Chapter 68

The king of the Altier Kingdom sat in his throne contemplating the recent news, a man or creature just decided to invade his land, without warning or preparation, his kingdom was at its weakest as its army had just gone to invade the demonic lands, now with but minimal troops, he cannot even retaliate to the threat at his gates.

This man or whatever it called itself, The Herald it was, would have been more than easy to deal with even with his dragon. However, he somehow summoned an actual army to the fight making it very hard to decide the next course of action, should he surrender? Should he fight back? Should he ask for the Pontiff to help? Or should he just give him the heroes? A king has many things he needs to safeguard, and his people’s safety is a top priority. So what to do?

“Robert, why do you look so damn stiff, get your act together, we are being invaded for god sake!” said the Pontiff that just entered the royal guard.

“What are you doing here? I thought you wouldn’t even act…” said the king answering the disturbed looking Pontiff, this time he came without his convoy, alone and in haste, even his clothes were not properly done.

“If it was just a normal army I wouldn’t have even did a thing, this man summoned beasts from hell, do you know what this means? This falls under our jurisdiction. We need to act. This thing represents all that we are fighting against… And it dares ask for the Heroes, I will never give him what he wants.”

“Then what do you suppose that we should do?”

“We fight, I sent a messenger to the troops that are invading the demonic kingdom, they should be back by tomorrow morning if they do not rest the horses”

“They will come rushed and exhausted, would they be of help?”

“It's better if they come exhausted to find something to fight for if they are too late they might not find anything to protect.”

A guard rushed inside the hall and knelt down, voicing the next words with the utmost seriousness

“My liege! The first wall fell! The enemy troops reached the second echelon of the city!”

“God damn it!” said the king “How did they breach the second circle so fast? It should have taken them more than a day!”

“You are dealing with an army from hell, your majesty, this should be within calculation”

Said the Pontiff to the king, this time respecting his title while the guard was present and addressing him accordingly.

“You have any plans to help against this?”

“Yes! I already prepared a punishing party that will protect the second circle from falling rapidly, however, it will not be enough to halt the entire army, we need to buy time before our main army arrives, I also sent word to all the nearby cities to send in their available troops, and any that could fight.”

“Very well, this sounds good, Midina City is close by and it has a lot of spare troops they should be here within the hour, they could surround the invading troop and force a pincer attack, the only problem will be the Dragon, how are we going to deal with it?”

“I don’t know, so far the dragon has yet to make a move, But I think that my Cardinals are more than enough to bring it down,”

Another guard then soon came, telling more disturbing news.

“My king! The second circle had fallen! The dragon advances forward, a huge portion of the demon army is just standing near the palace, they are not attacking unless attacked…”

The king’s face paled as he couldn’t even speak a word

“That is preposterous!” said the pontiff, “What are my personal guards doing? I sent them to halt the advance of the invaders! My cardinals were with them!”

“Your holiness… the special party was wiped out…”

“What the hell are we dealing with?” said the king while the pontiff could only dumbly stare at the guard.

Daiki POV

“This is taking too much time, we already spent more than an hour and we just got to the second circle…”

“What did you expect? You are invading a country…” said Haruna

“Well, yeah it’s the fact that I ordered them not to kill any civilians that made this take this more time. Time to give them a helping hand Nemu, let's get to that big cathedral over there, there seems to be a lot of casualties amongst my minions from that location, there is probably a stronger foe there” I said and the dragon took flight.

Looking at the fight below I saw my minions chasing after anyone that was holding a weapon, killing any that attack and ignoring any that ran away or dropped their weapons, woman and children were spared, elderly too, and any that did not pause a threat.

Some soldiers were running away from the fights as they saw the immense difference between them and the army from hell, the idiots that decided to fight could only waste their lives in vain.

Some archers decided to attack us with arrows from high vantage points, but they could only count harmlessly against Nemu’s skin, and even if some lucky hits would land on one of the girls they would not cause the smallest amount of damage to their armors, the elf, however, I had near me, once the volley started, she was not wearing any of the armor I had and I had to protect her using the metamorphosing blade.

They were easily taken care of after a group of minions climbed the high towers and took them out.

The dragon landed near the cathedral and I asked him to fly away, he is too strong and could kill some innocent people if he were to attack mindlessly, especially after having forced him away from some ‘prey’ by pulling on the reins many times.

Once down, the girls followed, and Misaka asked

“Now what?”

“Let’s go and meet with the pontiff, I need what I came here for and he will probably have an idea. There are some heroes here too, my target might be amongst them.” I said as I walked forward.

Looking around, I saw some of my minions here and there, most of them were damaged, but not by a great deal, and looking at the massacre they caused I would say they did a good job.

They gave way leaving a group of priests and knights huddled up in the middle of the path towards the cathedral.

“Stay your hands and let me speak,” I ordered the minions

Once near the huddled up group of knights I saw that they had dropped their weapons and were just sitting, some were hurt and some were dying, but most importantly one boy I was able to recognize, yet before I speak a knight brought a dagger from his back and charged towards me.

Yet before he could make it halfway one of my minions rushed in and decapitated him with a single slash.

“Don’t they ever learn not to try this shit…” I mumbled to myself then spoke loudly

“if any of you dare to try this stunt again, their death will not be this merciful. Now you,” I said pointing at the one I recognized

“Where is Yuji?”

The boy that was in the middle was one of our classmates, he was about my height he looked like an actor, with well-trimmed hair and a small goatee to match slim fit and a nice muscle build, however, he went for a priest class instead of a knight class he was a son of some big shot CEO back on earth, and now probably serves the church.

“What do you want from him?” asked the boy, without hesitation, though he saw an insurmountable threat he still poised himself to ask without fear.

“His life,” I simply replied. “He owes me that much. Now, where is he?” I said

“If that is what you truly want then I will not tell you.” Bravely replied the boy.

Haruka then spoke saying

“Remia… you should do as he asks, tell him where he is”

“You all speak like you know me, who are you guys?” said the boy named Remia, I actually forgot his name until Haruka spoke it.

Haruka then removed her helmet and said

“Do you remember me?”

“You-You are Haruka aren’t you?! The class rep! I thought you died! What the hell is going on?”

“Yuji planned on killing us that day, but… this man saved us.”

“That explains nothing! Yuji said you betrayed the church, you acted against the kingdom and went to the demon king. The cardinal then told us that your bodies were discovered inside the demonic territory…”

“Lies. All of it, Yuji tried to get rid of us after having discovered that the church is in ploy, I would recommend that you move away from those people” she said

The boy named Remia looked at the ones near him with disgust, yet the poor soldiers and priests looked baffled, they too must not have known how rotten their system truly is.

“You are not a target of mine, be at ease, you have done nothing wrong, but not telling me where is Yuji will probably get you on my bad side, and believe me, that side of me is a side that no one wants to see.”

“Wait wait! I don’t know the exact location, but I know he went with the army that is currently invading the demonic kingdom… this is all I know”

“Traitor!” said one of the knights and tried to attack Remia, something I will not allow as I shadow stepped between the two and snapped the knight’s neck as if it was a twig.

“Like I said, I permit no acts of aggression in my presence, stay your hands,” I ordered, and everyone meekly nodded or held his head down. The power of fear is frightening.

“Where is the pontiff?” I asked the boy

“He went to meet with the king earlier… he ordered us to take care of the invaders, but it seems we were not strong enough. Can I ask you something though?”

“What is it?”

“Are you by any chance the Herald?”

“How can you tell?”

“So you are. It’s the brand, it itches more in your presence… perhaps our deeds deserve your judgment. After all, we saw evil and did nothing to prevent it…”

“Perhaps they do, but I have no time for such trivia, I shall head for the pontiff. I would also advise that you leave this city you and anyone that wants to be spared what is to come.”

“Thank you,” said the boy and left leaving the knights and priests alone, and surrounded by my minions.

“Let’s go to the king, we have some VIP to meet”

After Asking Nemu to descend and pick us up again, we went to the king’s palace, it was surrounded by my minions and had its draw bridge raised, yet nothing this trivial would stop me.

Using abyssal projection I disrupted the space around the bridge and caused it to collapse on itself, then used a shadow step to walk inside, after having asked the girls to stay inside. There is no need for them to see what is to come.

If the pontiff was inside then so be it, Then Ramia did not lie and he truly feared for his life, or at least still has some morals left, if not, then I will still have some words for the king then chase the liar back.

Once inside the palace I went forward. I was met with resistance that found no purchace in harming me, their efforts were at best, futile.

Some died, some ran, some froze from fear. They are weak, too weak to be a threat, I could only laugh at the weakness they all carry. They believe they are strong? They have not seen true strength. They should have seen the creatures of hell they hold true strength, true power, and might is all what they were about. Not this feebleness.

I walked forward all the way to a giant door that turned to splinters after receiving a taste of my right chained fist.

Once inside I saw a group of men, knights, and priests, all surrounding an old man wearing a crown who was carrying an old looking blade, probably the king. at his right was a man wearing white clothes and a huge looking hat, he glowed as if he was a light bulb, he is probably the pontiff.

Yet before I could even inspect him

“Holy smite!” shouted the man and a vortex opened on top of me, sending a shower of light energy upon my flesh burning some of it in the process.

It was a bit too bright that I had to cover my eye, but most of the damage felt like if it was but an annoying itch.

-11000 Hp (Light damage)

That’s it?

The light faded and I emerged unscathed from the attack.

“Impossible!” said the pontiff

“Thank you for the warm greeting?” I said, “How about I introduce myself too?” I said while releasing my chains. Things are about to get really hot here, Hell level of hot.