Chapter 270: Dritarashutra (3)
Actually, Yong-ho saw the “memory” Mammon left behind when he obtained the Demon God’s heart in the human world. Come to think of it, there was something strange about it.
Mammon said he did not regret his choice.
What was that choice that he mentioned at that time? Did it mean his alliance with other kings to prevent the invasion of the celestial world? Or did it mean his decision to block the door to the celestial world alone? The two choices didn’t make any sense anyway.
For example, as for the alliance, he would have mentioned anything like ‘regret’ because the other kings didn’t yet betray him back then. As for his decision to stand up to the celestial world alone, he had little time to do so. In fact, he was in an urgent situation where he had to return his 12 Spirits back to the demon world. So, it was unreasonable for him to open the door to the human world in order to send the Demon God’s heart.
If so, then what was it? Why did Mammon leave the Demon God’s heart in the human world? And why did he mention the qualifications of his successor?
Yong-ho shook his head lightly and got all the doubts out of his mind. Maybe he was thinking too deeply. He was not quite sure if Mammon’s regrets were necessarily related to the door of the celestial world or the other kings’ betrayal.
Catching his breath calmly, he set about his next task. Invoking the power of Greed, he found a passage to a secret room somewhere in Mammon’s room.
The room itself responded to his Greed. The wall that Catalina was looking into suddenly cracked, revealing a secret door.
Startled, Catalina looked at Yong-ho, and Kaiwan quickly approached the secret door.
The steel door engraved with the dragon’s head was tightly sealed.
Yong-ho put his hand in his pocket then took out the key to the secret room—the last reward that he obtained in Mammon’s arena.
***
The pure white sand in a large bowl formed various shapes high and low. A little bit of color was added to this, which soon created a great map of the entire demon world.
The red sand moved over the three-dimensional map of the demon world. The sand was lumped together in four, all of which was inching toward one point.
As if rising up against the red sand, the blue sand also moved on the map of the demon world, but its number was not even half that of the red sand. It seemed to be swallowed up by the red sand wriggling threateningly.
“Too many.”
The red sand was the northern forces, while the blue sand was the southern forces.
Dritarastra, the Queen of Fury, stared at the map, with her teeth clenched.
It was natural that the northern forces were overwhelming numerically.
They were a combined army of the four forces of the King of Pride, the King of Envy, the King of Lust, and the King of Gluttony. Of course, the earlier fight between the forces of the King of Pride and the King of Envy reduced the number of their troops to some extent while the forces of the King of Gluttony lost half its troops. Despite that, the four armies of the four kings formed a unified army with powerful military strength.
On the other hand, the southern forces were a combined army of the Queen of Fury and the King of Violence. Although there was an unclaimed land in the south, it didn’t build up a large army like other kingdoms because it had been divided for a long time.
Comparing the military strength between them, the combined forces of the four kings were twice the number of their counterparts. Besides, they had the additional resources of the Dungeon Market’s forces. So, they had a tremendous numerical superiority in the number of troops.
“Although we are numerically inferior to them, we are superior in terms of the quality of the troops and their military strength. Even if they have hundreds of thousands of Skeleton soldiers or Goblins, they won’t be able to outpower our dragon army,” said the blue dragon, Ancablosa, clearly, who was sitting next to the Queen of Fury. Even though she was in a polymorphic state of a slender Afsaras, she had a discerning judgment.
The dragon corps numbered only one hundred. However, their combat power was recognized as the strongest in the demon world. Ancablosa didn’t say that merely to comfort the Queen of Fury in this crucial situation.
The northern forces totaled more than one hundred thousand. It was the first time in the history of the demon world that such a large army was created as a group like that.
However, most of the troops consisted of low-level soldiers such as Skeleton Soldier, Orc Warrior, and Goblin Rider. Accordingly, the dragon army could easily defeat them, given the choice.
“Besides, we do have the forces of the King of Greed, right?” Asked Ancablosa.
When she quickly moved her long and thin fingers, new green sand was added to the top of the map of the demon world. The number of the sand was only a handful, so much so that when added to the blue sand, it didn’t make much of a difference.
But its quality was different. Ancablosa had learned over the past few days how the forces of the King of Greed led by Yong-ho smashed the forces of the King of Gluttony.
The subordinate spirits under the command of the King of Greed, namely Yong-ho, were unusually strong. Although they numbered just a little over ten, all of them were strong enough to have more than six horns, which was literally incredible.
Besides, some of them, whose power was almost equal to the king despite their lack of Sin and Godly Energy, also belonged to Yong-ho’s subordinate spirits.
Indeed, they were an elite force that could be found in legends.
When Ancablosa told her about the power of the forces of the King of Greed, the Queen of Fury, who was full of worries until a moment ago, made a relaxed smile.
Watching her smile brightly, Ancablosa smiled bitterly. As a matter of fact, the King of Violence loved the queen’s pure and innocent heart.
“Ancablosa, you’re right. Now is not the time for us to despair. It’s time we found a way to win.”
As if she pulled herself, the Queen of Fury spoke energetically.
As if on cue, Gardimundi opened the door of the queen’s barracks and came in.
“The spies of the Karvinka clan in the rear noticed the reinforcement of the King of Greed. You can confirm it through the telescope.”
The Queen of Fury changed her expression once again. But she flinched a bit instead of standing up right away. Ancablosa understood her feelings. She expressed gratitude to the queen for her warm consideration then suggested, “It would be nice if you could go out for fresh air for a moment and check the forces of the King of Greed coming to us.”
“Hmm, do you really think so?”
After all, Ancablosa grinned at her instead of smiling bitterly.
Then she said with a nod, “Yes, I think so.”
The Queen of Fury stood up from her seat and stepped forward with a bright smile.
Shortly afterward, the Queen of Fury blankly looked at the big telescope directed toward the sky in the south. Kirtimuka opened her eyes wide, and Ancablosa was embarrassed to see the King of Greed’s forces flying toward them.
The King of Greed and his forces were overwhelming, to say the least, surpassing the Queen of Fury and her deputies’ expectations. Ancablosa realized that some of the Dungeon Market’s forces were included in the king’s forces.
It was a large combined army led by the giant red dragon, Tiamet.
Dozens of flying vehicles and flying spirits were flying the sky with such a terrifying force that the Queen of Fury and her people on the ground were overwhelmed at their grandeur might.
***
[I, Dritarastra, Queen of Fury, would like to welcome the King of Greed.]
The queen’s voice was not heard in real-time but in the video recorded through magic. Moreover, the background of the video was not on her fortress or her field barracks but on the back of the wild bird, Astra.
Yong-ho, seated in the captain’s seat of the giant red dragon, Tiamet, knitted his brows. The Queen of Fury in the video was hiding her tense look with a casual smile. She made this video on her way to the battlefield because she had no time to greet him in person due to the enemy’s sudden attack.
“What is the status of the war?”
[It seems that the battle is about to begin.]
[Communication is not smooth because there is a strong magic field all over the battlefield.]
After replying, Lucia spread the light map of the entire demon world right next to the video of the Queen of Fury.
The current battlefield was the plains in the northeastern part of the Queen of Fury’s territory. The queen chose to make a turn to stop the northern army that appeared out of the blue sky.
As a matter of fact, the larger the size of the army was, the more difficult they could carry out a covert operation.
Anyway, the northern army was a large army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, so the southern army did not miss the movement of this huge northern army. According to the observation, their fighting should have broken out three or four days later at the earliest.
But such a prediction was wrong. The forces of the King of Pride, the King of Envy, and the King of Lust were suddenly added to the forces of the King of Gluttony who were facing the southern army up close. About half of the northern army began their march at a terrifying pace and forced the southern army to confront them. This was possible because of various movement magics and the Dungeon Market distribution channels installed all over the northern area.
Of course, Yong-ho himself used the distribution channels to ambush the forces of the King of Gluttony, but he could not hide his surprise at the massive movement of the northern army.
There was a fundamental difference between moving one hundred elite forces and moving tens of thousands of forces.
Even Samael, one of the five directors of the Dungeon Market, was also embarrassed.
Yong-ho changed his strategy immediately. What was important now was the battle between the forces of the North and the South. Since the troops mobilized by both sides were so huge, the King of Pride and the King of Lust could appear. Yong-ho concluded that he could not leave the Queen of Fury confronting the two kings.
“I ordered the supply troops to be separated from the main forces. The main forces must move to the battlefield right away.”
The battle fleet of the Mammon family filling the sky was divided into two. The battleships headed by the giant red dragon, Tiamet, picked up their speed to head toward the north.