Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 302: After the war

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Azure Terra Continent has returned to its usual dark and gloomy atmosphere; the only difference is that there were only a handful of demons roaming around.

Humans pretty much cleared most of the demons roaming around this continent. Of course, there are still some around, but even if they all banded together to launch a desperate attack, at most, their numbers would only reach the hundred thousand; it definitely won't go past a million, and this number could be handled by a few modern weapons pretty easily.

Compared to the doom and gloom of the outside, though, human territory was bustling. They turtled up again with their formation and focused their attention on rehabilitation.

It has been a week since the war reached its conclusion. The first three days were spent mourning for those who sacrificed their lives for the sake of protecting their home. They were treated as heroes and were honored properly. Their families received not only formal apologies from the army but also generous compensation.

Some families accepted the cruel and sad reality, some reacted rather blandly as if they didn't care, and of course, some families reacted violently, blaming the army personnel for not being prepared enough and not doing their best to protect their people.

All of these were within expectations. After all, everyone has a different way to cope with loss.

After the mass burial ceremony, the civilization began rehabilitating. They started slow, introducing their usual activities to pick up their usual routine. Once again, humans displayed their tenacity because it didn't take long for them to return to their usual lives.

All army personnel were given a two-week vacation after the war ended. This meant that the walls were unmanned right now, but there's no need to worry. Their clean-up was pretty thorough after all, and the remaining demons were all stray animals who wouldn't be able to find their way close to the territory, so it's all good.

Only a week has passed since the war for survival. The events are still fresh in everyone's memories, and they've been a hot topic until now.

A few particular people became famous online for their deeds due to the stories told by the soldiers themselves. The civilians were hidden behind the walls and couldn't participate, so these stories could only come from those who participated in the great battle.

Garrick's and Isabella's names were mentioned quite frequently. The former was admired because of his absurd strength and ferocity when fighting demons; the latter was also the same, but moreso because she looked insanely attractive when doing so.

Apparently, someone was brave enough to record scenes of the war while they were out there. It was done through the system too, which was rather surprising. After all, it was quite known that the system's functions don't work well outside of their territory.

This caused some people to doubt the legitimacy of the clips uploaded online, but it was backed by a few witnesses who were soldiers themselves and were there to see it happen.

Of course, the fight between the High Marshals and the Undead Bone Dragon was uploaded too. There were only a few a few short clips of it, but they were enough to display just how terrifying the horde truly was. The relentless pursuit of the High Marshals and their selfless act of putting themselves in between the raging demon king and their home plucked the heartstrings of netizens.

The one who received the most praise wasn't them, though. It was Erica.

There's this one video of her showing just how absurdly powerful she was. It included the part where she began rising to the air as if she were ascending and began raining down magic missles on her foes. The video highlighted the sheer demand for skill needed to do the things she was doing, especially when considering that she has never missed at all.

What's even crazier is the fact that she was able to heal the leaders, restoring not only their missing limbs but also their energy and endurance. With her around, they were essentially immortal.

Erica's fame was only limited to the Starlight Royal Academy before, but now she's a national star. Some even proposed that she become a high marshal too, since she's strong enough to do so.

Whether that happens or not depends on the army, and it wouldn't happen now since they are on vacation.

As for the people who essentially became online stars themselves, they didn't care about this news at all. They were either resting or doing something more productive.

The pillars of humanity were also on a break, just like the rest. They deserve this just as much as others do. However, they are used to being busy 24/7 due to the demands of their jobs, so they aren't actually 'resting' per se.

Most of them secluded themselves for the time being, digesting the results of the fight and analyzing their flaws. That fight made them realize just how insufficient their personal strength was in the grand scheme of things.

They were star travelers who should've been able to easily take down a demon king, despite it being one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It should've been the case. They thought that they could do it, but the reality was way different than they expected it to be.

Even after teaming up and exerting themselves again and again, their abilities were completely insufficient to fight against one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The Undead Bone Dragon alone was enough to kill them hundreds of times; the only reason they managed to hold on was because Erica was there to patch them up to their peak state pretty much instantly, and because of Chrissy's brew, that imposed a consequence on the latent regenerative capabilities of the bone dragon.

The most important part is that they only managed to kill that thing after the Young Sage made a move.

In short, they were useless. Their pride was ruthlessly crushed by the sin demon king, the strength they were proud of was rendered useless, and they were undeserving of their titles and positions.

They might've won this war, but they were defeated in that battle. This is undoubtedly a setback that made them aware of their shortcomings.

And considering that there are still two of the seven deadly sins on the other side of the world, it means that the war for survival isn't truly over yet. If they remain stagnant like this, they won't survive the next.

This also revealed their over-reliance on the Young Sage.

Truthfully, they should've been enough to handle all of that. There should've been no need for the Young Sage to do anything at all. Life has already been unfair to that child, and as adults, the most they could do is at least give him some breathing space—a room to grow—but they can't even do such a simple thing.

In the end, the young man still had to briefly exit his seclusion despite his sensitive situation to save their behinds. What hurts the most is that reality, especially because he did solve their problems. He saved them again when it should've been the other way around. The worst part is that they still have no idea whether his forced action was detrimental to his growth at all.

This is what really stung their pride.

Star Travelers? Psh. More like useless paper pushers!

It's because of this that they entered seclusion with a burning determination. Experiencing this kind of setback isn't the end of the world for them. This revealed their most glaring flaws, and they were not stupid enough to ignore them.

They reacted in different ways in the face of this setback, but none of them will stop here. The Young Sage has given them time—time they can use to make up for their shortcomings.

All of them knew that they had to become the real pillars of humanity moving forward. They can't always rely on someone to save them, either.

It just so happens that they now have the means to actually do this. With most of the demons on the continent gone, they could start expanding their territory. They could send more squads out to harvest resources, build outposts, and start cleansing and reclaiming the massive continent that should've been theirs to begin with.

After this brief rest, their most important pursuit should be stable expansion.

So long as they could cleanse more land to occupy, Acala's network of activities would expand too, and she would become stronger since this world was her body.

This will be their priority moving forward.

As for the demons on the Lost Continent, they don't have to worry too much about them right now. The continent was quite literally on the opposite side of the world. A massive body of water separates the two continents, and while the sea has also been corrupted, the marine demons could only remain there.

Only the avian demons could shuttle from one continent to the next, and that's under the premise that they're lucky.

The Purgatory Realm still covers the world, so there's no need to mention those who are outside of the world.

This means that, at least for the forseeable future, another invasion of this size couldn't possibly happen again.