War

3 months after Sora returned, the demon lot began to attack. They took a year secretly getting ready for this, but the human was not caught off guard, they have already expected such a thing.

On one of the battlefields, Sora stood amongst an army. Due to humans being outnumbered, they were forced to fight near the city, where magic cannons were set along with many traps.

They had a whole year getting ready for a moment like this, and now the moment has arrived. They watched as the demon race army rushed forward, they didn't move and simply waited. The demon got closer and closer, until from the ground under them, the grasses came to life, swallowing and attaching them.

Many demons died, but many more demons cut through the grass, slipping through and rushing forward, but more traps were waiting for them.

air mines, sand traps, and so on, this greatly lower the number of demons which once greatly outnumbered them by a huge amount

'interesting.' Sora thought while taking note of everything happening, even for him a sigh like this was a first. So many dead bodies and that strange feeling in the air, it was new to him, yet he felt like he was hone.

The magical cannon shot forward their cannons, killing many more demons. The leader leading the human army let out a battle cry before running forward with the other humans,

'what is this feeling?' Sora thought while running amongst the soldiers, he felt something, but he couldn't tell just what it was.

Swords clashed, and magic powers were thrown out, be it humans or demons, they began falling, either hit by their allies or enemy.

As Sora cut down a demon, he froze as he saw strange energy entering His body. He looked around and saw that all over the battlefield, this energy was flowing toward him

{Absorbing War Energy, please continue to absorb this energy to unlock the system. Current progress 0.1%/100‰} Sora seeing this notification understood what he felt

This energy, the system was absorbing it, but so was he, and it felt great. He shot almost lost control and went on a slaughter, but he stepped back disappearing, he seem to only need to be around the battlefield, and he saw take this time to study the way of the battlefield

{Host, try and see if thought projections can help in absorbing this energy, with it being at level 12, surely it should be able to.} the system said snapping Sora who was lost while looking at the battlefield, Sora nodded and with a thought a perfect copy of himself form, and through the clone, Sora felt War Enenergy being absorbed and sent to him.

Sora went on to create more thought projections and went off to every battlefield, and went on to absorb the war energy at each battlefield. but all of them fell into the same state as Sora, they got lost their full attention on the battlefield.

such a scene was never seen before, and Sora's mind was being failed with all times of plans and counters. with his mind, chess pieces formed, one side the human and the other side the demon race

on the grand scale of things, these are only pawns at work. but to the eyes of those fighting here, they were not simply pawns, they were the whole chess board. there were so many things to take note of when leading an army, the strengths and weaknesses of your army, your enemy's strengths, and weaknesses, where the battlefield would take place, and so on.

the battle lasted hours before the demon race retreated, giving the humans time to fall back and catch their breath, this also gave the demon race the time to rest while their leader took note of how the battlefield played out, and how they should move on...

On one of the main battlefields, Ellen held a sword, while behind her, 3 people stood. Ellen was the hero, thanks to Merlin she had years worth of training within another dimension, which the gods helped in creating for them to train in, her power now overshadows the likes of Merlin.

The summoner, Linda Heartfilar, Lisa's little sister. was gifted with the ability which allowed her to summon things, because of which she was able to summon the celestial spirits from the celestial spirit realm. This made her the first Celestial Spirt Mage.

Celestial Spirit Magic is a type of Magic in which the user summons Celestial Spirits by opening their gates through the use of Celestial Spirit Gate Keys. these keys were created by Merlin along with the Celestial Spirit King, allowing the Celestial Spirit to pass through to the human realm. with this, she had the full power of the Celestial spirit realm, sadly she didn't have time to fully connect with the spirits, or else she wouldn't need the keys to summon them.

The Tank of the group of a commoner, a young man who went by Abel. He was a man full of muscles who used shield magic. he was more than able enough to tank attacks from the strongest of beings, even Merlin herself. His shield was also unique, capable of blocking any form of magic.

Merlin was the last person here, but she was in her true form, and her hair was not black like how she liked to show herself before Sora. her true hair color was white, but she preferred black to avoid people thinking that she might be related to that old man. now, she simply came out and said she was the daughter of Merlin,

a party of 4, but this was the best the human race had, other than Sora, who Merlin was hoping would pop up soon.

"you ants think you can stand before us demons? It's a truly sad sight to watch." An elite demon mockingly looked at them for a moment, before he shot toward them at a blazing speed,

Ellen let out a roar before she shot forward to meet with the demon, with Abel casting a spell on her. Ellen and the demon clashed, creating a shock wave that caused the earth to shake, in less than a second, they tried blows countless times over, but this was not one-on-one.

The celestial spirits were summoned, all rushing forward to join the battle, while Linda drew on their powers, allowing her to take on a unique form that embodies all of their powers to fight alongside them.

Merlin smirked slightly, with increasing the gravity the elite demon felt, causing the demon to lose his balance. with that opening, both of his eyes suddenly went flying into the air with Ellen's swing of the sword.

Linda and her celestial spirits appeared before the demon, their attack lunching the demon far away at blinding speed, but Abel appeared in the path of the demon and cast a spell which created a metal wall, which caught the demon, but the sudden stop nearly killed the demon

the demon fell to the ground, shock and horror written all over its face... within the demon realm, the demon lord's eyes turned cold while watching this scene. she didn't expect the humans to suddenly be so powerful, one moment they were so weak, and the next moment they were suddenly this powerful.

"I expected that conquering this world wouldn't be so easy. so, what's your plan." a lazy voice sounded off to the side, leading the demon lord to look over coldly, her eyes landing on Sora who was standing next to a window with crossed arms.

"you're saying you had nothing to do with this?" She said coldly, to which Sora shrugged slightly, how was he supposed to know?

"that I can't say. maybe Merlin saw how I was training within another dimension with a quicker flow of time and did the same thing. As I said, I'm turning a blind eye to this." Sora said calmly, to which she snorted slightly while she stood up.

"then I simply have to deal with these ants before they grow out of hand... you will not get upset when I kill your twin sister right?" She said with a cold smile, only for her to get an indifferent look from Sora.

"boring." She said with a click of her tongue before disappearing, and so the demon lord made her appearance on the battlefield. the battle was huge, and it might have destroyed the whole planet if not for Merlin creating a barrier around them to fight in, although even the barrier seemed as if it might break.

On the first day of the war against humans and the demon race, no clear winner was chosen as both sides fell back once their side grew tired. the hero parties suffered some injuries, but nothing they couldn't heal. meanwhile, the demon lord who fought without care for injuries suffered more injuries, yet she ordered the injuries to disappear, and all of a sudden her injuries began disappearing.

that day, over 500 humans died pro battlefield, with the worst battlefield losing thousands, of course, there were not that many mages to go around, so many of them were normal humans who stood behind the magic cannons field by Lacrima.

Lacrima is a Magic crystalline substance found in both Earth Lands, Lacrima can be powered up with different spells and used for different purposes. they were using them as batteries.

On the second day, the demon lord grew enraged seeing the demons get reinforcement moment from the Giant race, Lizard People, and so on. Their attack gave these races no time to gather on the first day, but now they all gathered to take part in this world.

with them supporting the humans, the humans didn't need to suffer as much as before, but they were fighting against the demon race, it was easy to kill the weaker demons, but those stronger demons at C tier and above had a high level of magic resistance, and many found their magic being useless before such beings.

there was also the fact the powers of the demon race greatly out showed them, Ellen and the others were held off fighting the demon lord, so who would fight the other elites of the demon race? well, Linda was forced to.

with her power to summon the whole of the celestial spirits, she summoned the celestial spirit king, who held of these elites, but she was not enough, and her not being there to support Ellen and the others was troublesome.

Merlin could copy and nullify magic, but that was not as overpowered as it sounded. She could only copy and nullify what she could see. if things like telepathy or formless type of magic were used, she couldn't do anything. This went the same for magic that needed items, as she can't do anything about them if she too doesn't have the items required.

the demon lord didn't like using weapons, all she did was use her body. be it her teeth, fingers, and so on. That was the only weapon she used, and she would go as far as wanting to bite her neck right off, such a fighting style was something that made Ellen unease

to everyone's relief, the prideful dragons took part in the war and landed their support for Linda. to a surprise, there were a few demons which the power to rival the likes of these elites, they were known as the Dragon Gods. the elites of the dragons with the power to rival the gods themselves.

with them on their side, the battlefield had no clear sign of who would be the winner or loser. days passed, and before everyone knew it, it was a year since the fighting begin...

"There you are... may I know why you have been avoiding me?" Merlin asked as she appeared before Sora,

"Because talking to you can be seen as me interfering with all of this. I can't take part in this war, as for why... the reason is complex." Sora said softly, not turning back to look at Merlin, and simply sitting before the pond,

"I'm all ears," Merlin said softly as she sat next to Sora, waiting for him to speak. Sora sighed softly while picking up a stone, which he skipped across the lake.

"alright... water. do you think there is some greater lifeform out there that embodies the concept of water?" Sora asked, to which Merlin shook her head, with her great knowledge which showed even some gods, she had never heard of such beings.

"well, they exist. the embodiment of water, fire, time, and so on. They are beings, which exist across all of time and space. they are their concept, and their concept is them. but they almost died, I believe you could guess what would have happened if they died." Sora said calmly,

"killing them would be like killing what they embody, no water across all of time and space?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, to which Sora nodded slightly

"So, they were reborn. I'm one such being, I'm War. I will not speak of others and only talk about myself. but stopping one of them from reaching their form heights would cause things to be stable. In truth, I should be helping the demon lord. but I can't... I will not believe myself, I don't expect you to believe me." Sora said calmly, but Merlin shook her head after some time.

"Well, I not say I believe you... or that I don't. In the case you are telling the truth, then are you not suffering the most here? You act cold, but you are a big softy." She said with a smile, to which Sora ignored her. She opened her mouth to say something, but in the end, she got up to leave.

"Strauss," Sora said causing her to look back at him in confusion, only to see a hologram of words forming above Sora's palm. She stood there, looking at her waiting for her answer

"Merlin Strauss," Sora said softly, stunning Merlin. Merlin opened and closed her mouth, not knowing what to say for a moment. She gave Sora his last name, he was simply trying to do the same,

"I... thank you," Merlin said softly as she hugged Sora, Sora hesitated for a moment before he hugged her back. Merlin was caught off guard by this, this is the first time she hugged Sora and for him to hug her back.

She looked at Sora slightly, who looked back at her. She wanted to tease her, yet she didn't, and simply stood there frozen for some time. after a few seconds, Sora gave her a kiss shocking her, she was about to push him away, but her body couldn't seem to gather the strength to do so...