Demon King of the Royal Class
Chapter 543

Chapter 543

The Battle for Serandia continued.

Monsters spewed fire and lightning from their mouths, but humans answered back, unleashing bolts of lightning and flames from their fingertips.

On the battlefield from which winter had long since retreated, there was little difference between the lives of humans and monsters.

Gouts of flame crisscrossed the sky, with no way to know which had been unleashed by monster and which by mage, causing massive explosions. Artillery pieces stationed at the rear hammered the waves of monsters, crushing, burning, or freezing hundreds of them to death.

Just as the Demon King knew that different sorts of attacks were needed to kill different monsters, so did humans.

The optimal method was physical strikes, but performing such attacks inevitably carried significant risk.

Crack!

A soldier was killed without even a scream, his body severed at the waist by a single bite from a monster.

Squelch!

In an instant, a heavy hammer struck the monster’s maw, shattering its skull.

Bang!

The monster that charged at the hammer-wielder, trying to land a headbutt, crashed into a glowing white shield.

Bang! Squelch!

After pushing the monster away with the shield, the holy knight smashed its head in with the hammer and surveyed the surroundings.

Whoosh!

The white light emanating from the holy knight’s body began to heal the wounds of the injured soldiers scattered about.

But what use was healing wounds?

Adriana could only watch from afar as a soldier, whose arm had been reattached by her Divine Power, was caught off guard and had his head crushed by another charging monster.

—Gasp!

Grimly, Adriana smashed that monster’s maw with her hammer, the same one that had snuffed out the life she’d just saved.

Holy knights could heal their own bodies and immediately treat the wounded on the battlefield. They were both medics and assault troops.

They could be deployed to the most dangerous places on the battlefield, where they could heal those who should have died from their injuries, allowing them to flee on their own feet, or even restore the combat power of a squad by healing the wounded on the spot.

However, these same holy knights were also the ones who had to witness the fleeting disappearance of the lives they had saved.

The presence of hope only deepened the despair.

Without the power of healing, they could focus solely on the fight, pushing back their tears at the sight of grievously injured comrades. But these holy knights had the power to save many, only to have to watch the lives they saved vanish nonetheless.

On every battlefield of this horrific Gate Incident, they fought, saved lives, and witnessed countless other lives fade away, all while shedding countless tears. They wept again and again, but no amount of crying could reverse death. Their sorrow only served to keep the memory of the vanished alive.

Only strength.

Only battle.

Only this heavy, blunt hammer... After realizing it was easier to crush monsters than to kill them with a sword, she had switched to this hammer of judgment.

This violence, the tearing and smashing of enemies to death, was the only good, the only justice on this horrific battlefield.

Squelch!

A deep breath.

Thud!

Adriana swung her hammer, knowing there was no justice beyond killing the enemy.

With her body enveloped in white light and blue mana, the saintess wielded the hammer—smashing, crushing, and pounding the monsters into the ground.

Even though she knew the lives she saved would vanish, she still reached out to heal the wounded and stood firm against the tide of monsters, knowing that this wave would eventually engulf her.

Adriana was strong. Though she had not reached Master class, she had already joined the ranks of superhumans through Moonshine. Her Divine Power further enhanced her body, making her superior to other superhumans.

No ordinary soldier came close to Adriana’s capabilities.

Yet, she still could not protect everyone. She had witnessed countless lives vanish despite her efforts to save them. Through countless battles, she had learned that fighting while trying to protect others was meaningless. Innumerable times before, she had found herself in danger while trying to save others.

Still, Adriana couldn’t ignore the fallen. Just as she had extended a helping hand to a despised junior who was attempting a reckless endeavor, knowing it was unnecessary, Adriana hadn’t changed. She couldn’t change.

Roar!

She saw a monster the size of a buffalo charging at a fallen soldier with gleaming fangs, and found herself in the monster’s path before she could think.

Bang!

Unable to withstand the weight of the charge, Adriana was flung backward. She rolled across the ground.

She had fallen. On the battlefield, losing one’s stance even once could mean death before one could get back up.

Gasping from the impact she felt through her shield, Adriana saw the monster’s maw open wide as it changed targets and charged at her, intent on biting through her neck.

She had no time to properly regain her stance, she couldn’t afford to expose her neck, and she had lost her weapon. Adriana extended her right arm into the monster’s maw.

-Crunch!

“Ugh...!”

-Growl! Grrrr!

Adriana was clad in full plate armor yet the armor around her arm was being crushed by the force of the monster’s bite.

Crack! Crunch!

“Ugh...!”

Despite the divine protection imbued in her armor, the monster’s teeth pierced through the vambrace and penetrated her own Mana Reinforcement shield, digging into Adriana’s right arm.

Adriana was strong, but the strength of each individual monster was unpredictable. Some were pathetically weak, but others could bite through armor imbued by Divine Power and a combatant’s own Mana Reinforcement shield with just a bite.

At this rate, her arm would be torn away, and her life would be next.

“Ugh... Argh...!”

Thud!

Even as the monster’s maw continued to crush her arm, Adriana, lying on the ground, slammed her shield into the monster’s head.

She relentlessly struck the monster’s head with the edge of her shield, as if she wouldn’t let it live even in death. It was a battle to see which would splinter first—her arm or the monster’s skull.

Thud!

“Ugh...! Ugh...!”

Thud! Thud! Thud! Crunch!

Groan...

The monster’s body went limp. Its head had been completely crushed by the edge of her shield.

Adriana tried to pry open the monster’s maw, which was still clamped around her arm even in death.

There was more than one enemy, so she had to get up. If she couldn’t get up, she would die.

Enduring the excruciating pain from her right arm, Adriana desperately tried to pry open the monster’s maw, which had somehow closed even tighter in death.

There was no one to care for her. On the battlefield, everyone was essentially alone.

The soldier Adriana had saved was already being torn apart by another monster. Blood was spraying from his neck.

Many fought together, but they were too busy trying to save their own lives. Few fought to protect others like Adriana.

Roar!

Before Adriana could free her arm from the monster’s maw, she saw a giant monster charging across the battlefield.

It was about six meters tall. No ordinary soldier would be able to handle it.

She wasn’t its target, but it sent dozens of soldiers flying with a single kick and crushed more of them underfoot.

And Adriana was in its path.

“Ah... Ugh! Ugh!”

She had to open the monster’s maw somehow and either escape or deal with the giant monster lumbering at her.

At this rate though, it would be too late. Should she abandon her arm? It was better to lose an arm than her life. But how could she cut off her arm in this situation?

The giant monster was already upon her, crushing and smashing ordinary soldiers as it approached.

Adriana gritted her teeth and was just about to strike her elbow with the edge of the shield she had used to crush the monster’s head...

Zap!

A spark, like lightning, appeared in the air, and something emerged. It was a massive, gray, metallic figure, almost as large as the giant.

Whoosh!

Thud!

Adriana watched in a daze as a massive hunk of grey metal smashed the giant’s head in.

“A golem...”

A giant iron golem had appeared, and was crushing and smashing monsters around it, just as the giant had done.

—It’s a golem!

—It’s the duke’s golem!

Adriana’s life had been saved by the golem’s appearance, and the other soldiers around her cheered as well, as the massive golem began fighting alongside them on the battlefield.

The Duke of Saint-Ouen, despite being ostracized due to his youngest daughter’s betrayal, was undeniably skilled, and so was the Saint-Ouen Duchy’s mage corps.

The duke, who had participated in the Great War, was now deploying the golem, which had trampled demons in the past, to crush the monsters of the Gate.

These massive golems, though not all made of the same material, were equipped with the ability to blink short distances. They traversed the battlefield, crushing monsters wherever they appeared.

Crash!

Thud!

Adriana watched as the golems cleared a path before her. She wedged her shield into the maw of the monster that held her arm and began to pry it open.

“Ugh!”

She felt the bones in her upper arm shatter completely. But just as she could heal others, Adriana could heal herself.

Woooong...

Her bones straightened and fused back together, and her arm was fully restored, aside from being covered in blood.

With her newly-healed arm, Adriana picked up her fallen hammer and stood up.

The Duchy of Saint Ouen’s golems were fighting alongside them. The iron golem, having picked opponents befitting its massive size, was battling the large monsters that were wreaking devastation on the battlefield.

Adriana ran, following the iron golem.

As she ran, she muttered a prayer.

“O gods. O Five Great Gods. With these tears, with this blood... With so many tears, and with so much blood... What is it that you wish to achieve?”

The despairing priestess muttered, cursing the heavens on the blood-stained battlefield.

Adriana, intoxicated by the blood of monsters and humans, cried out in despair, yet her eyes were still alive.

What kind of paradise could be forged with so many tears and so much blood?

Why did the gods desire so much death and tears?

Thud!

Wandering amidst the piles of crushed monster flesh, Adriana wearily placed her blood-soaked hammer on the ground and blankly surveyed the battlefield.

Clang! Clang!

Countless soldiers were being mercilessly killed, while monsters were being slaughtered. As the massive golem swept through the battlefield, clearing a path, a shadow covered it, and something plummeted to the ground like a shooting star.

Thud...!

“A dragon...?”

It was a creature with a pair of wings, a massive body, and the head of a lizard. The impact of its landing alone caused countless soldiers and monsters to stagger or fall.

The dragon was so large that it looked down on a monster over six meters tall as if it were a toy.

The dragon faced the iron golem and opened its maw.

Roar!

Rumble!

Scarlet flames spewed from the dragon’s maw, engulfing the iron golem.

“Oh...”

The iron golem, which had seemed capable of punching through the endless waves of monsters and crushing them all with its mere presence, glowed red-hot and quickly melted into a pool of molten metal under the dragon’s fiery breath.

A strong monster had appeared, but its appearance had been matched by that of a human creation that was even stronger than it. Now, though, an even larger and stronger monster had appeared.

All of this happened less than thirty seconds after the iron golem took the lead, and those who had fought alongside the golem were either reduced to ashes by the dragon’s flames or lay sprawled on the ground, staring blankly at the massive monster with despair.

Humans were strong, but monsters could be anything.

Adriana, too, had been running after the golem, but her feet stopped at the sight of the molten remains of the golem and the dragon standing like a mountain before her.

Monsters did not fall into despair, but humans did.

Adriana gripped her hammer with a trembling hand. She raised her shield. She was desperate, but was unable to fall.

Adriana, clad in divine protection, charged at the dragon as it opened its maw once again.

Rumble!

The fiery breath that had melted the iron golem shot toward her. Watching as the dragon’s head moved, Adriana predicted the path of the flames and leaped to the side.

The creature was massive. Being small might mean she had no chance of winning, but being small also meant she had more freedom to move, to dodge the attacks of that massive monster.

Any talk of odds was laughable. Even if she somehow defeated this massive monster, she would have to face the next monster, and the next, and the next, and she would eventually meet her end.

If surviving through every battle was a roll of the dice, then with countless battles to fight, it was inevitable that the dice that decided a soldier’s fate in war would eventually land on death.

Nevertheless, Adriana dodged the flames that melted the earth and reached the dragon’s jaw. Knowing that the dice would eventually land on death, she had resolved to fight.

Just as she had extended a hand of salvation to those who would only die again after she saved them, she resolved to foolishly continue this foolish fight.

With a gasp, Adriana leaped upwards, grabbing onto one of the dragon’s horns and using it as a handle to climb atop its head. The heat emanating from the dragon’s head, which had spewed flames strong enough to melt metal, was unbearable for an ordinary human.

Crash!

Gripping the dragon’s horn with her left hand, Adriana struck the dragon’s head with her hammer.

Roar!

There was no time to ponder whether her hammer would be effective against such a massive creature.

The dragon shook its head violently, trying to shake off the human clinging to it like a fly. Even if she couldn’t smash through its skull, preventing it from spewing flames would mean someone would survive.

Even if those who didn’t die to this dragon died in another battle, they wouldn’t die yet. That was enough. She couldn’t do more than that. If she could protect them from the monster below her, that was sufficient.

Roar!

To avoid falling from the dragon’s head while it shook violently, Adriana clung firmly to the horn with her left hand while she rained down blows with her hammer.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

No sword or spear would pierce such a thick hide. Even most forms of magic would not affect this monster.

To kill creatures with impenetrable hides, Adriana had abandoned her sword. She had forsaken the sword she had trained with for so long and taken up the hammer solely to kill such a monster.

Whoosh!

Amidst the shaking that threatened to drive her insane, Adriana raised her hammer.

Bang!

‘O gods.’

Bang!

‘If all of this is your design, what lies at the end?’

‘O gods.’

Crash!

‘O Five Great Gods.’

Thud!

‘I hate you.’

Roar!

The hammer of the priestess, who hated the gods, continued to batter the massive rock called a dragon.

The world might not belong to humans, but at the very least, it should belong to those who are alive. It should not belong to these creations of madness, devoid of reason or anything else, driven only by the instinct to destroy.

Such a world couldn’t be called a world.

“Haaaaaah!”

Toward these creatures that defied reason, these beasts that lacked the way of life, Adriana’s hammer, imbued with pure hatred, descended.

Crash!

As the hammer struck, a white bolt of lightning descended from the sky and pierced through the dragon’s head.

Roar!

With a death cry like thunder, the dragon, whose head had been pierced, collapsed, its massive body landing with a heavy thud.

“Haa... Haa... Haa...” Adriana panted. She had leaped off just before the monster’s head hit the ground and landed safely. She stared in disbelief at what she had done.

She couldn’t comprehend what had happened, but the massive creature in the form of a dragon had died, its head pierced by a hammer.

The massive creature had been felled by a pitiful weapon that was no more than a toothpick when compared to it.

The soldiers, who had been terrified and hesitant to even think of touching the dragon, watched in awe as the young priestess wielded her hammer and shattered the dragon’s head.

“Haa... Haa...”

As she caught her breath, Adriana met the gazes of countless soldiers who looked at her as if witnessing a miracle.

—Oh, ohhh...

—O Five Great Gods...

The soldiers, sensed something in Adriana, who was enveloped in the white light of divinity, and expressed their reverence for the gods even amidst the brutal battle.

Was it a miracle? Was this something one would call a miracle?

Adriana blankly looked up at the sky over the battlefield. A massive monster had died, but the battle wasn’t over.

Such miracles happened on the battlefield, yet they were miniscule in number compared to the countless tragedies that occured. Whether it was her doing or the gods’, it didn’t matter. As long as the war dragged on, such monsters would continue to appear.

Was there truly an end to such a battle, where monsters and enemies continuously appeared? In this hell, where slaughter was the only constant, was there truly a way out?

Adriana had shattered the dragon’s head, but fell into despair. It was only natural, seeing the waves of monsters, monsters similar in size or even larger still advancing.

How many more miracles were needed? Would it ever end?

Trapped in the despair that followed this miracle, Adriana felt lost.

‘Can anyone end this hell? Anyone? Please...’

She was tired of killing, dying, and watching others die. She wanted all of it, this pain, fear, and despair, to end.

Thud!

Thud! Thud!

A distance away, dozens of figures flashed across the battlefield.

Slash!

Crack!

Those flashes, like beams of light, cut, crushed, and smashed every monster they touched, darting across the battlefield like shooting stars as they passed by the soldiers.

They weren’t beams of light. They were beings enveloped in blue mana.

The superhumans among superhumans, the strongest of humanity... Those who had reached Master class were coming. Among those beams of light, Adriana caught a clear glimpse of one of them as it passed by her, racing across the battlefield.

The dozens of beams leaped over the corpse of the dragon Adriana had slain.

Among those beams...

“Ellen.”

Ellen Artorius... Adriana distinctly felt her brief and indifferent glance for a moment, then Ellen was looking ahead again.

Whoosh!

Even though it was a person who had passed by, she had passed by so swiftly that a gust of wind followed her passage.

The hero, Ellen Artorius, was leading a small strike unit composed of Master class individuals as they broke across the battlefield. Every monster in their path was torn, crushed, sliced, and trampled.

Her expression had been eerily calm and composed. In that indifference, Adriana, as well as the other soldiers, found solace.

The hero’s expression—neither panicked, frightened, sad, nor overly confident.

People believed in the hero’s calmness. That composure, that inhuman expression, inspired a strange trust that she would accomplish what other humans couldn’t.

That trust, born from the impossible feats the hero had achieved, soon became faith.

The hero, seemingly devoid of emotion, would be the one who would bring about the end of all this.

Slash!

Ellen Artorius, leaping high into the air, swung her sword once at a monster the size of a mountain.

Slash!

With a single brush of the void blade, blood fountained out of the monster as it collapsed.

Adriana had risked her life in a bloody battle against a smaller monster. But for Ellen Artorius, a single strike was enough to subdue such a giant monster, as if it were a mere sparring match.

Rumble!

From the hero’s sunlit cloak, whips of flames erupted, incinerating thousands of monsters in an instant.

A calm expression, yet demonstrating overwhelming power and overwhelming martial prowess...

The hero advanced, piercing through the waves of monsters and the superhumans following the hero crossed the battlefield like beams of light.

Overwhelming strength and overwhelming protection...

In a battlefield where dozens were torn apart by a single monster, monsters that could trample thousands were felled with a single strike.

How could people not find hope in Ellen? The miracle Adriana had wrought was everyday life for Ellen.

The monster Adriana needed a miracle to kill had been silenced with a single strike of Ellen’s void blade.

That was why she was called a hero.

Adriana, witnessing the hero and the strike unit cutting through the waves of monsters with overwhelming might, felt something stir within her. It may feel hopeless, but perhaps they could make it possible. If they were that strong, perhaps they could truly bring an end to this war.

That was why the allied army held the hero up as a figure of faith. They would destroy the warp gate and would bring about the conclusion of everything.

Believing they would end this era of sorrow and hatred...

Letting out a deep breath, Adriana picked up her hammer once more.