Chapter 550 – Tracking
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Hestia felt exhausted.
Since she entered the Demon King’s Castle, she has not been able to sleep even a wink.
It’s normal for her to sleep, but she couldn’t sleep.
The reason was a man who came to mind.
‘Bark…’
If Hestia had only felt a sense of complete betrayal by Bark, she would not have gone through such complicated agony.
She was angry and sad at the same time… Complex emotions were confusing her mind.
Dimensional rift.
It was a phenomenon of spitting out monsters from another dimension.
Although it completely disappeared at some point.
It is said that in the distant past, it was often seen on the Panthera continent.
And recently, I heard that such a phenomenon was happening in the Slover Labyrinth.
This was the first time Hestia had seen her dimensional rift. She felt an unknown threat as she dealt with the monster that crawled out of there.
It was a different feeling of pressure than the devil.
The monster, which didn’t even have a scratch while being hit all over its body by the punitive force’s attacks, gradually became stronger, creating an eerie sense of crisis.
‘Did Bark feel that too?’
Bark revealed his identity and disposed of the monster.
‘Why? To save the punitive force?’
All the circumstances did not appear that way.
Bark is a demon.
I don’t understand why the demons are helping the punitive force.
In addition, Bark made a decisive contribution to stopping the demons’ offensive in Ramona.
That’s why it was even more confusing.
Hestia finally got up from her tossing and turning.
You can see the punitive force sleeping sprawled out all over the floor.
The screams of the ghouls outside are loud, but the punitive force does not move.
Among them, a knight from the Kingdom of Laun, who had trouble sleeping and was tossing and turning, came into Hestia’s sight.
It was a female knight with a black eye patch over one eye.
That female knight also knew Hestia.
‘Did you say Karia?’
He was the vice-captain of the Mongoose Knights, of which Bark was the leader.
She was muttering something.
Hestia listened to Caria’s mutterings without realizing it.
(Should I have followed him? No, he didn’t say anything? No, how could they all follow me but me? … Could it be? Was I the only one who didn’t know? I didn’t do anything wrong, right? No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think so… AC: It feels uneasy…)
“…”
Since the human she was following as the leader of her knights turned out to be her demon, she seemed to be in quite a bit of a state of confusion.
In the end, Hestia couldn’t sleep at all, and she had to shift.
It was the same for Caria.
And time passes…
“Then we will leave.”
At Burwell’s order, the Demon King’s punitive force began its advance again. Thanks to taking turns getting enough sleep, the pundits looked much more at ease.
You can see a huge pillar tower rising black in the distance.
It was a place where the devil was expected to be.
Hestia pushed her thoughts about Bark to a corner of her mind.
Now was the time to focus on subduing the demon lord.
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Gregory looked around at the demons gathered in Daejeon.
Recently, when I caught up with the military, I started to notice things a little.
Still, these are the guys I don’t like.
I didn’t like the way he stood there awkwardly.
“The Terra Church punitive force is coming.”
Gregory said to the demons.
(Did the trap fail?)
(I guess so?)
(He pretended to be the devil. Isn’t there nothing special about the devil?)
(I’m sure it won’t get stolen this far, right?)
When I said one word, they started whispering all kinds of nonsense.
‘These fucking bastards?!’
Gregory’s forehead veins pop out.
He didn’t want to listen to incompetent guys who didn’t know how to do anything properly.
But he had to endure.
In my mind, I wanted to take his head, but for the greater good, I had no choice.
Even if you don’t like the demons, there are no other people you can use.
‘After…’
The Demon King’s Castle was not completely completed.
There was no time.
It was best to hastily prepare a trap.
Currently, the only fully functioning place in the Demon Castle is the main castle where Gregory resides.
So he had no choice but to meet the punitive force here.
‘Shall we summon a demonic beast?’
Demon beasts refer to monsters that live on the ground of Zephyria.
‘No… It’s just a waste of time. There is no warlock that can be controlled.’
Unfortunately, the level of the warlock was too low.
Even if summoned, the current capabilities of the punitive force will handle it easily.
‘One more dimensional rift… Won’t work.’
A dimensional rift is like setting a house on fire.
If the punitive forces cleverly retreated, it was he who had to sort it out.
If you can’t control it clearly, it’s better not to do it.
‘A separate unit?’
I see demons huddled together and looking at me with blurry eyes. It was obvious that if these guys were sent alone, they wouldn’t cause much damage and would become good prey for the Terra Church Holy Knights.
‘The level of warlocks is too low. It’s obvious that he will be killed by the magic of the high-ranking wizard of the punitive force. Controlling ghouls is the best.’
I was annoyed by the poor environment, but the only person I could trust was Gregory himself.
In the end, Gregory decided to meet the punitive force with his demons in Daejeon, where the throne of the Great Demon Castle was located.
The area near the throne was also the place where he could best demonstrate his power as the Demon King.
At the very least, he had to take charge of the Holy Knights and other races.
Only then will there be a balance.
I didn’t think I would lose.
I just didn’t want to lose money.
Sending a punitive force into the main castle itself was a loss.
The number of demons, which initially increased explosively, gradually decreased.
It is important not to lose as much of the troops as possible… Bringing a punitive force into the Demon King’s battle is the same as accepting the consumption of the Demons to some extent.
Looking at what these guys were doing, it looked like they were going to die.
Even if it means clearing up this punitive force.
There was a high possibility that it would be a difficult fight with the next punitive force.
〔Colonel. Captured the magic reaction of a high-ranking demon.〕
‘… High-ranking demon?’
〔… It’s not level 100, but I think it’s close to it.〕
The reason the avatar management department made that decision was because the high-ranking demon said that the avatar exceeded level 100, and such avatars were set up so that the system could automatically identify them.
‘You finally discovered it? Why hasn’t that guy caught my eye until now?’
〔That’s strange. If the avatar had grown to that extent, it would have been detected by the management system…〕
‘Isn’t there a bug in the management system?’
〔… The system is operating normally. No errors are detected. I think we need to recheck the system.
‘Where is he?’
A translucent map appears in front of Gregory.
A brightly shining red dot was seen in the southwest of the main pillar tower.
‘… What is that guy doing over there?’
〔We know that too…〕
I only used the Demon King’s function to determine the location based on magical power, but there was no immediate means of monitoring.
With that amount of magical power, even if a screw is missing, it can easily handle 2 or 3 servings of other demons.
“Tell them to come quickly. If they don’t come quickly, they will face death.”
Since the avatar management department could not understand the system, it was decided to load it in the form of a quest. A quick joining quest message was sent to all demons in the Demon Castle.
… Still, the demon has no intention of moving.
‘What? Why aren’t you moving?’
〔Definitely… Something is strange. I sent you the quest…〕
As the Terra Bridge punitive force approaches, there is no way to go out and catch them, and Gregory is starting to get annoyed.
The demon that was playing around began to move slowly.
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I decided to listen to Bianca’s request.
No, to put it bluntly… Should I just say that there are relationships that are too bothersome to just leave?
If I had just tried to escape from the Demon King’s Castle, there was a high possibility that Bianca would have followed the punitive force.
Of course, I had no intention of actively helping the punitive force.
They don’t want that either.
I decided to just quietly follow the punitive force.
If the subjugation team successfully disposes of the demon lord, there will be no need for me to step forward.
If their strength was insufficient, they took steps to help.
We decided to take Karen and Hilda too.
It was because I was anxious even when asked where to hide.
I headed to the place where I last saw the punitive force.
Perhaps they had already left, but traces of a fierce battle remained at the front entrance of the building where they stayed.
Of course, the only corpse was a ghoul.
The ghoul’s body was crumbly, as if all the nutrients had been sucked out of it.
It was easy to chase after the punitive force.
This was because the corpses of the ghouls showed traces of their movement.
And the traces led to the largest pillar tower in the place.
I also thought that Gregory was there, and it seemed like the punitive force had similar thoughts.
Perhaps thanks to the punitive force, we were able to move comfortably without any battle.
Less than half a day after chasing the punitive force, we discovered the entrance to the pillar tower.
Is this where the Yeongju Castle was located?
The reason I thought so was because although the exterior was covered with bizarre stonework and had completely disappeared, the entrance still had traces of a human-made structure.
Here too, the corpses of ghouls were laid out like a carpet.
