Kuro no Maou

It should be obvious but due to Kurono’s scorched earth tactics, they were unable to procure provision from here as well.

As long as there was no one in Kuar, Norz knew that this would be the case and was thus patiently waiting for the supply of provisions.

Norz expected this to continue till they reach the western most village of Alsace as well.

Since not a single demon could be found in the area, he expected to catch up with them by the Gallahad mountains near the border of Spada, beyond the village of Alsace and territory of Daedalus.

Between Alsace and Spada were mountains and the distance was also big. They might have quickly evacuated till Alsace but from here onwards even those demons would have difficulty in travelling and thus their speed will drop greatly as well.

Even if they had departed 1 week earlier, he could easily have the cavalry overtake them. So without any worries or impatience, Norz was moving the troops normally.

ButBut on the 27th of Shinyou, when they reached the village of Hejito, in front of the village that should be empty, Norz felt some unrest, no, it was more of a bad premonition.

And, that soon came true.

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“oo, this storehouse is still alright!”

The soldiers exploring the Hejito village raised their voices in joy on finding a storehouse that wasn’t burned at all.

“It’d be nice if it’s a food storehouse.”

“No way, it should have valuables instead.”

“Stupid, there’s no way there would be a valuable storehouse in this countryside village.”

“Oi, stop with your stupid talks and let’s examine it already.”

“”Roger””

Under the command of their squad commander, the soldiers reached towards the door of the storehouse.

There was no lock so it was easily opened without any resistance and they entered the dim storehouse.

“n, doesn’t something smell —-“

The soldier that led the way; as soon as he realized that smell of a beast, his words were interrupted.

“—–a?”

When he realized that his stomach had been impaled by a spear, he screamed with fright and pain.

As he fell down as he kept on screaming, numerous blades rushed on to him and his death cries were soon drowned out.

“Oi! There’s something in there!!?!”

“What?! What is it!?!”

“Be careful, there are——“

They were unable to make out the identity of the things that killed the soldier inside that dim room.

“Move outside!!”

While swinging his sword towards the invisible enemy, the soldiers ran outside.

“ugaaah!! It hurts!!!”

“Wait! My leg—-“

Two soldiers fell down as their legs were cut. One of them was carried away by another soldier but the other couldn’t make it and was dragged away inside the dark storehouse.

While trying to ignore the screams of their comrades, they finally came out after 2 soldiers becoming victims inside.

“Shit! What the hell is this!!”

Outside, the soldiers aimed their arrows towards the door and lied in wait.

Soldiers who had sensed something wrong had also started gathering here.

The soldiers took their stances and prepared their weapons to fight against the invisible enemy that dwelled inside that storehouse.

“It’s coming out!”

While raising an unpleasant voice, some beast like, monkey-like, creatures jumped out.

“Fire!!”

The moment they realized that, they fired the bows towards the door.

“It’s Goblins!!”

Someone shouted out the identity of the figures jumping out and getting hit by arrows.

“Shit! An ambush by the demons!?”

“They were hiding in there!”

Goblins that wore ragged clothes and were wielding chipped spears, rusted swords, and maces made out of bones appeared.

They were clearly not the type of demons that lived in villages. They were stray goblins that lived in hills, aka monsters.

Why were they here? There were many soldiers who doubted that but right now they didn’t have the time to sit and think about it.

“We’ll clean up those Goblins. After me!!”

The squad commander swung his long spear and attacked the swarm of goblins. The soldiers raised a war cry and also charged behind him.

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In various parts of the Hejito village, battles with monsters were popping up.

The main street where the commander Norz was was not an exception either.

After hearing the cries of monsters and the warcry of the soldiers, he had pretty much understood the situation even before the messenger came to give the report.

“A demon ambush, is it?”

“They seem to be only wild monsters. There’s no sign of any villagers.”

They didn’t know the reason behind why the monsters had appeared inside the village but Norz knew what he was supposed to do right now.

“Send some soldiers to every platoon from here. Also I leave the retrieval and treatment of the injured to you Sister Sylvia.”

“Roger that. And, what are you going to do?”

“hahaha, isn’t it obvious.”

Norz got down from his horse, drew the giant mace hanging on his waist and lightly lifted it and put it on his shoulder.

“The God’s enemies are in front of me, it’s the duty of us Priests to kill them!”

The line of spearmen was currently facing against a swarm of goblins whose eyes were glaring at them.

“I see. May the fortunes of war be with you, Norz Priest Head.”

As Sylvia retreated towards the rear, Norz lifted his mace that was bigger than usual ones, with one hand and jumped in front of the line of soldiers.

“Ooh, Priest-sama!”

As the commander himself came to the front lines, the soldiers raised cheers of joy.

This was the first time he was going to display his strength on the Pandora continent now that the enemy had come directly in front of him.

“Come at me damned monsters! Let me pass divine punishment on you in place of God!”

It was unknown whether they understood the meaning of his words or not but all the Goblins instantly pointed their killing intent towards the giant Norz that was standing in front of them.

While swinging their chipped and rusted weapons, the goblins rushed towards Norz.

“سحق سحق الصخور صخرة كبيرة بيرس – Terra Over Blast!!”

The moment he smashed the mace on the ground, the earth and soil blew up.

As conical stone pillars rose towards the heavens, the army saw the earth itself rising upwards.

As the curtain of earth and sand disappeared, all that was left was numerous corpses of the goblins that had been skewered by the pillars or had their limbs blown away by the attack.

The lucky goblins that were outside the effective range of the magic were still alive but they had already stopped charging towards him like before.

Norz thought that the goblins would be annihilated if he ordered an assault now but,

“mu, looks like they have a boss as well.”

Beyond the stabbing pillars, he saw a goblin that wore a better fur pelt as a robe and also had a bone wand in its hands. Seeing that, Norz didn’t give the order to attack.

(“Is it a magician type? I need to bring it down first otherwise there would be useless injuries in the army.”)

And the Boss was also accompanied by numerous subordinates and half of them were equipped with bows. And they were also already aiming the bows this way.

“ثلاثاء نار متقدة عصا الشعلةっ！”

The Goblin boss’ voice was thick but it was clearly a magician’s chant and quickly a fireball appeared on the tip of its wand.

“سبيرز بيرسっ！！”

As the chant completed, a red hot explosive fireball with diameter 30cm was fired by the goblin.

As if matching with the boss, the archers also released their arrows.

“ منع صخرة حجر كبير جدار لحماية— Terra Armour Shield!!”

The Goblins attack approached but it was stopped by the defensive magic used by Norz.

The thick hard rock wall projected from the ground and covered everything from one end to another and stood in the way of the fireball and the arrows.

*DODODODO!!!*

The sound of explosion resounded and the rock wall vibrated but it easily stopped the attack without receiving even a single crack.

“haaaaaaaa!! Terra Blaaasstttt!!!!”

With a roar, he launched a no chant wide range attack magic.

Norz’s mace struck the wall of rock and the wall broke, no, it broke into numerous pieces of rock that were the size of a head and rushed towards the goblins like cannonballs.

Using the wall as a shield then turning it into an attack was one of Norz’s signature moves.

The rock cannonballs approached at high speed.

With a *gushari* sound, the small bodies of the Goblins were squashed by the tremendous force and death cries resounded, then,

“Now’s the chance! Attack!!!”

Norz gave the order to attack.

And thus the swarm of goblins that met with Norz’s main troops were annihilated in a matter of ten minutes.

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Before the night came, the monsters inside Hejito village were annihilated and they finally completely occupied the village.

Norz took his troops towards one of the storehouses. Inside that, the ‘reason’ behind the monsters appearing in the village was present.

“mu, this is.....”

Inside the dim storehouse, a sturdy steel cage was there.

Inside it, 4 corpses of goblin children were kept.

They must have been killed by the troops that found this place as many arrows used by the crusaders were stuck on them.

Norz narrowed his eyes due to seeing something so filthy and one of the soldiers gave an explanation.

“We have found these things all over the village. Probably, they probably stole eggs or children of the wild monsters and locked them up in these cages.”

Looking closely, there were many scratches on the cage grids.

Monsters who didn’t have the skill to break open lock like a Thief must have tried to break open the cages to save their children.

But a rank 1 monster could not display enough strength to break open the cage.

“Then, the demons used these monster children as bait and lured the monsters inside the village to ambush us?”

“Yes, this can’t be a simple coincidence after all.”

“Although they are mere monsters, to have used the feelings of parents and children like this.......those demons really used a vile plan!”

Norz or the Crusaders felt no guilt on the deaths of the monsters.

But to have used children to pull uninvolved creatures to battle, Norz, who held the sense of justice of the Cross, could only feel that the plan was evil.

“I thought they were just running away, but it seems they really mean to oppose us.”

He had no basis. It could only be another plan to just gain time.

But Norz’s instincts were telling him that the enemy was definitely use ‘any means possible’ to go against them.

“Those demons really are evil. We must annihilate them as soon as possible.”