Heroic Chronicle of the Reincarnated Demon General

He was the strongest of the Demon Army’s Generals, the highest-ranked Noble Demon, and the second most powerful individual in the demon race’s hierarchy.

His name was Lucas Ernest Bradshaw, and throughout the human world, he was widely known as the most powerful demon in existence besides the Demon King.

Whenever the Demon Generals of the Demon Army were mentioned, humans and elves alike would think of monsters capable of bringing mountains crashing down and sinking entire islands to the bottom of the ocean.

They were regarded as beings capable of causing earthquakes and drying up seas, the most vile, monstrous, and ruthless entities to ever walk the surface of the planet.

However, Lucas didn’t really see himself that way. Half of the things that humans said he did were made up anyway.

In his own opinion, he was just a guy doing his job.

And today, the last day of the millennium, Lucas was following orders once more, just as he’d done throughout his entire military career.

He was the one commanding the forces of the demon army to defend against the alliance of mankind that had invaded the demon capital with the objective of taking the Demon King’s head.

“If it wasn’t for the Hero, I don’t see how they could be so bold,” Lucas muttered, shaking his head lightly as he stared at the battlefield before him.

The Demon Race wasn’t native to this world, and as ‘foreign elements’, they were beings the world itself sought to eliminate.

The ‘Hero’ was the anti-virus that the world blessed with the power to do so, a defence mechanism of the world blessed with boundless talent and abilities that allowed them to grow in power at an extraordinary rate.

Hearing his quiet mutter about the Hero, one of his aides, a Brigadier General of the army, nodded and said, “The Hero may be able to grow quickly, but it’s impossible for her to defeat His Majesty.

She won’t even be able to reach His Majesty, not when you, Sir, are around.”

Lucas merely chuckled at his aide’s words as he observed the battle that had now engulfed all of the land around the capital of the land the demons had claimed for themselves after invading this world centuries ago.

There was no need for him to say a word in response, as both of them knew his aide’s words were correct.

Lucas was the most powerful soldier of the demon race’s army, with strength second only to the Demon King’s.

There had even been some rumours that Lucas was actually on par with the Demon King, but he’d always made sure to silence any such talk, lest those envious of him take advantage of it to frame him for treason.

“Hmm? Oh, she’s already here,” Lucas suddenly said.

His words made his aide’s expression change, and the man stepped forward, eyes scanning the battlefield in search of the ‘she’ Lucas had just spoken of.

Unfortunately, there was no way for Lucas’s aide to notice the Hero, who’d carefully concealed herself along with her party members within one of the battalions charging towards the demon capital’s walls.

The reason Lucas could see through that disguise was due to his innate ability, his Mystic Eyes of Truth.

Because of this, he could easily see through the fact that the individual wearing oversized full plate armour was the same Hero he’d encountered when he’d infiltrated the human world to study its inhabitants some years back.

Curious about her current Level, Lucas focused on her with his ability, peering through all the concealment spells she’d placed on herself.

Every being possessed a Level, a numerical value that represented the rank of their existence.

Barring the use of special artifacts, one’s level could only be seen by oneself, but Lucas’s Mystic Eyes made such items unnecessary. He could easily view his target’s existential records, compiled into alphanumeric values and displayed as a status board, which included their race, level, skills, and whether they possessed innate abilities like his own.

However, when he glanced at the Hero, the information displayed on the translucent status board that appeared in his field of vision differed significantly from what he’d seen during their previous encounter.

“905?”

His aide looked at him in confusion when he read the number out loud, but Lucas paid the man no mind, deactivating his ability before activating it again to make absolutely certain that he’d read the displayed information correctly.

“It’s still 905…” he muttered, still in shock. “What the hell? When did the Hero’s level surpass 900?”

“What?! The Hero’s over level 900?!” Lucas’s aide shouted, his eyes wide in surprise.

Once again, Lucas paid his aide no mind, his brain trying to reconcile the figures he was seeing now with those he’d seen four months ago.

When he’d last checked the Hero’s level, she was barely 850.

At such a level, the amount of magic and soul power one needed to go up even a single level was enormous, so they needed to kill existences within a similar or higher level range to receive a useful amount of EXP.

Killing existences weaker than themselves would require them to slay ridiculous numbers of opponents to gain meaningful amounts of EXP and level up, much less increase their level by over 50.

‘How? Where did she find enough things to kill to obtain that much EXP?’

Suddenly, Lucas remembered the empty seats he’d noticed in the council hall during the last meeting of the Demon Generals, and a terrible premonition immediately came to mind.

He turned around, grabbed his aide, and asked, “While I was away, were there any operations conducted in human lands?”

His aide looked at him in confusion before responding, “Huh? Yes, of course. Operation Rootcutter.”

‘What kind of ridiculous name is that?’ Lucas nearly retorted.

He put his misgivings about the name aside and pressed his subordinate for more details.

“This Operation Rootcutter, explain it to me. What went down?”

His questions made his aide’s expression become even more confused.

“Sir, why are you acting like you don’t know about it?” he asked. “Weren’t you the one who suggested Operation Rootcutter, where we sent the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth divisions to the Hero’s hometown?”

The man heaved a sigh, shaking his head as he went on. “Unfortunately, since you were away on a special assignment from His Majesty at the time, you weren’t able to take command, so the operation failed and those divisions were wiped out.

Still, it was because of that we found out the humans and elves had formed a large-scale coalition and were going to attack soon.”

Lucas was flummoxed by the words he was hearing, struggling to make sense of the situation.

‘Operation Rootcutter? Sending three divisions to attack the Hero’s hometown?’

Why did he, the highest-ranked among the demon generals, know absolutely nothing about this?

Judging by his aide’s expression and reaction, Lucas could tell that the man was operating under the assumption that he already knew about the operation.

If that was the case, it explained why absolutely no one had mentioned any of this to him before. They probably assumed he was already aware of it.

He’d been away for three months and had only returned two weeks ago. Now, he was hearing that three entire divisions of the demon army had been annihilated during his absence.

‘Then why did His Majesty tell me he’d sent them to attack the other continent…?’

Lucas’s thoughts came to a halt, and his eyes widened in shock as a realisation dawned.

He grilled his aide for more details, and by the time he was done, a lot of things suddenly made a lot more sense to him.

The reason he’d been away when this ‘Operation Rootcutter’ took place was that he’d been sent on a special mission by the Demon King. According to his aide, the Demon King announced that Lucas was the one who’d suggested Operation Rootcutter.

When the humans' and elves’ intent to invade was reported to him, Lucas wanted to mobilise all the divisions of the army, but the Demon King had ordered him to leave the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth alone, and told him that they were on a different continent.

No matter how he looked at it, the Demon King had been responsible for this Operation Rootcutter, and was clearly trying to prevent Lucas from discovering that it had failed.

“This... this is troublesome,” Lucas muttered with a grim expression.

He released his aide and immediately issued an order.

“Go and call the Generals of the Second to Seventh Divisions here now.”

“Huh? But that would completely crumble our pl—”

“Get them here now!” Lucas shouted, cutting his aide off. “The Hero’s power is on the same level as mine and His Majesty’s! While I’m busy dealing with her, her companions will slaughter you all unless Demons of at least General level work together to hold them off!

Now go call the damn generals here!”

His aide was shocked by Lucas’s admission of having power on par with the Demon King, but the man quickly pushed that thought aside due to the urgency of the situation, bowed and dashed off the tower they were standing on.

Lucas turned back to look at the invading army, clicking his tongue in irritation.

‘I can’t let her get close.’

With that thought in mind, Lucas leapt off the tower, activated his flight magic, then shot straight towards the battalion the Hero was hiding within.

He crash-landed right in the middle of it with the force of a cannonball, blasting away everyone around him with the impact—except the Hero and her companions.