Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Chapter 90
Battle Near Nevan (4)
"We have successfully suppressed the Mahara district."
"We have also eliminated all those who were lurking near the Temple of the God of Life!"
"We successfully raided the northeastern slave black market. There were some casualties, but we rescued all the slaves and killed all those who were disguised as staff."
"Urgent report! The monsters that were being illegally raised in the arena in the southern tourist district have escaped en masse!"
"What about the casualties?"
"Fortunately, there were no civilian casualties, but two knights were seriously injured and twenty soldiers died."
"Tell the Sun Knight Order commander who should be waiting nearby. Tell him to step forward personally and subdue the enemy."
"Yes!"
Luciella had set up barracks directly near the ducal house, controlling all movements within the capital.
Thoroughly and decisively.
Luciella made full use of the cards she held, cleaning up the remnant forces of the demon race.
"By now, there's a high possibility that the surviving forces are gathering at the eastern gate of the capital. We'll deal with them before they can escape the capital and join up with the demons."
Luciella moved the horse piece symbolizing the Imperial Guard to the eastern part of the map.
A movement that anticipated even the enemy's retreat route in advance.
No matter how sudden the attack was, the nobles assisting her trembled at the continuous victory reports flowing in.
But even Luciella couldn't predict everything.
"Urgent report from the Earth Magic Tower! Some magicians have rebelled and confined the Tower Master!"
"If the Tower Master was defeated, this must be no trivial matter?"
"Three elders have reportedly joined the rebellion..."
Luciella's beautiful eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"Gray, you'll have to go and resolve this."
"Damn, if they're elder-level, even I'll have a tough time..."
"Didn't Rudian entrust you with many things to bridge that gap in capability?"
Just as she said, before leaving the capital, Rudian had given Gray all of Caslay's remaining artifacts and asked him to assist Luciella.
Gray had naturally sworn eternal loyalty and cheerfully accepted them...
And now the time had come to earn his keep.
"Damn, fine."
The artifacts of Caslay that Rudian had entrusted to him easily surpassed the performance of the items Gray had been wearing until now.
Now he could even face off against his mother, Sonya.
"Come on, old men, let's go!"
"Yes, Young Lord!"
"We need to make those Earth Magic Tower bastards pay the price for not managing their people properly!"
'...Will it be okay?'
Luciella looked worriedly at the Bellatrix magicians who were cheerfully following Gray.
That didn't look like they were going to solve a problem, but rather to smash it to pieces.
'Gray shouldn't lack that much control. Let's trust him.'
Luciella sighed briefly and looked at the map again.
Even though it wasn't even past noon yet, fatigue was already washing over her, making her want to bury her face in a pillow.
'No, when there are people risking their lives in battle, I can't frown just because I'm a little tired!'
This operation was entirely under her command and responsibility.
If she wavered even a little, if she handled things even slightly wrong, who knows what butterfly effect it might cause later.
For some reason, she found herself remembering the image of Rudian from a few hours ago when they had exchanged blows.
'...Good fortune.'
Luciella lightly slapped her cheek and began collecting reports and issuing orders again.
***
When Rudian arrived at the eastern resort of Nevan, the village had long since been reduced to ashes, unrecognizable in form.
'They certainly went on quite a rampage.'
The fortunate thing was that no civilians were caught up in it.
Not a single corpse could be found, yet the village had turned to ash, creating an eerie atmosphere like something from a ghost story despite it still being morning.
Rudian expanded his qi sense to search for Sonya's group.
"Our allies are... Fighting in this vicinity."
He could feel four different energies clashing fiercely in the distance.
At first, it seemed like they were each fighting one-on-one, but suddenly one side began to team up and coordinate.
Then the opposing side also joined forces, and the two combined energies clashed fiercely again.
'That must be Sonya and Archduke Quihiller.'
From the looks of it, they had each been fighting one demon, but when things didn't go well, they changed tactics to teamwork?
Since Maria's energy couldn't be felt, she had probably used the Sands of Time to take one enemy away.
And the battle of the remaining personnel excluding the leaders...
'It's a mess.'
The demon side was overwhelmingly pushing back their allies.
"This is bad, we need to join them quickly. They're being pushed back too much."
Kaitel asked with an incredulous expression.
"Even without the Imperial Guard... Is it that bad?"
"They're only holding out this much because they're focusing entirely on defense. If they had switched to offense, they would have been annihilated in an instant."
No matter how much their power was restricted... A rotten demon is still a demon.
Mid-level subordinates reach the highest Expert level, and high-level subordinates can't be faced unless you're at Sword Master level.
They had to quickly support them before they collapsed.
"If both Demon Kings are there, even Maria will have a hard time holding out. Let's go immediately."
"There's no need for that."
"...!"
Rudian turned his head toward the familiar voice coming from inside.
There stood a massive man who had already shed his human appearance and taken on the complete form of a demon.
"Marbas...!"
Boiling fighting spirit and gushing killing intent.
Unlike Rigos who had been armed with full armor, Marbas dressed freely enough that his muscular torso was visible in places.
If Rigos was a knight, Marbas was a warrior.
"Only Asmodeus went that way. I've been waiting for you alone."
"Where did you leave all your subordinates? You didn't give them all to Asmodeus, did you?"
Marbas laughed with an exaggerated gesture.
"Oh, sharp! But don't worry. My subordinates have sworn they will never interfere in our fight."
"..."
Even so, Rudian didn't lower his guard.
Marbas was different from Rigos.
Even though they were both of the martial faction, unlike Rigos who charged in without thinking, this one knew how to use tricks and set traps.
Marbas' signature line from the main story of .
"Right, you definitely never fight a losing battle. That was your belief and iron rule."
"...Who did you hear that from?"
"That's none of your business."
"Strange. I never say those words unless the prey is already caught... Could there have been a survivor I don't remember?"
He had said that line after driving the protagonist's party to the brink of annihilation in the early part of the original story.
Though he ultimately let them slip away because he underestimated the power of Abel's holy sword Grandia.
"Well, that doesn't matter."
Rudian slowly dismounted from his horse.
The situation had flowed a bit differently than expected, but this was essentially the moment of the decisive battle against the demons in this Morian Empire.
"Matheus, Viscount Kaitel, please take the remaining forces and head north."
"...What about you? Don't tell me you're planning to handle that vicious monster alone?"
Kaitel and Matheus had planned to coordinate an attack with Rudian as soon as they saw Marbas.
The magic energy and presence flowing from their opponent was so intense that it was more than worthy of being called a 'Demon King.'
But Rudian's decision didn't change.
"Normally I would do everything possible to coordinate an attack... But this time I feel I must face him alone."
It could be called intuition.
As he had said in the Tower of Trials, Rudian had no intention of becoming a warrior.
He could throw away his pride at any time, and if possible, he would take coordinated attacks or whatever else he could.
But... This time something was at stake.
Like a fishbone stuck in his throat, an intuition that other people absolutely must not be included in this battle!
"Fine, if you insist that much..."
Matheus trusted Rudian's judgment.
A strategist who had laid out the board this far would have some basis for his intuition too.
Kaitel also looked somewhat doubtful, but ultimately followed Rudian's words.
"Haha, what a shame. I would have welcomed a coordinated attack."
As the group all headed north, Marbas showed genuine disappointment.
"Your opponent is me."
Rudian drew Diablo from the start, raising his fighting spirit.
He did have Daylight, but it had clear limitations against a Demon King...
But then, instead of charging in boldly as expected, Marbas pointed behind Rudian with his finger and said:
"Hmm, fighting right away would be good, but it seems the human behind you has business with me?"
"...!"
At that moment, Rudian quickly turned his head to look behind him.
There he saw Crux standing his ground with an awkward expression.
"...You."
"Ah, um... I'm sorry, Rudian."
Having focused on Marbas, he had neglected to pay attention to what was behind him after the group disappeared, leading to this situation!
Moreover, seeing how Crux had deliberately suppressed his presence, he couldn't help but be suspicious!
Crux approached Rudian with an embarrassed smile.
"Refusing orders... What are you doing?"
No matter how temporary, he was the commander and Crux was a member.
This was clearly crossing the line.
"I'm sorry, temporary commander. But couldn't you forgive me just this once?"
Crux's gaze was directed toward Marbas in his demonic form, beyond Rudian.
"This is the first time in my life I've seen such a strong opponent. Overwhelming fighting spirit that even surpasses my master... There has never been an existence that aroused my fighting spirit this much."
"..."
Rudian covered his face with his hand and sighed.
'Right, this bastard was also quite the battle maniac.'
He should have known from their first meeting when he was covered in blood and put a blade to someone's throat.
'If I had realized then, I wouldn't have brought him and just had him guard the Emperor!'
The reliable vanguard of the protagonist's party.
But calling him a vanguard was just words - repeatedly charging at all sorts of strong opponents in claiming to overcome his limits, he eventually got backstabbed by Diablo and died, right?
No matter how much he was counted as one of the two great talents of along with Gray...
Unlike Gray, there was a reason he didn't die a natural death.
"Please, allow me!"
Crux asked for permission from Rudian while snorting.
Should he appreciate that he was at least respecting his authority as a commander, even if temporary?
...If he stopped him here, he might even draw his sword against him.
Rudian sighed deeply and waved his hand.
"Do as you please. But I won't take responsibility if you die."
"Thank you!"
Crux dismounted from his horse with a bright expression on his face.
Then he slowly drew his sword and faced off against Marbas.
'Hmm, should I have lent him Daylight?'
In the original story, by the time Crux faced Marbas, he should have been holding Daylight instead of such an ordinary sword.
But unlike the original, Marbas was in a power-restricted state, and Crux hadn't achieved the same level of growth as back then...
'More importantly, it would be awkward to lend out a borrowed sword again.'
For now, it wouldn't be bad to observe Crux's skills once.
***
"Crux von Richthofen."
"Marbas. Keheheh, you and I have met several times. Not in this form, but when I was disguised as a human."
Despite Marbas' mockery, Crux's expression didn't change.
"I never even imagined that you were the war hero Count Marbas Ainsworth."
As an Imperial Guard, Crux and the military general Marbas Ainsworth had occasionally crossed paths due to their positions.
However, since Crux showed little interest in politics, even though they had seen each other's faces, they had rarely spoken.
"That doesn't matter now."
"Heh, you're not angry. I thought I'd provoke you with that little deception."
"What matters now is only strength, not our respective positions. So let's see your skills..."
THUMP!
Crux charged straight at Marbas and shouted.
"Shall we?"