Chapter 349: From the frontlines...
Jack McEnda III
A young-looking man with short, salt-and-pepper hair that is neatly combed. He had a rugged appearance, characterized by a strong jawline and a few days’ worth of stubble on his face.
He had piercing dark-blue eyes, stood at above-average height and had a well-built physique, suggesting he led an active lifestyle.
The man carried an air of confidence as he surveyed the battlefield before him, looking at the demon soldiers chasing the backs of the retreating elves.
"Brigade Commanders, give the orders to fall back."
In less than a minute after he spoke into his communicator, the demon army stopped their chase and began returning behind their defensive lines, their expressions full of cheer.
When they had fallen back suitably and he had made sure there were no other forces in the dark, he descended to the ground, landing right in front of the Brigadier Generals who all saluted him.
He acknowledged them with a nod, before turning his gaze to the other uniformed man not too far from him.
On his uniform, were three silver stars, indicating his rank of Lieutenant General.
"I want you to take a team with you. 10 Majors, 5 Colonels and 1 Major General. You are to oversee the complete consolidation of command in the areas we’ve taken over."
"Yes, sir."
Just as Jack was about to turn away and leave, he remembered that there was something in his hand, a bag with the severed head of one of the Transcendent Realm divine humans of Aramis.
"Oh...Use this to track the rest of the body. When you do, send it to ’that guy’ to look into it."
He passed the bag to one of the Brigadier Generals, before turning around and walking back to the command tent.
Wherever he passed, soldiers stopped what they were doing and saluted him, paying him the respect he deserved as one of the Demon’s 4 four-star Generals.
"Come to think of it, where did Alvey vanish to?"
His little mutter caught the ear of one of the messenger demons who had just flown in, and the demon called his attention before saluting and relaying the information she had just received.
"What?! Alvey was attacked? That doesn’t make any sense, Alvey was here with us today. How could he have been attacked halfway across the continent."
"...that’s what I thought as well, sir. However, I personally witnessed the flugels report this to their leaders.
What’s more, the one reporting had wounds inflicted upon him with demonic energy, as well as light law energy.
Right now, it’s the talk of the day. How the humans and elves sent a secret force to attack one of our bases, only to be met with General Sargon.
Although, it is true that many saw General Sargon earlier today; so many simply presumed he had used a teleport gate or something to get there."
Jack went silent after the female demon spoke. The whole situation sounded strange to him.
’The supposed timing of the attack doesn’t quite match up. After all, I had seen Alvey at the time the attack had apparently happened, so it does not make sens—!!’
His thoughts were cut off midway as he quickly figured out what had happened.
As someone who had known Alvey ever since they were children, he knew just what the man was capable of more so than anyone.
That’s why he quickly arrived at the conclusion.
’A Mimic!
The ’Alvey’ both I and everyone else, demon, human or elf saw was a Mimic! The real person was in the base all this while!’
Alvey’s use of the creatures who could do exactly what they were called to a person’s appearance and surface aura was something only known to a select few.
But Jack knew Alvey as someone who dared to send a mimic to represent him when he was summoned by a Demon King once; much more a battle where it was 90% guaranteed that the demons would be victorious.
On a side note, the other 10% was a possibility of a ’draw’.
"I’m going to Embermaw. Prepare for a teleportation to the nearest gate."
"Yes, sir."
His order was carried out swiftly and within a few minutes, Jack was in Embermaw, the region that held Alvey’s second military city.
With the speed, that he—a Transcendent realm high-ranked demon moved at, it only took him mere minutes to arrive at Alvey’s city.
"...what is ...this?"
The man was shocked when he saw the amount of destruction that the city had undergone.
"This much damage when Alvey was present...just what exactly here...?"
He flew down into the city and descended right in front of a random mid-rank demon. Though the mid-rank was shocked by his appearance, he quickly bowed to Jack when he saw the four stars on his military uniform.
"Where’s General Sargon?"
"t-the General is in the Command HQ over there."
Looking up at Jack with an anxious expression on his face, the demon continued in a stammering voice.
"b-bu-but, h-he..."
The demon was unsure how to inform Jack of Alvey’s order—That no one was to disturb him, even if that person was a General.
Sure it was from one General to another, but he, a mere mid-ranked demon, did not know how to tell a high-ranked one not to ’go somewhere’.
That was the reason for his stammering, but seeing it, and noting the high amount of damage done to the surroundings for an area Alvey was in charge of, a bad premonition formed in Jack’s mind.
Without waiting for the demon to answer, he turned into a streak of blue light and dashed straight towards the command building.
Upon scanning it with his aura, he noticed Alvey’s presence on the fourth and topmost floor, along with a source of an energy that should not be anywhere near demons.
He quickly rushed up the building, straight to where Alvey was, and in his haste, it did not occur to him to question why the Command building was the only one looking unscathed when everything else around was in ruins.
"Alvey! What the hell happ..en..d...?"
Jack had barged into the room with his guard up, about to attack whatever it was that made him sense divinity in the room.
But the scene he met with was starkly different from all the bad premonitions that had formed in his mind on the way here.
His friend, Alvey, was completely fine, with no visible external injuries. What’s more, he appeared to be having a quite sumptuous meal, and seated on the table opposite him was a teenager that Jack did not recognize.
And as If his presence had not registered to them, they carried on with their conversation like normal.
"I see...so you’re the one that prophecy all those years ago was making a fuss about.
I genuinely believed it was the gods starting rumours so they could have legit reasons to go on killing sprees."
"...just what kind of gods do you have in this universe?"
"Psychopaths who’d do anything to maintain their power. It’s a hassle to deal with them honestly, and If it wasn’t for the fact that there are some Demon Kings among the Main Entities of this universe’s pantheon, things would have been quite bad for us."
"A pantheon with both gods and demons; sounds interesting."
The boy replied to Alvey before taking a bite out of the roasted griffon meat he had cut up, nodding in satisfaction and sending thumbs up to the chef who was on the side.
Meanwhile, the other servants in the room pulled out another chair and placed it at the table, before setting down a serving of the meal in front of it and gesturing to Alvey.
"Please have a seat, General McEnda."
When the maid offered him a seat, he absentmindedly took it, regaining himself right after and posing an important question.
"...just what’s going on here?"
"What else? We’re having lunch. The attack earlier delayed it quite a bit."
Alvey replied nonchalantly like it was the most normal thing in the world, leaving Jack with an expression that held faint traces of exasperation.
Heaving a sigh, he accepted the wine that the servants offered him and downed it while the other two in front of him continued their conversation.
"Anyway, that’s why I can use divinity. My father is a god. In his universe, he’s the god of the underworld."
"Oh, so that’s why you told me to ’Ask the god of the underworld’ when I asked why you could use it..."
"Indeed.
"Still, it’s understandable being able to use it as a god’s child, but the fact that you have traits that make you appear to be a devil to some at first glance means your mother is one, right?"
"Uh-huh. An Archdevil."
Alvey nodded as he gained more understanding of the boy’s ancestry and why he came to possess some of the traits he did.
He took the last bite out of his meal, before finally gesturing towards Jack and introducing him.
"This one over here is Jack McEnda III. But nobody really calls him Jack, everyone calls him McEnda. Even his father, Demon King McEnda II."
