Sacchito has woke up and all of them got a good nice of sleep, thanks to Sofya, Cecilia, and Alicia who uses a relaxing spell to ease their tension for that night. As he was just finishing brushing his teeth and having a simple sandwich made by Sofya as breakfast, he got a report that the Demon Lord Nosgorath had appeared, alone, on the main street between Minaisa’s town square and the castle gate. Apparently, it was completely enraged after his entire lieutenants are obliterated. Sacchito wants to duel with him in person.
Luciana also looks at his rage and it seems he went all alone in pure rage. It saves their time from hunting the Demon Lord, but sadly enough, he didn’t bring the scarlet dragon.
“Did you get a report of where the dragon is?”
“No. I think it has stayed inside the camp.”
“It can’t be helped then…”
“UOOOOOOHHH!!!”
“What!?”
Daradundaradundaradun…
Both Sacchito and Luciana could hear the sounds of knights shouting rallying cries and horses galloping. Apparently, 200 Topa knights just went on the attack unannounced.
“Hey! What are you guys doing!? Retreat!!”
They did not hear his word, rather, they choose to follow their commander instead.
The Demon Lord had come out all alone. A northern aristocrat, Abon, thought this was a chance to defeat it, so he gathered up 200 of his men and led a charge from the castle gate. There was only one enemy, so numbers should easily crush it.
“Follow me!!!”
“Hey! What are you guys doing!? Retreat!!”
Horses kicked up clouds of dust as they carried the knights straight at the solitary Demon Lord, someone even the heroes of legend could not defeat while ignoring Sacchito’s orders. Dark mana visibly emanated from the Demon Lord Nosgoorah.
“Insects!!!”
The Demon Lord raised its hands at the Topa knights, summoning black flames.
“Hear my command, in the name of the lord of the demon world. King of the Flames of Purgatory, Brongaa, by my order, burn these fools who dare stand against me! Demon Lord Hidden Art of Burning Death: Incinerating Black Firestorm!!!”
The black hellfire coalesced into the shape of a storm and flew toward the knights.
“Wha—?!”
“GUAAAHHH!!!”
The storm of flame blows and swooped down on the charging warriors. Every knight and horse was swallowed up in the black flames and turned to ash.
“Wha…”
Soldiers who watched the entire sequence from above the castle gate were in shock at the display of the Demon Lord’s strength. The Demon Lord began to cast even more magic.
“Vast lord of the earth, let loose your immense power; awaken, elder fiend, and execute my will! Ancient Kaiser Golem!!!”
Grghgrghgrgh…
The ground rose up and gathered into a large clump of stone. The clump took on the shape of a person then began to move. It was gigantic. Among demihumans, elves had the most mana, and even their most powerful mages could only create golems that were about two meters tall. This golem was a staggering eighteen meters! How much mana was needed to create a golem nine times as large as the elves?!
“What do you think?”
“Me?”
Alicia looks at Freya while assessing Nosgorath’s mana. The Main Council just looks at it as they already face this kind of monster before. A book pops at Alicia’s head as she writes the entire sequence down.
“What do you think, Freya?”
“I can make around a thousand with that.”
“I can only make around half of what you said…”
“But yours better since you house more knowledge.”
“I guess you’re right.”
The Topa soldiers could only watch in growing despair as the overwhelmingly large golem came closer and closer to the castle. There was nothing they could do to stop it. “We’d need a large army to deal with a normal-sized golem… This is… how strong the Demon Lord is! That Ancient Kaiser Golem is too powerful!!!”
“Get back!!!”
Suddenly, ten people in black robes with golden rings on their heads appeared on the wall.
“It’s the Royal Combat Mage Special Task Force!!!” the soldiers cried out.
The Royal Combat Mage Special Task Force was a group of elite mages rumored to be even more powerful than the heroes of legend. They were the Topa Kingdom’s hidden weapon.
“We’ll take it out in one attack!!! Use all of your mana!!! Aim at the golem and the Demon Lord behind it, blow them both away!!!” the leader ordered, and the group of task force mages began to chant. Sacchito and Freya knew that this attack is going to be a failure, aware that their magic power was not enough, so he plans to release the Liberator Tank immediately.
“Feena. Tell Yuuna to prepare Liberator Variant R tank.”
“On it.”
The Task Force starts to cast the spell. “Dance, spirits of wind, kings of violent storms, take our mana as nourishment and, with your great power, annihilate the enemies before us! Dragon Thunder Storm!!!”
A giant tornado mixed with lightning appeared above the Ancient Kaiser Golem and the Demon Lord.
“Whoooaaaa!!!” The soldiers on top of the castle gate cheered in excitement. So this was the power of the super-elite special task force that was purported to surpass the heroes of old!
The tornado eventually dissipated… but…
“Wha… How… There was no effect!!!”
The ten mages all fell on their knees, panting in exhaustion, their mana completely spent. The Demon Lord was still leaking tremendous amounts of dark mana from its body.
“Humans… you’ve learned some interesting tricks. Now go!!!”
At the Demon Lord’s order, the eighteen-meter Ancient Kaiser Golem marched from the south of the Minaisa district towards the castle gate. If the castle gate were to fall, the Demon Lord’s massive army would no longer be obstructed from their rampage. With the golem’s enormous mass, any attack would demolish the gate. No one could stop it now. Everyone was resigned to death.
BWOOOOM…
The steel beast under Celestina’s control let out a roar.
While the special task force was engaging the Demon Lord, the Celestina Adventurer Expeditionary Fleet Assault Battalion was also preparing for battle. Feena gets into the tank as a Commander while the Driver is Izumi, Yuuna, and Hughes are act as a bullet augmentor.
“Lift the castle gate, please,” Feena asked the soldiers guarding the castle.
“B-but…”
“I said, open it!”
KREEEEEEEE…
The heavy door was lifted, and Feena was greeted by an almost six-story-high rock monster coming straight towards him.
Moah called out, “Grand Duchess Feena, golems usually have a core somewhere in their torso! Destroying the core will destroy the entire body!!!”
“Gotcha!!”
This was certainly welcome advice. Since the target was so big, this time they would lead with the Liberator Tank Variant R. Yuuna loads the bullet and the crew is giving their magic to augment the weapons.
“Electric Augmentation ready!”
“Bullet Strengthening ready!”
“Armor Piercing Augmentation ready!”
“All right! Fire on my command!”
It succeeded in creating an Ancient Kaiser Golem. With this, the clever little humans and all the other races were doomed. The golem was a replica of the mages’ general-use bipedal land weapon, created in the image of the races but using the mages’ enormous mana and high intellect. Even if the humans banded together to attack it, it would not even be scratched.
However, the humans somehow defeated the group of Giant Ogres and Giant Trolls; that was not something it could have predicted. The humans had become much more powerful than they had been in the past. However, just now, the elves cast a high-powered offensive magic spell but not strong enough to harm it or the Ancient Kaiser Golem. The elves used up all their mana in that attack and were now laid out. The golem would easily destroy the castle gate with a single kick.
But then, the gate opened on its own.
“Hmm?”
Sitting there behind the gate was something the Demon Lord remembered well.
“Th… That…! It… it can’t be!!! T-T-The sun god’s messengers and their iron dragons!!! You cretins… you humans!!! I know now how the Giant Ogres and Giant Trolls were defeated!!! I could not have imagined that… you were able to summon those vile messengers once again!!!”
However, what was in front of it didn’t quite match the iron dragons from its memories. This one was bigger, and it had a more polished shape. It still had that obnoxious horn that spewed explosive magic, though that too looked far larger and heavier than what the Demon Lord remembered.
“Tch! Ancient Kaiser Golem! Crush those ants before you!!!”
The golem immediately moved to obey.
BOOM!!!!!!
The enemy’s iron dragon fired its fell explosions.
The Celestina’s Liberator Tank Variant R (Rifled), produced by Northern Star Heavy Industries pointed its main gun towards the colossal rock monster and fired. The Mechania Armory 120mm Buster Rifled Cannon, capable of an initial firing velocity of 1800m/s without electric augmentation and up to 4000 m/s with electric augmentation, shot right at the center of the rock golem’s chest. The shell pierced the front of the golem, blew right inside the interior, and an explosion shockwave right at the core went all the way to the back with numerous rock fragments, opening a large circle wound on its torso. The golem’s core was completely destroyed, causing the rock monster to quickly lose mana and crumble to pieces.
The monster that the Topa Kingdom could do nothing to stop was easily dispatched by a single shot from Celestina’s Liberator Tank Variant R. No one could move an inch. Using the HEAP rounds augmented with Feena’s crew, it even makes a hole of a meter in diameter.
“Ah… Ah…… Ahhh…”
The soldiers on top of the gate watched the entire thing and could not look away from the golem rubble. It was surreal, the sight of that legendary stone giant loudly crashing to the ground…
TAH!!!
Behind the remains of the rock monster, the thing called the Demon Lord Nosgoorah jumped up into the air. Its astonishing physical ability brought it up fifty meters.
“Huh?”
There was a black flame gathering in the Demon Lord’s hand.
“That’s that crazy flame magic that wiped out the knight order! Crap!!!”
The Demon Lord began to chant the spell.
“Hear my command, under the name of the lord of the demon world. King of the Flames of Purgatory, Brongaa…”
This was not good!!!!!!
“I won’t let you…”
The soldiers suddenly witness a man leaped towards the Demon Lord. He quickly clenches his fist and before he even can finish his spell and because of the sudden counterattack, he gets hit by his stomach hard before he can even put up on defenses.
“GOBUUUHH!!!”
CRASH!
Being punched until he was crashed to the road below, Sacchito remains floating at the altitude where the Demon Lord is hit. The soldiers saw how the Great Emperor of the Celestina Empire, Sacchito, is going to duel against the Demon Lord.
“Pathetic… So weak…”
He immediately hears the angry roar from the Demon Lord, enraged.
“Cursed humans!! I will make sure you’re dead!!”
The Demon Lord may not notice that Sacchito was a Valkyrie, the only male Valkyrie in the entire race of Valkyrie. Not only at his homeland, but also at the Celestina Empire as well. He has the human body because of his father that was once a human before his ascension as the Great King of Valkyries.
Dashing towards Sacchito, he welcomes his fist with his fist. As both fists make contact, Sofya, Alicia, and Freya are immediately putting up a barrier to suppress the incoming shockwave. The soldiers and adventurers stationed at the castle feel the strong wind from the shockwave when two fists collided.
“B-both are really strong…”
Sacchito is using his serious face, but he restrains his strength while for the Demon Lord, he almost uses every magic power he had to fight him. When both landed, the Demon Lord began to chant a spell again, but Sacchito won’t let him finish it, forcing him to cancel his spell once again and fight at close combat. Moah approaches Alicia to ask some questions about Sacchito.
“Excuse me, Grand Duchess Alicia. How powerful is the Great Emperor?”
“Judging by this fight? He’s not even using up to ten percent of his current strength.”
“N-n-n-not even ten percent!?!?”
The Great Emperor was not even using ten percent of his strength. Is this the power of the Celestina Empire’s Main Council? Moah already bet that the Grand Duchesses are also strong and their calm reaction when facing the Demon Lord already proves that. Sofya was already noticed as the Saintess since she saves the Vice-Captain from death and her magic seems abundant. The duel continues and Sacchito intentionally leaves him an opening, allowing the Demon Lord to attack him.
“Hellfire Kick!!”
Being kicked on his stomach, Sacchito gets dragged back up to five meters. Unfortunately for the Demon Lord who shows his smug face earlier got surprised when the black flames dissipate from his clothes. He saw Sacchito was covered in some kind of magic barrier that absorbs the damage he received.
“Oooofff… Not bad.”
He quickly recovers and resumes the duel. They keep exchanging blows. The Topa Soldiers, Officials, and Royals are watching how he fight the Demon Lord. It was certainly this duel that will be written in the history of the Topa Kingdom.
KA-POW!! POW!! SMASH!!
The Demon Lord becomes cornered. Every time he tries to chant a spell, Sacchito forces him to cancel it by fighting at close-quarter combat. Every time he uses his fist to fight, he can’t even do any damage to him, rather, he was continuously getting damaged by his counterattack. As Sacchito gets fed up, he makes a heavy blow on his stomach and sending him flying into a house, destroying it.
“G…guh… This is… impossible!! Are you from… The Etanaru Empire… The one who gives Ravernal Empire power to rule this planet…?”
“Unfortunately, no. Also, I’m just a founder of the Celestina Empire and I also thank you for having such a name.”
“C-cursed you, humans!! Buh!!”
Sacchito punches him in his face while he tries to get up. He then grabs his neck, choking him as he slowly floats to match with his height.
“That power… Should make you become the Emperor of Ravernal—no, the Etanaru Empire…!”
“Sorry. But I took no interest in that. Because when I heard this name, now I know who I need to beat.”
Grinning, Sacchito summons his hammer.
“Manifestation, Giant Hammer. Thank you for giving me such a beautiful name, and now, goodbye.”
THOOOKK!!
His body was destroyed, only to be left with his head down to a shoulder where the hammer did not hit it.
“Curse you…!” echoed a clear voice; it came from the Demon Lord’s head. It was loud enough for everyone in the area to hear. Sacchito ignores it as he knew that Nosgorath is speaking his final words.
“Curse you, messengers of the sun god!!! Not once, but twice have you interfered in my mission!!! Hear me well, insects!!! Soon, the empire of sorcerers will return along with the supreme empire of magic!!! The insects’ rule is coming to an end!!! Before the might of the sorcerous empire’s army, you will all be powerless and forced into slavery!!!!! Hah, haha, ha…”
The voice weakened as it spoke, then the Demon Lord’s head turned to stone and crumbled into dust. The demons of the Demon Lord’s army, having lost their leader, cried in fury and escaped north, back to Pandemonium, like an avalanche of living bodies.
“It’s… been vanquished…” After watching the battle, Gai didn’t know what to say. “Wh-What an absurd battle…”
The Topa army was burning what happened before their eyes into memory.
“Uu…”
“WOOOOOAAAAAAAHHH—!!!”
Cheers of victory went up on top of the castle wall, spreading to all the soldiers in the castle. Those cheers eventually infected the entire castle town of Tormis.
Moah’s point of view
The Demon Lord Nosgorath cast fearsome magic to completely destroy the knight order. It then used more mana to summon a legendary giant soldier from various myths, the Ancient Kaiser Golem. To counter that, the Royal Combat Mage Special Task Force’s ten members unhesitatingly poured all their mana into casting the ancient spell Dragon Thunder Storm. The Demon Lord and its golem took no damage; everyone lost hope at that… except for those who had seen the Celestinian Adventurers in action. The Celestinian Adventurers used their steel beasts to blow away the Ancient Kaiser Golem with powerful explosion magic. What surprises him the most is the Great Emperor of the Celestina Empire can even defeating him without suffering any damage from the Demon Lord Nosgorath. As he suspected he would, he then even took down the Demon Lord at one-on-one combat. This was a mythical tale in the making.
In the end, Celestina routed that unstoppable army under the Demon Lord’s control with only a Battalion of Adventurers, without a necessity to send a military unit. And they didn’t lose a single soldier. Aah… what a feat. The incident with the Kingdom of Louria, the battle with the Papaldia Empire, the details in those stories about Celestina’s prowess were most likely all completely true.
That was when it hit him. The Demon Lord’s dying words, the messengers of the sun god…
He remembered.
The Celestinian adventurers had their country’s flag on their clothes parchments, the winged shield, and staff while the emblem of the sun god should be red sun on white, which reminded him of the myth of emissaries of the God of the Sun, which also described the flag that once the legend flew. The emissaries claimed to be residents of the Land of the Rising Sun that once visits here before, not the ones who currently arriving in this world. Perhaps there was a deeper connection… He could ask Celestina to see if they had a connection with it.
Was it possible that the Celestina Empire itself was the country belonging to the emissaries of the God of the Sun? If that was really the case, then who did something as outrageous as summoning the entire country of Celestina Empire here? For what purpose?
The mystery only deepened.
Rydorka was flabbergasted. He was an information officer from the strongest nation in the world, the Holy Milishial Empire, and he had come to observe the war between the Topa Kingdom and the Demon Lord’s army. His mission was to observe the Demon Lord Nosgorath, the legacy of the ancient sorcerous empire, and record its mana capacity, the types of magic it used, and how it interacted with the human races.
The legendary Giant Ogres and Giant Trolls were extremely tough. They were demonic beasts with huge mana stores that were constantly applying weak healing magic, so naturally, this turned into extraordinary resilience in combat. Not to mention the Giant Troll has extraordinary resilience from the start due to its skin. He was, unfortunately, unable to confirm when and how they were defeated.
But… the real problem was the Demon Lord. First, he did confirm that it was able to control the supposedly uncontrollable hordes of demons. Then, the spell used to exterminate about 200 Topa knights, the ultra-high temperature black hellfire, he could only call it the pinnacle of spellcraft. The heroes of the past truly would not have been able to overcome the strength of the Demon Lord.
Next, it summoned a replica of a bipedal land weapon from the ancient sorcerous empire, the Ancient Kaiser Golem. This one was several times larger than a typical golem. It spoke well to the Demon Lord’s excessively large mana capacity that it could control something like that.
In response to that, the emerging country called Celestina deployed its “battle tank” weapon. If it were the Holy Milishial Empire, their magic ships could probably handle the golem without much issue. However, it was another story when it came to loading magic circuits onto a land-based vehicle; they lacked a powerful enough energy source to move a weapon that largely made completely of steel with that much firepower, so that kind of vehicle was completely out of their means. It was completely impossible, even with the magical technology of the empire.
Rydorka did detect several magic sources from Celestina’s weapon, but the machinery was made of steel, so it must have been something similar to Mu’s machine technology. Celestina quickly destroyed the golem, and then the Demon Lord made a great leap into the air. The arsenals Celestina possesses were complicated, as he can witness the strength of the Astral Cannon 7th Generation, along with the Artillery that can suppress hordes of demons with ease when the guns are used correctly.
Finally, Celestina defeated the Demon Lord and he was defeated with a one-sided beatdown. It gave a speech as it died, but the most startling thing it said was this: “Soon, the empire of sorcerers will return along with the supreme empire of magic!!!”
The beings that created the strongest nation in the history of the world, a race that stood above all other humanoid races, with potential for the magic that far, far surpassed humans and even the elves. They left behind many artifacts that even the Holy Milishial Empire could not begin to understand. Every once in a while, some of their ruins would be discovered, which just reaffirmed how truly advanced the ancient sorcerous empire was. Their civilization simply progressed too far, which was what led to their attempt to supplant the gods. And, from the words of the Demon Lord, that terrifying empire would soon return.
There are no mentions of the empire that supplements the Ravernal Empire, meaning there was a more advanced Empire than the Ravernal Empire itself.
“I… I need to report this to the empire right away!!!”
Rydorka immediately prepared to return to Milishial.
Sacchito was lauded as the hero of this battle. However, he denies this, stating that “This is because of the efforts of the Topa Kingdom holding them back while I just do my job to help them.”
The sun was beginning to set. It had been a fierce battle. Many soldiers were just sitting on the ground.
During the invasion of the Demon Lord’s army, even though the demons were wild and unorganized, the Topa army lost 3,500 men in total. But… they defended their country. The people of Topa held back the Demon Lord before it could invade Fillades and lasted until its army was defeated. They had been released from their fear, and now a sense of accomplishment was setting in. The deeds of this day would become extremely prominent in the Topa Kingdom’s history books.
That night
There was an extravagant victory celebration, and word of Celestina’s great efforts spread among the Topa citizens. Sentiments towards Celestina became incredibly positive, and the Topa Kingdom would soon become a close friend and ally to Celestina.
“All right everyone, gather around!”
The Celestinian Adventurers are gathering as Sacchito plans to make an announcement. When everyone was gathered, he makes an announcement. The Topa Knights, Officials, and the Royals are also gathered at the Southern District Town Square.
“Today, this marks the successful operation of the Doom Wrecker. However, the official operation will end tomorrow as we need to clean up the mess at Minaisa District! Captain Rokari will be in charge of the Expedition at the Pandemonium Continent. Once this operation ends, all of you can either stay here to prepare for the expedition or return to the Empire until the necessary infrastructure and everything needed for the expedition are ready.
Remember that our mission is to explore and investigate the Pandemonium continent, not to conquer it! If you meet any activities there, try to approach them in a peaceful way and only use fighting as a last approach. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir!”
“For Topa Knights and Officials, we do not know what lies inside the Pandemonium Contingent! There could be a demon that was not as we expect. Rokari, please.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Rokari steps up to give a speech.
“Greetings. I’m Rokari, the Commander of the Celestina Expeditionary Fleet. As you can see, I’m a demon with a sub-race of Migurd. The goal given by the Main Councils and the Emperor is to investigate the activities at the Pandemonium Continent. We intend to resolve this peacefully and without shedding too much blood to achieve it. On the Celestina Empire itself, they disregard our origins as long as we abide by the law and live along with other races without any discrimination. This is what I’ve become when I live in the Celestina Empire.
I would like to ask for cooperation from the Topa citizens and its country, lending your strength so we can finish the expedition without suffering an unnecessary loss.”
As Rokari bows to them, the Topa people and Knights cheers for her. Their point of view has changed to where the Topa people need to be careful about making the judgment for the demon race. They, too, witness some of the Celestinian adventurers are from the demon race, but they seem to be able to live along with other races. Rokari’s speech convinces them that she can lead the expedition into a fruitful effort.
The Next Day
The Assault Battalion start their cleaning and to check if there are any remnants of the demon left on the Minaisa District. They check it block by block, while for the corpses, they encase it into a large coffin that has spatial storage, enough to fit up to a hundred Ogre-sized corpses. In total, there are around ten large coffins to be buried while they also buried a large coffin of the remains of the fallen knights.
There was no trace left of the demons as they already were retreating to the Pandemonium contingent yesterday. The Main Councils, Adventurers, and the Topa Knights are working together to clean up the mess while the damage is also being assessed by Alicia and Feena so they can procure the material needed to reconstruct the town.
Sofya leads the burial as she will turn a part of the natural bridge into a cemetery to honor their sacrifice. Celestina awards their efforts with a Posthumous Imperial Silver Guard Star, with a citation of "fighting to the bitter end to defend the Doors to the World" and buying enough time for the Celestina Empire to arrive.
“We shall not forget your sacrifice and deeds, Brave Knights. May your soul rest in peace.”
After leading the funeral, the Main Councils and the Adjutants along with some adventurers that wish to return are returning to the Celestina Empire. Rokari is guiding those who choose to stay to help the Topa Kingdom rebuild the Minaisa District while also building the Adventurers Guild and lodgings for preparing the expedition.
With that, Operation: Doom Wrecker has come to an end.
The Fleet that will be deployed for the expedition is 1 Firefly-class Heavy Frigate, Frozen Bracelet as the Flagship, 1 Coalition-class Astral Ship, Rogdor of Kirah as Secondary Flagship, 15 League-class Astral Ship, and 15 Empire-class Astral Ship. The personnel involved are more than five hundred personnel due to large enthusiasm from the adventurer that wishes to explore the New World.
The Main Council will assign Rokari Migurdia as the Supreme Commander of the Adventurer Expeditionary Fleet for Pandemonium Continent.
Why no more chapter?