“The army is fleeing.” Garnet continued to feed me reports.
Naturally, my army full of bandits and conscribed should break under an army of soldiers. However, this was just a ruse. I had control of the karmic destiny of those men and monsters, and they would do anything for me if I requested it of them. They were ordered to retreat, giving the enemy the impression they were on the run and had been broken up by their actions.
Meanwhile, we conquered the fort. Although I selected the lower and less skilled men to manage the fort, and kept it on a skeleton crew, sending the rest of the men off to secure the blockade. That night, as predicted, the demons came out and cut their way to the gate, killing a handful of unsuspecting undead on the way. They then opened the gate, and a battle ensued. The fort was ultimately taken back, and battles began to break out everywhere.
As an army of demons arrived at the mouth, the undead battled back. I mostly worked on autopilot, keeping myself from intervening. I found many different situations in which I could have changed battles into our favor by using one of my abilities or some other tactic, so I had to resist doing it, even though it cost lives. Thankfully, the undead, who were monsters, didn’t weigh on my conscience nearly as much as the demons, who looked just like people. Sacrificing a skeleton didn’t bother me much at all.
The battles intensified, and while I tried to time things out better, we were overtaken on the second day. I had been sending most of my soldiers away. Where? Into a place, the dungeon couldn’t detect them. It was one of Xin’s pocket worlds, outside of the reach of the dungeon’s senses. Eventually, the command camp was captured, I waved the white flag.
Thankfully, Bernard wasn’t among the Commanders who captured me. He was too busy with the wedding. I had hoped as much because if he had shown up, it was likely to ruin everything.
“General of the humans, so weak.” The demon sneered.
“I surrender unconditionally,” I responded. “Ah… but if you could let my remaining soldiers go.”
“Hmph… that’s a condition.” He snorted and then nodded to his men. “Go ahead, let them go.”
“Thank you, commander.” I bowed.
“And kill them.”
I gritted my teeth as screams and shouts sounded out behind me. There were a few cries for their general as the three hundred surviving soldiers who had already tossed down their weapons were pelted with arrows until dead. The commander who gave the order looked down on me with a sneering look. This was an army I had stolen, and I wasn’t even really their general. I was just using them. However, Mimic gave me the ability to fake distress on my face.
As for my actual feelings, they were still filled with anger. It wasn’t because I had a personal attachment to anyone involved, but because of the principle of the thing. We had surrendered, and this commander had massacred those men. It was disgusting behavior for a leader. He showed no mercy.
Good. I didn’t have any hangups about killing the demons now either. The demons I had promised Garnet I would protect, they were slaughtered by these demons. Part of the reason she made armor so hard was that they had taken everything she had in this world away from her. We were now both in agreement. We would bring this world of theirs down around them. A time would come when this demon would regret his decision, but he would receive exactly what he gave.