Demon General

Still in the city of Rosenburg. Early in the evening.

Back in our room.

The door has been fixed and the mess of water – melted ice spikes, has been cleared out by the staff. We’re supposed to sleep early. At least if we are suddenly forced to leave the city early, we had a little bit of rest.

Iris is currently taking a bath in one of the bathhouses in this inn. I’m just focusing on this body.

Looking at the mirror attached to the drawer.

It’s getting problematic. Rather than slowly gathering my strength, it seems that I am actually getting weaker. My Mana capacity is definitely lower compared to back when I was first summoned to Sol. And I feel like I’m getting too used to this body, I’m not as irritated of the menial tasks I have to do to maintain it as before, and I’m experiencing all kinds of emotion I’ve never felt before.

I look at my hands. I’ve always known this isn’t my body, which means this used to be someone else’s. I can feel them adrift in my consciousness. They’re waking up.

I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. If they regained control, I might be free of this body.

I head back towards my bed.

Or worst-case scenario. My consciousness just fades away. It’s a chilling thought.

To be safe, I’ll just have them rest a little more.

I sit down on my bed.

“Higher Clarity”

A small magic circle appears on my forehead. Rank 9 Magic Spell. I take out my book. I’m going to use up all my Mana again. The spell works by solidifying one’s consciousness amongst other things like resistance to mental debuffs.

I’m sorry. But I’ll have to use this body for a bit longer. Just stay asleep for now.

The magic circle fades away. As I thought, the owner’s consciousness is passively affecting mine. I’m starting to feel more and more…human.

*knock*

“Come in”

The door opens. It’s Shaun.

“Oh, Shaun. What are you doing here? Did we finally get another message from Amaris after so long?”

He closes the door and sits down on the chair by Iris’ bed.

“Actually, I felt like my link with the Goddess had faded a few days ago. I thought it was just temporary so I never said anything.”

Huh? I don’t think Amaris would just cut the connection with Shaun. She hasn’t even given us a message since she told me to stop trying to convince people I’m Aelius.

“…”

“It’s normal for Gods isn’t it? To just fall completely silent when people need them”

He stands up. Wait.

“What do you mean by that?”

He looks at me.

“I mean it like that”

He leaves the room.

What does he mean by that? Is that why he’s been so silent throughout the journey?”

I lie down on my bed.

Everyone has their complaints. I’ll just go to sleep.

…

A group of demons approach the city of Rosenburg. It’s the middle of the night, and most of the people in the city are asleep or indoors.

Several beastman and dwarves are with them. They’re all carrying weapons.

A dream. Looks like I’m dreaming. But this feels so real.

I seem to be observing this dream through the eyes of one of the demons. He looks like he’s on a different level from his peers. He walks toward one of the dwarves.

“Are you sure they’re staying here? If they really wanted to hide, they could have at least chosen a different city. This is literally begging to be found out”

The dwarf replies. He seems oddly familiar.

“I saw them with my own eyes, Lord Balthos. 3 carriages, 19 people. Most of them are carrying Heroic-grade weapons. Other than the two strays they picked up, the duke of the house of Carter, Martin is with them”

That voice. He’s the dwarf who was piloting the giant metal crabs. The demon officer thinks a bit.

“From 14 people to 19. They’re with two other people. And with the Greater Dragon Nathaniel attacking our troops, it’s safe to say that Loralei and Evelyn have defected. You over there.”

He points at one of the other demons.

“Tell the other squads to keep their guard up. Loralei and Evelyn are now official enemies of demon kind. Have them send a messenger to the Kingdom of Maghramm. One of their dukes has violated the agreement.”

The demon nods, then quickly runs in the direction of the other squads.

“And you dwarf, have you informed the leaders of the city that we’re coming?”

“Yes, my Lord. As long as we don’t extensively harm any of the citizens or cause major property damage, the city guards will not intervene”

Balthos grits his teeth.

“Annoying. Everyone! Target only the heroes and their comrades. Try not to do anything other than that”

The group heads inside the city.

…

I wake up. Was that dream real? I have to tell everyone.

I look to the side.

Iris is sleeping right beside me. Our faces are so close. Looks like she wandered off into my bed.

“…”

At least she didn’t go out to find any demons to kill. But she could probably take that group out by herself. She has control over demons after all.

“Iris, wake up”

I gently shake her awake. She opens her eyes.

“Ah”

She immediately jumps up.

“I-It’s not what it looks like!”

“I believe you Iris”

“O-oh”

“The demons know we’re staying here. We need to tell the others”

Iris seems confused, but she doesn’t question me. She just nods.

We head out the room.

I knock on Grayson and Toshikasu’s room. They don’t respond. Damn it, they’re both heavy sleepers.

Since no one else is boarding at this inn, I think it’s fine to make some noise.

“Sound Barrier”

I isolate the 2nd floor sounds from everything else.

“Mimic Sound”

I focus on Martin’s rifle. A magic circle appears. It starts to vibrate and then make a loud – I cover my ears.

*BOOM!*

All the doors open.

“What was that!?”

“We’re under attack!”

“M-my rifle?? Impossible!”

Everyone looks confused when they saw it was just me and Iris.

Oddly, Loralei and Evelyn both come out in the direction of my room. She looks at me.

“There you are.”

“How’d you get there- more importantly. We’re going to be under attack soon, let’s ready our equipment”

Grayson raises his hand. He rubs his ears.

“How would you know that? Damn my ears hurt”

Nadia smiles a little.

“Did Al have a bad dreeamm hahaha!”

“It wasn’t bad”

“Oh”

“But other than that, someone named Balthos is coming after us this time. It’s too late to leave the city quietly, they’re already inside”

Everyone looks concerned.

Hannah speaks up.

“Alright, better safe than sorry. Elizabeth, Iris, take Uriel and Una with you to the carriages. Elen, Mercedes, and Shaun, go with them. The rest of us will take position here”

“Okay Miss Hannah”

Elizabeth holds Uriel and Una’s hands. Uriel lets go of her hand.

“I want to stay. I can fight too!”

Toshikasu walks closer to Uriel.

“Hey, we talked about this. It’s dangerous. You can fight with us some other time”

“But-”

Toshikasu looks at her with a stern face.

“Next time, Uriel”

“Fine…”

She follows Elizabeth. Iris holds my hand.

“Don’t do anything too dangerous Aelius”

“Got it. I’ll be careful Iris”

She smiles, then follows Shaun and Mercedes. Elen says something to Toshikasu before following them.

“Ugh, it’s the middle of the night. Don’t they need to sleep as well?”

Jace still has trouble opening his eyes. Renz however already went back inside their room to prepare.

Toshikasu walks over to me. Julie follows behind him.

“How many Al?”

“Around 40 demons at least, some beastmen and dwarves… and the pilot of the metal monsters we fought at Durahl. There’s also other squads, probably of similar size”

He is surprised.

“Seriously? That mech pilot is still alive? Are the mechs remote-controlled or something?”

Grayson speaks up.

“Let’s get ready everyone. They don’t know that we know they’re coming, we have the advantage”

Everyone heads inside their rooms.

I walk inside mine. Loralei and Evelyn follow behind.

“Hey Loralei, Evelyn. Isn’t your room beside Iris and mine? Don’t you too need to get ready?”

Loralei folds her arms.

“I’m always ready. I can take my weapon out anytime.”

Evelyn responds as well.

“I don’t need anything to cast my magic”

I look to the side of the room. There’s a hole connecting my room to theirs. Loralei broke it down didn’t she. The wall was supposed to be made from stone.

“So these demons, you said one of them is named Balthos?”

“Yeah, do you know him?”

“He’s one of the generals of the demon lord.”

A demon general is already after our heads? How comforting. I wear my armor over my sleepwear.

“His unit looked too small to be under a general’s command”

She and Evelyn look out the window of my room.

“That’s because they’re his elite members. They’ll observe us while we’re fighting the beastmen and dwarven fodder.”

Loralei points out the window. I look where she’s pointing.

Several figures are already assembling on the nearby rooftops.

We head out into the hallway.

Everyone is already ready. Hannah already started chanting.

“So you were right. That’s a lot of demons”

Grayson lifts his hand. Everyone makes way for Martin, who aims at the wall facing our assailants.

“Cover your ears will you guys?”

Everyone covers their ears.

He pulls the trigger.

*BOOM!*

The bullet goes through the wall. Now the entire city will know.

“Flash!”

There’s a sound of a small explosion from outside the wall. Bright light can be seen through the hole Martin made.

Hannah shouts.

“Now!”

Renz points his shield at the wall. He’s at the other end of the hallway.

“Dash!”

He quickly rushes towards the wall and bursts outside. Toshikasu quickly follows behind him.

“Light Platform!”

A platform appears which connects the 2nd floor of the inn where we are currently at, to the nearby building rooftops. Everyone follows behind.

Most of the beastmen and dwarves are down the streets below. They seem to be surprised that their targets appeared above them. Meanwhile the demons on the roof are currently blinded by Hannah’s spell.

Our goal here is only to stall for time. Once the others on the carriages have safely left the city, we’ll make our escape.

I count 25 on the rooftops. All are using swords.

Landing first on the rooftops, Renz and Toshikasu attack the demons.

“Dive Impact!”

He throws his spear at the farthest demon, impaling it then he appears behind the enemy formation two buildings away. Toshikasu summons 4 Light Clones which begin intercepting those in front of us.

Aidan stops at the edge of the rooftops and begins sniping at the beastmen below while Grayson defends him. Martin runs far away from the scene – probably to look for high ground. Nadia is following him.

“Battle Aura! Feel the force of my fists! Decimate!

Jace jumps into the enemy formation, smashing the roof on the next building.

Hannah chants another spell. A demon manages to sneak up behind us but is intercepted by Julie.

Suddenly the demons begin attacking themselves.

“They’re done for”

Evelyn mutters. Within minutes, we’ve wiped out our attackers.

“Wait a minute, where are all the people?”

Nadia points at the streets. There are only the corpses of the beastmen and dwarven mercenaries.

“We were so loud, how come there’s no guards or people?”

“Tsk. He really used it here.”

Loralei looks back at the inn. On top of its roof, there’s a demon looking at us.

He’s got 2 horns, silver hair, gray skin, almost standard for a demon. He’s wearing black mage robes with a sort of jewel in the middle. Not even a piece of armor. What’s worrying is his shadow, it’s all over the place. It seems to spread out all over the city.

Balthos.

“Hello heroes, it took you quite a while to notice it. My name is Balthos, 4th General of the Demon Army. I’ll advise you to surrender and I’ll make it painl-”

He immediately gets cut in half through his waist.

“You’re done.”

Loralei is right behind him. His blood flows from her scythe. There’s a portal behind her, I look to the side and see that Evelyn is operating it.

The shadows don’t dissipate however. Some of it concentrates on Loralei’s feet, which turn into spikes pointing towards her.

“That hurt, let’s see how you like it!”

The spikes extend. Loralei cuts it all into pieces with a blur and walks back into the portal, appearing beside Evelyn.

The shadows then re-attach Balthos’ upper body into his lower body. The cuts immediately heal.

“Looks like I still can’t kill you. But now you can’t kill me either!”

His face distorts into a wide grin.

A Light barrier appears all around us. Toshikasu speaks up.

“Darkness element. You’re the perfect opponent!”

He creates another Light Platform which extends from our place upwards towards his. Toshikasu then charges along with his clones.

Grayson also follows him.

“Nature’s Bind!”

Vines appear all over him and pin him to the roof floor.

*BOOM!*

A projectile goes straight through the barrier and into the demon general’s head, bursting it into pieces.

“Flame Lances!”

Multiple sharp rods made of fire appear around Balthos.

Jace and Renz walk beside me. Aidan keeps his crossbow aimed at him.

The Flame Lances aren’t moving because Toshikasu, his clones, and Grayson are already at the target, hacking him into pieces.

Balthos laughs then turns into smoke. The smoke engulfs the entire area.

“It’s no use. You humans should have understood it by now!”

I point at the smoke.

“Vacuum”

A vortex appears in the middle of the area. It begins to suck in the smoke.

“What?!”

“Gravity Well”

The smoke gets gathered into a single spot and then drops to the ground.

Thanks to all those spells casted, I’ve got tons of mana.

Time to unleash hell.