The demons launched an all-out assault in response to the sudden appearance of the so-called hero, and nearly all the troops present were mobilized.
Even the higher-ranking demons leading the forces took to the field themselves.
Despite this, the Demon King’s army could not stop the hero.
“Are you the hero? I am the commander of the Demon King’s 1st Assault Unit—”
Boom!
Amid the barrage of arrows and magic filling the battlefield, the high-ranking demon, who always charged ahead at the forefront, was knocked out with a single strike.
His face was deeply caved in by a brick thrown by the hero.
“To make it this far is impressive. But this is where it ends. I am the commander of the Demon King’s Magic Corps, the Grand Sorcerer—”
Thud!
With just a flick of his hand, the high-ranking demon, who was capable of knocking down wyverns flying in the sky, was also downed.
He was knocked unconscious, buried face-first in the ground.
“Ahhh! I surrender! I surrender! I’ll do whatever you ask, just please spare my life—”
Crash!
The beautiful succubus, who had been absorbing the souls of enemies in the center of the battlefield, also fell.
Caught by the gust of wind created by the hero’s charge, she was thrown against the city wall, and her upper body was impaled.
Afterward, five more high-ranking demons in the front lines were taken down in the blink of an eye.
‘This is insane.’
In the end, the only remaining high-ranking demon was Daedalus, the chief technician of the Demon King’s Magic Engineering Department, who had stopped by the battlefield to test his newly created servant demons.
Daedalus had intended for today to be perfect.
Based on data gathered from several tests conducted on his servant demons, which had been conducted in a masterless castle until now, he had developed a new piece of weaponry and confirmed its effectiveness on the battlefield.
Humanity’s defensive magic was mainly developed to block magical attacks, leaving it vulnerable to physical attacks that weren’t magical in nature.
Daedalus had exploited this weakness, merging various data and conducting numerous experiments to create a simple yet effective new weapon—one that could instantly pierce through defensive magic by using raw stone projectiles.
Although it was a one-time, primitive design, it was highly efficient.
And now, if only he could improve and perfect it, he would be able to create an even more powerful weapon…
‘Where the hell did this crazy human suddenly come from?!’
A self-proclaimed hero had suddenly appeared and completely overturned the frontlines where Daedalus had been stationed.
It was figuratively true, and literally true.
‘Could he actually be a real hero?! But that’s just some old, irrelevant fairy tale! That happened thousands of years ago—why is it happening now?!’
He released all of his servant demons, summoning even the final weapon, a massive golem capable of fighting dragons, to stop the self-proclaimed hero.
***
About 0.5 seconds later.
Though the golem was as large as a masterless castle in the demon realm, it was shattered in an instant by the insane human who thought he was a hero.
He even threw the broken pieces of the golem as projectiles.
‘What makes him a hero just because he carries a sword and wears armor?!’
However, the power of the flying debris was comparable to that of a meteor falling from the sky.
The so-called hero was using no sword—just throwing rocks and stones from the ground, decimating the Demon King’s army.
‘He isn’t even using a proper sword!’
A true hero was supposed to defeat enemies with a holy sword bestowed by a goddess, but this man was nothing like the legends.
This was no hero; just some ridiculously strong madman who suddenly appeared.
Anyone caught by him was done for.
This was a certainty based on what had already happened to the other high-ranking demons.
‘All the reinforcements and support units have been wiped out. What the hell am I supposed to do now?’
Now, with no servant demons left and nowhere to escape, it was a critical, life-or-death moment.
‘Wait, that’s it!’
In that instant, Daedalus had a flash of inspiration.
It was the Teleportation Stone, a rare magical tool given only to high-ranking members of the Demon King’s army.
With it, he could instantly teleport to the Demon King’s Castle anywhere in the demon realm.
As the chief technician of the Demon King’s army, he always carried one in case of an emergency.
With hope renewed, Daedalus took the Teleportation Stone from his pocket.
“If I use this, I can escape…”
Clink.
But just as Daedalus took out the stone, the self-proclaimed hero appeared.
Before Daedalus could even activate the stone, the hero blocked his path.
‘It’s over.’
Using the Teleportation Stone wasn’t instantaneous.
It would take about a minute—though that wasn’t much time, Daedalus believed that this madman, who had already shown his power, could easily sever his neck in that time.
He closed his eyes, bracing himself for his fate.
At least, he thought, he would die at the hands of a potential hero, like the other high-ranking demons.
“So, what happened next?”
Clearly, Daedalus expected to meet his end at the hands of the hero, just like the others.
But oddly enough, he wasn’t dead.
He was alive, breathing.
In fact, the other high-ranking demons hadn’t died either.
They had just lost consciousness.
“……What the hell was that?”
It was after the self-proclaimed hero had disappeared that Daedalus finally spoke up.
At least he was alive, so he figured it was fine, but an uneasy feeling lingered.
After all, what was even stranger was that the teleportation stone he had been holding had vanished without him noticing.
Daedalus would realize that the teleportation stone was gone only when the sun rose the next morning.
***
“Sir.”
“Yes?”
“Anyway, it’s fortunate that we now have a teleportation stone to head to the Demon King’s Castle, but… isn’t this a bit much?”
“Really?”
Arsep had successfully borrowed the teleportation stone from a high-ranking demon on the battlefield, but for some reason, she was gazing blankly at the distance.
He thought she’d be pleased, but her reaction was unexpected.
“Well, if the Demon King’s army loses this war and the Demon Realm begins to advance in earnest, that would be a much bigger problem.”
“Oh, right. In that case, adventurers will visit the castle more often…”
It’s true that the main battlefield was on the human continent, so it had mostly been adventurers coming and going, but if the battle moved to the Demon Realm, soldiers, not just adventurers, would begin to frequent the castle.
Daedalus now understood why Arsep had reacted the way she did.
And as he thought about it, he felt a little guilty.
Of course, demons had sent strange toys to the castle, but the ones who regularly visited had been human adventurers.
It felt like they had vented their frustrations in the wrong place.
“Well, it’s fine. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt and that you brought back the teleportation stone. If you’re injured, be sure to tell me. I’ll get mad if you hide it.”
“I’m fine, so don’t worry.”
“Really? You did something like that by yourself, and you’re sure you didn’t get hurt anywhere?”
Arsep examined him, checking his body to see if he was injured, but in truth, there was nothing wrong with him.
When fireballs or ice flew at him directly, he was a little scared, but when he actually touched them, they weren’t hot, and the ice was too thin to cause injury.
***
“But this is the teleportation stone to the Demon King’s Castle, right? I did get it from a high-ranking demon, but…”
“The teleportation stone itself is rare, so there shouldn’t be any others. Even if there were, this is the only one we could have found here.”
There might have been another high-ranking demon he had missed.
Most of them introduced themselves as high-ranking demons with high positions, but that didn’t guarantee that all of them had shown up.
While wandering the battlefield, Daedalus had searched through the demons’ possessions, but there had been no significant findings.
“Anyway, let’s head back. You’ve done well. I was worried, but I’m glad things turned out fine.”
“Wait a moment.”
“Do you have unfinished business?”
Arsep seemed to be thinking of going back, but looking at the battlefield, it seemed like there was still work to be done.
“Go ahead and enter the statue first. I’ll check if anyone’s following us and then join you.”
“Understood. But come back quickly.”
“Yes, I’ll be right back.”
After sending Arsep into the statue connected to the Demon Realm, Daedalus picked up a rock of a suitable size from nearby.
“This should be good.”
It was the perfect size, with equal length and width, and its shape was a cube.
It felt just right.
The grip was comfortable, and the weight wasn’t too heavy, making it the ideal stone.
He jumped up from his spot and threw the rock towards the castle across from the demon forces.
If the Demon King’s army continued advancing, he would be the one who would have to deal with the mess, so he had to balance things out to make sure that didn’t happen.
He believed that this rock would perfectly restore balance to the shattered battlefield.
***
The sudden appearance of the self-proclaimed hero was something that not only demons but humans were also watching.
On the castle walls at the front line, soldiers who had been startled by the commotion in the early morning rushed to assess the situation.
The Demon King’s army, which they had been facing for over a month, had been annihilated in an instant by the appearance of a mysterious figure.
“Who the hell is that guy?”
“The Demon King’s army is retreating. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Of course, it’s a good thing! I’ve had enough of them; it’s about time they got what was coming to them!”
The soldiers cheered as they watched the Demon King’s army retreat.
***
“It’s true, right?!”
“I’ve heard! The Demon King’s army is retreating?!”
“Ah! The Commander!”
“And the Guild Master too?”
The news of the Demon King’s army retreating reached not only the regular soldiers but also the commanders.
The commander of the knights, who had been directing the army at the front line, and the adventurer guild master, who had come for a meeting regarding the situation in the Demon Realm, rushed to the castle walls to confirm the facts.
“It’s true. Could it be that the hero has actually appeared…?”
“That’s not important! The Demon King’s army is retreating, so we need to strike now! We might even consider advancing into the Demon Realm and ending this war!”
Seeing the Demon King’s army hastily retreating, the commanders of the human alliance quickly planned to attack them from behind.
With the Demon King’s army and their main forces, the high-ranking demons, rendered powerless, attacking their retreating forces seemed like the perfect opportunity to advance into the Demon Realm.
***
“Wait… what’s this? Has the sun risen?”
At that moment, the sky began to lighten.
“What nonsense is that? Why is the sun rising? It’s still early morning.”
It was still dawn, and the moon was visible in the sky, but for some strange reason, the surroundings were becoming brighter.
The soldiers, startled by the sudden anomaly, began looking for the source of the light.
“Look over there! The sun is actually rising?!”
Finding the source wasn’t difficult.
The reason it was getting brighter was because of something in the sky.
There, in the sky, was what appeared to be a smaller sun.
But in fact, it wasn’t the sun at all.
It was a massive rock.
Due to its tremendous speed, the rock had caught fire, and from a distance, it looked like the sun.
“…Huh? Why is it getting bigger? Wasn’t the sun always this size?”
“It’s not getting bigger! It’s coming closer! And it’s not the sun, you idiot!”
Of course, whether it was the sun or not didn’t matter now.
A few days later, the news would hit the newspapers: the armies of the Demon King and the Human Alliance were both annihilated.
The Demon King’s army had been defeated by the hero, who was presumed to be a “hero.”
The Human Alliance’s army had been destroyed by a meteor, presumably sent by the demons.
As a result, the war between the Demon Realm and the Human Realm had come to a standstill, with no clear winner.