Chapter 1342: Unceasing Advantage

“What’s the situation?” Tilly asked.

“The demons that attacked the convoy are almost entirely wiped out. The rest are fleeing.” Sylvie lowered her scope. “It’s our win.”

“A pity I never got to do anything.” Andrea leaned back with a shrug that managed to suggest both disappointment and resignation at once. “Looks like the grand demon lord from last time is still nursing his wounds.”

Seagull had spent the entire battle holding station in the clouds, watching for Hackzord or any other Senior Demon. Against enemies with abnormal abilities, Andrea’s close-range sniping remained the most reliable answer — but only if the shot could actually land.

Sylvie felt relief where Andrea felt frustration. She understood why. This operation had demanded that Seagull move with the convoy rather than lie in wait as it had during the Sky Lord ambush. Hackzord hadn’t sensed them that time because the plane hadn’t been present at all; she had directed the battle through the Sigil of Listening. Today they were visible — or at least traceable, if Hackzord arrived with a fresh Eye Demon. The calculus was simple: a Senior Demon appearing alone could be shot. A Senior Demon with escort would almost certainly spot Seagull before Andrea could fire, and what followed that was harder to predict.

Their absence was the better outcome. Everyone back. Mission done. There was nothing more worth being glad of.

“Better that nothing came of it.” Tilly shook her head. “If Hackzord had actually arrived, the convoy wouldn’t have left in one piece.” She tilted the glider through the cloudbase, banking west. “Now that victory is confirmed — let’s assess the battlefield before we go.”

Sylvie had done this often enough. Without obstacles to stop her, a cursory survey cost only a little magic. She extended her sight across the slope, read the shapes of things, counted.

Then she stopped.

“Two thousand — no.” She took a breath. “Close to three thousand.”

“Three thousand?” Wendy’s voice cracked with the number. “How could there be so many?”

“Those Mad Demons weren’t charging the convoy.” Sylvie looked toward the distant mountain slope, toward the hundreds of small perforations she could now read as entrances — holes bored to reduce Mist expenditure, each one sealing a chamber below. “They were scattering. In every direction.”

Most of the enemy had been sleeping underground, held in reserve until they were needed. When the fortress Monstrous Beast collapsed and its Mist supply cut out, the Red Mist dissipated faster than they could outrun it. These demons hadn’t surged out to destroy their attackers. They had surged out on instinct, the way a drowning creature lunges toward air — driven by the absence of the Mist they needed to breathe, scrambling downhill toward Sand City and Sedimentation Bay, toward any supply region still pumping.

Neither city was close enough.

The world the Red Mist had claimed — now clean, crystalline, the cold air cutting straight to the snow — had become a death-trap. They fell in a spreading ring at the base of the hill, one after another, limbs going still. A few wore small gas tanks on their backs and might reach the treeline. Most lay where they dropped.

The general staff had predicted this. Graycastle could not put a God’s Stone of Retaliation in every soldier’s hands, and the demons couldn’t fit a gas tank and breathing apparatus on every Mad Demon. The troops they sent into heavy combat were equipped. The ones left in reserve, holding territory, were not.

Two days later and it would have been a different battle entirely.

But they hadn’t been two days later. The First Army had counterattacked the morning after the retreat from Sedimentation Bay, recruiting drivers from outside the regular ranks to field enough trucks. It had been a decisive choice — which meant it had to have been made quickly, under pressure, without the luxury of certainty.

“After this battle,” Tilly said, with a curl at the corner of her mouth, “I imagine the name Pearl of the Northern Region is going to spread through all four kingdoms.”

With fewer than a hundred soldiers, they had killed close to three thousand demons. One steam-powered truck lost. Two Fires of Heaven. No soldiers dead.

The news hit the First Army headquarters at Cage Mountain and the voices in the room got louder. Even in written reports, something changed — the register of the words, the confidence in how facts were laid out. Victory has its own grammar.

Edith showed none of it. By the day the reports arrived, she had already submitted the next plan of attack.

Iron Axe approved it immediately.

The truck convoy was still on the road back when it received orders to divert — heading not for Cage Mountain but for the western pass. A water resupply truck carrying refills for the Magic Cubes met them halfway and turned to join the column. The Aerial Knights flew back to Thorn Town for a short turnaround, then took off again and made the western pass airport before nightfall.

The following noon, after driving through the night, the convoy crossed into the Kingdom of Wolfheart’s western territory. Three more trucks were lost to night driving — ruts, unseen potholes, the ordinary punishment of roads in the dark — but the remainder reached their target and attacked another fortress-like Monstrous Beast without pause.

The demons had expected to be targeted. They had not expected the counterattack team to cross the entire width of Wolfheart in under two days. The second Fortress Beast had only just retreated inside Gust Castle when the column reached the ten-kilometer mark. With no peripheral defense in place, the trucks drove inside the envelope and unloaded four Longsong Cannons before the Devilbeast patrol could mass to stop them.

The Aerial Knights hunted. Sylvie read the field from above; Tilly coordinated the responses. The new pilots — most with less than six months of combat — came close to replicating the first battle step for step. When the demons sent their air troops against the artillery, the Aerial Knights hit them from above, broke their formation, and the god’s Punishment Witches on the ground handled whatever reached close quarters.

By the third day the demons had begun expanding their outer defenses, sending troops to wreck the packed-earth roads between cities. But the roads ran for hundreds of kilometers and couldn’t be destroyed fully. While steam-powered trucks circled the approaches to Sand City — drawing eyes, pulling attention — twenty-five Fires of Heaven skirted the Impassable Mountain Range and struck the Red Mist supply lines directly, raking Metalstone Ridge from the air.

Two aerial engagements lost. A battlefront grown too long. Devilbeast reserves depleted and slow to replenish. The effects bled together and became a pattern: by the time enough demons gathered at any one point to mount a proper response, the Aerial Knights had already vanished into the cold, howling sky.

Chapter 1342 - Unceasing

Advantage Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations “How’s the situation right now?” Tilly asked. “The enemies who tried to stop the truck convoy were almost completely wiped out, and the remaining demons in the sky are fleeing. I believe it is our win,” Sylvie replied. “It’s a pity I didn’t get a chance to participate in the end,” Andrea said with a regretful shrug. “It looks like the grand demon lord from last time suffered some serious injuries.” ‘Seagull’ had not taken part in this battle, but had been hovering in the clouds the entire time to guard against the possible appearance of Hackzord or other Senior Demons. After all, the most effective way to deal with demons like these who possess abnormal abilities was still Andrea’s close-range sniping. Unlike her dispirited companion, Sylvie was relieved. She knew that the counterattack this time was not the same as the previous ambush on the Sky Lord. Hackzord had not noticed ‘Seagull”s presence because she was not on board at the time. The situation on the battlefield was communicated via the Sigil of Listening, and even though she had been noticed by the vigilant Eye Demons the entire time, ‘Seagull’ was invisible and untraceable. This time, however, because the battle needed to take place far away from their encampment, she had to move with ‘Seagull’ in order to be able to command the entire situation. It was for this reason that if the Sky Lord appeared with a new alert Eye Demon, ‘Seagull’ would also be spotted along with her. In other words, it was only when Hackzord or other Senior Demons made an appearance alone could Andrea’s attacks actually take them by surprise. Otherwise, if the shot didn’t hit in one go, it would be difficult to predict how the battle situation would develop. So their absence was actually a good thing. After all, there was nothing more worth being happy over than successfully completing a job with everyone making it back safe and sound. “It’s better that you don’t do anything. If Hackzord really does come, I don’t think the truck convoy would have been able to retreat in one piece.” Tilly shook her head resignedly. “I’m guessing that when Edith came up with this plan, she was also betting that the mobile, vigilant Eye Demons weren’t something that could be replenished immediately after being used up, so the Sky Lord didn’t want to take the risk of venturing out.” The princess’s words basically expressed everything that Sylvie thought. She could not help but nod her head over and over again. That was the princess for you! “Oh yeah…” Tilly piloted her glider through and out of the clouds. “Now that victory is confirmed, let’s ascertain the battle outcome before we leave.” Sylvie could be said to be experienced in this sort of thing, too—without the hindrance of obstacles, she could complete a cursory survey of the battlefield with only a little magic. The moment she reached her conclusion, however, she froze. “Two thousand… No, close to three thousand…” “Three thousand?” Wendy gasped in shock. “How could there be so many?” “Those Mad Demons—” Sylvie took a deep breath as she gazed in the direction of the distant mountain slope. “They weren’t charging for the convoy before, but scattering in all directions!” It was then that she noticed the hundreds of tiny holes on the hill-top that were there evidently to decrease the expenditure of the Mist. Most of the enemy had hidden underground to be awakened when they were needed in battle. But when the fortress Monstrous Beast collapsed, the red fog quickly dispersed without a supply source, and these demons were faced with a disaster. They swarmed out not to destroy their attackers, but because they had sensed the dissipation of the Mist, emerging from their hiding places driven out of instinct and bounding wildly down the mountain, hoping to reach the next Red Mist supply region before they could no longer breathe. But both Sand City and Sedimentation Bay were too far away. The world that had been dominated by Red Mist regained its purity and clarity, but to the demons, it had become a deathtrap that they could not survive in. Before they could escape far they all dropped to the ground one after the other, spreading evenly in a circle at the foot of the mountainside. With the exception of a few Mad Demons that had small Red Mist gas tanks on them, most were silent now. The general staff was certainly right on this point—just like how Graycastle could not equip every soldier with a God’s Stone of Retaliation, the enemy could not distribute Red Mist gas tanks and breathing apparatuses to the hands of every Mad Demon. When fully equipped troops were deployed to attack human cities, only those who had originally been operating inside the Red Mist region remained to guard the place. If they had been later by two days, the situation may have been vastly different. Even if they had to recruit drivers from outside the army, they were determined to launch the counterattack on the day after the First Army withdrew from Sedimentation Bay. It must be said, this was an extremely decisive action. “After this battle, I think the name, the ‘Pearl of the Northern Region’ will spread throughout all the Four Kingdoms,” Tilly said with a curl of her lip. … With less than a hundred soldiers, they had annihilated an enemy troop of nearly three thousand, only losing one steam-powered truck and two ‘Fires of Heaven’ in the progress, there was not a single soldier casualty. The highly successful counterattack dramatically raised morale at the First Army headquarters, even when making reports, everybody’s voices were louder. But Edith didn’t reveal any sign of satisfaction at this and, virtually on same the day the news of the victory reached Cage Mountain, she delivered her next battle plan. The plan was immediately approved by the commander-in-chief, Iron Axe. The truck convoy was even ordered to divert to the western pass of Cage Mountain when they were just on their way back. A truck carrying water for the Magic Cube met the truck group halfway through, and after supplying them with enough water joined them in their journey west. The Aerial Knights returned to Thorn Town and, after a short preparation, took off again, arriving at the western pass airport before nightfall. At noon the following day, the truck convoy which had been traveling the entire day entered the west boundary of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Three more steam-powered trucks were damaged along the way, as it was harder to avoid potholes and other obstacles on the road during the night, while the rest of the trucks launched into an attack on another Fortress-like Monstrous Beast without stopping. Although the demons were aware that the humans were targeting these moving obelisks, what they did not expect was that in just a day and a half, the counterattack team had finished the journey across the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Another Fortress Beast had just retreated inside Gust Castle at this time. In the absence of peripheral protection, the truck convoy entered a ten-kilometer range while resisting the attack of some patrolling Devilbeasts before unloading four Longsong Cannons. Once again, the Aerial Knights acted as “hunters”—with the tacit cooperation of Sylvie and Tilly, the group of new soldiers who had only entered the battlefield for less than half a year almost replicated the process of the last battle. When the enemy’s flying troops made the artillery their primary target, they swooped down from above the enemy’s heads and immediately broke the opponents’ formation. The beasts were blasted to pieces by the gunfire, and the small number of demons were unable to hold the convoy back even at close quarters in the face of the God’s Punishment Witches that were guarding the convoy. By the third day, the enemy was at last beginning to expand their defences around the four cities, and was sending demons to destroy the simple hardened roads between the cities. But the entire road was several hundreds of kilometers long, and it was impossible to destroy it completely. On that day, steam-powered trucks drove through the region dozens of kilometers out from Sand City, attracting the demons’ attention. Meanwhile, twenty-five ‘Fire of Heaven’s flew around the towering Impassable Mountain Range according to plan, directly attacking the rear of Metalstone Ridge, showering the Red Mist transportation supply line with gunfire. It was also at this time that the effect of the two consecutive aerial losses and the overly long battlefront on the demons gradually emerged, and when they gathered enough of Devilbeasts to arrive at the battlefield, the Aerial Knights had already vanished in the cold and howling sky.