Sun Tzu

"You-you, killed everyone?" said Hanako in her weak voice.

Her reason to say this was because the spell that went off just now, tenth-tier: [White Nova] was had a very large area of effect, large enough that it covered both the armies in it.

Hanako barely survived the explosion because of the condition, it was obvious that the soldiers would have died.

"You have wings; you're also a demon, aren't you. You finally showed your true nature!" Hanako said as she somehow stood up.

"HUH! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! TAKE A LOOK AROUND!" said Haruto; his voice was like a delinquent teasing an innocent kid.

"What good will that d—" Hanako stopped mid-sentence when she looked at the area around her.

Both of the armies were as good as they were before the explosion, not a single soldier was dead.

"How?" she said.

"You're really ignorant aren't you?" Haruto said as he walked towards Hanako with his hands in his pocket.

"You didn't notice Valethar; the black dragon, during our whole fight right?"

She quickly searched for Valethar through her eyes. When she found him he had a big blue and yellow colored magic circle beneath his dragon feet. The same magic circle but almost 10X in size was on the ground below each army.

"When you were fighting me, he was preparing two large multi-dimensional barriers for both the armies. You really thought you knocked out that fearsome black dragon in one punch didn't you?" he explained.

"Tch!" she clicked her tongue.

'Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought,' the art of war – said by Sun Tzu, was what happened in this fight.

Hanako lost the very moment she believed that Haruto has given in to his rage. When the whole battle was preplanned by him, even the part about Valethar getting knocked out. Even though it was not exactly the same, but he had planned beforehand that he had to keep Valethar out of Hanako's sight somehow.

Back then when he was not able to control his laughter, he was laughing at the fact that how smoothly his plan was going on.

When Hanako first appeared, he deliberately showed her that he is burning with anger and had given in to rage; which in reality he can't due to his unique skill [Placid mind].

After delivering some blows to Hanako, he allowed her to hit him with a super-tier spell which made her believe that she has the upper hand in this battle and Haruto is at disadvantage.

When she believed this and let her guard down—even if it was for a few seconds, it gave Haruto the chance to use [Gate of no return]. This chanced the flow of battle again and showed like Haruto has used the final trick he had hidden.

Seeing this Hanako also used her final trump card 'Limit Break'—it was the thing Haruto was most cautious of, even more than super-tier spells. The part about her breaking through [Gate of no return] was planned, in fact, the very purpose he used them was so he can make Hanako use 'Limit Break'.

When all of this was going on, he also made sure that she doesn't notice Valethar—who was busy casting the multi-dimensional barriers on both the armies so Haruto can use [White Nova] freely.

With this his victory was assured when the barriers were complete; he used [White Nova] and blew up Hanako.

From the start, she was dancing in his hands and Haruto was just playing with her.

"Did you plan everything from the start?" she asked.

"Who knows, there's a saying in my homeland that a magician never reveals his tricks," Haruto replied as he stopped just after Hanako.

"Still you can't defeat me, I have the condition," said Hanako.

"Huh? See yourself closely, you are not regenerating. The condition is that you can only be killed by a Hero; the regeneration was an extra part that used your mana to work. Now that you are out of mana, you can only stay alive—not regenerate," he replied.

"So now what you're waiting for if everything is on your side? Just kill me already!" she shouted.

"Ah, well, I was thinking about that. Won't killing you will make me the same as you? I mean you wanted to kill the Hero to avenge your father and I want to kill you to avenge my friends," he said.

He was able to say this was because if [Placid mind], his bloodlust toward Hanako was reduced by it and after he abused her and defeated her in a fight there was almost none of it left.

"And this is not the only reason if I kill you know then the title of 'Demon Lord' will transfer to me and that will make me the king or whatever it is of the demon kingdom, and…I really don't want to get into that stuff," he finished.

He sat on his knees, close to Hanako, and touched her forehead with his index finger.

In a flash a scene played in Hanako's mind, it was the scene where his father—former demon lord,

and the hero were stabbing each other to death at the same time.

It was an imaginary picture created by Haruto; the faces of the former demon lord and the hero were exactly the same as they were in Hanako's mind. He did this to make her believe that the hero is dead.

"Wha-what is this?" she asked.

"This is how your father died, this is the truth! Believing it or not is your choice but this is what really happened!" he said loudly.

He removed his finger from her forehead and stood up.

"Take your army and go back! Believe me, before coming here I've checked everywhere in the Ronze kingdom but there was no sign of the hero. Maybe someone gave you the wrong info," said Haruto as he looked at Hanako.

"Why? You are a demon! Then why are you helping humans?" she asked as she stood up, face to face with him (not exactly face to face due to her height).

"Sigh! Demons this, humans that! Why don't you people understand that the only difference between humans and demons is that our bodies are more suitable for magic? And I'm doing this for myself, not humanity," explained Haruto.

Hanako didn't reply. He turned his back on Hanako and walked forward.

"Come with me now! We have to announce that this war shit is over!"