Origin Seeker

After taking their designated places, the class 4's kept a vigilant eye out. 

But while they were more confident and secure, the same couldn't be said for the other soldiers.

After seeing the sheer size of the horde, many officers started sweating and many weaker soldiers started trembling. The violent and menacing aura that seemed to reject all life could be felt washing over everyone even within the city. And as the ones who had to face this aura head on, the weak soldiers class 2 and below felt like running away. 

But everyone knew that they had nowhere to run to. For them, this was the one and only line of defense. If the demons got past them, then all the ordinary and defenseless people within the city would be massacred. The majority of the soldiers had friends and loved ones within those walls, so even if only for their sakes, they were going to stand and fight. 

But there was one thing that comforted them all, and that was the reinforcements that had come along with the weapons. Everyone knew that the other Empires pitched in soldiers and gear to bolster the combat power of the army. Most of them were even holding brand new weapons. Though they wouldn't get to keep them, they at least had it for this battle. 

Lastly, rumors had spread about a certain force that was present among them. Though they were only 80,000 in number, supposedly these mysterious soldiers were immortal. Not only that, but these soldiers would be the ones diving straight into the horde. After hearing about and even seeing them, much of the army was very interested.

While they knew it was impossible for anyone to be immortal, that's how it was described, and that's what they wanted to believe. Because if these soldiers couldn't live up to their mysterious reputation, then they would have to be the ones to dive into the horde. And nobody wanted to do that. So after seeing these silver and gray humanoids around the frontlines, many of the soldiers internally wished them luck.

"Hahaha! So many enemies! Can I really jump in there?!"

On top of the frontmost wall, everyone turned to look at the girl who was excitedly looking upon the horde. Though many of them were confused at the fact that somebody was excited at all, all of them were stunned upon looking at this beauty. 

"You can jump in once we've tagged all the class 4's. I know how much of a ruckus you'll cause and if you attract one over, the result won't be pretty."

The man next to her spoke while sitting on the edge of the wall. This man was indeed Dream, and Iris was the one who was getting hyped over the amount of enemies she could slaughter. Luna was also there, standing by them quietly. Their clothes flapped in the cold mana filled wind as they overlooked everything.

"Aww. But how long is that going to take? What if your soldiers kill all of them before I get to go down?"

"I would rather that happen than you get obliterated by a class 4. Learn from my mistakes. We're playing it safe."

"Ugh, fine. Just hurry and find them. There's 8 right?"

"At least, but yes. In fact, I've already found one."

When he said that, a blip in his vision was created. This blip appeared in Iris's eye as well as the eyes of every other class 4.

"Dream, that blip is a class 4?"

A man spoke over the group channel between the class 4's. Dream nodded.

"Yes. He's the first. I'm still looking for the othe- Oh. Just found another one."

"I see it. Though they haven't revealed their auras yet."

"Then we just need to wait. Once we've found at least 6, we can move in. And until then, keep your auras hidden."

"Understood."

Everyone nodded to the lead class 4. Although Dream allowed them convenient communication, he wasn't in the position to lead them all. 

"They're beginning their attack."

When Dream said that, he could see the front of the massive army begin to speed up. Screeches and roars could be heard in the distance, and everyone could see weapons being drawn and magic being casted.

"Form ranks! Here they come!"

With a shout from the officers, everyone felt their hearts speed up. All the soldiers formed up and prepared to launch ranged attacks. 

Dream just sat there, looking at the rapidly approaching horde.

"Are you going to send your soldiers?"

"Not yet."

Dream shook his head at Iris. He needed to wait.

The horde approached. 

10 miles...9 miles...7 miles...

4 miles... 3 miles... 1.5 miles...

"...Go."

*Woosh*

As the demons began to reach the funnel walls, Dream finally gave the word. And from the East, West, and North walls, thousands of metallic soldiers dashed out to the horde all at once, hitting them from all sides.

*Screech!*

*Slice!*

At the sudden advance, many demons were startled and launched their prepared attacks at the metal soldiers. Though these were nimbly dodged, and it only took seconds for the bots to reach the horde and slice off heads.

"Fire!"

The officers also gave their commands, and the hundreds of thousands of humans on the walls began to fire their ranged attacks. Rocks, fire, water, air, and arrow attacks were released randomly into the densest parts of the horde.

*Boom!*

Explosions were raised as the attacks landed. The cries of injured demons filled the battlefield as limbs were thrown across the air.

Though as these ranged attacks were released, everyone had their eyes on the silver soldiers that had dove into the massive horde. 

"Oh my god..."

"How are they moving so nimbly?"

"They're fast. And...I think they have better swordsmanship than me?"

"Well they also have 6 swords."

"That should be even harder to handle!"

Everyone spoke in shock as they watched the soldiers cut down thousands of demons every second. None of them could be accurately hit as they moved between tiny gaps, slicing and dicing every demon that crossed their paths.

"They're stronger than I remember."

Ciroc commented off to the side. He had seen these soldiers during the expedition. And while they had been impressive, he could clearly see the difference between them and these soldiers. 

Gradually, the ranged attacks from the walls died down as everyone watched these soldiers hold the army at bay all by themselves. Though they were spread out and severely outnumbered, none of them were dying. They just kept weaving between demons gracefully and without flaw, never once stopping themselves or showing any form of fatigue. 

But as Dream said before, there was only so much 80,000 could do against three million. As the horde charged further, many demons did indeed slip through cracks and head towards the walls. 

"Come on! We can't let them do all the work! Go get some experience!"

With invigorated shouts, soldiers at the walls prepared themselves to face the greatly thinned out demons. Seeing the silver soldiers so mercilessly cutting down demons gave them more courage. The smaller number of demons was also a morale booster. Who didn't like higher chances of survival?

Using magic and swords, soldiers began running out to meet the demons. The ranged soldiers on the walls also aimed their attacks, taking out some as they approached. 

Soon, they clashed, and blood was instantly drawn. Though unlike the expectations beforehand, most of the blood was demon blood. With the lesser numbers, the humans had a much easier time and weren't overrun. 

........

Seeing the situation, all the officers and class 4's nodded in approval. Dream's soldiers were doing exactly as he said they would. 

Dream also nodded, but this wasn't the only thing he had planned. 

Luna looked at him as he sat on the wall and saw him grinning.

"What?"

"...I'm excited."

"For what?"

"Hehe, just give it a second."

"..."

Waiting, Luna and Iris overlooked the battlefield looking for changes. And a few seconds later, they saw it.

*BOOM!!*

"Whoah!"

Out of nowhere, a massive explosion occurred in the middle of the demon horde. The explosion shook the ground like an earthquake and created a huge crater in the ground while throwing dirt and demon limbs into the air.

But this was only the first of many.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BRRT!* *BOOM*

*BRRT!* *BRRT!* BOOM!*

All over the demon horde, explosions and craters popped up, wiping out hundreds of demons. Thousands of red streaks were also seen raining down from in the sky, and these red streaks seemed to tear the demons below them to shreds. 

"What are those?"

Seeing these red streaks, everyone looked up. When they did, hundreds of gray ships could be seen flying high in the sky every which way. It was these ships that were raining down the red streaks and explosions constantly. 

After their appearance, the demon horde began to lose forces even more rapidly than before with just the silver soldiers. These explosions and streaks were aimed near the back of the demon army where it was most dense. So not only were the soldiers obliterating the demons from the front, the demons were being blown to bits in the back.

"Those were the same ships that were there during our rescue."

Luna spoke after recognizing them. Dream nodded.

"Yes they are. For these kinds of battles, gunships may actually be the best for cutting down their numbers. I mean, it's only been half an hour and with these coming in, the demon death count has already surpassed 750k. Though these kills are mainly the class 1's and some 2's, it's still a huge amount. Even my experience bar thinks so."

"Wait, you get experience from all this?!"

"Shh!"

Dream hushed Iris, keeping her from causing a ruckus. Catching herself, she calmed down but was no less astonished.

"Yes, I get experience. Using these robots is no different from using a weapon. If that weren't the case, then archers would never be able to gain experience either."

"...I guess. But still. That's a lot of experience."

"Actually, not really. After killing as much as they have, I've only gained 2 levels. I gotta say though, the kill feed in my vision is fun to look at."

Dream smiled as he saw the hundreds of thousands of notifications stream down his vision. He felt like he was playing a video game. 

"Multi kill, mega kill, ultra kill, monster kill, ludicrous kill, holy shit..."

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing."

"Hey, there's demons heading towards your planes."

Iris pointed, and sure enough, the demons couldn't sit back and let those ships obliterate all of them. A few dozen class 3's flew up and targeted his ships.

"Not to worry."

Saying so, the ships changed targets and fired at the demons heading towards them. A few bots also took to the skies and hunted the demons down. 

Under the precision fire from the ships, most of the class 3 demons, or high demons, were blown to pieces. The rest of them were chased down by the bots and sliced to pieces. 

Though after they were killed, an oppressive aura suddenly burst out from the horde. 

"That's a class 4!"

Everyone shouted as a lone demon flew into the sky. This demon brandished a bow and took aim at the planes. The planes also took aim at this demon.

*Fwoosh!*

The demon loosed an arrow, which beamed straight for one of Dream's bigger gunships. Upon impact, the gunship was hit with a spell on the arrow and blown to thousands of pieces, rendering it useless. 

"Ugh. Do you know how long that took to build?!"

"...How long?"

"Like half an hour."

"Wha...?"

"But that's not the point! He broke my stuff!"

Dream was hurt seeing his machines getting destroyed. Especially like that.

[I've got eyes on all four demons plus the one in the sky.]

"That makes five. But they want six. Oh, isn't Idona an archer? Idona!"

"Yes?"

Over the group channel, Dream spoke to Idona.

"Wanna take a shot?"

"Can I?"

"Of course. Maybe it'll bring out more Grand Demons."

"Okay!"

With excitement, another aura exposed itself. This was Idona, and she had brought out her own bow and arrow.

Pulling the string back, mana was dumped into the arrow. Currently, the demon in the air was nearly two miles away, but according to the woman herself, this distance was small.

*Fwoosh!*

A green and black streak of light beamed across the sky and landed precisely on the demon, who had only barely sensed Idona right before. After only barely bracing itself, the demon was struck in the stomach.

*BOOM*

The arrow exploded with mana, blowing half the demon to pieces. The demon began falling to the floor, though based on its aura, it still wasn't dead. Sensing this, Idona prepared another arrow and loosed it. But right before it was going to hit the falling demon, another powerful aura showed itself.

*Ding!*

A loud shockwave was released as the arrow was deflected by another Grand demon. After that, yet another aura was exposed from nearby. A demon went over and caught the falling archer. 

"That's seven Grand Demons. Are we ready?"

After surpassing the minimum count, the class 4's on standby readied themselves. 

As for the four other Grand Demons identified visually, Although they hadn't exposed themselves, Dream had fired on them specifically with his ships to test whether they were the real deal or not. And after they blocked his projectiles, Dream could definitely confirm they were class 4's, as could everyone else.

"I want two per demon and three to act as supports. But don't let your guard down. There could be more hiding themselves and we don't want to get ambushed."

The lead class 4 spoke in the channel, giving directions.

"Understood."

"Then everyone find your targets. Ready?"

"Ready."

Everyone nodded after seeing assignments in their vision. Dream had Sophia designate their targets so as to more easily sort themselves. 

"On my count. 3...2...1...Now!"

*Woosh!*

With the word, 17 people shot out from the walls towards the demons. All of them moved extremely fast and the demons, who had been unknowingly targeted, were caught off guard.

*Boom!*

Everyone clashed with their targets and huge mana fluctuations were released across the battlefield. Though despite the surprise, none of the demons except for the already injured one were killed from the initial attack and were able to quickly recover. Though this didn't mean they had an easy time, and the pressure on them was raised to the extreme. 

6 separate battles of untold power were waged at different spots on the battlefield. Even while this went on, explosions were still blowing craters in the ground and the red streaks were still shredding demons to bits. The silver soldiers also never stopped slicing away at all the demons around them, and at this point, they were already dyed totally red. 

With the pressure being reduced by countless times, many of the human soldiers on the walls had nothing to do but watch this glorious, powerful, and monumental battle. Something like this was what you wrote down in history books, and all of them were there to see it. 

After seeing everything, some soldiers even felt privileged to be there, much unlike what they thought previously. But who knew this would turn into what it was? Even in their wildest dreams, they would never be able to think up something as epic as the scene in front of them.