Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 78: Side Story: The Disaster of Laraska II

Demons were a species a bit different from humans. While humans didn’t allow their instincts to guide them, the demons did the opposite. They followed their instincts as if it was natural and it probably was, if not, then there wouldn’t be humans that acted worse than demons if they know that they could get away with their actions.

Of course, it didn’t mean that humans were bad, the same goes for demons. Even if their instincts made them bloodthirsty and ruthless, they weren’t necessarily bad, atleast from their point of view.

But that also didn’t mean that humans should stop fighting against them. They had to fight if they wanted to survive. It was to devour or get devoured and the Empress knew that well, very well.

That’s why when a Magus of hers decided to attack a city for his personal grudge, she didn’t stop him. Instead, she used it as a chance to make a power move, to break the stalemate.

Destroying a city wasn’t enough, she needed more, and she will get more!

The Empress had decided, as she cooked up a plan, a very interesting plan...

It was a night like any other. The crimson moon shined on the mostly barren land of the demon world, giving the jagged land a halo of red.

But it wasn’t just the crimson moon that painted the land red, the was something else too...

Something that was being shed in the plains outside Vanzahra almost every day.

It was blood.

War seemed like a fairy tale for the people in the central plain, but here, in the demon realm it was real, very real, disturbingly real.

And right now, the group of twenty stood on the very edge of this reality, completely unfazed as they watched the battlefield from above.

"Kyle, find the number of high ranked forces on the demon side. Doesn’t matter if you get found.", The Earl ordered the black haired boy who was in his own world.

But the boy, Kyle just kept on staring at the device on his wrist. If one didn’t know him, they would think that he didn’t hear the Earl, but that was not the case.

Cause even though he was still doing what he was doing, one magic circle after another kept on appearing around Kyle’s body, as invisible waves of mana of different natures and frequencies were being emitted by those circles.

If Rayne was here, he would have exclaimed, ’Sonar!’, while wondering how he understood the information he got back.

Well, that was due to his unique attribute [Questioner], and a few spells he developed along the way. Normally, if mana is connected to the caster, then it can transmit all the information it finds back to the caster. But as long as Kyle asks a question, his attribute removes a few of these restrictions, making him an excellent scout and much more.

"Sixteen B-ranks, two A-ranks. No Devil or Satan class demons in 200km.", Kyle informed in seconds.

Of course, that wasn’t all he could do.

"Nova.", the Earl called again.

"On it.", the red-head replied, before turning to Kyle and saying, "Sensory Share."

To which the boy still didn’t reply, but did what he was asked anyways.

Another blue magic circle appeared right in front of Nova’s face, as she muttered, "Strengths, weaknesses, affinities, got them all."

’Still amazed at how effortlessly he does this.’, Nova added in her mind, her eyes glowing with mana.

With four circles around each staff, a total of sixteen magic circles of according attributes hummed behind Nova. Rotating and revolving, as they gathered elements at a pace so frightening, that there was immediate deficiency of elements in the area.

Something that both the humans and demons fighting below noticed.

Alas, they were too late.

-Zoom

Sixteen finger-wide beams of magic, of different colours, different attributes, moving at above supersonic speeds pierced the skulls of their respective targets. The beams then gathered in the skull of their targets, before they imploded from within, leaving nothing but bits of charred demon flesh.

"Fourteen targets neutralized, the remaining two are vessels.", Nova informed on the behalf of Kyle.

Nope, vessels weren’t so rare on the frontlines.

Nodding the Earl was about to say something, but the Duchess was faster.

"Brax, Maya, go.", She said, before reminding the Earl, "We are a team."

Maybe she didn’t want Earl’s side to have all the fun?

"I know.", the Earl nodded, "I was just selecting the best person for the task."

Pointing a finger at the two Archmages, he added, "Yours are too flashy."

And he was right.

The right side of battlefield sank deeper in the ground. The gravity suddenly increasing by hundreds of times as Brax, the bald Archmage who mistook Zuri as a girl, swung his hammer. Crushing everything that came in its path.

While on the other side of the battlefield was a frozen tundra, everything still and unmoving, covered by a layer of meters thick ice. Thanks to the courtesy of Maya, the Ice Archmage, whose small blue horns glowed bright.

But the vessels weren’t done yet, there was always a Round two for them. The Duchess knew that, the Archmages knew that but Zuri thought otherwise.

His lilac eyes shined as a tangible but intangible, mysterious colourless flame started burning on his right hand. And then, he swung his hand horizontally, absolutely nothing happening in response causing the Duchess’ side to look at him questioningly.

Despite the looks he didn’t bother to explain. In the end, it was one of the hooded figures in white, the Archmages that Empress sent, who bothered.

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Sighing, the hooded figure explained, "He somehow destroyed the soul link between the Demon and the vessel.", piquing Zuri’s interest.

"Oh, you specialize in souls too?", he asked.

"No, I just researched vessels more than necessary."

"Oh, I see.", Zuri replied, losing interest.

Meanwhile, distant booms could be heard by the group, calming down after a minute or two as Amy and Jinx who had slipped into the battlefield some time ago came back.

Carrying a head of a demon in their hand. "The enemy Archmages, neutralized.", a white furred Amy reported, causing some of the group members to gasp.

After all, it wasn’t a Magus vs a Archmage scenario, it was a Archmage vs Archmage scenario!

Every person or demon who became a Archmage was a genius and had one or two unusual things that separated them from the crowd. Each individual was strong in their own right, but to kill such an individual this fast while being similarly ranked meant your unusual thing was unusually superior even among Archmages.

What they didn’t know were, the thoughts of the duo.

’She’s getting better, I can’t let her outdo myself though~’, The kitsune mused, while the ninja’s thoughts were on the opposite wavelength, ’Tch, she’s still faster.’

The girls were no.1 and no.2 of the Earl’s shadow corps, and have been rivals for years.

"Good.", the Earl praised, continuing, "Let’s move forward.", leaving behind a group still stunned Archmages.

Well, Laraska was deep in the demon realm, so it was their only first battle, they will get used to it.

**

The frontlines of demon-human territory weren’t a straight line. Ignoring the small changes in the territory that constantly happened, the frontline on the left was deeper in the demon realm before it took a ’V’ shaped dip with the bottom point being the demon city right in front of Vanzahra.

Laraska on the other hand was in the middle of that ’V’. An important city that was used as a trade transit between right and left side of the frontline.

And considering the fact that Empress wanted them to conquer the whole ’V’, upping the total city count to seven, the group planned to split up. The Archmages splitting in groups of three, each group heading for a different city while the two Magus’ directly headed to Laraska.

Of course, they didn’t go full force as they did before. Using Magus ranked stealth artefacts and spells, they went to their own destinations, stealthily.

Thankfully, there were no such thing as border security since the borders kept changing. And as the group had already pierced through the demon army, they were in demon territory by default.

Other than wandering hunter demons flying on their demonic beasts, looking for any intruders, their path was clear.

It took each group a while, but before the four hour mark every group arrived at their destination. The demons none the wiser of their movements, or were they really?

***

"We’re here." x6

"Is that so? Then drink your potions, we are about to start.", the Magus of Destruction said as her eyes crackled with mana.

On her mark, each member of the group drank four bottles of potions, their physical strength, mana, and mental power soaring to unprecedented heights with the first three bottles, while the last one was the antidote for the poison they were about to spread.

[Poison Magus], [Reaper of Death] these names weren’t just for show, they were real, and they were going to prove disturbingly real, at least for the demons.

"Then, formation start.", the Duchess ordered...

-Zoom

-Zoom

-Zoom

...and the next instant, pillars of purple light erupted from six directions, rising higher and higher before they turned horizontally. Meeting at a point right above the Duchess, before dropping down on her.

The Duchess just raised her hand to the sky, the ring on her finger flashing as the truck sized pillar landed on her hand and transformed. Into a series of magic circles that covered her whole arm, threateningly rotating around it before the layers of circles suddenly clicked, becoming an obedient dog.

The mana flow reversed completely after that. Instead of falling on the Duchess, humongous amount of mana erupted from her, forming a skyscraper sized pillar of purple that reached for the meeting point.

And from there, the purple light diffused, forming a purple screen that sealed the area within. No creature, no magic, no will could escape from the barrier. And though mana flowed normally between inner and outer path of the barrier, there were no mana fluctuations in escaping out with mana.

"[Seven-way Purple Hex] complete!", the Duchess heard in her head and looked back, finding a quieter than usual Earl.

To him she said the only thing that could cheer him up.

"Go, get your revenge Reynold."

And she didn’t need to say it twice, cause hundreds of spells were already forming behind the Earl, as he said with gritted teeth.

"Let’s raze this city to the ground.", and released the spells that he was holding.

Finally, the attack had started in earnest.