Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 518

The monsters were diverse.

Some had symmetrical structures like proper living beings, while others were hard to describe.

Some needed to eat to survive, while others did not.

Some were resistant to cold, while others could withstand extreme heat.

There were those with such high magic resistance that they couldn’t be killed by magic, and some that were impervious to conventional weapons.

We weren’t trying to kill all the monsters. We were culling them. Our aim was to annihilate all those that couldn’t withstand the cold.

The cold was not our only weapon. We could also just as easily bake them with a scorching heat, as though they were in the middle of a barren desert.

Riana manipulated the weather over a wide area to reduce the number of monsters.

It was about minus forty degrees Celsius, but the perceived temperature would have been much lower because of the fierce winds. And since this was manipulation of the local weather, the monsters were not the only ones who had to endure the cold. We had to as well.

While Riana channeled her powers, we dug a shelter, while Harriet used her magic to keep our body temperatures stable.

Kyaaaaaaah!

Wrapped in the cold, the howls of monsters echoed around us.

No monsters approached the shelter that we had set up. We spent the day in that safe space, waiting for the blizzard to freeze the monsters to death.

“Don’t you think the Allied Forces will be in for a real surprise when they arrive?” Olivia chuckled, hugging the light Harriet had summoned.

It was so cold outside that if you tried to spit, the saliva would freeze on your tongue. But inside the shelter, it was warm and cozy.

“Well... won’t all the snow have melted by the time they get here?” Airi speculated.

“Hmm, maybe,” Olivia mused as she inclined her head.

The Allied Forces were bound to discover our traces. If we could destroy the gates within a small city on our own, we would, but we weren’t planning to overextend ourselves.

“Everyone, get some sleep. If the monsters find us, the alarm system we’ve put up will alert us,” Riana said.

We all prepared to sleep in the burrow. Airi would help us fall asleep. Being unable to sleep properly while out in the field in an unfamiliar place and unfamiliar conditions could cause us to lose our physical edge.

Riana’s power was extensive, but Airi also commanded considerable power, and could have a role to play as well. If required to, she would put the monsters to sleep, sinking them into a slumber that they couldn’t wake from. They would die in the cold, swallowed by an eternal sleep.

How many monsters would still be alive in this place, roaming the earth, when daybreak came?

And more importantly...

“Baalier.”

“... Yeah.”

Airi placed her hand on my forehead. It was time to dream of Ellen killing me. I had died countless times in these dreams, and there was one thing I knew for sure. I had never won against her.

***

The dreams I had under the influence of Airi’s power felt like shadow boxing or more concrete image training, but I always lost.

No, I wasn’t just losing; I was being killed.

Perhaps because I had fallen asleep in the middle of a blizzard, I faced off against dream Ellen in a snowy, blizzard-swept landscape.

Whoosh! ƒгeewebnovёl_com

Ellen looked at me, her black hair fluttering in the blizzard.

In these dream battles, Ellen would always stare at me for about three seconds. It was just an image I had created, unrelated to the real Ellen.

Her hair whipped about wildly in the blizzard, but her expression was calm and her eyes devoid of focus.

She always tried to kill me without saying a word.

Was this how the real Ellen was like now? Or was she somehow managing to hold on?

As long as I continued to assist the Allied Forces’ advance, I might eventually come face-to-face with Ellen.

Would the Ellen I meet then be the same as the one in this dream?

Boom!

The snow around Ellen exploded as her feet moved. She charged at me through the wave of snow.

Clang!

I met Ellen’s sword with Alsbringer.

I was afraid to see the real Ellen. I was afraid that she would have the same eyes and the same demeanor. That she would try to kill me without hesitation.

It wasn’t death I feared. It was those eyes.

Bang! Clang! Boom!

The shockwaves from our clashing swords sent snow flying in all directions.

I was afraid to face Ellen, yet what I had to do remained the same.

Whether the real Ellen was like this or not, I would find her and turn her back to how she was before.

No matter what it took.

***

It was the next day, and the entrance of our shelter was blocked by a high pile of snow from the fierce blizzard overnight. Olivia and I cleared a path to the outside.

Thud!

“Oh man... This isn’t something I want to do often.”

“I know, right...”

We grumbled for a moment, but Olivia and I, along with the others who followed us out, were left speechless by the sight before us. Even Riana, who had caused it all.

The blizzard had already stopped. The whole world had turned white. Literally all we could see was snow, snow, and more snow. It was as if the snow had devoured everything.

Not a single blade of grass or a tree was visible on the plain. Yet, monsters still roamed the snow-covered land—large, medium, and small. Clearly, some of these creatures were capable of enduring even this relentless cold. However, while they had swarmed about like insects before, there were now only a handful of them.

“Almost all the monsters are dead.”

“The effect is more pronounced than expected.”

Such an effective method was always welcome. A massive slaughter that would have required a whole army had been achieved overnight by a single blizzard.

Riana de Granz was the only one in the whole world could do such a thing.

“With this, we five—or rather, Riana alone—could probably handle the small warp gate in the town...”

Now that the number of monsters had been drastically reduced, we just needed to destroy the warp gate.

Olivia inclined her head and gestured at the snow-covered landscape. “Um... You know... Where is the warp gate?”

“...”

“...”

Indeed...

Everything was covered in snow, so we couldn’t tell where the warp gate was.

***

Of course, since monsters still continued to emerge from the warp gate, it would be easy to deduce the location of the gate by identifying the place where monsters were bursting out of the snow.

Riana wanted to melt away the accumulated snow by using her power to create an opposite effect to the blizzard, but we stopped her as it was not good to frequently use what was basically a drug that induced depression.

The snow-covered landscape revealed to us more unexpected effects of the sudden change in local weather.

Most of the flying monsters had crashed out of the sky and died. The fierce blizzard made it impossible to fly. Their wings had broken, and they had fallen from the sky.

Monsters that couldn’t withstand the cold had frozen to death, which was expected, But it seemed there were also many monsters that could withstand the cold but had been buried and crushed under the accumulated snow.

We wandered through the small town on the border of Rizeln, identified the location of the warp gate, and destroyed it.

If we attacked and eliminated the spawn points for the monsters, the Allied Forces would be able to move to this point quickly, since they only had to deal with the monsters wandering the plains. I could melt the snow with the Flame of Tuesday, so we had no trouble maneuvering around.

I could see the surviving monsters struggling, buried in the snow. I hoped they would just die on their own.

“We destroyed the gate, but...”

We stood on that vast, snowy field. We had achieved more than we had aimed for. Instead of just reducing the number of monsters, we had managed to destroy a warp gate in a small town.

“Will all this melt by the time the Allied Forces arrive...?”

Technically, the weather was still warm, so the snow would melt fairly quickly. But it was still an issue we never thought we’d have to worry about.

***

No matter how fast they moved, there were still limits to the speed of the Allied Forces’ advance. We had already exceeded our objective by successfully neutralized a warp gate in a small town.

With the Allied Forces still quite far away from us, it was meaningless to preemptively clear a point even further ahead.

Even if we cleared the monsters now, the area would be full of monsters once again by the time the Allied Forces arrived. We needed to keep an eye on the Allied Forces’ movements and the operational status of each Vampire Lord’s unit, and clear the area ahead of the Allied Forces’ vanguard at the right time and the right distance away.

For the moment, we had nothing to do but monitor the Allied Forces’ movements and the operational status of each Vampire Lord’s unit.

“We could go back to Edina for now,” Harriet suggested.

Harriet wore a necklace around her neck. It was composed of eight rectangular blue prisms strung together, making it rather heavy.

The Power Cartridge was Adelia’s invention, but of course, Harriet knew how to construct it as well.

As far as I knew, Adelia was continuously improving the Power Cartridge. She was trying to change the material itself to make it mass-producible, whilst also improving its performance and mana storage capacity.

I had also heard that she had developed a new type of super-large Power Cartridge called the Arc Crystal—something that could be used to store Kaier’s mana for Rudina to use. It was an intriguing concept.

Just as Adelia had been enhancing the Power Cartridge for others, Harriet had refined it for her own use.

Eight Power Cartridges, that were automatically rechargeable. When depleted, they would draw in ambient mana to restore their power.

While Adelia focused on improving the Power Cartridge for mass production for the Mage Corps, Harriet had created a unique Power Cartridge.

Both the material and the design were Harriet’s work, and those eight were the only ones produced. They were only to be used at the most critical times, and there was a risk of them shattering if used recklessly, so Harriet had made them but hadn’t used them yet.

Harriet was certainly not lacking in mana capacity, but it was low compared to the other Vampire Lords, whose capacity was on par with other great archmages.

Therefore, even though Harriet understood most magic, she couldn’t use some of it.

These eight automatically-rechargeable Power Cartridges solved the issue of a lack of mana. Therefore, there was no Vampire Lord among the five of us, a group that could be considered Edina’s greatest strength, because Harriet could perfectly fulfill that role.

She was able not just to teleport herself, but also cast Mass Teleport.

Was Harriet amazing for creating this unique, automatically-rechargeable Power Cartridge? Or was Adelia amazing for improving the Power Cartridge so that it could be mass produced using lower-grade materials?

Both achievements were truly amazing. After all, both were tailored to what the situation required.

In any case, with our work done, we could return to Edina for the moment.

I had told each Vampire Lord leading their units not to overextend themselves, so if it seemed like they would suffer losses, they would prioritize retreat.

Since we were operating separately, I placed the strongest emphasis on the judgment of the field commander, so they would manage on their own without me having to directly oversee them.

“Hmm...”

We were sitting in a snow pit, eating preserved food. Clearing the path further ahead of the Allied Forces was meaningless.

We could return to Edina, but there was nothing particular to do if we went back.

“Ashir... That guy... You said he’s dead, right?” I said. Harriet, Riana, and Olivia’s expressions grew downcast.

Ashir had been our classmate, and Olivia had met him in the religious club, Grace.

B-4 Ashir, with a talent for Divine Power... We weren’t particularly close, and had only exchanged a few words.

Someone was bound to die. People had been dying continuously since the Gate Incident had been triggered, and as the battles intensified, an increase in deaths was inevitable.

Wasn’t that why we were doing this in the first place, to minimize such unavoidable deaths?

In the original story, the protagonist Ludwig died at the very end. Naturally, his classmates also died one by one. Even Sabioleen Tana died, so it was only natural that some students would die.

Ellen, Harriet, Delphine, and Scarlett were among those who survived until the end. But the situation we were facing was different from the original. Very different.

Ashir was a character that wasn’t supposed to die.

The situation had changed, and so the nature of the battles had changed, and people who weren’t supposed to die were starting to die. Conversely, those who were supposed to die in the original might survive.

Ashir’s death signified that such changes were beginning to happen. Such things did not happen only in difficult and brutal battles. People could also die in other ways, such as in accidents.

We couldn’t save everyone, but if there was a way to prevent our classmates from dying, wasn’t it right for us to try?

We couldn’t predict who would die in battle, so reducing the scale of the battles they had to fight in and the number of monsters they had to face was the only thing we could do about that.

We couldn’t do more for those who would die in battle. But there were others who would die in different ways other than from battle.

Because the nature of the story and how things had developed had changed, who lived and who died in battle was unpredictable, and prevention was the only option.

But there were also certain things that hadn’t changed from the original: Politics.

Deaths as a result of politics would still occur predictably. As long as the people involved in those politics were alive, the original political dynamics would remain.

The power struggles that arose as the power structure of humanity was reorganized would also remain.

As long as their human nature remained the same, the desire to kill someone due to politics would arise.

Battles were unpredictable, but political relationships remained.

“You remember Heinrich, right?” I said, and Harriet and Riana nodded.

Heinrich von Schwartz—a pyrokinetic and the prince of Kernstadt. A prince with little influence, but destined to grow stronger.

“That guy... he’s going to be assassinated soon.”

He wouldn’t fall in battle, but would be taken out in an assassination.

At those words, Riana and Harriet’s eyes widened in shock.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺