Chapter 67
Chapter 67
Chapter 67 Aura.
'Is this as far as the feint strategy goes?'
Once the erosion rate exceeded 50%, it was no longer easy to use tactics that deceived the enemy.
The territory to target was limited, and the distance between each other was close.
And since they weren't fools either, the remaining kingdoms had banded together more tightly.
Since the external enemy was so powerful, they planned to move like one organism to face us.
Certainly, there's no method more effective than having a common enemy when it comes to uniting a group.
"But humans can't band together that easily."
What remained were three kingdoms and one empire. Neither too many nor too few.
Now it was time to sow discord and split the enemies apart, rather than using deception tactics.
The three kingdoms excluding the empire: Sellion, Aello, and Belinia.
'Sellion..? Isn't that where the Royal Basic Combat Arts I learned came from?'
It was quite nostalgic to see the kingdom name from the tutorial skills here.
Not that I had any intention of going easy on them.
I sent envoys to all three places. And with many treasures I had farmed from the kingdoms I'd conquered so far, packed tight.
Although they had no meaning to me, they would be quite meaningful items to them.
When I sent envoys with tremendous gifts, they let the envoys inside to at least hear what they had to say, and at that moment, the operation was already half successful.
Through the envoys I had sent with communication artifacts, I spoke to the kings of the three kingdoms simultaneously.
"What I killed were only those who resisted; the kings and people of each kingdom are still alive."
This wasn't a lie. I had deliberately kept the kings alive in preparation for this moment, and I hadn't touched civilians either.
I had killed all the knights who could become troops for me, but later on, I only killed soldiers who resisted.
I showed the living kings' appearances once each through crystal orbs.
"I will give better treatment to those who surrender to me first, and there is already one among the remaining three that has agreed to join us."
In truth, there was no kingdom that had agreed to join us, but saying this would make them suspect each other.
"When we arrive as reinforcements, they've been told to open the gates and welcome us. Think carefully. Will you surrender and preserve at least the form of your nation, or will you face destruction?"
The discord sowing ended here.
Just this much was enough to significantly weaken their power.
Because just the fact that there could be a traitor would give them headaches.
They couldn't easily call for support for fear that someone might really open the gates, and they would continue to fall into worry while checking the appearances of other living kings through crystal orbs.
They had no choice but to constantly rack their brains thinking about which side was more advantageous and where they should align themselves.
According to my words, if they surrendered first, they could receive better treatment.
It was natural that the treatment of those who surrendered and those who were conquered would be different.
In the end, Sellion was the first to contact me.
-We will also surrender. We will follow the Demon King's will.
Now a real traitor had emerged, not just an imaginary one.
They must have believed that other places had already betrayed, as they used the expression "we will also."
"You made the right choice. Then now only Aello remains."
-Then Belinia has... Understood.
They seemed convinced that Belinia was the traitor.
And I cut out just the part where Sellion said they would betray and sent it to Belinia's crystal orb through image magic.
"Look. Sellion has agreed to join us. What will you do? Will you continue to stay on a sinking ship?"
The moment they actually confirmed the existence of a traitor that had only existed in their imagination, Belinia's king also nodded with a determined expression.
-...We will also join. It's our complete defeat in both military strength and intellect.
I had merely patched together various tactics that existed in Earth's history, but it seemed quite spicy to these medieval fantasy folk.
Seeing them say they were completely defeated in intellect even though they must be much smarter than me.
The saying that wisdom is more important than intelligence wasn't there for nothing.
Even things you would never fall for if you knew about them, you have no choice but to fall for if you don't know.
"Good that you understand quickly. I'll contact you again."
-Yes.
Next, I sent the video of Sellion and Belinia betraying to Aello.
"Two kingdoms have already made wise decisions. Even if there's an empire behind you, can Aello alone withstand the combined attack of the Demon King's army, Sellion, and Belinia? This is the last chance you can choose."
Especially since Aello was in the middle, blocking the path to the empire among the three kingdoms, it was in a perfect position to be surrounded.
There was a reason I deliberately conquered Belinia first rather than Aello.
-Surrender... We will surrender. Aello belongs to the Demon King.
In the end, I succeeded in obtaining three kingdoms without fighting even once.
And I turned on three crystal orbs simultaneously and conveyed a message to them.
"To prove your loyalty, kill all the empire's forces that came to support within your kingdoms. From that moment, you will become the protagonists of the world I will create."
-Yes.
-Understood.
-We will do so.
Calm responses came back, and shortly after, I received contacts that the processing was complete.
And seeing this, the adjutant and demon race showed reactions as if they were seeing cosmic horror beyond fear.
"Demon King... the Demon King is really."
"What. What are you trying to say?"
I felt like I wouldn't be hurt no matter what I heard anymore.
Because I had come too far.
"...No. I will follow you for life."
Absolute loyalty that seemed like they would never disobey again was glimpsed in their eyes.
I noticed that it came from fear rather than respect, but it was fine.
'It's because these are demon race from trials; real demon race would be more vicious. Yeah yeah.'
Incomparably more than someone like me.
[Some Demon Kings of Pandemonium say they're at risk of unemployment because of you.]
[Some Demon Kings of Pandemonium want to serve you as their master.]
The Demon Kings must have been bored too, as they sent me playful messages.
Messages that could never be true.
How bored must they be to send such messages? I should quickly recharge their dopamine.
Leading the demon race through Sellion, Belinia, and Aello in a touring performance, the erosion rate quickly shot up.
[Current world erosion rate 85%]
[Erosion rate has surpassed 80%.]
[You can summon additional demon race.]
[The Demon King's second authority is unlocked.]
The enemy's power decreased while our power actually increased.
The second authority was the ability to grant divine resistance to subordinate forces, and it seemed like it would be very useful since the empire had many priests including a saint.
'Demon race and undead with divine resistance? Really overpowered.'
If it wasn't pure physical force crushing, the only weakness was divinity, but even that now had resistance.
It wasn't immunity, but just the fact that undead who would originally melt away with one high-level divine magic spell could now endure was a great merit.
If creatures that would die from one divine magic spell now needed two hits to die, it meant they had to consume twice the power.
The role of undead was meat shields from the beginning.
'Now there's one left.'
What remained was one empire.
Since it was a single force, tricks and discord wouldn't work anymore.
Now the time had come to clash purely with strength against strength, not backdoor schemes.
"Everyone. Let's go."
"Yes!"
The demon race, undead, and forces from the three kingdoms arrived at the border of the Lionheart Empire.
'Oh. That's impressive.'
A wall so large it reminded me of the barriers from the giant animation I used to enjoy watching surrounded the border.
And on top of it, countless troops were waiting to stop us.
It really seemed like this place wasn't the final area for nothing.
Their ranged attacks poured down toward us, and we also had the spirit unit, human mage unit, and Skeleton Mages intercept them.
But since the opponent was fighting from a prepared position, they must have already laid down plenty of magic circles, as we were losing in the firepower battle.
A situation where only we suffered losses even when exchanging offense and defense.
"Everyone charge. I'll handle the interception."
"Yes!"
So I decided to have the subordinates charge while I handled it.
First, I used Crimson Plague Rain, a wide-area blood magic.
It was magic that poured poisonous crimson rain from the sky, with the ability to partially implement the effects of poisons I had directly experienced.
"KUAAAAK!"
"Wha... what is this..!"
Since this was the first time they'd experienced magic that spread such powerful poison over such a wide area, those whose skin partially melted belatedly put up protective barriers to block overhead.
Originally it wasn't that strong a magic, but the problem was that I was the one using it.
The poisons I had consumed were all extraordinary, and even implementing just a part of them would be extremely toxic to humans.
And maintaining protective barriers in all directions like that consumed more attention and mana than dropping blood rain, so it was definitely beneficial for me.
When the enemies' ranged attacks hesitated, our troops charged even more excitedly, and when they tried to turn their attention away from the protective barriers and focus on the troops, I launched additional attacks.
I shot Black Dragon Breath right onto the castle walls.
Those who had only put up protective barriers enough to block the rain had their bodies melt away in one hit, and seeing this, those who put up stronger protective barriers could no longer keep the bottom in check.
A situation where if they paid attention to my attacks, the troops would approach, and if they paid more attention to the troops, they would be helplessly hit by my attacks.
"That's far enough! Demon King!"
At that moment, someone tried to strike down my head, while I was shooting breath, with a great sword imbued with intense divinity, and I immediately retreated.
In front were a blonde man with a great sword, a blonde elf with a bow similarly, a blue-haired slender mage, and a saint with white hair whose figure couldn't be hidden even by robes.
It was truly a textbook hero party right before my eyes.
'But why are all his party members women? Is he a womanizer?'
It was Han Yeong-min who wasn't even thinking about his own party members.