Standing on the ramparts, Ash looked down with cold eyes.
The sight of the enemy commander rushing alone towards the ramparts was visible.
"..."
A faint sigh escaped from Ash's lips, arms crossed.
In fact, Ash had not chosen to delay the battle.
'There was no choice but to delay.'
Choosing any method other than delaying would inevitably result in significant damage.
The Fallen Knights, like the vampire legion they encountered in their first year, were a monstrous legion that benefited from combat.
In battle, the human side would suffer casualties, and the Fallen Knights would resupply.
The same was true in the game. Engaging in battle only ended up feeding the hunger gauge of the Fallen Knights.
In the game, there was no way to avoid combat, so you had to fight in a form of a quick decision, crying while eating mustard.
Even then, the damage snowballed.
But this is reality.
As soon as Ash encountered the Fallen Knights, he switched tactics to a delaying action.
'If we don't fight and just drag out time, they'll destroy themselves due to the curse of hunger.'
Avoiding battle if possible was the best strategy.
Eventually, the battle with the Fallen Knights boiled down to 'how long they could go without initiating combat and dragging out time.'
And, as a result,
All the Fallen Knights, except for the legion commander Pendragon, ended up annihilating each other by cannibalizing one another.
Clatter, clatter, clatter-!
And now, the last of the Fallen Knights was rushing towards the ramparts.
Ash's eyes, gazing at the enemy commander, shone coolly.
***
Clatter, clatter, clatter-!
Leading a corpse horse, Pendragon charged.
Towards the firmly built enemy ramparts.
He didn't know the odds. He had no idea how many enemies there were or how much longer he could fight; his mind was too exhausted to calculate.
He was just hungry.
So hungry he thought he might go mad.
'...No.'
Is this really hunger?
What exactly is he craving?
What had he lost, and what was he constantly searching for by rummaging through the corpses of others...
"...Hah."
A hollow laugh escaped Pendragon's lips.
It was too late to turn back and ponder over such things.
He just wanted to eat, chew, tear apart. He wanted to fight, to die, and to kill.
How long had he charged, repeating those thoughts?
Now, as the ramparts became significantly closer.
"Hmm?"
A familiar sense of dj vu overwhelmed Pendragon. He squinted suspiciously and looked straight ahead.
There was no interception from the ramparts.
Just like on the first day of the sortie at the forward base... They did not attack.
"...What."
Pendragon uttered in a dazed voice.
There had been no enemy forces at the forward base then. They had all fled and run away long before. So, naturally, there was no interception.
But now, there should be an enemy city beyond this point - there should be people.
And the ramparts were densely packed with armed soldiers.
Yet, the atmosphere was eerily calm.
As if they didn't care whether Pendragon invaded or not, it was utterly silent.
"Why aren't they intercepting?"
The Fallen King ground his teeth.
"Why won't they try to kill me!"
Even as the monster shouted, humans did not respond.
They just looked on coldly.
Pendragon was genuinely perplexed.
He was familiar with fearful gazes. The curses and insults of those about to die by his hand were like seasoning on meat. The resentful gazes were even sweet like dessert.
But now, what about the gazes of the humans on those ramparts.
They were indifferent.
As if he posed no threat at all, no...
As if he wasn't even worth dealing with.
"Why-!"
Pendragon screamed.
He was already within the range of the rampart's artillery.
But the human soldiers just glared at Pendragon, without any reaction.
"Hurry up and fire your cannons at me, send arrows and bullets flying! Put in all your effort to stop me!"
"..."
"Give me war! Give me the battlefield! Give me life! To me! Hurry-!"
Pendragon screamed as he charged towards the front of the ramparts.
"I'll let you kill me, so let me kill you-!"
And then.
"No."
A cold answer came from the ramparts.
"We will not fight you."
Pendragon looked up in surprise, and there stood Ash, expressionless.
"We will not exchange even a single blow with you."
"What..."
Pendragon's eyes, bewildered, soon flickered with rage.
"Fine, then I'll force you to tear apart!"
The ramparts were within reach.
Pendragon prepared to kick the horse's flank. He planned to leap up, embed his man-eating sword Excannibal into the ramparts, and climb up in one go.
However.
"That's far enough."
Ash waved his hand lightly, and
Ting-!
The sound of magic being activated was heard.
A halo appeared in mid-air, and space shattered into pieces- Pendragon's body was drained of magic power.
"This is...!"
[Elemental Disassembly].
The ultimate skill used by the mage, Junior, standing next to Ash.
With a series of cracks, the corpse horse, forcibly animated by clustered magic power, shattered into pieces. Pendragon, who fell from his horse, quickly regained his balance and, undeterred, continued to rush towards the ramparts.
"If you had minions, it might be a different story, but alone, you."
Ash looked down at Pendragon as if he were a bug and spat out coldly.
"There's no need to fight."
"...?!"
"Fallen King Pendragon."
Ash smirked, then asked.
"Are you hungry?"
"What?"
"Of course, you must be hungry. You Fallen Knights are always hungry, no, craving human flesh, with your brains fucked up."
Kiiing-
Locking eyes with Pendragon, Ash prepared [Gaze of Command].
"Then eat the meat that's right there."
Ash pointed with his hand,
"There it is. The human flesh you love to eat."
It was Pendragon himself.
"...?!"
Pendragon, slowly realizing the meaning of those words, was mercilessly subjected to [Gaze of Command] by Ash,
"Ash 'Born Hater' Everblack commands-"
Commanded.
"-Devour yourself, monster."
Kiiiing!
A blue flash sparkled, and [Gaze of Command] successfully executed.
[Elemental Disassembly] reduced the opponent's magic power to negative, and [Gaze of Command], a form of mind control, was linked.
This combination had never failed before, a sure-win strategy, and it worked perfectly again this time.
And Pendragon, the target, had no choice but to follow the command issued by Ash.
Suddenly!
Right in front of the ramparts, Pendragon stopped,
"Uh, argh...?!"
He lifted his trembling hand.
And then,
Crunch!
He opened his mouth wide and bit into his own hand.
The fingers to the back of the Fallen King's hand were chewed up and swallowed in an instant.
Blood and flesh splattered in a grotesque scene. The soldiers couldn't bear to watch any longer and turned their eyes away, but Ash watched the scene without blinking.
"Cr, crrr, crgh..."
Despite feeling terrible pain, Pendragon realized at the same time.
It tastes good.
Delicious.
That something so delicious was so close...
After being left alone for so long, the curse of hunger that had been suppressed took over Pendragon's thoughts in an instant. Pendragon began to devour his own body like one possessed.
Chew, chew, chew...
"..."
Looking down at that dreadful sight, Ash suddenly thought.
There's a story in Greek mythology about a man named Erysichthon.
Cursed with insatiable hunger as punishment for insulting the gods, he squandered his entire fortune on food and ate and ate until...
He ended up chewing up his own body, leaving only his chattering teeth behind. Such an old tale.
[Gaze of Command] quickly lost its effect, and [Elemental Disassembly] also evaporated and disappeared.
Had Pendragon stopped harming himself at this point, at most he would have suffered some injuries to his arm.
However, Pendragon, already mad with a craving for human flesh, continued to tear and eat his own body.
"If one covets the flesh of others, they should be prepared to lose their own flesh as well."
Ash remarked quietly.
"Enjoy your last supper, monster."
How much time had passed?
Only after Pendragon had eaten all the flesh within reach of his teeth did he stop. By then, he was no longer able to maintain even the appearance of a human.
"So this is how it felt."
Lying on the field in front of the ramparts.
With his mouth stained red, whether from swallowed or vomited blood, Pendragon laughed emptily.
"This is how those devoured by me felt."
"..."
"It's strange, so strange, truly strange..."
In the sea of blood he had swallowed and spilled, Pendragon murmured in a dazed voice.
"No matter how much is torn away, it still hurts... No matter how much I eat, I'm still hungry..."
"..."
"Come, come here. Let's all..."
The corrupted voice of the Fallen King gradually faded away.
"Let's all sit down... and eat dinner..."
Pendragon could no longer speak.
The end of monsters who boasted of destroying the world was always vain and miserable, and Pendragon was no exception.
"...Sigh."
After looking down at the deceased enemy legion commander for a while, Ash waved his hand.
"End of situation. Disband the soldiers."
"Yes, my lord."
"Dispose of the enemy's corpse according to the monster disposal manual. Burn everything without leaving a trace, and retrieve anything useful. ...And."
Ash's hand, climbed up on the ramparts, clenched firmly.
"Dispatch a party to the chapel in Lake Kingdom's Zone 8."
"..."
"Retrieve the bodies of the six who fell first. So they can be given a proper funeral."
"By your command."
Lucas bowed his head.
"I will follow your command, my lord."
***
"..."
Imp legion commander Lowe was reading the report of this attack.
"To think that the Fallen Knights were defeated without a single battle being fought."
The eyes of the lesser demon were utterly serious.
"No, rather the opposite. Because engaging in battle would have been disadvantageous, all means were employed to avoid combat..."
Thump.
Closing the report, Lowe stroked his chin with his small hand.
"...And they knew the fatal weakness of the Fallen Knights beforehand."
The fact that the Fallen Knights suffered from this curse of hunger was unknown even to other monsters in the Lake Kingdom.
But Ash, as if he obviously knew this weakness... based his tactics on the premise of the curse borne by the Fallen Knights.
Had Ash not known about this curse, he would have spread a defensive line at the forward base as he had done before, and the Fallen Knights would have marched north without supply issues.
The most crucial element of war. Information.
In this regard, Ash was overwhelmingly ahead.
Looking at the records of past battles, it was clear he understood all the strengths and weaknesses of every monster legion.
'At this rate, sending any legion would make no difference.'
The guardian of humanity would dismantle the strengths of the monsters, amplify their weaknesses, and find a way to defeat them somehow.
So far, the guardian of humanity had never allowed monsters to pass beyond their front lines.
Continuing in the same manner would only lead to failure. Lowe realized this after three attempts.
"So, what will you do next?"
A subordinate, peering from the side, tilted his head and asked. Lowe sighed deeply before responding.
"We just need to cover our weaknesses and amplify our strengths."
"How?"
"It's simple."
Lowe snatched up the royal scepter lying next to his desk. Then, he grinned.
"Send two legions out at once!"