The Supreme Hero’s Younger Brother

At midnight, the plan to trap the demon army began. The scout team returned and informed that the canyon was safe to be passed through. While the soldiers of the border continued their battle, the reinforcement brought by Lucifius was sent to the canyon. Aside from Rye, the archer hero Lilith was appointed to lead the army.

They smoothly passed the canyon and waited until dawn for the signal from Ludric's side to attack together. Once Rosetta's massive explosion spell was cast, the army advanced at full speed.

It was the first time for Rye to directly witnessed a battlefield. The knights struck down their enemy gallantly, the soldiers didn't fall down so easily even when facing a demon beast three times bigger than them.

While Lilith and everyone else engaged directly, Rye, the mages, and the priests gave support from the rear. They rained down coordinated spells imbued with holy power by the priests.

Rye could see from their position that the 4 heroes were fighting the demon general. Aside from the priests, Ludric has a holy attribute himself and shared it with his party members. Their attacks were swift, powerful, and accurate. Their teamwork was perfect with no wasted spells or movements.

The more powerful the demon was, the more humanoid their figure was. If it wasn't for the single horn on top of her head, no one would've thought that the girl the heroes were fighting was a demon. From her attacks, Rye figured that the demon general specialized in lightning elements.

Unfortunately for her, Ludric also has a lightning attribute. In fact, he could use all elements of magic there were except for dark or demonic elements. As the supreme hero, he was the strongest warrior as well as the strongest mage at the same time.

But the demon hasn't used her full power yet. Rye saw triple layers of magic circles formed on top of the battlefield.

He timely reached out his hand and formed a magic circle under each one.

"Focus all your prayers on me!" He ordered the priest.

The magic circles Rye cast turned to gold just in time when the demon released her spell.

Huge black lightnings shot out from the upmost circle. It flashed past all the circles in half a breath. Once it passed the last golden circle, the lightnings merged into one and thundered down straight to the demon general's head. Bright white light blinded the battlefield with thunder booming back until the rear.

Once they regained their vision, the battle ended. The demon army was wiped out by the explosion of the holy energy from the blast including the demon general.

Rye cleaned his glasses and wore them back. His ears were still ringing, but everything else was fine. He checked on the others and everyone was also fine.

He didn't expect the demon's attack would be that intense. If he didn't alter it, the heroes might survive it, but the soldiers and knights would be wiped out entirely.

He turned to the priests, "Thank you. You saved us."

The priests shook their heads, "No, we didn't do anything."

"No need to be modest. Without your holy attribute, the demon general would not be defeated even from that. I will let the king knows of your contribution," Rye saw the soldiers and knights were already celebrating with the heroes, "It is over. Let us return to the others."

The priests looked at one another hesitantly. They really didn't do anything. The order was too sudden that they couldn't react to it.

But that holy element wasn't fake. They could all feel it from where they were at. It was so powerful that it was almost divine, almost equal to the Supreme Pope's power.

Rye hopped onto his horse, "Let's go."

The priests decided to report it to their head bishop later. They and the mages followed Rye back.

The whole town fell into celebration. They welcomed the triumphant heroes, knights, and soldiers with merriness. Flower petals and cheers filled the street as they marched to their base.

Rye, the heroes, and the knights went to the general's office.

"General Tilez, we have returned with victory." Lucifius and the knights saluted him.

"Yes, I see that. Congratulations…" General Tilez smiled.

Rye fixed his glasses, "You do not seem to be very joyous about the occasion, General Tilez. Is there any problem?"

"Of course not! I am very happy and proud of all of you! It is just slightly overwhelming for me to see that our battle is finally over."

"It is just the beginning, General Tilez. We have not yet defeat the demon lord." Ludric corrected.

"Y-Yes, you are very correct, Sir Ludric," General Tilez turned around to face the window, "May I have a space for a moment? I want to celebrate this with Marcus."

The people in the room knew that Marcus was his vice-general who died in battle from protecting him. They understandably retreated except for Rye.

"Celebrate? I think you mean escape?" Rye approached the desk.

The rest was stunned.

"Are you accusing me of something, Mr. Rye?" General Tilez frowned.

"This robe, I got it from a dear friend of mine from at the academy I worked at prior to this," Rye raised the fabric of his robe's wide sleeve to the general, "They are so kind and generous that they imbued it with holy magic to protect me. Care to give it a touch?"

General Tilez's face slightly shifted, but it went back to normal quickly, "Are you implying that I am a demon?"

"What nonsense! It is thanks to General Tilez that we won today!" Desmund snapped.

"Apologize to General Tilez, Rye. You can't just accuse someone as a demon out of nowhere." Rosetta also disapproved Rye's action.

General Tilez gestured for them to stop, "If you are wrong, what will you do?"

"Anything you want." Rye unhesitantly said.

"Rye, that's enough!" Ludric also rebuked Rye, "General Tilez is a friend of the king. Even you will not be forgiven for such accusation. Don't get carried away!"

It was the first time for Ludric's party and the knights to hear him raise his voice.

"It's fine. I won't report this to the king as long as Mr. Rye takes responsibility for his own words," General Tilez touched the fabric for 5 seconds, "Satisfie–!?"

Rye held back General Tilez's hand, wrapping it with his sleeve, "We are not finished yet."

General Tilez's face distorted. He tried to free his hand, but Rye's claws held him with a metal grip.

"Mr. Rye, this is too unsightly." General Tilez forced a smile.

Rye glanced at the smoke emitting from General Tilez's hand, "I think you are the one who is going to be unsightly soon."

"Tch!" General Tilez raised his hand and hit Rye with his demonic energy.

"Rye!" August moved to save Rye.

But before he could, he was outdone by Ludric who reached General Tilez's side in a blink and cut off his hand.

"Aagghhh!!!" General Tilez cried out.

Seeing the blood was a normal red, Ludric turned to Lilith, "Lilith, the powder."

Lilith hurriedly threw the powder pouch to Ludric. He impolitely slammed a handful of it to the general's face.

General Tilez coughed violently and soon transformed into a demon.

"Why!? Why did you win!? You all should've died at the canyon!" The demon screamed resentfully. He looked at Rye hatefully, "It's you, isn't it!? Who the f*ck are you!?"

Rye didn't answer him and let him go. The hand that was revealed was burnt black and the demon couldn't even move a finger on it anymore.

Ludric didn't waste any time and cut off the demon's head.

Rye wordlessly left the room. He already informed the king of his suspicion and got the permit to kill the general. Now he needed to report that General Tilez has been slayed and asked about how they should proceed with it.

He has killed the scout team member, who were all possessed, last night after letting them report back to General Tilez and hid their body. But hiding General Tilez's body wouldn't work since he was an important figure.

He should've stopped Ludric from transforming the general to his demon form. But if he didn't do that, nobody would believe it. Well, he also couldn't stop Ludric even if he tried to.

He silently touched his robe.

He couldn't believe that the gho– the spirit gave him such an incredible robe when he only gave it his teaching robe.

If it was a spirit, could he contact it again through a chapel?

Unlike ghosts who were bound to one place by their resentment, spirits protected a type of place. If that spirit protected chapels, then he should be able to meet it again in any chapel.

But first, he should write the report letter for the king.

"Since when did he…?" Rosetta was still dumbstruck.

"I didn't notice anything." Lilith frowned.

"We all didn't." Ludric whipped the blood off his sword and sheathed it back.