Chapter 411: Where Is the Real Commander?

He frowned deeply, lost in thought for several long moments.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed sharply, as if a realization had struck him like lightning.

“The Saint...... It must be the Saint!”

“Huh? The Saint?”

The subordinate kneeling before him stared in confusion, unable to fathom how this had anything to do with “the Saint.”

“Wait a minute...... This is bad! This is really bad!”

A terrible premonition washed over Bodis.

He turned to the subordinate, his voice urgent.

“Hurry! Tell everyone to prepare to move out immediately!”

“Huh?” The subordinate froze, stunned by the abrupt order.

“What are you waiting for? GO!”

“Y-yes! Right away, sir!”

The subordinate scrambled to his feet and darted out of the tent without another word.

Bodis spun on his heel and hurried to his desk, frantically shoving stacks of intelligence documents into a crate. Halfway through, he suddenly remembered something crucial and quickly sent a signal to someone......

Just as the entire camp descended into chaos, scrambling to pack up and evacuate,

a massive red dragon appeared in the sky far above the forest.

“Irus, how do you plan to find those people?”

Hulim asked, leaning forward slightly to look down at the dense treetops below.

“Find them?”

Irus turned to her with a playful look, as if she’d just heard the silliest question in the world.

“Huh?”

“Why bother finding them?” Irus shrugged casually. “The important thing is to take them out, isn’t it~?”

“Irus...... Don’t tell me you’re going to——”

Irus broke into a brilliant, mischievous grin.

“Bingo~!”

In the next instant,

dozens of shimmering green stars materialized high above the clouds.

“Well then—let’s blow this whole place sky-high~!”

Whoosh!!!

The stars streaked downward, hurtling toward the forest like a meteor shower.

A few seconds later,

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM......

Dazzling orbs of light erupted across the ground, each explosion sending plumes of smoke and dirt billowing into the air.

When the dust finally settled, several square kilometers of forest had been reduced to a smoldering wasteland.

“Hmmm...... That wasn’t as efficient as I’d hoped.”

Irus frowned slightly, clearly dissatisfied with the results.

She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, then her eyes lit up with inspiration.

“I’ve got it~!”

A few moments later, another shower of green stars appeared in the sky.

But unlike the previous attack, which had concentrated on a single area, these stars were arranged in a long, linear formation, extending outward in multiple directions instead of covering a broad swathe of land.

Whoosh!!!

The stars descended once more, streaking toward the forest like arrows.

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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM......

Countless explosions echoed through the woods once again.

This time, however, instead of flattening a large patch of forest, the blasts carved long, smoking trenches that stretched far into the distance in every direction.

“It looks like they’re not anywhere near here. Hulim—let’s keep moving. We’ll blast our way through as we go.”

“......Got it.”

Meanwhile, back at the Gulos camp.

Rumble......

The distant tremors from the explosions shook the ground beneath their feet, drawing everyone’s attention.

“......What was that just now?”

“I have no idea.”

As the soldiers exchanged confused glances, Bodis strode out of his tent, his face growing increasingly grim.

“Everyone—evacuate at once! There’s no time to waste here!”

“Yes, sir!”

The soldiers immediately redoubled their efforts, scrambling to gather their belongings.

One of the officers approached him, saluting sharply.

“Lord Bodis—should we summon a horde of monsters to cover our retreat?”

“No.” Bodis shook his head firmly, his voice tight with urgency. “Don’t summon a single monster. No amount of monsters would be of any use against that person.”

His words had barely left his mouth when,

Rumble......

The sound of explosions echoed again—this time, much closer than before......

Bodis’s face turned ashen. He roared at the top of his lungs,

“MOVE! Everyone—forget everything else! Just RUN!”

Without another word, Bodis took off at a dead sprint, leading the way.

The other soldiers froze for a split second, then abandoned their belongings without hesitation, chasing after him in a panic......

Some time later.

“Irus—look!”

Hulim, perched on Ignir’s back, pointed to a spot on the ground far below.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of Irus’s lips.

“It seems they’ve all run away. But how far do they think they can get~?”

She slowly stood up on Ignir’s broad back, her white-gold hair streaming wildly in the wind howling past them.

She stretched out her right hand,

and a golden stringless longbow materialized in her grasp.

She glanced down at Hulim, her smile warm yet determined.

“Hulim—leave any stragglers to me.”

Hulim nodded firmly.

“Got it. I’ll take care of them.”

“Then—I’ll go on ahead~.”

With that, Irus spread her arms wide and leaped off Ignir’s back, diving toward the ground below.

The wind whipped her robes, making them snap like a flag in the storm.

After plummeting nearly a hundred meters, she twisted her body mid-air, transforming into a streak of emerald light that shot toward the direction the Gulos forces had fled......

Whoosh——!

A sharp, piercing sound tore through the sky above.

Bodis, who was running for his life, skidded to a sudden halt and looked up. He watched in horror as a green meteor streaked across the sky, then crashed into the ground directly ahead of him.

BOOM——!!!

A terrifying shockwave erupted from the impact site, snapping trees like twigs and sending them flying in all directions.

The fleeing Gulos soldiers were thrown off their feet by the force of the blast, tumbling across the ground in a disheveled heap, covered in dirt and leaves.

Bodis had managed to dive behind a large boulder just in time to avoid being thrown, but his face was paler than anyone else’s. Only he truly understood just how terrifying the being that had just descended from the sky really was.

He stared at the crater where the meteor had struck, his throat going dry. He took an involuntary step backward—but before his foot could touch the ground,

BOOM——!!!

A towering green beam of light streaked past his right side, carving a path through the forest.

“......”

Bodis trembled as he turned to look.

A massive trench, over a hundred meters wide, stretched as far as the eye could see to the right......

“You were trying to run, weren’t you?”

A soft, melodious voice sounded right in front of him.

Bodis froze, then whipped his head around.

A stunningly beautiful elf stood before him, having appeared out of thin air without him noticing a single thing.

“I’ll give you one chance. Tell me—how many of you are hiding in this forest?”

The overwhelming pressure emanating from her made cold sweat pour down Bodis’s face. He gritted his teeth, his voice trembling as he lied,

“Only me—”

BOOM——!

A crushing wave of power slammed down on him, forcing him to his knees. The ground within a ten-meter radius sank exactly twenty centimeters in an instant, the earth cracking beneath his feet.

Crack!

The sheer force shattered both of his legs.

He knelt before Irus, his vision swimming, on the verge of passing out from the pain.

Irus stared at him, her gaze sharp and penetrating.

After a long, tense silence, she finally spoke slowly,

“I see. You’re not the real commander of this monster horde, are you?”

“!!!”

Bodis’s eyes snapped open wide, his face filled with shock as he stared at her in disbelief.

“Tell me—where is the real commander?”

The pressure bearing down on him intensified, making it feel like his bones were about to shatter.

Bodis’s expression twisted in agony—but then,

“Ha...... Hahaha...... Hahahahaha!”

He burst into wild, maniacal laughter.

He locked eyes with Irus, his gaze burning with fanatical hatred.

“Do you really think I’d tell you?”

“......”

“‘Saint’! You’ve already lost! Victory belongs to Gulos! The future belongs to the Demon Race!”

“......”

Irus watched him, her expression cold and indifferent as she stared at his deranged ranting.

After several long seconds,

she spoke, her voice calm and devoid of emotion.

“Is that so?”

Then she raised her right hand.

BOOM......

Elsewhere in the forest, Hulim and Ignir were combing through the trees, searching for any remaining enemies.

“Hulim, don’t get me wrong—you’re definitely better at fighting than I am. But when it comes to tracking people down? That’s where I shine!” Ignir boasted loudly, his voice booming. “Let me tell you—when it comes to smell, there are very few creatures that can match a dragon! I can pick up a human’s scent from over fifty kilometers away......”

“......”

Hulim listened to Ignir’s endless bragging, her face expressionless.

She didn’t doubt that dragons had an exceptional sense of smell—but claiming he could detect a human’s scent from fifty kilometers away was pure nonsense. Never mind how sensitive his nose was—a human’s scent simply couldn’t travel that far!

“Wait a minute! I smell something!”

“Did you find someone?”

Hulim’s hand instantly closed around the hilt of her Seven Luminaries sword, her body tensing in preparation for battle.

“No...... It’s not a human scent.”

Ignir hesitated, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed the air.

“It’s...... monsters! A lot of them! They’re heading straight for us!”