Chapter 266
In the Demon race, there exist three noble houses that boast of ancient traditions.
Gedriken, Soldre, and Pasik.
Among them, Gedriken is also famous as the house that produced Dorithugs, the former 1st Corps Commander.
Each member of these three houses consists of high-ranking demons, and their numbers are also tremendous.
The demons under their influence alone account for as much as 20% of the total.
Therefore, among the demon representatives, they held the strongest voice.
Pure blood and a sense of chosen people were natural to them, and they had enough power to support such ideology.
The heads of these three houses, who held power equivalent to the core of the demon race.
They did not look favorably upon the new Demon King Sidriel.
“How long do we have to revere such a brat as the Demon King?” “We have no choice since Dorithugs was defeated.”
“That’s precisely what’s most suspicious. Dorithugs being defeated by such a young Demon King, is that even possible? There must have been some foul play.”
From their perspective, Sidriel held beliefs that made them question whether she was human or demon.
You could tell by her behavior that frequently violated the demon spirit.
Such an incompetent person being the Demon King, this is a disgrace to the demon race.
Moreover, they didn’t like how she seemed to subtly oppose their influence.
So the three houses had been finding fault with Sidriel’s every move.
“Finally, the Demon King has come to her senses.”
However, today is a bit different.
For the first time since Sidriel became Demon King, she showed behavior that was to their liking.
“Peace with humans was nonsense from the start.”
“I’m not happy about this sudden attack from behind, but since the opponents are humans, it should be fine.”
The order to annihilate humans.
More precisely, it was to go behind the humans and launch a surprise attack.
It wasn’t difficult since the operation area, time, and movement routes were planned in detail.
From what they heard, there has been a massive civil war among humans recently, and it seemed like a plan to expand demon influence by taking advantage of this opportunity.
“Is it those crazy ones again?”
“Those beings that we don’t even know if they’re human. They did have quite the momentum.”
“Hmph, they were still worthless beings in the end. Not worth paying attention to.”
In fact, they had encountered human armies several times on their way here.
All of them were humans who had lost their minds.
They were strong for humans, but they were still just humans.
From the start, the three houses brought 150,000 elite demons.
Dealing with humans who didn’t even number a quarter of that was easier than eating hot stew.
“Seems like we’re almost there.”
“I heard there are quite a lot of them this time, I’m looking forward to it.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve had a feast. Hehe!”
Just as the heads of the three houses were showing their ugly smiles.
A demon who went out for reconnaissance returned.
“L-Lord Pirma! This is terrible!”
For some reason, the scout was sweating cold sweat and trembling.
Seeing this pathetic sight, Pirma, the head of the Gedriken house, frowned.
“Terrible? What are you talking about?”
“… There are too many enemies. The numbers are beyond imagination!”
“Huh?”
Pirma snorted.
It was so absurd he couldn’t even laugh.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“Lord Pirma! This is not something to take lightly! There are so many humans advancing that they fill the plains and still overflow…”
“Silence!”
Pirma thundered.
This scout is a member of the Gedriken house.
His face burned with shame at his subordinate showing such disgraceful behavior in front of the heads of other houses.
“Useless fool! Trembling just because there are a few more humans. You dare call yourself a member of the Gedriken house!”
“… I apologize.”
“If you have a brain, use it to think! Isn’t it better if there are more humans? We can kill and eat as many as we want. Or are you perhaps thinking that our three houses would lose to mere humans!?”
The scout kept his head down and couldn’t say anything.
He felt wronged, but if he said anything more, he might really lose his head.
He could only think to himself.
That they were saying such things because they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes.
He would wait and see if they could still spout such nonsense after seeing the enemy forces themselves.
It was then that the ground began to shake.
Thud thud thud…!
A slight vibration accompanied by noise.
The heads of the three houses looked in one direction as if by agreement.
“Finally, they’re coming!”
“The party’s about to begin!”
“It’s time for slaughter!”
Far away, at the edge of the plain’s hill, a group of humans appeared.
They were still so far away that they looked like tiny ants, but they moved so quickly that one could feel them getting closer in real-time.
Thud thud thud thud thud…!
“Hmm, there certainly are many of them.”
“That must be at least 200,000.”
The humans that had been at the edge of the hill now covered half of it.
Even at this point, the heads of the three houses didn’t know.
That this number was just a very, very small portion of the whole.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD…!
The vibrations and noise grew large enough to be clearly felt.
The humans not only covered the entire hill but were consuming the whole plain.
Humans were everywhere the eye could see.
Looking at the gathering and swarming in black masses, one couldn’t help but get goosebumps.
“H-How many are there?”
“Just what’s visible seems to be over five million… And they’re still increasing.”
By this point, even the heads of the three houses began to feel their lips go dry.
There was already a 20-fold difference in numbers, and the gap was still widening.
“… What do you plan to do?”
“What do you mean what! They’re still just humans. While we are the elite of the demon race! This is the stage where we’ll show our true worth!”
“That’s right. When you think about it, it’s not difficult. If each demon takes care of twenty humans, we’ll win, right?”
Pirma, the head of Gedriken, swallowed his anger.
How could these so-called heads of house say such stupid things?
One demon handling twenty humans versus groups fighting groups are completely different matters.
Group versus group combat is several times more difficult.
Moreover, it was obvious these weren’t ordinary humans.
The enemy numbers that now densely packed the plain seemed to exceed ten million.
No matter how elite the demons were, could they achieve victory against such overwhelming numbers?
“Pirma. What’s wrong? You’re not thinking of running away, are you?”
“Of course not… I was just wondering what kind of plague would spread when all those corpses rot.”
“Creating undead with necromancy wouldn’t be bad either. Though I’m not sure if it’ll work with such dense holy power.”
Pirma had no choice.
Those who run away here are weak and cowards.
And in a demon society, the weak and cowardly have no right to stand above others and die out.
That’s why they had to give the same order today.
“Let’s begin the operation according to the ancient traditions of the demon race.”
Pirma took a deep breath and released his demon energy with a thundering voice.
“All forces! CHARGE!!!”