The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Upon hearing this news, Judith slumped down, while Augustine wore a smug smile; he had won.

Seeing Judith, the city's current pillar of strength, looking as if she had given up all resistance, Augustine knew that everything was over and the city was about to collapse. All he had to do was open the city gates, welcome the demon army, shift all the blame onto Judith and Scott, and offer the half-mad Claire to the Demon King. The Augustine family would then remain the kings of this kingdom.

Even if only one capital city remains.

Cliff slumped to his feet, looked at Augustine, and asked, "Have you already reached an agreement with the demons?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, so you don't need to worry. You can continue to be king if you wish. Everything is negotiable. The only condition is that you help to completely eradicate the Goddess Cult. After that, the Demon King promises that as long as the capital is under the rule of the Demon Clan, it will always be Augustine's capital."

Cliff nodded, walked over to Augustine, and asked, "Could you tell me about the specific treaty?"

Seeing Cliff's dejected appearance, Augustine immediately began to speak eloquently, giving Cliff a detailed account of the conditions offered by the demons. Apart from preserving a little of Augustine's dignity, it could almost be described as a loss of sovereignty and national humiliation.

Just as Augustine was speaking, Cliff suddenly drew his sword and plunged it straight into the body of his fellow man.

This was just a sword symbolizing power, and it had no real killing power, but everyone forgot that Cliff himself was also a knight.

The man of the same clan stared in shock at Cliff, whose face had lost all trace of despair. In the eyes of this man, the crazed expression on Cliff's face gradually began to overlap with that of Augustine III, who had driven himself mad in his pursuit of the North.

"You...you'll do this..."

Upon hearing that his fellow clansman could still speak, Cliff twisted his sword, pulled out a musket for self-defense from his waist, and gave his clansman a good thrashing.

The blood of his kin splattered on Cliff's face, on his magnificent robes, and on the round table in the council hall.

Everyone present, especially the restless Augustinians, were so frightened that they dared not move. Even the last force protecting the Augustinians withdrew their aura in an instant.

Cliff was panting heavily, unsure whether it was from nervousness or from not having stretched his muscles for too long, but he remained calm and ordered Judith, "Open the palace gates, open the armory, gather all the able-bodied men in the city, and distribute all the muskets and gunpowder to those who are willing to fight."

“Repeat the treaties that this man just mentioned to the soldiers and civilians in the city, word for word.”

"Tell those people that the Governor of the North will come to our rescue soon, either today or tomorrow."

"Furthermore, anyone who dares to mention surrender again will be executed without mercy!"

Cliff raised his musket and fired a shot at the ceiling, instantly bringing everyone present to their senses.

Seeing Cliff give clear and logical orders, Judith and Scott immediately got up and went to make arrangements.

Cliff then asked the terrified messenger, "Which city wall couldn't be held?"

"Probably in the northwest direction."

Cliff said nothing more, but took the decorative longsword from the conference room wall, picked up his musket, and headed towards the city wall with his guards.

Rumors had begun to circulate in the city that the new king had taken advantage of the chaos to escape and was going to sell the capital to the demons, but as Cliff personally took to the city walls to command the battle, all the rumors immediately vanished.

What Cliff didn't expect was that after the news spread, the first people in the city to come to his aid were the students from the Royal Academy, especially those students from less privileged backgrounds.

Upon hearing the treaty, the students were enraged and rushed to Cliff's side with fervent patriotism. Cliff looked at these young faces and was momentarily speechless. He wanted the students to go back, as they were the kingdom's last hope, but the students said, "The kingdom is about to perish. What hope is there after the kingdom is destroyed?"

Yes, once the king is gone, Capet will surely be gone too, and humanity will fall under the rule of the demons. What hope will there be then? These students see things more clearly than those nobles with their own agendas.

"I know I'm not a good king, I feel like I was just dragged into this position, but I..."

Just as Cliff was about to give up, a student immediately spoke up: "Your Majesty, stop talking nonsense and just tell us whether you're going to do it or not!"

Some students were amused by the vulgar remark, which instantly eased the tense atmosphere. Cliff responded, "Okay, let's get the hell out of there!"

With the students' help, the city walls, which were on the verge of collapse, were retaken, and morale was even higher than before. As the armory was opened, more and more students followed suit and climbed the walls, including the sons of those wavering nobles. They joined others in defending the capital, firing their muskets indiscriminately regardless of whether it was effective or not.

Antipa kept a close eye on the walls of the Capetian capital. Through the same means he had previously used to contact Claire, Antipa once again made contact with the Capetian royal family. However, for some reason, after agreeing on a price with the Capetian royal family, the resistance in the Capetian capital intensified.

For a moment, the demons under Antipas even had the illusion that they were fighting against the Northern army, but the weapons and equipment of the capital were still far inferior to those of the North. Although the resistance was fierce, they still could not stop the endless stream of demon monsters.

Unlike the North, the capital city, while capable of resistance, lacks the ability to retaliate.

"Let the chosen ones move."

These chosen ones were originally sent to deal with the North, but now it seems we can test in advance what changes have occurred to them under the influence of the black mist.

Several enormous Chosen Ones began to relentlessly assault the city walls of the capital, their demonic bloodline magic gushing forth from the many gaping maws on their bodies as if it were an endless stream.

Besides the power of the bloodline magic itself, those spells also seemed to carry a trace of destructive aura, causing the humans on the city wall, who had previously stabilized, to begin to feel fear again.

Once fear begins to emerge, it will be amplified infinitely, eventually leading to a collective loss of control.

The once-solid city walls became shaky again under the attack of the chosen ones.

Antipa was very satisfied with the performance of the Chosen Ones. With such powerful destructive force, Antipa, who had not yet directly fought the North, felt that even if he encountered the North again now, he would still be able to put up a fight. No, Antipa couldn't even imagine how the North could defeat his Chosen Ones.

The capital's defenses were crumbling. Cliff stood atop the city walls, shouting to the soldiers and armed students, "The capital is behind us! We have nowhere to retreat! My people, my soldiers, reinforcements from the North are on their way! The Goddess will be with us!"

Seemingly in response to Cliff's words, just as the defenses of the capital were about to collapse, beams of holy light suddenly descended from the sky, parting the clouds and shining directly outside the city walls.

These holy lights seemed to connect directly with the sky, blocking the demon monsters' path to the capital. Some chosen ones were directly exposed to the holy light and even began to fester and collapse.

Even Antipas was blinded by the holy light, but he could feel that his precious divine choice was being gradually dissolved by it.

Fortunately, the holy light did not last long, and Antipa quickly recovered. Two unlucky chosen ones were unable to escape the range of the holy light and were literally killed by it. Watching the chosen ones gradually decay and disappear, Antipa looked at the city wall with increasing rage.

Shouldn't the royal army collapse at the first touch? How come humanity has so many trump cards, as if they can't use them all?

"The plan has changed. The humans in the capital have gone completely mad. There's no point in cooperating with them. We won't stop fighting after we take it down."

Antipas coldly gave the order, which made the demons around him show expressions of ecstasy. Not sealing their swords meant that the demons could be unrestrained and do whatever they wanted. Upon hearing this order, many demons immediately recovered from the baptism of holy light and excitedly licked their lips.

The demons quickly reorganized their offensive, even more frantically than before. Cliff could clearly sense that the demons might have initially wanted to take over a more complete capital city, but now they were determined to conquer it at all costs. The capital city's defenses had long since exceeded their capacity and were completely inoperable.

Cliff dragged his weary body and pointed his longsword menacingly in the direction of the demons' attack. Just then, a continuous rumbling sound suddenly came from afar, its melody rising and falling, layer upon layer, like a tsunami surging in, as if it could shake the earth.

That was the roar of a tank engine.