What did the three of them look like on the battlefield? It was basically like turning on a one-hit-kill cheat in a Musou game.
The speed at which the three of them slaughtered demons rivaled a massive combine harvester reaping wheat in autumn. Demons fell in droves, and the morale of the human soldiers rose visibly.
Naturally, the demon general could not tolerate this situation. Standing nearly three meters tall and wielding a greatsword the size of a door, he charged at Zenith's trio with heavy, thudding steps.
His scarlet eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty light. As long as he crushed these three human insects, the outcome of this battle would be set in stone!
The general charged. The general instantly perished. The South Hero felt a slight trace of resistance against his blade just now and subconsciously muttered,
"Did I just chop through something big?"
"Doesn't matter, just keep hacking! Man, fighting is a blast!"
Upon death, demon bodies dissolved into black fragments of mana before vanishing like ash. Slashing through them felt just like playing a video game—not only was it incredibly satisfying, but it also came with zero psychological burden.
The tremors grew louder and more pronounced. The completely unprepared demon army was brutally flanked from the rear by the Iron Golems.
Ordinary demons couldn't even survive two punches from the Iron Bros. Even the slightly stronger ones were quickly ganged up on and beaten to death by a mob of Iron Golems.
The demon army's numbers began to recede like an ebbing tide. It was only then that the old Lord Eisenhem on the city walls finally snapped back to reality. "Counterattack!! Mages, focus your fire on the enemy's ranged units!!"
*Just what exactly did my boy Orcini experience on his journey? This is simply unbelievable.* Watching the army of Iron Golems slaughter everything in their path with unstoppable force, the old lord couldn't stop nodding in approval.
"A golem army forged by magic? Magic truly is a miraculous thing."
Orcini's older brother had stepped down from the frontlines to treat his wounds, and the battle itself concluded in less than twenty minutes. The demon army was completely shattered, scattering and fleeing in all directions.
A desperate siege had abruptly turned into an open field battle, which then devolved into a one-sided pursuit. It would be impossible for these demons to organize another decent offensive for months.
"Father!"
Up on the city walls, Orcini bowed respectfully. The old lord reached out to pat his son's shoulder, only to reflexively yank his hand back.
*What is this strange feeling of disgust?*
Orcini naturally understood the reason. Meeting his father's gaze, he explained calmly, "It is merely the price of obtaining power."
*I see,* the old lord nodded to himself. *It seems it's time to have my eldest son arrange a marriage and produce the next generation.* Given his second son's current condition—where merely touching him made his own father want to hack him to pieces—the heavy responsibility of expanding the family lineage was clearly out of the question for him. He needed to plan ahead.
"We're planning to invite Orcini to join us on our quest to defeat the Demon King. Old man, do you have any legendary items or god-tier magic to sponsor us with?"
Zenith blinked expectantly. Generally speaking, major nobles like him usually had some sort of family heirloom artifact lying around, right? With a Berserker joining the party, shouldn't they expand the team's funding a bit?
The old lord naturally recognized the South Hero—the light of humanity, the legendary warrior active on the frontlines. As for Zenith, he recognized him as well. In fact, within noble circles, Zenith was far more famous than the South Hero.
Orcini had left home too early to know, but everyone else had received the official notice from the royal capital. Zenith was known as the biggest sucker in history, an ultimate tycoon, an absolute madman who had spent an astronomical amount of gold just to buy a non-hereditary, empty noble title.
"A pleasure to meet you, I've heard so much about you! But I really don't have any treasures lying around. If it weren't for you all, this city would have been massacred in a couple of days. If I had any legendary items, I would have definitely brought them out to use by now."
That made perfect sense. Zenith stated that they would rest for a day before hitting the road tomorrow to defeat the Demon King. Their first stop: recruiting a mage.
As for the Iron Golems, Zenith handed command of them over to the old lord. He was willing to place a bit of trust in a noble who was ready to fight and die alongside his city and its commoners.
A banquet—they absolutely had to throw a banquet. Upon hearing that Zenith's group planned to leave the entire Iron Golem army behind to defend the city, the old lord raised both hands in enthusiastic approval.
Not only did he host a grand feast, but he also packed them bags upon bags of ingredients and travel supplies. When it was time to depart, he thoughtfully provided them with a carriage and even gifted Zenith a dessert recipe manual.
Most importantly, this pile of gifts actually unlocked two new Minecraft mods for Zenith.
They were two lifestyle mods. Their biggest function was vastly expanding the variety of crops that could be grown in the Overworld, as well as massively enriching the menu of dishes Zenith could craft.
As for just how much it expanded things? Let's just say that after unlocking these two mods, Zenith's JEI recipe list instantly gained over a thousand new entries.
"I've been wanting to try this for ages. I didn't expect it to suddenly unlock right now."
Nether Star Toast!
Before he transmigrated, reading about novel protagonists eating this stuff used to make his mouth water. But if he just slapped a raw Nether Star between two slices of bread, he definitely wouldn't be able to bite through it.
But now that he had the relevant mod, making it was a piece of cake!
Taking a quick trip back to the Overworld to gather materials, Zenith tinkered around for half the day until he finally crafted a piece of bread radiating an immensely powerful magical aura.
The Nether Star was the core dropped by the boss mob, the Wither. It was used to craft top-tier buffing structures like Beacons, and it was also the primary crafting material for the Flight Amulet.
Using such a legendary item as sandwich filling between two slices of bread wasn't something just anyone could enjoy. At the very least, after the South Hero and Orcini politely declined Zenith's offer to share, their mouths twitched violently as they watched him eat it.
Letting out a satisfied burp, Zenith still felt like he wanted more. Unlike normal dishes, the taste of this thing was incredibly hard to describe. Eating it felt like hosting an entire culinary expo right inside his mouth.
It was delicious, but way too filling. He'd have to save the next one for later.
Fully fed and hydrated, the group finally set off to find Frieren. This time, Zenith actually knew the way. Frieren had lived in that same forest for hundreds of years without ever leaving, so her location definitely hadn't changed.
But when Zenith arrived near Frieren's usual dwelling, he was greeted by a stone statue commemorating the departure of the Hero Party.
Frieren, Himmel, Heiter, and Eisen. Below the statues hung a bronze plaque that read: "The Hero Party Gathered Here."
Zenith turned his head and stared at the South Hero. *The guy is still alive and kicking! He hasn't died yet, and he hasn't even gone to fight the Seven Sages of Destruction and the Omniscient Schlacht! Why the hell did Himmel set out so early?!*
*This has to be at least a year ahead of schedule! Himmel, you brat, you're only fifteen this year! Setting out to be a hero at this age... you're even more precocious than Jotaro!*
With his sharp eyes, Zenith noticed an envelope tucked behind the bronze plaque. He pulled it out, only to find the words "To Zenith" written on the front.
*A letter for me? Don't tell me Himmel wrote this?* Fortunately, Himmel didn't have that kind of twisted sense of humor. The letter was actually written by Serie.
Zenith scratched his head. Who said he was an NTR bastard? He was a staunch defender of pure vanilla romance, alright? It wasn't like he *had* to poach Frieren for his own party. After all, Frieren and Himmel's dynamic in the original story was incredibly sweet and highly shippable.
"But this whole situation still pisses me off! And leaving a smug letter here just makes me even more pissed!"
Zenith glared at the end of the letter, where Serie had drawn a mocking victory V-sign, and silently tucked the paper away.
*You old hag, you might not know this, but I, Zenith, am a master at holding grudges!*
Power Stones, reviews, and comments— really helps a lot
Want to read ahead? Get access to 50+ extra chapters on my Patreon:
👉 patreon.com/Aragai_Sama