Dungeon Defense (WN)

“My beloved comrades.”

I stood on top of Baal’s corpse.

The corpse was a mess. The limbs and body were torn apart here and there to the point where it was difficult to make out the full body. It was an end that reminded me of Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu. It wasn’t particularly sad.

He probably didn’t want a noble death. That would be going above himself. An end like this was perfect for Baal.

Hoo, hooo…….

The other Demon Lords were all looking at me.

They were breathing heavily. The heat of the battle, the excitement that came from surviving a battle that had their lives on the line was radiating from their bodies like an unpleasant mist. It wasn’t weird that they were like this. About five or six Demon Lords had actually died.

“Today, at five forty-five in the evening, evil was punished for the first time in history.”

In this era where a king ruled with overwhelming power. An era of myths was coming to an end here.

“The Crescent Alliance did not fail because we were incompetent. There were traitors who hid and betrayed their fellow man and caused internal discords in secret. This group of cockroach-like people was strengthened by the power they were born with and used their power to act as if they were noble individuals.”

Ivar Lodbrok was currently recording me with a Memoria artifact. Baal’s confession of his crimes was also recorded. The video was going to be played all throughout demon society after a little bit of editing.

“However, lies never prevail.”

I looked forward firmly.

“It is easy for a Demon Lord to deceive a single person. Inciting ten to a hundred people is also an easy matter. However, once it goes beyond the thousands and reaches the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, then the lies will no longer have a place to stand.”

That’s a lie, though.

Once a single person’s lie becomes the lie of ten people, a hundred people, a thousand people, then that will no longer be a lie. Baal’s crimes were never revealed in <Dungeon Attack>. There was no better proof than this.

People often misunderstand, but the strength of truth doesn’t come from the truth itself. It is determined by the number of people who believe that truth.

Therefore, whether it’s the truth or a lie, instigators are essential. It is purely a battle of strength. Baal didn’t lose because his lie had fallen apart, it’s because an instigator like me was here.

“The traitor Baal had ridiculed us and all of demon society for a whole two thousand years. There may have been people who realized Baal’s true face during those two thousand years. No, there definitely were. They desperately tried to reveal the truth, but died to Baal’s blade…….”

For two thousand years.

They vanished pitifully without being able to leave their names behind in history.

I lowered my head slightly like I was giving a silent tribute.

“Their deaths have been completely forgotten by history. Who can deny this? In that age, justice was weak, the truth was empty, and courage was practically meaningless. Thus our history is a history of corpses. It is nothing more than a quiet graveyard where millions of mortified souls scream.”

I raised my head.

“My dear comrades.”

I didn’t exaggerate my words as I spoke clearly.

“Today, at five forty-five in the evening, evil was punished for the first time in history.”

My voice reached the far corners of the palace thanks to it being amplified by a spell.

“From this point forth, history will stop being a graveyard. Today, at five forty-five in the evening, time has undoubtedly stopped for a moment. The historians of future generations will refer to today as ‘The Great Pause’. This is because history will now proceed in a completely different meaning.”

From the era of myths to the era of schemes.

From an era of struggle to an era of conflict.

“From this day forth, we will not forget justice. I am not saying this like some hopeless optimist. Justice will occasionally win and, more frequently than that, it will lose miserably. ━Nonetheless, justice will not be forgotten.”

I will now be the one to determine which side is justice.

“From this day forth, which side is justice, which side is evil, what is true, what is a lie, who is brave, and who is cowardly, all of these things will be clearly recorded. People will no longer die in vain due to the oppression of a tyrant.”

As it would only be right to write the names of fallen heroes on shrines.

“Lies will fall. Not because lies become powerless on their own. It is because we, the Demon Lord army and demon society, will stand at the forefront and fight against lies. If one person whispers a lie, then ten of us will come together and shout the truth. If ten people spread lies, then a hundred of us will fight back. Even if an era where hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of people pursue lies passionately, we will create an army even larger than theirs and sing the truth courageously and firmly.”

If they revolt against us, then we will annihilate them thoroughly with an army ten times their size.

“Therefore, we must change people’s perception. Lies will not fall on their own. We, the Demon Lord army and demon society, will be the ones to make lies fall!”

I raised my hand.

“O demonkind! Unite!”

We become stronger the more we unite.

“The roots planted by the great criminal Baal still run deep. There are still tens of thousands of remnants occupying his Demon Lord Castle. As you all know, they are known as the strongest army. Adding to this, the criminal Agares, who attacked our fellow man three years ago and gave a huge shock to our society is still alive and healthy.”

I can relax and sleep comfortably after these people are dealt with.

This was the same for the other Demon Lords as well. Agares, who was as powerful as an entire faction by herself, had to be eliminated at all costs. The Plains Faction and the Mountain Faction did not want this kind of risk factor that could threaten entire factions. The Neutral Faction wants to get rid of the troublemaker who could break the balance between the factions.

Our interests aligned.

“We have only two choices. An unconditional surrender or a perfect and faultless union. The choice is yours. You can willingly choose to surrender unconditionally. However, that would be the ‘freedom to be a slave’. By signing our names and the names of our future descendants into slavery, we will return to another 2,000 years of grim darkness.”

I continued.

“Demonkind, unite.”

For the sake of victory.

“The leaders of the Demon Lord army are transparent. We are always prepared to sacrifice ourselves. If justice asks of us to make sacrifices, we will never ask anyone within demon society to sacrifice more than us. A hardship that we cannot endure will not be passed down to the people.”

So do not slander or criticize the leaders.

“From this point forth, our lives belong to demonkind. We are merely the ‘first unit’ marching for the sake of the demon world. It is time for us to wear the most sacred and precious uniform once again.”

I took out the piece of cloth which I had prepared beforehand.

It was a flag with a crescent moon on it. The flag of the Crescent Alliance.

“We will not remove this uniform until the day justice is victorious, and if we do not win, then we will not face defeat alive. From now on, we, Demon Lords and soldiers of demonkind, will struggle for the sake of the masses. Only a single chant will exist in this struggle.”

I gripped the flag tightly and shouted.

“Demonkind! Unite!”

There was blood on the flag which made it seem like it was my blood.

“We proud demons do not need something like slaves. Be it directly or indirectly, those who believe that they have the freedom to turn their descendants into slaves will not survive! We do not associate with traitors. We are faithful to the principle given to us by the Goddesses, ‘Be a person of noble character’.”

I gave a type of martial law.

Those who cooperate with us will be given the tag of being righteous, while those who go against us will be called traitors.

“Different from humans, we do not fear death. We are simply afraid of living cowardly lives. My beloved comrades, demons who have been summoned as warriors! We know that the issue of living and dying is a trivial problem. The true problem is whether the pride of demonkind is alive or not.”

We are different from the lowly humans.

I poked at the racial discrimination that was deeply rooted within demons.

“If we become a single army, refuse to turn away from hardship, and swear to not become slaves by surrendering, then our shouts will echo into the cries of dozens. We will overcome all adversities as the cries of dozens will then echo a hundred, a thousand, and a hundred thousand times!”

Now then.

“Demonkind! Rise! Become the footsteps of tens of thousands for the sake of justice! Become the hymn that exists for the sake of the new era that will now unfold! Today, at five forty-five in the evening, time paused momentarily. From now on, history will no longer be controlled by lies and deception━The moment has arrived where you all must move history with your own two arms and feet!”

Let us begin.

“The Goddesses are asking for our help. Warriors, let us unite!”

* * *

We moved quickly. A united force was made in order to wipe out Baal’s remaining troops.

Baal’s Demon Lord Castle was located right in the middle of the Demon Lord territory, so we were able to lead an army without having to worry about our supply lines thanks to this. We had a massive army of 50,000 soldiers. The army under Baal’s command that was going against us had about 22,000 men.

A single Demon Lord had been leading an army of 22,000. This showed how powerful Baal was.

Regardless, we were incredibly laid back. Our victory was basically set in stone already.

“We simply have to wait for the Demon Lord Castle to run out of mana.”

Barbatos let out a snort as she spoke.

Indeed. The demons residing in the Demon Lord Castle lived off of mana. However, I’m not sure what the principle is, but the mana within a Demon Lord Castle starts to dissipate once the Demon Lord dies.

Even if there is a massive army of twenty thousand, losing their source of mana was no different from having their supply line cut off. No, in this case, twenty thousand was more of a hindrance. The amount of mana consumed by this large number probably wasn’t a joke.

We surrounded the castle and waited twenty days.

Sure enough, the enemy troops burst out the front gate because they couldn’t bear their hunger any longer. We strengthened our encirclement and cut them down with ease.

“It feels like we’re hunting turkeys.”

This was how Sitri described it. It was literally a hunt.

The enemy troops weren’t able to move in uniform since Baal was gone. On the other hand, the Demon Lords on our side were giving direct orders to our men. There was a massive difference between a demon army led by a Demon Lord and a demon army not led by one. The massive army Baal was proud of melted away in only 2 months.

Winning a war is the most effective way to deal with society falling into chaos.

The continuous disclosure of Baal’s crimes, my speech, and now our military victory.

Demon society began to give their passionate support to the new leaders of the Crescent Alliance.

***

Author’s Afterword

It seems someone figured out the novel I used for reference in chapter 266. That’s right, it was Immanuel Kant’s <Perpetual Peace>! It’s also known as the theory of eternal peace. If you change ruler to president, then it’s no different from a representative democracy.

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I don’t have much to say. Dant is just taking care of the aftermath. I’ve sort of been stressing out recently. Two houses directly next to my place are being demolished and the noise is absolutely insane. I spent my entire morning just hearing glass shatter for 5 hours and my entire house kept shaking because of how close they are. Like, if I were to actually measure how far they are from my place, I’d say about 5 meters. It really sucks.

Ugh, I’ll stop ranting. I’ll see you guys in the next chapter.

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