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Chapter 94: Swarm
🕑 Added 2024-10-18 16:08:47 +0000 UTCCannonballs flew, darkening the skies as infantry took cover behind earthen walls, with fireballs and other elemental spears raining down upon them. When the demons' cover was blown, lead bullets reaped their lives. Little by little, the demons were forced back. Heracles watched the battle unfold. Althemer's new invention, the rifle, could shoot over 300 meters, giving us a significant advantage. Their cannons were no longer a problem as long as we had a line of sight.
Moreover, an airship had been built. While it might be a stretch to call it a floating fortress, it gave us air superiority. From above, the airship rained cannonballs down on the demons. Claire was elated beyond belief as she saw we were winning.
"So, these are the demons you've been talking about… They're smarter than you made them out to be, but weaker too. A gun can kill them," Heracles remarked.
"Well, in my vision, they used magic for everything—from building houses and so on. I never saw them making weapons, except for the swords they're using now," Claire replied.
"So, they do have some form of technology. Too bad it's so mana-inefficient for us. We need to be cautious."
"Yes. But we have more troops now. The enemy may be smarter than I thought, but our objective remains the same: we can't let them land."
"We've already lost the initiative there."
"Yes… but we haven't lost yet."
"Of course. We're winning right now."
The rickety fortress soon collapsed under our bombardment. The demons crawled out of the fortress like rats fleeing their nests. When they did, our infantry unleashed a salvo of lead bullets upon them.
After clearing the fortress, we marched into the ruined Sand Pearl Harbor, where the demons had made another defensive settlement. We bombarded it day and night and soon occupied it. When we cleared out the rubble and piled the demon's corpses outside the city, Claire noticed a demon that wore somewhat nicer clothing than the rest.
"Eli, please use necromancy on this one," Claire asked, pointing to a demon who appeared to be wearing better clothing than the others. I did as I was told, and Claire began her interrogation.
"How many settlers do you have?"
"150 groups of settlers. Each group has about 25 ships, with over ten thousand people."
"Wasn't it 125 before?" Claire looked bewildered by the discrepancy. She didn't believe the corpse could lie, so either the commander had lied to his subordinates or...
"New groups of settlers arrive every week."
"How?! You can't stay on ships forever!!" Claire screamed in desperation. "Twenty-five new groups mean over 250,000 people!! How can you send them one after another without supplies?"
"150 settlers? That means over a million demons are coming our way. Our bullets won't be enough to handle them," Ludwin frowned. I checked the supplies. We were good for now, but our ammunition wasn't limitless.
"1.5 million… Even Lustria's population doesn't reach that high," Heracles commented, comparing the population of Claire's homeland to the incoming demons. I, too, was baffled. 1.5 million was more than the population of a large town. Even battalions in World War I didn't reach those numbers in some places.
Seeing her efforts bearing no fruit, Claire was slowly losing her composure. "No, we haven't lost yet… as long as we can hold on…"
"I should go to their homeland…" I whispered.
"But they no longer have the Kinslayer Law. They'll kill your vampires on sight!" Claire cautioned.
"Why was such a law made in the first place?" Ludwin asked. "How could these demons follow it so obediently? We have laws against killing humans, but plenty of people still do it…"
"Demons have to follow their master. There's some sort of magical pact," Claire explained, but then she stopped, realizing how little she actually understood about the demons despite believing she knew them best. "I'm not too sure about the details... You, answer. You must have some information," she demanded of the demon.
“Through a magical binding contract, we pledge our souls to obey the higher order. We’ve done this since childhood. Fifth-class demons must follow fourth-class demons, fourth-class must follow third-class, and so on.”
“That sounds very convenient. I wonder why we don’t do it. It’s all magical, right?” Heracles asked.
“If the binding is done by a mage, it’s possible. But our continent lacks enough mages, and mages don’t want to be bound,” Claire explained. “It has to be done by a light mage. Rausha must be a light mage as well.”
“Does it matter?” Heracles asked.
“Not really. Demons are all mages anyway. Now, about the Kinslayer Law. What do you know about it?”
“The Kinslayer Law was made to prevent assassinations. It forbids killing by all people.”
“What if someone wanted to rebel against injustice from the king?” Claire pressed.
“They could, but the contract would cross their names. Those whose names are crossed will be executed.”
“Hm… that’s tamer than I thought. I assumed it was complete obedience or death if you disobeyed,” I muttered.
“I see. If killing is forbidden, there would be no wars. Without wars, the population would expand endlessly, leading to massive and rapid growth,” Claire added.
“That’s odd. There are other ways to manage that, like child taxes or even infanticide. Some societies in the past resorted to those measures during famines,” Heracles frowned.
“Killing is forbidden. That includes abortion.”
“Well, now that we’re in this mess, what are we going to do?”
“Has the Kinslayer Law been abolished for all demons?”
“Only for about a quarter of the settlers—the ones on ships, those about to leave the supply archipelago, and those already here.”
“Who has the power to abolish the Kinslayer Law?”
“Only the king can fully abolish it. However, settler leaders are given exemptions. They are chosen to become this land’s new kings. Even then, their names are still crossed. Those with crossed names will be given a special place once we conquer this land.”
"I see." Claire was considering my proposition. Ludwin was heavily against it.
"No! We can't send Eli alone into foreign enemy lands!"
"We aren't going to send her alone, Ludwin. At least Claire or I will tag along," Heracles sighed.
"We need more time to think about this strategy. We have yet to obtain their maps. We don't even know where the demons' continent really is." Claire sighed. "Can you draw a map to your supply base or to your main continent?"
"No. The maps are held by the captain of the ship."
"Ugh. We have to capture one of their ships." Claire groaned in frustration. She thought everything was finally resolved. Nevertheless, she began to calm herself as she found a way out of this mess.
"Despite seeing this event years ago, you are surprisingly unprepared for it, Claire." I jabbed at her.
"I did my best! It was hard for a princess from a small kingdom like me to do anything. Lustria was even smaller than the territory of some dukes…" Claire trailed off.
"Well, if you put it that way and consider how treacherous the nobles of the West are, I guess you are right. Moreover, you are a mage…."
"You really understand me, Eli!" Claire hugged me. I suddenly felt giddy. Since when were we this close?
"Now, where to next? Should we bombard one of their ships using our newest airship?" Heracles asked.
"Sinking them is no use. We need the maps…"
"We can sink one or two of their ships. Let's go."
Now that we had Sand Pearl once again, we embarked on a journey with the flying airship. It didn't take long for a massive ship to be spotted on the horizon. It looked more like a moving island than a ship; even carriers from Earth's navy weren't that big.
"That looked like an island. They even have farms! How could they have that?" Alicia asked.
"They have water mages watering those plants," Claire answered.
"So the ships I saw from Sand Pearl last time weren't their main ships. I was wondering how they could transport ten thousand people here. The demons need to eat, too. The supplies needed must be massive."
"Of course. No ordinary ship could house ten thousand people. It had to be that large," Heracles said.
Yeah, if you stopped to think about it, he was right. This airship, by comparison, could barely hold twenty people—us, the crew to man the three cannons, someone for the rudder, snipers, and mages to handle the mana.
Without delay, we rained cannonballs upon them. The enemy tried launching their magic and even using cannons, but we were too high and far for them to reach us. I looked into the distance.
"Watch out! Flying monsters!" a scout shouted, drawing our attention.
"Where's my rifle? Ludwin! Grab a rifle too! We need to shoot them!" Heracles ordered.
"On it!"
The mage academy never taught us how to use guns, but we were still taught how to maintain and even make them. Realizing there were more rifles than people aboard the ship, Ludwin grabbed rifles and handed them to Alicia, Claire, and me. The fliers had demons riding them.
"The demons are riding those fliers."
"They keep coming up with one trick after another, huh?" Heracles aimed his rifle and fired. I was impressed by his accuracy, but I managed to hit one as well. Even though the wyverns were fast and flying, they were huge targets. The new muskets were easy to reload, and the thirty or so fliers fell easily before they got in range to cast their magic.
"How many airships do we have?" I asked Ludwin and Heracles.
"This is the prototype. So, there's only one. We started making this baby two years ago. The project was kept so secret that even I didn't know about it," Heracles said.
"Eh? How come the crown prince didn't know about such an important detail?"
"Let's just say this ship was built by geniuses we offered clemency to in exchange for the blueprints…"
"Ah, so they wanted to rebel, huh?"
"We offered them clemency, so they're not rebels."
"I understand." I sighed. Regardless of their methods, we profited in the end. That's always been our way.
"Sir, we failed to destroy their ships. It seems our shots didn't affect their gargantuan vessels at all."
I saw the enemy hiding inside their floating islands, and we couldn't damage them further. But if we got too close, they would surely fire their prized spells at us. We were at a stalemate.
"Should I go down there? I can swim."
"No. We just need to signal our ships anchored at Sand Pearl port to come here. Luckily, even though they razed the city, the port and the ships i, themselves were intact."
"They're not brainless, Claire. If they destroyed the ships, how would they flee?"
"Let's use that to our advantage," Claire said. We raised a smoke signal, hoping it would be seen.
A few hours later, two ships came to our rescue. However, as they boarded the demon's moving island, it suddenly trembled, followed by an explosion. Slowly but surely, the island fortress began to sink. I gasped in horror.
"What happened? Did our cannons do that?" Claire asked.
"No. We stopped shooting a while ago," Ludwin replied, watching the sinking island.
"Order the ships to retreat!!" Heracles commanded.
"But our men are still inside!"
"It doesn't matter! Tell them to swim! We'll pick them up later! If that island capsizes, it could take our ships down with it! Hurry! Give the order! This is a direct order from Heracles!"
"Yes, sir!"
We managed to save our ships, but we lost several soldiers when the demon's island sank. Later, through the testimony of the surviving crew, we learned that the demons had blown up the keel of their own ships, causing them to sink. Heracles, though surprised, believed the testimony.
These demons were undoubtedly crazy.
