The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 226: War.

Other than that, Ark's [Intermediate Spearmanship] reached level 5, directly levelling up twice. This directly made Ark more adept at using the spear, as well as enhancing his power a little more. Since it was getting dark outside, Ark and the rest returned to their little camp and set up a campfire.

Like before, Ark got ready to cook by withdrawing all kinds of spices and condiments from his storage space, and as he started to cook, Thufrat started to sing a dwarven song that he had learned as a child.

It was pretty much a dwarfish lullaby, but neither Ephine, Atar or Ark had ever heard anything like it before, so they listened attentively. The lyrics weren't very profound, and Thufrat's singing voice wasn't the best in the world, but the song was quite pleasant in the dark night. After a while, Thufrat stopped singing, as he was distracted by the smell of the food that Ark was cooking.

Just as they were about to dig into their food, Ark's expression suddenly turned serious as he sensed a large fluctuation of spatial mana close to the city. Without any explanation, Ark suddenly disappeared and appeared in the distance. As Ark pushed his speed to its limit, he soon arrived not far from where the spatial magic had been used, and the sight he saw was pretty shocking.

In front of the majestic walls of Moonhill, a large army of demons was standing uniformly with their weapons drawn. In the front of the army, a large, 4-meter-tall demon stood imposingly. Unlike the other demons, he had no weapon, but his aura was more than several times stronger.

Ark could tell that he wasn't very far away from the level of a sovereign, and in the future, he might even be able to become one.

For an army, led by someone like this to arrive here, it seemed like something serious had really happened.

"You humans always believe you can trample over other races as if they are lesser than you. You kidnap our young to experiment, you hunt us down for merit, and you look at us like we are monsters. If that was all, we could've tolerated your existence, because there will always be bad apples on both sides. BUT TO DARE KIDNAP OUR PRINCE! YOU HAVE TRULY STEPPED OVER THE LINE THIS TIME!"

"MEN, RAIN HELL DOWN ON THIS CITY, SHOW THESE HUMANS THAT WE'RE NO PUSHOVERS!"

As the demon's domineering voice echoed across the silent night, the demons behind him had their weapons ready and their blood was boiling.

"ATTACK!"

Once they heard his command to attack, the first to make a move were the magicians. As their leader was talking, they had been silently preparing their magic to make a big blow as soon as the battle started.

The humans on top of the wall were clearly not ready for this battle, as they scrambled into battle positions whilst others went to recruit adventurers to help them fight.

As Ark watched the chaos unfold, he frowned. Although Moonhill had become his home, Ark wasn't about to get involved in a war between humans and demons. In his limited knowledge of the demon race, Ark knew that they only ever had one prince, and he was destined to lead the entire demon race in the future by becoming the demon king.

For the humans to kidnap him despite knowing that, they had really provoked the demon race completely. Since most humans weren't stupid, Ark guessed that this kidnapping of the demon prince was something deliberately done by some human higher-ups that wanted to see this war happen.

Since the demons attacked first, humans could convince their own commoners to fight by claiming the moral high ground and denying that they had kidnapped the demon prince.

Although nobles and some adventurers wouldn't fall for such petty tricks since they were more well-informed, they would still fight for their own race. Human politics was something that had always disgusted Ark, but to see it in action like this, he was repulsed. Since sticking around any longer would be unwise, Ark quietly returned to the camp they had set up.

After seeing him disappear out of nowhere, Ephine was very worried about him, and as soon as he returned, she quickly embraced him tightly and didn't let go.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, I just sensed a large spatial disturbance near the city and went to check it out. I'll make sure to tell you before disappearing next time."

After hearing his gentle and soothing tone, Ephine quickly relaxed, and soon let him go.

"So, what was it?" Thufrat couldn't help but ruin the moment.

"War, an army of demons attacked the city, and from the sounds of things, I think it's an all-out war between the two races."

"A war? How come?"

"It sounded like the humans kidnapped the future demon king."

"The future demon king? Why would they do something like that? Unless..."

"Exactly, they probably wanted this war to happen. As for why I have no idea."

Thufrat had a heavy frown on his face. He didn't care much for humans, but an all-out war between the humans and demons was bound to affect all the other races as well. Because of different pacts and agreements, even dwarves and elves would probably end up being dragged into it eventually too.

"What do you guys want to do now?"

Ark didn't personally want to get involved in this, but if the others wanted to defend Moonhill, he would join them in doing so.

"We'll follow you no matter what."

For once, Ephine stated her opinion, and as usual, Atar nodded his head along with her. Thufrat was silent in thought. If Ark was to decide where they went, they would probably build a new home somewhere, maybe deep in the woods or some other secluded place. Although that sounded tempting, Thufrat couldn't help but think of a dark elf he had met some time ago.

The cute expression she had when she was watching the stars was still vivid in his mind, and something he would find hard to forget.

After some hesitation, Thufrat decided that he would go look for her. Even though he doubted that she would even remember him, he couldn't forget about her. Although he didn't know exactly where to find her, he figured that torment of the fallen would probably be a good place to start. Before Thufrat even revealed his plans, Ark could already tell that he wasn't planning on sticking around.

Retrieving a small dark parchment from his storage space, Ark quickly handed it over to Thufrat. "No matter where you go, make sure to have this with you. If you're ever in trouble, just tear it apart."

Before he could even process what Ark had said, Thufrat suddenly received a pendant as well. "If you need to find us, you can do so through this pendant, it will show you the way."

Thufrat felt a little emotional about splitting up with his friends. He had never really had a friend as close as Ark after all. The only thing he could say was a simple "Thank you."