The Heavenly Demon Can't Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 384

One day before the main events.

As chaos spread across the Salamander Continent, the Valhalla high command received worrying news.

[Lord Maron is dead! We’ve made a ring of defense to try and stop Roman Dmitry, but thousands of soldiers have already died. If this keeps up, the defense in the southern jungle will soon break. No matter how many soldiers we send, we can’t solve the problem because we don’t have anyone who can defeat Roman Dmitry.]

They were shocked. It was hard to believe.

Just a few hours earlier, they had given Lord Maron complete power and told him to stop Roman Dmitry at any cost.

Count Snodin, who was now a powerful figure in Valhalla, had never fully trusted Lord Maron.

Snodin knew Maron probably couldn’t really defeat Roman Dmitry. But he thought that using so many soldiers – hundreds of thousands – would at least slow Dmitry down for a few days.

But then, it happened.

Reality hit them hard and fast. It was less than a few hours later.

When Count Snodin heard that Lord Maron was dead, and listened to the adjutant’s desperate message, he became angry. His face turned red.

“You useless fools!” he shouted. “Our goal isn’t to kill Roman Dmitry. So, even if it means sacrificing every soldier we have, stop him at all costs! The longer we can hold him in Valhalla, the weaker we can make him, until he is finally stopped.”

[…Understood.]

There was no other choice.

With even Valhalla’s best fighter kneeling before Ares, it was not smart to try and fight Roman Dmitry directly.

Their best plan was to wear Roman Dmitry down by making him fight many soldiers. They knew they would lose many men, but they hoped to make him tired and weak.

It seemed like a logical decision.

But really, even this was crazy. Sacrificing hundreds of thousands of soldiers just to slow down one man was a foolish plan from the start.

As time went on, the news they received became more and more frightening.

[The second line of defense has been broken through!]

[We… we can’t stop Roman Dmitry! He moves too fast, and we can’t keep up. Even when we form lines, he kills us and escapes right away. Roman Dmitry moves faster than we can set up a ring of defense.]

[Kraaah!]

Through the communicator, they heard a scream.

A voice covered in blood confirmed that the third line of defense had also fallen.

‘He’s a monster.’

Roman Dmitry.

He was alone.

Dmitry’s soldiers were clearing the way for him on purpose, and he was the only one moving through Valhalla’s large territory.

He was moving incredibly fast.

Even without anything in his way, his speed would be considered fast. But the truth was that hundreds of thousands of soldiers were risking their lives to slow him down.

Snodin felt dizzy.

A day passed.

Count Snodin’s mouth was dry. More news arrived.

[…We were wrong. Roman Dmitry isn’t running away. He’s not hiding, and he’s killing everyone in every defense line he finds. We only think he’s running because he’s too fast, but he has never run away from Valhalla. Count Snodin, if this keeps up, it will be almost impossible to hold Roman Dmitry for a month.]

Around that time, Roman Dmitry passed through Eltar.

It became clear.

Even with soldiers chasing him, if he could get through Eltar this quickly, Roman Dmitry would reach the Frankish border in about a week.

A week was not enough time.

Even if Chronos and Valhalla declared war with all their power, they couldn’t fix the problem in just one week.

So, Valhalla needed to make a decision.

“Send all the soldiers we’ve gathered to attack the Southern Three Kingdoms to fight Roman Dmitry,” he ordered. “The Southern Three Kingdoms are not important right now. Stopping him from helping is the most important thing in this war. We need to make sure he can’t help as much as possible, so we can defeat Dmitry and stop Roman Dmitry from helping them.”

His mouth was dry.

Barely a week.

This war would depend on whether Roman Dmitry reached the Frankish border.

At that moment, in Dmitry…

Flora Lawrence, who was in charge of the left side of the fortress, saw the Chronos Imperial Army attacking and shouted.

“Second squad, get ready to use magic!”

“First squad, fire magic!”

Whoosh.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Flames shot out.

The Phoenix mages used their magic as Flora Lawrence commanded.

“Inferno.”

Boom!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Beyond the fortress walls, horrific screams filled the air.

The Imperial soldiers were covered in flames and fell to the ground, their skin melting. Others grabbed their throats, trying to breathe.

The intense heat had burned their airways.

Hundreds of soldiers were killed in one attack, but others quickly took their places, leaving no time to celebrate.

The Imperial soldiers walked over the dead bodies.

Their faces were determined. They walked toward the fortress walls and started climbing the ladders one by one.

“Pour the oil!”

“Third squad, get ready to use magic. Archers, don’t shoot at the enemies far away. Shoot at the ones climbing the ladders!”

The situation was chaotic.

A moment ago, the gates had been opened.

Flora Lawrence knew this, but she didn’t rush. She stayed where she was.

Ares was the unpredictable problem.

He was a deadly problem they knew about, but couldn’t stop. Maybe the problem he caused would lead to Dmitry’s defeat.

But problems should be seen as just that: problems. War strategy doesn’t always need clever plans.

In a situation like this, where they couldn’t retreat, it was important for the commander to stay calm and not panic because of problems.

Focus on the basics.

That was the most important thing in war strategy.

As Rodwell Dmitry went to fix the problem at the gates, Flora Lawrence focused on her own situation.

“First squad, get ready to use magic! Second squad, fire magic!”

Boom!

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Magic exploded.

Flora Lawrence felt her heart grow cold. She quickly made the decisions she needed to make for the left side of the fortress.

The problem had already happened.

To somehow change the situation, she needed to stop another unexpected problem from happening on the left side, instead of trying to win the war with one clever move.

That was the job of a high-ranking officer like Flora Lawrence.

She was in charge of planning and leading the soldiers. She gave orders and also fired arrows herself, stopping the enemies from climbing onto the fortress walls.

Over the years, Flora had changed a lot. She used to be protected and innocent, but now she was strong and tough because of the wars.

Thwack.

An arrow hit an enemy soldier in the head.

Flora Lawrence didn’t even react. She calmly aimed her bow at another enemy.

The battle was intense.

She was doing her job.

But she couldn’t help but look at Rodwell Dmitry for a moment.

‘Please, hold on until the end.’

The passage through the gates was truly hell. It was covered in blood and fire. Flora Lawrence gritted her teeth.

“Focus! The war isn’t over yet!”

For now, doing her job was the most important thing.

Not far from the Dimitri Castle walls, Mystic watched the battlefield.

He thought, “These soldiers are putting up quite a fight. Has anyone ever lasted this long against the Chronos Empire?”

He searched his memories and realized, “No, never.”

Those who had rebelled against Alexandr were forgotten in history. The Chronos Empire had never faced such a challenge.

But this time, it was different.

Dimitri, led by Roman Dimitri, had grown quickly and successfully defended against the Chronos Empire’s attacks, even though it was just a small nation.

That day, Sven, a very strong swordsman, had died.

Mystic was surprised that Sven, a six-star warrior, had fallen even without Roman Dimitri being present.

“But this is the end,” he thought.

This war… Alexandr had made a decision.

The idea of conquering the continent and achieving a great dream thrilled Mystic.

He had once been a powerful mage who ruled the continent.

Pledging loyalty to someone wasn’t easy, but after seeing the future Alexandr envisioned, he had to agree.

There was a destiny in this world that couldn’t be avoided.

Mystic knelt before this great destiny.

Whoosh— He gathered his mana.

Shadows rose behind Mystic.

In the past war, Mystic had attacked Dimitri using magic that warped space. Dimitri had created a magical defense to prevent anyone from entering Dimitri.

Mystic couldn’t break through this defense and enter. However, by using a forbidden power, he could move a small group of people just once, but he wouldn’t be able to use his power for a while afterward.

This was an unexpected change following Ares’s actions.

While preparing for this war, Dimitri wasn’t the only one who learned from the previous one.

“Dimitri, no matter how hard you fight, you won’t last until Roman Dimitri arrives,” Mystic thought.

Crack! Magical power exploded.

The swirling magic tore through space, and shadows were pulled into the purple world that appeared.

This war… Just as he had accepted fate, the destruction of Dimitri would happen as planned.

Rip. Space opened.

The sky above Dimitri twisted, and hundreds of shadows fell like rain toward the city.

“Kill everything you see!”

“Hee hee hee hee.”

Their only goal was to kill.

Only a small number of forces could enter through the magic defense, so they couldn’t destroy Dimitri completely on their own. Fernando, who was guarding the inner castle, had forces that didn’t fight in the outer castle battle. In the previous battle, these forces were enough to stop the shadows.

So, they attacked the area between the outer and inner castles. Fernando couldn’t move his forces out, so the shadows planned to cause as much chaos as possible.

“Ack!”

“Aaaargh!”

A massacre began. Since the inner castle couldn’t hold all the civilians, some hid between the outer and inner castles or helped move supplies. They became the shadows’ targets. Killing these civilians wouldn’t greatly affect the overall war.

Mystic knew this, and unless someone was truly evil, this situation would cause problems.

As expected, the situation was quickly reported to Knight Commander Jonathan.

“Knight Commander Jonathan! Shadows are attacking the city!”

Thud. Knight Commander Jonathan cut down an enemy soldier.

He was in charge of defense and also fought actively, climbing the walls and cutting down enemies.

“Damn it! Chronos finally broke through the magic defense,” he thought.

Chronos’s strategy wasn’t normal.

Usually, space-warping magic needs a warp gate, but the Chronos Empire did things that seemed impossible in the previous war.

This time was the same. They sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Dimitri without any warp gate.

They had seen this magic before, so they didn’t panic. But they still didn’t understand how Chronos did it. It seemed impossible.

In the last war, during a meeting of Dimitri’s leaders, Flora Lawrence had warned them, “If the Chronos Empire breaks through the magic defense and sends troops inside, it will be a big problem. We must prepare for the worst. To win the war, we need to decide now what to do if something unexpected happens.”

It was a harsh reality.

That day, the leaders made a decision.

Knight Commander Jonathan stepped back and told the soldier who brought the news, “We can’t lose any forces right now. If we send troops to deal with the city, the enemy might break through the gate. Leave it to McBurney’s Special Forces.”

“…Do you think they can stop them with just that?” the soldier asked doubtfully.

McBurney’s Special Forces were a special group.

It wasn’t to underestimate them, but this problem was too big for the Special Forces alone.

These were people like McBurney, who had lost body parts in the war or had left their lives as soldiers due to mental problems, and had chosen a new life with McBurney.

The Special Forces guarded the city during emergencies. He had heard they were trained as well as regular soldiers, but the shadows of the Chronos Empire were not ordinary enemies.

He was worried.

Knight Commander Jonathan replied firmly, “We are doing what we can. Even if they are all killed, their deaths will mean something if we win the war. So, focus on our goal. We must all do our jobs to the end.”

He turned his head, not hesitating for a moment.

Knight Commander Jonathan, who had once been happy with a position in the outskirts, had built his own world in the chaos, just like others.

To become someone worthy of Dimitri, he realized he had to think and act differently than before.

Just then, Boom! Rumble! An explosion was heard in the distance.

It meant that McBurney’s Special Forces had begun their desperate fight.

Knight Commander Jonathan gritted his teeth and shouted in a voice that shook the battlefield, “Kill them all! Show those who want to take Dimitri what they will pay!”

Rumble! Aura exploded.

Knight Commander Jonathan showed a four-star aura.

He, too, had become a stronger swordsman.