Chapter 72: Sacred and Demonic

The reason the raid had been delayed was because the kingdom had a hard time organizing for a war, as it used to be very peaceful. With my intervention, the Tenjin kingdom was able to shorten their day of departure and reduce the wait to only a week after stopping the sacrificial ritual.

Because of my achievements in stopping the sacrificial ritual, I asked Hayato to give me a high position as an advisor, or some position that would allow me to be close to him and gain merit, with the same excuse I gave Ryota to make me a nobleman. 

He readily agreed, since, if not for me, he might have died. According to his personality, he values favors and debts highly. There was a bit of resistance from the rest of the upper echelon, but Hayato having the last word it did not go any further.

The day of departure began. I stood in front of a man with a straight face and a scar on his face. Apparently, he was Ryota's distant cousin, who had been successful as a mercenary and was in charge of transmitting my orders to the rest. He was a four-star and a well-known mercenary. I told him to just follow the army like the rest of the mercenaries and that I would call him if I needed him.

I, for my part, would stay close to Hayato, who was now the highest authority in the army. The march took two days and we found ourselves in a plain that was just before the forest where the crack appeared. Upon arrival, we could see another group of more than 50,000 soldiers.

We parked some distance away to avoid trouble. Days passed and the last kingdom had arrived. The blood moon guys were subordinate to a Daimyo who was one of the people the church was pushing to take the position of Shogun and lead the raid.

The meeting between the representatives of each country started and I had the Shogun's recognition to participate among his confidants. When the meeting started, I could see Chrys among the confidants of the Kazan kingdom.

Unfortunately, I could not see anyone else. I guess they do not have the necessary recognition to attend this meeting. When we parted, I gave them each a communication artifact that I bought at the store. So, from time to time, we communicated to know the situation and circumstances of the other kingdoms, as well as share information. I knew more or less what they were doing, so, after a short exchange of mental messages, we turned our attention to the meeting.

Since no one was willing to cede the power of their respective nation to another, even in these situations, a simple plan was formed where we would attack from three different locations. The rift was to the north of our current location and one group would go directly from the south.

The other two, from the southeast and southwest. It was our turn to go from the southwest. The meeting ended after these small arrangements were finished, we went to our tent, which was the command center, and had a serious meeting.

Our combat power was 50,000 and between the three kingdoms it only totaled 200,000. According to the scouts, the monsters numbered around two million, but they were mostly common monsters and demons. There were only a few thousand with two-star strength and up.

The problem is that the average of these realms is about the same and most of the soldiers are common awakened and two-star or less. Only a few thousand are two-star and above, taking into account the thousands of mercenaries who joined the three realms.

Also, I could notice that there are no people stronger than five stars. The beasts outnumber us and maybe in rank, but we have something in our favor and that is organization. I want to believe that's enough as usual, but this maze won't be so easy, so I was on the lookout for any difficulties.

When we finished the meeting and decided our next steps, with Hayato's authorization I went ahead to get a view of the situation, getting to the crevice was not easy as there were obstacles in the way, and I had to check it myself. 

Meanwhile, I ran through the trees, avoiding any beasts along the way. Up ahead, I could see an encampment of what looked like a village of red ogres. There were about five thousand of them and it just looked like an outpost. I sneaked in and noticed that the leader was only a five star.

Now that my rank was down again, he would not be easy to deal with, but that was not my goal. I infiltrated the fortress and began to gather information. Once I was satisfied, I continued.

At the speed I was going along with the teleportation, it didn't take me more than a few hours to traverse the path and gather information.

When I finally arrived at the main fortress, I was able to detect one sixth rank presence and many fifth rank ones, approximately six. With this, I realized that the humans are at a great disadvantage in this battle.

Even if they made it this far unscathed, the situation would be complicated, but no maze gives an impossible mission. Not to mention, after infiltrating further, I could notice that some demons along with ogres and goblin sorcerers are performing a ritual in the rift.

It looked like what the wizard kobold was doing when I destroyed that village, but I didn't detect any threat like back then. So I guess it's a long spell and will last a few days and that's the limit of the mission.

I would really like to go there and stop them, but besides the monsters that are goblins and orcs, I could notice the presence of demons. The whole place was surrounded by defenses that even I would take a long time to disarm and destroy, unnoticed even with Lili by my side.

Demons are an intelligent race that comes from the rifts and the reason we differentiate them from monsters is because their mana always has the demonic trait. It is something that is the opposite of the holy element that only some humans wield.

It is a trait that awakens as if it were an innate trait in all demons and hence the division between monsters and demons. In addition, they are versed in magic and knowledge that even surpasses humans.

That is why they are extremely dangerous, humans tend to make deals with them for power and gain the demonic trait which is considered a powerful trait on its own, besides giving them power, instant, it also shares their knowledge, that is why the high priest had the advantage and almost won in the battle against Hayato, even though Hayato had more power and battle experience.

the Spells that only people with this trait can perform were very strong and advanced, of course right now we are in a labyrinth that I think is developed in the past, and they are less advanced in the use of Spells and magic so they are very overpowered, besides the possibility of awakening superior traits that offers this trait is not surprising because Humanity was, in crisis many times in the past, many kingdoms fell but also many rose up this can be one of them.

On the other hand the same happens with the sacred trait which is its opposite, besides being a trait that to put it simply is a trait that rejects everything else and rises above all or to put it easy it is a trait that maintains purity, do not allow anything that I do not allow to aduriate to me or affect me negatively to anything imbued with it.

Demonic energy is something that counteracts easily, it is also known that frequent contact with this trait makes the user or those around him, have more chance of awakening higher traits and in fact if it were not for the sacred trait I do not think I could have awakened traits such as will, which is a very strong trait.

The demons I could notice are only rank five and below, but there are many demons in the vicinity, which raises the difficulty of the labyrinth.

Still, I have to make the necessary arrangements. Obviously, I know what conditions I need to complete thanks to the side quests. But still, I need to be prepared. After finishing what I needed, I returned to Tenjin's army camp and they were already leaving. I approached the Shogun to inform him of what I had discovered.