The Real Monster 44 Defending The Settlement I

-THIRD PERSON-

The following are the events that happened in the city called 'Village' by Clay who named it on a whim to be like that, when the demon 'Hero' Azael-on initiated a slaughter through his summons via Dark magic, or at least he tried to.

{h.e.l.lo, I am called Azael-on I am what the demons would call 'Hero' and I am here to make an example of humans. This city is the closest to the demon realm so I will be making a mark here for all to see. How a real demon operates, a demon that hates humans more than anything in the whole cosmos.}

After leaving behind that speech Azael-on actually did not linger much longer and just went back to the Demon Imperial Palace where he first appeared with a body of his own. It was through this body that he received from the G.o.d that he was able to grow his magic to a point where he felt that it was on par or greater than when he was actually a full-fledged Angle.

As his power was not stable enough, he merely wanted to take a stroll to look at the human realm for a bit but couldn't resist on destroying one or two cities on his way if he ever came across one. The lucky city was unfortunately Village, where our hero Clay was actually having a party for his Son just moments ago before being interrupted by the huge flare that Azael-on brought about as he descended from the sky all brightly s.h.i.+ning and the like as if afraid that not anyone would see him doing his entrance. There was no need for a genius to figure out that this demon was actually an egomaniac that seeks attention anywhere there could be one.

After leaving the that he created to summon his deadly creatures, there were exactly one hundred 'rifts' and each time a rift is closed forcefully, the other rift's creatures gains some sort of boost to their strength.

It was an insidious way that Azael-on thought of and incorporated into his magic. His summons was not normally that weak that they'd be defeated as fast as they were done in by Clay and his subordinates. It really was just his bad luck that the city he attacked was being protected by someone totally out of this world with retainers that have physical abilities that could rival even the most legendary humans from time immemorial.

*HUM*

The situation at the city was totally panicked when the creatures first appeared as this never happened before and the aura they exuded were that of creatures that only have tearing at flesh and gorging on blood. Having been exposed to that, the citizens were panic stricken and chaos almost broke out. However, as if a miracle and as if a prank towards the people, those creatures looked as if something greatly of weight was holding them down the moment they stepped out of those black holes. Inside, they were vigorous, violent even. Yet when they came outside they were rendered incapable of even moving an inch, unable to utter sound as if held throats by a hand held in a choke.

The creatures were visible inside the black holes as if shadows of monsters that threaten to burst out in numbers, fortunately it were only allowed to come out one by one oddly. And even then, they would be pinned to the ground by some unknown force.

[I-Is this perhaps the protection of the sovereign?] A citizen who was panicking just moments before asked around the surrounding as just moments before they were also simultaneously shouting and shoving each other to get ahead, such as human nature, however now they could not even think of the shameful things they did to save themselves and just stand in awe of this miracle they were witnessing.

The announcement of Azael-on was not a private one. He announced his arrival and from that moment on, terror had already stricken the hearts of the people. However the moment he summoned these black holes, these they entered into what would normally be the right reaction.

They really did not count on being totally saved by the sovereign or the ruler of this city. The Mayor was very powerful, and his colleagues quite equally so, but they have not truly showcased their prowess as there have been no opportunity to as of yet, until now. However, even knowing that, they did not believe that the four of them would be able to save all of them on time and prevent deaths here and there. And that would have been good enough as well. Who would have thought that the moment the creatures stepped out they were put to a stop already?

The only explanation that they can think of was that the sovereign was protecting them; the founding father of this city was protecting them personally. And realizing this, people began to ask questions.

[If this is the sovereign's doing then does this mean that he sees everything that's going on in the city every time?]

[Yeah, if the sovereign knows everything, sees everything that is happening in the city at all times then that would be too awesome wouldn't it? Think about it!]

[The sovereign is without a doubt present and is actively protecting us the people of this city. This actually serves as proof now to those skeptics when it comes to the sovereign's existence. This sure is a great way of telling those who doubt our sovereign that, 'I am here.']

[With this kind of showing, who would still dare to question the sovereign? Wouldn't it be foolish for those shady organizations to slip into the city when they know that the sovereign is watching?]

[That may actually be the reason why the crime rate in this city is close to nada since the founding of the city. The sovereign gets rid of those potential troubles and nip them in the bud before they bloom into flowers and spread underground.]

[The sovereign sure is a deity. If he isn't, then how would anyone explain this divine ability he is showing by pinning these monsters to the ground. Look! Even the adventurers and mercenaries have freedom to just cut off the head of those monsters.]

As the ordinary citizens kept on admiring and wors.h.i.+pping Clay, the braver mercenaries and adventurers and even those that are only daredevils killed those monsters kneeling in front of them without signs of moving. Then the armed force of the city appeared in groups of two.

The unique and most distinct characteristic of this city was its lack of soldiers and instead it only has guards for the walls, which meant that they were more worried of enemies from the outside than from the inside. From an outsider's view it was foolish and unconventional. What if enemies disguised themselves and started a ma.s.sacre of the citizens while these meager guards numbering only in the ones were guarding the walls, would they be able to respond to it without too much delay and lives lost?

Now these people knew or at least misunderstood that it was actually because of the sovereign that they were so confident of having no more than guards, the Trinity and the Acting Mayor to rely on to keep the peace in the city. And so far, it has been going well for them, years of the city having no severe crimes such as murder, a.s.sault, ****, kidnapping and whatever else that could warrant the fear out of people. The only crimes that pa.s.s here was some petty thievery, those who dare to do it are personally caught by the Acting Mayor's men separate from the guards and those who steal become labors in constructing other buildings in the city. The punishment for stealing was quite hard on them physically however; their labors are not in vain because they are paid for their service as long as they do their jobs properly. After the probation period, those thieves no longer can be called such, as they become people of legal means. That meant that they were able to afford to stay in the city without even going back to stealing.

Of course, those who still do it are taken out of the city and never seen again afterwards. The Acting Mayor never announces what happens to those they take out of the city and never return but the citizens surmise that they were killed off. In truth however, they were instead taken deep into mines to work for the miners without being able to complain and their time there was indefinite. It was the heavier punishment; however, it was somewhat still the same. They were getting paid for their services but the pay was in food and shelter instead.

In different parts of the city the holes appeared at, there were teams of two armed guards proceeding on taking the lives of the creatures that were kneeling in front of the rifts. The creatures were bloodless and left only their cores s.h.i.+ning as black crystals. These crystals were collected by the guards when they killed the creatures, however, as there were brave men that helped them in doing this, like the mercenaries and adventurers; they were given the chance to trade those crystals with the city for their services. And it was not something that was optional; it was something that the Acting Mayor announced as he saw fit.

In Isaac's mind, those crystals mind serve as a coordinate for other creatures that are stronger than these and open up their own rifts and invade this world again in secret. So to prevent that from happening, he a.s.signed his men and the guards to collect them by offering gold in return for it. And it worked wonders as every single one of the crystals was collected and not one was missed.

Isaac's thinking was of course too much if taken at a point of view however, this move that he made also just saved the lives of the people in this city. As those crystals really were something that can be used as coordinates by other powerful creatures from the other side of that s.p.a.ce, intelligent creatures that are capable of scheming.

By virtue of the help of the mercenaries and adventurers, the sealing of the rifts proceeded smoothly but this process still took them a lot of time because of the number of rifts that manifested all over inside the city, plus the guards did not know how to until they noticed they could attack the rift with mana infused blades that exhausted the h.e.l.l out of them. Those that were outside only numbered in the ones so it was not taken into top priority. The effect of Clay's Overpower was encompa.s.sing the whole of Mount Moribor. Those holes that are close to the peak were personally destroyed by Clay by overloading it with his mana remotely and so monsters up there did not even have the chance to look at the view outside the rifts.

The merchants who've hired mercenaries have also moved with a different motive in mind but were unsuccessful. They wanted to move their mercenaries to kill those monsters and get a hold of the Acting Mayor's favor and yet, those efforts were not honored, instead the mercenaries who joined the fray even if spurned on by the merchants who hired them received their rewards. They couldn't be blamed by the merchants for that could they?

On one side of the city, the company owned by Elle was on standby mode. Just after predicting that the 'man' he mentioned would not allow something like an invasion to happen and get people killed in his territory, even though some of the merchants were killed that time, however it were all outside the walls of the city so the people accepted it as something normal, another crisis befell the city he ruled and so Elle once again ordered his trusty secretary, [This time as well, do not make a move and just monitor the situation. If you still doubt my prediction being totally just coincidence then this time, you'll see, once it gets inside his territory, he will make a very visible move that no amount of denials can ever deny that 'He' is here.] Although her prediction last time was that of Clay making a move because he wouldn't simply allow an invasion and it was wrong, still, Clay did make a move. Only, that move was for the party for his son to be moved post-haste instead of him worrying about the territory since the territory was in Isaac's management after all. In Clay's mind, Isaac and gang could probably wipe out that army without even losing one man.

Now, another prediction came from her and true enough, Mik was in disbelief. News just spread around that the divine hand of the sovereign has shown itself in protecting the entire city from the attack of the Demon Hero. From this news, Mik could tell for sure now that what his mistress was speaking about was truth all this while. He could also see evidence of this news just outside their office as a rift opened up there as well and creatures were being beheaded left and right without resistance from them, no, it wasn't that there were no resistance but that they could not even move to resist, so the phrase 'no resistance was met' should still be correct.

This time's prediction was spot on as Clay did interfere because he knew that people were going to die because of this attack that had no precedence or provocation. It was a random whim of the Demon Hero, Azael-on.