The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 268

A few days before the big battle…

During a meeting of the Western Front’s high command, Flora Lawrence spoke about a ‘what if’ scenario.

“We have completed all preparations for the war against Chronos. We’ve invested a lot of money in fortifying the walls, and we’ve concentrated Cairo’s and Dimitri’s forces here. The problem is what happens if we can’t hold out for long even after giving it our all? If that happens, it’s pointless to stubbornly defend a Western Front that’s clearly losing.”

“But the moment we lose the West, it’s only a matter of time before the Chronos Empire’s army storms into Kairos.”

It was Baron Noel.

Flora Lawrence looked at him, acknowledging his good point.

“That’s right. If Kairos falls into enemy hands, we won’t be able to stop everything from falling apart after that. However, this war requires us to take risks from the start. To realize the plan that Roman Dimitri spoke of, it’s crucial to preserve as much strength as possible until then, rather than focusing solely on winning battles. What do you intend to do if we pour all our strength into defending a losing front, only to find ourselves lacking the necessary forces for what comes after? We need to choose where to focus our efforts. We’re not giving up the West without a reason; by giving up the West and preserving our strength, we can buy time.”

“Good idea, Flora. Tell us more about your plan.”

“Yes.”

Marquis Vandenberg added his support to the idea.

Flora Lawrence had once been a key asset in the West, so her words were worth heeding.

Whirr.

She unfurled a map.

Flora Lawrence pointed to the westernmost defensive line and said,

“This land we stand on is a key location. If this place is breached, the Western Front will surely break down completely. Therefore, the Chronos Empire is likely to focus all its efforts on breaking through here in the first battle. Plan B, which I’m about to explain, is an option we can take when we can’t withstand their attack. No, believe me, there is no other choice.”

All eyes were on her.

It could be seen as a mad decision.

Having made thorough preparations for defense, choosing Plan B would create many problems.

However.

Flora Lawrence’s past experiences gave her the resolve to act.

“Plan B is to abandon the castle and flee. If the situation is clearly hopeless, our enemies won’t think it’s strange that we’re abandoning this place faster than they expected. Moreover, if we abandon even the war supplies, there will be no reason for them to think it’s strange. That’s when we strike. When the enemies storm into the castle, we can secure a definite advantage by giving up much and detonating this place.”

Prepare for the unexpected.

In a battlefield that is always changing, that was the role that the staff officers had to play.

The decision was made quickly. In the following days, the plan was put into motion. Soldiers were told about the possibility of retreat, and everyone prepared for the coming battle, knowing Plan B might be necessary. Then, the battle began.

Marquis Vandenberg shouted, cutting down an enemy soldier charging at him.

“All troops, retreat! Abandon the castle and move to the rear!”

“Retreat!”

The order was given.

Marquis Vandenberg shouted the order to retreat. His officers repeated the order loudly. Some officers quickly ran to beat the drums. The drums were the signal for retreat.

Everything changed on the battlefield right away. One moment, soldiers were fighting fiercely; the next, they were running, pushing and shoving to escape. Dust and smoke filled the air, and the ground shook with the sound of thousands of feet pounding the earth and the urgent beat of retreat drums.

The general soldiers did not know the exact nature of Plan B, but they had heard from the high command that they might have to abandon the castle in case of an emergency.

The soldiers retreated.

The soldiers at the front could not escape because they were facing the Imperial army, but the other soldiers had to follow the orders of the high command.

Remaining on the battlefield when everyone was fleeing was suicide.

As the soldiers of the Cairo-Dimitri alliance retreated, the enemies stormed into the castle through the gap in the battlefield.

“Attack!”

“Kill them all!”

Screams echoed from all directions.

The Chronos Empire’s army slaughtered the soldiers of the kingdom alliance, and even their corpses were crushed into a pulp by the advancing troops.

It was a completely finished war.

The tense balance could not be changed back from the moment the kingdom alliance took a step back.

At the very front.

There was Chris.

From his position, which had now become the rear, Chris bought time for the soldiers to escape.

Flash!

The charging enemies all fell away.

Even with the enemy army filling his vision, Chris retreated appropriately, wielding his sword, and with a couple of counterattacks, the heads of the Chronos Empire’s soldiers fell like rain.

A battle between the many and the few. It was a familiar situation.

Having experienced extreme situations in Valhalla this time, Chris’s skills had reached a level above what they were before.

Thwack!

He pierced through a neck.

As he was about to rejoin the troops, Chris tilted his head back at a sudden chilling sensation.

Rumble!

A fiercely burning aura grazed past his eyes.

His skin tingled.

It was still too early to be certain, but Chris instinctively knew that the aura’s power reached the 6-star level.

“So, you’re the guy named Chris!”

Wham!

Wham wham wham!

The mysterious figure relentlessly pressed the attack.

Chris did not meet the enemy’s sword, but quickly stepped back, letting all the attacks slide by.

Even so, Chris’s body was pushed back roughly. The aura’s vibrations strongly pushed against Chris’s body.

Above his head.

A bright cluster of light fell.

Chris rolled across the ground, barely escaping the attack.

Wham!

Rumble!

“What on earth is Roman Dimitri? To reach the 6-star level at only 20 years old, and to nurture a swordsman like you from a pathetic land like Dimitri. Amazing. I’d like to capture him alive, peel off his flesh piece by piece, and make him tell me everything.”

He looked ahead.

The man with the pale face had an impressive scar running across his face from his eye to his nose.

In an instant.

A figure came to mind.

Chronos Ranking 2nd.

Continental Ranking 3rd.

The Fiend Hannibal.

The man with the pale face had an impressive scar, a jagged white line cutting across his face from his eye to his nose. His long, curly hair was dark as night, contrasting sharply with his pale skin that looked like it had never seen the sun.

Goosebumps rose on his skin.

If the commander of Chronos’s Second Order had personally stepped forward, there was almost no way to beat him in this place without Roman Dimitri.

‘Damn it.’

Click.

He straightened his sword.

He would die in this place.

Chris knew that he was standing in a place of death, but he could not turn his back on Hannibal.

The moment he turned his back.

Hannibal’s sword would surely cut through his back.

Rather than dying like a coward, Chris wanted to fulfill his role.

‘I’m sorry. It seems I won’t be able to fulfill my dream of surpassing my lord.’

He raised his aura.

Just as he was about to unleash his full power and charge forward.

“I’ll take care of this place.”

Count Nicholas.

He stood in front of Chris.

It was an unexpected situation.

Unable to readily accept his words, Count Nicholas forcefully spoke.

“Chris, you’re important. You’ve worked with Dimitri. We need you for what comes next. So leave this place to me. I will defeat Hannibal and catch up soon.”

“…Count!”

“Go now!”

Count Nicholas shouted.

Both knew the reality.

The Chronos Empire’s army was pushing in quickly, and even hesitating for just 10 seconds would completely cut off their retreat.

Knowing that, Count Nicholas volunteered to sacrifice himself.

Having experienced the new talents of Roman Dimitri and Chris, he knew what he had to do for the kingdom.

Hesitation would waste his sacrifice.

At Count Nicholas’s determined look, Chris gritted his teeth.

“I will not forget what happened today.”

He turned his steps.

As Chris tried to escape, Hannibal stretched out his sword like lightning.

Wham-

Rumble!

Count Nicholas blocked it.

Against the intensely burning 6-star aura, Count Nicholas exploded his 5-star aura as if to say he wouldn’t lose.

A tremendous impact occurred.

Count Nicholas smiled at the gush of blood.

“I wanted to fight a top-ranked fighter like you at least once.”

Far away.

Chris was disappearing.

As Hannibal showed a slightly annoyed look, Count Nicholas recovered from the shock and focused his mind.

‘I have spent my whole life trying to reach the 6-star level.’

Cairo’s greatest swordsman.

It was his title.

But facing the swordsmen ranked on the continent, he realized that the title of being the strongest in a weak country meant nothing. He was merely at the bottom.

He was not even special compared to other 5-star swordsmen. The Twelve Swords of the continent (the twelve strongest swordsmen in the land) were 6-stars (a very high level for swordsmen), and they seemed as far away as the sky.

The day he fell to Roman Dmitry, Count Nicholas saw a new world.

The intense swordsmanship that cleaved his body was the realm beyond the heavens he had longed for and desired.

Immediately after the defeat, he locked himself in the training room.

While nursing his body, he desperately tried to resemble Roman Dmitry even a little.

His past fame and the age when white hair began to appear meant nothing to him. Returning to the mindset of a beginner, Count Nicholas succeeded in achieving some results.

Clang.

Rumble!

“I am Richard Nicholas. And I am the greatest swordsman of Cairo.”

After the Dmitry Duchy (a new area ruled by Dmitry) was established, the position of number one was given back to him.

Count Nicholas ignited a fiercely burning aura, so that the name would not be a disgrace.

Blazing Fire. It was a tremendous blaze.

His very existence was burning, becoming one with the sword, which clearly meant that he had also entered the threshold of 6-stars.

The greatest swordsman of Cairo was not weak. He was the first, excluding Roman Dmitry, to have his name listed in the ranks of the 6-star realm, which only 12 people in the Empire had achieved.

He leapt off the ground, his feet exploding from the dirt. Enveloped in aura, he charged towards Hannibal.

At that moment.

“You little twit, you don’t know your place.”

Flash!

The fire split. The aura, exploding like an erupting volcano, was torn apart to both sides in a single blow, cut in two like a hot knife through butter.

Hannibal, the third strongest being on the continent, was a monster unmatched even among 6-stars, just as there were differences even among 5-star swordsmen.

Ptooey. He spat blood.

Nicholas’s body was torn to shreds, and he collapsed to the floor, unable to withstand even a minute against Hannibal.

If he had focused on evasion like Chris, he might have lasted longer than now, but his intention to face Hannibal head-on had created the current result.

His body trembled, cold sweat running down his back despite the heat of his aura.

He didn’t want Hannibal to leave. With his bloody hand, he grabbed Hannibal’s foot, trying to hold him back.

Then, Hannibal crouched down in that spot, making eye contact with Count Nicholas.

“Shall I tell you a few interesting facts?”

“Cough.”

Blood splattered. The blood flowing from Count Nicholas had already formed a large puddle.

“First. There are many people stronger than me in Chronos. So, if you can’t even withstand this much, it means you have no chance of winning in the first place. And second.”

He grinned.

“We anticipated your plan to blow up the castle from the start.”

He rose from his spot, and then, crack! He crushed the face of Count Nicholas, who was in despair, as it was.

It was a perfect operation. The soldiers got out. At the perfect timing, Flora Lawrence triggered the explosion as intended.

Boom!

Boom! Boom!

Rumble!

A deafening roar ripped through the air. Dust and debris rained down as a massive explosion tore apart the ground, shaking the castle to its foundations. They thought that the soldiers of the Chronos Empire would be swept away by the explosion, but the white-haired wizard created magic and formed a black hole.

The explosion that was about to swallow the castle was sucked into the black hole at once. As the initial explosion was suppressed, the device that was intended to explode in a chain reaction became meaningless.

Duke Bamford wore an expression as if he had expected it as he entered the castle, due to these events.

“The choices that weaklings can make are obvious.”

8-circle wizard (a very powerful wizard) and the Chronos Second Knights were an overwhelming force.

Based on his past experience, Duke Bamford was confident that he could break the Western Front in the first battle. Then there was only one worst-case scenario: If even Roman Dmitry could not create a variable, the only option was to abandon the castle itself and turn it into a trap.

Duke Bamford, an experienced soldier, a man who was called the Maestro of the Battlefield, had a reputation that was not false. He was not an easy opponent to be easily defeated by weak countries with limited options.

He looked at the white-haired wizard and said,

“Sir Sheffir. Thank you for your hard work.”

“It’s nothing.”

The white-haired wizard, Sheffir, responded calmly and then pressed down on his robe again. Then, Duke Bamford turned his gaze and shouted to the soldiers.

“Listen, soldiers of the Chronos Empire! The enemies are now cornered! Let’s take advantage of this momentum and turn Cairo and Dmitry into a sea of fire!”

The enemies will have to remember this day, what it means to face Chronos. The enemies still have not experienced the hell of this world.

A few days later, contrary to Duke Bamford’s expectations, the Chronos Empire failed to catch the tail of the Kingdom Alliance.

“Cunning fellows. They made thorough preparations to buy time.”

The explosion was only the first operation. They prepared traps to stop the advance of the Chronos Empire in the second and third stages. As a result, the pursuit was bound to be delayed.

Duke Bamford was puzzled by the opponent’s intention to slow down the pace at all costs.

‘Why are they buying time like this? Even in a situation where the Western Front is being captured, Roman Dmitry has not shown himself. Then, the fact that they are buying time and Roman Dmitry’s absence are related.’

Looking at his past actions, there was a possibility that Roman Dmitry would infiltrate the capital and directly attack the Chronos Emperor. But it was impossible.

The Chronos Imperial Family was guarded by the First Knights, and above all, unknown monsters guarded the Emperor’s side. No matter how strong Roman Dmitry was, it was not realistic to break through the capital’s defenses and assassinate the Emperor.

If he had planned such an operation, he could not be described as a strategist, but as a fool who runs wild with only strength. Such an existence is bound to be broken by even stronger power.

‘For us, it is best to advance as it is. If they are trying to buy time, we can just destroy them without giving them time to achieve what they intended.’

But that day, he received shocking news. A soldier who ran in breathlessly said, panting,

“Commander! Roman Dmitry has occupied Cortas!”

At that name, Duke Bamford showed a surprised expression. It couldn’t be helped. Cortas, like the Western Front, was a strategic stronghold in eastern Chronos. And right there, there was a Warp Gate (a magical doorway for travel).