The Battle at Falsas

There was a wilderness with the name of Falsas.
It was a rich plain at one point. A narrow river flowed through it, supplying the imperial capital’s food. It was a massive grain-producing region.
Now, however, it was nothing but a wilderness. Through a certain rampant magic, the imperial capital and everything else disappeared.
An army made its appearance in an area just right to deploy its forces in.

The demon army came from the north, occupying a hillock and being vigilant of the enemies that were coming from the other three directions.
Allied forces approached from those three directions. They set up camp a sufficient distance away.
In terms of replenishing their supplies, the demon army was at a disadvantage. This was the human race’s territory, after all. Even though they’d occupied everything behind them, even ignoring the giant races among them, they were still a 500,000 strong host. Them fighting a war of attrition was unthinkable.
Meanwhile, although it was due to psychological reasons, the allied forces had to make this a short-term decisive battle as well.
What are demons? For humanity, they were pure evil. For the humans, it was impossible to allow them to stay in mankind’s territory forever.
However, not giving into his generals’ opinions, the commander-in-chief, Sion, insisted that they should make this battle an extended one.
Although they had no less than double their enemy’s troop count, he didn’t think that that was enough to win.

The demon army was composed of many strong races like goblins, orcs, kobolds, and beastkin. They weren’t lacking in races well-versed in magic like dark elves, vampires, nagas, and three-eyes, either.
They also had races whose bodies were overwhelming, like giants and trolls. He believed that as far as war potential was concerned, they lost.
The demon army dispatched a dark elf envoy to this awfully composed commander. The message was that if they were given these devastated lands, they wouldn’t advance any further for the time being.
The allied forces rejected the offer, of course. They hadn’t hurt the envoy, either. This was due to Sion recognizing the demons as an equal opponent, however.
In a certain sense, that was the beginning of a mutual understanding.

Their face-off reached the tenth day.
The demon army’s state was visible to the allied forces to some extent. What was especially noticeable were their giant golems, the most characteristic of which being a single, massive blue golem.
Whereas the golems so far looked as though they were wearing knight armor, this golem was more animalistic. It looked like the silhouette that forsook everything to run.
Let alone the humans, even only a few people on the demons’ side knew that this was the final weapon made by the Demon King. In other words, it was the robot that united chemistry and magic. It’s name was the Demon King’s Machine God.
Even setting aside the various races and equipment, this robot’s existed stalled the allied forces’ movement.

*

And then the eleventh day arrived.
The first thing to move was a unit from the demon army.
Unable to endure their impulses to fight that were even stronger than a human’s, it was a force of trolls that decided to attack of their own volition.
She clicked her tongue, but Rei gave the entire army an order to attack.
“Move freely! If you’re still alive when this is over, I’ll lash you with my whip!”
They didn’t say it, but the staff felt that that would’ve actually been a reward.

After having a back and forth with magic, the fighting started.
The humans’ magic were primarily targeting the giants that were wrecking their formations.
As for the demons’ magic, it was focused on something much more annoying: Casalia’s dragoons.
By throwing down explosives down on demon troops from the sky, the demon army’s formations were collapsing badly.
“Be ready for attacks from above! That stuff isn’t magic!”
Still issuing orders, Rei looked over the battle’s progress. The demon army far outstripped the allied forces in ability to charge. However, once they clashed, they were surrounded and destroyed.
The same happens to their strong individuals standing alone, their numbers decreasing.

The demon army held a stronger war potential.
However, even including their elevation advantage, against the allied forces’ experience, their numbers were decreased little by little.
They numbered 500,000 and 1,200,000 before the confrontation, so any smaller tactics now would be meaningless.
Rei decided to call for a retreat when the allied forces’ reserves started to move so as to cut off the demon army’s path to retreat.
“Sound the retreat gong! I’ll be heading out with the Machine God!”

The demon army’s retreat began.
This was a retreat, but it wasn’t that they’d lost. Although their forces on the outer edges were hit by attacks and were routed, the interior troops held their discipline and kept moving.
Moreover, a giant blue golem stood as the army’s rear guard.
Wielding a giant halberd, the golem swept a way an entire human unit in one blow.
“Notify your troops, pursuit is meaningless.”
Sion judged that if they were to keep pursuing, they would instead be the ones to suffer a loss.
Indeed, the demon army had still maintained control over themselves, aiming for that.
(Our advance has finally stopped, huh? The humans’ as well.)
Rei muttered to herself, but she felt that everything was proceeding nicely.

However, in truth, the allied forces were dissatisfied.
It was common knowledge that the best results could be obtained while pursuing a retreating foe.
And Sion had stopped them from doing just that.
The second battle to occur between the demons and the allies would not have Sion in command of it.

The demon army retreated to the outskirts of the empire’s territory.
There, Rei received Demon King Ars’ arrival.
His figure suddenly appeared midair on the robot’s shoulder. The feeling of that happening was transmitted to Rei, who was inside of the robot.
The robot’s movements were connected to Rei. Rei, still having the robot walk, went outside of it.
“Your Majesty!?”
For many demons, this was the first time they’d seen their Demon King.
Even though they’d heard that their Demon King was a human, the only people they’d seen for hundreds of years were his aides.
“Good work. It must’ve been hard.”
“I am sorry. For this to happen while Your Majesty’s army was under my supervision…”
Rei knelt on the robot’s hand.
“War is something of chance. Our enemies’ numbers are great, it couldn’t be helped.”

Then, the Demon King stopped their advance and started giving a speech.
It was a calm, composed explanation for their defeat. It wasn’t something meant to raise their morale.
However, he added something at the end.
“I will be there for the next battle.”
There was nothing in existence that could raise the Demon King’s army’s morale more than that.
With that, the Demon King summoned new robots in front of the army.
They were robots that looked the same as Rei’s… and there were ten of them.
One of the robots were black with the rest of them being white.
Each time one of the robots appeared, the Demon King’s troops’ morale increased even further.

*

Three days later, a rematch between the Demon King’s army and the allied forces was held one the plains of Falsas.
This second battle came to be known as [The Battle of Falsas].
And in this second battle, the Demon King’s army came out with a landslide victory.
The humans couldn’t stop the Demon King’s Machine Gods in the least.
They were simply overrun through an absurdly overwhelming difference in power.
Perhaps, if Sion were there, they might have been able to find some way to break away while using walls of flesh for time.
However, he’d already left the encampment and headed back after having a falling out with his staff officers.

Their army of 1,200,000 troops scrambled to run away.
It wasn’t as though there weren’t those who would eventually make a name for themselves among those caught in the confusion.
But they were nothing but defeated soldiers for now.

The Demon King’s army let out their war cries.
They’d triumphed. The now possessed the norther part of the empire.
However, there were still upwards of a million troops remaining for the allied forces, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t launch a counterattack.
But their remaining staff officers were lacking in ability.
Regretting that they dismissed Sion out of misguided rage, they returned to their countries.

*

“Now, let’s make a country!”
Following the Demon King’s declaration, a nation started to be built.
Canals were built, soil was plowed, walls were made, and a city was erected.
It took a mere few days for it to be completed through the help of 500,000 people.
This was the birth of a city that would come to be known as Falsas in times to come.