Chapter 290

○ Demon King Tralzard

“What is that noise?”
I was on my way to fight Demon King Legard.
It was after camp preparations for the night had been completed, the sounds of battle could be heard from a nearby grove.

—Chuuudon-chudon-chudon.

I could hear it faintly.
“This sound…is it magic bullets? Then the battle must be on a pretty large scale.”

I had sent out scouts before they set up camp.
And so at first, I assumed that they had been involved in a skirmish. But it was not the case.
This was much bigger than that.

“Someone, send soldiers to that grove! As many as you can!’

I had to find out what was happening… The scouts who had been sent out earlier were small in number.
They may have already been annihilated.

After waiting for some time, the second group of scouts returned.
Apparently, a battle was being waged, but they could not get close enough to find out who it was.
But two different forces were battling.

“It is very unlikely that such a battle happened close to us by accident. I will take my closest men and head there myself.”
While it seemed likely that it would be the Demon King’s army, it was also strange that they had come so close without us noticing it.

In the first place, if Legard had crossed the border, his fighting force would be focused there.
He wasn’t the type to use himself as bait. And so it was very unlikely.

Besides, this was my country. I would not miss an army of that size moving through it.

There was another possibility.
The Wild Hunt. Sightings have been increasing recently.

They had inflicted damage in almost every country.
And since they seemed to appear and disappear at will, it was possible that they could have come here without being noticed.

“And so it’s likely to be the Wild Hunt… But what about the other side?”
I knew of all my allies in the area.

And it was doubtful that I had allies that I was unaware of.
So, who could it be?

“We will move as soon as preparations are finished!”

According to my scouts, it was a sizable army.
Though, they could only watch from the trees, as they had to avoid the magic bullets.

And by the time I reached the battlefield, both arms were in disarray.
It was the Ogres that were attacking the Wild Hunt.

“What!?”
I blinked.

“Ogres? Why!?”
The walls of meat…as they are called. They were going berserk about the battlefield.
And there were Reapers too. They supported the Ogres adeptly, and though they faced powerful enemies, they seemed to be winning.

“Is such a thing possible?”
It was so shocking to me that I forgot to give out any orders.
But I quickly regained control.

“Hyaaha!”
“Hyaaha!”
“Hyaahaha!!”

The Ogres seemed very happy as they fought.

“Yes, judging by the reports, this really is the Wild Hunt. We must eliminate them first!”
And so my men rushed forward.

The Wild Hunt had ravaged my villages and towns as they traveled up north.
And while there were many eye witnesses, we had never been able to find them in advance.

But now, they were right in front of us.

I watched my subordinates charge into the enemy, and then I too moved deeper in. And then…

“Golan. Why are you here?!”

I froze, while stepping on an enemy.
Golan’s actions were even more mysterious than the Wild Hunt.

Golan should not be here.
I pressed down with my foot as I tried to think of an explanation. Also, what was this thing under my foot?

(Golan had said that he was going to return to his country. But he also heard the news about the Wild Hunt. And then he stayed in the town, quietly….)

And according to reports, he was still there when we left.
But it didn’t seem like he was plotting something.

(This is strange…)

He shouldn’t know that we are here.
It was the same with the Wild Hunt.

(I don’t know… Why is Golan attacking the Wild Hunt… No, how is he even able to? It doesn’t make sense.)

Where did he get the information from?
Did he have access to classified information, even in a foreign country?

And how could he attack the Wild Hunt, when no one knew where they were?
There was too much that I didn’t know.

But while I stood there in shock, Golan challenged their leader, Nehyor, to a duel.
Golan was strong…but also gave the impression of someone who was too reckless.

Normally, acting in such a way would result in your death before an evolution.
It really was odd.
How he had survived this long.

“I will watch you.”
Before I knew it, I was shouting such things.

Apparently, Golan and Nehyor used to work together.
And so they had a score to settle.

I was interested to see how this Gekokujyo ended.
Of course, I would have to defeat Nehyor regardless, after all the damage he caused in my country.

And so if Golan lost, I would make my move.
But until then, I would not interfere.

(However…what was with this mountain of corpses surrounding me?)

They all had expressions of pain and suffering.
What had happened here before my arrival…

Golan and Nehyor’s battle seemed like a seesaw battle…but there was something strange about Golan.

Like his body wasn’t quite right.
I thought he was saving his strength at first, but there was more to it.

He had no strength left in him.
Could there be a worse circumstance for Gekokujyo?

What had he been thinking, challenging Nehyor like this?

“What!?”

There were two things that shocked me during the fight.
One was Golan’s skill.

Without using physical strength, he managed to brave the attacks of someone so powerful.
I had lived long, but did not know that such a thing was possible.

(Is he parrying…?)

It seemed more like he was lightly touching his opponent with his hands, but it was not the case.
These were highly calculated movements that went against Nehyor’s power.

Even I could not calculate like that.
I had always felt that brute force was everything.

(So, there are other ways to use one’s power.)

If others could fight like he did, the instances of powerful people being defeated would become more common.

(Well, it would not be easy to imitate such a thing.)

It was impossible unless you understood both your own and their movements perfectly.
Anything less than that would just be a surface level imitation.

And then there was the other thing that shocked me.

“He absorbed his mana?”

It was something that Lesser Demon King Yamato had once done.
As there was something similar about the two, I had told him about it… But to think that he could use it already.

(King Yamato absorbed it from the palm of his hand, but Golan seemed like he had to sandwich them with both hands.)

But it was still amazing.
After all, in the Demon World, your mana level was everything. The tide of battle changed depending on how you used it.

If you could absorb an opponent’s mana and make it your own, then you could fight forever.
That meant that no matter how much power the other person had, you would be able to win eventually if you kept absorbing their mana.

“…Golan. What a frightful being.”

I had no other words to describe him.

Golan absorbed Nehyor’s mana several times and made it his own.
Now that he knew it was possible, Nehyor seemed like he didn’t know what to do.

I thought that Golan would win at any moment…but then something happened to change the situation.

Next Chapter

Makai Hongi