Sierra looked up at the high ground.
It was originally the highest point in the surrounding area, but it had been transformed into a fortress by the Chaos Demon.
Inside were Immortal Demons and Magic Beasts, and the Chaos Demon was firing magic, making it a place that absolutely had to be destroyed to advance.
A ball of light surged from the fortress and fell in a parabolic arc.
A powerful explosion occurred, and the ground melted, glowing red-hot.
A curtain spread across the sky.
Under the magic that simultaneously attacked and cursed, Walkers and Scouts fell one after another.
“What should we do?”
The aide asked.
Sierra looked back.
One thousand Dark Elf knights, their bodies lowered, were waiting only for his command.
They all wanted to earn military merit but were also slightly afraid.
Capturing that fortress with just them was impossible.
“We destroy it. That’s the only way this area will completely become ours.”
“That’s impossible!”
*The aide’s firm denial.
Sierra smiled lightly.
‘They still don’t trust me, I guess.’
Sierra was the youngest among the knights here.
His experience was also similar or on the shorter side.
That he had suddenly become the commander was due to Dielka’s reckless decision.
‘You can’t fight with me this time! But it’s not good for someone with seniority to fight alone, so just lead 1,000 for now!’
Thus, Sierra simply became the regiment commander of the knight regiment.
It was enough for the other elves to see it as Dielka’s favoritism or as a parachute appointment.
For Sierra, it was just one of Dielka’s occasional eccentricities.
‘Anyway, it’s an opportunity given by Dielka. I have to prove myself.’
Only then could he repay, even a little, what he had received not only from Dielka but also from Choi Kangjoong.
Sierra stared at the fortress.
Thick fortress walls connected in a circle, with thorns jutting out sharply in front.
At a glance, the aide was right.
Destroying that place with 1,000 Dark Elf knights was a miracle.
“Look. Lord Outer’s forces have also given up.”
The Walkers who had been recklessly charging at the fortress had, at some point, turned around or moved elsewhere.
As Apocalid’s attack stopped, the faces of the demons inside the fortress brightened.
Then they fired Chaos Magic even more excitedly.
“They didn’t give up. They just pulled back for a moment.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“Is that what you all think too?”
Sierra asked the knights.
They answered with their eyes alone that they should go around the fortress.
“You all know how to distinguish courage from recklessness. But tell me, what would happen if we destroyed that place?”
“…”
“You’d earn higher military merit than any other elf knight regiment. In the first battle of the expedition fleet. You know what that means?”
Promotion, rewards, and deflating the pride of the elves who subtly looked down on Dark Elves.
“You’ll have to boast to your grandchildren. That this grandpa was the best knight on the battlefield where he fought alongside two High Elves and Lord Outer.”
“You won’t be able to say anything if you’re dead.”
Just as the knights were almost persuaded, the aide threw cold water.
“Do you think I want to die?”
“Then what do you intend to do?”
“We’re not the only ones fighting here.”
Sierra summoned a Spirit of Wind and sent it far away. Shortly after, a Central Command Warrior came bobbing over. It was the same unit that always elicited a sigh from Iselin.
“When will you attack that fortress?”
-No Battle Titans available.
“You can’t do it because there are no Battle Titans?”
-If there are no Battle Titans, combat efficiency drops sharply.
“Then what about us acting as Battle Titans instead?”
The Central Command Warrior examined the Dark Elf knights.
They were smaller and softer than Battle Titans, but their overall combat power was superior.
The Central Command Warrior, using Apocalid’s Combat Nerve, formulated a strategy for attacking the fortress using them.
The result was impossible.
The success probability was about 76%, but the combat efficiency was lower than when Battle Titans were present.
A Central Command Giant, reading this thought, intervened.
The judgment of the Central Command Giant, which was larger and connected to more Apocalid, was different.
Using the Dark Elf knight regiment to destroy the fortress early was advantageous for increasing the combat efficiency of the entire battlefield.
The Central Command Giant spoke to Sierra through the Central Command Warrior’s telepathy.
-Attack scheduled. Stand by.
Sierra nodded.
“W-what did you just do?”
The aide asked with a shocked face.
“I asked them to fight with us.”
“Aren’t those things impossible to talk to?”
Those who knew that the floating command units could be spoken to were extremely rare.
Since 99% of Apocalid were obviously entities you couldn’t talk to, most didn’t even try from the start.
Even the Central Command Warrior, which was relatively closer than the Central Command Giant, almost always had its Apocalid World deployed, so few approached it.
Sierra knew because he had used a Central Command Giant in the Separate Sea to talk to Choi Kangjoong and later attempted conversations with similar units.
“There are a few that can.”
“Such a thing…!”
The aide was half-convinced, half-doubting.
He even briefly thought Sierra might be lying out of thirst for military merit.
But that was only for a moment.
At the sound of the atmosphere tearing, the Dark Elf knights reflexively threw themselves to the ground.
Shells that passed over them from a high place pounded the fortress.
It was a brutal bombardment of one thousand rounds per second.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom BANG!
The Dark Elves covered their ears and watched the fortress.
Despite the ferocious attack, the fortress remained intact.
The Chaos Demons laughed, saying monsters were nothing.
A moment later, a shadow fell over them.
It was Bomber Giants led by a Central Bomber Giant.
They rained down bombs produced by Metra.
They also fired ten Biological Torpedoes.
KWA-BOOM! KWA-BOOM! KWA-BOOM! KWA-BOOM! KWA-BOOM! KWA-BOOM!
Finally, the shield broke and explosions occurred inside the fortress.
The demons went inside structures hardened by magic to avoid the explosions.
“Attack?”
-Stand by.
The ground on which the fortress wall stood crumbled away.
It was because of the tunnels dug by Walkers.
The fortress wall, in one piece, was slammed into a wide tunnel.
“The gate is open.”
-Attack. Attack.
“Charge!”
As Sierra ran, the Dark Elf knights let out war cries and charged.
Some stayed behind, sniping demons who poked their heads out over the fortress wall, covering the knights.
Sierra and the Dark Elf knights slashed, shot, and ran.
Their armor was wrapped in the blood of demons and magic beasts.
A Count-rank demon became a porcupine with arrows, and a thirty-meter large magic beast lost its form, impaled by countless spears.
Finally, Sierra reached the opposite side of the fortress.
He climbed the fortress wall and killed the demons and magic beasts there too.
Sierra, who had been a slave to demons who coveted and sought to dominate and destroy the worlds of other races, showed not a shred of mercy.
“The fortress has been cleared.”
The aide, who had inspected every corner of the fortress, reported.
Soaked in blood, the look in his eyes as he looked at Sierra was different from before.
He was even wearing a fairly satisfied smile.
“Well done.”
“What are you looking at?”
“Where should we go to kill the most demons?”
“It’ll be similar wherever you go. This is hell for the demons.”
The sky, where explosions, friction, and magic had passed countless times, was red.
The Dimensional Sea was full of Dimensional Ship wreckage and demon and magic beast corpses.
A Dimensional Ship that had crashed kilometers away exploded.
The screams of demons and magic beasts were unceasing.
Every demon was running away.
The Demons of Ruin were no different.
The Immortal Demons were becoming corpses instead of raising them.
“What about following that one?”
The aide pointed to the Central Command Warrior flying like a ghost.
“Good idea.”
“Assemble! Assemble!”
The Dark Elf knights gathered below Sierra.
Their eyes were as firm as the aide’s.
“Do you want to earn more military merit?”
-Yes!
“Follow me. Today, we are the best knight regiment!”
Sierra and the Dark Elf knights followed the Central Command Warrior.
The battle was nearing its end.
Only a handful of demons were fighting, and most were busy running away.
Not that they had any clever means of escaping this dimension.
The Dimensional Ships were already all destroyed.
In the Dimensional Sea, Fighter Giants and Fighter Warriors with excellent Flight Ability were waiting.
Even if they hid underground, they would melt from the Dimensional Erosion.
Choi Kangjoong was watching the battle from near where the demons had landed.
He intended to fly quickly and deal with any place that needed support or if a Gate opened.
It was close to a rest period as nothing special was happening, but something unusual entered the Skyeye Giant’s field of view.
“What’s that?”
It was a Dimensional Ship about one hundred meters long, with a very peculiar appearance.
It had a simple structure, oval-shaped with only a floor.
On the floor was placed a large, ornate chair, making it seem like the ship existed for that chair.
On the chair sat an equally large demon, and around it, demons of indescribable beauty were kneeling.
“The Greed Legion?”
Choi Kangjoong remembered his meeting with Duke Akirif.
If it was a Legion Commander, he flew over with the thought of devouring it immediately.
“You are the Outer Mind.”
The large demon spoke in an extremely beautiful voice.
Both its appearance and voice were androgynous, making it hard to tell its gender. It had breasts like a female form, but its crotch bulged, so even that wasn’t certain.
“Who are you?”
“I am called Slein, Legion Commander of Greed. A pleasure.”
As Choi Kangjoong drew his Chitin Blade, Slein threw both hands up.
“Wait! I don’t intend to fight. Even if we fought, it wouldn’t be much benefit to you. This isn’t my main body.”
“A clone?”
“That’s right. If I went to you in my main body after you defeated two Archdukes, I might get eaten.”
“You know well. So why are you here as a clone? To fight more?”
“Our losses from this battle are also great, you know. So I propose a truce.”
“A truce?”
Choi Kangjoong was bewildered.
He never expected to hear the word ‘truce’ from a demon’s mouth.
And it wasn’t welcome news for Choi Kangjoong.
He needed opponents to fight for the Apocalid to multiply.
“I have no intention of a truce.”
“Of course, I don’t intend to do it empty-handed. In your world, there’s something called war reparations, right? I’ll give that.”
“I prefer killing demons over money.”
“Why can’t you see beyond your nose? Silvius is targeting you! Don’t you know how close she’s gotten?”
Silvius, the Dark Elf sent by the one called the Prince.
He had fought her once; she was a formidable enemy he couldn’t defeat alone.
Could he fight demons and her simultaneously and win?
“Did the Ruin Legion agree too?”
“Of course. Those brainless ones who only know destruction are busy fighting elsewhere anyway.”
“Hmm. It’s not for me to decide alone.”
“You’ll need to discuss it with Iselin, I suppose. I’ll wait here until you bring an answer.”
Slein crossed its legs and sent a bewitching gaze.
A temptation close to a Great Magic that no race could avoid.
For Choi Kangjoong, it was just the unique gaze of prey.
He wondered how many Evolution Points digesting a Legion Commander would give.
Choi Kangjoong moved to the Life Spirit.
Iselin was on the deck, healing the critically wounded and knights with severed limbs.
When he explained the truce proposal, her face became utterly absurd.