It hadn't even been a week since Dominion raided the minotaur dungeon, and the armies of demons were already causing chaos all over the kingdom of Marquis, Lamenia, and Dolatia. Being the only man on foot prepared to oppose the threat, Dominion was forced to abandon his search for Haruki and take care of the demons wreaking havoc through more than half of the emperor's territory.
To rub it in further, a vast majority of the army had taken Haruki's demon form to confuse any who might be hunting for their master.
"You sure he's not going to hunt us here first?" Standing by the gates of Lamenia, Rose glanced down at the army of demons ready to tear down the kingdom's walls.
"We started destroying Dolatia and Marquis first, so if anywhere Dominion should be there and given our expanding forces, I doubt he'd be able to get rid of them anytime soon," the most informed in ways of war, Margarette explained before turning to a young man Roselia had brought along with him.
Noticing the sideways glance from Margarette, Rose let out a fake cough and shot her a stern gaze.
"He's my eldest son, none of you better dare lay a finger on him," clutching her fist in front of her chest, Rose made it burn with a passionate flame as a warning.
Still scanning the young man's demeanor, Margarette felt impressed by his formal suit of cloudy white and the gentlemanly look from his snow eyelashes. Even his hairs were so albino, she could've sworn they were giving off light like a lonely moon in the night sky.
"Hmm, oh?" Noticing her gaze, he turned to Margarette with a warm smile. "I'm sorry I didn't notice you, I'm not used to being in a corporeal form, that too much less as a human."
Leaning towards her with a polite bow, he grabbed Margarette's hand and gave it a light kiss. Rose, however, after glancing between the two, broke them off and quickly placed herself in between.
"Ughhh, don't worry I'm not gonna eat him, I already have a master," knowing well what was going on in Rose's mind, Margarette assured that she had no intention of stealing a momma's boy. "Anyways, is he the one who's been teleporting us everywhere?"
Puffing her chest up proudly, Rose banged her fist against her heart in a show of just how proud she was of her young boy.
"Obviously!" Rose exclaimed, her healed-up hand still pressed against her body.
"I almost forgot to introduce myself," flying slightly to the side of his mother, the young dragon extended his hand toward Margarette. "I'm Hawthorn Frost, son of Roselia Ironfrost and-"
"Stop!" Before he could finish, Rose covered his mouth with her hands.
"Frost? Not Ironfrost?" Confused by the last name, Margarette instinctively asked.
"He's an idiot, okay? He can't remember his last name properly!" Rose retorted.
Hearing her call Hawthorn an idiot right after she seemed so proud of him struck Margarette as odd, but given the situation they were in, she quickly pushed it off of her mind and decided to return to strategize their plan of attack.
"Sure," from the very back of the gathered demon army on the ground, Margarette glanced over to the distance where an array of human soldiers were stationed outside the kingdom's walls.
"Should I start then?" Asking herself, Margarette produced a bow of flames and strung tight a fire arrow. Raising her mark up high in the sky, she took a deep breath before heralding the start of a war. "Charge! Kill them all!"
As the arrow arched in the sky, the demons went feral and dashed toward the human soldiers. Taking to the air, some fell victim to the watchtowers, but the sheer number of demons was so overwhelming the human archers couldn't keep to their posts for longer than a few seconds. Even the vanguards on foot, exchanged fearful glances at each other, wondering if they should all just let the kingdom fall.
"I-I can't!" Dropping his shield and spear, the very first vanguard tried to escape death from the hoard of oncoming demons.
Tipped by his cowardice, countless others followed suit, and the ones left behind were shaking in their boots. Too scared to move and too uncertain to desert their standing brothers, they stood in the face of the approaching demon army until they were struck down by the sharp teeth and claws as the demons feasted on their bodies.
As for the deserters, Hawthorn had their fate settled despite not moving an inch from his place.
"Alter space," with only a few words trailing with space magic, he snapped the bodies of the deserting soldiers by teleporting their upper and lower halves to two different places.
By the time that realization hit the minds of the deserters, they were staring at their legs taking a few steps forward before falling limp just like their heads that were already left behind on the ground.
Witnessing it all from above the battlefield, Margarette felt extremely uncomfortable for having teleported around using Hawthorn's ability.
"It shouldn't take more than half a day to take over the kingdom, what do you say Miss Margarette?" Turning to look at the current war general, Hawthorn asked for her input on his assessment.
"Well…" Taking a deep gulp to drive off her fears, Margarette turned to him to answer. "You might be right, but since we can't kill everyone things might turn a bit tricky later on."
Following Haruki's orders, she was supposed to at least have one-third of the Lamenian population turn into demons. But from the looks of how viciously the demons were massacring and feasting on dead bodies, she knew they had to reel their expectations to a minimum.
"If master was here, we could've controlled these idiots more efficiently but…" Letting out a sigh, Margarette sprang forth her flaming bow and began aiming for some of the remaining watchtower enemies.
"Where is he then?" Having only been called to help with the war, Rose had no clue where the rest of Haruki's companions were.
"We didn't tell you, did we? Well, the less people know the better," keeping it a secret just as she's been instructed, Margarette rained down a volley of fire arrows onto the watchtowers.
"And you were telling me not to use fire," watching the arrows hit some human archers, but mostly their own soldiers, Rose couldn't help but laugh.
Feeling embarrassed by her carelessness, Margarette glared at the Rose in anger. While looking at her, she noticed even Hawthorn chuckling to himself, but barely keeping his voice in.
"Oh come on, we have lots more to do!" Turning her head away, she began flying forward, and before long, the two followed right behind.
Soon enough, the land of Lamenia was to be declared to be a land ruled by demons, but even if that end was reached, would the emperor simply accept something so egregious taking place in his own territory? To that end, Haruki had yet another thing planned.
'I just hope Asmodia does her part of the plan and doesn't fuck us over this time!' Clinging on to hope, Margarette kept pushing forward to try and complete her role in the plan.
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