Chapter 680: The Final Plan I [Monthly Bonus 1]
Demon Army Headquarters
Militopolis
South Eastern Gledea
November 23rd
531st Divine Year
Arthur silently tore through the skies, landing not too far from the headquarters as he slid his communicator into his pocket.
Rachel’s strange reactions weighed on his mind, but first, he needed to focus on what was ahead of him.
Just as he thought that—
**BOOOMMM!!!!
—a sudden explosion rang out.
The ground trembled faintly beneath his feet, and waves of law energy swept across the land. Arthur’s gaze snapped in the direction of the disturbance, his senses quickly picking up on multiple presences converging.
In a second, shouts and the sounds of weapons clashing began to ring out in the distance.
"Well, that’s a rather violent return party."
Arthur muttered this to himself as he leapt above the city rooftops, reaching the scene in seconds.
Below, a group of demons was in hot pursuit of a cluster of Divine Humans. Some of the humans bore visible injuries, limping or clutching at wounds, while others seemed perfectly fine, their movements quick and calculated.
Arthur only needed a moment to piece it together: a prison break.
The Divine Humans, likely prisoners of war, were attempting to escape, aided by their uninjured comrades.
Analysing the group, he saw there were about a dozen Sovereigns led by one Inferior Transcendent.
"They’re bold, I’d give them that. Don’t they know Alvey’s nearby?"
Arthur could sense Alvey’s presence in the main HQ building, along with many other Demon Generals and Transcendent presences.
But a moment later, the boy blinked and he realised that there was some sort of veil around the building.
"Oh, there’s a concealment barrier!"
He had unknowingly peered through the barrier without realising. But this now explains why the Aramisians planned this prison break. They thought Alvey and the dangerous Demon Generals weren’t around.
"Oh well."
Regardless, Arthur was on the side of the Demons in this war, so he couldn’t exactly let the Aramisians escape.
As such, he descended, landing in the path of the escapees, and he looked at them.
That was all he did.
The Divine Humans froze mid-stride, their movements halting as time itself had betrayed them.
They were conscious, painfully so, their eyes darting in terror as they realized they could do nothing—absolutely nothing.
Arthur, hands in his pocket stepped forward as he studied the group for anything he’d missed earlier. At that time, the pursuing demons caught up and what they found shocked them into stillness.
The escapees were frozen in place, as if turned into living statues. And there was Arthur, standing calmly with his hands in his pockets, his gaze now shifting lazily to the pursuing demons.
"Aren’t these the guys you’re after? Why’re you just looking?"
The demons didn’t answer immediately, still reeling from the sight before them. They recognized Arthur, but as far as they knew, Arthur had been MIA for months now.
Now, he’d suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
They only snapped out of their shock when Arthur snapped his fingers, the sound jolting their bodies back into action as they thanked him and rushed to the escapees.
Arthur didn’t spare them a glance as he headed straight to the Main HQ building where the Demon Generals had convened.
◇ ◇ ◇
In the centre of the conference hall was a long table stretched across, surrounded by the Generals of the Demon Army stationed on Aramis.
Maps and diagrams depicting Aramisian strongholds and troop placements were spread across its surface.
Here, they decided their next course of action. Or rather, their FINAL course of action.
The Final attack which they intended to use and end the war in one go.
Naturally, they couldn’t let the Aramisians know they had convened for such a meeting, which was why there was a concealment formation hiding this congregation of Transcendents.
However, this had the side effect of encouraging an attack like the one that just happened where the Aramisians tried to break out so in prisoners that the demons had captured because they held vital information on Aramisian defences and other stuff.
Thanks to Arthur, this prison break ended before it could even truly begin.
The generals had just been informed about this by a soldier who had come to report, when the doors opened again and in strolled Arthur, casual as ever, hands in his pockets.
"Sup, guys?"
He spoke nonchalantly, as if walking into the midst of a highly classified war council was the most normal thing in the world.
The hall fell silent. Heads turned, eyes widened, and a mix of shock and confusion spread among the gathered Generals.
The majority of those present knew who Arthur was, and while most of them were unaware of the reason he had been missing for nearly three months, everyone Lieutenant General and above knew Jamie was behind it.
Alvey, seated at the head of the table beside McEnda and Sylvan was the first to recover from Arthur’s surprise appearance.
"You’ve returned. When?"
"About 30 minutes ago, give or take. The spaceship dropped me off on Gozon’s moon, so I took the rift to Rhigor, and then teleported straight to Githal."
Arthur stretched lazily, as if recounting a leisurely stroll through the park.
"Had to meet someone there. Missed an appointment by, what, six weeks? All thanks to Jamie and his antics."
Everyone present, both those who knew why he was missing and those who didn’t knew that the ’Jamie’ he mentioned was none other than the Demon King of the Void.
Before anyone could even speak up about him addressing a Demon King casually, Arthur continued, as if recounting an ordinary day.
"Seriously, the guy blew up our spaceship and tossed us into the Infernal Dimension for ten fucking weeks."
A ripple of shock spread through the hall, and even Alvey’s normally composed expression faltered.
"Infernal Dimension?"
Arthur nodded, his brows furrowed in annoyance as he responded.
"Yeah, we got stuck there. Barely managed to regroup after getting split up during the cosmic singularity explosion. Nearly got killed by an Infernal Archdevil at one point which led to us getting separated again for weeks. Made allies with some spirits, and fought Infernal Devils and Archdevils.
Oh, and we fought a Tree of Creation. That was... something."
By this point, the Generals were now staring at Arthur as if he’d grown a second head.
"Anyway, after all that, we finally managed to kill the guy who tried to off us. Then a Celestial King showed up. Faulin, I think his name was? Turns out there was a Celestial among us. And, you know, Celestials and Devils don’t exactly get along, so naturally, an Infernal Devil King shows up too. Miacav, if I’m remembering right."
At the mention of Miacav, the atmosphere in the hall shifted dramatically. Eyes widened, and a few Generals had their jaws drop, literally.
"Wait! You mean the Miacav? The ’Supreme’ Infernal Devil King?"
One of the Generals asked and Arthur nodded in response.
"Yeah, that sounds about right. Anyway, long story short, I’m back now. I heard you guys have this Final War thing going on now so I came to take a look."
"..."
No response came. The hall was utterly still. Too many crazy things had just been described nonchalantly for them to respond.
The Generals exchanged incredulous looks. It wasn’t just the events he described—it was how he described them, as if surviving a journey through the Infernal Dimension, battling Archdevils, and encountering Faulin and Miacav were just the events of a random Tuesday.
The silence in the hall remained until Sylvan, one of the Four-Star Generals, snapped out of his surprise and turned to Alvey with a sharp glint in his eye.
"Can’t we use him?"
Arthur raised an eyebrow at his words and looked at Alvey.
"Use me for what?"
Before Alvey could respond, McEnda snapped out of his own stunned silence and nodded.
"Sylvan’s got a point. If Arthur goes in, it’s actually possible for us to use that plan."
Seeing McEnda on board with whatever plan they were talking about got Arthur even more curious.
"Mind elaborating on this plan you’re trying to drag me into?"
Alvey took a deep breath to regain himself before glancing at an aide who hurriedly brought a chair and placed it near the table beside his.
He gestured for Arthur to sit and when the boy joined them at the table, Alvey pushed a stack of files in front of him.
"We’re planning to make our next attack the last one."
Arthur’s eyebrows shot up when he heard this. To think he came around when the Final War was about to have its Final Battle.
"Hmm, sounds fun. Let me in on it."
Expecting such a response from Arthur, Alvey nodded, flipping through the files to highlight key points.
"Here’s the gist: we intend to launch a two-pronged operation. The first stage involves a massive distraction—someone sneaking behind Aramisian lines to cause chaos in key military cities.
We’re talking about sabotage, explosions, and a breakdown of their internal communications. While they scramble to address the mess, we’ll strike their front lines with our full force."
"Classic misdirection. So why haven’t you done it yet?"
Arthur asked as he leaned back on his chair, barely glancing at the files and his response came from McEnda.
"The problem is the Aramisians’ new Divinity Barriers. It’s obvious that the gods are involved, but we lack concrete proof to take to the Demon Kings."
There was a bit of frustration in his tone as he explained.
"These barriers are detection fields. They don’t block entry, but they’re designed to alert the Aramisians the moment a negative-aligned entity passes through.
Demons, Vampires, Dark Dragons—they’d be detected before they even get close enough to be worth it."
After McEnda spoke, Sylvan leaned forward, adding his perspective.
"It’s not just negative alignment we’re dealing with. We’ve tried sending people from other worlds, individuals without any connection to demonic energy, but they were still detected.
The theory is that the ’Will’ of this World has intervened."
The Consciousness of Prime World Aramis that definitely hated Arthur and Evan’s guts. With the war on this level, even if ’he’ was still suffering the repercussions for ’his’ actions when ’he’ tried to kill Arthur before the Gozonian Summit, ’he’ could still aid ’his’ inhabitants.
As Arthur thought this, Alvey narrowed his eyes and questioned, picking on a detail in Arthur’s words earlier—the reason why Sylvan had suggested this plan.
"You said you were in Githal before you came here, right? Were you attacked by any strange patrols? Notice any unusual movements?"
In response, Arthur shook his head.
"Nope. Didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Teleported right in."
The room fell into a brief silence, the Generals exchanging glances as if piecing together a puzzle. McEnda tapped the table, his voice taking on a speculative tone.
"If the barriers detected all non-Aramisians, they would have flagged Arthur, but they didn’t. Why?"
"Perhaps his divinity? The barriers don’t react to beings with divinity unless they exceed a specific power threshold."
Sylvan offered a response, but Barron who had been silent since Arthur arrived finally spoke, offering a different suggestion.
"Or it’s his Concealment.
Arthur’s aura is so well hidden that even Demon Kings can’t see through it. We all bore witness to that during the Summit.
If the barriers rely on energy signatures to function, they might not even notice him."
Barron then looked at Arthur and continued.
"Right now, he has it up, so I’m sure you all perceive him as a completely ordinary person without any energy.
But we all know he’s not. So, if he had it up when he entered Aramisian territory..."
He trailed off his words towards the end, but all the Generals here understood what he was insinuating.
