Hmm?　The advance team.......not!

　

'Watch out!　The enemy ambush--

　--Set up a preemptive strike!

　Is it a scout? The ice bullets released by Leila hit the face of humanity, which screamed out to their companions behind them. As he continued, the bow and arrow fired by Daquel pierced his throat, and the sprinting Guy tore through the astonished-looking humanity with his sharp claws.

''Masaki!　You're okay!　What is--?
The fireball.

　As humanity rushes out of the dark zone, a ball of fire from Flora strikes. After that, Daquel, Flora and the others continue to shoot arrows and magic into the darkness where they cannot see.

　From the darkness, I can hear the screams of multiple human beings.

　I hold my Darnslave at the ready for battle with humanity.

　--Leave Iron and the Living Mail, and the rest of you take cover around the perimeter.

　Theon gave the order.

　I think it would be in our best interest to push through this........ We cannot disobey Theon's orders. We began to act in accordance with the orders given to us.

　We hid behind a nearby tree for five minutes to see what was going on.

　A single human being, dressed in heavy equipment, emerged from the dark (dark) zone with a shield at the ready, wary of his surroundings.

''........An armored monster?''

　The heavily armed humans look at Iron and the Living Mail surrounding the Dark (Dark) Zone with their shields at the ready and ask what's going on.

　No orders come from Theon. Should they attack?　If I don't, the Living Mailers will be in danger.

　I try to take a step forward, putting all my strength into my hand that grasps the Darn Slave........

　--don't move until I tell you to.

　Theon gives me a ruthless order.

　Are you going to sacrifice the Living Mail?　They have Iain in there too!

　--?　And Iron...?　Theon is supposed to be cautious about his family, right?　Then what do you want?

　Without knowing what Theon was after, I watched humanity and my friends in danger behind the tree.

'Ugh, not moving...?　Hey!　It's okay!

　The heavily armed humanity is alert and observes Iron and the others. While tapping their shields, they call out to their companions who are probably in the dark (dark) zone.

''--!　
What?　Isn't this guy appearing in the [Hero's Graveyard]?
Don't these guys ever attack...?
'For now.... I mean, what about Karin?
Probably died in the earlier attack......... Also, Makoto and Taichi........
'Oh no........four people in a surprise attack like that.......that's awful......really--Higu. !

　--Attack them!

　Eight human beings emerge from the dark zone. As they mourn the death of their comrades, Theon gives them a merciless order.

　Magic pours down mercilessly on the grieving, heavily armed humanity, bows and arrows rain down on the tearful woman, and ice bullets shoot into the face of the man whose shoulders are slumped.

''--!
''Nobu!　Hey!　No--

　The man who rushed to the heavily armed humanity was torn apart by the claws of the sprinting Guy.

'Hahaha!　Let's have some fun!

　Red swings his Vajra and blows humanity to pieces.

　Not even given time to mourn the death of their companions, humanity was cruelly attacked by their friends.

''Hee, hee........ A demon that speaks human language......... Why is a high-ranked demon in such a low level?!
''Ku, shit!　Calm down!　We need to get back on our feet!
Uh, uh, Ice Shield.

　By the time humanity regained its poise, our numbers had already been reduced from eight to three.

　Having missed the surprise attack, I readied my Darnslave and jumped out onto the battlefield.

''--!　Reinforcements?　Ta, ta, help me!

　At the sight of me, a misunderstood humanity rushes towards me. Their appearance was defenseless, and if I had taken a swing of my Darnslave, I could have easily taken their lives.......

''Oh, your people--''

　

''I'm sorry...''

　As I let out an apology, Leila sniffed with a huff and ran straight to the remaining humanity.

　Unable to participate in the attack, just standing there dumbfounded in front of me.......my friends had defeated all of humanity.


　◆


I'm sorry...

　To my comrades who had won the battle against humanity, I told them I was sorry. But no word came back from my companions.

　I liked Leila, Flora, Guy, Red, Iain, Daquell...I liked my companions who could be called my colleagues. He liked them more than the selected members of Kanazawa City, and more than his upper-class friends from college.

　We saw things differently. We had different values. But I trusted them as friends, and I liked them. I wanted to repay their trust, I wanted to be trusted by them.

　But - when I saw humanity in front of me, I hesitated to attack them.

　I had betrayed the trust of them - my friends.

　Humanity is the enemy. They are incompatible with our master - Demon King Theon.

　I understand in my head..... But my mind cannot keep up with my understanding.

　I had fallen into disgust because of the weakness of my mind.


　◇


　(Theon's perspective)

A crushing defeat.
You caught me by surprise.

　I looked at the results on my smartphone and flooded my thoughts with canon.

''Sion-san. Why didn't you push through with a long-range attack?
Hmm?　It's early days?
"Yes. Since the human race was in the dark zone, with zero visibility, I thought they were going to continue their long range attacks to annihilate it.

　When Kanon asks me a question, I think back to the situation.

"Inside the dark zone, there's zero visibility, right?
Yeah, I guess so.
I can't see him, and neither can you.
Yeah, I guess so.
How will you know if they're all dead?
"--!　I see.

　Canon, the self-proclaimed chief of staff, finally understands my thoughts.

''In other words, your goal is to ensure the annihilation of humanity!
Correct.

　In that situation, what if humanity survived inside the Dark Zone... and Lina and the others invaded the Dark Zone while it was still there?　An unforeseen event was predicted. In order to avoid that, it was necessary to lure humanity out of the dark zone once it was in the dark zone.

''Hmph. My general staff experience has grown again!
What's that?

　I let out a wry smile at the smiling canon.

'I'm going to keep growing, you know!
It would have been nice if the status wasn't [knowledge], but [wisdom].
''--na!''

　At my sarcasm, Kanon opened his mouth and froze.

I'm not going to get upset. And so, the chief of staff would like to advise Mr. Sion.
I don't remember making him chief of staff, but... what?
Is Lina-san okay?　I think you should follow up with a follow-up from Zion-san.

　Receiving the advice from the chief of staff (canon), I check Lina's image on the screen of my smartphone.

'Follow up........'

　Lina was ultimately unable to attack humanity. And as a result, a rift was created between her and the other subordinates.

　Follow ... what can I say?　I don't mean to brag, but I have the attribute of being a loner. If you can do such a fancy act, you can't be a loner.

　In the end, I couldn't think of a word to follow up on, so I gave Lina and the others the same order as Chloe and the others, and led them to the other side of the 【Transition Device】 installed in the dark zone.