Ancient Imperial Calendar Year 1813
Xian Beirum Plains
Famous for its perfect terrain for agriculture, the Xian Beirum Plains are dazzling lands where the soil glitters like gold during harvest time, captivating people's eyes and bringing a sense of refreshment to their hearts.
Of course, this was about to change.
When the devil armies suffered successive defeats at the hands of the Kislavein and Ashbrum armies, they altered their campaign route.
Xian Beirum, the most fertile land in the Eastern Territories, covers a full sixty million acres. The agricultural products gathered from this region alone are enough to feed the entire Eastern Territories for a month.
The devils' target was to render this land, crucial for the Eastern Peoples, unusable.
Ashbrum commanders who detected the plan reported it to the nearest army commander, the 3rd Army Commander Fraud Kislavein.
Acting on the report, Fraud Kislavein moved out with his army.
The human armies and the devil armies faced each other on the Xian Beirum plains.
Fraud Kislavein looked at the millions of devils standing before him. Their skin color, appearance, height, and weight—everything was identical to humans. The biggest differences separating this unknown race from humans were their horns, tails, and wings.
Fraud had divided his army into three: front-line units, middle-line units, and support units.
The units at the front would carry out the initial attack.
The units in the middle would attack depending on the course of the battle.
Those in the support lines would spring into action when needed.
The devils were disorganized, but they seemed to obey the words of a devil in black armor standing at their very front.
The black-armored devil pointed his sword at the humans. His eyes held a desire to kill, his sword reeked of blood.
"Kill them all!Kill them all! Wipe out Harloumen's bloodline!" said the black-armored devil with a pure desire for revenge.
The devils attacked like enraged, maddened bulls, their eyes rolling back in fury.
Fraud drew his sword. He was at the very front lines. He spoke to his soldiers with his back turned to them.
"The spirits of our ancestors are with us!Do not disgrace them! Another victory awaits us! For the Kislavein Dynasty, attack!"
The front-line soldiers attacked with fervor. Shortly after, the soldiers of humans and devils were locked in hand-to-hand combat.
On the battlefield, nothing was visible but screams and blood.
With every swing of his sword, Fraud Kislavein killed hundreds of devils, but thousands more took the place of those he killed.
Kislavein mages cast countless spells, draining their mana pools, and inflicted heavy casualties on the devil armies.
The devil in black armor was taking hundreds of lives with his black sword. Amidst all this chaos, the right and left flanks of the front-line units began to collapse.
Seeing this, Tyrel Kislavein, commanding the middle-line units, made a quick decision.
He gave an order to Kisrael Kislavein, the former Head Master of the Blood Academy and now the left flank commander of the center forces, on his left.
"Commander Kisrael,reinforce the left flank immediately!"
Tyrel then called out to Harloumen Kislavein, the duel master of the Blood Academy, on his right.
"Commander Harloumen,you reinforce the right flank!"
Both commanders led their soldiers according to the orders they received.
Half of the front-line units fighting the devils had already been killed, and just as the right and left flanks were about to completely collapse, their morale was boosted by the support arriving from the middle lines.
When Tyrel saw the situation on the front lines improving, he turned to his own units.
"We are attacking too!Forward!"
The units under Tyrel's command circled around the formation of the Blood Orphans under Fraud's command to avoid disrupting it and cut down the devils surrounding them with a sudden move.
As the hours passed, half a million devils fell to the ground. On the other hand, the 3rd Army's total losses were only around 250,000.
The black-armored devil fell into despair.
"We're going to lose...Damn it! I have no other choice."
The black-armored devil removed the gauntlets from his hands. Then he placed his hands on the devil blood staining the ground and began uttering incomprehensible words.
While fighting with all his might, Fraud Kislavein felt an ominous aura.
"What is this?"
Tyrel had felt it too.
"Sir,what is this we're feeling?"
There was horror in Fraud's eyes, but he didn't show it with his demeanor. He was still fighting the devils with all his strength until the end.
"I don't know,Tyrel. Keep your eyes wide open. Whoever is emitting this ominous aura must be nearby."
Fraud and Tyrel channeled their mana to their eyes and ears to enhance their senses, and finally, Tyrel saw the devil emitting the ominous energy.
"Commander-in-Chief Fraud!There he is!"
Alerted by Tyrel's warning, Fraud noticed the black-armored devil and charged forward without a word.
He advanced, ignoring the thousands of powerful devils before him, despite receiving severe wounds.
"I've lost a lot of blood,but I feel that if I don't kill this black-armored devil, something very bad will happen."
Fraud advanced, cutting down the thousands of devils in his path. Just as he reached his target, the black-armored devil's smile was evident even from beneath his black helmet.
"I've won,"said the black-armored devil.
Hundreds of thousands of liters of devil blood staining the ground suddenly began moving like a living organism.
Half of the blood seeped into the earth. The most fertile lands of the East dried up, cracked, and died.
The remaining half of the blood evaporated, transforming into a poison for humans and a healing balm for devils.
Fraud was too late to kill the black-armored devil, but he reacted quickly to the situation.
"Everyone,listen to me! Channel your mana to your respiratory tracts! Purify the poison! Fleeing won't work! We will kill all these devils, or we will all die!"
Following Fraud's order, the soldiers began using their mana to purify the poison.
Although many were saved, about a hundred thousand had died from the poison.
"Damn you,devil!"
The black-armored devil stood up and smiled hideously.
"Kehehe...I didn't expect you to react so quickly, human. I'm impressed. Let's fight one on one."
Fraud did not hide his anger.
"Fine.I will kill you here."
The black-armored devil burst into laughter.
"Hahahaha!Let me laugh, it shouldn't go to waste. Anyway, I am Setrap Sapharos, the Ninth Prince of the Sapharos."
Fraud was angry but maintained his composure, taking a fighting stance.
"I am Fraud Kislavein.You need know no more than that."
The devil tilted his head back; his eyes held a mocking expression.
"Fraud...not a very memorable name. I'll probably forget it quickly."
"You won't live long enough to forget,"said Fraud in a mocking voice.
There was no more talk. The duel began with Fraud's attack. He leaped two meters into the air and swung his sword with all his might at the devil beneath him.
Although Setrap blocked Fraud's sword attack with his own, he was crushed under the weight of Fraud's power.
"Ugh...so strong," said Setrap.
Setrap repelled Fraud with a move, then coated his sword with an ominous aura. This was Devil Magic, which would inflict a fatal disease upon contact with humans, from which they could not recover.
"It has a very ominous aura. I'd better be careful not to let it touch me," thought Fraud.
To protect himself from the devilish magic, Fraud distributed all his remaining aura throughout his body.
Setrap attacked at an invisible speed, aiming his sword directly at Fraud's neck.
Fraud reacted quickly and pulled back, but it left a small cut on his neck.
"Damn it!I must direct my mana to the wound immediately!"
Fraud directed his mana towards his wound, but the devilish magic flowed from his neck into his body. Fraud only slowed it down but couldn't stop it.
"Son of a bitch!Even if I'm going to die, you're coming with me!"
Fraud swung his sword to cut off Setrap's hands.
Setrap dropped his sword and barely avoided having his hands cut off.
"That was close!You're really fast for an old man."
"You will die at the hands of this old man,foul devil!"
Setrap shaped his aura and swung his two pitch-black swords to decapitate Fraud.
Fraud dodged the attack. Setrap picked up his fallen sword and hurled sharp black ice daggers.
Fraud deflected the daggers coming at him. Setrap cast a speed spell to increase his velocity.
The old warrior Fraud used all his remaining mana to enhance his perception and speed.
The two warriors engaged in close combat. They had accelerated so much that the humans and devils around them could no longer see them.
After minutes of a duel watched breathlessly by those around them, Fraud emerged victorious. When Setrap's lifeless body fell to the ground, the human armies shouted cries of victory.
"LONG LIVE FRAUD!LONG LIVE FRAUD! LONG LIVE KISLAVEIN! LONG LIVE ASHBRUM!"
When the devil armies saw the dead body of their prince, they did not flee in fear; instead, they went mad with rage.
"KILL THEM ALL!AVENGE THE PRINCE!"
For three hours, under the relentless attacks of the enraged devils, the human armies fought nonstop.
The battle ended with the victory of the humans. 400,000 humans had been killed in this battle, but 1,500,000 devils had been slain.
Fraud fell to his knees. Tyrel walked to Fraud's side with weary steps, breathless.
"Thanks to you,we won a great battle, sir."
When Tyrel received no response from Fraud, he began to worry.
"Sir,are you alright?"
His hands trembling, he touched Fraud's shoulder. His skin was as cold as ice.
"Damn it...this can't be... Commander-in-Chief!"
Tyrel noticed the small cut on Fraud's neck.
"You must be joking...How could you die from such a small wound?!"
The commanders nearby struggled to calm Tyrel and sat him down.
"Calm down,"said Kisrael.
"Does this behavior suit a commander like you?Get a hold of yourself, Commander-in-Chief Tyrel."
Tyrel looked at Kisrael with an expression that seemed to say, 'What are you talking about?
"As the Commander's right hand,with his death, you are the new commander-in-chief of this army. We are at your command, Commander-in-Chief Tyrel."
First Kisrael, then Harloumen, and the entire 3rd Army knelt before Tyrel.
Without being able to forget the pain of his mentor and role model Fraud's death, Tyrel shouldered the burden of the 3rd Army.
Tyrel stood up, calmed down, and signaled his army to rise.
"Let us bury our dead.The war is still ongoing."
Every member of the 3rd Army spent days dealing with the funeral arrangements for their dead comrades.
The Kislavein and Ashbrum alliance had won another victory against the invading devil race, but the cost had been heavy.