626 Start of the war [2]

Meteor-sized stones weighing thousands of pounds were thrown into the air, colliding with the approaching sea of black in the atmosphere.

As the enormous stones approached the dark sea composed of thousands and thousands of demons, a black tint emerged in the air, combining into a large transparent screen that served to block the incoming boulders.

Unfortunately for the demons, the boulders proved far more powerful than expected, smashing through the massive energy field and crashing into the demons, sending them tumbling against the ground.

Boom

The ground fiercely shook as more and more boulders came crashing against the ground.

It was uncertain how many demons a single rock killed, but there were over a hundred boulders being thrown at the same time, quickly slicing away at the dark sea of demons.

"Reload!"

Silug's booming voice echoed across the vast plain as his form stood towering in front of all the legions. The legions behind him worked together to replenish the catapults. They were extremely efficient in transporting and loading the rocks onto the catapult. By the time they threw a boulder, the next one would be ready within the next couple of minutes.

In spite of this...

"It's not enough."

Silug muttered to himself, his forehead tensely wrinkling. He was unsatisfied with how things were going. Looking at the approaching demon army, he knew he'd soon be compelled to abandon the catapults and fight on with his weapons.

The situation looked good now, but he knew that it was bound to change soon. They didn't have much time at their disposal.

"Halt!"

Silug lifted his hand and ordered the catapults to stop. The orcs came to a halt at his commands as they all dropped whatever they were doing and got back into formations. Silug nodded in approval when he observed this.

'Good.'

He was pleased with what he was seeing. He didn't waste the past few decades training the orcs for nothing.

"Get into fighting positions!"

Silug's voice boomed once more. The orcs followed his commands and got into fighting formations. Every group of four in the legions had a 'heavy orc'; orcs who wore massive and burly armor that weighed thousands of pounds. The intent behind this was to make it impossible for demons to lift them up in the air to then drop them on the ground. 

They essentially served as tanks and bore the grunt of the demons' attack. It was this type of formation that helped the orcs survive until now.

'They are coming.'

The demons approached the orcs like a swarm of locusts. A real and formless pressure erupted from each demon's body, mixing and generating a frightening pressure that resembled a vast tsunami, eager to tear anything in its path apart.

Silug's runes flashed as he stared at the spectacle from afar, and his crimson tint spread and mingled with the green hue coming directly from his body. His muscles expanded and an overbearing force began to emerge from deep within his body.

"Get ready!"

His words echoed across the vast expanse of land, igniting the battle spirit of all the legions behind him and driving them to thump their weapons on the ground. The ground fiercely shook and the orcs brought their weapons forward.

Silug shifted his attention away from the legion behind him and instead concentrated on the vast sea of darkness that was drawing nearer. He thrust his foot forward and raised his enormous axe into the air. The pressure that was coming out from his body further increased, and an intimidating feeling rose from him.

One second...

Two seconds...

Three seconds...

Time appeared to slow down abruptly as Silug was able to obtain a better view of the demons that were rushing towards him with vicious and ravenous gazes. All looking thirsty for his flesh.

In particular, his attention was drawn toward a demon who was ahead of the others, directly aiming for him. The demon's might was palpable, on a par with his own, and immediately made him wary.

"Huuuu...."

Silug took a deep breath and shouted.

"Attack!"

He swung with his axe immediately after saying those words, and a horrifying force tumulled out of his axe, aiming straight for the approaching demon. The power that was contained within the attack was so great that several of the demons that were within the vicinity of the attack were instantly annihilated simply by being in close proximity to it. Even the demon that was on equal footing with Silug was able to sense how menacing Silug's onslaught was, and its expression altered.

It was unfortunately too late for the demon to dodge the attack as it was already upon him by the time it knew it. The speed of the attack was simply frightening.

In the end, the demon was compelled to confront the assault head-on, and as a result, a potent force began to flow out of its body. This force merged with the surrounding air before converging to form an enormous, pitch-black barrier.

Booom.

The attack crashed into the barrier erected by the demon, causing the surrounding area to tremble as a thundering noise rippled throughout the whole battlefield. It was this exact noise that marked the start of the war.

***

"...Are we just going to look at the war without doing anything?"

I heard Liam's voice enter my ears while I gazed at the ongoing war from the safety of the castle in the distance.

Sparing him a glance, I replied.

"Of course not."

"Why?"

"Because if the two of us act now, the other demons will learn of our strength and avoid immediately assaulting us. As I previously stated, we must entice the demons to come to us, and the only way to do so is to demonstrate a strength that is scary enough for them to feel pressured, while also presenting them with a circumstance in which coming to us is preferable to staying holed up in their castles. "

The concept wasn't hard.

My current goal was to have the demons come to us and have them stop doing whatever they are planning on doing. This alone would help us secure a small advantage and avoid getting us in a disadvantageous position.

However, that was easier said than done.

If I showed them strength that was much too frightening for them to handle, they would undoubtedly hole themselves up within their own castles and wait for whatever it was they were expecting to come. Worse, they may wind up reporting this to the higher demons, making the situation even worse than it needed to be. If that happened, our condition would become tremendously disadvantageous.

What I needed to do right now was help the orcs win the war in a reasonably convincing way. In a sense, this would make the demons feel intimidated by us and make them believe that striking us while we were recovering was the greatest option for them.

And for that to happen, the orcen side had to take a few losses, hence why I wasn't doing anything yet.

"...I don't understand."

Liam scratched the back of his head.

"You don't have to know."

I patted Liam on the shoulder and headed back into the castle.

On my way back inside I heard Angelica's voice.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to train. Call me back when it looks like the orcs are losing."

I left without waiting for them to reply.

My current priority was to train at the moment. I couldn't let myself lag behind because of everything that was happening.

'I mustn't forget what happened a while back.'

...With Malik.

"Uekkk!"

Just as I was about to enter my room, my head began to ache horribly and my vision became blurry. A wet sensation trickled down my nose, forcing me to lean against the side of the wall.

"Shit, not again."

I was having another attack.

"Akkk!"

I began to stumble on my steps. My vision grew increasingly more unstable and my breathing became rougher.

'Just what in the world is happening to me?'

These attacks...

They had been going on for months with no indication of stopping, becoming worse with each attack.

It hurt...It really hurt.

"Huuuur!"

As I got closer to the door that led to my room, I took a full breath in and held it for a moment before releasing it all at once. After that, I opened the door to my room, and hastily shut the door behind me before collapsing to the floor.

Thud.

"Khh..."

On the floor, my entire body began to convulse. Fortunately, this only lasted for a short period of time since I was able to restore control of my body after a handful of seconds. However, by the time I recovered, I caught sight of what appeared to be a couple of feet in front of me.

My eyes shot wide open.

"Who is it!?"

And I abruptly sat up, only to be left speechless by the fact that no one was present in the room.

'Was it just my imagination?'

Scanning the room with my eyes and finding that no one was around, I was left wondering whether everything was merely an illusion, but just as I was going to accept this thought, my hand rocketed toward my neck area.

"Huh?!"

I was left stunned by this sudden movement, but I was quick to react as my other hand shot up and grasped the wrist of my right hand.

"Fu...cker"

As I exerted all of my strength to get my other hand away from my neck, I saw that my hand had begun to shake. My other hand was only a few of inches away from my neck, and at that very moment, I could sense that my life was dangling by a thread.

Just one little push...

"Ugh!"

Crack!

After summoning all of my strength, a bone-crushing sound echoed and my hand jerked in the incorrect direction.

"Haa... haaa..."

Sweat began to drop down from the side of my face as I took deep breaths, trying my best to recover from the sudden situation.

'What was that?'

The pain that was engulfing my arm was not something that entirely bothered me, as I was already used to pain by this point. What bothered me the most was the fact that I had almost died.

"Fucker!"

My teeth gnashed together.

I wasn't stupid to the point of not understanding what had just happened. This... This was a warning. A warning that my other self just gave me; 'I'm slowly taking control of your body.'

This was the message my other self was trying to say to me.

Only by taking deep breaths was I able to calm the seething rage that was building from deep within my body. I then opened my eyes and cleared my mind of any other ideas while also ensuring that I was in full control of my body.

'Looks like the situation is clear for now...'

Ten minutes had passed since, and by then I was sure that I was in full control of my body. During that time, I was able to formulate an opinion regarding the attacks.

'Could the attacks have been caused by my other self attempting to take over my body?'

Now that I thought about it, this indeed seemed like a plausible explanation. I immediately grew warier.

I slapped the side of my cheeks.

'Shit.'

"Now is not the time to worry about this."

Ignoring the fact that my hand was broken, I took out several crystal orbs from my dimensional space. The room, which was thin on mana, started to fluctuate.

"I need to focus on what's important right now, and that is improving my strength..."

With the mana in this world lacking, one might find it difficult to have their strength rise. There was one way to bypass this problem...albeit, it was something that only the richest of people could afford to do.

...and that was by directly absorbing the mana inside of cores.

Yes, the same cores that were extremely expensive and rarely dropped from monsters.

In my hand was the same exact core, of the <S> rank. It cost me a pretty penny, and the way I was using it was a total waste of its usage, but...

"I have no choice. This is the only way I can attain a source of mana in a world where mana is lacking. "

Inside the core was a concentrated mass of mana that could be used to train upon smashing it. This method was highly inefficient because mana didn't just stay in the atmosphere forever as it tended to be absorbed by everything in its area, but it was the only alternative I had, and it was just about enough for me.

"Alright."

I took another long breath while observing the core in my hand before ultimately crushing it in the palm of my hand.

Crack!

A surge of mana exploded from the core, spilling from the small cracks that formed around the core, totally engulfing the room.

I quickly closed my eyes and absorbed all of the mana in the air.