The Holy Sword Ascalon
"One of the Four Heavenly Kings?! The Imperial Intelligence Department didn't say anything about this!"
"Yes, my lady! The reports we received clearly stated that none of the Four Heavenly Kings were among the demon army invading the Horon Kingdom!"
"How could they be this incompetent?!"
"W-We are deeply sorry!"
Illuen wanted to vent her fury even more, but she knew throwing a tantrum would solve nothing in their current predicament.
In fact, if they delayed their retreat any longer, they would all be slaughtered like dogs.
"For now, order the knights to retreat..."
Fortunately, she was positioned near the rear of the march.
If they pulled back immediately, there was a very high chance they would all make it out alive.
But then...
"Lady Illuen! Lady Illuen!"
Marquis Gariff, the commander of the allied forces assembled to repel the demon invasion, rushed toward her, cutting off her chance to issue the retreat order.
"They say Dantalion, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, has appeared at the vanguard! What should we do? Especially when the Hero isn't even here..."
"T-That is..."
"As a former member of the Hero's party, can you not do something, Lady Illuen? We haven't even had time to order the evacuation of the villagers in the rear!"
A human noble of a kingdom was bowing his head and begging her for help.
To Illuen, who was thoroughly steeped in elf supremacy, the sight of an inferior human noble groveling before her was enough to spark a subtle thrill of pleasure.
"O-Of course! On the honor of the noble High Elves, I shall defeat the Heavenly King myself!"
"As expected of a member of the Hero's party!"
"I... I will take the lead, so everyone follow me!"
"Yes, Lady Illuen!"
The knights and soldiers of various nations, who had been retreating from the front, halted when they saw Illuen, a former member of the Hero's party, marching forward with her own Greenwood Knights and the nearby troops.
After a brief moment of hesitation, they turned back to follow her, marching toward the approaching Heavenly King and his army.
But Illuen's reckless charge, launched without a single shred of tactical preparation, could only end in disaster.
The demon army quickly cut off her retreat, completely surrounding her forces. In the blink of an eye, casualties began to mount at an alarming rate.
And shortly after, an event occurred that incited the survivors' absolute fury.
"Where is Lady Illuen?!"
"She was right here a moment ago... Huh? Where did she go?"
Abandoning the surrounded and helpless allied forces, Illuen and her personal knights had quietly slipped away, escaping the valley.
With their commander gone, the demon army poured in from both sides of the valley, inflicting devastating losses on the abandoned coalition.
After hearing the accounts of the wounded knights, I returned to the village we had started from to assess the situation.
The reinforcements dispatched by the Horon Kingdom had already assembled there.
"Given the circumstances, let's disband for today. I'll head to the Adventurers' Guild to find out exactly what's going on," I said.
Jack and Jenny looked like they were waiting for the perfect opportunity to bombard me with questions, but I brushed them off and quickly made my exit.
Only Lucia sent me off with a bright, warm smile.
With the situation as dire as it was, I decided to head straight to the Horon Kingdom's military camp and grab whoever I could find to get information.
Fortunately, a familiar face appeared, making my task much easier.
"Count Rochel!"
I called out to Count Rochel, whom I had met at the Arzen Kingdom's banquet. He turned toward me, his face blank with bewilderment.
"Sir Hero?!"
Count Rochel, who had been wearing a grim expression due to the crisis, rushed over the moment he spotted me. He grabbed both of my hands and shook them vigorously, his relief written all over his face.
"My goodness! What brings you here? I heard you had gone into hiding for private operations!"
"This is part of those operations. Can we go inside somewhere to talk?"
"Ah! Yes! Of course! Please, this way!"
Count Rochel spoke so loudly in his excitement that I had to warily scan our surroundings before following him into his command tent.
"I apologize, Sir Hero. We were deployed in such a rush that our accommodations are rather humble. Please understand."
"No, it's fine. More importantly, what on earth happened out there? I heard Illuen's name being mentioned."
Count Rochel sat at his desk, pulled out a map tucked away in a corner, and spread it out before me.
"This is the area where the army and the adventurers are currently trapped. According to the survivors, the elf Illuen took command..."
"Wait. There was an official commander, so why was Illuen in charge?"
"Well... she was a member of the Hero's party, and it seems the commander panicked upon hearing that Dantalion of the Four Heavenly Kings had appeared, handing over the reins to her."
Handing over command to the most ignorant of the ignorant, a woman whose only talent was spreading her legs...
The person who handed over command to an elf who didn't even know how to lead a small party, let alone an entire army, was clearly incompetent as well.
"But... one of the Four Heavenly Kings? I hadn't heard anything about that."
This was the first I was hearing of a Heavenly King's involvement.
If I had known Dantalion was going to show up in this battle, I would have joined the campaign from the start.
"It is the same for us. The Imperial Intelligence Department explicitly assured us that there were no Heavenly Kings in the demon army marching north toward our kingdom..."
I had received the exact same intelligence as Count Rochel.
Ultimately, this disaster was a perfect storm of Illuen's ignorance, the allied commander's lack of leadership, and the false intelligence provided by the Empire.
The political fallout from this catastrophe would undoubtedly be severe.
However, the immediate priority was rescuing the soldiers and adventurers currently surrounded by the demon army.
"Where exactly are they surrounded?"
"Right here, in the basin between these two valleys," Count Rochel said, pointing to the map.
Looking at the terrain he indicated, I silently applauded Illuen's sheer brilliance in leading an army into a narrow basin between two valleys. I carefully studied the surrounding topography.
"Is there no way out?"
"None. They either have to break through the front or the rear. There is no other escape route."
This was the worst-case scenario.
Attempting a rescue mission without knowing the strength or abilities of this new Heavenly King—who was entirely different from the ones we fought three years ago—was practically suicide.
Of course, no matter how massive the demon army or how powerful the Heavenly King, they posed no threat to me personally.
The real issue was the survival of the trapped soldiers and adventurers.
Even if I were to slaughter the demon army and defeat the Heavenly King, it would take time.
The question was whether the trapped forces could hold out against the demons pouring into the valley in the meantime.
They needed someone to buy them time, at the very least...
"Sir Hero!"
While I was staring intently at the map, racking my brain, one of the knights guarding the village entered the tent.
"Yes?"
"A woman in a black hood asked me to deliver this to you."
"What is it?"
I took the note from the knight and unfolded it. It contained a sketch of the terrain, similar to the map Count Rochel and I were looking at, but with a slight difference.
It clearly marked a small, hidden path leading out of the trapped basin.
"Who gave this to you?"
"I'm not sure. I asked for her name, but she refused to tell me."
Someone delivering information to me...
A certain person flashed through my mind. I flipped the note over, and there, in a tiny corner, was a signature.
Kir...
[A detailed sketch of a hidden path bypassing the valley basin]
— Kir
"Do you know who sent this, Sir Hero?" Count Rochel asked, looking back and forth between my smiling face and the note.
"Yes. Very well, in fact..."
The plan Count Rochel and I devised was simple.
While I drew the attention of the demon army and the Heavenly King by engaging them from the rear, Count Rochel and his reinforcements would slip through the secret path to rescue the trapped forces.
"Are you truly going to be alright on your own, Sir Hero? No matter how strong you are, facing that many enemies alone is..."
"I'll be fine. You should worry about yourself, Count. Even if it's a hidden path, there's no guarantee you won't run into monsters."
"Understood. We will be careful."
"Just help me slip out of the village unnoticed."
"Of course."
I planned to blend in with Count Rochel's troops to avoid running into Jack, Jenny, or Lucia on my way out.
While Jack and Jenny were just ordinary adventurers, Lucia was someone I still needed to observe closely. I couldn't afford to let them discover my true identity just yet.
After successfully leaving the village, the reinforcements circled around toward the hidden path, while I headed straight for the valley.
Ever since I left the village, I had the strange sensation of being followed. But whenever I turned around, the presence vanished instantly, as if playing a game of tag with me.
Each time, the rustling of the nearby trees and the sudden gusts of wind only heightened my senses.
But that feeling soon faded.
As I drew closer to the valley, the scouts of the demon army began to appear one by one.
For the first time in a long while, I summoned something that felt like an extension of my own body.
Holy Sword of the Hero
Whoosh!
The Holy Sword Ascalon.
During the war against the Demon King, not a single day had passed without this blade in my hand.
As I gripped the hilt of the sword that materialized amidst a burst of fire, the dancing flames seeped into the blade, as if welcoming back their master.
I estimated the number of monsters before me to be in the thousands.
Fortunately, the demons—the core force of the demon army—were not yet in sight, but if a battle broke out here, they would undoubtedly rush to the scene before long.
My task now was to cull as many of these monsters as possible before the main force arrived.
As if sensing the gravity of the situation, the Holy Sword Ascalon flared with embers, signaling that it was ready for battle.