The Sixteen-Character Mantra

A Hero and a Demon Lord were just like that.

Mutually opposed, mutually restraining.

It wasn’t unheard of in past history for a Hero to attempt a decapitation strike on a Demon Lord alone, but very few succeeded.

The vast majority, deep in demon territory, would only have their stamina drained by the endless tide of demons, ultimately falling in defeat to a Demon Lord at their peak.

Life, especially the lives of those at the bottom, was the cheapest thing.

If one could trade the lives of a hundred thousand demon soldiers for a single powerful Hero, then any Demon Lord would do it.

Conversely, if one could trade the lives of a hundred thousand human soldiers for a single Demon Lord, then humanity would also carry it out without hesitation.

Soldier against soldier, general against general, king against king.

This was an unwritten rule.

In a normal battle, the Hero and the Demon Lord were beings that restrained each other.

Of course, whether to seek a decisive duel also depended on the strategic intentions of both sides.

Facing the constant harassment from the Evernight demons, Garen became more and more certain of one thing.

That was, the demons under Vivian’s command were indeed very weak, to the point that they could only launch such petty, thieving tactics of harassment.

Apart from the first wave of attacks, which was indeed a bit unexpected and caused a greater degree of chaos and unnecessary casualties, the personnel losses from the subsequent harassment were almost negligible for an army of twenty thousand.

And this further strengthened Garen’s belief that as long as he reached the Demon Lord’s Castle, he could force the other party into a decisive battle and thereby subjugate the Demon Lord of Evernight, Vivian.

However, the harassment from the demons was indeed a problem.

And so, Garen summoned the new Hero party and had them disperse in the rear section of the column to provide support.

“…Lucia, wait for me.”

“Those Demon Lords who deceived you, bewitched you, and even murdered you, I will definitely cut off their heads one by one!

To pay tribute to you!”

Garen gazed at the hidden portrait of Lucia in the locket in his hand.

After a moment, he closed it and put it away again.

At noon, even when the sun should have been high in the sky, the light in the Territory of Evernight seemed somewhat gloomy.

The exhausted soldiers were allowed a brief rest.

Many had just taken off their heavy equipment and pulled out their dry rations and waterskins when—

“Whoosh—“

A strange, cold wind blew over the resting troops without any warning, carrying a bone-chilling frost.

“Not good! It’s those Frost Banshees!”

An experienced veteran reacted immediately and shouted in terror.

Before his voice had even faded!

“Hee hee hee…”

Accompanied by the Frost Banshees’ signature light laughter, like the shattering of ice crystals, dozens of ice-blue streams of cold air shot out like agile venomous snakes from the dense forests on both sides of the road!

Their targets were not the dense core of the crowd, but the soldiers on the periphery who had just sat down and were most exhausted, as well as several baggage carts carrying barrels of fresh water!

“Crack! Crack!“

In an instant, a dozen unlucky soldiers were frozen into ice sculptures with terrified expressions while still sitting!

The water barrels burst, and the gushing water instantly froze into a smooth sheet of ice, causing the unprepared soldiers on the other side to slip and fall!

“Enemy attack! It’s the demons! Get up!”

Officers screamed themselves hoarse.

The soldiers scrambled to their feet, grabbing their weapons, and the formation once again fell into chaos.

However, the cold wave lasted for less than a minute!

When the Gospel Holy Knights and the members of the Dawn’s Blade Hero party charged toward the source of the cold wave with fury, they only saw a few fluttering ice crystals and the ghostly blue phantoms quickly disappearing into the dense forest.

The Demon Lord Vivian stood in the distance, coldly watching the expeditionary army.

When the enemy advances, we retreat.

When the enemy camps, we harass.

When the enemy tires, we attack.

When the enemy retreats, we pursue.

The sixteen-character mantra was indeed useful.

She specifically chose the moment when the enemy was most tired and most relaxed to launch a surprise attack!

Although it was uncertain if the casualties after a day and a night had reached three or four hundred, this was exactly what Vivian wanted—and this was also based on the premise that the demons under her command had relatively high mobility, which was why such a plan could be executed.

And… she really didn’t expect that the enemy would dare to send out some night combat teams last night.

Although the night combat teams were all human veterans skilled in night warfare, this was the Territory of Evernight, and the demons they faced were the demons of Evernight.

Instead, quite a few of them were dealt with by Elia and the others, and they even captured a number of prisoners.

Regarding the matter of the prisoners, Vivian thought for a moment and ultimately left it to Elia and the others to handle the interrogation themselves.

No matter what, her current identity was still a Demon Lord, a demon, an existence already in opposition to humanity.

As the human Bai An, she didn’t want to harm her own original race, but now she was a Demon Lord, and she had to do what a Demon Lord should do.

To put it another way, as the Demon Lord of Evernight, she couldn’t just say, “I have the heart of a human!” and expect the other side to accept her.

“This is all for… survival.”

“Don’t blame me.”

Vivian muttered to herself.

…

In the afternoon.

The thoroughly enraged expeditionary army quickened its pace.

Garen even personally led a squad of elite knights as the vanguard, trying to catch the demons’ tail—because they had discovered the tracks left behind by a small demon unit as it retreated.

And that was also where the Demon Lord’s aura was located, so Garen could boldly give chase.

“Chase! Catch up to these despicable rats! Crush them!”

Garen roared, his silver-white battle qi flaring.

The knights beside him spurred their horses into a gallop, their heavy hooves shattering the ground as they charged along the tracks into a relatively sparse patch of forest.

“Boom! Crack!“

Suddenly!

The several warhorses at the very front suddenly stumbled!

The ground bizarrely collapsed, revealing a deep pit filled with sharp wooden stakes!

In an instant, the heavily armored knights screamed as they fell, man and horse!

“There’s a trap! Be careful!”

The knights behind them hastily reined in their horses.

“Swish-swish-swish!“

From the treetops on both sides, Shadow Demons appeared like phantoms, their poisoned short crossbows firing a deadly volley of arrows!

Their targets were the knights who had bunched up to avoid the trap!

“Raise shields!”

The knight captain roared.

“Thud-thud-thud!“

Most of the arrows were blocked by the thick tower shields, but a few cunningly struck the horses or the knights behind the gaps in the shields.

Screams rang out one after another.

“They’re in the trees! Get them!”

The knights furiously stabbed with their lances or blasted the treetops with holy light spells—even the Hero Garen unleashed a slash, instantly cutting a slightly slower Shadow Demon in half!

But the Shadow Demons, having struck once, did not linger in the fight!

Like agile demonic monkeys, they leaped between the branches a few times and instantly disappeared into the denser depths of the forest.

Leaving behind the wailing men and horses in the trap pit, and a group of knights raging impotently at the empty air.

Gangrel’s figure emerged from the shadow of a large tree further away.

He licked his lips, a cruel and satisfied smile on his face.

He made a throat-slitting gesture at the furious knights in the distance, and then completely vanished.