Chapter 11 It’s War!
After years of childhood friendship and shared feelings, they finally decided to take the next step and went to submit their marriage registration at the city hall… But on the way, a truck suddenly swerved towards them. The young man shielded his beloved and lost his life in the process.
(……What is this place!?)
When he came to, the young man found himself in a dim, shabby room.
It wasn’t until months later, when his consciousness fully returned and his vision cleared, that he realized just how shabby the room truly was.
The young man, who should have been an adult, had somehow become an infant.
What had happened to him? Why was he a baby now? At first, he thought he might have been in an accident and was in a hospital. With his eyesight gone, his body unable to move, and his voice incapable of forming words, he despaired, thinking he had suffered some severe disability.
But his despair was only just beginning.
It took several more months for him to understand—or rather, accept—the truth: he had died and been reborn.
He couldn’t understand the language. The people who seemed to be his parents weren’t Japanese. He knew nothing… The only world he knew was the dim light cast by a lamp that smelled of animal fat, with no electricity in sight.
But none of that mattered to the young man.
What had happened to his childhood sweetheart, his wife? Was she safe? Was she grieving his death? What would she do now that she was alone?
He wanted to return. To his beloved wife’s side…
Every day, his anxiety grew. Even if he cried and screamed like a baby, no one understood him. And then, one day, his fate took another drastic turn.
That day, his parents took him outside for the first time. Under the blood-red sunset, the first he’d seen in this new life, they arrived at a place that resembled a ruined church. Underground.
The dimly lit basement. The overwhelming stench of animal fat. The black altar he saw, and the faint smell of decay mixed with the animal fat—it was the smell of blood. The young man paled.
This looked like an altar for summoning an evil god. He thought this as he looked at his parents in this life. And then he realized—the way they looked at him was the same way his parents in his past life had looked at others. Finally, he understood.
He had been born to be a sacrifice to fulfill these two’s desires.
And then the ritual began.
Around ten men and women, dressed in robes like those of fairy-tale wizards, began chanting something that sounded like incantations.
Though he tried to resist, as a baby, there was nothing he could do.
Why had it come to this? Did the gods hate him so much?
Had he committed some great sin?
All he wanted was to return to his beloved wife. Nothing else mattered.
Even if it meant selling his soul to an evil god, he wanted to return. He cried out in a voice that couldn’t form words.
Around him, something resembling a magic circle began to glow as if by magic. Just as the man he thought was his father raised a dagger to strike him down… he heard a voice.
[──How insolent. Did you really think you could summon me with such a meager offering?]
The blade stopped just before it reached the young man. In fact, everyone around him froze as if time itself had stopped.
In this frozen moment, only he could move. The voice spoke to him.
[Well, well… You’re not a soul from this world, are you? To think the strongest soul here is that of a baby. How amusing. Perhaps I’ll indulge you on a whim.]
The voice took the form of a black shadow, peering down at the infant.
Even though it was just a shadow, the young man understood that this being was something far beyond him—a supernatural existence of immense power.
[You’ve made a wish to me. Then, let’s make a contract. But a soul like yours isn’t enough to pay the price to cross into another world. What will you offer me?]
The young man would have given anything—even his soul—to return to his wife.
But if this was a different world from the one he was born in, and if his soul alone wasn’t enough to return to his wife’s side, what could he do?
[Well, what will it be? The answer is right beside you.]
At the mocking tone of the voice, the young man looked around…
Without hesitation, he answered: he would offer all the souls present here.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Under the command of Geass, the strategist of the demon army who had been delegated authority by the Demon King Hevrat, the scattered demon forces, which had been attacked by unknown entities, regrouped and began their invasion once more.
Their total number was approximately 600,000. Even though the majority were human-demon hybrids, including civilians who weren’t soldiers, the number of deserters was surprisingly low.
When they had left the demon realm, their numbers had exceeded a million. Even accounting for deserters, where had nearly half of them gone?
“Run!! It’s a disgrace for the Beast King Galus’s Beast Demon Division to be late to the battlefield!”
The disappearance of the Black Princess Killian’s Phantom Demon Division, along with the confusion caused by conflicting information, had delayed Galus’s Beast Demon Division significantly as they had to spend time searching and remaining vigilant.
Even within the Beast Demon Division, some units sent out for reconnaissance, enemy detection, and food gathering had not returned. The once 200,000-strong force had dwindled to around 150,000.
This was causing Galus to grow impatient and irritable. Hence the reckless speed of their advance. But even after hearing about the disappearance of the Phantom Demon Division and the attacks by unknown entities, Galus dismissed it as weak soldiers fleeing, failing to grasp the gravity of the situation.
Something was lurking in the forest…
Whether it was the instinct of beasts, the more sensitive among them were terrified by the deep darkness of the forest. Some quickened their pace as if being chased, others slowed down in caution, and some tried to avoid danger by straying from the route. The once-unified Beast Demon Division began to scatter once more.
And then…
It began abruptly.
“…………”
The Beast Demon Division, composed of many who were nocturnal and had good night vision, did not stop even at night.
One of the soldiers felt an unease, as if the comrade running beside him had suddenly turned into something indescribable.
That couldn’t be. They had shared meals and had been talking just moments ago. But now, he was too afraid to even call out to him.
Still, to dispel his own unease, he mustered the courage to approach. And then…
“Hyuug…”
He heard a muffled, small scream. When he looked, the comrade beside him was eating something wet and lumpy.
“…What’s that? Did you hear a scream?”
[……Huh?]
The voice sounded off. The way of speaking was strange. It should have been the voice of a comrade he knew, but now it didn’t sound like a living being’s voice at all.
“Hyuug…” “Gueh…” “Ga…” Small, intermittent screams began to be heard. As the soldiers stopped to be cautious, the comrade who had been running beside them also stopped and quietly offered what they were holding.
[Calm down, eat this… It’s delicious.]
“You… you…”
What was offered was a bloodied lump of flesh.
“Hyuug──”
At the sight of the comrade’s cloudy, lifeless eyes and blood-streaked face, the soldier instinctively thrust his spear.
The spear’s tip tore into the neck of the man who had once been his comrade. But the man just grinned with those cloudy eyes and bit into the soldier’s neck, greedily devouring him alive.
There were other soldiers around. But the same thing was happening all over the Beast Demon Division.
“Gyyaaahh!?”
“What’s going on!?”
“Enemies!?”
“Calm down!! Are you even soldiers of the Beast Demon Division!?”
Galus shouted at the soldiers who were beginning to panic.
“Bring me my weapon!!”
Galus reached out to the attendants behind him. But what was placed in his hand was not the massive weapon he had entrusted to them, but a bloodied, severed head.
“Wha!? Gil…?”
He reflexively tried to throw it away, but then he realized it was the head of one of his attendants. Galus glared at the attendant who had handed him the head, and the attendant grinned with yellow, cloudy eyes.
“…Gorlo…?”
The face was undoubtedly that of Gorlo, the beastman who had served Galus for many years. But the body below the neck was bloated like a drowned corpse, oozing a slimy mucus that rotted the ground beneath. Galus realized the truth.
“…You damn demon!! You’ve taken over Gorlo’s body!!”
With that shout, countless demons revealed themselves all over the army, mercilessly tearing apart and devouring the demon soldiers.
Even ten soldiers couldn’t take down a single demon. Only Galus himself was able to fight the demons to some extent.
Low or lower-class demons couldn’t easily possess intelligent beings, no matter the opportunity. So the demons that had appeared here must be──
“Damn it all!!”
Galus swung his sword, covered in blood.
But the difference in strength was clear. Though the demons were fewer in number, their very existence, spreading primal fear, made the demon soldiers unable to fight properly, and their numbers dwindled. Five, then ten monstrous demons closed in on Galus.
“──!?”
Amidst this, Galus turned at a horrifying presence. He saw something in the form of a beautiful girl, with a cold, emotionless smile, raising a golden sword.
[──Nya──]
With a sound that drained all energy, the Beast King Galus was bisected, along with the sword he had barely managed to raise.
Nia, collected his soul without a hint of emotion, then clapped her hands and turned to the demons.
“Alrighty~, everyone, you’ve all got your hosts now, right? Then let’s work hard to find our master, okay~”
At Nia’s cheerful tone, the demons who had just slaughtered tens of thousands of demon soldiers snapped to attention and saluted.
These demons were Greater Demons summoned from [Lost Eden] by Nia and her fellow servants to search for Eurushia.
Around two thousand of them. The senior demons who were strictly selected to work for Eurushia obtained vessels to manifest, donning makeshift glasses made from seaweed and draping strands of kelp around their necks. Those with names exchanged small slips of paper.
Having their souls connected as subordinates allowed them to sense their master’s safety, but they also hoped to increase their forces usable outside, leading to this outrageous act.
Thus, unbeknownst to Eurushia, the fates of the demonic and human races…and of one former “youth” became distorted.
TLNOTE:
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