Chapter 59 – The Decisive Battle Against the Demons
Just when new humanity was in high spirits upon perfecting their magic, incidents began to occur around the world.
It first happened in a small remote country.
On a certain afternoon.
A guardsman was leisurely gazing at a forest where demons were roaming. They observed the surroundings from a high watchtower. On that afternoon, he noticed a rising wall of smoke a distance away from his station..
The curious guardsman used clairvoyance to scrutinize the smoke. The moment he was able to perceive what it was, his eyes grew wide. He started to sweat from his pores and his legs grew unsteady.
「Sir- Sir, we have a problem!!」
The guardsman rushed into the office of the head of defence with a warped expression. The commander was doing paperwork, and was startled by the sudden intrusion.
「How noisy… Haa-
I may have messed up this stamp because of you.」
But the soldier did not apologize and simply shouted back in response,
「Sir, it’s the demons! The demons!
There’s a stampede of demons coming straight at us!」
When he heard that, the commander seemed to lose interest.
「Demons, huh?
So some medium-sized ones have come?
Calm yourself, they will not be able to surpass these walls.」
The guardsman reported the details of the approaching stampede. As they finished, the stamp fell out of the commander’s hands. This time he wasn’t so calm.
????
The magic in this new era emitted almost no magical remnants, so only surrounding populated settlements with high magic consumption would there be a meaningful level of magical remnants in the air. Therefore, the starved larger demons started to advance towards these settlements.
The first to encounter this situation was this small city in a remote land.
As this country held a small population, there would not be a high level of magic remnants, even if they were to switch to last-era magic. Yet the magic of the new era had further decreased the concentration of magical remnants in the area..
Thus, the larger demons who lived in these rural regions lost a critical food supply.
At first, the larger demons would eat demons smaller and weaker than them, but now even finding prey is difficult. So, they began to migrate naturally. They understood instinctively that if humans used their mysterious powers, their hunger would disappear.
And so giant demons over twenty meters in length advanced to places with more humans and by extension magic activity.
In other words, towards this unlucky country..
????
The bulk of the city’s military personnel lined up on the top of the city walls facing the impending demon stampede, the combat capabilities of the entire city-state were now concentrated on the top of these walls.
The soldiers clenched their teeth to prevent them from rattling in fear..
In front of them stood the commander,
「Soldiers! Now is the time to demonstrate the power of our defence force!
Demons are invading our country!
Our enemy is not the mid-sized demons you have fought before! They’re gigantic demons which prey on those weaklings!
If you let the stampede come, then this thin wall will surely collapse!
This wall is the final defence line of our country!!! If this falls, then hell will manifest!
Everyone will perish!! Your beloved family!! Your Lover!! With certainty!! So, soldiers, we must halt the demons here!! Without any room for defeat!!
We have the power to do so!!
Listen!! Steel yourselves!!
Fight as you have trained!!
Then surely!!
Surely!!
We will prevail!!」
The commander did all he could to raise morale and assigned each unit their roles. They all held a wand, and some units filled heavy weaponry with mana.
With the army now prepared, the ground began to shake.
The vibrations increased and the cloud of dust grew closer, until it felt as if they were in the middle of an earthquake. The sounds of their footsteps gradually grew louder.
「… It’s coming …」
The soldiers grasped their wands tighter.
The first demons were mid-sized ones. It seemed like they were running away from larger demons pursuing them.
But that made no difference to the soldiers..
As soon as the demons entered attack range, various combat spells were fired.
The demons in the forefront spilled blood from various wounds and collapsed.
In just a few minutes, the defense forces annihilated the mid-sized demons. But this was within expectations, it was something that could barely be considered a skirmish.
The true problem was what came after.
It was… like a wall.
A huge moving wall of flesh, raising dust clouds wherever it moved.
The soldiers were momentarily taken aback, but quickly got themselves together and continued to launch combat spells. They score many direct hits and scrape the demons’ bodies.
Yet the demons do not stop. Those scrapes were nothing but scratches on those giant bodies..
The rapid outflow of mana quickly drains many wands, so the soldiers would constantly switch out their wands.
While the soldiers fought desperately with sweat coating their foreheads, the citizens were also fighting their own battle, for this was a total war.
Those who haven’t had their magic cores excised charged magic stones. Army reserves and retired veterans joined the fray, casting support spells from the back ranks. Magic stores loaned all of their wands and magic stones to the army.
Thanks to these efforts, the demons lost their momentum. Covered head to toe with countless wounds, with broken bones and their organs in plain view, one by one they were felled..
Seeing the scene, the commander softens.
(Victory is inevitable.)
He thought.
But when he and many others saw the demons that appeared at the very back of the stampede, they froze up..
What appeared at the end was a rock turtle.
Carrying a body one size larger than all the demons.
The demon, perhaps over thirty meters long, stopped walking momentarily when it saw the wall with its huge, crisp and round eyes. Then it exhaled and took a giant step.
It took step after step, accelerating, forming a large cloud of dust.
The sound of its thunderous steps reverberated in the air, as it ran towards the city ramparts while flicking away any obstacles in its path.
The corpse of a mid–sized demon was trampled flat. A fallen greater demon was launched into the air. Even the anti-monster magic mines were destroyed without doing any damage. The demon rushes towards the walls.
Attack magic struck the turtle demon.
The soldiers launched their strongest spells.
Yet it had no effect.
The demon simply retracted its neck and continued its sprint, shielded by its shell.
In this situation, normal combat magic could not cause any damage.
The soldiers desperately fired magic, now concentrated at the turtle’s legs to try and slow it down, even if it’s just for a little bit..
As sweat rolled off the commander’s forehead as the soldiers looked death eye to eye, a voice sounded.
「Magic fueling is complete!! Fire!!」
A moment after those words were said, a ray of light pierced the rock turtle.
…
In the Republic of the Sages, various magical techniques have been developed.
Magic for daily life, for medicine, for architecture, and for cooking, among others, were being researched and developed every day.
The field given the highest budget in this country of sages was military magic. This field, which had been given a huge budget, large personnel, and the best materials for decades, had reached a level far surpassing that of any other nation, and yet still new types of magic weapons were being developed every day.
One of these magical weapons was one which had been under development for a long time, called the “Heavy Magicannon.” Its selling point was that its shots could penetrate through anything.
This weapon was made with reference to a magical tool that the “Greatest Sage of Human History” pulled out somewhere a long time ago.
Though it consumed a monstrous amount of magical power, in theory, it could even penetrate mountains.
These magic weapons developed in the Republic were sold at reasonably low prices. Thus, even small remote city states could afford them.
The shot released by such a weapon pierced through the rock turtle.
The demon stopped its advance.
The rock turtle stretched out its previously retracted neck, and looked at its wound with crisp eyes.
「Unbelievable」
The commander stared at it and gaped.
A large stream of bodily fluids began to spurt out from the wound, and the rock turtle gave a wailing cry, flailing around where it was.
Several more penetrating rounds struck the turtle. The shots blew off its legs, pierced its shell with many holes, and opened a passage straight through its neck.
It wasn’t long before the demon, riddled with holes, perished.
When they saw that the demon was no longer moving, the soldiers on the wall cheered,
「We- We did it!! We’ve defeated the rock turtle!!」
「Would anyone believe this!? That our rural army has defeated a rock turtle!?」
「Is thi a dream!? Am I dreaming!?
I’m still alive, right!?」
「Soldiers! Do not let your guard down!! There are still demons left!! Annihilate them!!」
「We still have enough for a few more rounds of the magicannon!! Let’s gift them all to the demon horde!!」
「Yeaah!!
Troops!! Fire!!!」
The battle continued after defeating the rock demon, but from then on it felt more like a friendly spar meant to aid digestion.
The demons who charged based on instinct alone without any sort of command were just moving targets for the trained soldiers..
Spells were fired that easily tore through the weak stragglers, ending the battle quickly.
????
This decisive battle triggered demon hunting worldwide.
The new-era magic weapons would not produce monsters no matter how much they were used.
The armies of each country descended from their walls and launched campaigns to thoroughly annihilate the demons, so their numbers gradually dropped.
With this, people who still had their magic cores would be able to leave the city walls fearlessly.
And so the land around the walled cities were reclaimed. Many farmers left to work on rural lands. With the threat of demons gone, many countries sent pioneers to expand their territory.
The thick anti-demon walls were gradually deconstructed, as they were no longer needed. Only a thin anti-magic wall remained, which countries expanded year by year.
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