The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 379

Valhalla’s commander was a veteran named Baron Marlon. He received urgent orders from his superiors.

“Delay Roman Dmitry’s advance at all costs. You don’t need to kill him. If you can keep Roman Dmitry inside Valhalla for a month, you will be greatly rewarded after the war. But remember, if Roman Dmitry crosses Valhalla’s border before then, you will pay with your life.”

This news surprised Baron Marlon greatly.

Baron Marlon had just become a Baron. He wanted a comfortable life of power, but now he was ordered to fight.

If his enemy was anyone else, he would have been confident.

He commanded hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the south. His mission was simple: buy time, not eliminate the enemy.

But there was a problem.

The enemy was Roman Dmitry.

Baron Marlon moved his troops into a defensive position. With a worried look, he gave orders to his officers.

“Keep a safe distance. Don’t attack unless you have to. Just being here will slow Roman Dmitry down. There is only one reason to attack: if he tries to use a teleportation device. If that happens, forget about killing him. Our only goal is to destroy the device, even if it costs us our lives.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

The soldiers’ faces were pale.

They believed their plan would work.

They thought they could stay far enough away to be safe and still stop Roman Dmitry.

However.

The reality was very different.

Clang.

Rumble!

“Kraaah!”

“Stop him! Don’t let him break through!”

There was no time to talk. The attack was too sudden. Roman Dmitry charged in, slaughtering soldiers in his path.

Their plan was to stay far away. However, this plan failed immediately.

He appeared in front of them in a flash. Amidst the screams and chaos, they saw Roman Dmitry disappear again.

He was there, then gone. A flash of movement. Soldiers fell everywhere.

The siege lines, which they thought were strong, were torn apart in seconds.

“Damn it! Retreat! The other units are forming new defense lines. We’ll pull back and join them!”

Baron Marlon changed his strategy.

One part of the siege had already collapsed. He realized they couldn’t catch Roman Dmitry. So, Baron Marlon decided to pull back his men and set up new defenses.

Baron Marlon had more troops waiting. He was the first line of defense, but there were many more behind him. They were creating defense lines throughout the southern jungle, hoping to block Roman Dmitry no matter which way he went.

Baron Marlon was experienced. He desperately tried to stop Roman Dmitry, using everything he had learned over the years.

And then.

“You must be the commander.”

“?!”

That was the last thing Baron Marlon remembered.

Snikt.

While chaos erupted in Valhalla, far away in the Hector Kingdom, leaders were also meeting with worry.

Edwin Hector called an emergency meeting with his kingdom’s leaders.

Butler spoke first.

“We have just received word that the Valhalla Empire’s army is on the move. It is just as you predicted. Valhalla plans to trap Roman Dmitry in the southern jungle and destroy the Kingdom Alliance along with the Cronos Empire.”

Valhalla was moving north. They were attacking the Hector Kingdom first because it was in the way of their advance towards Dmitry.

The Valhalla Empire was weaker after the civil war and the fighting in the southern jungle. But the Hector Kingdom still couldn’t stop them alone.

Hector was still weak from its defeat in the war with Cairo. They had only recently recovered from a food shortage.

Valhalla was clearly stronger. They would be crushed as soon as Valhalla reached the border. But they couldn’t just let them pass.

Edwin Hector spoke.

“The enemy’s plan is clear. They want to use Roman Dmitry’s absence to crush us and then attack Dmitry directly. We must stop Valhalla. We must risk everything to buy Roman Dmitry time to escape Valhalla.”

They were sure Roman Dmitry would survive.

It would take time for him to travel due to physical limits, but they believed that Roman Dmitry would defeat all the Valhalla soldiers in his way and escape.

The question was whether they could hold out long enough.

The Kingdom Alliance had mostly followed Roman Dmitry’s lead in the war. But Edwin Hector knew this moment would come.

War is like that. As their responsibilities grew, Roman Dmitry couldn’t handle everything alone.

So, they had to step up. They had to prove that the Kingdom Alliance was not weak, in order to break the alliance between the two empires.

“Concentrate our troops on the southern border. Defeat will mean the end of Hector, and the end of the Kingdom Alliance. The Cronos Empire and Valhalla have joined forces. If Valhalla is truly Cronos’s dog, as people say, then the outcome of this war will decide the future of the continent.”

“Understood.”

They were determined to fight.

As the leaders left to carry out his orders, Edwin Hector went somewhere else.

‘The Hector Kingdom cannot get help from the Kingdom Alliance right now. The three southern kingdoms, Dmitry, and Cairo are all too busy dealing with their own problems. There is only one force we can trust.’

Recently, Hector had welcomed a powerful force into its territory.

It was the Magic Tower of the Sky, known as the best group of wizards on the continent.

Kingdom and Magic Tower.

Their relationship was complicated. The kingdom gave land to the Magic Tower, but it didn’t have the power to order them around.

But fortunately.

Edwin Hector bowed his head slightly as he made his request. The Archmage of the Sky Tower listened carefully, his brow furrowed in thought. Finally, he nodded slowly.

“Yes, of course, I will help,” the Archmage said, his voice usually warm and kind, but today, perhaps a little too smooth. “Emperor Chronos is the one behind the missing mages. So many have suffered because of him. The Sky Tower moved here to Hector to escape his reach. But if this kingdom alliance collapses like this, we are not safe either. We must risk everything to help Hector defeat the Valhalla Empire.”

“Thank you, Archmage,” Edwin said, relief flooding him.

“Save your thanks until we win this war,” the Archmage replied, a strange glint in his eye that Edwin didn’t quite notice.

Edwin felt a surge of hope. The Archmage of the Sky Tower was a powerful ally. A 7-circle mage! And the Sky Tower had many other mages too. Their help would be a huge boost in the fight against the Valhalla Empire. Finally, there was a way to close the power gap. Without the Sky Tower, Edwin wouldn’t have even considered fighting Valhalla.

Then, the Archmage spoke again.

“But Edwin,” he said, his voice changing slightly.

“Yes, Archmage?” Edwin replied.

“Have you been training diligently in that secret technique I taught you?”

The secret technique of the Sky Tower. Soon after Edwin became his student, the Archmage had shared the very technique that allowed him to reach the 7th circle. Edwin had trained hard ever since. He could feel his magic growing stronger. He truly believed he could break through the 6th circle barrier because of it.

The question was a little sudden, but it was normal for a teacher to ask. Edwin nodded.

“Yes, Archmage, I have been training hard. I’ve seen real progress, thanks to you.”

“Is that so?”

A strange sound escaped the Archmage. A chuckle, but not a friendly one. It was a sound Edwin had never heard from him before. The Archmage’s kind face was gone. Now, his eyes showed a cold greed, like a hungry animal watching its prey.

“Then,” the Archmage said, his voice now sharp and cold, “it must be ripe enough.”

At that moment.

Pop.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a wave of darkness burst from the Archmage. It was thick and heavy, like black smoke, filling the room and swallowing Edwin whole.

In the darkness, he felt unpleasant. His body was not free, as if he had fallen into a sticky swamp. Because it was dark all around, he could not be sure if his eyesight was intact. However, his hearing was as good as ever.

Even now, submerged in darkness, he could hear the voice of the Archmage of the Sky Tower clearly.

“You must be wondering what is going on. What have I, your teacher, done to you?”

He chuckled.

Even without seeing his face, Edwin could imagine the Archmage’s expression just from his voice.

“You fool. If you had thought a little more carefully, you would have known the truth of the Sky Tower. Think about it. Disappearance incidents of mages are continuously occurring in the Chronos Empire, but why was the Sky Tower, the most delicious prey, able to remain safe? And the Chronos Empire pretended to try to prevent the Sky Tower from relocating, but why did they eventually give way so easily?”

He was suffocating. Edwin Hector wanted to grab his neck, but he could not see anything, nor could he feel anything in his hands.

“From the beginning, I was working for Emperor Chronos. The reason I accepted you as a disciple was to nurture your talent and then devour it. But as I watched you grow into a key figure connected to Roman Dmitry, I postponed the time. I wanted to absorb the mana of your circles right away, but I had to suppress my desires because you, Edwin Hector, had more utility than your brilliant talent. Do you know how much I wanted to devour you all this time? By the way, I committed a few of the mage disappearance incidents myself. That’s how I was able to reach my current state by devouring others.”

It was a shocking truth.

The Archmage continued, revealing a shocking truth. ‘The Salamander Continent… Alexander is known as the first pioneer of this land. But his influence is much deeper than anyone knows. Emperor Chronos, Emperor Valhalla, Duke Vieto, and even me, the Archmage of the Sky Tower… we are all connected to Alexander. We are all followers of him.’

They were waiting for a ‘time’ when special conditions were met, and they quietly hid their presence at the appearance of a formidable enemy called Roman Dmitry, like crocodiles waiting for the timing to attack from underwater.

Those who had been hiding their existence no matter what Roman Dmitry did, revealed their teeth all at once, starting with this Valhalla incident.

It was simultaneous. The reason why Alexander was confident of victory was not unfounded confidence. He had been preparing for his ambition to conquer the continent for a long time, so thoroughly that no one could stop him.

“The grand plan has already begun. The Hector Kingdom will collapse without you, so now I will devour you to achieve my purpose.”

Gurgle.

He was submerged in darkness, as if falling into the deep sea. Thus, Edwin Hector lost consciousness.

In that instant, Roman Dmitry’s words came to Edwin Hector’s mind.

“The Chronos Empire uses mental magic. They break down the human mind and turn them into puppets that follow any order. We have watched countless times the things that Chronos has done based on black magic. It should not end as a simple incident. We must take it as a case that can happen to us at any time, and that we can respond to firmly if such a thing happens.”

It was something that had happened during the training process. Roman Dmitry faced the people looking at him and spoke in a firm voice without wavering.

“I will not spare anyone who has been reduced to a puppet. Even if it is you, even if it is my family. Those who are consumed by Chronos and endanger Dmitry will have their heads cut off in front of everyone to establish Dmitry’s laws.”

The memory of Roman Dmitry’s tears while beheading Ma Su flashed through Edwin’s mind.

It was not a warning. In Roman Dmitry’s previous life, there was actually such an example, and he knew very well that if he violated the laws due to past affections, the entire force would be shaken.

The fact that Roman Dmitry had such an experience was truly fortunate.

That day.

“I will teach you how to overcome mental domination.”

Roman Dmitry imparted to everyone the defensive martial art of the Illusory Demon, which could not be mentally broken by any martial art in the world.

In that instant.

Flash.

Edwin Hector glared and stared beyond the darkness.