Vol 5 Chapter 21: The War Begins

The inner chambers of the Naturia Floating Fortress. Hidden away from even the servants of the Demon Lord, it was a place only few were allowed to enter.

And there, a certain half-fey was slumbering.

No, slumbering was not the right word. Forced to slumber would be the more apt description.

She wasn't there by choice after all.

"Her power… is it not ready?"

"No. Her magic has proven to be far more chaotic than our calculations predicted. It'll take a little more time until it is safe for you to consume."

The half-fey was floating in mid-air, enveloped by a pillar of light surging out from a massive runic circle under her. Surprisingly enough, she was still wielding her sword and wearing her armor. Her long, golden hair floated behind her and the hem for her skirt hovered upwards, revealing her light green panties to the world.

The room itself was dark, with the only light coming from the pillar and circle. The floor, the walls, even the ceiling—it was all made by the best quality obsidian. Written on them were even more runes.

"How unfortunate. We wouldn't be able to test her power in real combat, it seemed."

“Oh, we can. My system can already harness her power, though at a much limited capacity. I’ll tell you later on how we can use it to our advantage tomorrow.”

A man and a woman stood in front of the half-fey. The Demon Lord of Wisdom and his fifth wife, Adele Naturia.

Adele turned her head to the side to look at him, furrowing her brows. "You don’t need her power, no? That whelp is no match for your power, surely?"

The Demon Lord paused for a few moments, gazing at the half fairy suspended in the air above him.

"No. But whoever that human is, he is an extraordinary one. It would be wise for us not to underestimate him."

The woman crossed her arms in front of her chest, seemingly unsatisfied with his answer.

"Hmph, how can you yearn to be the new Demon God if you can't defeat a simple human? Unless you believe he's been chosen as the next Legendary Hero? Impossible. He's an enemy of the Human Church, remember? And we know there's a better candidate for the title."

The Demon Lord didn't say anything in return. He merely furrowed his brows as he remembered—that day he met her.

ㅤ

"Finally! About time you made your appearance, O Wise Demon Lord!"

With a grin, the pink-haired woman watched as the tall horned man entered the room.

He looked around her feet, only to see his most elite guards defeated—their corpses filling the hallway she just traversed.

This unwanted intruder had done something he truly believed to be impossible. She had somehow entered the fortress, cutting through the enchantments his wives had woven.

And she immediately demanded for his presence, yelling at the top of her lungs that she challenged him to a fight.

Alerted by her presence, his royal guards moved into action.

Only for her to kill every single one of them.

He was right not to send his wives against her. They'd most likely end up having the same fate as them, even though they were stronger. For the aura she exuded, it actually gave fear to him, a powerful Demon Lord.

It was not an opponent they could fight against.

It had to be him.

"Greetings!" Her pearly white teeth glinted, reflecting the light coming from the candelabra above. "I suppose an introduction is in order?”

He didn’t respond. He could only watch with a wary expression at the human woman standing before him.

“The name’s Isolde! Isolde Hrothgar! The strongest swordswoman in the world!”

She pointed her sword towards him, a smirk adorning her face.

“I challenge you, Demon Lord of Wisdom, to a fight! And I hope you fare better than your other Demon Lord friend I beat up before!”

ᅠ

In the end, he lost.

She cut his left and right arm. She could’ve finished him right then and there but she decided not to.

The reason?

“That was an entertaining fight! Tend to your wounds and grow stronger so our next fight would be even better!”

And just like that, she left.

He could regenerate his arms just fine. But his pride… it was shattered into pieces.

There was no way he could’ve lost to a human.

The only reason he did was because she was chosen. Because she was the next Legendary Hero.

He knew the truth—that the world would soon be reset—that a Hero and a Demon God would resurface once more.

If he were to be the Demon God, then it would only be natural that there would be a Hero as well.

And that person could only be her.

After all… once… he gave him mercy… just like she did…

ᅠ

“How about the Izurd? You want to make her be your wife, no?”

The voice of the elf brought him back to reality.

“Yes. Her strength would be a boon to us.”

“She would never go along with it.”

“Then you can just give her this treatment.”

His gaze returned to the slumbering half-fairy. This ritual she was the subject of… it was the ritual to extract her fairy power out of her.

As a demon of the Naturia species, he had the capability of absorbing the power of other demons. Normally, this would be done with him snatching her heart off her body and eating it before it stopped beating but it wouldn’t work with a fairy like her. Unfortunately, his racial ability didn’t include the absorption of fey powers. As such, he ordered his clever elven wife, the best mage he ever knew, even as he traveled the world in his younger days, to develop a special ritual that would allow him to do so.

As for how Victoria ended up being the victim of such ritual…

“Heeeyyy you two! You shouldn’t be here! You should be in the war room instead! The others are waiting for you, you know!”

From above, a woman with butterfly wings descended with a smile on her face.

Selene Naturia. The third wife of the Demon Lord.

The archfey didn’t land, choosing to hover mid-air instead, staring at her handiwork.

It was her after all who entrapped Victoria in the first place. With the aid of Adele, of course, but she did most of the work! She only slumbered like that because of her curse, aided by the magic of the elf.

The archfey shook her head. It was a shame really. That she was still not willing to aid them in their goals even after she awakened her fey powers. She instead tried to escape. She even dared to warp her fey domain in order to do so, knowing that she would never escape with it still on. If not for the reinforcements Adele had set to the charm…

"You're still not finished?" She yelled at the elf.

"No." Adele shouted back, amplifying her normal voice using magic. "I told you it'd take some time."

The archfey descended, landing beside her husband, wrapping her arms around his.

"See? I told you Adele isn't that reliable." She smirked, caressing his chest. "You should've listened to my advice and marched to those insolent ogres right away. Why should we stay on the defensive? You know we're strong enough to take them all, even without the full might of our army."

To her chagrin, her flirtatious action was not received the way she expected it to.

"I've told you before, haven’t I?" His voice turned harsher, his gaze colder. "There’s a high possibility that Hugo Greenwood was responsible for the disappearance of Virana. The last place she was sighted was at that World Dungeon and at that time, Hugo Greenwood was there as well. In fact, she was supposed to chase after his followers after she had disposed of him.”

"Hmph, that vixen…" The archfey pouted. "She's weaker than you, is she not? So even if he did kill—"

"She's still a Demon Lord. You would be a fool to underestimate a man that can kill her."

The archfey, realizing that her husband was not in the mood to flirt with her, retracted her arms. Still pouting, she flew away, circling around the large open room with her wings.

"I don't believe that Hugo Greenwood was the one responsible for her disappearance. It's more likely that she simply left, losing interest in the task you had given her, no?" Adele commented with crossed arms.

"...True. But we cannot discount that possibility. You've read the reports. From his homeland all the way to here, he had brought a trail of destruction in his wake."

He, of course, had sent out spies to gather information relating to him. His name was already in his book ever since he slaughtered those S-rank adventurers all those months ago. He had to keep tabs on the strong.

Still, even knowing all his feats, that woman was far more suited to the title of Hero than he was.

And, as long as he wasn't a hero, he could beat him. He was sure of it. He, who would become the new Demon God, could only lose to the new Legendary Hero.

"Well," Adele spoke, interrupting his thoughts. "We should go. We need to prepare for the war tomorrow. If they still foolishly think to attack us anyway."

"...You're right. We should go."

Giving one last look at Victoria, the Demon Lord grabbed her hand.

Before they disappeared in a flash of light.

ㅤ

Hugo

That morning, under the cacophony of the ogres' war trumpets and drums, we departed for war.

With no signs of the Demon Lord's army moving from the capital, it was clear as day that they wished for us to come to them. No doubt they had fortified their positions, possibly even putting some runic traps on the field.

That Demon Lord was a clever one. Or a coward. Whichever interpretation you preferred. Still, it fit his moniker to a T. The Wise Demon Lord.

I rode on the front line along with the others—each of us having our own Scarabs. The ogres didn’t really have a lot of the creature but for their big wigs, it was only natural that they would be given a mount to ride.

As for the rest, well, they would have to walk. No cavalry battalion or anything here.

Kiri and Aria were riding with me, with Kiri in the middle and Aria behind her. The latter had recovered from her embarrassment, from the kiss she stole from me last night. Though it was more like that we both pretended that it didn’t happen.

Hmm? Why don't I dismiss them, you ask? Simple. They wanted to stay. They knew I was heading into combat and they wanted to stay by my side.

Still, I could feel their soft bodies wrapped around mine, which was definitely a plus! Despite earning glares from Sherry in the process, who was riding beside me.

"Wow! So many ogres! And they're all running with us! So this is how mortals do that war thing!" Kiri proclaimed as she turned her head to look behind her. Her arms were wrapped around my stomach while her boobs were squished to my back.

"I think this is more fun than that intercourse thing you did yesterday, Master! To be honest, I don’t understand why you, Miss Sherry, and Miss Felicia seem to enjoy it so much…"

If I were drinking something now, I'd spit it out for sure.

Shit, that's right. I didn't send her away. So she got to see the entire orgy.

Though, at least she doesn't seem to have any interest in it. Is it her fairy brain or is it just because of her childish mind?

Thank God Aria wasn't there. Or else she might be asking for it now. She kissed me after all.

"Intercourse?" The earth sprite tilted her head. "Ah, that thing Miss Tira talked about. How was it like?"

"It's… It's weird… There's a lot of groaning and moaning and everyone is taking their clothes off… it's just bizarre, I tell you!"

The two talked about it more for some time, with me having to sit there in silence. This is not the time for me to teach two innocent girls about sex!

Suddenly, I felt someone staring in my direction.

It wasn’t Sherry or Felicia.

It was Myrilla.

Ah, right, she hasn't forgiven me for yesterday.

The moment I stepped out of my tent this morning, I got a passive-aggressive scolding from her, with her telling me that I was being shameless, doing what I did. Followed by her telling me that I was just like my father before storming off with a huff.

Oi oi aren't you being a prude here? Just because you don't want sex doesn't mean others don't want it too!

I didn't say it to her face but I was pretty sure she could read it from my mind anyway.

I gave the demoness a smile and a wave.

Ouch! I rubbed my temple. Where did that headache come from?

…She… she was the one who gave it to me, didn't she?

Judging by her cold, hostile stare, it was totally her!

Myrilla, I'm not a child anymore! I can have sex with whoever I want, wherever I want! Even out in the open last night! I yelled in my mind, thinking she should be able to hear me. Look, I know it's hard not having a lover, but that doesn't mean you can just— Argh! Another wave of headache came, interrupting my thoughts.

Myrilla looked away, moving her scarab behind Felicia’s until she was out of my sight.

Sheesh, what a sour woman! No wonder Alan chose Renee over her!

ㅤ

Half a day later, with the sun right above his head, we finally arrived.

"Halt! Halt!" I yelled, using magic to enhance the volume of my voice.

The ogres obeyed. They all acknowledged me as their superior, even above their own chiefs.

On the horizon, the capital was visible, with the floating fortress above it.

But, more importantly, we saw their army standing on the barren field. We pretty much had to go through them if we were ever going to reach the city.

Hmm, they're not moving. They're waiting for us to attack, it seems.

It's a trap. It has to be.

"Lord Hugo, we should attack right now." Orluk said after moving his Scarab right beside mine. "There’s not that many of them. Our intel was right. Most of the Demon Lord's soldiers are up north, guarding the human lands he had taken."

He then gave me his binoculars, allowing me to see the army on the horizon better.

Let's see here… hmm, there's all kinds of demon races… even aerial ones, flying in the sky…

As for the amount… just from eyeballing it…

Yeah, I think our numbers are superior.

It doesn't matter though. What matters more is the Demon Lord and his wives. They can wreak havoc on our army if we don't take them out at once. Especially the former. Demon Lords can take out entire armies on their own after all.

Heh, just like in those stories… mooks don't matter. All that matters are the protagonists and the antagonists, duking it out on the battlefield.

And then, I noticed it. A glint of black coming out from the floating fortress.

…Hmm… that's…

My eyes widened. My heart skipped a beat.

It was a massive laser beam made out of purplish-black color. Heading right to where we were.

"Everyone! Activate your barrier spells!"

I jumped forward, jetting upwards to the skies.

"Wind Fortress!"

I erected my barrier, expanding it to cover the entire army in just a second.

The ogres' spellcasters—they called them shamans—quickly did the same, their combined efforts creating a massive dome on top of my shield. They too hardened the air to create their shield.

The massive dark beam crashed into their spell first, resulting in screams of anguish from the shamans as their power strained against it. It didn’t take long until their barrier shattered, the beam hitting my own spell next.

"Grhhhh… gaahhhh!"

T-this beam… this is some powerful magic!

I have to… Deconstruct it!

I focused my mind, separating my mana flow into two, aiming one at the barrier and the other at the black beam crashing into it.

"Deconstruct!"

I disturbed the mana the spell was consisting of, weakening its power considerably. Only then I managed to stabilize my barrier.

Half a minute later, the spell stopped, leaving me panting on mid-air.

That was… that was close!

I looked across the horizon, to where the black beam came from.

The Naturia Fortress.

There was only one explanation that came into my mind.

The caster was the Demon Lord himself.

"Chaaargeeee! Don't let them fire that spell again!"

Without waiting for my command, the ogres made their move. One of the chieftains shouted the order and the others, after recovering from their stupor, quickly followed.

Hoo boy this won't be pretty!

I didn't tell them to stop. If they stayed here, that meant I would have to face the Demon Lord and his army alone. And that would be bad.

Still, it was a really risky move nonetheless. If I were the Demon Lord, I would've set up traps in the ground to whittle out our numbers.

Which was exactly what happened next.

"Guahhh!"

"Arghhh!"

The ground exploded — invisible minefields activating from the hordes of ogres running over it. The screams of the ogres filled the air, only beaten by the yelling of those still fit enough to run, despite their injuries.

Wow, these ogres — they're more durable than I thought.

"Kiri!" I yelled, summoning the familiar in her fairy form beside me as I flew together with the army below "Can you rain down your healing water over the battlefield?”

“Yes, Master, right away!”

The fairy then flew upwards, raising her arms to the sides and closing her eyes. Immediately a surge of warm water came out from palms, raining down onto the ogres below.

Only, it wasn’t enough. The range of her artificial rain was too narrow to cover the entire battlefield. She might be able to fly beside them but they wouldn’t be able to heal all of them at the same time.

Dammit, should I use my rank up magic on her? It’s a waste of mana but I can’t just let these ogres take a beating before they could reach the opposing army!

My decision was not mine to make however.

For something else far more terrifying than mere landmines had appeared right on top of our heads.

That’s… oh no…

My heart sank.

It was a massive magic circle in the sky above, at least one kilometer wide in diameter. Its color was pitch black and it was pulsating in power as it absorbed the mana it needed for the spell it would fire.

It was a sight I was all too familiar with.

After all, something similar used to haunt my nightmares a few years back.

It’s just like that Grandmaster-level spell that Inquisitor used back at Fiania…

There was no escaping it. Even if we ran, we couldn’t make it out of its range in time.

I activated my Sight, focusing on the mana trail being pumped into it.

Sure enough, it came from the floating fortress.

Too far. I can’t kill the caster from this range..

We had to take it. We had to take a Grandmaster-level spell to the face and survive.

That, or weaken it considerably with my anti-spell.

I flew upwards, focusing half of my raw mana to disturb the flow of the mana trail I was seeing. And then, splitting my focus as if I was dual-casting, I sent another half of my raw mana towards the magic circle itself, hoping to dissolve it before it could fire. As for how I stayed up in the sky, I repeatedly stepped on the air using my aura, forgoing my Wind Step entirely.

Come on come on come on come on!

I could feel my mana draining from my body. The massive amount of mana I needed to disturb meant I had to expend a lot of mana as well. Whoever was casting this had an immense reservoir of it, far beyond my own capability.

It’s the Demon Lord, isn’t it? It has to be!

I didn’t have time to think about it, however.

“Milord, more beams coming your way!” I heard Felicia yell.

Crap, I don’t have time to—

“On it!”

Oh yeah, I have Sherry!

I couldn’t see her since my eyes were locked at the magic circle but I could feel the wind blowing upwards, no doubt from her jumping all the way to where I was.

“Hugo! You take care of that thing! I’ll take care of the beams!”

“Got it!”

Reassured by her presence, I refocused my attention all towards the spell. I just have to find it—the structural weakness in this massive spell! Then the whole thing will come crashing down!

I could hear the sound of the beam crashing into Sherry’s hair, followed by her grunts as she kept the shield from breaking.

Hold on tight, Sherry! Just a little longer!

And then, after what seemed like an eternity, I finally cracked the code.

The magic circle short-circuited, its own power destroying itself. A split second later, it shattered, all the mana dissolving into their raw, ambient form.

I-I did it!

I just stopped a Grandmaster-level spell before it gets casted!

I had no time to celebrate, however, for the situation down on the ground had only gotten worse.

“Shamans! Fortify the ground! Do not let them make our brethrens fall to the chasm!”

The very earth itself was opening, sending everyone unfortunate enough to be standing on it to the dark abyss below. Some of the ogres managed to jump out of the way but others were simply caught off-guard by the vibration, losing their balance and footing, resulting in them unable to move until it was already too late.

I was, of course, familiar with the magic being used. It was the same earth magic Marina demonstrated to me back when we were still kids.

I activated my Sight, scouting where the caster was by the flow of mana that was manipulating the earth. And this time around, it wasn’t the work of the Demon Lord. Instead, it was the work of the spellcasters in his army.

From that far away? Damn, they got quite the range.

I then saw Aria conjuring her bricks, creating platforms that prevented the ogres from falling down to their deaths.

Good thinking, Aria! Keep doing what you're doing!

As for the spell itself, I'll just dispel it again!

"Sherry, can you carry me closer to the ground? And protect me like before in case they try to attack me again."

"You're dispelling the earthquake next? Got it." She nodded. "I'll be your shield. You just do your magic stuff, alright?"

She lowered herself and me in an instant. She had gone all the way up to the sky by using her hair as a lift and now she could shorten said hair to lower us back down to the ground. Thankfully, I could give my leg muscles a rest from jumping over and over in the air.

Once I was close enough to the ground, I began disturbing the mana flow being fed into the earth. To my surprise, even though there had to be hundreds, if not thousands of mages on the opposite side, all channeling their mana for this spell, I found the whole spell to be a lot easier to dispel.

Ooh, I get it! Their mana is not perfectly in sync! That creates a lot of weaknesses in their flow that I can exploit!

If you were to ask me to explain how I could know the weak spots of a spell, I wouldn’t know how to explain it. I simply could sense it, just like the way I could feel the wind blowing on my skin and the nearest skirt that would fly up from it. It was more of an instinct than something I actively thought about.

After defeating the earthquakes and fissures, we were now close enough for the enemy to fire their arrows at us. And of course, it couldn’t be just any ordinary arrows. Instead, the arrows had seeker runes written on them, resulting in them possessing homing capabilities, enhancing their accuracy significantly.

Still, the ogres were nothing but durable. A lot of them just shrugged off the arrow wounds they suffered. Even when there were three, four, or even more arrows sticking out from their skin, they still charged forward. I imagined that since they were now more than halfway across the battlefield, they refused to die before at least decapitating an enemy’s head with their axes.

The enemy’s spellcasters, after recovering from my disruption of their spell, casted another spell. Only this time, there were two spells being used at once—a hurricane spell and a fire wall spell.

I didn't give them the opportunity.

"Grand Tornado!"

Now that I was sufficiently close to them, I dropped a tornado right on top of their faces, sending them into chaos and confusion.

Now, I would've used the Grandmaster-level version instead, which could probably wipe the entire army in an instant, but I knew the real threat wasn't them. It was the Demon Lord. And I would be screwing over myself if I wasted my mana before facing him.

As hundreds of their soldiers flew up to the skies, swirled around by my spell, I cast another spell to destroy a different part of their army. I rained down thunderstorms over their heads, destroying their formation entirely by the many lightning strikes they had to dodge.

Alright. I think that’s it for the mooks. The ogres can take care of the rest. Now where's the boss?

I looked up to the floating fortress. Still no sign of the Demon Lord coming around.

Seriously? There's no way he's just going to abandon them, is there?

Suddenly, Kiri flew to my side, a panicked expression on her face.

"Master! Master! There's a lot of fey magic gathering up there on that floating castle!" She pointed to the fortress.

Huh? Fey magic? Is his fairy wife making a move? Whatever it is, it can't be good.

But should I go up there? Wouldn't I just be walking into a trap?

Unfortunately, the decision was not for me to make.

In a flash, another giant magic circle manifested in the sky, expanding from the bottom of the flying fortress to the entire battlefield.

And then, my sight turned pure white.

ㅤ

A/N:

The more I write about Myrilla, the more I want her to join in the harem :D