Became the Queen of the Legion

“They’re swarming in. It seems they intend to charge right in!”

“Those crazy monsters. They have no hesitation, do they!”

The allied forces of the lords gathered on the plain in front of the city gritted their teeth as they saw the black wave appearing in the distance.

The Queen’s legion troops began their charge without wasting a moment. As if there was no tension, as if the act of war itself was too familiar.

“Fire!”

The first to attempt an attack was not the fiercely charging legion troops, but the allied forces standing their ground. A barrage of fire from magic cannons and a shower of arrows imbued with compressed magic power rained down on the legion troops.

Even as multiple soldiers died from a single shell causing an explosion spell, and even as their carapaces were pierced by magic-filled arrows, the legion troops did not stop.

As if it didn’t matter if they died, just as the name “devil” given to them suggested, they simply rushed forward.

If necessary, they could trample over their comrades’ corpses as much as needed. They even used injured comrades as shields as they charged.

“Ugh, uugh…”

It was a cold, mechanical sight, as if the very concept of morale didn’t exist.

And this sight soon approached the allied soldiers as fear.

When they realize that the opponents they’re desperately fighting against are actually just emotionless puppets, morale can only go down, not up.

“Stop whining and fight! They’re coming!”

It was the job of superiors or comrades to urge on such soldiers.

Finally, numerous legion troops that had broken through the allied forces’ firepower with their bodies all at once pounced on the front line.

The allied soldiers, armed with shields and spears and holding their ground using barriers cast by mages, desperately fought against the legion troops trying to kill them.

“It’s the Bomb Devils!”

And finally, countless other monsters appeared in the distance. It was the moment the allied forces’ command had been waiting for.

“Gargoyles! Quickly, intercept those things!”

Deru, who became the overall commander by virtue of bringing the most soldiers, shouted while jumping up and down. Immediately, the waiting Gargoyles all spread their wings and took to the sky.

“Heh, it’s hunting time.”

Merba, the Gargoyle captain, crossed the sky with his subordinates, holding the javelins they had brought in abundance.

They intended to properly punish these stupid insects that couldn’t even dare to attack the sky, even as they approached so openly.

“Ca-Captain. But there are so many!”

However, when the Gargoyles approached to eliminate the Bomb Devils.

They couldn’t help but be flustered. There were too many countless Bomb Devils spread out across the vast plain.

It seemed there were more of them than the number of javelins they had brought.

“J-Just attack for now!”

Although surprised by the unexpectedly large numbers, it was still true that the ground-based enemies couldn’t attack them in the sky.

Merba ordered to attack whatever caught their eye for now.

No matter how many there were, if they reduced the numbers diligently, the enemy couldn’t help but take damage.

However, contrary to their thoughts, the Queen had no intention of blatantly throwing her precious soldiers as bait.

“How are they going to attack like this.”

“Th-These bastards?!”

As the Queen commanding the troops grinned, Merba, who was about to throw his spear, was startled to see the Bomb Devils suddenly hiding in underground tunnels.

Digging was originally a specialty they had since they were mere Black Death Worms.

Moreover, the tunnels dug in advance by mobilizing workers were deep enough to hide even the massive bodies of the Bomb Devils in a short time.

And meanwhile, Bomb Devils in other locations were still launching bombs.

“Qu-Quickly, kill them! As fast as possible!”

Realizing that something had gone wrong, Merba hurriedly commanded his subordinates to fly around the area, but the Bomb Devils, who had minimized the damage using tunnel digging, began to inflict heavy casualties on the allied forces’ main camp by continuously throwing poison-filled biological bombs.

“Kuk, what the hell are those Gargoyles doing!”

“Something’s gone wrong. It shouldn’t take this long!”

The main force troops hurriedly donned masks that could block the poison gas or used purification spells, but even with that, their fighting power was shaking.

The legion troops pouring in like a flood were pressing them without the slightest gap, and they were on the verge of breaking formation as they were unknowingly pushed back little by little.

‘It’s utter chaos.’

The Queen’s avatar with the mercenary group was the same.

The Queen, who had inwardly chuckled at the contradiction of fighting her own soldiers, watched with satisfaction as the surrounding demon races fell into panic.

“They’re breaking through! Quickly, hold your positions. If we’re pushed back, it’s over!”

“Ken! No!”

The Blade Devils deployed on the mercenaries’ side were pushing in like bulldozers with their large bodies, hard carapaces, and giant blades swinging in crosscuts.

In a moment of carelessness, bodies were cut to pieces by the blades, or after falling, they were easily crushed under those massive feet. To stop them, they needed to eliminate them with powerful firepower before they got close or create obstacles to hinder their advance, but now they couldn’t accomplish anything.

The mercenary group that the Queen had joined was also collapsing, falling to the ground one by one, contrary to their initial confidence in succeeding in their mission.

‘They were quite veteran, but I guess it can’t be helped? This is as far as it goes with them.’

She sighed softly as she watched the captain, Kron, fallen on the ground.

It was predetermined anyway. For her, cleanly ending their lives was the last mercy she could give to those who had unknowingly passed on all information so easily.

“The front line has collapsed.”

Things went wrong from the moment the Gargoyles failed to properly deal with the Bomb Devils unlike the initial plan, and the fundamental problem was that the numerical difference was greater than expected.

The area is already covered in a thick poisonous fog due to the biological bombs and poison gas being frantically poured out.

In a situation where the weak are poisoned and unable to fight properly, there’s no way they could hold out properly.

The Queen, watching them being annihilated both through the eyes of her soldiers and her avatar, was certain of another victory achieved according to plan.

She hadn’t calculated that those who didn’t put in their full effort and just vaguely tried to pick up some leftover land would be pushed back even a little.

“Huh?”

Amidst all this, there was one presence that particularly caught the Queen’s eye.

While even the elite soldiers directly under the lords, including Deru, were being pushed back and collapsing under the offensive of Seira and the alpha types, there was one person of mercenary origin who was holding out well against the legion troops.

Legion troops rushing in from all directions were cut to pieces and fell to the ground by the swinging greatsword.

‘Who is that?’

The Queen became interested as she watched him through her avatar’s eyes.

His actions seemed like those of an ordinary Orc, but observing him closely, something felt different from others.

She, who had become completely familiar with the power of the hive mind and could freely handle it, instinctively realized that this was a kind of mental resonance. In other words, it meant that this Orc had the quality to potentially connect to the colony consciousness.

* * *

“No. It’s already gone wrong. Retreat! Retreat!”

“What are you saying! Hold your positio… kuhek…”

The battlefield had already turned into chaos. The moment Deru, the overall commander who was alarmed by the actions of troops from other territories starting to desert, had his throat pierced by Seira’s spear.

Now completely losing their command structure, the allied forces crumbled like a sand castle.

Many were desperately trying to flee, but even escaping wasn’t easy. The enemies that had already swarmed in were surrounding them from all directions.

‘These idiots.’

He was also one of them.

But no matter how well he fought against the enemies, there was nothing he could do when those beside him lost their will to fight and crumbled.

One hand can’t handle ten hands. Moreover, it wasn’t even at the level of ten hands. It was in the tens of thousands or more.

Eventually, he too tried to retreat urgently along with the people around him.

“Quickly, clear the way! Ah, the front is blocked!”

But in a situation that had already been overwhelmed, even retreating safely was a task.

As the central army collapsed and the mercenaries became uncontrollable, they rampaged even more severely to save just themselves, and the more they did so, the higher their chances of dying became.

‘Damn it, am I going to die in such a ridiculous place without even proper revenge?’

Thanks to this, he too was stuck between the approaching enemies and panicked allies, facing the crisis of being crushed to death.

“This way. If you want to live, come this way.”

“…!”

But at that moment. A miraculous thing happened to him.

In that chaos where allies and enemies were mixed and it was hard to distinguish what was what, someone approached him and showed him a way to escape this hell.

“Who are you?”

He muttered blankly. With her lips curled up, the beautiful human woman with flowing silver-white hair had eyes that flashed red.