Night had fallen. Clouds veiled the moonlight.
The siege had entered a brief lull. That didn't mean we left the monsters idle, however.
— Krauuuuu, grrrrr.
— Grrraaaa.
The orcs and goblins sang their war chant in unison. It was different from the songs of the goblin tribes we had mustered when annihilating an E-rank adventurer party. Here, instruments like long horns were used. The mournful sound of the horns echoed through the dark night sky. The monsters stomped slowly—boom, boom, boom.
We didn't light any torches among our own forces. All was pitch black. From the humans' perspective atop the walls, it would look as though the monsters' song was seeping toward them from the darkness far beyond. To erode morale—that was the enemy commander's likely assessment.
"My lord, the rear guard led by Balaam has arrived."
"Was the human army unable to detect them?"
Zepar spoke in a voice tinged with amusement. Yet it still carried weight—proof that the gravity born of centuries was not to be taken lightly.
"They probably think we're just flailing around."
The human forces holding the Blue Fortress were elite. Even the rank-and-file had experience subduing monsters. They'd scoff at a war song sung through the night. They'd use it as a lullaby and doze off, purring away. They'd even be glad, believing our fatigue was mounting. They had that much nerve.
They had composure. They also harbored hope worthy of that composure. Come tomorrow, the red-yellow relief force would break through the monster divisions in the rear and arrive. Because of that, the human army had maintained high morale from start to finish.
How long would that hope last? Could humans still fight against death even after hope was lost? It didn't matter either way. The chance of their victory—even in the slimmest scenario—was extraordinarily low. Not just victory; even survival itself.
After a while.
The Demon Lord leading the rear guard approached. Balaam. Rank fifty-first. One of the newer Demon Lords. He had performed well. He had trailed our main force at a distance of over a day's march, steady and disciplined.
The enemy had concentrated every last scouting unit inside the fortress in preparation for the fierce siege. That was their mistake. They had failed to identify our rear guard.
Had they known in advance that we were the vanguard of the Crescent Alliance Army, they would have strained themselves to maintain their scouts regardless. But they didn't know. They believed it was simply another small-scale incursion, same as always. Two hundred years had passed since the Seventh Crescent Alliance Army was organized. Those two hundred years had bred complacency in the humans……
Balaam rendered his salute.
"I have arrived to receive your orders, Commander. The army is fully assembled and awaits only your command to attack, my lord."
"Well done. Have them cease the war hymn."
Zepar raised his right arm. Balaam and I followed suit, lifting our right arms as well. In an instant, the encampment fell silent. Our thoughts had been transmitted to the monsters. The monsters closed their mouths as though they had never been singing or stomping their feet.
Perhaps it was the sudden quiet. On top of the wall, the human soldiers' guards grew somewhat unsettled. The distance was too great to make out their words clearly, but they seemed to be shouting things like "What is it? What's happening?" They might have sensed it instinctively — that this silence was no ordinary silence, but one charged with menace.
"Artemis, let your radiant night be our sanctuary."
Zepar spoke in a low voice. It was a prayer like a song. He led, and Balaam and I chanted after him.
"Artemis, let your radiant night be our sanctuary."
The voices themselves were faint. Had we been human, it would have been a woefully inadequate signal to declare the opening of war. But we were Demon Lords, and our subordinates were monsters. Just as we whispered, the monsters felt our thoughts.
"In the face of hardship, friendship; before the enemy, equality; and as death draws near, may freedom descend upon us. On this battlefield we swear — the oath of friendship, the oath of equality, the oath of death."
Zepar's voice and ours spread across the ground like twilight.
"Artemis, before you we swear upon our red blood — that we shall be the eternal enemies of humankind, that we shall serve like dogs for the glorious future of Demonkin. Whether we triumph or fall, let this moment tonight never be called a time of defeat."
Zepar distributed goblets to us. He poured wine into them. He filled his own goblet personally. It was a long-held tradition here that the supreme commander of the battle pour drink for his subordinates and then pour his own — the meaning being that he alone bears all responsibility.
"For conquest."
"For conquest! For Zepar!"
"For Barbatos!"
We drained our goblets in one gulp and slammed them onto the ground. *Clang* — three goblets shattered. Zepar, who had been murmuring softly up until now, roared at the top of his lungs.
"Tonight, the Black Mountains become ours! All forces — attack!"
"Attack!"
"All forces — attack——!"
The monsters roared. Ogres, orcs, goblins, and golems bellowed. They sounded as though they would tear apart the night air and rip through the clouds. There was no need for a cautious advance. The plan was to breach the gate in a single devastating rush. Fifteen hundred monsters surged forward as one body. It was a feat of tactical command that only a Demon Lord — one who wielded monsters as though they were his own limbs — could display.
Balaam spoke.
"Commander! Please let the ogre unit lead the charge!"
"You're right. The human bastards must have prepared for a surprise assault. We'll advance the orc shield-bearers first."
Zepar read the situation with perfect clarity. From the distant walls, the clang of gongs could be heard, and before even a minute had passed, archers appeared between dozens of torches. As though they had been waiting.
Judging by eye, the number of archers far exceeded three hundred. It was overwhelming! In effect, nearly every soldier in the mountain fortress knew how to wield a bow. In this era, archers were considered an elite corps — perhaps not on par with knights, but close. It took a tremendous amount of time to train an archer. You could tell just how rigorous the training of the humans defending this mountain fortress in the Black Mountains had been.
As the orc shield-bearers closed in on the walls, the archers drew their bowstrings. They loosed their arrows high into the air in unison.
"Dense formation!"
"All shield-bearers, dense formation!"
Zepar shouted, and Balaam echoed the command. The orc shield-bearers at the forefront packed together tightly to form a testudo, like Roman legionaries. A countless rain of arrows poured down upon their shields. The orcs could wield shields roughly twice the size of those made for humans. It was no easy task for arrows to pierce through those massive umbrellas. Even under volley fire from hundreds of archers, the friendly forces sustained almost no casualties.
This was why the Demon Lord's army was so powerful.
The human army had to rely on banners and signals to command their forces, one order at a time. The Demon Lord's army was different. Because the commander was mentally linked with his subordinate monsters, orders bypassed all intermediate steps and reached the front lines directly. As long as Demon Lords did not fight among themselves, theoretically perfect command was possible. There was an entire dimension of difference between a mindless horde of monsters and a monster army led by a Demon Lord.
Balaam spoke up, excited.
"They'll need time to fire another volley. In this window, let's advance not just the shield-bearers but the entire army."
"No. They fired deliberately."
Zepar refused firmly.
"They shot even though they hadn't established sufficient range. It's a trick to lure us in."
"My lord. It's nighttime right now."
I spoke cautiously.
"The Demonkin can see clearly in the dark, but humans cannot. Could it be that they fired because they couldn't verify their range properly?"
"They're not fools. They must have stationed soldiers with excellent night vision to guard against a night assault. And yet they fired from beyond their range. It's a stratagem. All forces — break the testudo and spread out as wide as possible."
Balaam looked displeased, but he followed Zepar's command without a word of protest. It did not take long for Zepar's judgment to prove correct. Catapults appeared. Ten boulders sliced through the air at once and slammed into the monster army. The boulders were vastly larger than what ordinary catapults could launch. Orcs were crushed beneath them helplessly. Even those enormous shields were simply not enough to block boulders.
Zepar groaned.
"So they sacrificed range to boost their destructive power. Well played."
"…Your Lordship's insight is truly remarkable. If we had stayed in tight formations, the damage would have been far worse."
"Now is the moment. All forces, advance and form the testudo."
Zepar continued issuing orders without so much as a flicker of change in his expression. It was exactly as Balaam had said. I too was genuinely impressed.
A battle never unfolds according to plan. No matter how well you draw one up, within ten minutes something happens that deviates from every expectation. This time, it was the catapults the human army had prepared. Who could have predicted they would bring siege weapons with even shorter range than their bows? Use the siege weapons first, then deploy the archers — that was the conventional tactical wisdom.
In an instant, Zepar saw through the enemy's blunder as a deception. Why had they fired beyond their range? The purpose was singular. To lure us into charging before the next coordinated volley. The enemy wanted us to approach in dense formations… but why? Even Zepar could not see that far.
However, he judged that simply reversing whatever the enemy desired would put them in good stead. If the enemy wanted tight formations, then his side would scatter its forces. As a result, despite the concentrated bombardment from the siege weapons, the monster army suffered only relatively light casualties. It was astonishing.
Was this the caliber of a Demon Lord who had joined the Crescent Alliance Army three times? …If I had been the commander, could I have made that same snap judgment the way Zepar had? I had my doubts. I probably could not have. I doubted I would have recognized that the enemy's supposed blunder was in fact a feint, and even if I had, I would have burned precious time deliberating over the enemy's true intentions. Zepar and I were simply not in the same league as generals…
"Those humans will unleash another rain of arrows. The moment the downpour ceases, advance the ogres."
Even as I agonized over my thoughts, the battlefield's clock continued to race forward.
"The enemy is launching another volley!"
"Now! All ogres, charge!"
Arrows poured down on the orc shield-bearers just as before. Before that curtain of rain had even ceased, something enormous began to thunder forward. Five ogres that had been waiting far behind the front lines. Standing four meters tall, each ogre was a living boulder unto itself.
— KRAAAAAAAH!
The ogres charged headlong, not even hesitating to trample their own allies underfoot. One goblin was crushed flat beneath an ogre's foot. The ogres only redoubled their speed.
The wall was five hundred meters away. The five ogres covered that distance in an instant, hurtling forward like cannonballs. They ran in single file, each one clutching an enormous pointed wooden beam against its side. The tip of the beam was capped with iron — a wooden battering ram used for breaching gates.
The humans had made no preparations whatsoever against the ogres. They believed we possessed only five ogres, and that all five had already been detected bypassing the Blue Fortress. We had originally had ten. You were completely, thoroughly deceived. And this scene before you is the price of that deception!
— KUUUOOM!
The first ogre to arrive drove the wooden battering ram into the gate. The gate shuddered. The ogre immediately stepped aside. Then the second ogre struck the gate with its ram. Then the third, the fourth… and finally, the fifth battering ram came crashing down, propelled by the brute strength of an ogre's entirely muscular body and the momentum built over five hundred meters of sprinting.
─ KUUUOOM!
The gap was opened. The gate was destroyed! The humans, still reeling from shock at the appearance of the ogres, found their defenses breached in the same instant. They'd suspect some freak natural disaster, no doubt. But in the end, you were simply deceived!
Captain Zepar cried out as if he had been waiting for this very moment.
"All forces, charge! Roar! Slaughter the enemy!"