by Zeke's game management style, Anastasia was also confused by a situation she couldn't understand at all.
'A human doing their first proxy battle manages the game like this? I can't believe it.'
But that wasn't what mattered right now.
It was obvious that if Zeke's forces attacked the fortress with siege weapons at the forefront, they would break through the gates before long.
Anastasia immediately returned to her fortress and examined her forces.
Having lost key troops in the plains, there were holes throughout the defensive line.
Looking at the unfavorable battle situation, Anastasia bit her thumbnail.
Defeat would be certain at this rate.
GRRRR!
She clenched her molars and glared at Zeke's forces with murderous eyes.
'There's only one way.'
With a displeased expression, she unfastened the bracelet on her arm.
"To think I'd have to use this against a human."
As Anastasia muttered and infused magic power into the bracelet, it glowed and floated in the air.
Light flashed from the bracelet's jewel and demonic letters appeared before her eyes.
[Enter Setting Code]
Anastasia began entering complex code into the setting code input window.
Changes started occurring in her forces.
Horses moved twice as fast, production buildings were built instantly, and production speed increased.
She swallowed her pride for victory.
* * *
'Hmm?'
Zeke checked the message that appeared in the system window.
[Abnormal setting code detected.]
[The contents of the setting code are as follows:]
[Production speed increase, construction speed increase, resource amount increase.....]
Zeke realized Anastasia had used some tricks during the game.
'I didn't think she'd play fairly... but this is too much against a beginner.'
Of course, Zeke himself was also managing the game in an almost cheating way by utilizing the system.
However, he realized that the longer things dragged on in the current state, the more disadvantageous it would be for him.
Zeke gave orders to the commanders leading troops in his forces.
"Everyone deploy."
WOOOONG!
Zeke had summoned three heroes from the summoning facility.
Besides Saint George whom he first summoned, the other two heroes were a mage and an archer.
Commander-in-chief Saint George and the holy knight unit took the very front, followed by siege weapons and infantry units, and archer units in mobile towers.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
When the mages sent hawks they made as familiars to secure vision in the sky, the situation inside Anastasia's fortress was clearly visible.
As he examined that and planned his strategy, something appeared in the air.
SCREECH!
It was a wyvern, one of the monsters that appears in the late game, instantly devouring the familiar hawk.
Seeing the wyvern appear, Zeke realized the power of the illegal setting code Anastasia had entered.
'The longer this goes, the more disadvantageous it becomes. Need to end this quickly.'
Zeke set up siege weapons in front of the fortress and ordered an attack.
Immediately soldiers loaded rocks onto the siege weapons and launched them.
WHOOSH!
A huge rock directly hit Anastasia's orc fortress.
CRASH!
Though the fortress shook from the impact with the rock, it was built so sturdy that it didn't budge at all.
Zeke checked the fortress's defense through the system and pondered.
'Simple siege tactics will take time to breach it.'
In a normal situation he could take his time, but he couldn't afford to drag things out longer since the movements in Anastasia's forces were concerning.
Zeke gave orders to the commander-level mage he had summoned.
"Summon a golem!"
The mage nodded and created a huge magic circle in front of the fortress.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
A massive golem made entirely of rock rose from the magic circle.
GRRRR!
The huge golem walked toward Anastasia's fortress.
The ground shook with each step the golem took.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The mage's summoned golem reached the castle and stretched out its hand to destroy Anastasia's fortress.
But at that moment, something suddenly rose up from the fortress.
BOOM!
It was a tree giant similar in size to the golem.
The tree giant that rose above the fortress grabbed the golem's arm reaching for the fortress.
Simultaneously, countless branches grew from the tree giant's arms and wrapped around the golem's body.
GRRRR!
The golem tried to pull back to escape from the tree trunk, but it was already firmly caught and couldn't move an inch.
Instead of destroying the fortress with the golem, it ended up creating another tower blocking the view.
Watching the golem get caught from the air, Zeke had no choice but to pull back the siege weapons.
Anastasia wouldn't miss this opening.
Suddenly the ground in front of the fortress began to split, and Arachne and Giant Spiders started crawling out.
SWOOSH!
The Arachne leading the Giant Spiders focused on targeting the siege weapons.
SWISH!
When the spider webs shot by the Giant Spiders wrapped around the siege weapons, they quickly hardened making the wheels immobile.
In that gap, the Arachne flipped over and destroyed the siege weapons.
The archers in the mobile towers shot arrows at the Giant Spiders and Arachne, but their quick movements and large numbers made counter-fire difficult.
As Zeke's legion faltered, judging that she needed to press this momentum, the fortress gates opened and an orc unit riding Dire Wolves burst out.
ROARRR!
The orc unit charging with battle cries rushed toward the panicking knights.
Saint George raised his sword and led the knights to clash with the orc unit.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The knights and orc warriors who collided head-on stood firmly against each other with neither side backing down.
Watching the battle scene, Anastasia wore a satisfied expression.
'Good, the urgent fire is out. If I block the path with Arachne to prevent more siege weapons from coming, I can isolate the advance unit.'
If she could wipe out just the advance unit, Anastasia would have a much better advantage in subsequent attacks with her increased production speed from using the code.
Just as she was about to send newly produced monsters toward Zeke's fortress.
Strange reactions were seen from the golem bound by the tree giant.
At first, she thought it was disappearing because its summon time was up.
However, a completely different reaction from what Anastasia expected occurred.
WOONG!
When the commander mage who summoned the golem waved his staff, the rock golem's appearance began to change.
The mage was wearing a different colored robe than before, perhaps having leveled up.
WHOOSH!
Soon flames erupted from the golem's body.
It had evolved from a normal golem into a flame golem.
Seeing this, Anastasia was shocked.
"N-No!"
The tree giant holding the golem was engulfed in the flame golem's fire, screaming as it burned.
In that state, the flame golem spewed fire in all directions as it pushed forward.
The sturdy orc fortress couldn't withstand that power and collapsed.
RUMBLE!
As the outer fortress walls collapsed, Anastasia became anxious.
She tried to call other monsters to stop the flame golem.
"Stop it quickly! Don't let it reach the inner fortress!"
All remaining forces in the fortress rushed toward the golem.
But then the golem suddenly changed direction.
It moved toward the production facilities where workers were, rather than combat facilities, and spewed flames.
WHOOSH!
In an instant, the production facilities burned and workers died in the flames.
The mage controlling the golem realized there wasn't much time left in the summon and cast one final spell.
WOONG!
This time the flame golem curled its body into a ball and crouched down.
Seeing the golem like this, other monsters including the wyvern swarmed in, frantically shooting spears and magic cannons.
And moments later, the crouched golem's body glowed white and caused a massive vibration.
Sensing something ominous, Anastasia shouted.
"B-Back! Fall back!"
The moment she gave the order, the flame golem's body exploded with enormous flames.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Burning rocks flew in all directions, devastating the inside of Anastasia's fortress.
Anastasia's forces, devastated to nearly disaster levels, lost more than half to just one flame golem.
Even with increased speed using the code, she couldn't maintain that speed when the infrastructure was destroyed.
Additionally, the remaining forces gathered to stop the golem evaporated with the explosion.
Anastasia ground her teeth at Zeke's unexpected attack.
"Damn bastard!"
Anastasia turned her head to try calling back the units attacking the knights into the fortress.
But by then, not only the orc unit but also the Arachne unit had been completely wiped out.
'H-How?'
While she was focused on stopping the flame golem and controlling the tree giant, Saint George had quickly led the holy knights to eliminate all the monsters.
But that wasn't the biggest problem right now.
RUMBLE!
A massive ship appeared in the air in front of Anastasia's fortress.
Knights riding Pegasus emerged from the flying ship and covered Anastasia's entire fortress.
Anastasia didn't even know the human race had such abilities.
In the demon realm, no one chose the human race for proxy battles, nor had anyone endured until the late game like this.
The Valkyries riding Pegasus swept away all the wyverns in the air and swept into the inner fortress.
Saint George led the holy knights charging through the gap in the fortress created by the flame giant.
Anastasia tried to stop them somehow but was overwhelmed.
Soon one of the Valkyries brought a blue flag and passed it to Saint George.
Saint George, holding the holy sword Ascalon and the blue flag, struck a victory pose atop the mountain of monster corpses.
TRUMPETS!
Along with trumpet sounds, the word 'Defeat!' appeared before Anastasia's eyes in demon realm script.
While Anastasia stared blankly at it, the game completely ended, the virtual screen disappeared, and they returned to the original arena.
The demons watching the game in the arena were so shocked by Anastasia's defeat they couldn't make a sound.
Anastasia, sitting on the stage, was the same.
She never thought she would lose at demon realm chess to a human.
Before she knew it, Zeke approached Anastasia on the stage and spoke.
"I won."
Anastasia couldn't properly compose her hardened face.
"Y-You... How dare you deceive me?!"
"Deceive? What do you mean? You're the one who suggested we settle this with demon realm chess."
Strictly speaking, Anastasia was the one who deceived.
Zeke had merely fought the proxy battle according to her wishes.
Though thoughts of being deceived dominated her mind, Anastasia couldn't properly continue speaking as there was nothing to pick at no matter how hard she tried to find fault.
Zeke spoke while looking at Nigel sleeping in a dress.
"Unlike humans, demons are said to keep their promises well. Return my master and withdraw from this place."
Anastasia bit her lip hard before standing up.
Then she suddenly started laughing.
Not just laughing, but laughing like a madwoman.
After laughing for a while, she came to her senses and spoke to Zeke.
"Ah, that was fun. Zeke Draker. You had fun experiencing something new too, right?"
"Stop trying to play tricks and hand over my master quickly."
To those words Zeke spoke with an expressionless face, Anastasia said with a laugh:
"I'll give her to you. I'm the demon realm's princess after all, so I keep my promises well. If I said I'll give her, I should give her. But you know what."
She grinned at Zeke.
"When did I ever say I would give her to you?"