Demon King Charlemagne.
She had long been concerned about her comrade Alexander’s impatience.
In grand affairs, impatience was always a poison.
Especially in something as irreversible and critical as war, such an attitude was utterly forbidden.
That was why she had chosen to wait.
She held her forces back, keeping them in place.
Meanwhile, Alexander, paying no attention to her or her troops, led his army straight into the heart of the Imperial formation.
His sheer combat prowess was said to be second only to that of the Demon King himself, making his charge nothing short of overwhelming.
Leading just ten thousand troops into an army of tens of thousands seemed reckless at first glance, but perhaps precisely because of that, his advance left an even stronger impression.
Before the thrust of his spear, the vast Imperial army crumbled without putting up meaningful resistance.
“Lady Charlemagne, shouldn’t we go as well?”
“Lord Alexander is making a grand display of valor. Please allow us to join the fight and claim some glory too!”
Her demon generals, restless and eager for battle, requested permission to charge.
Watching the battlefield, even Charlemagne began to waver slightly.
Contrary to her initial concerns, Alexander was fighting remarkably well.
Though there was undeniable risk in rampaging deep within enemy lines, at this rate, they might achieve victory far more easily than she had expected.
“Hmm… If that’s the case”
Just as she was about to give the order to charge.
“Lady… Lady Charlemagne?”
“Huh?”
At that moment, an ominous surge of mana erupted from the battlefield before her.
Even for Charlemagne, well-versed in magic, the sight was unsettling.
A deep sense of foreboding gripped her as she halted the order she had been about to give.
And then…
“This… what is this…?”
The sight that followed chilled not only Charlemagne but every demon under her command to the bone.
The Imperial soldiers and Alexander’s demon troops, who had been locked in fierce combat just moments ago.
At that moment, a terrifying silence descended upon the once-chaotic battlefield.
There was no one left who could make a sound.
The demons who had swung their swords, the humans who had struggled to resist, and even the Demon King Alexander, who had led the charge, slaughtering humans at the front lines—they had all fallen silent.
Now, they were nothing more than corpses lying lifeless on the ground.
Tens of thousands of lives lay scattered across the battlefield in death.
Among them were not only their allies but an even greater number of enemy soldiers.
Yet, no one present could feel joy at this sight.
With their eyes left open, all those countless lives had been annihilated in an instant.
There was no rational way to even guess how such a thing had been possible.
The mere sight of the battlefield sent chills down their spines.
A sense of instinctual revulsion and terror gripped them.
Amidst the overwhelming dread, Charlemagne barely managed to regain her composure and gave the order.
“Retreat… We’re retreating. Get out of here, now…!”
“O-of course… Y-yes, understood!”
At her command, the demon generals hastily turned their horses around.
Even in the grip of extreme fear, the fact that their formation had not completely collapsed was a small relief.
Wasting no time, Charlemagne’s forces fled in a frenzy, even more desperately than when they had first arrived.
The report came—tens of thousands of lives had been wiped out in an instant.
Though the humans had suffered significant casualties as well, the fact that an entire army, along with one of the Demon Kings, had been completely eradicated meant that the demons had suffered a far greater loss.
“I had my suspicions… but to think they would actually use it…”
Mari spoke in a heavy voice upon hearing the messenger’s report.
Beside her, Teriya, wearing a look of astonishment, asked.
“That thing… Mari, you knew? That the humans had such power?”
“Yes… but I never thought they would truly dare to use it. Back when I was the Master of the Magic Tower, I warned them repeatedly of its dangers.”
“What in the world did they do? Even the Great Demon King himself could not claim tens of thousands of lives in a single instant.”
Mari remained silent for a moment, her expression dark.
But soon, she spoke in a cold voice, sharing the knowledge she possessed.
“Teriya… have you ever heard of a sword called Brynnac?”
“Brynnac…? Wait… You don’t mean that cursed sword from legend?”
“A cursed sword… I see. So, that’s what the demons have been calling it.”
“That’s not the issue! Are you saying that Brynnac actually exists? And that it’s now in human hands?”
Teriya’s voice grew urgent as she questioned Mari.
Mari, with a heavy heart, nodded in response.
“…Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“…How could this happen…”
The cursed sword, Brynnac.
Though it was now wielded by humans, its origins lay with the demons.
Long ago, before the demons had crossed dimensions into this world, they lived in a harsh and desolate realm.
Forced into endless bloodshed, the demons waged brutal wars for survival, fighting over scarce resources and limited food.
It was during this era of ceaseless conflict that the Demon King of that time, ‘Lu,’ sought to end the wars by creating a forbidden weapon.
A weapon forged through dark sorcery, one that devoured the souls of the living to grant its wielder unfathomable power.
This was Brynnac.
Its power was immeasurable, capable of splitting mountains with a single strike.
A lone warrior wielding it could annihilate thousands of enemies.
However, there was one fatal flaw in this mighty weapon.
Without consuming a massive number of souls, its power was no greater than that of an ordinary steel sword.
Simply cutting down enemies in battle was not enough, it required an enormous sacrifice.
Prisoners captured in war, and even the souls of allied soldiers.
But Demon King Lu considered such minor drawbacks insignificant.
Without hesitation, he wielded Brynnac freely, undeterred by its terrible cost.
In the process, countless innocent souls were sacrificed.
Drunk on power, Demon King Lu gradually lost his sanity.
In the end, wielding the overwhelming might of Brynnac, he drove all opposing forces to the brink of annihilation.
But by then, he had become a figure of terror—no longer a ruler, but a ruthless tyrant feared even by his own people.
Not only his enemies, but also his own subjects, who were sacrificed as offerings to fuel Brynnac’s power.
However, the Demon King’s actions, sacrificing even his closest followers in his pursuit of power, inevitably led to widespread rebellion.
Ultimately, Demon King Lu met his end, stabbed to death in his own bed by the very subordinates who had once sworn loyalty to him.
As he lay dying, the weapon he had relied on so completely—Brynnac—devoured his soul as well.
Thus, the cursed sword that consumed even its master became a symbol of disaster and misfortune.
Fearing its power, the Demon Lords sealed Brynnac away deep within the Demon King’s Castle.
But at some unknown point, the accursed weapon was stolen by an unknown hand and disappeared without a trace.
Countless ages passed—until it was eventually rediscovered, by sheer chance, by the Great Witch Mari.
“To think that something believed to exist only in legend was real…”
“I couldn’t believe it at first either. I had heard of it through demon legends, but I never imagined such a weapon actually existed. However, after conducting a few tests, I became certain. That sword was indeed Brynnac. And… that such a weapon should never be wielded by anyone.”
Mari had wanted to destroy the ominous sword on the spot.
But the accursed weapon had not sustained so much as a scratch, even against all her power.
In the end, the most she could do was seal it deep underground beneath the Magic Tower.
“But… even if it’s Brynnac, is it truly possible to kill tens of thousands of people at once with it alone?”
“…That was likely a result of them combining it with my own magic.
During my research, I experimented with integrating Brynnac’s soul absorption ability into a magic circle.”
“Mm…”
For a moment, Teriya couldn’t help but think, So in the end, this was your doing…
However, she didn’t voice any strong objections.
For witches, research and development were as natural as breathing.
Even though it was just a hobby for her, she still considered herself a witch and understood that mindset.
“The problem is… that sword is now being turned against us.”
“There’s no need to worry too much about the magic itself. Since they used a flawed method, this spell can only be cast once every six months at most. If they attempt it again too soon, the magic circle will backfire and destroy itself.”
“You certainly studied it in great detail, didn’t you?”
“Well… it was a legendary artifact, after all…”
Mari made an awkward expression.
At that moment.
A man who had been silently listening to their conversation finally spoke.
In a calm voice, Kesar asked.
“Then, what should we do next?”