The lights at the gate faded and slowly a vast battlefield came into view.
-Kraaaaaaah!
-Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
Strange monsters swarmed around and all of them were demons. The horns protruding from their foreheads and the foul magick (demon mana) was proof.
The demons are racing across the plains and an army stands to stop them.
"Stop them!"
"Ma, stop them?"
"Impossible!"
The demons numbered in the thousands, and the army against them was only a few hundred. They're badly outnumbered, and their armaments are meager.
Compared to hunters refined by modern technology, medieval armor and spears were no match for demons ten times their size. And it's not just the trainees who are baffled by the demonic forces.
"Uh, why demons?"
"Demon Gate?!"
Demons coming out of the yellow gate was unprecedented.
Being summoned to the middle of the battlefield out of nowhere was baffling enough, but demons?
Even the ancients, who had studied the gate, had never heard of such a phenomenon.
"Shields up! Defense! Form up!"
Despite the sudden change of scenery, Leon's orders were calm.
The trainees quickly came to their senses as he rode up on his pure white horse, swinging his sword in the air and tapping the soldiers' shields.
"Shields up!"
Following their leaders' instructions, the shields are raised in a flash.
"Forward, forward, forward!"
Forward? Not just stay and watch? Leon's orders startled the trainees, but they had seen and learned something over the past four weeks: absolute obedience to a knight's orders. Needless to say, there was a price to pay for disobedience.
[Lionheart Aura]
Above all else, his mere presence grants a wealth of buffs and the trainees raise their shields and slowly advance.
'Not afraid?'
Seeing this, Chief Kim Jin-soo had a puzzled look on his face. He couldn't help but realize how reckless an order it was to charge into that horde of demons, but the cadets obeyed dutifully.
And most of all, Kim Jin-soo is stunned by the blinding barrage of system messages.
'What are these enhancement traits, giving all the Hunters commander and higher buffs?'
Meanwhile, the trainees, marching steadfastly forward instead of fleeing, caught the eye of the demons and dozens of demons charged toward them.
"Ah, demon dogs!"
"Coming this way!"
Bloodhounds, commonly referred to as demon dogs, were human-sized demons and they lunged at the huddled masses of shields and arrows, breathlessly hoping for the best.
-Bang!
-Bang!
Chief Kim Jin-soo intuitively knew that the charge would break through the shields. But....
"Block them!"
"Hold on!"
The trainees withstood the four-legged beast's physical assault. Not just one or two outstanding ones, but all of them.
'The Blood Hound's charge that is too much for even a B-rank Hunter?'
Rank B tanks have unique skills that help them tank but these D-rank Hunters don't have such a skill, and they've managed to block the Demon Hounds' charge with their shields.
"Counterattack!"
At Leon's command, the trainees stabbed their swords through the gaps in the shields and their swords easily pierced the demon dogs' flesh.
-Keeeeeeek!
-Thud!
The leading Demon Hounds fell in a heap, but then another wave of demons arrived, they were Greatswords, wielding swords taller than a person.
"Block!"
The Hunters blocked the Demon Hounds' charge, then Lesser demons charged the shield wall with frenzied strikes, but it held.
Leon raised his sword and shouted.
"'harge!"
The cadets hurriedly raised their shields and charged forward, staying close to the Greatswords and giving the enemy no room to swing their greatswords.
"Push!"
-Thud!
After Four weeks of frantic practice the Hunters pushed the demons back with an instantaneous explosive push.
"Stab!"
From here on out, it was a mechanical repetition of motions: block, push, and stab. There was nothing quite like hand-to-hand combat in anti-infantry warfare.
As the rampaging demons were sliced and diced, a hulking demon emerged.
"Demon troll!"
"Demon troll!"
A medium-sized monster with a body the size of a house and a club that must have been two meters long appeared and the trainees' pupils trembled as they realized that they were no match for it.
"Don't back down! Stay in formation and hold your ground!"
Leon's voice roused them. His presence was all they needed to 'hold their ground'.
-Countering heavy objects. Sniping commenced.
It was then that a minimalist machine gun opened fire with a mechanical voice.
-Toadadadadadadadad!
A bullet fired from the fuselage of a Holy Knight is a holy attack in itself.
"Lord Yappy?!"
"Why is Lord Yappy here?"
Regardless of the Hunters' reactions, the Demon Troll, which had been charging with terrifying momentum, slowed down in pain as Yappy's holy machine gun round had shredded its knee.
"Kaaaaaaaah!"
But the troll didn't stop its momentum and raised its club. Trolls are at least Class B…their mass even makes them Class A in terms of difficulty.
There's no way D-rank Hunters would be able to stop a boss-level entity from coming out of that yellow gate──
"Ugh…!" Koo Dae-sung raised his shield. It protected his teammate's right shoulder. The Hunters, whose ears were bleeding, naturally clustered their shields around Koo Dae-sung.
-Bang!
Koo Dae-sung and the other trainees felt their bodies being pushed backwards as the insurmountable difference in mass penetrated their defenses and shocked them.
'Huh?'
But a common question flashed through the minds of the trainees who had blocked the troll's blow.
'This is lighter than His Majesty's charge?'
The difference in strength must be four times.
In the past four weeks, they hadn't blocked a single one of Leon's charges and the slightest slip of his foot would send them soaring into the air.
[Strongest Charger]
Compared to him, a troll's swing would make the trainees' defense stagger!
"Good block!"
Meanwhile, Leon, who had already approached the troll's back, swung his holy sword with a flick, and the troll's head was sliced off as if it were tofu.
-Kiiii…!
-Kyaak…!
As the trolls, who had been their secret weapon, died in such a ridiculous manner, the momentum of the demons subsided. The defenders, on the other hand, gained momentum.
The demons, demoralized, took notice and began to retreat as the demon trolls had been 'annihilated'.
-Kiui… dead.
-Troll… really dead.
For demons, death is not the end. They are immortal creatures who take on bodies and play in the material world.
When they died, they merely returned to the spirit realm, losing their material vessel.
The troll that had just died, however, had not gone through the process of disappearing into the spirit world. It was sucked into Leon's Holy Grail and 'vanished'.
"They're backing off!"
"We won! We won!"
As they rejoiced in their survival, a rider approached Leon and the Hunters.
Apparently a commander or knight by the state of his armor, he first bows his head in thanks.
"Thank you, for coming to save our Spero Kingdom, warriors!"
The Hunters each checked their system windows at his words.
[The Spero Kingdom is being invaded by demons, defend the kingdom from the invasion of the demons]
Time remaining: 1 week
"Is this a quest....?"
"Demons…do you mean Greater Demons?"
"It can't be a Greater Demon, there's no way a Greater Demon would come out of the Yellow Gate!"
The Hunters were confused, and some insisted on exiting the gate immediately. But....
"What, the gate is gone?"
"What happened… is this a fluctuation gate?"
"No way!"
The Hunters' faces hardened. The joy of victory was gone in an instant, replaced by despair.
"Quiet! Don't be silly!"
Leon's voice drifted over them. The Lionheart King's aura, that lifts the morale of his soldiers by his mere presence, brought the half-collapsed Hunters to their feet.
"Lord Spinner, what brings you here?"
-Observations. A third party has entered.
Yappy displayed a hologram of his observations as a figure in robes, not Leon or the Hunters, used some sort of invisibility spell and was only visible in infrared.
"Is he up to something?"
-Lack of evidence.
"Is there anyone who can explain the current situation?"
Koo Dae-sung cautiously raised his hand.
"This is a fluctuation gate."
"What is that?"
"It's an anomaly in the gate…To put it simply, the difficulty of the gate is rising rapidly, and you can't leave until you clear it."
Leon looked at the gate, which had disappeared unlike the orc gate, and realized that the way out was blocked.
"Hmm...."
Leon was surprised that something like this would happen to the cadets during their graduation exam.
Was it a coincidence? He didn't know.
As Leon pondered, the Hunters' complexions darkened in real time.
Normally, the gate was based on the difficulty of the pre-measurement, and it was difficult for the right group of Hunters to respond to the sudden increase in difficulty.
It's safe to say that once a variable gate pops up, the Hunters inside are doomed.
They're stuck in a gate with an infinitesimal survival rate.
'Still....'
Despite this, there is only one reason for them not to panic: the presence of the Lionheart King in front of them.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty… do you have a plan?"
When the attention of the anxious Hunters was focused, Leon spoke with a calm expression to prevent them from despairing.
"We'll attack. The quest said to defeat the Demon Lord."
"Greater Demon…or maybe an Archdemon."
"Hmph…! This Lionheart King has slaughtered two Archdemons and over thirty Greater Demons. Do you doubt this king's strength?"
"Ooooo...."
"Yes, Your Majesty has three demon-related traits alone!"
[Terror of Demonic Species]
[Demon Lord Slayer]
[Greatest Demon Slayer]
These were the only Demon-related Traits that were confirmed by the system message but the Hunters' faces brightened with hope.
"...."
Leon didn't bother to mention that the battle was fought in his world, a world filled with divinity.
He didn't tell them that in his current form, he was no match for a Demon Lord(Archdemon).
They could only lean on the hope that was in themselves since a knight must remain steadfast at all times.
* * * *
Meanwhile, Reynald Shelman, the mastermind behind the transformation of the Gwangju Gate into the Daemon Gate, watched as Leon repelled the demons.
"In one blow, a mid-level demon, a Demon Troll...."
No matter how much the Hunters distracted it, decapitating such a tough troll with a single blow…Above all, the troll's demise was a shocking sight.
Demons are immortal creatures, they live in the spirit realm, and their physical manifestations are merely shells.
They are more like remote-controlled drones, and their destruction doesn't kill them. However, the Lionheart King's sword forces the 'death' of the beings it has slain.
It travels up the mental link and forces 'death', meaning that the pilot of the drone dies when it is destroyed.
He could see why the Archdemon beyond the Wisdom Gem had fled in terror.
[Heh… Heh… Heh!]
"Great One?"
Even after witnessing such a terrifying existence, a dismal laughter could be heard coming from the Wisdom Gem.
[Weakened! Weakened! Lionheart, Leon Dragonia Lionheart, you're just a man after all! Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!]
Weakened? Him?
The one who destroyed a Demon Troll that wasn't even a normal troll with a single blow?
Apparently amused by Reynald's questioning, the Wisdom Gem giggled and replied.
[Hee hee hee, if he had the strength of his prime, he would have annihilated about a thousand demons in a single strike, and if he had enough strength, he would have unsealed the Holy Sword]
"Holy sword… you mean?"
The sword emitted a brief but brilliant light when it slashed at the Demon Troll's throat. Such power, and it hasn't even been unsealed?
[Heh heh heh… Even such a strike, it's only slightly stronger than a Holy Knight, so he'll be defeated!]
As the Archdemon beyond the Wisdom Gem rejoiced, Reynald spoke cautiously.
"Great Existence…Then shall we perform a ritual for you to descend?"
[What?!]
The Wisdom Gem was puzzled.
[No! No matter how weak he is, he's still the Lionheart King! He's insane!]
You said he's weakened....
Reynald swallowed his complaint and asked.
"And what about the one…who'll handle him?"
[Heeheehee…! The Demon Lord of this place.]
"The Demon Lord...."
Reynald confirmed the existence of a Demon Lord.
"No way…There really is a Demon Lord?"
If there was such a thing, it was definitely a must-win. In the history of the Thirty Years War since the Cataclysm, the Demon Lord was a monster among monsters that had slaughtered countless S-class Hunters…
[The energy of the Gate is not enough for a Demon Lord to descend, but…there is an evil spirit here that has been appointed as a Lord.]
"Oh, oh...."
Reynald swallowed hard at those words. Humans who serve demons often wish to become demons themselves at the end of their roles.
They aspire to the immortality of demons and ambition to become Archdemons themselves.
[Heh, heh, heh… there's an existence here that those ugly, lustful demons have been working on for a hundred years…! That would be enough to kill the weakened Lionheart King!]
For that, Reynald needed to move around. He would use the fleeting hope of the Spero Kingdom to awaken the Demon Lord.