Chapter 108. Subjugating Arioc (1)
─ Look at those guards. They couldn’t stop them even once.
─ Aren’t they moving way too fast?
─ Exactly. There’s no way demons should be getting steamrolled this easily.
─ If Pandemonium were that sloppy, humanity would’ve beaten them long ago.
After landing at the port, Kang Yujin’s group advanced at high speed.
Of course, Pandemonium soldiers and civilian demons were scattered throughout the area, but none of them managed to slow the group down.
Sometimes they avoided them by taking forest paths or mountain trails.
Other times, they launched a preemptive strike, wiped the demons out, and passed through the area without a care.
[A-rank Constellation ‘Third Son of the War God’ has donated 1,000,000 Origin Power.]
[Comment: It looks like they’re identifying areas with weak demon patrols and breaking through there. Am I right?]
A Constellation sent a donation along with a question.
Number 49 immediately smiled and answered.
“‘Third Son of the War God,’ you are absolutely correct! That’s right! If they had fought Pandemonium’s patrols head-on, they never could’ve advanced this quickly! Because only a small team is infiltrating and slipping through areas with weak security, they’re able to move this fast!”
─ Oh! He got it right!
─ As expected of Lord Guan’s son.
Even without seeing him, it was easy to imagine the smug expression on the ‘Third Son of the War God.’
His Origin Power was probably increasing in real time.
After all, he had given the correct answer in front of more than a thousand Constellations.
─ Since there are only four of them infiltrating, I guess it isn’t impossible.
─ Wait. How did they figure out where security was weak?
─ Exactly. That’s strange too.
─ It’s not like these guys are professional infiltration agents.
─ Have Kang Yujin and his group ever shown this kind of ability before?
[A-rank Constellation ‘Hunting Giant’ has donated 1,000,000 Origin Power.]
[Comment: I’m curious how they figured out which areas had weak security.]
“‘Hunting Giant,’ thank you for the donation. But that’s not something I can just reveal! And if I explained everything, it wouldn’t be fun anymore, so please try to figure it out yourselves.”
─ Oh, so he doesn’t answer everything.
─ Well, it’d be boring if he told us every detail.
─ That guy just threw away a million points.
─ An A-rank Constellation can afford a million points, can’t they?
─ Stop assuming every A-rank Constellation is swimming in Origin Power. A-ranks can be poor too.
─ Listen to this rich bastard complaining.
While the chat continued, Kang Yujin’s group began assaulting a fortress.
It was a fortress Pandemonium had constructed after taking control of the area, but Kang Yujin’s group had already infiltrated its interior without much difficulty.
─ But do they really need to fight here?
─ Right. If they’re heading to Sariwon, they can just ignore this place and go around.
─ Doesn’t that contradict the explanation from earlier? They’re deliberately attacking the place with the largest concentration of enemies.
─ You people only understand half the situation. If their only objective were to reach Sariwon and eliminate Phenex, then bypassing this place would be enough. But if they want to damage Pandemonium enough to prevent them from marching on the Capital Region, then they have to deal with this fortress.
─ Ah, right. Arioc is here.
─ Arioc? Who’s that?
─ The demon at the port mentioned him earlier.
─ He’s basically number two in the northern territories after Phenex. In an emergency, he has the authority to move the legions in Phenex’s place.
─ Killing Phenex won’t mean much if Arioc is still around.
─ Exactly. They have to take Arioc out too.
The chat was correct.
The purpose of attacking this fortress was to eliminate Arioc.
His position was slightly lower than Phenex’s, but Arioc was still a formidable high-ranking demon.
He would not be an easy opponent.
Still, the surprise attack had succeeded.
There was no way they had expected only four Contractors to invade, and the fortress was currently in complete chaos.
If Kang Yujin’s group could penetrate deep into the fortress and eliminate Arioc, they would inflict enormous damage on Pandemonium’s forces in the north.
“And now, the long-awaited battle to subjugate Arioc begins! What kind of performance will Kang Yujin and his companions show us? Stay tuned!”
Number 49 shouted enthusiastically as he checked the steadily rising viewer count.
“The information was accurate, Kang Yujin.”
“Yeah.”
Kang Yujin’s group had currently split into two teams to attack the fortress.
Seok Taejun and Lee Jukheon were making as much noise as possible in places where the other demons were likely to notice them.
Meanwhile, Kang Yujin and Joo Minha were using internal shortcuts and other hidden routes to rapidly penetrate into the deepest part of the fortress.
The plan was to eliminate Arioc quickly and escape before the fortress could properly respond.
“To provide information this detailed... It’s impressive.”
"..."
The information about the fortress had been provided by Ma Taesu.
Of course, Ma Taesu himself hadn’t created it.
The intelligence had come from Belial, who stood behind him.
Belial...
Kang Yujin felt like he shouldn’t casually say that name aloud, so he only thought it.
He’s a strange demon.
Belial was said to be an extremely wicked demon.
He was also one of Pandemonium’s commanders, one of those who had invaded this world.
And yet he was helping humans.
He had given them detailed information about how the demons in the northern region were deployed.
He had even provided the exact internal structure of this fortress.
He obviously isn’t doing this for humanity...
The fact that Ma Taesu had joined hands with Belial was suspicious too.
In the past, Ma Taesu had said:
“We currently trade with Pandemonium, but only for practical reasons. Someday, I still dream of bringing Pandemonium down.”
Yet Ma Taesu had a close relationship with Belial, a Demon God-class demon of Pandemonium.
Was this really just an alliance based on mutual benefit?
Still, He ordered us to carry this out...
The Nameless One.
The Constellation who had recently revealed the name ‘Nameless King.’
He had ordered Kang Yujin to accept the proposal from Ma Taesu and Belial.
For Kang Yujin, whose loyalty ran deep, there was no reason to disobey.
The Nameless King must have gone through his own verification process and concluded that Ma Taesu and Belial could be trusted.
So Kang Yujin wasn’t suspicious enough to reject the mission.
Still...
he was curious.
“There.”
Joo Minha pointed toward a place known as the audience chamber.
According to the information Belial had provided, Arioc should be waiting inside.
“Apparently, when intruders appear, high-ranking demons consider it proper etiquette to wait in a place like that.”
“What a pointless sense of aesthetics.”
Kang Yujin raised his flail as he answered.
There were quite a few demons stationed in front of the audience chamber.
“Could they be Arioc’s personal guard?”
“Personal guard or not, it doesn’t matter. We just...”
“Smash them all.”
“Don’t steal my line.”
After replying to Joo Minha, Kang Yujin charged.
Boom!
The door to the audience chamber shattered with a deafening crash.
Arioc frowned as he looked at the chaos outside.
“Do humans not know how to knock?”
