"Your Majesty — terrible news! The knights have been routed!"
A noble minister came stumbling into the palace, face slick with sweat and contorted with panic.
"Oh?"
The unremarkable-looking "Emperor" sat on his throne, propping his head up with one hand, eyes half-lidded.
"Of the ten-thousand-plus knights, we've already lost a fifth of their number. The Knight Commander saw the battle turning and ordered a retreat. By all accounts, the knights never even made it to the walls of Gaderia."
The minister wiped his forehead again and pressed on.
"According to the Knight Commander's report, Gaderia harbors Demons wielding dark magic. First came long-range offensive spells that pierced even the hardest mithril armor. And then — the knights struck down by those spells rose back up like the walking dead and turned on their own allies. It was absolutely horrifying."
"Your Majesty, I believe we must conscript more powerful Mages for the army! Fight magic with magic!"
The minister's words came tumbling out at a breathless pace. When he finished, he stood there panting, waiting for the response of the Empire's supreme authority.
"Hmm…"
The "Emperor" appeared to ponder this for a moment, his expression carefully crafted to seem grave and contemplative. Inwardly, however, he was rather pleased.
Just as expected — Gaderia, or rather, It, had not disappointed him.
"Stand down the knights' assault on Gaderia for now. We'll call this first round theirs. I'll see to finding a solution."
— Outside the walls of Gaderia.
No one had expected the Imperial army to retreat quite so swiftly.
Under Qual's sniper-style Killing Magic, a great number of charging cavalry had been picked off mid-gallop — and those fallen knights had abruptly risen as zombies, sowing chaos among their own comrades.
A large mass of Imperial knights now shuffled toward the city walls like the walking dead, their mithril armor battered and their bodies grotesquely incomplete. Blood seeped from their wounds, dried, and they felt nothing at all.
"Disgusting. Aura, what exactly did you do?"
Nanoda's eye twitched as she looked on. It was like watching a biohazard outbreak. The sight of over a thousand shambling corpses delivered quite the visual shock.
It wasn't that Nanoda had any particular aversion to dead bodies. She simply despised things that were clearly, thoroughly dead — and yet still moving.
Beside her, Aaron's brow arched as well.
"That's my Magic of Obedience at work," Aura said, blinking her lovely violet eyes with an expression of perfect, guileless innocence, the Scales of Obedience in hand. "Before Qual killed them, I cast Magic of Obedience on them. That way, even after they lose consciousness, I can still puppeteer them — same principle as a beheading. The only issue is that damage to the body does seem to limit their mobility."
"Aura, I genuinely think you missed your calling as a necromancer."
Nanoda surveyed the carpet of corpses and shook her head.
Honestly, she hadn't expected them to win so easily. Could this even be called a war?
Or was it simply that the Great Demons on their side had magic that was just… obscenely overpowered?
"What is that?" Aura asked, tilting her head. "Some kind of human Mage?"
Up on the eastern wall, Jane had her arms folded over the battlements, chin resting on them, rocking her head slowly back and forth as if lost in thought.
Beside her, Lugner let out a quiet breath of relief. Against numbers like that, he genuinely wasn't sure he could have held the line. He was only a small-time general — a hundred kills was about the ceiling of what he could manage.
On the western wall, Qual stroked his beard and murmured a few words to the apprentice Demons beside him. Then he stamped a foot against the rampart and took to the air as naturally as breathing, flying toward Nanoda's position and touching down on the northern wall moments later.
"My lord — were you satisfied with my performance?"
When Qual landed, Nanoda moved to clap him on the shoulder — then realized she couldn't reach it and settled for his arm instead.
"You've earned great merit today."
Beside them, Aura clicked her tongue and pointed a finger at Qual.
"Hey, Qual — next time you use Killing Magic, could you aim for their heads? These half-wrecked ones aren't much use."
Hearing Aura's critique, Qual didn't take offense. He simply stroked his beard with a thoughtful air.
"Mm. You make a fair point — the head is a human's most vulnerable spot. How did I not think of that? Perhaps in a little while I'll add a 'head-lock' targeting function to the tracking variant of my Killing Magic?"
Wait — Qual, are you seriously cooking up another upgrade already?
Nanoda was becoming more and more convinced that Qual was a genuine prodigy among Demons. It was a real shame he'd been cut down by Frieren eighty years later just because his toolkit had grown outdated.
Now that she'd freed Qual ahead of time and he was developing at this rate — wouldn't he eventually be on par with Frieren?
Oh wait, no — Qual was already working on missiles. Which meant…
Pulling herself back from that train of thought, Nanoda turned to look at Aura.
"Aura — could you send these walking corpses out to scout the Empire's movements? No point in letting them go to waste."
"In theory, they can't stray too far from my mana supply. The farthest they could go would be roughly where those knights first appeared."
Aura replied.
That would be more than enough. Throw some grass camouflage on them and use them as sentinels.
Aura gave a nod.
— Atop a distant mountain peak.
"Already over? Truly unexpected."
Glück hadn't even had time to light his second cigarette before the Imperial knights scurried off with their tails between their legs.
"The Sage of Corruption, Qual — as formidable as ever."
Macht offered one of his rare expressions of respect. Among all the Demon Race, the number he genuinely acknowledged could be counted on one hand.
Even Aura, a fellow member of the Seven Sages of Destruction, didn't particularly rate in his estimation.
"It's all wrapped up now. Shall we head down? I'm sure your daughter is eager to see you." Macht said.
"The Empire got careless this time. Back in the Empire's military prime, they always sent powerful Mages on campaign — and the Emperor has that elite corps of shadow guards as well. Let's observe again tomorrow."
Glück considered this and tucked the cigarette he'd pulled out back into his pocket.
Little did he know that those so-called imperial shadow guards — all except those stationed externally — had already been wiped out by "Wolf."
— The following day.
Word spread in every direction: the independent free city of Gaderia had repelled the Northern Imperial Legion.
The Emperor himself, the highest authority of the Northern Empire, publicly declared that he would seek another engagement with Gaderia at a future date.
Both sides entered a brief period of uneasy peace.
— Inside the Gaderia Lord's Manor.
"Aaron, just let me go kill the new Emperor already."
Nanoda raised the proposal once again.
"You — "
Just as Aaron opened his mouth to respond, the door swung open with a loud bang.
Lugner walked in holding a letter.
"Pardon the interruption, Lady Nanoda — there's a letter here, delivered for you from the Northern Imperial Royal Family."
"A letter? For me?"
Nanoda was completely baffled. The imperial family knew who she was? Aside from Aura, she hadn't revealed her identity to any other Demons — there was no reason the imperial family should know her.
And the imperial family and Gaderia were still at war. Why on earth would they be sending letters now?
"That's right. The Imperial messenger said it was to be delivered to a Demon with a broken horn."
Intrigued, Nanoda reached out and took the letter.
____
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