The Battle with the Devil"s Forces
I asked the young dwarves to lead the way as we traveled up the tunnel.
While they were young, dwarven youths all have great beards, making it difficult to know their age.
They navigated the dark tunnels without hesitation.
I was very thankful for that.
We continued through it until we saw a light up ahead.
The lanterns remained lit.
We would be using them again shortly.
The entrance of the cave was unsurprisingly guarded, and they sprang on us as we boldly walked out.
Surely they could not lose to pickaxe wielding dwarves?
Such convictions must have been strong in Eligos"s monsters, but they would regret their mistake in the afterlife.
Indeed, the dwarves were armed with nothing but pickaxes, but Saint Jeanne had a sword.
A holy sword, in fact. And she cut through the monsters with the famous blade, one after another.
As for me, I had great magic.
Its overwhelming firepower burned through their defenses.
Perhaps we had made too great a spectacle of their annihilation, because we soon saw that an army of reinforcement was coming from the town.
I calmly made an estimate of their number.
"One, two, three. Hmm. Nearly all of them."
"You are very quick, Demon Lord."
I replied lazily to Jeanne"s approval.
"I had my familiar confirm it earlier. …Yes, their leader is there as well."
A man in a questionable robe was there.
It was Sharltar, the Necromancer.
My purpose in this battle was to annihilate his army or to kill him.
It was either or both.
That was what was needed to free the dwarves now.
And so I gave the order.
"Alright. All of you, pull back. But do not make it too obvious. Slowly. We do not want them to suspect a trap."
I said. But they were not suited for subtlety. They felt frantic in their first battle. There was fear.
They wouldn"t even have to act as they retreated.
We just had to pull back.
We just had to lightly engage with Eligos"s army as they chased us.
It was really just Jeanne and me who were fighting.
And the young dwarves watched us.
"A legendary Demon King and the Saint of Gold are fighting together."
They said with a sigh.
I suppose they meant Jeanne.
She did have blonde hair and her white robes evoked a sense of holiness.
I packed as much power as I could in my fists, so as not to fall behind her.
As we drew back, Jeanne paid me a compliment.
"Impressive, Demon Lord. So it"s not only your mind, but you are a first-rate fighter."
"Thank you."
"Imagine if we had children together. They would be the strongest ever."
Well, this was all rather sudden.
…I remonstrated her that she should protect her own virtue, but she smiled back.
"Of course, I intend to. No man has ever touched this skin. However, if it was G.o.d"s will, my virtue will be easily discarded. And I would bear your children. If that is G.o.d"s will."
I prayed that her G.o.d was not a madman and that these words would not enter Eve"s ears.
We continued to retreat until we reached the open cave.
The dwarven chief, Gottlieb was there.
And so were the miners he led.
They were armed with pickaxes and spears.
"You have very precise timing, Demon Lord."
Gottlieb said with a rough but amused voice.
By his att.i.tude and words, I understood that the tunnel was complete.
Then the only thing to do was to lure them over here.
When the enemy forces swarmed in here, I would cause the entrance to explode.
While I bought them some time, the dwarves would escape down this tunnel. Then the rest of the explosives would be ignited, burying the enemy in the rubble.
This was my plan.
But would it work?
I looked at the faces of the dwarves around me. I could see that my fears were unfounded.
They all had the faces of warriors.
They had the air of Heroes.
Even a Demon Lord would have trouble defeating such men.
That is what I thought.
I felt a strong trust in them as we entered formation.
A close-packed formation.
s.h.i.+elds up, spears extended.
They stood together at one point and would thrust their spears out.
This formation was known as a phalanx.
It was a favorite of the conqueror, Alexander the Great, from that other world.
He invaded countries from Europe to Asia with this strategy and built a world empire.
The good thing about this strategy is that it increased your will to fight and instilled a sense of unity.
While they lacked training, it was perfect for these brave dwarves.
While this area was quite open, it was still essentially an underground tunnel. It was better to stay close than to scatter.
In any case, it felt like the perfect thing to do.
The dwarves were not considered to be the strongest of soldiers. But when the time came they seemed to be fighting on equal footing with the monsters of Sharltar"s army.
They did not back away when the lesser demons and gargoyles appeared.
No, if anything, they looked like they intended on pus.h.i.+ng the enemy back.
Could it be? We might even win without resorting to my plan?
I thought this for a moment, but it was soon clear that we were pus.h.i.+ng our luck.
Sharltar saw that brute force was not working as expected.
And he began to use psychological tactics.
He withdrew his winged demons and sent the zombies out to the front.
Zombies are usually much weaker than demons, but the dwarves were a race full of compa.s.sion.
It would not have been so bad if they were ordinary zombies, but these zombies had been their comrades. They could not help but recoil.
I even saw some dwarves shedding tears after recognizing a family member.
They began to step back.
And just like that, even more of the dwarf zombies flooded into the area.
"d.a.m.n it. What a devilish thing to do."
I had imagined that something like this would happen, but I had not realized just how effective it would be.
I give an order to Saint Jeanne.
"Can you kill the zombies?"
Jeanne understood the situation, and merely said, "yes," as she unsheathed her sword.
"But, soldiers who have once cowered will be even weaker than before. These dwarves will likely lose if they face the demons again."
"I understand that. But there is no need to drive the demons back. We just have to buy some time."
"How much time?"
"Can you see that vicious looking Necromancer in the back?"
"I can. He disgusts me."
"That is Sharltar. We need him to enter this area."
"I see. If I kill enough zombies, there will be more s.p.a.ce, and he and the others should come in."
"I hope so. I"m counting on you."
I said, and she rushed forward like the wind, her blades cutting through the zombies.
The zombies moved slowly, and with every move of her blade, a head or torso was severed. Her movements were graceful and smooth, there was nothing the dull and lumbering zombies could do.
I knew there was no need to worry on her account, and so I looked towards the dwarven soldiers.
They were still being pushed back.
They say that once soldiers experience fear on the battlefield, they become nearly useless for quite a while.
Humans and demi-humans can become strong through hard training, but there was not much you could do about their weak minds. It was because they had hearts.
The heartless demons extended their claws as if to take advantage of this weakness.
A dwarf fell down.
That dwarf was quickly retrieved and sent down the tunnel. A dwarf down and a dwarf to carry him. It was bad that two were removed from the fight when one was injured.
This was not good at all. And so I decided to have the dwarves take shelter a little earlier than planned.
"Dwarves. We move to plan B."
They nodded at this and began to retreat.
Jeanne returned to me and whispered in my ear.
"Demon Lord, this is earlier than planned."
"I do not want them to suffer any more losses."
"That is grand and all, but do you think we can do this on our own?"
We would have to try, I told her. But someone then interjected.
"Not alone. I will fight as well."
It was a man with white hair.
It was the dwarven chief. He wore chainmail and carried a great battleaxe.
"Chief Gottlieb? But I left the protection of the dwarven civilians to you."
"Dwarven women and children are not so weak as to do nothing while their men are fighting. In fact, they kicked me in the back and drove me out."
"But, you are too old…"
"Old? Demon Lord, you must not judge a man by appearance alone."
Gottlieb said as he launched his battleaxe into the air.
One second his arm had been raised, and then the battleaxe…
FFWHOOM!
There was a sound of metal cutting through the air. And then a demon and gargoyle were cut open.
The force behind it was almost magical.
Gottlieb pulled out a second battleaxe and said,
"Are you still unsatisfied?"
Then he laughed jokingly.
"Hardly. I would be glad to have your a.s.sistance."
I said, and we shook hands.
His hand was rough, like iron ore.
I could imagine how much it would hurt to be struck by such a hand.
I decided that I trusted in him as a chief, as a technician, and also as a warrior.
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