The Demon King Army’s First Battle

Half a year had passed since Zahak summoned me to this world, and at last the organization of the Demon King’s Army was complete.

Even I was surprised by how quickly we’d managed it.

There were probably several reasons, such as the fact that each demonic race had clearly defined characteristics that made assigning roles easy, and that the military system Villa devised happened to suit demonkind extremely well.

But the biggest reason was probably that the demonic races we’d brought under our banner had completely submitted to Bella, so they accepted the new military structure without the slightest resistance.

I’d heard that demonkind respected the strong, but yes, this was quite literally a case of submission through sheer force.

Incidentally, since my official position was Mureen’s guardian and First of the Four Heavenly Kings, the demons apparently assumed I was an even greater monster than Bella, and lately I received looks of fearful reverence wherever I went.

I probably wasn’t going to make any friends in this world.

Well, whatever.

Anyway, now that the army had been organized, the next thing awaiting us was battle.

At present, the Demon King’s Army was primarily divided into four armies commanded by the Four Heavenly Kings, with several divisions beneath each of them.

Bella’s forces, for example, were the Magical Beast King’s Army, consisting of the Giant Division made up of Cyclopes, Ogres, and similar races; the Magical Beast Division composed of Werewolves and magical-beast-type demons; and the Mixed Division, which was the largest of the three.

My own forces were the Sorcerer King’s Army, including the Black Knights, which gathered humanoid demonic races such as demonfolk and Vampires, and the Sorcerer Division, composed of witches and other humanoid demons particularly skilled in sorcery.

That said, Anis’s forces handled logistics and included mobile troops capable of moving quickly or flying, so they primarily served a support role intended to operate alongside the other armies. As such, either my army or Bella’s would usually be the one actually deployed to a battlefield.

Pisca’s role was covert operations, so only her title, the Shadow King, had been publicly announced. She was currently selecting individuals with talent for stealth from each army and training them.

Our objective this time was to strike the human army fighting Mureen’s brother, Demon Prince Zere, score a significant victory, and use that achievement to arrange a meeting with him.

Either Bella or I always had to remain with Mureen as her protector, so only one of the Sorcerer King’s Army or the Magical Beast King’s Army could be mobilized at a time.

Considering that negotiations with Zere were supposed to follow afterward, naturally I was the one who needed to move.

Even after all the experiences I’d accumulated as a devil, this was still my first time commanding an army in battle, so I asked Villa to accompany me as my strategist.

There were two restrictions placed on me this time.

The first was that I had to use sorcery, which consumed mana, rather than Magic performed by directly manipulating spiritual particles and magical essence.

The second was that I couldn’t simply do everything myself.

Magic, which used spiritual particles and magical essence—the components of mana—rather than mana itself, was vastly more efficient than sorcery.

But if I openly demonstrated such power, it would create problems when the time came for me to surrender this position to the next generation of Four Heavenly Kings.

People would probably expect my successor to wield spells comparable to whatever I demonstrated now.

The same reasoning applied to not doing everything myself.

This conflict fundamentally belonged to demonkind and the human races; we were merely assisting demonkind.

We had been acting fairly aggressively because Mureen was still young and demonkind’s situation was so dire, but if we did too much, we would rob demonkind of its ability to stand on its own.

In short, while I was naturally skilled at sorcery as well as Magic, I was absolutely forbidden from doing something like annihilating the enemy army with a gigantic spell powerful enough to blow away a mountain.

That said, it was equally undeniable that the casualties among demonkind would fall dramatically if I intervened personally, so finding the right balance was difficult.

After thinking it over for a while, I settled on using one particular form of sorcery.

We continued our advance, and based on information supplied by Anis and Pisca, we maneuvered around to the side of the battlefield where Demon Prince Zere’s army and the human army had established camps and remained locked in a standoff.

Even from a distance, the battlefield bore terrible scars of destruction, evidence of just how viciously the two sides had clashed time and again.

Zere continued fighting battles that seemed utterly unconcerned with the future and inflicted mounting casualties on both sides, but the greatest reason his faction had yet to collapse was probably Zere’s own strength.

Demon Prince Zere certainly forced brutal battles upon his subordinates, but he stood in the midst of those battles himself.

If anything, Zere, who constantly fought at the very front, could be said to endure the harshest fighting of anyone.

As a commander, I had serious doubts about that approach, but apparently demonkind, who valued strength, found his figure dazzling, and his army’s morale remained intact because Zere himself always stood on the front line.

Seriously, the more information I gathered about him, the less I understood what he was thinking.

Either way, I intended to speak with Zere and save him somehow.

To be perfectly frank, I didn’t particularly care whether demonkind actually needed Zere or not.

But when I departed for battle, Mureen had wished me a safe return, yet hadn’t said a single word about her brother Zere.

One glance at her expression and trembling eyes had made it obvious that this wasn’t because she felt nothing for him.

Mureen had simply become far too accustomed to losing people.

If she voiced her hopes aloud, then failing to see them fulfilled would only hurt her more deeply.

She was probably imagining the possibility that Zere might die on the battlefield, or that I might be forced to kill him with my own hands, and so she said nothing.

But Mureen was still a child.

A clever child, yes, and one burdened with a tremendously important position, but none of that mattered to me. She should have been free to act as selfishly as she liked…

Besides, I was a devil.

My very livelihood consisted of granting wishes and receiving payment in return.

For her to be unable to tell someone like me the wish hidden at the bottom of her heart was practically an insult.

So this time, I would forcibly grant Mureen’s wish even though she hadn’t asked me to.

Since this was unsolicited service, I’d give her an enormous discount on the payment and settle for a delighted smile and a few words of gratitude.

But first, I needed to seize a victory.

“My Lord. We have arrived at the designated location. The selected members of the Sorcerer Division have also completed preparations for Amplification Sorcery.”

I nodded at Villa’s report and stepped into the center of the demonic practitioners preparing the amplification spell.

The sorcery I was about to use would announce the beginning of the battle—or perhaps decide its outcome all by itself.

When I had been summoned for the second time to the world illuminated by seven moons, I’d once heard something from Anis’s granddaughter Lenis.

Apparently there had been a major battle won through the large-scale use of the very sorcery I was about to employ.

I’d forgotten the name of that battle, but it had proven that unless someone already knew this particular sorcery existed, countering it upon seeing it for the first time was extremely difficult.

“All sorcery units, prepare your offensive spells. Once I activate my technique, the human army won’t be able to move, so bombard them with sorcery. When the timing looks right, I’ll release the spell, and then the Black Knights will charge. Get ready. All right—begin Amplification Sorcery.”

The practitioners surrounding me in a circle activated Amplification Sorcery, increasing the effectiveness of my technique.

The mana in the surrounding area suddenly grew much denser.

The range needed to encompass the entire human army visible before us, while the strength could remain low—roughly double normal gravity would be enough.

Prioritizing sheer area above everything else, I activated Gravity Sorcery in this world for the first time, adapted for large-scale warfare.

The effect of my Gravity Sorcery was astonishing.

Soldiers clad in armor and helmets collapsed to the ground, unable to withstand their suddenly doubled weight.

The people who appeared to be the human army’s sorcerers, presumably accompanying them to deal with abnormal situations like this, were themselves thrown into confusion by the sudden heaviness of their bodies and failed to respond effectively.

Then the offensive sorcery unleashed by demonkind rained down upon them.

They burned. They froze. Shouts of rage and screams could be heard between the explosions.

Arrows fired in retaliation were dragged down by the increased gravity and failed to reach us, while the voices of those firing them still carried clearly across the battlefield, making the spectacle all the more gruesome.

It was a vision straight out of hell, but the demons continued unleashing their offensive spells without pause.

Naturally.

If they held back here, then they themselves—or the comrades standing beside them—might be the ones dying like that instead.

Apparently noticing the catastrophe befalling the human army, Zere’s camp began to stir.

But it was already too late.

The human army’s morale had already collapsed, and the outcome was decided.

I released the Gravity Sorcery and ordered the Black Knights to charge.

If Zere’s faction watched the human army they’d struggled against get annihilated before their eyes without being able to do anything, they would have no choice but to acknowledge our strength.

A short while later, the newly reorganized Demon King’s Army achieved an overwhelming victory against the human forces.

But that victory sent shockwaves not only through Zere’s faction, but through humanity as well, and the conflict between demonkind and the human races would only intensify from there.