The Berganda Empire’s capital, Imperial Capital Berga, was enveloped in silence.
The sun had set, and a blue moon was rising from the east.
Inside houses made of stone and wood, people were spending time with their families.
Amidst this, guards patrolling the Imperial Capital in pairs casually looked up at the sky.
Then, they recoiled in shock and sank to their knees.
“Ah, ah, ah…”
Trembling, they pointed at the sky.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
The other guard walking beside them looked up at the sky.
He, too, lost his composure in the same way.
Unbeknownst to them, countless shadows were now floating in the sky, and among them were figures in human form.
Those who acted in concert with monsters floating in the sky… the worst possible answer flashed in the guards’ minds, and the next moment, they were screaming.
“Ah, ah… Demons! They’re Demons!”
They strained their voices to the best of their ability.
The screams echoed far and wide, drawing people out of their guard posts and homes.
Seeing the scene, the Demon Albert smirked malevolently and commanded the monsters floating in the sky.
“This is an order from Mr. Rubens… Make it flashy!”
The roars of the monsters resonated like the rumbling of the earth.
A swarm of Black Owls, Silent Bats, Poison Hawks, Griffins, and Wyverns attacked from the sky.
A threat that people had cast to the back of their memories… the invasion of the demon army.
The high walls of the Imperial Capital were of no use against monsters with flight capabilities.
The guards swallowed, but still stood to face them to protect the populace.
However, their courage did not bring results.
The beak of a Black Owl pierced a guard’s eye, the sonic attack of a Silent Bat brought him to his knees, and a Wyvern’s Fire Breath burned him. In an instant, the guard force was in a state of devastation.
A Griffin’s charge shattered the stone wall of a house, revealing families huddled together, trembling.
A Poison Hawk flew through the hole created by the Griffin and targeted a child.
Instinctively, a mother shielded her child, but its venomous claws dug into her back, and it cried out with regret.
Similar scenes began to unfold everywhere.
The cries of children, the screams of mothers, and the angry shouts of fathers rose from all over the Imperial Capital.
The gate on the opposite side of the city from Albert’s attack was blown to smithereens.
With a condescending smile, the Demon Rebera entered boldly.
“Now, it’s time for the slaughter!”
As he shouted, his subordinate forces of Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, and Armored Bears charged forward.
With low, guttural war cries, they attacked the guardsmatic soldiers before them.
“Damn it! Contact the Knights!”
One of the guards shouted, and a young soldier ran towards the Knights’ barracks.
The Imperial Capital Knights operated under a system where one-third were stationed within the city, one-third resided in the Imperial Palace, and the remaining third were off-duty.
If they could hold out until they arrived, their chances of victory would increase.
It would be even more reassuring with the help of the Royal Guards and Court Mages.
For the monsters, there was no obligation to wait for enemy reinforcements.
They attacked the humans with lewd smiles, clearly enjoying themselves.
As guards and goblins clashed swords, an Orc from the side brutally struck a guard’s head with a club.
His consciousness reeled from the intense impact, and he was subsequently beheaded by a goblin’s sword.
A Troll, meanwhile, had sent several guards flying with a single swing of its club.
Those with considerable strength were usually incorporated into the regular army or the knightly order.
After punching, cutting, and stabbing their way through the charging men, the monsters turned their attention to the women.
Men who tried to protect their sisters, wives, or lovers were quickly drowned in a sea of blood.
As the beast-like creatures unleashed their desires, the screams of young women echoed into the night sky.
The Knights, who should have been there to prevent this, had yet to appear.
It was not that they intended to abandon the people, but rather they were being obstructed by the Demon Rebera.
“Hahaha! What a nice night, you scumbags!”
Rebera blew off the head of one of the knights who charged him with his fist, and then tore through the chest of another, Armor and all.
“To hear the screams of women as much as you want! Isn’t that the best!”
Bathed in the blood of several people, Rebera smiled contentedly.
This further provoked the knights’ resentment.
“Scum!”
One spat out.
The main street was wide, allowing ten men to fight side by side, but Rebera could handle them even if they attacked him all at once.
Over twenty men had already been turned into corpses.
No matter how vulgar and coarse, as a Demon, he possessed extraordinary strength.
“Hahahaha, what are you going to do, you scumbags? Hurry, or the women will suffer a dire fate? After all, there are Orcs and Trolls around!”
The plight of young women being attacked by Orcs and Trolls was well-known.
Therefore, they wanted to rush to their rescue as soon as possible, but Rebera taunted their desperation.
“In that case, we all attack at once. We’ll strike friend and foe alike. That’s the only way.”
The man who appeared to be the leader made the decision, and the others nodded.
Indeed, without such resolve, it seemed difficult to even inflict a wound.
“Attack!”
About thirty men charged simultaneously.
“Hahaha, a futile effort, scumbags!”
Rebera scoffed.
Rebera was a Goblin Demon, and many of his skills and techniques were those that Goblins could master.
However, they were explosively enhanced when he became a Demon.
“Hah, ‘Shock Sword’!”
A skill that originally only temporarily numbed the enemy’s arms with impact, when used by Rebera, it generated a shockwave that blew away the knights collectively.
More accurately, only those in the front row were blown away, but humans were not sturdy enough to remain unharmed after colliding with armored men who had flown at them.
“Damn it… To be defeated by, by such scum…”
One of them groaned in frustration.
The inability to go to the aid of the screaming civilians and the infuriating Demon gloating before him made him furious.
Rebera mocked the knights but showed a hint of displeasure.
“Huh? If I’m scum, then what are you? You who hunt Goblins one after another, what makes you so special!?”
From the intensity of his tone, it could be discerned that his anger was genuine, and the knight was silenced by this unexpected reaction.
“We Goblins are just trying to live! And you lot have been hunting us down! Do we have no right to live?! Don’t mess with me, you hear me! That’s why you’re all scum!”
Rebera, unable to suppress his rising anger, unleashed “Shock Sword” towards the knights who were lying in a heap.
Upon impact, the armor of the front-row knights cracked, and they coughed up blood, perishing.
“Don’t mess with us!”
One of the knights shouted back.
“You humans kidnap and defile our women to bear children. As long as you exist, we will never have peace. If you don’t want to be hunted, then don’t target humanity!”
This was a fundamental problem between races.
There was an unbridgeable chasm between the Goblins, who needed human women for reproduction, and humanity, who wanted to prevent it.
The knights had neither the strength to escape Rebera nor the ability to fight back, and they had already resigned themselves to their deaths.
They could accept their fate only because the screams they heard in the distance had ceased.
Presumably, knights from other outposts had arrived.
They had succeeded in holding back the Demon Rebera.
Sensing this, Rebera’s body trembled with even greater rage.
“You… I will never forgive you! I will slaughter you all!”
Rebera decided to eliminate the weaklings before him first.
While the armies led by Albert and Rebera ravaged the city, Gastark’s forces were already attacking the Imperial Palace.
Despite being caught off guard, the Royal Guards immediately engaged them in battle.
“Captain! Outside, I hear the voices of monsters too!”
“I know!”
One of the captains shouted back at his subordinate’s near-panicked voice.
Everyone wanted to rush out if they could.
However, their duty as Royal Guards was to protect the inside of the castle, and protecting the outside was the job of the Knights.
They had to clear out the monsters that had infiltrated the castle as quickly as possible so that the Knights could move outside.
Most of the Imperial Capital’s citizens were unable to fight effectively.
The monsters swarming before them were impeding their efforts, but the tide was turning in favor of the humans.
The Black Owls and Poison Hawks attacked with coordinated movements, but this was not enough to trouble the elite forces of Berganda.
“Where is His Majesty? The Empress? All the Imperial Family?”
A question from one of the Royal Guards was answered not by a colleague.
“Your captains are heading there!”
As he replied, he unleashed “Ice Bullet,” accurately shooting down the Black Owls.
“Oh, Lord Tom!”
A cheer, almost a roar, erupted from the Royal Guards.
Behind Tom were the arcane soldiers.
“Apologies for the delay. We were sending envoys to various regions to request reinforcements. We will assist you to the best of our limited ability!”
“Thank you! Let’s push them back!”
With the support fire of the mages, the Royal Guards slaughtered the monsters.
The tide of battle turned instantly.
For the monsters, they had already been struggling against the Royal Knights alone, and with the addition of magical attacks, they were overwhelmed.
“That was a moment of respite.”
After confirming that all the monsters had been slain and lay on the floor, the captain exhaled deeply. One of his subordinates posed a question.
“Captain, weren’t there fewer than you expected?”
“Hmm… Perhaps they are outside.”
It was always the case that when monsters attacked a large city or fortress in swarms, a Demon was behind them.
They had all assumed that would be the case this time as well.
Yet, they also felt that the number was small.
If a Demon intended to, they could command tens of thousands of individuals if they belonged to a numerous race.
The number attacking the castle was clearly less than that by a digit, and no Demons were visible.
It was natural to assume that the outside was under attack.
“Damn it!”
One of the Royal Guards bit his lip in frustration.
All they could do was pray for the Knights’ efforts.
Although they had repelled the attack with the mages’ support, the number of casualties among the knights was not insignificant.
Furthermore, there was the possibility of a second wave.
As Royal Guards, they could not leave the castle.
If the envoys dispatched to various regions arrived quickly enough, they might be able to manage.
The forces currently in the Imperial Capital consisted of approximately five thousand Royal Knights and about twenty thousand Imperial Capital Knights. The two hundred thousand regular troops were scattered across various regions.
While it was necessary to leave a minimum deterrent in each region, if over a hundred thousand troops arrived, even facing Demons, there would be a ray of hope.
Upon receiving this report, the Imperial family members looked as if they had been saved.
“The enemy’s scale is estimated to be around thirty thousand. If it remains this way, we can repel them. The problem lies with the Demons, however…”
The word “Demon” cast a shadow over everyone’s expressions.
It was precisely because there was hope that they could fight so hard in defense.
When facing a Demon, it was impossible to predict the outcome.
At this point, they had made two grave mistakes.
One was their delayed realization that high-ranking Demons like Albert were involved, and the other was believing that simply sending out envoys would guarantee reinforcements.
The envoys, each protected by ten escorts, breached the eastern and western city gates through routes that avoided encounters with monsters and Demons.
Immediately after passing through, they fell from their horses, uttering short cries of agony, and died.
The escorts hastily stopped their horses and, upon examining the bodies, found black bird-like feathers embedded in their throats.
The culprit was the Demon Pal, who had been instructed by Rubens to neutralize any information transfer, and flying monsters under his command were also present.
“C, could it be that outside as well…?”
Considering the timing of the attack, it was clear they had been ambushed.
The escorts became aware of the Demons’ resolve, but they perished before they could convey it to anyone.
Those who escaped from the opposite side were ambushed by Trolls under Franklin’s command.
– “T, Trolls here too?”
They realized that not all of the Demon army had attacked within the city, but it was too late.
As the formidable arms of the Trolls swung down, their clubs roared, crushing the escorts’ heads.
Incapable of even retaliating, the messengers and their escorts were annihilated.
Franklin, watching this, nodded repeatedly.
He and his companions had wiped out those who had fled upon sensing the anomaly, and now they had killed the messengers.
With this, all hope of reinforcements arriving in time had vanished.
