Chapter 139 – Sorrow

"See! I knew you would kill all of them! There's not even half left!"

Contrary to the feelings of those around her, Iris was rather displeased. 

Not long after the class 4's went to battle, Dream had cut the previously 3 million strong army down to only 1.4 million. His bots and aircraft were just too capable against these demons. Especially the bots. 

While they had lost nearly 2,000, there were still 78,000 bots constantly finding their nearest enemy and hacking them to pieces. The only thing limiting their killing speed was the density of demon army, which had spread out considerably. Plus, as they got deeper in, the number of class 3's they needed to face was much greater, and these took longer to kill. Not to mention how there were only 1,000 bots at the class 3 level.

But despite them doing so well, Dream still hadn't let Iris go out and fight. The reason was because of the possibility of there being more Grand Demons in that army. He wouldn't risk it. 

Though Iris understood, she still wasn't happy. She was a battle maniac, and seeing all the spilled blood made her fighting spirit explode.

[I've fired in many groups, but I still haven't identified any more class 4's.]

"Hmm..."

Dream watched the battle that continued raging. Although the ships seemed to fire randomly, they were actually scouring the battlefield for the other Grand demons. His bots were doing the same, but even after making their way through all the various parts, none had shown themselves.

This made his suspicions grow.

"What's wrong?"

Sensing his change in attitude, Luna asked.

"There's supposed to be 8 demon counts, but only 7 have been exposed."

"But only 4 had been definitely confirmed in the destruction of that kingdom. Anything above that was a mystery."

"...But they couldn't come with only four. The demons can't be that stupid as to only bring 7 class 4's in an attempt to siege one of the most heavily guarded places on the planet. They're a race that uses numbers to their advantage, so they wouldn't skimp."

"So the others are hiding themselves?"

"They have to be."

"But their friends are almost dead."

"..."

Just as Luna pointed out, the battles between the demon and human class 4's were finishing up. Of the initial 7, only 3 were alive, and even they were soon about to die. If their allies were going to show themselves, it would have been earlier when they weren't on the verge of death. This is what Dream couldn't explain.

"...Maybe-"

*BOOM!*

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground. But unlike the explosions on the battlefield, this one was much stronger, and it came from behind them.

7 new auras washed over the entire city.

"It's a sneak attack!"

"...In the city."

"Shit."

Deam cursed before shouting into the group channel.

"Demon attack in the city! 7 class 4's! Get people over there!"

"On it!"

Along with Dream's shout came blips in the visions of everyone who held a bracelet. And since they sensed the auras as well, they didn't argue and quickly shot over at their highest speeds. 

At the same time, Sophia moved the recon drones and identified the Grand demons. All 7 were tagged, and they could be seen spreading utter devastation throughout the city. And not only them, but a small army of 2000 class 3's and 5000 class 2's were with them.

In only a short few seconds, this small force had leveled a quarter of the city. Dream couldn't imagine how many had already died.

"You two, it's time."

"Right."

Knowing how urgent this was, Luna and Iris equipped their suits and flew off with Dream into the city.

"Ahh! Help!"

"Demons!"

"Get awa-!"

*Crunch!*

Thousands of people were running for their lives away from the demons who had infiltrated into the city. But as they were nearly all ordinary, nobody was capable of putting up a fight against them. They were all like sheep and could only hope that the demon would choose the one next to them, giving them a bit more time. 

But none of them could be considered lucky. All the demons rapidly chomped, crushed, and hacked at the defenseless humans. And they wouldn't spend much time on one before jumping to the next. As these humans were ordinary, they weren't the tastiest meal for these demons, so there was no reason for them to spend time on their prey. 

......

"Ahh! Mommy!"

A little boy ran between buildings, crying as he listened to the screams and horrific sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bones. Though perhaps worse than that was the monster that was causing all those scary sounds, and this is what he was running from. 

The boy had seen the demon as it chased down all the people around him. And perhaps by luck, he hadn't been one of those chosen. Maybe it was because he was small and had less meat, or maybe the demon just didn't see him. The child didn't care, but what he did care about was the fact that his mother had been one of those unlucky few, and after being tossed away, he watched his mom be torn in half by the demon.

After that, through pure survival instinct, the child carried his somewhat injured body away from wherever the sounds were. But he was small and young and couldn't run very fast, so he could never seem to get far away from the scary sounds. It was like they were following him, tormenting him, reminding him of his mother being torn apart.

Eventually, the child walked out from between two buildings, but as he had lost sense of direction, he had walked back out to the main street. And once he did, he could see it. The monster that killed his mother. 

It bounced between the people, killing one after the other. Blood flew, limbs were torn off, and gut-wrenching sounds came from those unlucky enough to become the monster's victim. 

And then, it turned to him.

"Ahh..."

The child felt his legs go limp as he fell back onto his butt. Every part of him froze in pure terror, like a rabbit after being seen by a wolf. 

Seeing this, the demon put on a wretched smile and screeched before heading towards the child. Along the way, it didn't forget to take off the heads of those passing by.

It got closer and closer, and when it was finally about to jump towards the child, he screamed.

"Ahh!!"

*Woosh!*

*Thud!*

Suddenly, a spike of ice came from the sky and drove itself straight through the body of the demon, nailing it to the floor. The child sat there as blood splattered over him, stunned.

Not long after the ice spike came, a woman descended carrying with her a sword. Quickly, she decapitated the screaming demon. She then looked over to the boy, extending out her hand.

The next moment, the boy felt a power flow through his body. It was quick and spontaneous, but it seemed to revitalize him, filling him with energy. His wounds also seemed to just disappear.

"Go to the center of the city."

With those few words, the power left him and the woman flew away, taking the body of the demon with her. When she left, the screams around him could no longer be heard, and his mind finally began processing everything that happened. 

Tears came to his eyes as he stood, doing as the woman said and heading towards the center of the city. He didn't know what else to do but listen to her. 

.........

Scenes like this played out across the city as Dream, Luna, and Iris went around, trying to kills as many demons as fast as possible. 

And in order to kill them quickly, Dream had let loose his influence and mana, spreading his senses across the entire city. With Sophia to sort information, he was instantly able to find out where every demon was. Then using his connection to Luna and Iris, he shared the locations and assigned them targets, to which they made haste. 

Dream then took to the sky above and brought out some weapons. 50 flux guns appeared around him and took aim, firing at the demons below. They didn't even have to account for the buildings as the bullets could just punch right through. 

At the same time, Dream used his magic to attack the demons personally. Although he was in the sky and far away, covering the distance with his mana was simple. Even his soul's influence had spread to over 100 meters, so it went without saying that his mana could spread many times that distance. 

All around the city, the ground below seemed to move on its own and trap the demons in place. Not only that, but the demons lost control of their magic as he agitated the mana around them, making it extremely hard to control anything. And to top it all off, Dream compressed the air around them and shot bullets of wind, blowing their heads to bits. 

With Luna going around with sword and spear, Iris burning and mauling demons to death, and Dream incapacitating all of them, the small demon army was put to death in less than 15 minutes. 

Once he killed the last one, Iris went around to eat corpses while Luna went around healing the wounded. Dream looked over to the battleground of the Grand demons and class 4's and sighed.

Although they had responded quickly, even the battle between the class 4's was devastating to the people and buildings around them. But luckily there were more human class 4's than demon, and after overwhelming them, the demons were put down after 45 minutes. 

With these leaders gone, the battle at the northern wall also finished up quickly. 

From start to finish, the battle only took 3 hours. 

.........

"We weren't careful."

"They caught us off guard. We didn't expect them to have employed such a tactic. At least we responded quickly."

Currently, all the class 4s and generals were gathered in the palace for a meeting. The discussion was about post-battle recovery.

Dream was also here. He had sent off Luna and Iris with Riddick beforehand. 

"Although they did give us a good blow, things could have been many times worse. The demons were much more ferocious than we all thought. But despite this, they were handled with relative ease. For this, we have Dream to thank."

"Indeed. Your soldiers were unparalleled."

"They truly deserve the name 'Immortal'."

"And those ships in the sky, I've never seen such devastation, nor anything like those."

Everyone gave Dream praise, who just nodded humbly.

"Thanks. I'm only sorry that I couldn't detect those sneaky demons."

"You can't blame yourself for that. Turns out, there was a mage among that group who was capable of casting a large scale stealth spell. That's how they covered up those demons and infiltrated. There's only so much you can do alone, and your aid in this battle was already more than we ever could've expected."

"He's right. If anything, the fault is ours."

"You did plenty, kid. We're the ones who need to learn from this."

"..."

Seeing these class 4's be so responsible, Dream was a bit surprised. This was definitely not the demeanor they held before the battle.

"Anyway, we're going to be busy for a while. The reports are still being compiled, and once they come in, we're going to be sending requests to the other Empires. Until then, we need to begin construction on makeshift housing and begin rationing out food to the victims. It's lucky that so much food came in before this, cause we're going to need it."

"Right. Also, we'll need to make the report for Dream's payment. He's earned what he asked for."

"Already done. Within the next few days, we should have word on the details for you, Dream."

Saying that, the lead class 4 turned to Dream. 

"That's fine. And actually, I've got another proposal you might like."

"Oh? Do tell."

"As you already know, I happen to be a great enchanter and builder. If you want, I can go around and rebuild. Of course, if you want specific buildings and such then I'll need the blueprints, but disregarding that, I could have your city rebuilt within a few days."

"...The entire city?"

"Yes."

"...Well, after what we've seen, I don't think anyone can doubt your ability now. Though this employment depends on what you're asking for in return."

"I haven't really thought of that yet. But regardless of payment, I want to help out. At the very least, I'll make sure everyone has housing. And then after things begin to settle down, we can talk about larger projects."

"Mm. Well, if you're willing, then we would appreciate your help. Though I won't let you go without some form of compensation. So however much you do, I'll make sure to provide a suitable payment."

"That works."

"Then I thank you in advance. Other than that, I don't think there's anything more for us to discuss. We should get out there and start helping. Oh, before that, I believe this is yours."

Saying that, the class 4 took off his bracelet and handed it to Dream. The others remembered and also went to take them off.

"Oh, no. That's alright. Keep them."

"You sure? I'm sure it wasn't easy to make this."

"On the contrary actually. Just keep it. It'll make things easier for everyone."

"Oh, then thanks."

"Sure."

With that, everyone left the room and went out into the city. There was much to take care of.

........

After everything calmed down, Dream estimated that nearly a third of the city was absolutely destroyed. Though perhaps on the bright side, only a quarter of the population should have been killed. 

After leaving the meeting, Dream went over to the destroyed areas and gathered broken materials. Most of the buildings were stone and wood, so he took the ruble that he could use and made many makeshift houses. And for good measure, he lightly enchanted them all. 

Like this, by the time evening came everyone was able to move back into a house with the family they reunited with. Though it wasn't the most comfortable, it was still shelter. 

Though perhaps a service that was even greater than Dream's house building was Luna's healing. Her along with many other healers went around and healed everyone that was injured. And though the other healers were adept at their craft, Luna was by far the best for the job. 

Not only did Luna have a restoration skill, but she had Iris to supply her with an endless amount of mana and energy. Iris was going around and eating the millions of demon corpses after all, so if Luna ever needed even a speck of energy, she got it over the connection. With this, she was able to heal tens of thousands of people quickly, and by nightfall, that number surpassed 2 million.

With this, while the city wouldn't recover quickly from either the deaths or destruction, everyone was at least healed physically and could begin processing their situation. That night, needless to say, was filled with much grief and sorrow.