Chapter 537 An Unseen Agenda

Near the coast where the fighting was fiercest.

“Draw your sword—slash!”

Boom!

With a flash of sword light, all the monsters around Armen were torn to pieces.

“Huff… I’m beat.”

He tried to catch his breath, only to look up and see even more monsters surging forward.

“You’ve got to be kidding me? Why are there more and more?!”

“What, giving up already~?”

A lazy voice came from behind.

Armen turned around.

There stood Monroe, a sword slung at his side in his right hand, an empty wine bottle in his left.

“Senior Monroe?”

Monroe grinned.

“Watch closely! I’ll show you how it’s done!”

With that, he lifted the bottle and tilted his head back.

Gulp, gulp!

He drained the wine in one go.

“Ah, refreshing—!”

Smash!

He tossed the empty bottle aside.

The blade in Monroe’s right hand began to glow.

The next moment—

BOOM—!!!

A massive sword aura swept out.

Hundreds of monsters at the front were cut clean in half by that single strike.

“Th… that’s amazing.”

“You’ll get swarmed if you stand there gawking. I’m going in.”

With that, Monroe flashed and charged straight into the monster horde.

Armen’s eyes lit up, and he shouted excitedly:

“I’m coming too—!”

Hum!

Mana poured into his sword.

“Haah—!”

He slashed down.

One monster after another fell.

Boom!

Armen then threw himself into the fray like a living war machine.

Zooming out to the battlefield where Armen fought,

The author's publication page is the source of this chapter, yet permission was not granted for the copy shown here.

one could see that though few in number, experts who could easily fend off hundreds of monsters were cutting through the horde.

This scene played out at every attacked stretch of the Eastern Coastal Defenses.

As the battle dragged on, the Demon Lord Army’s attacks grew fiercer. At the peak of the assault—

BOOM—!!!

Streaking across the sky, meteors brimming with overwhelming power cut past the rear lines, soaring over the ocean.

Their arrival seized the entire battlefield’s attention.

“The Heroes have joined the fight!”

The Allied soldiers realized at once what was happening.

Likewise, the Demon Commander hiding behind the monster army knew he was exposed and tried to flee at once.

But the Heroes gave him no chance.

Boom! Boom…

After a series of deafening roars, the ocean fell silent.

The monster army, which had been attacking wildly, suddenly fell into chaos.

“The Heroes have won! Charge—!”

Sensing the moment, the Himril Allied Forces launched a full counterattack. The demon forces retreated steadily, driven back into the sea…

As the setting sun bathed the land, the last monster fell. The long, ceaseless battle finally fell silent.

The once-chaotic ocean, now calm, glowed blood-red—whether from the sunset or truly stained with blood, no one could tell…

New Divine Calendar, mid-June 793.

The Demon Lord Army crossed the Stormy Sea and launched a massive invasion of the Himril Mainland.

Led by the Six Heroes, the Allied Forces repelled the attack and won a crushing victory.

But just a few days later,

the Demon Lord Army struck again.

Though the second attack was also repelled,

such assaults became constant over the next two months.

High-Rank Demons and even Demon Commanders appeared one after another—over ten in total.

But all fell to the Six Heroes in the end.

New Divine Calendar, mid-August 793.

The Demon Lord Army launched the strongest—and final—assault of the campaign.

…

Pitch-black clouds hung over the coastal waters.

The oppressive aura was so heavy that even the waves vanished.

Several figures hovered in the sky above the ocean, locked in a standoff.

“Hmph, the Heroes?”

A shadow exuding terrifying aura scoffed.

“Let me see just how capable you are now.”

“Whoa… what’s with this guy? He looks bad news!”

“Don’t panic.”

Aralond said calmly.

“We are not what we once were. Even against an Archdemon Commander, we can win together.”

“Arrogant fools! Die, all of you—!”

“Let’s go—!”

The fiercest battle of the entire campaign erupted over the ocean.

The shockwaves from their clash raged like a typhoon, unleashing massive tsunami after tsunami.

The storm raged from day until night.

Until…

“Impossible! I… I actually—

fell here?!!”

BOOM—!!!

Right before dawn,

gigantic fireworks lit up the battlefield sky.

With that, a second Archdemon Commander fell.

The two-month massive offensive by the Demon Lord Army was officially defeated.

…

Bongisto, the High Council of Seven Sages.

“We all understand the situation…”

Irus tapped the table lightly and said.

“Share your thoughts.”

“There’s something very wrong here…” Laki spoke up.

“From what we’ve seen, the situation is worse than Irus predicted. The Demon Lord Army not only fits the second hypothesis—having far greater strength than us—but also launched their attack earlier than expected.”

“They’ve almost certainly found a way to shorten the suppression time of the Forbidden Zone, even if it’s imperfect.”

“But that’s exactly the problem…”

“Why would the Demon Lord Army deliberately use a costly, piecemeal tactic?

They could easily crush us with all their strength at once, yet…”

Laki paused before voicing a bizarre conclusion.

“It’s almost as if they’re holding back, afraid we can’t take the full force of their attack.”

“…”

The council chamber fell silent.

They’d all noticed the problem halfway through the offensive.

At the time, they’d agreed it was a diversion—the Demon Lord Army must have another goal.

To find out,

the High Council of Seven Sages had deployed valuable frontline troops to patrol across the continent.

Special forces were also sent to spy on the Demon Continent.

And as a precaution,

Irus, Hulim Heyerar, and Esmelon had not fought once, remaining on high alert for a major strike.

But when an Archdemon Commander died at the Heroes’ hands, the assumed “hidden agenda” fell apart.

No plan would sacrifice beings second only to the Demon Lord himself. Archdemon Commanders were the Demon Lord Army’s highest tier. There was no reason to sacrifice them when they held the advantage.

So, as bizarre as it seemed,

the Demon Lord Army… was truly fighting a piecemeal war.

“Hah? Is this Demon Lord an idiot?”

Russell said, bewildered.

“Even the dumbest adventurer wouldn’t do something so stupid! If that’s the case, we might win easily~!”

“No… it’s not that simple.”

Arthur said gravely.

“A Demon Lord leading such an unprecedentedly powerful army can’t be a fool—they’d never gain obedience.”

“So this isn’t a reckless order born of overconfidence. It’s far more likely—

there’s a terrifying reason behind it we can’t even fathom.”