32 England in Chaos Part II
During the war with demons, England continued to lose. England is one of the countries with a centralized guild system; therefore, there is only one guild operating in England, the English Royal Guild.
In addition to their land, many of their hunters died as a result of the destruction of their defense system. Thus, Lancaster, as guildmaster and commander, implemented a strategy of "cutting his own tail," meaning surrendering Scotland.
The question is, where is the help from other countries?
They claimed that because we were still traumatized by Kamish, they did not send hunters and instead guarded their respective homes.
...
-English Royal Guild Emergency Headquarters in Carlisle-
"Sir Lancaster, we just received satellite images of about 500,000 demon troops moving towards Blackbank!"
Like being doused in cold water during a snowstorm, that sentence made the entire commander's control room freeze.
That number might have been a different story if they were just ordinary humans with no magical powers.
But that army was a monster with magic powers that could not be killed with modern weapons.
Lancaster frowned, and he thought...
Should I attack or defend?
Throughout his life for thirty years, he had a great career in the military, but then his life changed drastically after experiencing a weakening and becoming the strongest S-rank hunter in England.
But his straightforward and curious character made him always wonder what was behind the gates that mysteriously appeared.
Humanity has always said that the gates are otherworldly enemies that will take over the earth.
"What do you think the enemy is?"
For the past three years, he has always asked this question himself and his colleagues.
They said. "Of course, the monster that came out of the gate, commander."
People seemed to have swallowed that as fact, and only a few of his colleagues, acquaintances, or experts in the field have the same question as him. Lancaster was often labeled crazy because he was so hungry for the theories behind them.
"Commander!"
"Uh? sorry..."
Lancaster was startled by his subordinate's shout.
Then he looked at the large screen that displayed many crosses on the land of Scotland.
'Father, is there still hope for us?'
He only had one family member during his lifetime, his father, who was an archaeologist and ancient language scientist, and he died while trying to research magical animals up close.
"Is there any news from the princess?"
"No commander, it seems even national-level hunters are rejecting all our offers."
With a resigned tone, the man reported that to Lancaster.
'Heh... So we're on our own huh.'
Lancester couldn't help his sarcasm; after all, if lives were at stake, even national-level hunters would be reluctant to help.
But his obsession with the story behind the gate crossed the boundaries of his fear as a human. It kept him in control of his sanity as he carried out his responsibilities as Commander of the English Royal Guild.
But after that, another piece of news came...
"Commander! There is a video message from the princess."
One of his men informed Lancaster.
"Show it to me."
Rachel, dressed in a gown, appeared on the big screen, saluted briefly, and said
-Commander Lancaster, I was able to enlist the assistance of hunter Sasuke Uchiha, who had reportedly escaped from a dungeon after being trapped. and now that we are heading towards England, he has been informed of the current situation regarding the enemy's movements, and he has only one message for you: "If possible, hold off the enemy as long as possible until I arrive." I am very grateful for your hard work and wish you all safety despite the enemy's strength.-
The short duration of the message gave a ray of hope in the middle of the gloomy room.
Lancester smiled at that, probably the first time he had smiled in a week.
"Alright, prepare all available soldiers immediately!"
"Yes Sir!"
His men replied thoroughly.
"Lancaster... if we move, then our army will still lose. Therefore, you should run away from here and let me lead the troops. You are still needed if England somehow survives this war."
"At the very least, there should be survivors among us."
"By using us as bait to dispel the enemy's advance, take this opportunity and leave the battlefield."
The man, who was Lancester's right-hand man as well as a long-time loyal friend, asked with a straight face.
Hearing that, Lancaster lowered his gaze, then turned around and sat down in his chair.
"Noah, maybe you can still go and fight, but the morale of our people has dropped drastically, and if their commander runs away because the help of the strongest hunter on earth is coming, likely, they will also run away from the battlefield, causing this operation to fall apart."
"Therefore, I must take the vanguard so that they will continue this operation. Even if I end up dying before anyone else without knowing anything behind all this."
"..."
Noah watched him, and he also knew that because of Lancaster's leadership, the English Royal Guild was created, as were the hunters who followed him confidently.
Making Lancaster run away from the battlefield, was tantamount to pulling up those roots.
Noah grinned, then he knelt and leveled his gaze with Lancester.
"Just give up on your dreams and die; lead me and the troops into that hell. I'll kill as many demons as I can because I also still have hope of living to kill them all."
Lancaster was surprised, then he smiled widely.
"Hmm, thank you, Noah."
...
The demon army, which numbered hundreds of thousands, and the hunter England army, which also numbered hundreds of thousands, were neatly separated by the Esk river somewhere in Blackbank.
Behind the demon army, there was a huge figure who was the leader of the army.
Volkan of Avarice.
Volkan is a demon who has a body like a muscular giant who looks like he has hundreds of tons of weight; he has a terrible big club weapon.
Volkan is Demon King Baran's subordinate.
He was currently assigned to clean up the new habits of demons on earth.
He scratched his big belly while yawning because the battle was so boring.
Since he was summoned to earth, he has never swung his big wooden club at humans because he thought his troops could complete this mission by themselves.
[Just go and destroy them.]
With that one sentence, the demons moved and started crossing the river.
On the other hand, the English Royal Guild hunters were tense, but the spirit of battle flashed from their faces.
Lancaster stood at the front, taking a deep breath.
"CHARGE!"
He shouted while raising his sword, and Lancaster ran ahead in the vanguard of his troops.
"AHHHHHH!"
The hunter troops ran after their commander as they shouted their battle cry.
Rumble!
The grassy ground trembled from the heavy iron shoes.
[This is boring, Lucifer!]
Volkan glanced at the human troops, who were lined up neatly like they had given their lives.
He grinned, stood up, and picked up a giant boulder.
[Maybe I can kill a little time.]
Since he thought those humans came with their lives, why should he stand still and do nothing?
The giant boulder looked perfect in his palm.
Crack!
Crush!
The boulder cracked and shattered into pieces of rock; throwing it would be like firing bullets all at once.
Volkan made a stance like he was going to throw a baseball.
[Alright, here we go]
Wosh!
With great speed, the stones shot into the air like missiles.
...
Travel by air usually takes about seven hours from Washington to London, but since Sasuke didn't use a commercial airplane, he was a lot faster.
Sasuke took a deep breath. He noticed the clouds from his business class seat, and they looked yellowish because of the twilight.
<Dear viewers! As you can see, Hunter Lancaster is fighting the demon boss one on one. He used his divine sword from the very beginning!>
As the TV screen displayed the hell of war, Sasuke closed his eyelids and thought.
The Rulers spread gates all over the earth for mana to spread in order to make some humans survive their war.
Sasuke has learned a lot about the origins of the gates since he emerged from the Wizard's dungeon, and he didn't expect the real problem to be an enemy that could be worse than a horde of goblins.
'The problem is that there is little mana, and according to old man Belzer's report, as the number of gates increases, the awakening rate also gets higher. And that means the influence of mana plays an important role. Maybe if I use my large mana in battle...'
Sasuke had one idea, which was to use this battle as a stepping stone to using his large mana.
'Maybe with this, the number of people who can experience awakening will increase.'
But he pondered; if he took his mana to the limit, he would have to use his strongest technique for that.
'Sigh...'
Although he doesn't like it, maybe his efforts will be rewarded by the fact that the people who can use mana will be more and more numerous.
To be honest, Sasuke feels sorry for these people when danger threatens them, but their weapons are so useless if used against magical beasts.
"So you saying that the Rulers spread the gate so that humans can survive their upcoming war."
Thomas said while stroking his chin after hearing Sasuke's story.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his side, wondering what this man doing on this plane.
"Yeah... and come to think of it, what are you doing here..."
Sasuke was looking at the large blond man, who was wearing his hawk shirt and his trademark sunglasses.
Thomas grins at that and says,
"HAHA! Don't be so stiff buddy; I just want to fight by your side and see you in action."
Sasuke sighed deeply, with a look on his face that seemed to want to say "whatever."
"Because my energy costs are expensive, but for once it might not be a bad thing cause this could be the Scavenger Guild's chance to shine."
Thomas continued while spouting the guild's name.
"Didn't you refuse her offer?"
Sasuke asked about that.
"Oh about that... actually, what I refused was me having to directly intervene, but the Scavenger Guild will still fight, hahaha, even though we just started, the guild already has many S-rankers, Mr. Sasuke."
Sasuke nodded.
Although Thomas is much weaker than Sasuke, he is the strongest person on earth in Sasuke's absence, so his arrogance is understandable.
In the other row of passenger seats, Rachel was quietly listening to their conversation, and she couldn't help but feel sorry for herself.
Her country could not survive independently and had to ask other countries for help, and her misery was being used as a stepping stone by the newly established guild.
Rachel could not help but clench her fists tightly and gnash her teeth.
She wanted power to escape the predator's food chain.
Then it was as if heaven had granted her wish.
Suddenly her blue eyes sparkled into gold, and magical energy was emitted slightly without her consent.
'Hmm?'
Because Sasuke was sensitive, he glanced at his side and then slightly forward, where he looked at Rachel's seat.
'Mana— did she just generate magical energy?'
Sasuke wondered, and he tried to feel it more deeply.
'Maybe I was right; a large mana existence can affect ordinary people.'
He thought Rachel might have been affected by the presence of humans with a large amount of mana on this plane.
Ding!
-This is the captain speaking; we will be entering Irish airspace shortly. Please use seat belts due to turbulence-
Distracted by the pilot's announcement, Sasuke looked back at the clouds and ignored the pilot's appeal.
....
Time continued to pass.
While help from the US had yet to arrive, half of England had become a living hell.
People were missing even dead.
While the battlefield was even worse, hunters lay dead, missing their arms or legs, some going mad.
Clank!
Lancaster's sword, which had been clad in golden mana, clashed with Vulkan's club.
"I thought you guys would do more than this but... this is so boring."
Vulkan said that to Lancaster in human language while they were still fighting.
Vulkan was not satisfied with his fight, he was greedy about fighting with strong opponents, so he was disappointed when he had to deal with weak humans like Lancaster.
"Then you guys stop, just go home and get fucked!"
Furiously... Lancaster shouted back in reply to Vulkan's rant.
"It's not that I don't want to, but what can I do?"
Vulkan said while swinging his Club more powerfull.
Swush!
"Ugh!"
Boom!
Boom!
Unable to withstand Vulkan's swing, Lancaster was sent flying into a boulder.
Swung*
Vulkan swung his club over his shoulder, then walked dismissively toward Lancaster, then said.
"Maybe I've killed enough time."
He thought it was time to continue the invasion of northern England.
From a distant hill, Noah spotted Vulkan with his sniper scope.
It was a fact that modern rifles didn't work with monsters.
But Noah was a special range-type hunter, as he could use a modern rifle as his weapon to hunt monsters.
"Huft..."
Noah exhaled a deep breath and aimed at the head of the Vulkan, who was walking.
His green eyes then lit up as he used mana.
"O' Lord. Save our fatherland from these faithless invaders---"
Mana flowed towards the bullet, and then the bullet inside the sniper lit up brightly.
"---At the end of our long road, we shall reach the promised land."
After chanting magic, his body gave off an aura that was his turbulent mana. Not only that, but the sniper also lit up brightly as if it were enduring a burst of energy.
Fwush!
The bullet that had been coated in the explosion spell traveled at the speed of sound toward Vulkan's head.
"Huh?"
Vulkan looked towards the source of the significant mana, which was traveling towards him at high speed, but at that instant, the bullet was already within a millimeter of his eyes.
Boom!
In the middle of the grassland, a huge explosion occurred, producing a mushroom cloud as tall as a seven-story building.
Noah looked in the direction of the explosion, and then after the dust of the explosion settled, he saw that the ground had become a wide and deep crater, and Vulkan was standing in the middle of it with a wound over his left eye, but he was smiling contentedly like he was possessed.
"Ah, that hurts."
While stretching his neck, he smiled wickedly at Noah, who was far away from him.
Fwosh!
Red-colored mana violently shot out of Vulkan's body like a storm.
This time he was angry and, at the same time, enjoying the fight.
"I'm coming, human!"
Picking up his sprawled club, Vulkan moved at a speed that was completely at odds with his large stature.
"He's fast!"
Noah was surprised by Vulkan's speed, and in that instant, his body shook like a predator was running towards him.
Fwsh!
Just as he was about to get up from his prone position, a large shadow suddenly covered him, but it was neither a passing cloud nor an eclipse.
Vulkan stood before him with a wicked smile, making Noah freeze motionless.
"Hmm, that was fun; I like that, human!"
Swung!
After saying that, Vulkan swung his club intending to smash Noah's body to pieces.
Noah watched the huge club approaching him; he watched it blankly as it continued to come, but like a ghost, a man's voice sounded in their ears.
"Then you'll like this one!"
Fwosh!
Bang!
Because it happened too fast for his brain can follow, Noah could see a giant skeletal arm clad with a dark purple aura and punching Vulkan.
The blow sent Vulkan flying toward the crater he had created with his blast bullet.
