Those who gathered to subjugate the Demon King Heathcliff called themselves thus.
The Holy Crusaders.
“In that case, we are the Demon King’s army.”
Ludger, too, was preparing his own defense in his own way.
The very first thing he did was to evacuate the people from the city through the awakened Hans.
“I can hardly believe what I’m seeing.”
Standing atop the city wall, Alex was struck speechless by the scene before him.
“He may have power over that monster, but it wasn’t this bad before, was it?”
The first thing that entered Alex’s view was the First Gate City beyond the outer wall.
If one were to ask what the city’s landscape looked like, there would be only one word for it — black.
Though it was night, the sky was clear, and the moonlight shone bright.
Moreover, since the city’s buildings were constructed of Holy Stone, even at night they reflected the lamplight and shimmered faintly on their own.
It was for that reason Bretus could call itself a holy nation.
Now that very Bretus was engulfed by darkness.
What should one call that?
The malice of the world? A writhing shadow? A black tidal wave?
Whatever it was, it hardly mattered.
The power itself was real.
Hans, the one creating the shadows, had been sitting motionless for some time now.
The black substance that at first seemed to be a cloak kept crawling outward, spreading across the ground, and from within it, black beasts writhed and overflowed without end.
“They’ve gotten smaller than before, but the number and speed they’re being made... that’s on another level.”
“Well, he’s awakened now, so that makes sense.”
“Is that even possible? How can something that small keep spawning beasts endlessly?”
For Alex, a knight, the sight before him was utterly incomprehensible.
Knights possessed strength and endurance that far exceeded ordinary humans — they were, in every sense, superhuman.
Because of that, their metabolism was naturally high and their energy consumption enormous; they needed constant replenishment.
Alex, though slim in build, ate enough to put any glutton to shame.
To create something, one must expend a corresponding amount of energy or power.
Yet the monster born from Jévaudan, now Hans, defied even that fundamental law.
“If you start questioning that, doesn’t the very principle of magic itself stop making sense?”
“Well, you’re not wrong. So how many of those things can he even summon?”
“If he doesn’t stop, they’ll just keep coming.”
“......That much?”
“The Beast of Jévaudan is, after all, the crystallization of negative energy gathered from the world — a cryptid born from the world’s malice. Its power ultimately draws from the world itself.”
In other words, to stop it, the world would need to be filled only with peace and rest, free of all fear, anxiety, and despair.
But the world never flowed that way.
Every person had darkness within them, pain within their hearts.
That negative emotional energy would always remain.
“The beasts Hans summons are that power given form.”
“......So basically, all the filth of this world has piled up, and Hans has become the gateway that opens it?”
How long had the continent’s history run?
Since humanity’s birth, how many had been born and died, how much civilization had risen and fallen?
The amount of negative power accumulated through it all was beyond measure.
“Polluting a holy city with the world’s filth... we really are playing the villains to perfection.”
“You came here knowing that, didn’t you?”
The black beasts devoured the First Gate City.
Its citizens had already fled to the Second Gate City; only the remaining Bretus troops stayed behind.
They were swallowed helplessly by the tide of black beasts surging in like a flood.
“What is this?! Where did such abominations come from!”
“Do not retreat! Fight! Fight, damn you!”
“They never end! Lumenis, grant us strength!”
Armed with faith, they fought with all they had — but human limits were absolute.
In the end, countless soldiers were torn apart, dragged down, or absorbed by the filthy tide.
Those who fell within were unlikely to leave even a corpse behind.
The First Gate City was completely drowned in darkness — and still, the black wave did not stop.
Like a breaker smashing through a seawall, the foul current pressed forward toward the Second Gate City.
Unlike the first, the second gate’s fortifications were still functional — yet...
“It won’t hold for long.”
The outcome was all too obvious.
To stop it, Hans himself had to be dealt with, but there were too many obstacles in the way.
Breaking through such an army would require an elite force to pierce a single point, or a covert team to slip around and strike from behind.
But the First Gate City was already gone, and the Second Gate’s soldiers were barely enough to hold the line, let alone counterattack.
The battle’s outcome was shamelessly clear.
Growl! Bark!
Awooo!
The beasts howled.
Their slick, tar-like bodies slammed against the walls of the Second Gate City.
A fortress built to repel any outside threat — now that pristine, holy wall was smeared with filth.
“W-what is this...?”
The soldiers atop the wall trembled at the sight before their eyes.
From their feet to the horizon, black stretched endlessly.
It was as if a swamp of shadow covered the entire world.
It bubbled and pulsed, rising and falling like a living thing.
But upon closer look, those weren’t ordinary bubbles.
Grrrr!
Bark! Bark!
What they had thought were bubbles were the heads of beasts.
Crimson eyes glowed atop the black swamp, fixing upon the soldiers, paladins, and priests on the walls.
Within those eyes burned endless hunger and killing intent.
Even the bravest of men felt their knees weaken before it.
“Do not falter! They’re nothing but beasts!”
The commanding paladins raised their voices, summoning golden holy power.
One of them lifted his sanctified torch high and shouted,
“Cryptids lack intelligence! If we just hold out until reinforcements arrive—”
BOOM!
The paladin never finished his sentence.
Only his lower half remained; the rest of his body had been erased.
“......Huh?”
His lieutenant beside him could only let out a stupid sound at the sight.
The paladin was dead — but how? The beasts hadn’t even climbed the wall.
The soldiers’ trembling gazes turned toward the black swamp.
Beyond the endlessly rippling darkness, something enormous rose.
It was a gigantic stag.
Its head bore towering antlers, its four legs moved with heavy steps, and glowing red patterns ran across its body.
The stag’s crimson eyes fixed on the wall, and black energy began to gather around it.
The condensed power gained direction — and fired like artillery shells.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
In an instant, the sturdy wall was punched through as if it were made of cheese.
The black swamp surged eagerly through the openings.
“The wall’s breached!”
“Damn it all! Stop it!”
“Stop it? How the hell are we supposed to stop that!”
“Run! Run for your lives!”
Command broke down.
The defenders tried to hold the city, but how could they stop a black tide stretching to the horizon?
And that stag — clearly a higher specimen — was the real problem.
Each time it fired its black shells, the walls crumbled like sand.
The wave that had stalled for a moment surged again through the gap, flooding in like a storm.
“Run!”
“Aaagh!”
The Second Gate City drowned in chaos.
The soldiers who resisted became food.
Paladins fighting in the vanguard, their weapons glowing with holy light, were surrounded and torn apart by the beasts.
Blood and screams poured into the wolves’ open maws.
“Hiiek!”
The citizens froze at the horrific sight.
The beasts that devoured the paladins turned their heads toward them.
People collapsed, kneeling, weeping, and praying in terror.
They would be the next prey — or so it seemed.
But surprisingly, the beasts averted their gaze and leapt elsewhere.
They targeted only those who bore weapons, and when those ran out, they began tearing down the city itself.
“They’re... they’re not attacking us?”
The people were bewildered, but it didn’t matter — now was the time to flee.
No one knew when the monsters might turn on them, so they ran, desperate to reach the Third Gate City.
It was ironic.
In their minds, only one thought remained —
We must flee.
We must escape Bretus.
The Second Gate City had fallen. There was no safety in the third.
The only way to survive was to cross the sea and leave the Holy Nation behind.
The beasts’ aura radiated terror, spurring the people ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) to flee even faster.
“How kind of you. You’re sparing the civilians and only driving them out?”
As the city’s fall neared its end, Suruna climbed the wall and addressed Ludger.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
“I meant— why bother with such tedious restraint?”
“Eliminating the paladins, priests, and soldiers is enough.”
Wiping out those who had already lost their will to fight would leave a bitter taste.
“Even though the Holy Sovereign will throw everything into this war?”
“I will fight with my own total strength — in my own way.”
“Well. Judging by the situation, that thing alone could take on an army.”
Hans, transformed into the Beast of Jévaudan, was indeed formidable.
A single being capable of overturning the entire tide of battle.
But the war to come was not an ordinary one.
A Holy War.
For it, the armies of the entire continent were already in motion.
“With the Power of Brainwashing, the continent’s leaders are already under Salesin’s control. Whatever army they lead will far surpass anything we could imagine.”
“I know.”
“But what do we have? Sure, Helia and I are strong, but against what’s coming, it’s not enough.”
Ludger did not answer.
Or rather — his gaze drifted away from the inferno below, up toward the clouds above.
Alex and Suruna instinctively followed his eyes.
There was no need to ask what he was looking at.
Their sharp senses felt it — something was breaking through the clouds, drawing near.
“What is that?”
There were many presences — and whatever it was, it was massive.
“What else could it be? Reinforcements, of course.”
Soon, something vast pierced through the clouds and revealed itself.
It was not a modern steamship like those used by the military, but a ship-of-the-line — a grand wooden sailing warship, flying through the sky.
The sight of such an ancient vessel, sails spread wide as it glided through the air, instantly told Suruna who it belonged to.
“......The Monarch Mercenaries?”
The mercenary group led by Caroline Monarch — the Monarch Mercenaries.
And the ship itself was their signature flagship — the Golden Monarch.
“Don’t tell me you hired the Monarch Mercenaries?”
The Monarch Mercenaries had never yielded their position as the number one mercenary group in the world.
And it was no mystery why.
Their leader, Caroline Monarch, was one of the few mages of the 6th-Circle Lexuror class.
Where else could one find a mercenary corps led by a 6th-Circle mage?
“How much did that cost you?”
“I didn’t buy them with money. We had an agreement — long ago.”
“An agreement?”
“Yes. She said that no matter what happened, she’d help me once.”
The flying ship Golden Monarch halted before the wall where Ludger stood.
On its deck, the Monarch Mercenaries appeared.
The most recognizable among them, of course, was the small-statured Caroline.
“It’s been a while, Professor.”
Caroline greeted Ludger with a composed smile.
“Or should I call you Demon King?”
“Whichever you prefer.”
“You know why I’m here, don’t you?”
Ludger nodded.
Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, then clicked her tongue sharply.
“Tch. Never thought I’d live to see the day I’d help a Demon King.”
“If it bothers you, you’re free to turn back.”
“Turn back?”
Caroline’s brow furrowed.
“The Monarch Mercenaries never break a contract. Don’t mistake us for second-rate sellswords.”
Her subordinates listened in silence, unfazed by her words.
“I, Caroline Monarch, and the Monarch Mercenary Corps accept the commission of the Demon King Heathcliff. That was the promise.”
Caroline bared her teeth in a fierce grin.
“I’ll fight the whole damn world with you.”