Chapter 224 - Hope

Demonic dragons were predators. They were the Demon Realm's highest race, hunters who always reigned from above and hunted their prey.

That was why being looked at as prey was distinctly unpleasant.

No, unpleasant was an understatement. It filled Berge with rage and disgust. If he could, he would have cut off Jason's head that very instant.

But he held back. He was a patient demonic dragon, after all.

"I'll say the same to you. After I kill you and conquer Arain, I will challenge the Demon Emperor."

"Excellent. Since we both have something we desperately desire, I hope our wishes are fulfilled as soon as possible. Thanks to you telling Grand Duke Alkain every last detail, Lord Berge, I suspect I shall be rather busy."

"You brought it on yourself. Did you expect to kill Demon Kings and get away with it?"

"That hardly seems fitting coming from you, Lord Berge, when you killed Lord Drakson."

"I didn't kill him."

Berge rose from his seat.

"We'll meet again."

"And that will be your last meeting, Lord Berge."

Berge did not answer. He swiftly left.

"... Are you all right?"

Ernyan glanced at his hands. His nails had dug into his palms, drawing blood.

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"Me?"

"You've learned the Demon Realm's secret."

"I'm not sure. It's a strange feeling. It wasn't something I particularly wanted to know. I suppose I'm the first human to learn the Demon Realm's shameful secret?"

"Yes."

"In a way, that might make me a little happy. Are you going to fight him?"

"I'll have to."

With things having come to this, Jason would not stop. Either the humans had to stand in his way, or Berge had to intervene himself.

Otherwise, the entire continent would fall into his grasp.

"So it will be the Demon King of Lies and the Empire against you and the human coalition, my lord."

"Though the humans won't know it."

"Why not reveal yourself openly?"

"What do you mean?"

"Instead of secretly helping from behind the scenes, openly take humanity's side."

"You want me to fight for humans?"

"I'm not asking you to do it for them. If you have to fight anyway, use everything you can. For your own sake, my lord."

"That's too vague."

The humans would never accept Berge to begin with. The Demon King of Lies might have suddenly gone berserk, but Berge was ultimately the root cause of this whole affair.

"No. Think about it."

"Think?"

"All you've done until now is defend against the heroes' journeys sent to conquer your tower."

"I also wiped out an imperial city and kidnapped the First Prince."

"Exactly. All of that involved the Empire, didn't it? And the Empire has been consumed from within by the Demon King of Lies and will soon plunge everything into chaos."

"...!"

She wasn't wrong. But her outlook was undeniably rather optimistic.

"But I've already killed tens of thousands of humans."

"A drowning person will grab anything in desperation. They won't care whether it's a rope or a snake's tail. Staying alive comes first."

"So when humans are in danger and desperate enough to clutch at straws, I should help them?"

"Exactly. Humans are particularly susceptible to heroes who help them."

"You want me to become a hero?"

"You don't necessarily have to become a hero. If you can make people think, 'Could it be?' you've succeeded."

A faint hint, however slight, that cooperation might be possible.

"Humans can fight one another to the death, but when faced with an outside enemy, they unite."

"I'm an outside enemy too."

"Making you an enemy within is what Lord Hillen and I must do. Isn't this the sort of situation you were preparing for?"

"I won't deny that, but..."

The Crown Princess of Hilderan and the Guildmaster of the Heroes' Guild defending a Demon King.

It would certainly have an enormous impact. Especially since Hilderan's Crown Princess was a spirit king's contractor.

"Of course, we'll need the right opportunity. Lies will give us that."

"The invasion of Hilderan."

Jason had said he would invade Hilderan and Akan. It was clear that he was targeting Ernyan and Lavinia.

"Speaking of which, when will that sky tower you're building be finished? A dramatic entrance is always important."

Ernyan's eyes sharpened.

"Of course, before that, we'll have to gather the Stars and get our stories straight."

* * *

"We've won."

After Ernyan flew out over the lake, a wall of water separated the lake from the land.

When it lifted again, the legion of Lies began to move once more.

As though declaring everything so far had been mere play, even more overwhelming numbers blackened the world.

Duke Olten sensed victory.

"Fire!"

Cluster shells, explosive shells, breaker shells, incendiary shells. Every mana cannon fired, regardless of ammunition type.

Mages chanted spells while coughing up blood, and knights raised their shields and beheaded monsters trying to climb out onto the shore.

Even so, the enemy's numbers did not seem to diminish much.

But he did not despair. Instead, he took hope.

"When a Demon King dies, the demonic creatures under his command lose their reason and go berserk! This is proof that the heroes have cut off the Demon King's head!"

"Waaaaah!"

A fierce cheer rang across the lakeshore.

"We've won! So unless you want to be remembered as fools who lost after winning, don't even think of retreating!"

"If they break through you, the continent will be ravaged! Give your lives for your homelands and your families!" 'I too.'

SHING

Duke Olten drew his sword.

"...will stand here alongside you. Stop them, and peace will come to the continent!"

He steeled his resolve.

"You mustn't."

That was when Hillen and the other Stars arrived.

Hillen Cargill was bleeding from a great wound near his chest. Roselle Charnt and Aina Diaphrin were pale, Ralph Schmitz was bathed in blood, and Watton Collo's armor was destroyed and his arm broken. Cher was slashed all over, the princesses' hair was disheveled and their clothes partly torn, and even the man called Pale looked haggard.

"..."

The final blow was Pablo Barkat's corpse, transported by magic but utterly devoid of life.

This could never be called the victors' return.

"Surely not...?"

Duke Olten swallowed a groan. A powerful sense of dread flashed through his mind: he might have been wrong.

Surely not. It couldn't be.

"... We've lost. We must flee and preserve our strength!"

"Lost? Aren't you six Stars? Isn't she a spirit king's contractor?"

They had lost against a single Demon King?

He could not believe it.

Duke Olten thought Hillen Cargill was playing a cruel joke. He prayed it was a joke.

"It's difficult to believe, and we don't want to admit it, but it's true."

Hillen gritted his teeth in apparent frustration.

"How could that...!"

"A hundred years was far too long. While we grew complacent in peace and looked down on Demon Kings, Lies quietly built his strength. He has surpassed an ordinary Demon King!"

"Ah..."

Duke Olten staggered at the hopeless situation.

"Your Grace!"

"Your Grace!"

Knights and adjutants hurried to support him.

"You truly... truly failed?"

"Yes."

"Then these demonic creatures..."

"They're charging to celebrate their victory and devour the defeated troops."

"Good heavens..."

"We must retreat immediately. We have to preserve our strength to stop them."

"You lost. Six Stars and a spirit king's contractor were defeated. What solution will retreating give us?"

"But if we're annihilated here, the kingdoms will only be left even more defenseless against them."

"Guildmaster."

Duke Olten's voice sank low.

"... Do you have a way?"

"We'll find one, whatever it takes. That is a hero's duty."

In the end, that meant there wasn't one.

Duke Olten weakly ordered a retreat.

Every dream and hope had vanished, but as Hillen said, they could not lose their entire army of one hundred thousand here.

At the very least, they should retreat to a nearby fortress and preserve as much of their strength as possible.

"Aaaaagh!"

"H-help me!"

But the retreat order meant failure. Every soldier knew it.

The fact that they had lost even with six Stars and a spirit king's contractor fighting for them sent morale plummeting. Despair and fear spread.

Demonic creatures and demons drove daggers into the backs of the retreating, defeated soldiers.

Nearly twenty thousand troops died during the retreat.

It was an excruciating loss.

* * *

【Hero's Journey Ends in Failure. Coalition Defeated Once Again...】

【Pablo Barkat Returns a Cold Corpse. Why Did He Die?】

【Shock! Six Stars and a Spirit King's Contractor Could Not Handle a Single Demon King...】

【Lies' Demonic Creatures Numbered Far Beyond Tens of Thousands. An Army Beyond That of an Ordinary Demon King...】

【Shocking Testimony from a Coalition Knight: 'It was a catastrophe. Neither the dwarves' mana cannons, nor the heroes, nor the Stars could stop it. We cannot win.'...】

【New Heroes' Guild Guildmaster Hillen Cargill: 'I can only apologize to everyone. I will defeat Lies without fail.'】

【Demonic Creatures Destroy Belogan Fortress and Vanish. Principality of Artian and Traparta Union in Shock...】

【Hilderan's Crown Princess Ernyan Hilderan Sparks Controversy: 'The Demon King was strong. Perhaps humanity gave Lies too much time.' Was a Hundred Years Too Long?...】

FWOOSH

The newspaper burned.

Roselle Charnt ground her teeth.

"We didn't lose! We only came back because the Demon King told us to! Who's the bastard who wrote this article?"

"We all know that."

"Who's 'we all'? You, those people, and the heroes! That's why they can write this bullshit so brazenly!"

"It's true that we struggled."

"A hard fight and a defeat are two very different things. We could have won if we'd kept going!"

"You know we couldn't have, don't you?"

They were the finest among heroes. Having fought him themselves, they could hardly fail to sense the Demon King's caliber.

Jason was different. Different from every demon they had ever faced.

There was a greater depth to him, something indescribably horrifying.

"If it had been just us, sure. But Ernyan Hilderan and the Demon King never even joined us."

If they had fought alongside them, things would have been different.

"That very Demon King ordered us to retreat."

"And Belogan Fortress was reduced to ruins as a result."

"You are a Star, but before that, you are our lord's servant. You must not forget your duty."

"Looks like you've become the Demon King's dog through and through."

"And since when have you been so righteous, Lady Roselle?"

"Since now."

The two heroes glared at each other.

"Hmph."

Roselle snorted, broke through the window, and went outside.

"Why, when there's a perfectly good door...?"

"Leave her. For all her talk, she knows. She simply doesn't want to admit it."

Roselle had gone from success to success on the strength of her exceptional talent. Both as a mage of a mage tower and as a Star of the Heroes' Guild, she had lived a life with little experience of failure.

She had even inscribed eight engravings recently, sending her self-esteem soaring. The presence of an enormous wall she could not surmount no matter what she did must have come as a tremendous shock.

"I understand."

Hillen nodded at Ralph's words.

"So what exactly are the Demon King and the Crown Princess trying to do? Telling us to deliberately exaggerate Lies' power..."

Thanks to that, fear of Lies had grown even greater. The coalition's defeat would have produced that result anyway, of course, but they had made it worse.

"I'm told Lies will attack Hilderan."

"I heard that too. Isn't that why we're here?"

Using the demonic creatures' movements as a pretext, Hillen Cargill had led the Heroes' Guild's heroes to Luiyan, a Hilderan fortress city beside the lake.

If the demonic creatures began advancing from the lake, they would inevitably have to pass through here.

"I don't doubt it, since the Demon King said it, but why?"

Ralph could not understand any of this.

They could have simply fought together back then.

Why retreat, bear the disgrace of defeat, and deliberately accept these losses?

"Is it because he's a Demon King after all...?"

"Even if we'd fought then, our chances of victory wouldn't have been very high."

"Of course I admit Lies is incredibly strong. But isn't the Demon King of Hellfire strong too?"

"I thought so too."

"You don't anymore?"

"That supremely confident Demon King spoke of 'defeat.'"

He was a proud Demon King who never said he would lose, even in jest. Yet he had been unable to reject Lies' threats.

"That means the other Demon King has something hidden that we don't know about."

"That's right."

At that moment, the door swung open and Ernyan Hilderan entered.

"Your Highness."

"If we'd kept fighting, we would have lost. Every one of you would be a corpse."

"We are Stars."

"That man isn't Lies."

"... What do you mean?"

"While you were withdrawing, our lord and Lies had a long conversation. I can't give you the details, but I can say with certainty that Lies is a Doppelganger."

"A Doppelganger, Your Highness?"

"A Doppelganger..."

"A demon that parasitizes another living being, eventually devours it, and impersonates it."

"... Then you're saying..."

"The one we fought was never Lies in the first place."

"Then when did this Doppelganger arrive in Arain?"

"Hundreds of years ago."

"Is that possible?"

"That's absurd!"

The heroes were horrified. They could not accept that the opponent they had thought was merely a slightly stronger Demon King was, in fact, a towering mountain.

If they could not do it, and even the Demon King of Hellfire could not, there truly was no way.

In darkness without a single ray of hope, Arain would perish.

"You've experienced the result yourselves, haven't you? An ordinary Demon King couldn't do that."

"... Then why did someone like that simply let our lord go?"

"They made a deal. I can't tell you the details of that either."

"A deal? Surely he isn't selling us out?"

Watton's eyes shook.

"If he were, you would have died right there."

"... Then..."

Aina's voice trembled with anxiety.

"Is there a way?"

If their opponent was not a mere Demon King, but a Doppelganger who had devoured dozens of Demon Kings and countless heroes...

If they had been forced to retreat because they could not win...

Would buying a little time really change much?

"There is."

"Really?"

"I think you lack faith, Lady Aina. This is our lord we're talking about. Of course he has a way."

"What is it?"

"Hope."

"Hope?"

The heroes tilted their heads, bewildered.

Ernyan spoke again, full of conviction.

"Our lord will become humanity's ray of hope. He'll appear riding a sky tower instead of a white horse."

"... A sky tower?"

"What does that mean?"

"The sky will fly through the tower—no, the tower will fly through the sky?"

"Exactly."

"..."

The heroes looked dumbfounded.

"So what exactly is going to do what?"

"The tower will fly through the sky, I said."

"... Uh."

"I shouldn't say this, but I think Her Highness the Crown Princess has gone a little cra—no, strange."

"I don't think so, but right now I can't bring myself to deny it."

"Could she be another one wearing the Demon King of Lies' skin...?"

"If she were, she couldn't have summoned the spirit king."

"That's true too."

Aina and Ralph whispered quietly.

They were Stars who had reached their positions by fighting countless demons.

They had seen and experienced many towers, and knew all too well how absurd it was for one to fly through the sky.

All the more so because they had never personally seen a tower move.

"... I don't quite understand, but in short, Lord Berge has a clever plan. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Then that's enough."

Hillen readily accepted it.

The Berge he knew was not a Demon King who talked nonsense. If he said there was a way, there was one.

Then there was no need to despair like this. They simply had to do their best in their respective roles.

"... To think we must entrust humanity's hope to a Demon King."

"That's hardly something a Demon King's servant should say."

"Indeed, Your Highness. It's quite ironic."

Ralph scratched his head vigorously.

It happened then.

"We've detected movements by the demonic creatures!"

Jason's dagger had begun flying toward them.