I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 268: Episode 4-3_Demon King (4)

4.

People call it cowardly when a commander refuses to fight, sending only their subordinates to gain an advantage.

—That’s high praise.

—“Cowardly”: Knows how to fight in a very smart and efficient way.

In the past, audiences would see such villains and agree with them. They’d criticize them for fighting dirty and tarnishing the meaning of battle. These days, though, people watching that kind of thing tend to nod along and laugh. The logic behind such actions is more than sufficient justification.

From the perspective of the one being attacked, it’s the despicable behavior of the weak. But for the one doing it, it’s often the only reasonable choice.

Why would you ever throw away a numerical advantage? If you can wear down your opponent and force them to play their hand, you should be willing to conjure minions out of thin air just to send them into the fray. If you can dodge by rolling, you roll. If you can throw dirt in their eyes, you throw it. That’s what a life-or-death battle is.

—In modern wuxia novels, rolling around and throwing dirt is considered cute at best.

In that sense, the Demon King’s choice was perfectly natural and extremely wise.

Personally stepping forward to fight the special strike force that had carved its way through his army? Pulling his subordinates back? Why does the “boss fight” so often decide the outcome of the entire war?

Because it’s a battle between the representatives of each side. Even if they aren’t the supreme commander, if the one fighting at the front loses to the enemy’s leader, that alone is enough to crush the morale of the common soldiers.

’Can we really beat someone like that?’

Moreover, the Demon King was the sovereign who led the demons. Without their king, the war could not be sustained. The very purpose of victory would disappear.

That was why the Demon King made that choice. Buja had cursed him, but he hadn’t lost his cool for that very reason. If their roles were reversed, he would have done the same thing.

It wasn’t because the Demon King feared humans. It was a choice befitting the King of the Demon Realm. He would not let his guard down or grow arrogant. He would simply watch the insects struggle and observe their choices.

“If he won’t come out, we just have to force him out.”

For those fighting on the ground, looking up at their unmoving target, impatience was inevitable. With limited strength and stamina, could they really fight an endless tide of demons and still have enough left to kill the Demon King?

Of course not. If they had that much power to spare, they would have killed him long before the continent fell into such a desperate state.

They needed another way. They had to drag the Demon King into a battle that wasn’t on his terms, to make the risks Kallis and the others had taken to get here mean something.

SWOOSH!

The angel was one of those methods.

Descending from the sky, it swung its massive scythe and cut down countless demons. Even under the Demon King’s blessing, even soaked in the power of the miasma-filled battlefield, they could not escape the Scythe of Judgment. Scores of demons were sliced in half, their corpses littering the field.

Even so, the demons charged without fear, swarming the angel with the intent to devour it. The celestial being, which had seemed capable of blowing away all the darkness, slowly began to lose its light under the endless onslaught.

This was the difference between a novel and reality. Even a light meant to pierce the darkness will be snuffed out when faced with an overwhelming disparity.

When the angel finally fell to its knees before the darkness, the Demon King’s gaze turned to Kim Buja.

He sneered.

’Is this all? Is this the best you can do? Can’t you even overcome one of my minor preparations? Are the so-called last heroes of the continent really this weak?’

For the Demon King, this war might not have been a final battle at all, but merely another entertaining play in which he watched ants struggle. Fights required opponents of similar caliber. When you possessed enough power that the outcome was obvious, the desperate struggles of those throwing their lives at you could even seem cute.

In that sense, the fact that his subordinates—weakened by penalties—had managed to block the descent of an angel could be seen as having shut down humanity’s final trump card.

’So, what’s next? What card will you play to entertain me now?’

This was the Demon King’s way of showing consideration, a leisurely indulgence toward Kim Buja—the one human who, at the very least, provided some amusement. The human who had shocked him by wiping out half of his legions. The human who had come charging in under the banner of a “Warrior of God.”

’Come, show me. Show me the power of that “god” you humans believe in.’

The arrogant smile on his face soon froze.

Because he saw it.

He saw Kim Buja’s expression. In the face of despair, with the card he had painstakingly prepared so easily blocked, Buja was smiling.

’Why?’

The question rose in his mind unbidden. Even as the Demon King, he was not omniscient. Dragons weren’t either; there was no such thing as a truly omnipotent being in this world. They were simply powerful because they had lived far longer and belonged to a higher race.

They could die.

They could make mistakes.

No matter how perfect, cautious, and vigilant they tried to be, as the years dulled them and their power intoxicated them, they would inevitably miss things that could only be seen from the bottom.

VWOOOOOM!

By the time he began to process the meaning behind that smile, it was already too late.

A fierce thrum of magical power resonated across the battlefield.

At the same time, the Demon King’s expression hardened once more. A moment ago, it had been out of annoyance at Buja’s unexpected smile. This time, it was because, for the first time, he sensed danger.

VWOOOOOOM!

The vibrating waves of mana grew stronger and stronger, so powerful that the entire battlefield seemed to shake. Both humans and demons looked around in confusion.

’What is happening?’

Only a very small number of people knew the answer.

The Demon King was one of them.

“How dare you...!”

For the first time, the Demon King spoke. His voice, filled with rage, made it clear that he had already predicted the outcome of what Buja had set in motion.

“How dare you humans!”

From the ground where the Demon King stood—no, more precisely, from the ground where the fallen angel had landed—an immense, pure-white magic circle began to spread. For the first time, the Demon King moved.

KA-BOOOOM!

The Demon King’s attack and Kallis’s sword clashed head-on.

The Demon King had joined the battle.

* * *

Before the final war began—

“Do you have a plan?” Kallis had asked Kim Buja.

It was a bit late to be asking, just as they were about to march out, but what Kallis wanted to know was if there was a plan to defeat the Demon King more easily in the final battle.

Kim Buja replied, “Honestly, I don’t think there’s much point in making one. From the way the Demon King acts, he’s no fool. He seems to want to slowly enjoy himself while conquering the continent, and he probably won’t give us a straight fight, even at the end. Demons aren’t the type to give you even a one-percent chance of hope.”

“Then...”

“Still, he won’t shut us down completely beforehand. When you’re crushing bugs, the best way is to give them a faint, almost unreachable hope, to make them think they might just be able to grasp it. That’s the key.”

Even as he spoke, his expression was grim.

“The problem starts there. Even if we both know it’s a trap and walk into it, the most important question is whether we can actually kill the Demon King. If we can’t get a result, then no matter what we do, it will all be meaningless.”

“We can kill him. As long as you and I fight together.”

“Yeah. That’s why we’re going now. No more waiting. Before the continent gets any more wrecked. But we have to kill him before he shows too many of his cards, before he gets tired. The best time would be the very first moment we encounter him.”

The conversation had circled back to the beginning. This was where Kallis’s real question lay.

“I do have an idea for how to do that.”

Fortunately, Buja had an answer. After a brief pause, he turned his gaze to the saintess.

“But I’ll need your help.”

His tone was serious. The fact that he was asking for her agreement before even explaining the plan implied that it would be extremely difficult for her. Her expression hardened as well. She instinctively understood that whatever he had in mind, it would not be good for her.

Even so, the saintess nodded.

“What do you need me to do?”

Despite the resolve in her voice, a willingness to sacrifice herself, Buja’s expression remained tense.

“This isn’t the kind of plan where you sacrifice yourself.”

The saintess gave him a questioning look.

“We need to make the Demon King personally break through his own subordinates and charge at us, losing his reason and acting on pure instinct.”

Because, in its own way, it was a far crueler method for the saintess.

“First, we’re going to summon an angel,” he explained briefly. They had already discussed the method with the saintess before and had even succeeded once. The Heavenly Earrings and her holy power. Even if she wasn’t a god, that combination was more than enough to summon an angel.

However, it wouldn’t last long.

“Angels are a celestial race, just as demons are a demonic one. When they cross into the human world, they can’t use their full power.”

“I know.”

“With the level of celestial I can summon, we won’t be able to beat the Demon King, let alone...”

“That’s exactly what we need.”

The saintess was struck speechless.

Angels, who wielded absolute power against demons, would only reveal their weaknesses when facing the Demon King and his army.

And that was precisely what they needed.

The saintess was not so foolish that she couldn’t understand the implication. Unable to bring herself to say it, she fell silent.

Kim Buja spoke clearly in her place.

“We’re going to summon an angel and let it die. It has to be killed by the demons. And in the process, the angel has to kill as many demons as possible.”

There was no need to spell out the next step. The target was different, but the story was one they had all heard before.

“The dead angel, the demon blood we’ll scatter as an offering, and this summoning circle.”

The saintess’s role was simple: summon the angel. No matter how holy she was, opening the gates of Heaven itself required specific knowledge and power.

Kim Buja had solved that part with gold.

“The moment the Heavenly Gate opens, and the celestials descend, the war is over.”

Heaven and the Demon Realm.

Celestials and demons.

For demons, there was no race more troublesome than the celestials. Conversely, for celestials, demons were the last opponents they wanted to face.

Now, both would be gathered in one place.

“The demons crossed over using human blood as a sacrifice, but the celestials will cross over using celestial blood as their sacrifice.”

The conditions were unequal; the pretext for war would be heavily weighted toward one side. This wasn’t about righteousness or superiority. A clear, undeniable blood sacrifice would inevitably tip the scales of power.

“The outcome of the war itself won’t matter at that point. The Demon King will lose here, at the very least, and he will definitely step in to prevent that.”

“Then...”

“If he does nothing and lets the magic circle complete, that’s good for us. If he personally intervenes to stop our plan, that’s also good for us.”

The plan succeeded spectacularly.

Who would ever dare to think of sacrificing a celestial?

The Demon King had walked right into the trap.

Only one part of the plan remained.

“All we have to do now is kill the Demon King.”

* * *