Former Imperial Palace, Eldriel, the Third Reich.

Archbishop Alexandra walked beside Erwin through the halls of the palace. They were filled with guards, soldiers in ceremonial uniforms standing on either side of the hallway. Although not dressed for combat, their array of heavy weaponry showed they weren’t just decorative.

Alexandra’s entourage was waiting in a building some distance away from the palace, accompanied by several infantry and artillery regiments from the People’s Army. It wasn’t that Konrad wanted to be rude, it was just for his own safety. After all, no ruler would want another country’s elite troops in their palace.

Erwin reached the former throne room, now converted to a spacious office. He knocked on the door and a soldier opened it from the inside. Erwin gestured for the Archbishop to enter but remained outside, shutting the door as he entered.

Archbishop Alexandra strode in with deep, confident steps.

[First, I represent the Holy Church in congratulating your victory and being the fastest-rising Empire of late! There has been much discussion of you!]

His face and smile were bright and sunny, he looked so normal that if he wasn’t wearing extravagant church clothing, you could easily mistake him for a friendly old man on the street.

[I welcome you to my nation, the Third Reich. We were forced to act in self-defence and simply wanted to give a warning, but alas, they were too weak! However, it is fate that such a cruel and evil Empire got the justice it deserved!]

[Heh, the Elsass Empire. Not even a shadow of their former self. Truly a waste of resources]

[What was that?]

[Pardon me. Anyway, my main purpose this time, apart from negotiating, is to give you information. Are you ready to bear the mantle of humanity?]

[What do you mean?]

The Archbishop seemed to want to bring up this topic quickly, like he was getting it off his chest.

[Let me ask you, are you familiar with the Great Crusade 5,000 years ago?]

[No, I am not]

The Archbishop smiled.

[This is tightly restricted information, only known between the strongest figures in the world. With your strength now, you are also qualified to know]

Konrad raised an eyebrow. He had never heard of this “Great Crusade”. In fact, there was so much lost and forgotten knowledge that the Third Reich, despite its best efforts, only roughly knew the history of the past thousand years, let alone what happened 5,000 years ago.

[Tell me, what do you think of Demons?]

[Well, they’re a nuisance]

[Yes, that is exactly the thinking of most people. However, do you know their history?]

Konrad pondered for a moment.

[I am not, and there is no such information in the history books. All they say is that they are the mortal enemy of humans, they reside in the Demon Realm and have been around since the start of time]

[Well, let me tell you a story… a history, if you will]

[Long, long ago, for some unknown reason, our world got connected to another world we now know as the Demon Realm. It was an endless wasteland, filled with ferocious monsters driven solely by their desire to destroy. From the land there was born a unique Demon, one we suspect to be chosen by the Demon Realm to lead their world in conquest and destruction. He called himself Satan]

[He created intelligent Demons and a purely strength-based social hierarchy. While horrifically barbaric, it was incredibly effective. As you know, Demons grew stronger by killing and consuming any living life, even their own kind]

[This history of the Demon Realm was only discovered through the collective united effort of all our divinators. You wouldn’t believe how powerful we were in our golden age. Unlike now, magic used to be plentiful! We achieved legendary feats, now look at our world, only a broken relic of how great it used to be, a 5,000-year decline…]

[When they first attacked, it caught us completely off guard. Entire countries were gone, slaughtered, swallowed by the demons until we fully understood what was happening. Their growth and strength were beyond compare and it quickly became clear that no single nation could stand against them]

[In response, the countries of the Continent put aside their differences and formed the strongest alliance known to history. The war had lasted for hundreds of years and consumed most of the resources and manpower of the Continent, but finally, with the emergence of the Prophesied Hero and at a terrible cost, we slain Satan and drove the demons from our lands]

Konrad listened intently but was secretly shocked on the inside. It turns out that the truth was like this?

[So, if you were indeed victorious, why are the Demons and the Demon Realm still around?]

[Now, we come to the main problem. You see, we tried to completely wipe them out. Fractured and falling apart, we pushed onwards into their world, only managing to stay together from the morale of our recent victory and the prestige of the Prophesied Hero. However, we soon found what a mistake that was]

[The Demon Realm is simply completely inhospitable to life. It isn’t just simple poison and harsh conditions; the world actively corrupts every single thing that enters. Surrounded by all sides with unending Demon hordes and with corruption ravaging our ranks, we were forced back. And at that time, we knew we couldn’t keep fighting even if we wanted to]

[Of the great alliance that brought together the highest strength of the entire continent, only single-digit percentages survived. We used our final energy to cast a great seal that would seal the entrance between the worlds forever and with the conclusion of the war, the alliance quickly fell apart, the surviving countries retreating back to their territories to slowly recover from their traumatic losses]

The Archbishop finished speaking, slightly out of breath. He instinctively clenched the chair and recited a prayer for those who died. Konrad was also slightly shocked. He could imagine the horror and the extent of the war that happened.

[That is… I now understand why the Holy Church places so much importance on fighting demons. Judging by what I’ve seen, however, it seems that the seal is weakening, and they have started to pass through, is that right?]

[That is indeed so, but perhaps that is not the most worrying news of all]

Upon this, Alexandra seemed to instantly recover, back to his normal self, like his state earlier was just an illusion.

[You see, exactly 7 months and 1 week ago we detected strong fluctuations from the Demon Realm, the first time in 500 years]

[While it is indeed not the first time something like this has happened before…]

[They’ve never been at this scale or complexity. Never, not once in recorded history. The only ones that can even come close are the fluctuations we detected a while after the sealing of the Demon Realm, 5,000 years ago]

[We’ve spent a lot of effort, and we think it’s something akin to a summoning spell. However, we cannot be sure. All we can confirm is it is a form of space magic. We think it might be from another unknown continent, or perhaps… another world]

Konrad was silent. All this, the timing, it seemed too coincidental. Unlike the Archbishop, he knew more and quickly had his guesses. He didn’t think it was another continent.