Chapter 24

Khoten Empire

As the whole Mirth started to conscript the normal civilians, their forces started to inflate. Even if the civilians are hesitant at first due to their lack of experience, they still willed themselves to go because the threat of the demon lord’s army is huge. When they saw the performance of the fabled guns, they were amazed and happy to contribute in defending the human race. Even if they can’t compare to the might of the elite magicians and knights, they believe that they can contribute as much as the other professions can.

For the first time, the civilians were given the chance to do something aside from farming and waiting in hopes that defeat will not fall on them. The people soon came to know the wonders of the new tool and seem to fall in love with it. Every one of the Khoten Empire started a mad rush on training on this new weaponry and started to think how to improve the weapon more.

As the frontline burns with war, the empires’ backyards are burning with desire too. The people’s wish to participate more in this defense of existence pushed them to perform better and better every day. The new war lasted for more than two months and now, the people of Khoten Empire started to produce new prototypes of the gun. Some of these prototypes started to have more explosive power, more piercing power enough to pass the normal 10th tier magician’s shield.

The magicians of the northern alliance are quite skeptical about this matter but decided to let it go for now. The war is not showing positive results and if they start to have internal problems now, it will just cause more harm than benefit towards them. With no one to stop the progress of development of the guns, it started to grow and develop into more aggressive weaponry.

The Khoten Empire took the lead when it comes to the development of the guns and started to produce better guns as the day pass by. Soon, new weapons such as cannons started to appear. It still at its early stages but it was enough to imitate a full strike of a 9th tier warrior. Humanity started to prioritize in making the cannons instead of small guns due to its raw destructive power. The other empires did not stop in developing he guns even after the appearance of the cannons from the Khoten Empire. They too have the ambition to produce something new and more advance than the cannons.

The age of guns started officially even if it is too early.

As the war continue to rage on, the reinforcement from the demon race started to appear towards the front line. These demons are strong and they are becoming quite the menace on the battlefield. A single demon might not be much but when they number around hundreds or thousands, they can sweep a huge area of the opposing monsters quite easily. With the new power on the human race side, their morale started to recover. Their morale which cannot go down any lower started to gain some life like a traveler on the dessert when given water. It was an abrupt injection of morale but it was quite effective.

Humans grew more confident and started to be on the offense. They started to drive out the monsters occupying the fallen forts and started to repair them afterwards. With the events happening, the human race allied with the demon race found a new momentum towards the war.

Surprisingly, the demon lord has not appeared even once. The human experts prepared to cope with him when he appeared but sadly their plans can only wait until the demon lord appears. Despite the fact that the demon lord has not appeared, the monster quantity and quality started to rise dramatically as day goes by. The nightmare of the demon race back then started to appear in numbers. With the appearance of the creature human race called nightmare, the fight started to become more chaotic. Even with the reinforcement of the demon race, the bizarre appearance of the Nightmare made their ranks not able to sit well.

The random night attacks and the random appearance of the nightmare placed a lot of pressure towards the human race alliance. Their earlier new found momentum was suddenly once again crushed into smithereens with a simple appearance of the nemesis of the demon race. It was just too bad that they can’t fight back well when the Nightmares appear due to their insane recovery rate. The demons and human race can’t figure out the way to defeat these beings. They tried burning every part to ashes, cutting it into million pieces, even freeze the entire being but nothing works. They can only repeatedly take back steps to where they came from.

The good thing is, the numbers of these Nightmares does not exceed a hundred every time they strike. If they arrived and numbers about thousands, then humanity can end even if they manage to repel the Nightmares. This fact made the human race grit their teeth into frustration and made them try more ways to see how they can defeat this monstrosity upon them.

It took more than a month of grueling battles and countless losses for the alliance before they finally got a clue on how to defeat the Nightmares. It started when a mage who desperately tried his best to come up with a way to defeat the Nightmares when almost all of his party member were wounded. His party performed a massive detonation of mana and caused the Nightmare to receive damage to the point of near evaporation. When the remains of the Nightmares started to come back to life, the mage tried to sacrifice his mana in return for a healing spell for his party. The mana sacrificed will not come back to him and he will need to train back to the bottom in return of a full recovery of his party members. In the last seconds of the spell, he felt a tug in his mind and decided to grab the remains of one of the Nightmares and used it as the source of mana instead.

Due to that random action of the mage, the alliance finally won one time against the Nightmare for the first time. The magician quickly rose to fame due to his discovery of the matter and now the alliance has a way of defeating the Nightmares. They tried various ways and found that absorbing the mana of the Nightmares when they are still in the process of regenerating is the way to defeat them thoroughly. With this new information, they fought more bravely and more aggressive against the demon lord army.

Without the constant harassment of an undefeated opponent, the human race finally found a balance between them and the demon lord’s army. They finally held their grounds against the demon lord’s army which constantly trampled their efforts to the ground. Now, they finally see the light of them coming on top of this war. Even if it is not much, at least they think that they can work something out to turn the things around. At this time, humanity is showing their unique unity when crisis arises.

While all of this happens, Drake watches them with seriousness. He knows that he is quite biased towards humanity to a fault but he also knows that his reasons are right too. They will just bring more complication in the future yet he was not sure if it is the right call to just erase them here and there just like that. He is now seriously weighing his decision if it will really be for the better.

If he let humanity go once again, they will just go back to their ways. That is a guaranteed future for them with nothing that can change it. If he erases them right now, he is denying some of these people the chance to redeem themselves. Even if he is quite unfair towards humanity, he also can see that some of them do not want a complicated future. Some of them were contented with what they have and prefer to live their days in silence and peace.

Those are just the minority but nonetheless they still counts. Their presence can’t be disregarded unlike how he did in the past where he just destroy all where his claws can reach. Good and bad were sentenced with same conviction. He was actually guilty about this part when he started to pay more attention towards humanity.

For their bad side, Drake does not want to count. Humanity is quite the imperfect race. It is in their being to do something bad. They are born with it and only a few actually try to fight of this urge to do bad things. How is he supposed to judge this case? Shall he continue with his intent at first or he should just let them go? He was in dilemma at this.

His role was supposed to keep humanity in line. Is it his job to worry about things? Is he there to actually pass on judgement in the first place? Questions started to pop inside his head which only makes him go round in round. He was trying to read the intent behind the action of elder sister. He was thinking if she actually knows this day will arrive when he needs to choose between doing what is right and doing what is actually needed.

“Am I playing god?” He asked this question many times now.

Drake was in constant dilemma about the things he needs and supposed to do. Is his action right? Who can tell? Who can support if he is wrong? Is all his reasons flawed because of his past? He was nearly in the borderline of going insane with the heavy responsibility in his shoulders. It was one thing when he does not know how things work but now that he knows, he must do what is the best. No one forces him to do what is best but he just wants to do what is best. He was given a shot at a new life and the least he can do is chose the right thing.

He was still in constant pain in his head when he heard rumblings from outside and it caught his attention. He stood up from where he sits and look outside the window. What he saw made his face change. He can’t help but grimace when he saw some circular things falling from the sky heading towards at him at the speed of sound. He actually does not recognize it but he just knows that it is similar to the weapon back then is his world even if it is not yet the same level.

He can’t help but remember how that world looks like. Dark sky as if it is always night, black rivers and dead forests is suddenly entering in his mind. He can’t help but think that if he let humanity go on like this then this world will just be the same on as back then. Will there be another Drake as a result? Will the same process repeat on and on with him not being able to do something about it? He can do something about it but what future will that world have? Will it turn out for the better? He can’t also be sure now. Even if humanity has all the flaws you can list, you can’t deny that they also have the best characteristics you can ask for.

“We all are from the image of that elder sister.” He can’t help but realize at this point of time.

As he watched the cannon balls smash towards the place he is staying, he is still thinking about things. Why things came into this? What is wrong with being a human? Who led things to where it is now? He really wanted to ask the elder sister right now. Sadly, he can’t and he was not able to.

“I guess it is really time to ask.” He said as he pulled a golden box from his inventory.

It was the prize he received back then. It is named limit break but he was not able to know what it really means back then. Does it break his limit and be more powerful? Does it make him stronger in anyway? Of course it can but is it actually that simple? What does a greater power comes with?

That is right, a price follows.

Anyway, he can’t actually do something on his own with how humanity is going forward like this. It was time to ask for help and not rely on his own reasoning. He realized that he is also one of the blinds trying to guide this blind human race. How arrogant he was now that he realized it. He was actually taking the role of a god when he was just an imperfect being with imperfect reasoning and outlook. What qualifications does he have to take the shots? In actuality, none.

The cannon balls smashed towards the castle and immediately exploded. The place was quickly decimated and fell into ruins. The bombardment continued for so long to make sure that nothing survives. Then mages and knights rushed towards the fort and started to finish everything that moves. Humanity and demon race’ elites rushed towards the fort in which demon lord Drakes stays. At the end of the day, a victory shout resounded across the entire northern lands.

The fort in which information told that the demon lord is staying was smashed into smithereens. The matter quickly passed towards the alliance and it greatly boosted their morale. The news that they crushed the fort of the demon lord quickly made towards the heart of every empires of the human race. The reduction of the monsters crashing towards their defense line is adding fire towards the great news.

The human race quickly made this as a grand propaganda that they might have killed the demon lord with the use of the new weapons without losing much on their end. The enthusiasm towards the weapon quickly rose into another level. The human race fell into a jubilant occasion because of this.

But, in the back of everyone’s mind, did they really kill the demon lord just like that? Did the new weapons accomplish what the mighty magicians and valiant knights couldn’t? No one actually knows but the demon lord is actually just out there. Watching quietly how things turn and what actions he needs to take.

Nonetheless the human race is joyous of the occasion. They once again averted the danger towards them. They are once again the victor and celebrating for the new future ahead of them.

While the human race is on actual celebration, the demon race is actually also doing their moves. The strongest of the demon race which is also the 4th rank of the generals of the pit is actually planning something behind the human race. He accepted the call for help because he was confident in tidying up the demon lord by himself. He was a 17th tier overlord before he was even grasped by the warden and thrown into the World Prison.

He heard that the demon lord is also a 17th tier overlord. With the help of other demon race generals then he has an actual shot in taking down the demon lord but he did not go to this path. Even if he beat the demon lord, he will just replace him and become the new demon lord. Humanity will become his enemy and another war will occur.

Now that the demon race was granted with the new lands for themselves, he plans to slowly influence these beings towards his side. Temp them with riches and honor. Temp them with power and authority in the condition that they submit to him. He wanted to become the Supreme Being that controls everything in Mirth. The northern land is the first but it was definitely the last stop for him. There still are the Woodlands of the west, the prairies of the south and the wild lands of the west. He plans to get it all for himself and make every being in this Mirth become his slaves.

“I am just beginning. Soon, everything will be mine!” His eyes are burning with ambition as he laughs himself alone in his castle.

10,000 years later

“Come on, you can’t actually expect that they will return your kindness right? Why are you still resisting?” A demon is flying invisible to the human eyes but still whispers sweet nothings.

“Throw away those useless things, you only suffer losses but gains nothing out of this.” The demon continues to whisper some things towards a child which offered his candy towards another crying child.

The child actually heard the whispers but he decided to ignore it. He listened to the talks of the adults that those are the devils whispering humans to do bad things. The child just did not expect to actually hear it that early.

“Thank you elder brother!” The small little girl who received the candy ran away with a smile on her face.

The child stood where he is while watching the back of the little girl with his own smile. He turned towards his side and his eyes blazed with a silent fire. The demon actually felt something is wrong and quickly noted the appearance of this little child. This boy has a fiery red hair which with a clean cut. His eyes are also with the same tint of red and somehow he looks regal despite his childish stature.

“You have ruled this Mirth for so long that you demons forgot that there is someone else before you all came.” The child said as he extended his hand towards the neck of the demon.

The demon struggled to free him but it was for naught. He felt like he is being grasped by a giant and he was just a little child himself. He continued to struggle for some time but actually failed and stopped. The demon looked towards the child with horror as he remembered some things about the history. Before they arrived in the continent ten thousand years ago, someone else rules this Mirth.

A demon not from the World Prison but a demon lord from the ashes brought by the goddess. A cruel and vicious demon lord named Drake suddenly floated in his mind when he looks towards the red head child.

“Who are you?” The demon struggled fiercely and frantically.

“A Black-hearted Demon Lord.” That is the last thing the demon hear before his being combusted into flames.

“Wow! Cool!” A soft and childish voice sounded from the side and the red head child turns his head towards the little girl carrying a bundle of flowers on her hands.

The red hair child smiled softly and bent down to match the level of the little girl’s eyes. The girl’s eyes were brown and look adorable.

“You want to see it once again?” he said.

“Can I? I will give these flowers to you in exchange! Do it once again!”

“Sure” then he snapped his fingers and suddenly the area flashed with lights.

The little girl looked at this with amazement and wonder as she jumps in delight. The girl was still giggling and laughing to herself when a woman approached the two with an angry expression.

“Michelle! What are you doing with a dirty boy?!” The woman angrily snatched the hand of the little girl while glaring at the little boy with a poor appearance. “Let’s go!”

“I guess the world still survived without me.” The little child chuckled.

When he was about to turn around to walk away, he saw the little girl looked at him and smiled then quickly hid her face with the help of the woman’s leg. He smiled at this action and he can’t help but smile somehow.

He can’t help but remember the last moment ten thousand years ago where magic and arts still reigns. Where demons can materialize literally, where there are elves and treants, where there are half-lings, where there are monsters and demon lords.

“I guess I am just a nobody after all.” He walked away and disappeared into a dark corner. Then when appeared once again on the other side of the road, his appearance is that of a young man in his twenties with a clean shave and neat clothes. His red hair extends freely without restriction but it actually is not messy at all.

“I will give you more time humanity. Will you fall into the demon race’ hands or actually finds salvation? Elder sister… it is your call anyhow.”

The young man walked towards the busy streets disappearing within the clouds of people.