“… Only 40% of the population managed to survive.”
Ember reported flatly, trying to sound as neutral as possible. However, she couldn’t hide the small fluctuation in her voice, a sign that she was feeling heartbroken by the large number of casualties.
“…”
We did our best; that’s the only console I could say to her. However, I’m sure that Ember knows that too. Instead, I decided to just stay silent, praying for the departed, some of whom didn’t even have parts of their bodies left.
“Ember, can you call Fatima over?”
Now that all the demons have been chased off, our next problem would be how to restore the broken outer walls. Unlike our Heaven’s Republic, the Cleaver Kingdom relies heavily on the protection of the now-dead Dragon King. Even their second line of defense, the walls engraved with weakening arrays, were now destroyed.
If we leave them like that, then the demons would overrun the kingdom as soon as we returned to our country.
Ember quietly exited through a portal and returned about half a minute later, with Fatima in tow. As if knowing what I was going to ask, Fatima quickly explained.
“The Research Facility already completed the Basic Defense Fortifications based on my time’s country-level defenses. The entire setup would take about a week.”
“That’s great. Then, gather as much manpower as you can and begin working on it as soon as possible.”
The Cleaver Kingdom would enter under our protection soon either way, so reinforcing their defenses right now or after the engagement was basically the same thing.
“I knew you’d say that, so I already ordered everyone else to gather the materials and prepare.”
Fatima smiled sweetly, as if happy that I was moving just as she had predicted.
“We should be able to start with the construction in an hour.”
I nodded my head, and my deep frown from earlier now turned into a wry smile. It doesn’t feel bad to know someone has an accurate grasp of your personality, especially if they’re someone special to you.
“Right. Then, I’ll leave the restoration of the defenses to you. I’ll go out there and thin down the number of demons first.”
Although we did manage to push the demons back, there were still tens of thousands of them all over the kingdom. With the current number of tamers we have, it would be hard to completely push them back. We lack numbers to fill in the gaps as we spread the defensive line.
After relaying my orders to Ember and Fatima, I quickly opened a portal to the familiar location from before: a destroyed church-like building on the far end of the kingdom, near the destroyed wall.
It was the same location used as the teleportation array exit when we helped the Cleaver Kingdom once before.
*GRRRRR!*
*RAAAAGH!*
*UOOOOOOOOM!*
However, it wasn’t as peaceful as that time, but rather surrounded by a few demons right now. Some zombie-like dogs, a death knight again, and a ghost-like entity, a Wraith, as the Taming System’s [Monster Appraisal] showed.
I quickly pulled out my sword from the [Spatial Storage] and took a step forward, swinging the sword casually down on the death knight’s head.
*TING!* *CRACK!*
Although it managed to intercept my sword with its mace, the difference in our strength was apparent. My sword cut through the mace, along with the knight’s skull, and eliminated it in one hit. As expected, fighting a 6th stage when you’re around the 8th stage is as easy as taking candy from a child.
Before the other two could move, I quickly passed between them and spun around, slashing right where their energy gathers, supposedly where their Essence Crystals were.
Both of them slowly vanished, leaving only their bisected Essence Crystals behind.
After securing the immediate surroundings, I moved to a higher position and observed the surroundings. There were roughly a thousand demons within a kilometer of my position.
As soon as I finished counting, I pulled out the sword’s sheath and hung it on my belt before securing my sword inside it. After that, I jumped down and took a deep breath, holding the hilt of the sword as I gathered energy and spread it around.
“…”
It’s been a long time since I used it, and now that I’m at the 8th stage, it shouldn’t have that much recoil any longer.
Faster than I estimated, the pulse of energy I sent managed to completely mark every single demon within a five-kilometer radius in under 10 seconds. It was more than what I usually could handle, but I think it should still be fine.
I activated the buffs from Igni and Fang, strengthening both my attack and defenses, before lowering my stance and gathering energy to the limit. Soon, arcs of visible energy started to appear all over, as if purple arcs of electricity.
“[Echoing Thunderclap: Revised]!”
The scenery flashed as the world came to an almost complete stop. My body started to move more than 10 times the speed of sound, causing intense friction with the air and my body.
Thankfully, Igni’s [Iron Body] skill was enough to reduce the damage to zero, so I was able to keep going without worry.
Unlike the old [Echoing Thunderclap] that follows a path that was just made to pass beside everyone within the marked area, the revised version was more efficient. The sword’s blade was extended using Fang’s [Shadow Claws] and wrapped with dense energy, causing it to extend over five meters.
With that much sword range, I was able to minimize the total travel distance around the area and keep it under sixty turns.
Each swing of the blade, as I ran, caused dozens of demons to die. Everything happened in a short span of three seconds.
As soon as I reached my initial position, sheathing the sword once more, explosions echoed from all the turning points I made. It was like bombs were set off using a trigger mechanism as several locations exploded in a chain.
I stood up, inspected my body, and noticed how the only damage I suffered was my burnt clothes. Literally, nothing of it remained. Not even ashes.
Of course, I anticipated such an event and quickly changed before inspecting the entire five-kilometer radius around me. Not a single demon was left alive.
All of them were cut in half, but due to the overloaded energy inside the blade, it was like their bodies were smashed by a wrecking ball. Their bodies exploded from the power of each swing of my sword!
Just like that, I continued doing the same thing over and over… Of course, after making sure that no eyes could see me, I took off my clothes before performing the [Echoing Thunderclap: Revised] multiple more times.
Within 30 minutes, I managed to clear all the demons near the outer walls.
“That should do it…”
I sighed while sitting on a random tree root. Although I’m powerful enough now to ignore the skill’s damage, it’s still taxing in terms of energy and stamina. In short…
“… I’m so f*cking tired.”
I leaned against the tree while waiting to recover some stamina for the return trip. I listened to the whistling winds and watched as the birds returned, flying around and pecking the scattered meat of some random demons.
“…”
I know birds are omnivores, but do they even eat demons? That’s something new I learned.
“Will. So you were here?”
Just as I was about to close my eyes and go to sleep, I heard a voice call me from the side. When I turned to look, Fatima was there, standing aloft with some papers in hand.
“I was looking for you. You need to sign these documents first before we can start the construction.”
She explained as she passed me the stack of papers. .
Although I’m tired, things that require immediate response should be finished immediately. I pulled out a small table and my pen and began signing the documents then and there.
There weren’t too many papers to sign, so I finished all of them in under ten minutes.
As soon as I was done passing the stack of papers back to Fatima, I then leaned against the tree and closed my eyes to rest.
“Right, before I go, Ember told me to inform you that you’ve been called by Queen Thalia for something.”
When Fatima said this, I almost glared and clicked my tongue at her.
And here I thought I could finally rest…
I stood up reluctantly, opening a portal to the castle. Fatima tagged along with me since our destination was the same anyway. As soon as we reached the castle, Fatima turned around and walked away. She seemed to be in a rush.
I, on the other hand, faced forward and took a deep breath. As I entered the castle, the first thing that welcomed me was the still-present carcasses of the demons earlier. Of course, I ignored them and headed onward to the King’s Study, where Queen Thalia’s presence could be found.
As I walked on, I realized that, at the moment, no other live humans were present in the castle other than the two. I guess the knights were sent to help with handling the demon hordes.
*Knock!* *Knock!*
As soon as I reached the study, I knocked twice before calling.
“This is Will. I heard you were looking for me?”
*Creeeeaak!*
The door opened while releasing eerie sounds. Inside the room, Queen Thalia was sitting behind the table with a smile on her face.
“President Will, you’re finally here.”
She stood up and started walking toward me.
“Thanks to your help, a large portion of our citizens survived. However, right now, we have nothing to pay you back with.”
“…?”
Princess Hazel closed the door and locked it behind me. Looking at her countenance, she had an inexplicably red face, as if embarrassed about something.
“I just did what I must, Queen. We’re soon to be allies, after all.”
Although I hinted that we don’t need to receive payment for our help, Queen Thalia shook her head. Her bunny ears, ones that appeared after she entered a Servant Contract with me, flopped down as if disheartened.
“It would pain our hearts to let our Savior return without receiving any form of payment.”
With wavering eyes, she stopped right before me and pulled my hand, holding it between her palms.
“You would soon be my daughter’s fiancee. Before then, how about taking me as your reward?”
As she spoke, she brought my hand toward the valley between her twin mountains.
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