Ch.314Chapter 314 – The Demon Race’s End

The elder of the demon race looked at the beings who had invaded their dwelling place.

There was a mix of armored and unarmored individuals, and counting just those in armor, there seemed to be well over 300 of them.

‘This is disastrous.’

The demon elder inwardly lamented at the sight of the Demon Extermination Coalition forces that had invaded their stronghold.

After the crystal that supplied them with demonic energy was destroyed, the number of demons had greatly diminished.

The approximately 250 demons that remained had begun to die one by one due to food shortages.

Even with the stronger demons traveling in all directions to find food, it was insufficient to feed all 250 demons.

One demon consumed the same amount of food as four ordinary humans.

This meant that the demons who went out to gather food needed to secure provisions for 1,000 people, including themselves.

But where could they find such a large quantity of food in this desolate land?

Even when they stole food from the Demon Extermination Coalition’s base, the amount was negligible.

As a result, the number of demons rapidly decreased… until now, only about 100 remained.

These were demons who had left the elven world at the same time as Eldran and the demon elder.

Naturally, they had accumulated enough demonic energy to survive while other demons perished.

They had even given up their turns when the crystal that supplied demonic energy appeared, sacrificing for demons who had almost completely lost their demonic energy.

Despite their efforts, the situation had turned for the worst in an instant.

The demons who had survived until the end now faced the Demon Extermination Coalition forces that had come to capture them.

Each was a supreme paladin or priest, specially selected by their respective orders, specialized in dealing with beings possessing demonic energy.

Certain that they would die at this rate, the elder stepped forward.

“Why do you persecute us? We are living beings surviving on this land just like you. Why do you persecute us?”

The elder shouted toward the paladins who had formed ranks before them.

He was appealing to their emotions, asking them not to persecute beings who were just trying to survive in this world.

But those who had come to this land to confront the demons, including the elder, were not the kind to be swayed by such appeals.

“For following the Demon God who tried to plunge this world into chaos, you have no right to exist on this land.”

“Why? We have never once attacked the human world! We are innocent!”

“Hmph, many people have suffered at the hands of the demon cult that follows the same Demon God you serve! To deny that fact is truly shameless!”

The elder could not respond to the paladin’s rebuttal.

This was not because he was at a loss for words, but because he was using hand gestures to give instructions to the demons standing behind him.

“You! Are you trying to give orders with your hand signals?”

“As expected of followers of the cowardly Demon God, you’re all equally cowardly!”

When the paladin confronting the elder noticed his hand gestures and reacted, other paladins joined in the response.

Seeing that the paladin had noticed his actions, the elder realized these were not opponents to be taken lightly.

His hand signals were a technique unique to demons, difficult to discern unless one was highly skilled.

Yet they had seen through it!

If someone skilled enough to notice the elder’s hand signals had come here… there was only one way for them to survive.

They would have to defeat the entire Demon Extermination Coalition gathered here to capture them.

‘Do we have any chance of winning?’

The elder began searching for a solution to escape this situation, based on events he had experienced and faced over his long life.

But no matter how much he thought about it, considered it from different angles, or explored various possibilities, he could not reach a viable conclusion.

Whatever means or methods they tried, the conclusion was that all the demons, including himself, would die here.

It was disastrous.

Truly disastrous.

If only they had prevented them from approaching this place, they could have left an escape route.

Perhaps it had been a failure from the beginning to lure them here thinking they could confront them?

The elder felt only remorse toward the demons who would certainly meet their end here because of his misjudgment.

“Everyone, I’m sorry. It seems you’ll die here because of me.”

“Elder, it’s alright. If we’re certain to die either way, isn’t it better to take down as many of these followers of false gods as possible?”

At the elder’s words, all the remaining demons gripped their weapons.

The paladins likewise raised their weapons and assumed combat stances, while the priests prepared to deploy holy magic for support at any moment.

“Even if we fall here today!”

“The glory of the demon race is eternal!”

“Demon God! Receive our souls!”

“Uwaaaaah!”

The demons began shouting battle cries to bolster their fighting spirit and overcome their fear of death before the battle.

“How amusing. Do you really think you can defeat us with just that? You foolish beings who believe in something that has already been destroyed.”

“Everyone, prepare for battle. Eliminate them as quickly as possible without destroying this space.”

A momentary silence hung in the air of this place, spacious enough to accommodate 700 people with room to spare…

“Go!”

“Charge!”

The battle began as the demon remnants and the Demon Extermination Coalition rushed toward each other.

“Die, demons!”

“Fall, dogs of the false gods!”

As the battle commenced, the sound of clashing weapons echoed from all directions.

The long-lived demons were compensating for their lack of strength with skills honed over time.

“Hmph! Your techniques are good! But you lack something!”

“What?”

“Power!”

But the physical strength of the well-fed and well-rested paladins surpassed that of the weakened demons.

Moreover, with priests keeping the demons in check while buffing the paladins, the tide of battle quickly turned in favor of the Demon Extermination Coalition.

“Haa…”

While blocking an attack aimed at him, the elder looked around and sighed as he saw demons losing their lives.

The number of demons, which had exceeded 100, was visibly decreasing.

Unlike demons, whose bodies contracted and whose physical abilities deteriorated when wounded, paladins had their injuries quickly healed by priests, preventing their bodies from weakening due to wounds.

In particular, paladins who served the God of War were overwhelming the demons with their superior strength, surpassing paladins from other orders.

One by one, the demons fell, until only the elder remained.

Seeing all the demons lose their lives, their corpses, severed limbs, and heads scattered across the floor, the elder looked up at the sky.

“Why has the world abandoned us and our Demon God! Why!”

He cried out in anguish. If he died too, it would mean the extinction of all demons in this world.

“Demon, who are you?”

“What good would knowing this old one’s identity do? Will you mock me through bards?”

“I need to know the identity of the last one we killed to report back to headquarters.”

“Heh heh, heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh…”

When the elder realized that they wanted to know his identity not to preserve his honor but merely to report back to headquarters, he slumped to the ground.

“How amusing. But haven’t you considered this?”

“What?”

“It seems you never thought I might try to die here together with all of you!”

The elder pulled something out from his garment.

It looked like a small box with a long metal rod extending from one corner, and a large red button in the center.

“…! Don’t let him press that!”

“Farewell, dogs of the false gods! Today you die here with me! Kuhahaha!”

What the demon elder had taken out was a self-destruct device designed to blow up the entire facility.

The paladins rushed to stop the elder, but his hand was already about to press the red button.

It seemed his finger was just about to push the red button when…

—Bang! Bang bang!

With sharp explosions from somewhere, the elder’s hand holding the self-destruct device was blown away.

The device itself was also shattered by the subsequent explosions, and the elder stared in bewilderment at his vanished hand.

“Aaaaargh!”

He clutched his missing arm and writhed on the ground, and shortly after.

—Bang bang! Baang!

After three consecutive explosions, three holes appeared on the elder’s chest and between his eyebrows, streaming with red blood.

“Who said you could touch such a dangerous object?”

Pathos looked at the elder who had tried to press the self-destruct device as he reloaded his pistol.

The elder, now a corpse with one hand blown off, rolling on the floor, no longer resembled the dignified leader of the demon race.

There was only an unsightly aged demon lying there.