NOVEL WEB
Chapter 281:
In Astera, demons were terrifying monsters made of iron.
They were dangerous inhabitants of the demon world, and they had the ambition to conquer the whole continent as the minions of the demon king.
That was how the people of Astera saw them.
These dangerous neighbors were an inseparable part of Asteras history, but surprisingly, their appearance frequency was low compared to their infamy.
In recent decades, they only occasionally appeared in mines and killed miners, and did not cause much harm otherwise.
Every time they appeared, the lords or the king would panic and close the mines, and this was the reason why Sagris silver mine in Bagran was closed.
Since the tunnels were so narrow, they could not send in Goliaths, so it was better to give up on the mines.
These demons were known to have their size and strength divided precisely according to their rank.
Humans or elves had different heights and weights for each individual, but demons had a certain limit line.
For example, the smallest and least threatening Grok had the size of a small cart and never exceeded the upper ranks.
That did not mean that these guys were easy to deal with.
Their whole body was made of living metal, which made them extremely hard and tenacious.
Goliaths were much bigger, but Groks were so numerous that it was very difficult to subdue them.
And if it came to higher demons, legion commanders, and even the demon king, it would be a situation where the whole Astera would tremble in fear.
Fortunately, such things rarely happened in Asteras history.
As you can tell from the phrase rarely happened, there were occasional cases, but the elves hid the records so that people could not know the truth.
Because of this limited information, most people did not know how to deal with demons.
This was also true for Elvrande, who knew demons best.
After decades, a massive ether storm blew and a gate finally opened.
This gate was connected to various places in Astera, and one of them opened right in the middle of Medea in Elvrande.
When young elves wondered about the blue gate that suddenly appeared, old ones who had experience ran away in fear.
Its a gate!
Its demons! The demons are invading!
As the elves scattered, demons poured out of the gate.
From the lowest Grok to the higher Hyphex, and even the commander Tyrant were seen.
They roared with joy as soon as they arrived at Medea.
Finally, we are here!
For demons who lived on Mare, a barren planet, Astera was a perfect paradise.
Most of the demons aimed to take over Astera and rule it, and this was not much different for higher beings.
Mare had its advantages for increasing troops and expanding nests, but it was inconvenient in many ways for living.
This feeling told that demons were not simple monsters, but a race that was not much different from Ains. But as always, there were few people who were interested in this.
Commander Tyrant was a mantis-shaped demon who was so huge that he could look down on the two-story buildings around him.
He smashed buildings lightly with his blades on his forelegs and roared with joy.
This is surely the capital of elves! If I report this to the queen, she will be very pleased! Listen! K**l everything that moves!
He had been stressed by Lucia, a new demon king who had been tormenting him for a while. It was a fortunate thing that he could vent here.
But they had little chance of ruling Medea.
The gate formation caused by the ether storm was sporadic and temporary.
For complete domination, a permanent gate was needed. But that was an achievement that even Aphrocsia, the first-ranked demon king, could not achieve.
As demons ran wild, Elven Knights came out.
They were Drizdens direct troops who were also in charge of defending the capital.
They had a small divine power installed on Goliaths. Their combat power was incomparable to that of previous Belial-class ones.
K**l the demons!
We must stop them from entering the presidential office!
As Elven Knights stepped forward desperately, a front line was formed.
Many Groks were definitely threatening. But because they were small. They could not withstand new Belial-class ones made of living metal.
A simple kick sent them flying to the corner and smashed them.
A sword strike caused near-fatal damage.
But when it came to Hyphex-class beings. They did not go down so easily.
And Tyrant. The commander showed off his combat power by fighting many Goliaths at once without retreating.
We will k**l you and burn down Yggdrasil! That is our destiny!
For elves. Yggdrasil was an absolute being and an object of worship.
You mantis-like demon b*****d!
Ill cut open your belly and see whats inside!
Some excited Elven Knights stepped forward.
Tyrant pretended to be surprised and backed away.
New Belial-class ones used shadow step to approach. But two Groks jumped out of the ground and clung to them.
Let go of this!
Where did you come from!
Hahaha! D*e!
Bang!
The bellies of the two Groks swelled up and exploded.
Even though they were made of living metal. Goliaths could not withstand the explosion and fell down, spewing black smoke.
Cra, crazy
Werent they supposed to have intelligence for each individual?
Using subordinates as s*****e bombers was a tactic that was not seen in previous demons.
It was because Lucia, a powerful demon king, appeared and swept them away. That they resorted to such extreme methods.
The problem was that they were still pushed back even after doing that. But the elves did not know that.
Commander Tyrant smiled arrogantly and extended his blade.
How about that? There are still many Groks.
Many demons still poured out of the still-open gate. And the whole plaza was filled with demons.
Elven Knights were completely fed up with their numbers. But they could not retreat here.
A flying ship appeared in the sky of Medea.
And Krishna, a divine power, was also mobilized.
It was one of the Elven Pantheons that was known to have been destroyed during the Great War.
A giant woman who resembled an elf appeared in the air. Elven Knights cheered in unison.
Ooooh!
For victory! For Krishna!
A great battle broke out in Medea.
***
A grade 3 ether storm has been detected. The gate is expected to last for about 5 minutes and then disappear. I will mark the location.
Blue dots flashed all over the Astera continent.
The sudden ether storm and gate phenomenon startled even Leobold and Arma.
There had been no signs for decades.
The only thing that was suspicious was Omega Ones voice that Lucia heard.
As soon as her will was conveyed, Mares ether shook violently and then a storm was created.
Its amazing that she made a storm with a weak ether used for will transmission.
Its certain that Omega One has become stronger than before.
I dont know where shes getting her power from, but
He was very bothered by the fact that she was eagerly waiting for a chance to enter the Aether Universe.
The only fortunate thing was that she couldnt enter without Lucia as a catalyst.
As long as they secured Lucia, they could block Omega Ones entry at the source.
But he wasnt without worries.
He was concerned about the possibility of Lucias corruption by her voice.
So far, she had managed to resist Omega Ones temptation, but he couldnt guarantee that she would continue to do so.
He was also troubled by the word guardian.
What does it mean that Plague is a guardian?
I have a hypothesis about that.
Arma covered the planetary system, including Terra and Mare, with a huge sphere.
This Aether Universe is easy to exit, but hard to enter. Even a god could send a living beings soul to the past, after all.
Thats right. Terahok is a great god, but its impossible for him to pierce through space-time and send souls with just a relic, not his main body.
It was clear that he had borrowed the power of Yggdrasil, but even considering that, it was almost impossible.
Leobold had to use the warp gate opened by the prophet to enter this universe.
A mere god of Astera couldnt mobilize such a massive energy.
If I draw the structure of the Aether Universe according to my hypothesis, it would look like this.
What Arma showed on the hologram was an egg.
It looks like an egg.
I guess this whole universe is a kind of incubator. Astera can be seen as a bed, and the current races can be compared to babies crying on the bed.
Really
It was known in Astera mythology that Rasa created many races.
If a baby was born in an ordinary household, they wouldnt just leave it alone.
They would buy various supplies and prepare for education.
Thats what Astera was prepared for.
But what does Plague being a guardian have to do with that?
I think its a role to protect this egg from external threats. He originally had that role, but he might have been corrupted by some cause.
Corruption Omega One wouldnt think of it as corruption.
Just like the gods of Astera, she might be a kind of algorithm. Something interfered and caused a bug in the algorithm.
It wouldnt be Rasa
There was something unknown here that they didnt know.
But what if Omega One lied?
What are the chances that she lied to lure Lucia and open the door?
About 30%
Thats not negligible.
Anyway, it didnt seem like Lucia would fall into corruption anytime soon.
The more frequent her voices temptation was, the more Leobold grew inside her. Statues were constantly being made in the nest.
It would be nice if that was just loyalty.
He would have accepted her if she was human, but he was very embarrassed because she was a living metal creature.
Arma had promised something with her, but pretended not to know and said,
We can easily close this gate with our current technology.
Which side do you think is better for us?
Not closing it is much better. Theyll do our work for us.
Then lets leave it.
As he did on Earth in the 21st century, Leobold wanted some chaos.
It wasnt an uncontrollable chaos that couldnt be stopped.
It was a controlled chaos that he could stop and start anytime. It would help his plan.
If he took Jaum as an example, his loyalty to the low emperor would drop to the bottom because of this incident.
On the other hand, Bagran, where Leobold was, wouldnt suffer any damage and could gather considerable public sentiment.
The commoners would suffer in the middle, but it was inevitable when he thought of Astera as a whole.
It was almost impossible to achieve true reform without bloodshed.
Leobold smirked bitterly.
I want to end this life of weighing everything as soon as possible.
He used to be a soldier fighting against Plague.
He became the only survivor of humanity by chance and lived as a dictator.
Now he came to fantasy and pretended to be an emperor.
He was tired of wearing clothes that didnt suit him for decades.
Sometimes he felt an urge to let go of everything.
He was just enduring for his last duty.
But Arma thought that Leobold was born with the fate of a ruler.
If there was someone who could be an absolute criterion, it was only Leobold.
Because he knew how to give up everything he had.
That might be why the prophet called him.
If you dont have the courage to give up, you dont deserve to have anything
But she hoped that he wouldnt give up on her.
That was the wish of an artificial intelligence with a human heart.
Anyway, Plagues invasion of Astera was bound to happen.
The elves would blame Leobold for everything, but they would shut up when they got hit.
Leobold looked at Plague, who appeared on Jaums imperial road, and said,
Lets go too.
But what if Lucia showed up?
He had to pretend to fight for now, but he didnt know if something troublesome would happen.
***
The demons that appeared on Jaums imperial road shocked and terrified the imperial citizens.
The elves had some knowledge of the demon race, but they had none.
To them, demons were beings that they never saw in normal times, that only appeared in the distant past like the Great War.
It was natural that they were surprised when hundreds of them popped out of the gate, not just one or two.
Aaah!
Demons! Demons have appeared!
Their bodies are made of metal! They dont even get affected by magic!
The High Knights and even the Imperial Guards mobilized, but they were not enough to stop them all.
They were outnumbered, but they were also unprepared for the great demon war.
The demons pushed forward without caring about their lives, and the knights tactics were nothing but forming a line and wrestling with their Goliaths size.
If the enemy was also a Goliath, it would work, but the problem was that the demons had some units that did surprise attacks.
Boom boom boom boom
The road was torn apart as if there was an earthquake, and suddenly a few Groks popped out from behind the Goliath squad.
Their front legs were transformed into shovel shapes.
They had dug tunnels and attacked from behind.
Behind! The back is broken!
The commander screamed in horror as several Groks quickly clung to the Goliaths.
Boom!
An explosion tore a hole in the formation of the Goliath troops, and the Hyphexes rushed in and crushed everything in their way.
The royal guards had a few Black Knights mixed in, but they were powerless as their formation was destroyed.
The demons were not inferior in strength.
As the Goliath troops on the front line were annihilated, the demons turned their eyes to the imperial palace that towered majestically in the distance.
The king is there. K**l him.
Hundreds of demons ran towards the palace.
The royal guards, as well as the last bastion of the palace guards, came out, but it seemed impossible to stop them.
Barak, the emperor, came out in his nightclothes, received a brief report of the situation, and hurriedly headed to the underground passage.
Demons suddenly appeared? Without any signs?
Yes! They poured out as soon as the blue gate opened!
What on earth happened Whats the damage?
The first line of defense collapsed, and we formed a second line, but it doesnt seem to last long!
What about the rocket troops?
Well They are inexperienced troops who havent seen real combat
From his trailing voice, it seemed that they didnt fight properly and scattered.
It was natural for their bodies to stiffen when they were exposed to such monsters, since they were originally knights who fought on Goliaths.
Leobold was worried about that and trained them harshly while deploying Goliaths, but Zaium didnt do that.
As a result, the entire unit was destroyed before they even fought.
Nothing goes right.
The emperor clicked his tongue and followed the knights to the underground passage.
The imperial family followed him one by one.
There were no nobles in that procession, and that made Barak depressed.
Theyll make a fuss about this.
It was natural for the emperor to flee first when an emergency occurred, but it was a problem if he did it alone.
It was because of the perception that he had to show leadership in such a situation to be qualified as a true ruler.
Unfortunately, Barak was not very reliable in that regard.
He was weak in power base because he was a mage, and more importantly, he was criticized for not doing anything when his vassal Pangral died.
Those ignorant fools Leobold is not an ordinary human.
For whatever reason, it was certain that the emperors authority would be undermined if this incident became known.
Should he be glad that he saved his life?
After the emperor disappeared like that, the nobles and bureaucrats left in the palace didnt know what to do.
The underground passage was blocked by the royal guards, so they had nowhere to run.
The imperial palace had ridiculously limited access routes compared to its majestic appearance, and this had a fatal effect during the Kairos incident.
Most of the imperial family were massacred by a mad elf, but since the palace was so huge, the repairs were postponed day by day, and the narrow passage problem was almost neglected.
As a result, the nobles and bureaucrats who lived in the palace crowded into the narrow passage at once, and some of them were crushed and killed, and the passage was completely blocked.
While such a catastrophe unfolded, the demon army marched on without fail.
Despair filled peoples eyes.
Its over
Were dead! Were all dead!
The emperor abandoned us!
We should have known when he brought that b*****d who wasnt even his direct descendant!
What are you talking about now? Youre all traitors!
Whats treason when were doomed!
Barak b*****d never deserved to be emperor!
There were so many people crowded at the entrance that no one could tell who said what.
Then someone pointed at the sky.
Look over there! Its an airship!
Its huge, huge!
Thats Bagrans Hyperion!
The decent nobles of Zaium knew very well about Hyperion-class airships that had been active in previous wars.
Since it was several times bigger than any other airship of the empire, they secretly envied it and even suggested building a similar class. It was a protagonist who brought various issues with him.
As it was a flagship of Gram Empire that ran on ether engineering at its peak, it was impossible for Zaium to build it now.
There was also an argument that they should get it as a compensation for turning a blind eye to Pangrals death.
But the emperor lost his words at that sight and only conveyed his intention to cover it up here.
Anyway, Hyperions appearance was like salvation for Zaiums nobles who were in a desperate crisis.
But Leobold, who was on board, was in an awkward situation.
Some of Lucias subordinates were among the demon horde.
They seemed to have jumped in instinctively when the gate opened as they fought with other groups.
Camilla, who was next to him, was surprised to hear his words.
Some of those demons are your subordinates?
More precisely, subordinates of my subordinates Remember Lucia, the fairy from before?
Yes. The tiny one with a high pride Wait, is that fairy?
Shes their queen. Shes in the demon world now. Her subordinates got mixed up with the enemy when the gate suddenly opened.
Oh my.
What kind of things could happen?