At night, there are no battles going on because the desert will be too dark to move around. And using a torch or light is definitely a bad idea since it's like telling the whole world that you are there. It is also really cold, so cold that one can get hypothermia even if they are using a thick jacket.
And so, everyone waited until dawn, and that's when the first battle of the day happened.
From our side, fifteen squads, each containing around fifty soldiers, consisted of knights, adventurers, and mages. This is a much larger number than before, possibly because of the disaster that struck the day previously that combatants from both the southern and northern had arrived to assist in the battle.
Everyone departed very early in the morning, before the first bell even rang.
They all walked in the middle of this large and wide desert, straight towards the front lines that are currently being scouted by the scouts division.
Before they went out, their team leaders had been informed about the plan to counter the enemy's ranged mages. That is, to use our own version of rangers.
As a result, most of our combatants here have bows and quivers on their back filled with arrows. There are also more mages standing at the front than before.
We will fight range with range.
However, everything was a play by the enemies.
They took advantage of their victory yesterday, and predicted ahead on what plans they are going to use today.
'A difficult enemy yesterday is going to be an easy opponent today.'
That rule did not apply today.
The battle began as soon as the two sides saw each other. The demons have surely made a base camp somewhere nearby their most front line in the desert, and that area is actually very close to our base.
The battle began almost immediately, and it started with massive explosions caused by the demons.
And from the looks of it, their tactic is very different than before.
This time, their melee combatants are pushing forward.
"THEIR CLOSE COMBATANTS ARE APPROACHING!!!!!
MELEES!!! MOVE FORWARD!!!"
The supreme commander on the most front line shouted, and every single melee combatant that we had immediately moved forward… no matter how small their amount is.
We were expecting today's battle to be all about range. We did not expect the enemies to be moving forward with melee this time.
Our army today fully consisted of 80% rangers and 20% melees. We are completely losing if it's an all out melee combat.
They completely had us in their hands. Seeing thousands of demons wielding melee weapons rushing towards our position quickly made every soldier hopeless.
How are they going to fight swords and lances with bow and arrows…? Plus magic, the demons are definitely much stronger in that aspect.
How are they going to win?
The soldiers from the alliance screamed as they released projectiles towards the enemies, but the enemies pushed without fear. They have barriers being projected above them as they move forward, and the close combatants from the demons are getting closer and closer without stopping.
After a while, their distance was not far. It is no longer a range that the rangers can fight with. Everyone will be forced to fight at close range.
Our army… will get wiped out.
FWOOMM!!!
BAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
A large wall made out of shadow was quickly formed in front of the alliance soldier.
The approaching melee combatants from the demon's side immediately stopped their rush when they saw the gigantic wall that is made of shadow magic. The wall also fully stopped any incoming magic attacks that the demons threw, and it cannot be destroyed by their powerful mages.
The demons were completely halted, and the alliance soldiers screamed in joy after seeing that a large wall had protected them from the enemies.
But unexpectedly, the large shadow wall fell down. The entire battlefield turned silent. Everyone waited for what was about to happen, and a single shadow descended very slowly from above.
BOOOMM!!!!!
It landed right in front of the alliance's soldiers, causing a blast of sand. The sand was then pushed by the wind, revealing a single person facing straight towards the demons.
The person is wearing black robes with the hood on. When the person turned to glance at the soldiers, the soldiers on the front lines recognized who it was. After all, they have heard the stories about a man with a skeletal mask who took down a whole kingdom by himself.
"M-M-Masked Devil!!!"
"It's the masked Devil!! He is here to help us!!"
.
Ah… there's one piece of information that I somehow just remembered.
"Rize. Do you know about the Masked Man?"
Magic academy, first semester of the second year.
I was chilling at Veneo's office while he was doing paperwork. I went to his place for no good reason many times. Veneo's office had an air conditioner magic, where it makes his room cold even when the air is really hot.
It was a hot sunny day, and I was skipping class. Of course Veneo didn't know that, otherwise he would tell me to go to class.
He asked me suddenly while reading a certain letter, which I am guessing is from a certain owner of a crown. I didn't care much about it back then, but I became intrigued when he suddenly asked that question.
Of course, I am hiding that identity from him.
"The guy who stirred up Veldonia, right? Not really. Why?"
I said nonchalantly while trying to sound ignorant, and he gave me his reason.
"Well, someone told me to look more into that person, since he might be a great asset to the future alliance. From what I've learned, the skeleton-masked man first appeared in an adventurer's Gray rankup test that is on Mazino. I asked because maybe you know who that person is as an adventurer."
"Nope, I wasn't that old of an adventurer. Maybe you can ask other adventurers who have been one for over two years or so, cause I never saw him in the Office."
That was a really good reason that I can make on the spot. Even now, I am still amazed at how I can lie like that.
But, Veneo saw through it immediately.
"Really? That Gray rankup test was YOUR Gray rankup test."
I sweat bullets immediately.
"I've never heard of him."
"Tsk... Whatever. The king of Mazino is looking for him, apparently. Saying that he could be invited into the… secret power group, if you know what I'm talking about."
"Secret power group…?"
"The one I talked to you about before… Ah, why am I talking about this with you!?"
He became extremely pissed.
I laughed it off that day, but now that the time is right here, that topic specifically came to surface.
I then recalled another memory, when Lescia said there were Fourteen Axelons that were invited by the King of Mazino.
From Mazino, there are 5. Jonus, Cane, Fran, the kingdom's Vice General knight, and the Saint Healer that is me. From Xyphon, there are 6. Arfius, Veneo, and Julius, plus the three grand wizards. From the other two non-human kingdoms, are two. Malecous the half dwarf and Balarion the elf from the dwarven and elven kingdoms. A total of only thirteen.
But, there is one more Axelon whose identity is still unknown. They say that his identity is related to the adventurers Office of Mazino, but even the Office Master knows nothing when asked about him.
That Axelon is the Masked Devil.
The hidden White ranked adventurer who recently took down an entire kingdom all by himself.
Seeing his appearance on the battlefield, every single person in the alliance who recognized him began cheering. The demons who previously were halting their attacks began moving again, but awkwardly this time since they know nothing about this new identity of the enemy.
The masked devil turned his gaze back forward and began his move, causing the entire sand on his feet to explode massively. The sand rained on the soldiers after being exploded on the ground, but the soldiers kept on cheering.
After leaping high upwards, I created a massive firebomb purely out of Emperor tier fire magic. From up close, the dark purple color of the firebomb may be visible. But thanks to the bright sunlight, the firebomb will only look black from afar.
Seeing this many demon soldiers in a single area under me, my chest felt incredibly heavy.
It might seem like I am crushing a bunch of ants…
But everyone here… is people.
People with souls. People with their own lives, who have a family.
People, who are trembling with fear of death.
However, they are not my people.
I shielded those deep thoughts and steeled my heart. I turned my gaze back to the frozen demons underneath me, and I shouted with all I had.
"HooooaaaaAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........
…
That marked the first, out of many countless deaths that occurred that day.
After bombing downwards, the masked devil reached the midst of the enemy's ground in a single leap and started dancing. Multiple shadow swords were conjured around his entire body, and he danced as if wielding ten pitch black weapons at the same time.
The enemies tried to attack with their magic, but they only managed to hurt their friends instead. The masked devil is unscathed, but the explosion kills their own allies.
How laughable. It wasn't even enough to touch me, but they fired anyway?
"Friendly fire… is unforgivable."
I said coldly with a sore throat towards the mages who fired that, which fully succeeds in scaring every single demon.
I lifted my hand upwards, and created a long but massive hammer out of shadow magic. The stick of the hammer is long but thin, yet it is more than strong enough to hold a power swing to smash the ground with the massive hammerhead.
I picked it up easily, despite the size being fifty times my body. And so, I began leaping upwards.
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And now, the second swing.
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Third.
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The demons can only watch helplessly as the gigantic shadow mallet is smashing their armies a huge batch at a time, and it will only continue to get louder from this point on as it gets closer to their base.
Seeing that the masked man is fighting alone against thousands of demon soldiers, the soldiers from the alliance began attacking once more. The front row got so focused on the back, that they forgot that there are also tons of enemies in front of them.
They were taken by surprise when the soldiers were merely ten meters away from them, and it turned into a massacre instantly.
I got tired from smashing, so I approached one of the corpses that was not far from my position.
I grabbed a weapon from the dead demon knight that is still intact. All those smashing even destroyed their weapons, so looking for an intact weapon might've been quite difficult.
The weapon I picked up is a lance, and a really long one too.
This should be good.
I turned my gaze back towards the enemies really far in the distance, and realized that they are probably getting angrier and angrier. I just killed thousands of their front line soldiers in a span of five minutes, and they definitely wanted payback.
As expected, their main strength probably lies in the middle lines. And since I just wiped off their front lines, the battle going forward will be much more difficult. I won't be able to smash down that giant mallet anymore, and must use a much closer approach.
And so, I dashed forward.
"KILL HIM!!!!"
The enemy's supreme commander screamed to the top of his lungs, and all the demon fighters around him shouted while they rushed forward.
It didn't take long until I arrived on the first soldier of the middle lines. I slashed here and there, and cut slices through their thick armor and sliced their bodies in half.
The lance didn't hold out long, because after the tenth slash, it snapped in half. I dashed forward again and grabbed a sword from the dead demon knight. Now, I can kill more confidently.
Each time I slashed, a ton of blood would burst out into the air. And every single time, I would feel…
Annoyed.
How annoying.
Just what is it… that the world wants out of me?
I have spent all this time trying really-really hard, not to be a monster.
To keep my sanity at bay. To not create abnormalities within my soul. To not cause a massive disaster that will one day kill a lot of people.
But when the world is now forcing me to make a decision…
To have the people I loved die… or to kill the ones who wanted them dead.
I'm forced to make a decision.
To make this decision.
To kill. Mercilessly.
With all of those thoughts growing in my mind, I became rageful and started throwing firebombs everywhere. The size of the firebombs are around ten meters of radius each, but they were casted almost instantly and hundreds of them were thrown to the rest of the demon knights army.
BOOOOOOMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seeing that I had gone on a rampage, the soldiers of the alliance halted their approach and fell back. The demon army also tried to run away and flee, but it was rather unfortunate that they were the target of the rampage.
The battle continued for the next two minutes. In merely two minutes of me shooting firebombs, the entire thousands of demon soldiers are gone. In just eight minutes of all out combat, the demon army was completely wiped out, leaving only very few to escape.
And I stood above all these bloodbaths. All by myself.
Now that all the demons have died, I dropped the sword that I stole to the ground. The sword is fully chipped, and it shattered to pieces when it fell to the demon knight's armor that is right below me.
I took a deep breath, and realized just how disgusting it is to breathe. How disgusting it is… to live, and to find the reason to live in this kind of place.
I lifted my hands, and I stared at it. It's the same hands that I've used for over two years, the hands that I've used many times to help people, to kill monsters, and to cook food for my friends.
It is also the same… trembling, bloodied, dirty hands that has killed all these demons.
I formed fists with my hands, and gripped so hard that my nails caused my palms to bleed.
This… is the reality, what this unlasting world wanted me to become.
This… is what it means to be a hero.
This…
is War.