"Are you sure, M'Arcol, Deic?" The daemon general asked again with a sharp expression.
"We are. The humans are not hidden in ambush, nor they left explosives inside the fort. Nothing, they just ran away."
"They should have left last night. Probably because their current forces are not enough to stop us, so they decided to retreat instead of fighting us."
The daemon general fell silent for an instant.
Then, he started to laugh.
"Hahahahaha! It looks like that Daemon God is helping us today!"
"The humans ran away!"
"Hahaha, cowards!"
"Fort Mist is finally ours!"
Hearing the excited exclamations of the daemons in the surroundings, the cardinal's lips curved up in a smirk.
"Do you hear that, Princess? I told you that the humans just ran away."
Princess E'Athar frowned before shaking her head.
"No, something is definitively wrong. I can feel it. General, you should not let the troops advance."
"Shut up, girl! Are you still insisting!?"
Princess E'Athar ignored the cardinal and looked at the daemon general with a serious expression.
"Think about it, General. General Anson is a stubborn man. Do you think he would retreat just like this?"
The daemon general fell silent and looked at the fort again.
Then-
"Give the order. We are advancing."
"General!"
"Princess, you should stop interfering with my work." The general looked at the princess coldly. "What? Do you want to give the humans time to run away? Moreover, M'Arcol is a fourteenth-layer mage, and he confirmed that there was no trap in the fort. There is no need to hesitate anymore."
"But general!"
"You should leave, princess; or I'll ask my men to take you away."
Princess E'Athar bit her lips with an unwilling expression.
She could see the daemons in the surroundings looking at her with cold, mocking, and disdainful looks.
Obviously, none of them was on her side. They probably thought that she was a coward.
What they did not know was that Princess E'Athar never planned to stop them.
Since the start, she only needed to show her disapproval of the general's decision and say 'be careful, there is a trap'.
That way, after the daemons are ambushed and the army suffers grave losses, she can put the responsibility on the daemon general and his men and then take over the army.
Of course, her current prestige is not enough to do something like that yet. But soon, she was going to have another opportunity.
Sneering inwardly, Princess E'Athar turned around and growled.
"You are putting the empire's soldiers in danger, General."
Then, she left angrily.
The daemon general sneered disdainfully before looking towards the fort.
"Let's go. From today onwards, Fort Mist will be ours!"
The daemons did not hesitate anymore. Immediately, the daemon army rushed towards the fort.
At the start, the army was still a bit wary in case of traps. But when they took the fort quickly without any casualty, their wariness disappeared.
The doors of the fort were opened, and the army entered it. Of course, the fort was not big enough for the entire army to enter, so only half of the army entered first.
After that, it was time to loot the fort.
The daemons easily found a lot of loot, as though proving that the humans had retreated in a hurry.
That only served to increase the morale of the army, and due to that, more and more daemons lowered their guards.
Even the daemon general could not hide the grin on his face anymore.
"Hahahaha. Finally, Fort Mist is ours!"
"What should we do now, General?" One of the commanders of the army asked.
The daemon general thought for a moment before smirking.
"The humans are running away, huh. Then, we should send an elite team to pursue them. Only tenth-layer practitioners and higher will be allowed. They should be able to catch up to the human army and cause them heavy losses"
"Understood."
Several daemons offered up for the task immediately. After all, fighting a retreated army meant easy killings.
They could already imagine themselves killing the human soldiers.
By this point, even the wariest daemon had forgotten about the words of Princess E'Athar. None of them thought that this was a trap.
Just then, it happened.
All of sudden, a powerful magic fluctuation appeared in Fort Mist, surprising the entire army.
The daemon general and the daemon powerhouses were startled. But immediately, their expressions changed.
"Oh no!"
However, it was too late.
Before they could move, a giant magic formation appeared around the fort.
Then, a barrier took shape around the fort.
"It's a trap!" The daemon general's expression turned ugly.
"Impossible! I did not detect any magic fluctuation!"
The daemon general glared at the daemon mage and growled.
"That doesn't matter now. Hurry up and destroy the barrier! We can't let the humans succeed!"
But at that point, the magic formation lit up again.
Immediately, a powerful magic fluctuation was felt throughout the fort.
When the daemons felt it, their expressions turned pale.
That was–
'Teleportation!'
In the next second, hundreds of human soldiers were teleported to the walls of Fort Mist.
They were holding crossbows in their hands, aiming at the daemons inside the fort with ice-cold expressions.
At the same time, four figures appeared in the sky of Fort Mist.
The general only recognized General Anson and Ysnay, but it was obvious that the green-haired girl and the blue-haired young man were beyond-twelfth-layer practitioners as well.
By this point, the daemon general realized the seriousness of the situation.
But it was already too late.
With an ice-cold voice, General Anson looked at the daemons in the fort and opened his mouth.
"Fire."
In the next instant, hundreds of bolts were shot from the crossbows.
Towards the daemons in the fort.
And a festival of blood and death started.