- A Bitter Victory

It was already in the dead of night that Drago and his reinforcements arrived at Hekel's battlefront.

Together with Edge and Arissef, Drago brought only 20,000 men. He left Brius in charge of the Southwestern Fortress with the rest of the army.

Hevan and Caylin were able to aid Hekel in fending off the wave of demons just in the nick of time. They were even able to eliminate two of the gigantic demons before the demons retreated into the fortress.

However, Hekel lost a huge portion of their battle strength, including 3 capable generals. This news made Drago worry as he thought back to the pool of blood inside the fortress.

"Where are their bodies?" Drago asked the Hekel commander hoping that his hunch was wrong.

Unfortunately, the Hekel commander frowned as he told him that their bodies were nowhere to be found.

Drago shook his head and explained his hypothesis to the Hekel commander. Guilt and rage could not be hidden from his face as he slammed the war table with his fists.

"These demons should be wiped off the face of this world!" The Hekel commander yelled, cursing the whole demon race.

Everyone in the room understood his feelings. When humans die in normal wars, their bodies will either be buried or cremated if they were lucky to be found or mostly in one piece. However, in such a case where even the corpses were defiled and used as weapons against those they fought alongside for years, their hearts tightened as it was too cruel and disrespectful.

"I do not know how fast they can create those abominations but it would be best to expect the worst. While it would be the most opportune time to strike while the iron is hot, our men are tired. At dawn, we will need to lure those demons out. Leave the gigantic demons to us. Hevan and Caylin shall fill in the gaps of your formation. What do you think?" Drago suggested. While he was the commander of the coalition, the Hekel commander has more troops, knowledge of the terrain, and knowledge of the enemy. It would be idiotic not to consider these factors when developing battle plans.

The Hekel commander nodded his head as he proceeded to voice his concerns and discuss the strategies they should employ the next day.

When dawn arrived, another day of war broke out.

The demon commander in this battlefront was surprisingly more cunning than the one who handled the Southwestern fortress. However, with Hevan and Caylin filling the gaps that formed yesterday, the demons were falling at a rapid pace.

Drago, Edge, and Arissef, together with their 20,000 detachment, were hiding deep in a large forest, reserving their strength and waiting for the gigantic demons to be released.

With the battle hastily turning to Hekel's favor, they did not have to wait for too long as 7 gigantic demons exited the fortress gate one after another.

Drago frowned at this development. During the battle preparations, they shared insights on the weaknesses of the gigantic demons but he did not expect the gigantic demons to be this many. Unfortunately, he could only pray that everyone could use the information well and minimize the casualties.

The 7 giants rampaged all around the battlefield and already drew first blood. Drago and the others sprang into action and decided to split into 3 groups.

Edge cut through with ease using his nimble movements and astounding accuracy with his weapons. He was the first to arrive at striking distance from one of the giants. Enchantment and enhancement magic was poured all over him as he began his hunt on the giant.

The 20,000 soldiers that they brought were of different specializations and were split according to the need for each hero. Edge was given more magic units and ranged units. Arissef was given more cavalry units and knights. Drago was given more damage dealers and healers. This was the best arrangement for them to deliver the most damage in the shortest amount of time.

Edge did not waste any time as he quickly arrived at the giant's torso, delivering a heavy blow to stop its charge. The death energy he accumulated was immense and as both sides lost soldiers, he was absorbing more and converting them into his strength. As someone who has mastered the ways of delivering a swift death, he was able to deal crippling damage by targeting the giant's weak points. After all, the demon's body parts were essentially the same as a human's... albeit the exponential increase in size and the rapid regeneration. His attacks could not be too shallow or else they will just heal instantly. He needed to inflict bursts of damage continuously. This meant that he needed to expend a lot of his energy to bring this guy down. When Zex saw glimpses of Edge's fights through Drago's eyes, he was strongly reminded of Kratos battling gigantic creatures. [1]

Arissef, on the other hand, was frightening as he was bombarding his target giant with countless light swords. Zex even wondered if the demon would suddenly be rendered unable to attack for three turns. [2]

Contrary to a lot of demons portrayed in literature, the light element was not overly effective against these demons. However, they did weaken the dark magic that flows within their bodies, making light magic more effective against them than any other elemental magic. A common misconception, even in this world. Else, with the huge number of light magic users in the army, this war would have been over weeks ago.

Unfortunately, while Arissef was dealing insane amounts of damage, the giant's rampage still crushed multiple front-liners, making his unit the one having the most casualties among the three.

On Drago's side, the battle was a bit more... upfront. Etherguard meeting each of the giant's attacks, Avegar strikes, Drago gets pushed back, he retaliates and pushes the giant back. This back and forth happened so many times that even Zex was bored watching. Drago was essentially an overpowered meatshield but he did not have enough strength to deal any significant damage. He had to rely on the damage-dealing soldiers behind him. Otherwise, this exchange would be going on forever.

Hevan and Caylin were each also facing their target giants, however, they were having a hard time taking them down.

As the casualty count rose to 30,000, Arissef managed to defeat the first giant which crumbled to dust. 10,000 casualties later, Edge defeated his target. They then continued to target other giants before helping the other heroes defeat theirs.

They quickly raided the fortress, killed the demon commander, destroyed the pool, and took over.

By the end of the battle, the Hekel battlefront lost more than 150,000 troops which included more than half of the reinforcements from Grimley. When the messenger from the Maald battlefront arrived, Drago heaved a sigh of relief that their losses were not high and with Falna's help, they were able to stabilize their position and push forward slowly.

In 2 days, using the same strategy, the coalition was able to take the Eastern fortress as well.

Overall, from the 500,000 soldiers that composed the coalition army, not even 150,000 remain. Of the 24 heroes and generals who led it, only 14 have survived.

While they accomplished their initial targets, they knew that pushing deeper was the real challenge. They did not have enough manpower to continue.

Was this a victory? Drago did not feel it was. What made things worse was that until now, there was no reply from the kingdoms nor the church.

It was eerily fortunate that the demon castle did not send any reinforcements to the fortresses. While in one perspective, the castle looked like it was surrounded; in another perspective, the fortresses were too far apart from each other and could easily be isolated while the distance from the castle to each fortress was the same.

For 2 more days, Drago awaited news from the kingdoms. Finally, when they did, a rare smile sprouted from his face.

"It is about time to end this war."

[1] Kratos is the main character of the game series, 'God of War'. He is a cursed dem-god who uses different kinds of weapons to slay legendary creatures found in Greek mythology, Greek gods, titans, and even Norse gods throughout his life.

[2] This is a reference to the card 'Swords of Revealing Light' in the card game, anime, and manga, Yu-Gi-Oh. One of the iconic card's effects is that the opponent player cannot attack for 3 turns as long as the card remained on the field.