Forced to Sell Myself to the Female Lead After Killing the Male Lead

The scenes unfolding within the projection seemed to confirm Anmutu’s suspicions one after another. Looking at the utterly confident Xue Tianao-Valedin standing upon the high platform, Anmutu couldn’t help sucking in a cold breath.

After a moment of silence,

the Second Prince of the Crimson Leaf Empire cautiously looked toward the middle-aged man in military uniform behind him.

“General Bach...”

“Hmm? What is it, Your Highness?”

“Do we still have any spatial teleportation magic stones?”

“We do... but? Your Highness, why are you suddenly asking about that?”

“Get them ready. We’ll probably need them soon.”

“Hmm? Wh... Why would you say that? Hasn’t the crisis already been resolved? Wasn’t that Abyss Demon horde already defeated?”

The middle-aged man asked in confusion.

Several other envoys who had accompanied them on their diplomatic visit to the Snow Night Empire also looked toward their prince in bewilderment.

At this, Anmutu helplessly sighed and turned back, gazing toward the original battlefield with complicated emotions.

“Most of the Abyss Demons that attacked earlier... had only just been transformed from humans.”

“Hmm? Transformed? You mean they were infected?”

“Yes. They were probably transformed from soldiers stationed along the northern border. Strictly speaking, they were nothing more than newborn Abyss Demons. That’s why their combat strength wasn’t particularly high, and their defenses were even weaker.”

“This...”

Hearing those words, the middle-aged man couldn’t help feeling a chill run down his spine.

After all, if his prince was correct, then the Abyss Demon horde that had broken through the northern defenses wasn’t actually the group they had just seen.

Then...

where were the real Abyss Demons?

“Your Highness, then... where are those Abyss Demons? Why would they send only these ‘newborns’ to attack?”

As though he had already guessed the question the middle-aged man wanted to ask, Anmutu revealed a bitter smile and gazed toward the distant Albeiro Canyon with complicated emotions.

“If... my guess is correct, then every Abyss Demon that attacked the city just now was cannon fodder... They were used to lure out Sky Dome’s defenders...”

...

...

--

At that moment, outside Sky Dome—

“Die!!”

Accompanied by the muscular man’s furious roar, the final Sixth-Tier Abyss Demon let out a mournful howl before Toma severed its head with a single swing of his axe.

At this moment, across the vast snowy plains, every last Abyss Demon had already been slain by the Royal Knights.

Looking at the nauseating Abyss Demon corpses scattered everywhere, Toma, drenched from head to toe in blood and looking exceptionally ferocious, couldn’t help revealing an excited smile. He even raised his battle axe toward the heavens and unleashed a wild roar.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

Following Toma’s lead,

the other Royal Knights also raised their swords and began cheering jubilantly.

After all, this battle could truly be called unprecedented.

Without the assistance of an Eighth-Tier powerhouse, they had relied solely on their own strength to defeat such an enormous Abyss Demon horde, and they had barely suffered any casualties in the process.

A human army had not only defeated Abyss Demons, but had done so with almost no casualties?

In the past, they wouldn’t even have dared imagine such a thing.

And yet now, it had become reality.

For a moment, Xue Tianao-Valedin’s weapons and tactics made them worship their emperor even more fervently.

The battlefield, which had originally been filled with a grim and murderous atmosphere, became lively and jubilant because of the knights’ cheers. Laughter and celebration replaced the roars of vicious beasts and the shouts of slaughter.

Toma himself excitedly looked toward Sky Dome, toward the direction of the Imperial Palace.

Although they were separated by a great distance, Toma still hoped that Xue Tianao-Valedin could see his victorious figure.

Once upon a time, he had merely been a destitute young man.

But after receiving Xue Tianao-Valedin’s favor, he had not only become a Seventh-Tier powerhouse, but had now even led an army to crush an invasion of Abyss Demons.

Surely, his name would go down in history!

At the thought that his dream of rising above the masses had finally come true today, a brilliant smile involuntarily appeared across Toma’s blood-covered face.

...

...

Unfortunately,

that smile did not last for long.

Because just as Toma was cheering—

“ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!!”

A sudden, earth-shaking roar instantly shattered the knights’ jubilant atmosphere.

Toma’s expression changed dramatically as he abruptly turned around in shock, looking toward the forest behind him and the enormous canyon not far away.

The Royal Knights and Imperial Guard soldiers likewise looked toward the canyon with growing unease.

An ominous premonition began taking root in everyone’s hearts.

?!!

“Wh... What was that sound?”

Toma couldn’t help asking.

And in the very next instant, his question was answered.

The sight before him caused the Seventh-Tier powerhouse’s pupils to abruptly contract. His complexion changed drastically, and cold sweat began pouring down his forehead.

“No... This... How... How are there more?!”

Reflected within Toma’s terrified eyes, accompanied by a deafening, earth-shaking rumble, an incomparably terrifying violet-black radiance suddenly erupted from within the towering Albeiro Canyon!

And as that radiance erupted, the sky abruptly changed color.

A nauseating aura and an unprecedented sense of oppression immediately spread outward alongside the violet light, howling toward Toma and the others.

The crushing pressure descended upon them like a mountain, directly forcing everyone to hold their breath.

And the incomparably dense aura of Shadow of Silence Power made everyone suck in a cold breath.

The joy that had filled their hearts moments ago vanished without a trace.

In its place came an indescribable sense of terror.

As the black radiance expanded,

the enormous canyon collapsed with a deafening crash.

A terrifying shockwave erupted from within.

That force, carrying the aura of death itself, instantly caused the forests surrounding the canyon to wither at a speed visible to the naked eye, transforming the entire region into a lifeless wasteland.

Dark clouds shrieked across the heavens as lightning tore through them. The bloody stench of slaughter permeated heaven and earth. The beastly roars that sounded like the wailing of ghosts and howling of demons, the constant trembling of the earth, and the screaming winds all joined together into a symphony of the apocalypse.

And accompanied by that apocalyptic symphony,

countless monsters of every imaginable shape, hideous in appearance and overflowing with bloodlust and madness, suddenly charged out of the dead forest.

Roaring,

they surged forward with overwhelming momentum, crashing toward Toma and the tens of thousands of soldiers behind him with the unstoppable force of thunder.

At the sight of this, Toma’s heart was instantly consumed by fear.

His hands gripping the battle axe began trembling uncontrollably.

‘These... These Abyss Demons?! Wh... Why?!’

Looking at the Abyss Demon horde surging toward him like an enormous, towering tidal wave, Toma could clearly feel the crushing pressure rushing straight toward him.

Obviously,

compared with the Abyss Demons that had attacked the city earlier,

this group that had suddenly emerged from the forest possessed far more terrifying strength.

Their charging momentum alone was worlds apart from that of the previous horde.

Every single Abyss Demon ahead possessed an aura that was more powerful, more savage, and more dangerous...

Moreover, with just a single glance, Toma was horrified to discover dozens of Peak Sixth-Tier Abyss Demons, along with two Seventh-Tier Abyss Demons resembling flying dragons, their entire bodies enveloped in a corrosive aura...

And on top of that,

their numbers were virtually impossible to estimate.

If...

they fought these monsters on the open plains, then both he and the Royal Knights behind him would undoubtedly die!

They needed heavy firepower and the protection of defensive barriers before they could possibly fight monsters like these!

Therefore, Toma wanted to retreat.

But he suddenly realized an utterly despairing fact.

Because they had pursued the previous Abyss Demons, their forces were now far too distant from the city gates...

and far too close to the canyon.

Moreover,

these Abyss Demons were moving at an abnormally terrifying speed.

In merely the brief instant Toma had spent thinking, they had already charged right in front of them!

Now, it seemed that Toma and the Royal Knights no longer had the option of ‘retreating.’

With no other choice, Toma gritted his teeth and roared at the top of his lungs,

“Form ranks! Abrosen Defensive Formation! Hurry!!”

However,

Toma soon discovered in despair that forget having enough time to form ranks—

they didn’t even have enough time to assume defensive stances...

The roaring Abyss Demons came bearing death, despair, and terror, surging toward Toma and the others like a catastrophic mountain flood, their momentum seemingly capable of swallowing mountains and rivers whole.

Under the dumbfounded gazes of Lingmu and the others atop the city walls,

the Abyss Demon horde swept away thousands upon thousands of lives in an instant, like an autumn gale sweeping away fallen leaves.

Submerging them.

And then devouring them.

Countless soldiers were utterly stunned. Before they could even mount any effective resistance, they could only watch helplessly as their comrades—and then they themselves—were swallowed by the tsunami of Abyss Demons and consumed by the surging torrent.

Apart from the screams they released immediately before death, they left nothing behind...

The scorched earth was once again soaked in steaming-hot blood.

Only this time,

the blood no longer belonged to the Abyss Demons.

It belonged to humans.

Mangled bodies tumbled and rolled beneath the claws and feet of the Abyss Demon horde. Severed limbs, internal organs, brain matter, snowmelt, and mud mixed together and flew through the air.

In an instant, shrill screams of agony resounded across the plains...