On the Eastern Front, things didn’t go too smoothly at the start of the battle.
The Snowfield environment was tough for the Human Border Army to adapt to, especially since those Wolfhead Tribe brats could just squat in the snow—their gray-white fur blended in perfectly, making them look like part of the Snowfield itself.
It wasn’t until two Demon Generals led their teams in that things turned around.
They could always pinpoint the Wolfhead Beastmen hidden in the snowdrifts and, working together with the Human Soldiers, surround and kill them.
The Wolfhead Tribe had better quality and outnumbered the enemy, but aside from being hard to find, they didn’t pose much more of a threat.
But this ‘hard to find’ trait really pissed off a certain girl.
“I can’t take it anymore! I’m going to unleash a big one!”
Vina gripped her Staff with both hands, closed her eyes, and lowered her head to charge up for half a minute.
Then she pointed forward.
“Fire Dragon’s Roar!”
With such a long charge time, the power was naturally extraordinary—a fire dragon as big as a building in the Royal City condensed into form, charging and smashing forward.
The melting snow sizzled, and a thick cloud of steam turned the area ahead into a blinding white nothingness.
No one could see anything.
But nobody blamed her for blocking everyone’s view, nor was there any need—because all the enemies in that area had been boiled to death by the high-temperature steam.
“The Human Race’s witch is over there!”
A group of Wolfhead Beastmen emerged from another direction, dozens of glowing eyes locking onto Vina as she continued casting her spell.
“Kill her quickly!”
The once silent white Snowfield suddenly came alive.
Countless green-glowing eyes shot up from the snow, and in an instant, hundreds of Wolfhead Beastmen lunged at the girl.
The surrounding Soldiers reacted quickly.
The Human infantry formed a Shield Wall to block the charge, but they were slightly outnumbered in this section.
Especially since the enemy had a leader among the Wolfmen—bigger and stronger than the other Wolf pups, he forced his way through the Shield Wall with a squad of subordinates.
Clang!
Celes drew her longsword.
Saintess Leah’s Holy Light Blessing landed on her at just the right moment.
Borrowing this fresh buff, she swung her sword.
Shing——!
White was the least noticeable color on the Snowfield.
When that arc of Moonlight sliced past, the Wolfman thought for a moment he’d been blinded.
Blood sprayed out with a splatter, staining the white earth.
The Wolf-Head Tribe Leader who’d broken through the Shield Wall with the wolf pack was cleaved in half by Moonlight.
She’d meant to go for the head, but it was too tall—being just over 1.75 meters, the girl couldn’t quite reach.
With no time to spare, Celes only managed to unleash a condensed arc of Moonlight.
She was about to stop the wolves behind, but then noticed they’d all frozen in place.
Two seconds of silence.
Then a chorus of wails erupted——
“The King! The King is dead!”
“The King died again!”
“Run!”
The fiercer the wolves had come, the more pitiful they were as they fled.
Celes sheathed her sword and looked at the two halves of the corpse on the ground, a bit surprised.
“Is this the new leader of the Wolfhead Tribe?”
Compared to Feng Lie, this one was lacking.
At least Feng Lie could trade a few blows and put up a struggle.
Vina dispelled her magic and poked at the corpse with her Staff.
“You killed the strongest one, so the next up will definitely be weaker than the last. Now that you’ve taken this one down, the next will be even weaker.”
Leah didn’t join their conversation.
Instead, she walked over to bless and heal the shield-bearing infantry who’d been knocked aside earlier.
Holy Light pierced the white snow, falling on every wounded Soldier.
“I’m healed, thank you.”
“Thank you, Saintess.”
“Long live the Saint!”
Vina walked over to Celes and elbowed the dazed girl.
“Why are you spacing out?”
“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about the other route.”
“Over there, there’s no mage like you for support, and no Miss Leah to provide protection and healing. I wonder if they’ll run into trouble.”
Celes said worriedly.
“I think you’re overthinking it. If you don’t believe me, let’s hurry up and fight our way to Black Cross Star City—maybe Ayla and the others are already there.”
“.No way.”
At that moment, on the Western Front, in a section of the battlefield separated from the main coalition forces, thousands of Blood Demon Soldiers were plunged into deep despair and terror.
They didn’t know who they were fighting.
It could have been a traveler left rotting on the plains, an unlucky soul buried in a foreign land, or even a distant relative’s child who’d died young—after all, this was their own territory.
White Bones! Bones crawling out from underground!
Who knew what kind of people they were in life.
After death, they returned from the realm of the dead, driving every sharp bone into the bodies of the Blood Demon Soldiers.
“Ahhhh! Die!”
A high-bloodline Blood Demon Soldier ignited, blood aura flaring from his body and his strength surging.
He hefted two Cleavers, smashing the two Bone Undead before him to pieces.
“Who else! Who else…!”
He was about to roar and rally morale, but a spine-chilling crackling sound stopped him.
He turned and saw the shattered bones on the ground reassembling into a Necroblade, its form slightly different from before.
In that instant, he realized—he couldn’t kill something that was already dead.
His impure bloodline meant the burning blood aura faded quickly.
When his strength left him, two Necroblades stabbed through him from front and back, killing him.
Thanks to their bloodline’s ferocity, the Blood Demons had no shortage of brave fools, especially those charging in the front.
But when they saw their comrades behind being entangled by these strange things, they didn’t go back to help—they charged at Ayla instead.
“Interrupt her! If she can’t cast, it stops!”
It was the universal tactic against spellcasters.
No doubt, it made sense.
But standing next to Ayla was a black-haired girl.
The Blood Demon warriors never saw her move—just felt a sudden chill at their necks, then darkness swallowed their vision.
A slaughter of the living by the dead.
No one could stop it.
Ayla thrust the Necromantic Sword into the ground and stretched.
“Alright, that’s done here. The Western Front is basically settled.”
“Oh, right, Zero, do you know why I used to say East Road and West Road, but now I say Eastern Front and Western Front?”
“It’s because when we started, we were marching and advancing, so we used ‘Road’ based on the direction of movement. Now that we’re fighting and the lines have formed, we call them ‘Fronts.'”
She said this because she remembered back in the day, when she first led Rockbreaker Lone-Eye and the others onto the battlefield, most of her trusted generals were from humble origins and hadn’t studied much.
She had to fight and teach them at the same time.
That was why the generals privately called the Demon King a Benevolent Father.
Now, as a girl, she definitely couldn’t be a Benevolent Father anymore.
She wondered what image she held in their hearts now.
“Mm.”
Zero nodded softly.
“I understand.”
“Of course, it’s not like I wanted to know all this myself.”
Ayla added, a bit embarrassed.
“I was forced to learn—it couldn’t be helped, you know.”
She had to follow the process and maintain her good girl persona.
Otherwise, she felt uncomfortable all over.