Gonna Be a Demon King!-Chapter 44: No Room for Failure

"Come to think of it, why did they tell us to burn the file after reviewing it?"

Ilya picked up a few of the papers Xaren had laid out, flipping through them as she voiced her question.

Xaren, still scanning the documents in front of him, answered without looking up.

"It's simple. If we get caught and searched, they don't want anything on us that might reveal our purpose for infiltrating in the first place."

He finally glanced up, eyes flickering toward the fire before adding,

"Well, there's always torture as a means of extraction, but the Higher-Ups probably expect us to kill ourselves before things go that far."

"..."

Ilya didn't respond right away, so Xaren turned to check on her, only to meet her wide-eyed stare.

It seemed she hadn't thought that far ahead—not that he expected her to, given her age and lack of experience.

"If we get caught, death is the only outcome. Either we're killed on sight, tortured and then killed, or taken out by our own side to prevent an information leak."

Only after his addition did Ilya finally react. Her lips twisted slightly as she glanced down at the papers in her hands—a small but telling sign of displeasure that Xaren had come to recognize.

Her reaction didn't surprise him. It had been the same for him when he first learned the information he'd just shared.

Once in his previous life, he'd even been part of a squad tasked with eliminating captured infiltrators before they could leak anything sensitive. It had never come to that, but he still remembered the incident well.

Shaking off those memories, he gave a simple conclusion.

"All we have to do is just not get caught."

With that, he pulled up a document bearing multiple official seals. One of them glinted slightly in the firelight, catching Ilya's eye. A look of recognition flashed in her eyes when she glanced at it.

"This is the recommendation the Lieutenant Colonel mentioned, right?"

"It is."

The paper in his hands contained a statement formally recommending both of them for this mission.

And the name at the bottom—the one that had signed off on it—was one they both recognized—Floch.

Colonel Floch, to be precise.

During their wing training over the past two months, Floch had never once worn his rank insignia in front of them. Until yesterday, when they were assigned this mission after the incident with Ralguth, Xaren had no idea just how high his rank was.

"I knew he was pretty high up, considering how many Lieutenants answered to him, but I didn't think it was that high."

In the military hierarchy, reaching the rank of Colonel was easier when counting from the top. It was, after all, the highest rank below the Generals.

The Lieutenant Colonel at Cinder Outpost had been anything but subtle about Floch's recommendation. The way the man had repeatedly emphasized Colonel made it obvious he was using a scare tactic—one that Xaren had seen before.

"Scare tactic?"

Ilya's eyes burned with curiosity when she heard his mutter, and Xaren nodded as he explained.

"I've come across it before, though I didn't really get it until someone explained it to me."

He tapped the seal-marked document.

"Since Floch recommended us, if we fail this mission, his credibility takes a hit. And considering he's a Mid-Rank Demon who could kill us before we even think... well, by hammering in the fact that he's our recommender, we're being indirectly reminded not to fail.

Because if we do—and we're unlucky enough to make it back alive..."

"We'd have an angry Mid-Rank Demon to deal with."

Ilya finished his statement, and Xaren chuckled at her words.

"Depending on the person, you might actually wish you died on the mission."

At that, Ilya's eyes narrowed slightly, a little shift Xaren noticed. He quickly redirected the conversation before she could start asking questions he didn't want to answer.

"Enough of the depressing talk. Let's go over the mission details."

Xaren tapped the papers with his right hand while his left casually turned the roasting deer meat over the fire.

"Our target is a place called Zlego Magic City. After this forest, we'll have to cross a ravine before we reach it."

Ilya studied the map printed on one of the papers, her dark eyes scanning the terrain.

"The entrance we're supposed to use is on the east side of the city. But from our approach, that puts it on the west."

Xaren leaned in for a closer look at the map, nodding as he continued from where she stopped.

"The ravine is about 500 meters deep and at least twice that wide. The city has three northern gates, but only one is functional. The other two have been sealed off, and the bridges connecting them were destroyed.

Only the centre gate remains in use—most likely the designated entry point for foot soldiers if the city ever comes under attack."

Xaren's words hinted at Zlego's inevitable fate once their mission was complete, but Ilya didn't bat an eye as she flipped to another page—the one detailing why they were being sent there.

"Zlego acts as a frontline city, blocking demon forces from advancing deeper into the 'Cinder Region'. Before the army can push forward without worry, it has to go down."

But that's proving quite difficult due to the existence of the barrier around the city."

Ilya skimmed through the page, her eyes drifting downward to the section detailing the barrier's details.

Zlego was a fairly large city, covering over 400 square kilometres of area. It was divided into 15 districts and was completely encased in a massive, dome-shaped barrier.

The city's barrier blocked entry from both ground and air, making infiltration nearly impossible—unless one used the gates.

But with Zlego being home to humans and elves—enemies of the demons on this planet— Xaren and Ilya couldn't exactly walk through the front door.

Worse still, the barrier's entry and exit points were imbued with light-attributed properties that would expose their demon identities in seconds.

So how were they supposed to get in?

The answer lay in the wording of the previous statement. Entry was almost impossible.

ALMOST.

No defence was flawless, and this barrier was no exception. It had flaws that Xaren and Ilya were to exploit to enter.

This was precisely why Floch had recommended them, despite their recent promotion to Low-Rank demons.

The barrier was strong enough to prevent even a Level 100+ demon with aura from breaking through.

Meanwhile, demons below Level 100 lacked the strength to sustain the specialized artifacts required for infiltration. In other words, they would be useless even if they somehow slipped inside.

But Xaren and Ilya? They were Level 100+ demons who hadn't yet acquired aura—strong enough for the mission, yet still able to bypass the barrier's limitations.

They could slip through the cracks in the weak points in the barrier's structure and enter the city.

"So, we have to enter the city, contact the sleeper agents? inside, and follow the pre-arranged steps to reach the barrier core, huh?"

Ilya murmured a quick summary, her brow arching slightly at the unfamiliar term sleeper agents.

Meanwhile, Xaren found himself more intrigued by how demons had managed to plant sleepers in the fortified city.

'Well, it was probably easier since the sleepers are humans. But how did they even get those humans in the first place? War prisoners? Didn't the humans check for signs of brainwashing before taking them back in or something?'

While Xaren was theorizing on this, Ilya flipped to the next page, scanning its contents with her usual blank expression, before vocalizing another concise summary.

"It looks like others have attempted infiltration before us, but they were caught. However, before contact was lost, they managed to relay one crucial piece of information.

The Magic Tower at the centre of Zlego... isn't actually the centre of the city?"

Ilya blinked in confusion, the statement contradicting what the Lieutenant Colonel had told them. Before she could ask Xaren if she had misread something, he spoke up.

"The Lieutenant Colonel only mentioned that the barrier core—our target—is located at the centre of the city.

Previous intel suggested that the city's centre was the Central District's Magic Tower, which led the higher-ups to assume that's where the core was and send demons to infiltrate it.

However, the last group discovered that the actual borders of 'Zlego City' don't align with the placement of the walls. Some areas outside the walls are still considered part of the 'City', meaning the true centre isn't the Magic Tower."

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Xaren tapped a finger on the map, marking the tower's location before sliding it a few centimetres to the right.

"...It's this library over here. That is the real centre of the city and the actual location of the barrier core.

So, unless we want to get caught, we have no business near that Magic Tower."

Ilya nodded, processing the new information.

'So, when the Lieutenant Colonel said centre, he was actually referring to the library...'

The two locations were only a few blocks apart. According to the notes, the library's security was nowhere near as tight as the Magic Tower's.

"Do you know why that is, Xaren?"

Xaren was starting to feel like Ilya was treating him as some kind of walking encyclopaedia, but he didn't comment on it and answered.

"Well, I'd say it's a reverse psychology tactic."