Chapter 39: Tide of Battle [MOON]

We were able to come up with a new plan after a thorough discussion. Rose and Lily will be casting the Revelation spell. Where exactly will they be casting it? The spell’s description was to reveal your true nature over a wide area. How wide is it going to be, we do not know. We ended up settling for the centre of the city to hopefully at least cover the whole city. I asked Rose on whether she knew how to cast it in the first place and she said it was only a matter of chanting it. Is it really that easy? Why is this spell declared as forbidden? Maybe it is due to it being quite useless in general combat. Very specific usage which is what we are facing right now.

John and the Elementalist took on the role of confronting with the Rick imposter and stop the army from approaching into the city until we resort the issue with the demons in disguised. The both of them said that dealing with Rick is their responsibility. What do they mean by that?

I really hope that demon is purely on reconnaissance. I shudder to think that it had slaughtered the entire eastern army by now. Something that is capable of fooling me is no ordinary demon. I told them that it is of utmost importance that the demon does not survive. It knows way too much information along with Peter’s involvement and the elves. This imposter must die no matter what.

As for me, I will be heading towards the castle to cause havoc there. It should be well-guarded with soldiers and heavily barricaded. I will need to be careful to not get surrounded, especially when the captain is involved. I doubt I can fight solo with that demon.

I told all of them to direct any reinforcements towards the castle to help me in stopping the war. Whether they are demons or humans, all will be revealed once Rose casted her spell. I need help in bringing down the castle as I am not some overpowered hero. Maybe Rose is able to if there is some area of effect spell in her book.

I had a short opportunity to talk with Lily and I thanked her for asking her siblings to spear-head the elves for us. She looked at me all confused.

“My… siblings?” asked Lily while tilting her head.

“Yea. I met them outside of the city before coming in. Your sister looked exactly like you,” I told her.

“What did they say their name was?” she asked.

“Violet and Noah,” I responded.

She smacked her head and gave a big sigh. “That’s my parents” is what she told me to which I responded with a big “Ehhhhh??!!”.

Those two were her parents?! And Lily told her parents about me? Yikes.

“They looked so young,” I muttered out loud.

“My mom flirted with you, didn’t she?” I glared at me.

“Umm.. maybe?” I answered hesitantly.

“I knew it!” shouted Lily.

Rose called us over to where John and the Elementalist is.

We did a team huddle hand stack before saying our farewell to each other. The Elementalist shook my hand while John gave me a brotherly hug. Lily and Rose gave me a hug and wished me safe. I told them not to worry as I will not be holding back upon reaching the castle. I truly wished to see the utter destruction of that castle even if I have to rip it apart piece by piece.

Before we left, Each of us made a secret specific mark on our body hidden by our clothes at different locations. This is our plan B in case the spell doesn’t work. There is nothing left for us to discuss, time is of the essence for all of us.

***

I had never seen onii-chan acting that way before. From the day he took me in, he had always been calm, cool and foolish. He had never showed himself in such a panicked state before. He looked so vulnerable, confused and… adorable? Wait why did I think that was adorable? What’s more surprising was neither John nor Lily knew how to calm him down. The both of them were just trying to talk to him down without any action. I guess being his little sister comes with perks. Why did Lily not thought of proving herself with a kiss? Perhaps she did not know about it. Elves have a different way of thinking. A kiss can prove yourself quite easily and I highly doubt any demons would want to kiss onii-chan “that” passionately. He still had his signature distinct awkward kiss that is like his signature now.

Stop thinking about the kiss, Rose! Focus yourself! We are in the middle of war and we have to make it to the center of town for me to cast the spell. I really hope this spell does not take a toll on me as it covers such a wide area. Should I climb somewhere tall before I cast it?

“Thinking about the kiss, are you?” asked Lily as we ran side by side.

“I wiped that off from my mind already,” I answered.

“How sneaky of you to kiss him after he had placed that rule. But thanks for calming him. I never seen him acting that way before. To think the Queen was able to spook him this badly,” said Lily.

“I did not expect the Queen to use Rick as bait. Rick is a Dark Knight. It won’t be easy to kill him in the first place. May he rest in peace. Thankfully onii-chan didn’t start grieving or feeling upset after hearing the news,” I explained.

“I think your kiss wiped that off his mind until the end of this war,” said Lily as she starts chuckling.

Gah! Enough about the kiss already! I’m already feeling embarrassed hearing about it now.

We were coming onto the main road. What is the situation so far I wonder? We stopped just shy of the main road and took a peek. There was a lot of dead bodies but nobody around. That’s odd. Where did everyone go?

We decided to just head towards the center of town. Thankfully there were some people as we headed closer. They were some adventurers that were still leading some civilians to safety. We spoke to them briefly that they should head towards the castle after they had guided the civilians and bring along any other adventurers that they can find.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

We acted accordingly and continued our journey. They were a couple more adventurers that we met but we decided to just announce loudly instead to save time. “To any available adventurers, please head towards the castle!” the both of us shouted the exact words simultaneously. Who knew we share the same brain cell? No wonder she felt like a sister to me.

We were stopped halfway to our destination. A few soldiers stood in our way preventing us from going further. They had their weapons ready with murderous intent. My best bet is that these soldiers are demons. Should I go for the kill or do I try to incapacitate them?

Just as I was deciding, Lily rushed ahead and gave a palm strike to one of the soldiers. He fell to the ground and in a split second revealed his demonic face to us. It must had been caught off-guard and accidentally exposed itself. No reason to hold back now. Time to kill them all!

Lily was brawling with two of the soldiers while I faced the remaining. These demons were certainly not pushovers. They had some fighting skills to hold us here. That is, if we were not being serious. I used Accelerate along with fast casting. I no longer need to stand and chant my spells now and can chant it while running at full speed along with reducing the chanting by a third of the time needed.

The sudden boost in speed gave me the advantage. I stabbed one of the soldier through the eyes and brain. That should ensure that the demon is dead. The other soldier swung his sword horizontally which I avoided by ducking low. I lunge myself back up and stabbed the soldier below the chin and through his skull. Two down, one more to go.

This soldier back-off and roared himself. His eye was bloodshot now. Shit! This demon can use bloodlust? That is not good!

I prepared myself to use some forbidden spells that I had learnt. The soldier ran towards me with his weapons up ready to swing at a moment’s notice. I readied myself to parry his attack. Before his blade reached my rapier, a fist flew above my head and slammed on the soldier’s face.

Lily did not let up and followed her attack with a punch to the sternum which made the demon drooled like a fountain. Then she gave a super punch to the head which smashed his head completely.

Yikes! Never get on Lily’s bad side. No wonder onii-chan did not stop Lily from jumping on him. He had been seeing her destroying things with just her fist for the past two years. I am sorry for doubting you, onii-chan. I completely forgive you now. Even I am afraid of her.

After making sure all the enemies were dead and were indeed demons, Lily swung her hair and looked towards me and smiled. She said “Let’s go” which I could not even register. I have no idea why I started seeing flowers around her. I muttered “I love you” without even realising it again to which Lily said “What?” while looking confused.

I immediately slapped myself a couple of times and ran towards her. I am not gay… I AM NOT GAY! She is just too attractive!!

***

The Elementalist and I decided to stop the cannons that were located on the eastern wall. It will be fairly faster than going out from the southern entrance and meeting up with the army on the east. According to Zen, Rick should be informing the eastern army to approach the south but judging as we can still hear cannons being fired, I doubt he informed anything. I informed the other adventurers who were in the hideout to head towards the south to inform the elves to not approach the city until Rose had casted the spells. The all have their secret hidden marks so they will have some way to identify themselves until then.

We reached the wall and proceeded to head into the in to wreak havoc. The Elementalist took the higher levels while I took the lower ones. The amount of soldiers that ran at the sight of me was astounding. I did not even use bloodlust against them as it was overkill. Maybe it was just my size that frighten them and the inside of the wall was fairly dark. I did not even need to use my axe. Just my fist alone was enough to incapacitate them. Some even tripped over something and fainted. I never knew that I was “that” scary. Maybe the Dark guild was actually my calling.

It took the both of us about an hour to officially stop all the cannons firing. It was oddly unsettling when things went quiet. The silence was quite eerie. There were a few demons that morphed back to their original form after they were incapacitated to which I rip their heads apart and stomped on their brains. No mercy for the wicked. Sadly I cannot just randomly incapacitate any adventurers I come across to see whether they are demons. I will be fighting for my life when more adventurers come over to fight me.

I waited for the Elementalist to open the gate which was located at the higher floors. Not a moment later, the gate can be heard opening with a loud screeching sound. Oh hey, the Elementalist is stronger than he looks. It is going to be a pain to climb all the way back down. I peeked out of a window and saw that it was directly below the gate. Guess I’ll be jumping out from here.

Geronimo!

I landed on my two feet steady as a tree. The impact blew up some dust and knocked soldiers that happened to be nearby where I landed off their feet. They were shouting and arguing on why the gate suddenly opened. The moment they saw me, some started screaming and ran away while others just stared at me with sweats pouring from their forehead or soiled themselves. I am not that scary! I even have a partner who told me that I am manly and handsome!

Something landed at the side of me but it felt light. I turned my head and it was the Elementalist. Seems like he had the same idea as me. All that is left is to knock the heads of the soldiers around us and head out to find this Rick imposter and inform the army to not come into the city until the signal. Somehow, I had a feeling that I know who is the one in disguised. I hope that I am wrong about it.

***

I took my sweet time walking towards the castle. No point in rushing when I will be fighting against an army of soldiers on my own. Hopefully there will be some adventurers that can help me before I start the destroying the castle. You would think that stopping the war is the main thing that I should be focusing on. But my stupid damn head just won’t stop thinking about the kiss that Rose gave me earlier!

It was the same awkward kiss that we had before. I wonder why she kiss that way? To think she would actually kiss me in front of everyone just to calm me down and prove herself. My heart is still racing right now thinking about it which is why I am taking my time to calm myself! Her face right after kissing me was so adorable, cute and beautiful. I thought I had known who I will choose but Rose threw me right off! Damn it!!

I am close to the bridge that leads to the castle. Am I still blushing? I crouched behind some bushes of love and slapped myself a few times and took some deep breath. Alright, focus on the castle. Not the kiss. As soon as I thought of it, the image of Rose smiling made my heart race again. I pulled my hair and thought of jumping off the bridge and submerge myself underwater.

I heard someone talking from a distance that made me snap out of my thoughts. I peek out of the bush that I was hiding and saw two soldiers approaching the bridge and stopped before it. These soldiers must be patrolling around. One of them had a horn hanging from his hip. Let’s be as sneaky as I can before causing a commotion.

I crossed the bridge at a normal pace. The two soldiers were still chatting away and did not noticed me walking closer to them. I wanted to give them a scare. I waited for them to notice me which surprisingly took longer than I was expecting. Aren’t the two of you supposed to be on guard duty?

After I was about a third of the way across the bridge, one of them finally took notice of me and was in a panic to blow the horn. I appeared in front of them the instant they blinked with a “Surprise Motherfucker” and knocked both of them to the ground. Was I quiet enough to be undetected? I crouched low and looked around. Seems like I am safe. See, I can be sneaky if I want to. I am Kommando, I am purple, I am all sneaky like~

A loud horn sound can be heard from above. Ah well, play time is over. Time to get serious.

I swung Tengu-kaze towards where the sound of the horn was heard. The wind pressure just graced the castle walls. Wow, I guess I will need stronger wind pressure to tear this castle apart. I peeked through the front-gate and only saw a handful of soldiers inside. That’s odd, shouldn’t there be more soldiers protecting the Queen? Perhaps a lot of the soldiers had defected and not many is left to protect the city and the Queen.

I stood in the middle of the gate and shouted a stern warning to the soldiers “I wouldn’t stand there if I were you!”.

I gathered power to Tengu-kaze and lifted it above my head. I can feel strong wind gathering around the blade. I swung it vertically downwards and a loud boom can be heard. The amount of destruction Tengu-kaze caused was astounding. Not only did it rip apart the entire gate, it even sliced into the castle wall itself. I am definitely going to use Tengu-kaze while running around in the castle for maximum destruction.

***

I did not know where to go so I just headed towards the throne room. There were still some soldiers around albeit not many and they certainly aren’t strong enough to stop me from reaching my goal. I need to play my part right. I do not believe I stand a chance in fighting the captain alone. If things goes south, I should prepare myself to use Illusion and Conceal spells to escape. Although I had a feeling that they had found a way to counter my spells by now. I am certain the Queen will not let me escape so easily again.

I used my unarmed techniques to incapacitate the few soldiers that were chasing after me and those protecting the entrance to the throne room. I stood there for a couple of seconds to decide on whether I should go somewhere else or should I just kill the Queen and be done with it? A moment of truth now, I decided to stake my life and confront the Queen. I took a deep breath while holding the door handle. The endgame is inside this room. Let’s just kill Thanos and go back home.

I entered the throne room. It was eerily quiet. I was expecting the captain to come charging at me immediately but he was nowhere to be seen. I do not sense him nearby either. But the Queen is definitely here. She is talking to a few soldiers at the bottom of her throne with her back facing towards me. Who knew the Queen would actually come down from her throne. The soldiers noticed me and readied their weapons but the Queen stopped them and told them to go. I guess they were assigned to do something else.

“Zen Hawthorn, I knew it was you the moment you opened that door. To think the son of the great hero would end up causing me so much trouble,” she said without even turning to face me.

I kept quiet as I did not come here to talk. Her decapitated head was what all I needed. No doubt I do not wish to grant her a quick death, too many lives were lost because of her. Announcing her death will demoralised the soldiers making it meaningless to continue this war.

“You are the only person who had actually escaped me twice. That will not happen again,” she started walking up her throne steps. Her high heels and red dress with corset was on full display. A perfect example where a beautiful woman does not necessary capture a man’s heart.

“All these deaths, all these destruction. And for what? Revenge for your mother? She’s been dead for years! I had thought you had grown matured but you are still a scrawny brat. All the lives lost in this war is because of you. You instigated this war. Did you even think of the consequences of your actions?!” shouted the Queen as she sat down on her throne cross-legged.

I closed my eyes and gave a deep thought. But only one thing appeared on my mind.

“I don’t care. You killed my mom,” I spat those words, immediately summoned Inazuma and rushed towards her at full speed with full intention to kill her.