Chapter 47

  A while ago, under the blood moon, on the wall of the great castle, a middle-aged demon stood with a spear in his hand—an ordinary demon who did his job on the farmland, came home exhausted, comforted by his wife and daughter. A cozy, warm life he lived, which was playing in front of his eyes.

  “Hey, focus here,” a voice broke him free from the past memories.

  “Yes, sir,” he replied to the supervising Hell Knight.

  Another demon near him, holding a sword, spoke, “After 20 years, this disaster is repeating itself.”

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  The sword-holding demon continued, “Last time a miracle happened. This time, I hope another miracle happens.”

  “A miracle?” asked doubtfully the spear-holding demon.

  “Yeah, I heard the rumors. The hordes of undead slain in an instant. They say the ancestors rose from the grave and delivered judgement on the fools who dared threaten their people,” said the sword-holding one.

  “Hahahaha……” laughed smugly the spear demon.

  “Did I say something funny?” asked the sword demon.

  “There were no ancestors,” replied the spear demon.

  “How do you know?” asked the sword demon.

  “I know because I was there.”

  “You were there? Tell me more,” asked the sword demon.

  The spear-holding demon peasant replied, “That day, the undead began to overwhelm the knights. The blood moon shone in the skies, but the land was growing to rival the sky in crimson by the blood shed by the people. The knights knelt down. All hope was lost. That time, as if the crimson moon itself couldn’t watch this bloodshed and sent her guardian—he came.”

  The sword demon’s eyes widened. “Who?” he asked.

  The spear demon continued, “A demon clad in crimson armour, one rivalling the blood moon and the bleeding earth itself. In an instant, he drew his sword, and the air itself grew blade-first. It was one, then ten, then hundreds, and with a blink of an eye the blades descended, and within a blink of my eyes the undead were on the ground, and the crimson guardian vanished.”

  “That is…,” the sword demon continued, until he was interrupted by the sound of the battle horn.

  “The enemy forces incoming. Troops get ready!”

  At that moment, the prince with his companions came to the centre of the castle front yard.

  “How long until impact?” asked Leo.

  The Hell Knight there replied, “Five minutes, sir.”

  “Get demons to position. Remember the plan. Now let’s go, soldiers,” he commanded.

  The undead army steadily came closer.

  “My army, today we prove to the Hell Star how wrong he was—that his son is not a weakling. He is qualified to stand beside him and even surpass him. Now rush forward, kill all the living, go!” commanded the undead king Garry.

  Hearing his words, filled with cursed mana, amplified the already existing power of the army’s cursed mana. The land the army passed through lost their vitality. The air surrounding them carried the smell of rot. The birds above and trees next to them all started dying, their steps each shaking the earth.

  In front of them and their objective stood only one wall—the castle—and the man defending it, Leo.

  “Prince, the army is within range,” said the scout.

  “The people of Hell Star domain, time is here. Get ready to face the trial of your lifetime. Pick up your arms, grit your teeth, fight…!” he shouted.

  “Artillery unit, get ready,” he continued.

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  The demons on the walls stood their ground in front of the huge artillery mana cannons—twelve cannons, each capable of firing twenty-four rounds per minute, each round decimating ten metres of area. The demons armed the cannons. Ten demons together operated one cannon under command of a single Hell Knight per cannon, who fed it its mana.

  “We are ready, sir,” said the Hell Knights on top of the wall.

  The undead army reached the throat of the castle.

  “Now fire,” Leo commanded.

  The artillery came to life with a buzzing hum, absorbing the mana in the air. It shot out, tearing through the air, striking the undead army, decimating the corpses to shreds. Each fire complemented the previous one in a sequence. It fired, halting the momentum of the undead army. Out of the ten thousand, nearly five hundred undead died in this skirmish that lasted for about five minutes until the artillery fully shot out.

  “Next, the archers, get ready. Aim and fire,” commanded Leo.

  The thousand citizens, all armed to their teeth, carried their arms, and under the command of their squadron leaders they divided into ten squads. They aimed their bows and fired towards the other side of the wall. The volley of arrows covered the skies, hiding the crimson moon. They hit the undead. After five minutes, twenty such rounds, the arrows were exhausted. Two thousand of the undead fell to the ground.

  “Good job. Next, prepare the castle wall decimator,” Leo commanded.

  This time, unlike the previous machines, this one was a barrel filled with mana explosives. There were thirty barrels full. Each was carried by a Hell Knight in batches of ten.

  “Throw,” Leo commanded.

  The barrels flew into the air. Mid-air, the mage unit was ready with their fire spell, which hit the barrels, setting forth an array of flame raining down the sky, burning the undead. After ten minutes of this barrel play, the undead army was down by fifty percent.

  Leo climbed above the wall.

  “Second prince, stop this madness. We have already decimated half your army, and ours is still at full force, so give up now. We shall forgive you,” said Leo.

  Hearing this, the undead king, who was silent throughout the fight, started to open his mouth. He started laughing.

  “Hahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa…”

  He laughed hysterically.

  “Do you find your defeat so funny?” asked Leo.

  “Fool, me defeated? Look again. My army, rise,” said Garry.

  On his words, the cursed mana flowed through the crushed, burnt corpses, weaving them back together into full flesh and bones of demons. This time into worse abominations than before. They became giant aggregates of rotten, burnt flesh.

  “This is my army. Now will you fight, you fool?” asked the undead king.

  Seeing this, the demons’ morale fell. The common demons fell to the ground, all their hopes lost. The Hell Knights were no better. Leo himself was lost as he stood on the top without an answer in his mind. This thought arose: It’s over.

  At that moment, huge hands touched Leo’s shoulder. A thunderous voice sounded.

  “My people,” it shouted.

  Leo turned back. It was the Hell Star in his battle armour. Leo’s eyes widened.

  “Sir, you are not fit to fight,” he said.

  The Hell Star smiled and continued, “Fret not. Raise your arms, for I am here.”

  In his other hand he held the staff that Melody assembled. He raised it to the air. The cursed mana in the air got sucked up.

  “Now, my proud demons, throw your spears,” he commanded.

  The previously faint voices now erupted into cheers. The demons who wielded the spears threw them from the wall with all their body could offer. The spears flew through the air and pierced the undead just like the previous weapons did.

  “Father, don’t deny reality anymore. It’s useless. Now surrender yourself to the might of my undead army. Come under me. We shall rule the realm tomorrow. See the undeniable difference in our power. Rise, my brethren,” said Garry.

  The mana rose.

  “My foolish son, look again,” said the Hell Star.

  The undead remained dead. Their souls didn’t wander like last time. This time they were sucked into the wand held by the Hell Star.

  “Hell Knights, assemble,” he said as he climbed upon his steed. His knights came behind him.

  “What are you doing?” asked Leo.

  The Hell Star smiled. “My prince, I am going to teach my foolish son a lesson he should have learned long ago.”

  “Open the gates,” the Hell Star commanded as he sat on his steed.

  The Hell Knights—the remaining twenty-four—assembled behind him.

  “My knights, follow the prince till the end,” he said.

  The knights, as if they understood what was going on in his head, knelt down on the ground and bid him the respect he deserved.

  The Hell Star took out a circular jade with the face of the bloodthirsty hound on it.

  “Here, have this, my prince. From this day, I entrust my people to you,” he said.

  “Stop, you will die,” said Melody as she stepped forward to stop him.

  “No,” said Lara, stopping her. “You are a kind child. Here, I entrust you with this,” she handed her the staff.

  “Why stop me, Sister Lara?” asked Melody.

  “Sometimes you’ve got to let the man do his duty,” she replied.

  The huge gates opened.

  The Hell Star spoke, “Now, my friend, for the past twenty years you have carried me on your back. Let’s ride again for the last time.”

  The undead saw this and started to rush forward to the gate.

  The Hell Star steered forward with his lone steed.

  “Death, here I come for you!” he screamed, his voice thundering in the air.

  “Hahahahaha, you fools. You could have survived for a bit longer if you holed up inside. Now come and die,” said Garry.

  Then suddenly, behind him, a thunder was heard. He turned back. The twenty-four Hell Knights followed him.

  “Fools, get back,” he said.

  “We made this choice. We live or die under you, our king,” said the knights in unison.

  Soon behind them joined Leo, Melody, and Lara. With them, the whole of the kingdom’s one thousand armed demons came.

  “Don’t you dare to die after all the work I put into patching you up,” said Leo.

  “You are not alone, sir,” said Melody.

  “We rise or fall together,” said Lara.

  “For the kingdom, for our king!” screamed the demons.

  Seeing this, the Hell Star teared up.

  “Hahahahaha, I have not lived in vain,” he said.

  He continued, “My people, let’s burn him down to the ground.”

  And the kingdom went to face death head-on.