Chapter 4 - The General's Dilemma

"Mira! What's with all the ruckus! Is that a human!?" The tall and imposing female demon knight yelled at Mira, the mage cat-beastkin who had just passed her.

Before the lady knight could pursue Mira, another voice halted her in her tracks. "General Bella, please wait!" Shouted another female demon knight, out of breath as she rushed to catch up with the now-known General Bella. Behind her trailed a few demon knights, also out of breath from following suit.

"Please wait, ma'am..." the female knight panted, struggling to catch her breath. "Our meeting still hasn't finished yet, ma'am..."

General Bella glanced back at Mira, who had already vanished into the distance. "Tsk," she clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Alright... let's go back! For now..." she ordered the female knight and the other demon warriors.

They promptly returned to the room where they had been conducting their meeting. The room boasted a massive table in the center, upon which rested an equally large map depicting a vast continent. The area designated as the 'Demon Kingdom' on the map was strewn with pieces and tokens, likely indicating the positions of armies or troops, some bearing unique designs denoting special figures. In a particular, a large token that resemble the Demon Queen Anna Bael's figure was sitting on what appeared to be the Demon Kingdom's Castle. This room was none other than the 'war room,' where military higher-ups convened to discuss matters related to warfare. Presently, several figures were already gathered there, including demons that were exuding strong presences.

"Welcome back, General Bella," greeted one of the demons, a bald, large red-skinned man with a single horn atop his head, as he saluted her. The others in the room followed suit, offering salutes to the general.

"At ease," General Bella instructed the assembled demons. "I apologize for the delay. Let's continue with the meeting."

"Yes, ma'am!" acknowledged one of the demon higher-ups, a harpy with wings in place of arms and bird-like legs. "As we were discussing before the interruption... there have been reports of Ragnis Kingdom activity near our border." The harpy turned to the other participants in the war room. "Usually, these activities consist of peasants or hunters foraging and hunting games near our border, and they wouldn't be a major cause for concern. However, recently, there have been numerous sorties of Ragnis's Knight armies instead..."

The war room fell into silence upon hearing the harpy's report. She then used her magic to levitate some tokens onto the large map, placing them on certain spots between the Demon Kingdom's and the Ragnis Kingdom's border lines. "According to the reports, these were the areas where their armies were frequently seen."

The demon knights stationed in the war room, observing the meeting and the large map, began to clamor with each other, discussing the positioning of the Ragnis armies on their border, while General Bella sank into deep thought upon the information. However, the harpy wasn't finished placing tokens on the map. She then levitated a few more tokens to the map, and the demons were shocked at what they were seeing.

"Hold on... are those...?!" exclaimed one of the demon knights.

"The Heroes?!" another demon declared, their tone tinged with disbelief.

"The heroes are starting their move again?!" echoed another demon, their voice filled with urgency.

"Wait, is that token what I think it is?" questioned yet another demon, seeing a particular token figure on the board map.

"The hero Yulia...!" gasped another, recognizing the significance of the token figure.

Clamoring between the demon knights reached its peak, but the higher-ups surrounding the large table were deep in thought upon seeing the information that one of the heroes, Yulia, was on the battlefield. They knew full well the implications of her presence. A massive heroes invasion was about to happen.

"SILENCE!" General Bella yelled, having had enough of the demon knights' chatter. Every demon knight immediately hushed their voices. She then directed her attention to one of the higher-ups, a brunnete female lamia; a demon with the lower torso of a serpent. "Lieutenant Boa, what is the condition of our armies stationed near the human armies' position?" She asked the lamia.

The lamia pondered for a moment, then reported to the general, "Fort Joaquin is currently under maintenance from one of the heroes' attacks a month ago. Fort Millipede has finished theirs but is currently resupplying. And then there's Fort—!" Before the lamia could finish her report, a loud bell sound rang from outside the Castle.

The demons inside the war room recognized the meaning behind the loud bell sound: the heroes armies had begun their attack.

Suddenly, a harpy burst through the balcony of the war room, alerting everyone in the meeting. "Emergency! The heroes' armies have reached Penelope city!" The harpy informed everyone of the current situation. The result of this information was another clamoring and even panic between the demons in the war room.

"They already reached Penelope?!"

"Impossible! What happened with Fort Envilous and Fort Clawden? They managed to break through them?!"

"It's too quick! Aren't those forts two of our most heavily enforced forts?!"

Their clamoring was loud enough to reach the outside of the war room, causing those who overheard it to panic as well.

"ENOUGH!" General Bella yelled again, putting an end to their clamoring. Her loud yell managed to silence everyone in the war room.

"Everyone, prepare for battle. Lieutenant Akai, go and bring reinforcements to Penelope." She ordered the red oni demon.

"Yes, ma'am!" The red oni man, Lieutenant Akai, saluted the General and then immediately left the war room.

"Major Kite, launch the rest of the Harpy Scout Force and scout the situation of the battlefield. Assist our ground unit if possible." She ordered the harpy, now known as Major Kite.

"Yes, ma'am!" Major Kite saluted to the General. She looked back at the harpy that delivered the emergency message and they both nodded with each other. Then both of the harpies took off from the balcony, leaving the war room.

"Lieutenant Boa, go secure our supply and reserves. Assist our armies on the front." She ordered the lamia.

"Yes, ma'am!" Lieutenant Boa saluted the General. She then slithered away and left the war room as fast as possible.

"The rest of you! Evacuate our citizens to the bunker under our Castle and then immediately we are to prepared ourselves for confrontation with the heroes' armies!" She ordered the rest of the demon knights in the war room.

"Yes, ma'am" Everyone of the demon knights saluted to General Bella and immediately left the war room in a hurried. General Bella followed suit leaving the war room, but she went to the direction of throne room to quickly informed the Demon Queen about the situation.

On her way to the throne room, she saw that many of the demons inside the Castle were much in a hurried themselves to prepared for the heroes' invasion. But, she also met two particular individuals on her way.

Two demons were discussing with each other. These demons were the bespectacled woman with her disheveled look and the lady knight that wore the quite scantily-clad armor.

"Ugh... It's Bella..." The bespectacled woman muttered in annoyance.

"Ah, Bella-chan~" The alluring lady knight greeted the General quite casually.

"You two. Just in time." General Bella stopped her advance and approached the two demons. She then directed her attention to the bespectacled woman, "Hecate, tell me about the research of Holy Kingdom's 'Divine Shield Protection' that your team has been researching." She ordered the now known Hecate.

"Ugh... The research is almost completed. We have managed reverse engineering it and create our own version, 'Demon Shield Protection'." Hecate explained to General Bella, "But we haven't tested how durable it is. It should be enough to thwart most attacks from the common heroes..."

"What about from the hero Yulia?"

"... It's gonna break in an instant..."

"... Alright, it's better than nothing. Go set it up for the Castle and if possible, for Penelope City," General Bella ordered Hecate.

"Ugh... fine," Hecate replied begrudgingly and left, most likely heading to her research laboratory.

General Bella then directed her attention to the remaining demon, the scantily-clad lady knight. Though she had to pause for a moment. "Roxane... please gather your "squadron" and assist the frontline," Bella said, a hint of blush coloring her face. She knew the nature of Roxane's "squadron", but she wasn't entirely comfortable with some of their "methods" or "specialties". Nevertheless, she recognized their effectiveness as formidable soldiers.

"Okay~" Roxane mocked a salute to General Bella. "Though before I go... did you see the human that Mira was dragging off, Bella-chan?" she asked with a mischievous tone.

"No... Mira ran off with the human before I could question her about them."

"Ah~, too bad~. Oh well, then I'll leave you at that. See you later, Bella-chan~." Roxane spread out her devil wings and began to levitate, swiftly flying away, leaving the General slightly perplexed by the alluring lady knight's behavior.

The general then continued her journey to the throne room to inform the Demon Queen about the situation. She finally reached the large double door entrance of the throne room and immediately burst through it.

"Your Majesty! The heroes' army is approaching!" General Bella shouted to the occupants of the throne room.