The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 354

A week after meeting Sanchez, Roman Dmitry prepared for war with Valhalla, contemplating the situation after the northern front had already collapsed.

“If we get past their first defenses in the north,” Roman Dmitry said, thinking aloud, “Valhalla will have two choices. First, they can send soldiers to fight us. Second, they can deal with Duke Vieto’s rebels who are already fighting them. Because the rebels are a big problem, Valhalla will probably try to handle one thing at a time. If they choose to fight the rebels first, they might ask for help from the Chronos Empire to stop us from doing anything else. But if that happens, we will attack Ruenos, Portbell, and Santino.”

Chris frowned. “That sounds very risky, Roman. If we try to take those three places, won’t Valhalla have time to crush Duke Vieto’s rebellion?”

“That’s a valid point. But what if we could capture those three places within a week?”

The journey from the north to Valhalla’s capital was very long. It would take at least a month to march there, even using the fastest roads. This is why magical inventions were so important. Near Santino, like in Cortas of Chronos, there was a special place called a warp point. If they could take Santino and control this warp point, Valhalla would have to react. By using the warp point’s location, they could open a magical gate.

This gate could be used to quickly attack Valhalla’s capital, bring Dmitry’s soldiers to Valhalla, or even go to Hernad to help Duke Vieto’s rebels – though that might make them look like they were attacking without a good reason. So, Santino was a place they absolutely had to control. As soon as Santino fell, Valhalla would send troops to the warp gate to stop them. Roman Dmitry planned to do all of this within a week. He knew it would take at least a week for the Emperor’s army to reach Hernad and defeat the rebels. Taking Santino before that happened would give Dmitry a big advantage. But a week was a very short time.

Roman Dmitry spoke as if taking three places was easy, but he knew it would be hard. Just traveling between Ruenos, Portbell, and Santino would take up most of the week. They would have to capture at least one place each day. It had to be done fast. Even with this tight schedule, Roman Dmitry explained his plan for taking the three territories. “First,” he said, “we will move our soldiers near Ruenos. If we set up a camp a short distance away, the Valhalla Empire will see Dmitry’s army and focus on us. This will make them weaken the defenses of Portbell and Santino. While they are distracted, we will sneak into Portbell and destroy it.”

Chris looked even more worried. “That’s too dangerous! Remember what happened at Rascal? Ever since then, both empires are very afraid of small, secret attacks like that. They must have set traps for us.”

Chris was right. Everyone remembered Rascal. It was shocking when Roman Dmitry went into Rascal alone and defeated 10,000 soldiers. Because of that, Valhalla and other enemies of Dmitry had used their smartest people to find ways to stop it from happening again. They couldn’t just repeat the same trick. If they tried to sneak in without a good plan, they could easily fall into a trap.

Roman Dmitry turned to another man in the room. “Lucas,” he asked, his voice calm but firm, “are we ready to attack Portbell?”

Lucas stepped forward, a confident smile spreading across his face. “Yes, Roman. Everything is ready.”

With Lucas’s words, Roman Dmitry’s plan started to move forward quickly.

* * *

Roman Dmitry had decided Valhalla was his enemy the day they tried to kill him. He knew war was coming. So, he gave Lucas several important orders.

One order was to send spies into Valhalla.

“Valhalla is in chaos right now,” Roman Dmitry had explained to Lucas. “After they tried to assassinate me, people are arguing about Valhalla’s history and traditions. Use this confusion to send as many spies as possible from our information network. We need spies in all sorts of jobs. Some should be ordinary people who can stir up trouble. Others should be fighters who can help us if something goes wrong. I will give you all the resources you need. Do this carefully and completely.”

“Understood,” Lucas had replied.

The spy operation went smoothly.

When Duke Vieto started his rebellion, it was these spies, members of the Hao Gate, who helped him. They encouraged people who were already watching the Emperor of Valhalla closely. They made people speak out and support the rebellion.

And it was the same during Ares’s challenge. The spies made sure people were there to watch and stop Valhalla from cheating. After Roman Dmitry defeated Caesar, the spies joined in with the people who were already angry. They shouted things like, “You’re right! The Valhalla Emperor is wrong! This is not right! We must follow Duke Vieto!”

Roman Dmitry had ordered his spies to create this situation on purpose.

Some people might think Roman Dmitry only relied on his strength. That’s partly true. Without power, he couldn’t have achieved so much. But he was also very skilled at politics and strategy. He had learned to survive and get ahead from the very bottom. Creating a situation that helps you win is not cowardly – it’s a skill every good leader needs. Roman Dmitry had been planning this from the start.

Santino, the final gateway, was too heavily guarded to sneak into as soldiers. But Portbell was different.

As the sun disappeared below the horizon and darkness fell, the spies, who had secretly entered Valhalla long ago on Dmitry’s orders, began to move. Soldiers were changing shifts at the gate.

“Shift change already…?” a guard started to say, turning to a familiar face.

*Thwack!*

It was over in a heartbeat. Because the spies looked like fellow soldiers, the guards greeted them with friendly nods, only to be attacked instantly.

The operation was fast and silent. A dozen spies quickly overpowered the guards around the main gate. They worked swiftly to control the gate mechanism.

*Creak…* The heavy chain groaned as it moved, the sound muffled by a magic silence scroll.

By the time other soldiers realized something was wrong, it was too late. They saw the gate slowly lowering. Panic erupted. They frantically rang the alarm bell, its loud clang echoing through the night. But the heavy gate was already falling, crashing down over the moat with a *thud*.

*Rumble.* Beyond the lowered gate, soldiers poured into Portbell.

Red alarm lights flashed across the night sky, bathing the scene in an urgent glow. Soldiers scrambled to fix the gate, but it was too late.

*Click.* Roman Dmitry stepped through the gate, his eyes cold and sharp.

“Kill them all,” he commanded, his voice low and deadly. Dmitry’s elite soldiers surged into the castle behind him.

* * *

*WEEEEEENG—* The alarm shrieked, cutting through the night.

“Enemy! It’s the enemy!” soldiers yelled, stumbling out of their beds, blinking sleep from their eyes. Confusion turned to terror as they tried to understand what was happening.

*Whoosh! Whoosh!* Suddenly, flames erupted everywhere, licking at the wooden buildings and casting dancing shadows. The air filled with smoke and the smell of burning wood.

In the heart of the inferno, Roman Dmitry appeared like a demon of fire. He moved with terrifying speed and power, cutting down soldiers who barely had time to raise their weapons.

*Squish.* The sickening sound of steel meeting flesh echoed through the chaos.

“KRAAAH!” A soldier’s scream was cut short.

“S-save me!” another cried, his voice choked with fear.

Portbell had become a nightmare. The heat was intense, making it hard to breathe, hard to even see. Soldiers were falling left and right, overwhelmed by Roman Dmitry’s brutal attack.

Even the knights of Portbell, clad in armor, were no match for him. They charged, swords raised, but they fell just as quickly. Limbs were severed, bodies crashed to the ground, lifeless.

Baron Portbell, the commander, watched in horror, his face pale and streaked with sweat. “Activate the magic defenses!” he shrieked, his voice cracking. “Don’t panic! There are only a few of them!”

*[Rain Shower]* *[Rain Shower]* *[Rain Shower]* Magic circles glowed in the air, appearing all around the fortress.

*Rain Shower.* It was a spell designed to put out fires. Valhalla had learned from Rascal. They knew Roman Dmitry’s fire was hard to stop, so they had installed powerful firefighting magic in their fortresses.

The magic worked. Water poured down, hissing as it hit the flames. Even Roman Dmitry’s powerful firestorm was not unstoppable. Magic designed to fight fire could indeed extinguish it.

They were using the same method against him again.

This time, they were ready. Dimitri’s enemies had learned from his past attacks. They had studied his plans and prepared defenses.

Bzzzt! The lights went out, putting Dimitri in a bad spot.

Roman Dimitri was strong, but he had few soldiers. Fort Bell had 30,000 soldiers defending it. This was not like the battle at Rascal, where Dimitri easily defeated 10,000 soldiers.

Fighting so many soldiers coming from all directions, even Dimitri’s best fighters would get hurt.

“…This is crazy!”

“How can we stop that monster?!” The soldiers stared at Dimitri in fear. They knew they would lose many men, maybe hundreds or thousands, just to slow him down.

Then, surprisingly, Roman Dimitri moved back. Suddenly, BOOM! RUMBLE! Far away, the fortress walls exploded with a huge blast.

While Dimitri made a show of attacking with fire to distract the enemy, his best soldiers quietly defeated the guards and put magical bombs on the walls.

Fortress walls are usually stronger on the outside, where enemies attack. The outside walls have strong magic to protect them. But the inside walls are weaker because they are not meant to be attacked from the outside.

Crack! Rumble! The fortress walls broke apart. As Fort Bell’s walls fell down, Roman Dimitri shouted loudly.

“Listen, soldiers of Valhalla! If you stay in Fort Bell now that the walls are gone—” He swung his sword and cut down a soldier who ran at him. Blood sprayed out, making everyone nearby stop and stare. “—you will face me again here, with no walls to hide behind!”

He had expected the enemy’s defenses. Dimitri knew about the ‘Rain Shower’ plan. So, he changed his attack plan from before. This time, it was a smaller, quicker attack.

The fortress was strong because of its walls. But without walls, the soldiers in Fort Bell, even if they were still ready to fight, could not defend it. They would have to run back to Santino, leaving Ruenos alone and making it easier to defeat – one of the three goals.

It was a surprise attack. Lord Ruenos did not know this was happening. He had sent a message saying Dimitri seemed to have given up fighting. This made the commanders behind the front lines relax and not be careful.

The next day, the alarm bells rang.

“Dimitri is coming!”

“Stop him!” Two days later, Dimitri’s army stood ready to attack Ruenos.

Three days before Dimitri attacked Ruenos, Duke Vieto, in Hernard, got news that Dimitri had broken through the Northern Front.

“…He actually did it!” Duke Vieto was amazed. This rebellion was started because they believed in Roman Dimitri. But it wasn’t just hoping for a miracle.

Think about it. Dimitri’s plan was to have Ares defeat Alvarez and Cesar, and then quickly move his army to break through the Northern Front. Many people in Valhalla were not sure about the first part of the plan. They knew Ares was famous and a very skilled swordsman. But they wondered if he was strong enough to beat even Alvarez, let alone Cesar.

The Northern Front was a much bigger challenge. They worried that while Dimitri was fighting to break through the enemy lines, the rebels in Hernard would be attacked. But Dimitri did what he promised. They just got news that Ares had won, and Dimitri had taken control of the North.

Sanchez said, “Didn’t I tell you? Even when the Valhalla Royal Family said they wanted to kill him, Dimitri was sure he could come back safely on his own. When he says he can do something, he really believes it. That’s why I trusted him and told you we should start the rebellion.” Sanchez was the one who made them trust Dimitri.

If Sanchez hadn’t pushed hard for it, the rebels would not have decided to attack Hernard first. For now, they had gotten past a big problem. Because the Valhalla Royal Family was in chaos, the rebels became very important.

Duke Vieto said, “There’s only one way to defeat the Valhalla Royal Family. We have to stay in Hernard as long as we can and tell everyone why we are fighting. The longer we stay here, the louder we speak out, the more people in Valhalla will think this is the right time to change Valhalla for the better. Because of Roman Dimitri, the Royal Family can’t focus all their power on stopping us. If we can just hold Hernard for fifteen days, then even the people who are now afraid will join us and help.”

They believed in the people of Valhalla. People were too scared to act now because they feared the Valhalla Emperor. But the rebels thought if they could show they were strong, the people would start to rebel everywhere. That was what the rebels wanted to happen.

So, if the rebels were defeated quickly, in just a few days, they knew the people would not suddenly rise up and rebel. They had to survive. Dimitri had made this possible, and they could not fail now that they were in a good place.

“We must hold on. Fifteen days. That’s when things will change.”

On the third day, while Roman Dimitri attacked Ruenos, the Emperor’s army arrived outside Hernard’s walls.

“Oh no.”

“…How can we fight that?” They looked at the enemy army. Some soldiers swallowed hard, scared. Others sighed, feeling hopeless. It was an amazing sight – but in a terrifying way.

The Emperor’s army was huge, packed together tightly, and looked like more than a hundred thousand soldiers. Sanchez said sadly, “It’s true, just like we heard. The Valhalla Emperor has really left the North undefended and sent his entire army of one million soldiers to attack Hernard. And look, the Royal Knights are here, the Emperor’s personal guards. That means even the special soldiers have been sent.”

Among all the flags, they saw the golden flag with the symbol of the Royal Knights. It was like a dangerous gamble. The Valhalla Emperor had made a very risky decision. He sent no soldiers to help defend the North. He put everything on attacking Hernard.

Duke Vieto looked out at the huge army. ‘…The Valhalla Emperor,’ he thought. ‘Does he think he can crush us rebels before Dimitri causes more trouble?’ The Emperor’s plan was clear. He was furious and his pride was wounded.

“We can’t stop them for long, even with 200,000 soldiers.” They had fewer soldiers and weaker fighters. The enemy was much stronger in every way. Duke Vieto worried they might not even last a week, not even close to the fifteen days he had hoped for.

And so, the battle began. This battle would decide if the rebels lived or died.