LET’S TAKE ACTION
It’s been three days since I sent a letter to the Demon Lord by way of Deadbeat, letting her know that there were signs of a rebellion brewing.
A task force to take care of the rebels has already been formed and dispatched.
Damn, that was fast!
Should you really be making such a snap decision about this?!
Like, doesn’t it take more time to prepare for military action or whatever?
I used my clones to find out what was going on, and the answer is: They’re pushing themselves quite a bit.
Apparently, the Demon Lord dumped this whole situation on Balto, and he’s decided to deal with it by using blitzkrieg tactics.
The rebellion is taking their time gathering supporters and supplies in order to avoid suspicion, so I guess Balto wants to crush them before they finish amassing everything they need.
On top of that, the task force is going to great lengths to conceal the fact that they’re getting ready to deploy, all so we can catch the rebels by surprise.
Balto must be planning for a quick, decisive battle.
Well, I guess in his position, he doesn’t have much of a choice.
He’s supposed to be getting troops ready for the upcoming war against the humans right now, so he can’t afford to lose any manpower.
The longer he takes, the more time the rebels have to recruit, so he’s better off nipping it in the bud as soon as possible to minimize the losses.
If he’s lucky, that might be enough to scatter the remaining rebels before they can concentrate their forces.
But are they really gonna be all right if they attack in such a hurry? What about supplies and logistics?
I know what you’re thinking. Who needs that crap in a world with stats and skills, right?!
But war in this world actually follows the same basic logic as Earth, at least to a certain extent.
I mean, these are still flesh-and-blood people fighting, y’know?
They gotta eat or they’ll starve, and they gotta sleep or they’ll collapse.
Sure, there’s stuff like the Exhaustion Nullification skill, but only a handful of exceptional individuals have those kinds of abilities.
If you’re tired or hungry, you won’t be able to fight very well no matter how high your stats are.
Besides, the stats don’t actually make as big a difference as you might think.
Whether it’s humans or demons, most of them have stats under 1,000.
In fact, as far as I can tell, people who have even one stat that breaks 1,000 are seen as super-legendary fighters.
It really makes you realize how crazy the Demon Lord’s faction is for having several people whose stats easily break 10,000.
So anyway, triple-digit stats are pretty much the norm for your average soldier, which means they can’t do anything crazy impressive.
Yeah, they can wear a full set of armor and still run at top speed, but that’s basically the best they manage.
You don’t really see many people shattering the ground with a single punch, scorching their surroundings to ash with one spell, or any of that stuff you might see in overpowered fantasy stories.
I guess if there were tons of people with those kinds of awe-inspiring powers, fortresses and stuff would lose all meaning, huh?
The fact that fortresses exist means that they’re enough to defend against most things, or no one would bother building them.
Although I guess there are some fortresses like this one that have their defenses bolstered with skills and stuff, so they’re not really comparable to the fortifications you’d find back on Earth.
Hmm. Lemme think.
I guess if you consider the benefits of stats and equipment and exotic mounts and stuff, warfare here might be around the same level as, like, World War I or so.
Bows and arrows in this world are fairly comparable to guns, and you could probably consider magic as a kind of artillery.
Although, like I said, there are differences, like the defensive power of fortresses and stuff.
Huh? That all sounds pretty impressive to you?
I dunno, it’s pretty bottom-tier stuff from where I’m standing.
I mean, think about who I’ve been hanging out with, will ya?
You’ve got the Demon Lord, who can cause a natural disaster with her bare hands, and a bunch of other powerhouses who wreak mass destruction with the aftershocks of their attacks alone.
Compared to those beasts, being able to produce artillery-level power with your hands or whatever is small potatoes.
But anyway, to get back to the main subject, war in this world does have certain similarities with war on Earth.
From that perspective, it’s obvious that this attack is pretty rushed.
It’d be one thing if they’d been preparing in advance, but when they’re deploying out of the blue, it seems kinda crazy.
In war, as in any battle, it’s very important to prepare in advance.
Gathering troops, honing their abilities, acquiring equipment, and so on.
And then you’ve gotta come up with a strategy so that you can maximize their potential on the battlefield.
Sure, stats and skills can cover for shortcomings in those areas to a certain extent, but if you want your troops to perform their best, you’ve gotta make sure they stay supplied and rested.
The lightning-strike strategy Balto’s devised is going to take a toll on those soldiers. Will they be all right?
Well, I guess he wouldn’t give the go-ahead unless he figured it would work, but still.
Hrmmm.
Maybe I should check things out again.
The rebel army is currently gathering in a town north of the demon capital.
The soldiers are disguised as civilians to avoid suspicion, entering the town a few people at a time.
And they’re bringing in supplies and equipment slowly and carefully, too.
Normally, it would be incredibly challenging to detect their movements.
The rebels probably figured that by the time anyone noticed, they’d have assembled a sizable army and already be on the move before anyone realized what was coming.
Damn. I’m pretty impressive, figuring all that out in advance.
Thanks to my amazing powers of observation, now we have the initiative to make the first move while the rebel army is still preparing.
So it stands to reason that we’d want to attack as soon as possible in order to make the most of that advantage.
Thinking about it that way, I guess this blitzkrieg strategy isn’t so bad.
The only problem is whether or not we can actually win with it.
The northern town’s defenses aren’t particularly formidable.
Most demon towns, or really just all towns in this world, are generally set up to ward off monsters, not people.
That makes sense, since it’s typically monsters who threaten people more often than not.
You’ve gotta be prepared for that or your home will get wiped out.
There are exceptions, of course, but the majority of towns are equipped with defenses to match whatever monsters appear in their area.
The monsters that appear around the rebel town are mostly small to medium animal-type monsters.
They’re relatively weak and can serve as food, so hunting them is one of the town’s main sources of income.
If anything, they’re often attacking more than defending…
Anyway, that means their defenses aren’t particularly strong, just the bare minimum to prevent roving monsters from getting in.
So there’s no fear of them holing up to weather a siege or anything.
If they try to pull that, it’ll be easy enough to break through with a direct assault.
No need to worry about them dragging things out while the revolutionary army assembles in another area.
My hastily acquired knowledge of military strategy says that besieging a well-prepared enemy takes tons of time, and the attackers usually need way more manpower than the defense to have any chance of winning.
Not having to worry about that is a big advantage.
If it’s just gonna be a field battle, then the most important factors are the number of soldiers and the skills of the commander.
The soldiers’ abilities?
That’s important, too, but since they’re all demons, there’s not gonna be that big of a difference.
Since both sides are the same race and lead the same kinds of lives, their stats are naturally gonna be similar.
Of course, if there was a massive gap in stats, then that could decide the fight before it even begins, but there’s only a handful of people with those kinds of stats.
And even those guys only have stats that max out around 1,000.
There’s only so much you can do with those kinds of stats.
That means you usually never see whole armies getting crushed by a single person with some unbelievable power or anything like that.
With these kinds of constraints, victory purely comes down to the number of soldiers on each side and the smarts of their respective commanders.
In this case, we’re sending out about three times the amount of soldiers as the opponent.
And their commander is Balto.
However, it seems Deadbeat is the one who’s actually gonna be leading the charge.
I can’t say that doesn’t make me a little nervous, but given their overwhelming advantage in numbers, it’s pretty unlikely that they would lose.
Balto will be there, too, so he won’t let things get out of hand.
My only other concerns are what kind of toll the forced march will have on the soldiers and how reliably they can secure supplies.
They’re probably bringing food with them, but I’m guessing they’ll only have the bare minimum so that they can move quickly. It probably won’t be enough.
And I haven’t seen any indication that there are any plans for reinforcements.
Are they really gonna be okay?
You can’t fight on an empty stomach, you know!
But when I think about it, I guess that might not be too much of a problem, especially considering where they’re gonna be attacking.
I mean, the town to the north makes their living hunting monsters for food.
In other words, there’s food all over the place.
If they can secure food on-site, there’s no need to lug a bunch of heavy supplies around.
Come to think of it, I guess that was the case in a lot of the Earth’s history, too. Pillaging and war often go hand in hand.
…When you think about it that way, war is pretty tragic.
Huh? That’s rich coming from someone who eats her slain foes, you say?
Look, that’s a totally different situation.
Anyway, I assume Balto’s got countermeasures in mind when it comes to dealing with the fatigue of the soldiers, so I don’t need to worry about that too much.
Hrmmm?
Wait, does that mean they actually stand a pretty good chance of winning?
Well, they’ve got plenty of advance information thanks to me, so I guess they’d actually have to be shockingly incompetent to lose in this situation.
Not to mention, three very unusual individuals have snuck into Balto’s ranks.
Ael, Mera, and Mr. Oni.
What are you guys doing?
I mean, ever since Vampy sealed Mr. Oni’s Wrath skill, his strength is limited to what he can control, so he probably isn’t all that out of place among the demon soldiers.
And I guess Mera’s safe, too?
No, no, he’s definitely out.
Mera’s been secretly training to catch up with Vampy, and because he’s a vampire and all that, he’s a whole lot stronger than your average human.
He was even able to hold his own against Mr. Oni in his Wrath state, so that puts him above most demons, too.
And when you throw Ael, a literal monster, into the mix?
Okay, yeah. It would actually be harder for them to lose at this point.
Great. Nothing to worry about.
…Yeah, right. If anything, I’m even more worried than before.
I guess you could say I’m bugging out a little.
Except technically, spiders aren’t bugs.
Okay, that’s not that important right now. All that matters is that my spider senses are tingling, warning me that something’s wrong.
It’s never a good idea to ignore your instincts.
The whole reason I was contemplating Balto’s troops’ chances of victory in the first place is because I had a bad feeling about it.
My conclusion is that they’ve basically got this in the bag… But for some reason, I’m still uneasy.
Am I missing something here?
No… At least I don’t think so, but you can never be too sure.
I’ve been gathering information by sending out my clones as spies.
They’re palm-size mini-mes, so they can sneak into all kinds of tight spaces and overhear all sorts of things.
If nobody’s around, they can even look through documents and stuff.
They’re just not very strong.
They’re still so weak that if anyone finds them, they could squish my little ones with a single step.
So the priority has been to stay hidden while carefully collecting information.
It doesn’t actually damage me at all if one of my clones gets crushed, but I’d hate to see them go to waste after I worked so hard to make them.
Besides, I’ve managed to get plenty of intel without taking many risks, so I’m fairly satisfied with that.
But…what if something slipped past my information network?
If the rebellion is hiding some huge secret so thoroughly that I didn’t even catch wind of it, and it turns out to be a game-changing superweapon?
Logically speaking, it’s doubtful the rebels would have such a convenient trump card.
Judging by the numbers alone, Balto’s troops have a 99.9 percent chance of winning.
Still, I can’t just ignore this gut feeling.
My best bet is to watch over them from the shadows, since it’s not like I have anything better to do.
All right, I should get going, then.
Oh, wait a second.
I’ve gotta tell Vampy that I’m leaving first.
She gets reeeal mad when I disappear without saying anything.
“Excuse me? What do you mean, you’re leaving? Don’t be ridiculous. Obviously, I’m coming with you.”
I have no idea how she reached this conclusion. Could someone please explain it to me in a clear and concise essay format?
Vampy promptly picks up her beloved broadsword and stands next to me expectantly, as if her coming along is a done deal.
Ummm.
Now what?
Honestly, I don’t know what’s gonna go down, so I’d rather not take Vampy with me, buuut…
“Given the timing of this little trip, you’re obviously heading to wherever this so-called rebel army is gathering, right? Merazophis is going to be there as well, so there’s no reason for me not to go.”
Wait a minute. Vampy saw right through me?!
Since when is she smart enough for that?!
Hmm, I guess it’s not like she was ever not smart…
But still, I can’t help but feel that she figured out my plans based on some kind of animal instinct, not by reaching that conclusion through rational thought. Can you blame me for thinking that, though?
Besides, her excuse for feeling entitled to go along is still pretty stupid.
She’s coming just because Mera’s there, too…?
Um, it’s kind of a pain if you come along for such a stupid reason…
“What? Is there some reason I can’t come along? A reason you have to go chasing after Merazophis without taking me with you? Hmm?”
Eek!
Excuse me, Miss Vampy, do you know how dilated your pupils are right now?
Don’t look at me with that horror-movie expression! You’re freaking me out!
All right, fine! You win! I’ll take you with me!
As I frantically convey my surrender with various gestures, Vampy finally seems satisfied and resumes packing.
Phew.
This damn homicidal, lovesick, preteen vampire.
C’mon, rein it in. That’s too many weird traits in one person.
Besides, it’s not like anything would ever happen between Mera and me.
If she reacts like this to me, I’d hate to think what she might do if some unfamiliar woman tried to get close to him.
As far as I can tell, nothing like that is going on right now, but who knows what might happen in the future?
I mean, Mera’s kind of a catch.
He’s strong, has a good personality, and he’s easy on the eyes to boot.
If you just ignore the fact that he’s a vampire, he’s basically the perfect man, right?
Aside from coming with some major baggage in the form of a crazy little girl who will try to murder you if you get anywhere near him!
Poor Mera. He could be popular in theory, but that’s probably the worst thing that could happen.
I’d rather not see any bloodshed as a result of Envy’s side effects.
Ugh. But I guess I should be more worried about my current situation than long-term stuff like that right now.
If I’m going to bring Vampy, then I’ll have to bring the other puppet spiders, too.
They are technically supposed to guard me and Vampy, after all.
Hrmmm. Well, in that case, we should be fine as long as nothing totally crazy happens.
I mean the reason we’re going in the first place is because of my baseless instinct that something bad might happen…
So that we can be there to help if it turns out to be true.
Really, it’s just as likely that nothing’s going to happen at all.
There’s no harm in being cautious, but I guess there’s no point in being too cautious, either.
If something DOES happen, it’s every beastie for themselves.
Vampy’s the one who insisted on coming along.
Of course, I’ll keep an eye out to try to prevent anything like that from going down.
Also, I don’t wanna rain on her parade while she’s busy packing, but we’re not actually leaving yet, okay?
I’ve got the overpowered method of teleporting whenever I want.
We still have a few more days before Balto’s troops reach the northern town that’s serving as the rebel army’s base.
I fully intend to relax until then, all right?
So fast-forward: Balto and his troops should be arriving sometime tomorrow. Meanwhile, we’ve already reached the northern town with the help of teleportation.
I decided to come a day early to give us time to conduct some preliminary investigations and stuff.
So why didn’t I get here sooner, you ask?
Well, my clones have already done most of the investigating for me, y’see?
We’re really only here just in case something totally unforeseen happens.
It’s my completely baseless gut feeling, and that’s about it.
I figure we might as well take it easy.
So we’ve been wandering around sightseeing in the town, by which I mostly mean scouting. And boy, is there a lot of activity.
Well, I guess I can’t blame them, since there’s a small army approaching their town right now.
I’m sure the rebels figured they’d be the ones conducting a surprise attack, so they never would’ve imagined that they’d find themselves on the receiving end when they’re not even done assembling yet.
Now they’re busting their butts trying to ready the town for battle.
I guess they’re planning on turtling up for a siege, then.
That’s a little unexpected. How are you gonna hole up in a place with such weak defenses?
Well, I thought they were weak anyway.
But I was forgetting that this is still basically a fantasy world.
They’ve made a whole ring of walls frighteningly fast with Earth Magic, surrounding the northern town completely.
Not only that, but the walls are well-built, on par with modern architecture back on Earth.
It’s an amazing castle, constructed overnight, more or less. Even Hideyoshi would be impressed.
It’s purely for defense, though, so I guess it’s not as fancy as the historic castles of Japan.
Anyway, they’ve dispatched their speediest horses to the surrounding areas, telling the other rebels to gather in the northern town ASAP.
Looks like there’s gonna be a showdown.
But since this is an unexpected development, they’re working their earth mages half to death, so I wouldn’t exactly say they’re fully prepared.
For one thing, the soldiers seem ready to run away at the drop of a hat.
The townspeople, who weren’t informed about any of this, are even more distressed.
They don’t have any connection to the rebels, y’know?
Surprise! A rebellion was using your town as their base of operations, and now the Demon Lord’s army is coming to destroy them!
Yeah, talk about a shocking discovery.
You can’t blame them for freaking out about what’s going to happen to them.
But it’s not like this town just randomly became the rebel base. The lord of the town is actually a rebel leader.
That’s right. The truth is out: The leader of the rebellion is the lord of this town!
Say whaaaat?!
Yeah, okay, it’s not actually all that surprising.
You’d have to be either an important big shot or a total idiot to try to seriously consider overthrowing the Demon Lord: the very symbol of the demon race.
Fortunately, it’s the former in this case.
Well, it’s the latter if you know the whole story, but for demons who aren’t aware of the Demon Lord’s true strength, of course they’re gonna be tempted to rebel against her plans.
The demon race is barely getting by as is, and now the Demon Lord’s declaring war on humanity.
If you’re a town leader, of course you won’t just roll over and be like, Okay, sounds good.
A lord has a responsibility to protect their lands and people, after all.
While gathering information around the demon territory, I’ve discovered that high-class demons—the nobles, basically—are generally not corrupt at all.
That doesn’t apply to all of them, of course, but compared to humans, there are way more nobles abiding by the principle of noblesse oblige and properly fulfilling their duties toward the less fortunate.
That’s got a lot to do with the meritocracy of the demon race.
See, demons don’t get to perpetually keep their noble rank.
If their behavior is deemed improper, their land will be stripped from them in no time at all.
So demon nobles have to actually act accordingly: carrying out their duties, raising their children properly, and so on.
The latter is so that their children don’t end up getting the family land confiscated due to lack of a proper upbringing once the current generation retires.
As long as they get their kids a gifted education from a young age, which is usually affordable because of their resources, it should be easy enough to raise an upstanding adult.
And an upstanding adult is less likely to get the family chased off their land.
So for demons, passing down power and ability to their heirs is more important than blood inheritance.
Which means most demon nobles are pretty decent, since they’re careful not to raise fools.
By that logic, the lord of this northern town is bound to be a pretty upstanding and dutiful person, too.
In point of fact, he was doing excellent work up until now.
His rebel army was assembling stealthily and quietly, at least until I uncovered the whole shebang and squealed on them.
As soon as he found out the authorities were coming, he made a snap decision to turn the northern town into a fortress.
So he has the influence to gather rebels from all over the land to his banner and the flexibility to make quick, calm judgments as the situation changes.
Talk about excellence.
Well, excellent except for the part where he was stupid enough to pick a fight with the Demon Lord… No, I shouldn’t poke fun.
But, uh…he’s almost certainly screwed now.
I mean, Balto’s got Ael in his army.
Let’s not forget, she’s a beast whose stats are in the 10,000s.
Walls made out of Earth Magic? To Ael, those are practically thin sheets of paper.
Quite frankly, she could destroy this entire town all by herself.
Strategy and battle tactics fall apart in the face of that kind of strength.
When the difference in power is that insurmountable, it doesn’t really matter how excellent your commander might be.
I’m sure the Demon Lord just sent her along to be on the safe side, but, like, this is beyond extreme.
Especially when there are no less than three individuals with that overwhelming level of power in the same place at the same time!
And if you count Vampy and me, multiply that by infinity!
This is just overkill, then another layer of overkill on top of that.
Yeah, I’m not even really making sense anymore, but you get the idea.
And don’t you dare say What idea? to me right now.
Either way, we just have to hope that nothing happens that would justify sending in Overkill Squad.
How’s this gonna play out? I wonder.
“So it begins.”
We’re sitting in our room at the inn, having a leisurely tea party.
Vampy sips her tea daintily as she makes a deep-sounding comment.
Although there’s no real special meaning—the fight has literally just begun, that’s all.
How do we know that when we’re just sitting in the inn, you ask?
Well, Vampy has Panoptic Vision, so it’s easy enough to see what’s going on in the area even if we’re inside.
The way Vampy’s eyes are blankly staring at an empty wall is proof enough of that.
If it was anyone else staring into the distance and saying weird things, you’d probably think they were crazy, huh?
…Okay, everything about Vampy is crazy, so I guess that’s not too far off the mark.
Anyway, none of this matters right now.
I use my own Clairvoyance to check on things outside the northern town.
There, Balto’s troops have launched their attack on the town.
I’ve never actually seen this kind of large-scale battle in this world before, so while it might be in poor taste, I gotta admit I’m a little excited.
Huh? What do you mean, I do have battlefield experience?
If you’re talking about the thing in Sariella, that wasn’t so much a battle as a slaughter.
Besides, this is the first time I get a chance to watch others go at it instead of having to participate myself, so it still counts.
Just think of it like watching a movie, and maybe you’ll understand how I feel.
Plus, I’m seeing it in real life, not on a screen, so it’ll be even more intense.
According to the many books I read while I was killing time in the duke’s mansion, the key to major battles in this world is a category of spells called “grand magic.”
There are usually three steps to the skills for any given kind of magic.
With fire, for example, it’s Fire Magic, Flame Magic, and Inferno Magic.
To simplify things, we’ll call those “low,” “middle,” and “high.”
Each of these magic skills has a different spell for each skill level, right?
We’ll call the lower-skill-level spells “lesser,” the middle ones “intermediate,” and the ones you learn later on “advanced.”
Going by this system, the Black Spear spell I frequently used before my deification would be considered a “high-intermediate” spell.
So naturally, “grand magic” refers to high-advanced spells… Ha-ha, nah, I’m just kidding. Apparently, it generally means middle-advanced spells.
Are you wondering what about that is “grand”?
If the answer is yes, then your mind has been poisoned by power creep!
There’s practically nobody in this world who can even use high magic in the first place.
Even middle magic is pretty difficult for anyone but the most elite mages, so when most people think of magic, they think of low magic.
When I was throwing around high magic like crazy before I got deified, I was waaay outside the standards of the rest of the world!
From a human perspective, middle magic is already crazy dangerous, and even low magic can easily inflict a mortal wound if it hits you dead-on.
That’s just normal, apparently.
So destructive wide-range middle-advanced spells are basically the strongest kind of magic most people can realistically use.
Not only that, but they can’t just cast those spells whenever they want, either.
Since humans’ meager stats are generally well under 1,000, it’s very difficult for one of them to use a middle-advanced spell alone.
That’s where the Cooperation skill comes in handy.
Multiple people with the same magic skill can use Cooperation to work together and complete a single spell.
It’s basically a team-combo attack! Is that cool or what?
So then the resulting grand magic crushes the enemy forces and causes catastrophic losses!
Except obviously, the enemy isn’t just gonna sit there and voluntarily take a thrashing.
Thanks to the effects of Wisdom, my magic-casting speed was super-fast, so I could fire off middle-advanced magic in no time at all. But that was just me.
Since humans have to use the Cooperation skill and work in groups to even stand a chance of casting that kind of magic, obviously they can’t do it very quickly, either.
It takes time to construct the spells, and the huge amount of energy it emits practically screams, HEY, GUYS, WE’RE ABOUT TO USE GRAND MAGIC!
So when the enemy sees signs of grand magic, obviously they come running to try to put a stop to it.
And casting spells is finicky even at the best of times, so the slightest interruption can easily wreck the whole process.
To sum things up, grand magic can cause huge damage to the opposing troops, but it’s far from easy to pull off.
In battle, it’s super-important to try to hit the enemy with grand magic while preventing them from using it on your side.
Which means that in a siege, where the defenders are protected and can use grand magic at will, the attackers are at a considerable disadvantage.
How will Deadbeat, who’s leading Balto’s troops, deal with that situation?
That’ll be worth watching.
Oh man, I can’t wait.
But as I lay eyes on the battlefield, brimming with anticipation, my expression quickly turns serious as I see the situation unfold.
Um, excuse me?
What’s up with this one-sided game?
The walls that the rebel earth mages worked so hard to make are getting blown to bits by a bunch of explosions.
Grand magic?
Yeah, no.
This is all the work of just one person.
As I watch, a single sword goes flying into the wall.
Next thing you know, there’s a huge hole there.
Balto’s soldiers swarm right in.
The walls might as well not exist.
As you may have guessed, the one responsible for blowing up all these walls is none other than Mr. Oni, with the help of his overpowered magic sword–creating cheat skill.
The skill in question can even create exploding swords.
So bombs, basically.
Which is why the defense walls are going KABOOM.
The swords are powerful enough to blast a hole in the wall, and all you have to do is throw them to cause massive damage, so the rebel army can barely put up a fight.
If it was slow-moving grand magic, at least they could try to stop the casting, but all Mr. Oni has to do is chuck a single sword.
I doubt they have many archers with the skill to shoot the swords out of the sky at high speed, and even if they could, the next one would come flying in a matter of seconds.
Those guys are royally screwed.
Man, Mr. Oni fights dirty.
I thought having his Wrath skill sealed by Vampy would slow him down, but I guess he can still use everything else freely.
Including his magic sword–making skill.
And while losing the Wrath skill means his stats are lower, I remember Vampy saying his physical attack skill in Wrath berserker mode was over 20,000.
And the effect of Wrath multiplies your stats by ten.
Which means even his base physical attack skill is still over 2,000?
That puts him on a fundamentally different level from any ordinary demon.
Stats in the 1,000s, and the cheat-like sword-making skill, which is probably a special reincarnation ability.
He might not be quite as powerful as the likes of Ael or Mera, but he can still hack and slash his way through an army like nobody’s business.
Yeah, okay. I was a fool to expect an evenly matched siege battle.
This is the problem with cheaters…
“Tch. What’s taking so long? He still hasn’t broken through? Is he even taking this seriously?”
Apparently, Vampy isn’t impressed by Mr. Oni’s efforts.
Wow. He’s single-handedly busting down their defenses, and you’re still not satisfied?
Also, I thought you hated Mr. Oni. So why are you mad that he’s not doing as well as you expected?
I just don’t get Vampy at all.
Is this one of those situations? Y’know, where you get mad when your rival lets you down?
What’s next? Is one of you gonna start spouting lines like Now things are getting interesting! or whatever?
Man, I just don’t get these battle-crazy bozos.
Why can’t they be peace-loving pacifists, like me?
Hrmmm.
Then again, if this keeps up, I’m not gonna have to do anything after all.
At a glance, there doesn’t seem to be any suspicious movement on the battlefield.
Aside from Mr. Oni’s rampage, all I see is magic flying back and forth, rebels desperately trying to stave off the soldiers storming the walls, and other scenes you’d expect during a siege.
Although I guess the “magic” part makes this a little less than ordinary.
The rebel army guys in the robes who are lobbing spells seem relatively strong: They might actually be winning this magic shoot-out.
That’s partly because they’ve got walls to protect them, but it also seems like their individual soldiers are pretty powerful.
They’re outmatching Balto’s magic soldiers in both speed and firepower.
No wonder they’re wearing robes: the universal sign for Look, I’m a wizard!
But that’s the only front where Balto’s guys are at a disadvantage. Otherwise, they’re busting through the enemy defenses thanks to the holes Mr. Oni made in the walls.
No matter how hard these robe guys try, they’re not gonna be able to turn the tide.
In reality, they’re only a little strong compared to an overpowered cheater like Mr. Oni.
Hrmmm.
Yeah, pretty sure we’re gonna win this.
Maybe I was worried for nothing after all?
Don’t get me wrong—nobody would be happier than me if it turns out to be my imagination.
Like, why would I want a feeling of imminent disaster to pan out? Ha-ha-ha.
…It usually is right, though, is the thing.
I look away from the battlefield for a moment and focus on a certain other point of interest.
The general of the rebel army is holed up in a room somewhere in the lord’s mansion, talking to no one by the looks of it.
He must be freaking out, ’cause he’s really babbling.
“So please send reinforcements right away. You can use that teleport gate, can’t you? Even a small amount would help. At this rate, the whole town will fall!”
Sweet. Signal intercepted.
Of course, I’m eavesdropping by way of one of my mini-mes, hidden in the area.
Only an idiot would pass up a chance to listen in on the general’s communications with one of these convenient little guys.
I’ve had my clone shadowing him around for daaays.
But since he has such an important role, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this dude somehow sensed that he was being watched.
He’s been extra careful, so I haven’t been able to catch him red-handed just yet.
After all, in this world, it’s common sense that skills and stuff make it easier to do spying and that kind of thing than it was in our world.
What I’m doing isn’t technically a skill, but I am still spying on him with a clone.
He’s been vigilant so far, but I guess now that his back’s against the wall, he can’t afford to worry about that kind of thing.
Anyway, sounds like he’s requesting reinforcements.
This “teleport gate” thing sounds important, but what’s really got my attention is the thing in his hand.
Pressed against his ear is something that looks exactly like what we’d call a cell phone back on Earth.
A magic tool? Yeahhh, I don’t think so.
Yes, there are “magic tools” that can replicate the effects of skills.
To make them, you need a skill called Ability Conferment, which allows you to imbue an object with a skill.
So in theory, that cell phone–looking thing could be a magic tool with the Fartalk skill or something.
Buuut…
That would be a little too convenient, wouldn’t it?
Yeah. That can’t be anything but an elf-made machine.
It’s not made with a skill, but it’s at least as powerful as a magic tool, I’m sure.
Only the elves could manufacture something like that.
Which means that most likely, the person he’s using that phone to talk to is…an elf.
Yep. We’ve officially got trouble.
Has there ever been a time when something involved the elves, specifically Potimas, and it didn’t end up becoming a dumpster fire?
Nope, I don’t think so!
I think it’s already safe to say that my bad feeling was right on the money.
Ughhh.
I can’t help heaving a huge sigh.
Getting involved is a pain, but it’ll end up being even more of a pain if I don’t do anything.
Guess I better pull myself together and take care of this.
At the moment, there don’t appear to be any suspicious characters in town.
That’s just based on a quick glance, so I could’ve missed something, but there certainly weren’t any big groups up to no good.
And there didn’t seem to be any major baddies mixed in with the defenders, either.
If Potimas decided to really insert himself into this war, even the overpowered Mr. Oni would have a hard time against those far-more-overpowered machines.
Seems safe to assume that Potimas’s guys aren’t here yet.
Which means my next order of business is the teleport gate that guy was talking about.
A teleport gate is a magic circle imbued with the power of Spatial Magic. It’s a kind of tool, not a machine.
You set up linked magic circles in two different places, and it connects them by way of teleportation.
You can go to only a specific place, and you can’t move that location, either.
The spell it’s based on, Long-Distance Teleport, can take the targets anywhere the mage using it has been to before, so it’s a lot less useful by comparison.
But Spatial Magic users are actually really rare, so you can’t just put them to work whenever you want. On top of that, teleporting multiple targets at the same time can be pretty taxing depending on the mage’s abilities and MP and stuff.
A teleport gate, on the other hand, can be used by anyone as long as it’s provided with MP, and it can teleport even large amounts of people.
They have their disadvantages, but teleport gates are very useful when it comes to connecting important locations.
Still, this is kinda weird.
Like I said earlier, there are very few people who can use Spatial Magic.
And you need the Ability Conferment skill to make a teleport gate.
That skill is actually fairly rare, too.
There are more people who can use it than Spatial Magic, for sure, but what about people who can use both? That’s gotta be super-duper rare.
How rare? Enough that the ones who do exist are almost always under the strictest of government care.
Talk about a living national treasure.
And even then, they supposedly make only a handful of teleport gates in their lifetimes.
This is all information that I read in books, by the way.
From what I hear, there’s no one in the demon territory who can make teleport gates right now.
In fact, a suitable candidate comes along only once every hundred years or so, if even that much.
So teleport gates are convenient, but they’re not particularly commonplace.
If they existed all over the place, it’d cause a transportation revolution.
It took our little group a few years just to get from the south of this continent to the demon lands in the north, remember?
If we’d had a teleport gate, we could’ve covered that distance instantly, which would have changed everything.
…Hmm? Wait a minute.
I could probably make teleport gates, couldn’t I?
My spatial conjuring can re-create Spatial Magic, and I did have the Ability Conferment skill before I was deified, so…it’s not crazy to assume I should be able to reproduce it, right?
Hrmmm. I don’t even need to limit that to teleport gates, do I?
If I wanted to, couldn’t I make stuff like magic bags that store items in another dimension, Chim**ra Wing–like escape items that teleport you to a particular place, and stuff like that?
Whaaaat?
Hmm. Okay, let’s put that aside for now.
The issue at hand is that the lord here was saying something or other about one of these super-rare teleport gates.
The existence of a teleport gate alone is a huge tactical advantage, so nations always know exactly where they are and keep them under careful control.
If this one’s not on the books, does that mean it was made without permission?
And judging by what the lord was saying, it seems connected to someplace in the elf territory.
And this gate is somewhere right inside the town?
Hrmmm.
What to do?
Not only that, but what is he going to do?
It’s not really much of a question why Potimas would be conspiring with this guy.
Stirring up a rebellion and doing even a little damage to the Demon Lord’s side would be enough to make him happy.
The rebels would take the lead and the elves would just help out a little bit on the side.
He probably knows full well they’re going to fail, but the elves won’t sustain major losses either way.
Knowing Potimas, he’d take any chance he can get to harass the Demon Lord. This sounds exactly like something he would do.
But a surprise attack on the rebels probably throws a big wrench in his plans.
The rebel army is gonna get crushed without causing the Demon Lord any trouble at all.
What would Potimas do about that?
…Maybe he won’t do anything?
It would take a lot of effort to recover from this situation now, even for Potimas.
And if he did that, the Demon Lord would know he was involved.
Potimas’s goal was probably to work quietly behind the scenes to enable the rebel army, so acting openly here would be less than ideal for him.
He’s a huge coward who likes to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike when his enemy’s back is turned, y’know?
He won’t want to deal with this situation with brute force.
If he was going to take that route, he could’ve done it by now instead of using roundabout methods like supporting a rebellion.
Putting myself in the shoes of that rat bastard Potimas, his next course of action would probably be…retreat.
At this rate, all he’s gonna do is lose a bunch of pawns.
He doesn’t mind sacrificing pieces, but I bet he’s the type who hates wasting resources for nothing. Still, he won’t take a risky gamble when he doesn’t stand to gain anything in return.
He’s more likely to abandon a sinking ship and try to hide the fact that the elves were ever involved.
Which means his next move is probably demolishing the teleport gate.
They’re rare and valuable, but only when both ends are in friendly hands.
If one teleport gate gets captured by the enemy, then they could easily use it to infiltrate whatever’s on the other side.
I doubt the teleport gate in this town leads straight to the elves’ main base, but it’s gotta go somewhere.
If he wants to avoid the risk of that place being attacked, his only choice is to break the teleport gate, wasteful or not.
Looks like they’re just going to withdraw on their own without me having to do anything.
The one thing is that Potimas will have to destroy that teleport gate.
He probably doesn’t want to do that, so there is the slight danger that he’ll pull some last-ditch effort on his way out.
If he does, I’m guessing his target would be Mr. Oni, who’s super standing out right now.
All right. I think I’ve got a good idea of what Potimas might do.
Which means my top priority should be protecting Mr. Oni.
He’s definitely strong compared to the demons, but Potimas could still assassinate him.
I’ve got to give him some cover, or he might be killed.
In the worst-case scenario, Mera or Ael might get hurt, too.
I doubt Ael would get killed, but it’s Potimas, so you can never be too careful.
Balto and Deadbeat… Eh, I can afford to lose ’em if I really have to.
Although I’d rather not, since they’re important demons and all that.
…Hrmmm, but this isn’t all that exciting, is it?
Potimas has given us tons of grief over the years. Wouldn’t it be nice to lay the hurt on him for once?
I’m sure his real body is still hiding in a bunker somewhere, so it isn’t like I can inflict much in the way of serious damage, but still.
I bet it would piss him off if trying to mess with the Demon Lord backfired really badly.
Yep. Plus, it’s no good to be on the defensive all the time.
We gotta keep him on his toes once in a while.
Sooo where’s that teleport gate? Oh, found it.
Combining Clairvoyance with x-ray vision, I discover the teleport gate in the basement of the lord’s manor.
It’s a hidden room, which is why my clones didn’t find it.
It doesn’t look like it’s been broken just yet.
Although I guess it’s possible that the one on the other end has been broken, in which case there’d be nothing I can do.
Still, it’s worth a try…
Downing the rest of my tea, I stand up.
“Making your move?”
I nod at Vampy’s question, then realize I have no idea what I’m going to do about her.
It’d be really dangerous to let her come with me, since I’m about to enter enemy territory and all.
Which means I should ideally leave her here, where she can look after Mr. Oni and company.
The only problem is how to convey that request to her!
I hesitate for a minute, then use Illusion to make an image of Mr. Oni appear on the table.
Heh-heh-heh. Yeah, I’ve learned some cool new tricks.
Illusion is originally Heretic Magic, but that spell works directly on the target’s brain, forcing them to see something that isn’t there. This, on the other hand, makes a real image appear in midair, so the underlying principle is totally different.
At first, I tried to re-create the Heretic Magic method, but it was too damn hard, so I switched to this.
Heretic Magic’s crazy, dude.
Vampy and the puppet spiders stare at the Mr. Mini-Oni on the table.
Bwa-ha-ha. Pretty awesome, right?
Okay, enough gloating for now. I add a mini-Potimas to the image, attacking Mr. Oni.
Then I add Vampy and company beating Potimas up.
And thus Potimas gets smashed to a pulp and dies. The end.
“Hrmmm, okay. So what are you saying? Potimas is here, and he’s after the kid? And you want us to put a stop to that?”
You’re quick on the uptake!
I nod again.
“And what are you going to do in the meantime?”
Nrgh. That’s too hard to explain.
It’s, um, you know.
A lady has to have her secrets.
I press my finger to my lips to avoid the question.
“Excuse me? Are you planning on keeping me in the dark again?”
I guess that’s not good enough for Vampy.
Uh-oh. She’s already getting mad.
C’mon, really? Is it just me, or are you being way too short-tempered lately?
And also, when did I ever hide stuff from you?
Besides, you really expect ME of all people to give a lengthy explanation right now?
We’re not screwed just yet, but it’s not like we’ve got tons of time to drag our feet, either.
If you’re gonna make childish demands at a time like this, then I’m the one who’s gonna get pissed off.
“““…!”””
“Huh? What the—?! What are you doing?! Hey!”
Evidently sensing my anger, the three puppet spiders grab Vampy and scurry away.
She’s thrashing around, but they expertly restrain her and run off like experienced kidnappers.
They might look like little girls, but they’re spiders on the inside.
Bound and gagged with spider thread, Vampy has no chance of escaping.
I wave at her as they retreat into the distance.
She’s glaring at me furiously as she gets carried off, but she’s the one who decided to follow me in the first place.
Just take out that stress on the rebels and elves, please.
Once I’ve waved off the Little Girl Squad, I clear the rest of the tea and snacks off the table.
If I send them to the alternate dimension where I store my clones, they’ll happily eat it all for me.
Look, it’s not good to waste food.
All righty, that should take care of things here.
As long as nothing crazy happens, the reunited four puppet-spider sisters should be able to tackle just about anything around here.
Plus they’ve got Vampy, too.
It’s about time I get to let loose and strut my stuff.
I teleport myself to the hidden room with the teleport gate.
I’ve never used a teleport gate before, but I’ve already confirmed that I can still use magic tools post-deification.
I just have to turn MP into energy and channel it into the power source.
In fact, MP itself is basically a kind of energy.
They’re just the same thing with different names, so it’s easy enough for me to operate a magic tool.
Which means if I just feed energy into this teleport gate, it should transport me to the gate it’s connected to, as long as that one hasn’t been broken.
I touch the teleport gate and channel some energy into it.
When I feel it respond accordingly, I’m tempted to smirk like a villain.
I’m not going to, though.
I supply the teleport gate with energy and activate it.
I’m used to teleporting.
But unlike when I do it myself, it feels a little weird this time.
Maybe it’s like how you don’t get carsick when you’re driving, but you might when someone else is behind the wheel.
Come to think of it, being teleported by someone else is like being forcibly thrown to a different space, so I guess it makes sense that it might feel a little weird.
I never realized that, since I’ve always teleported myself around without a problem.
If I did it a bunch of times in a row, would I start to feel sick?
Well, I guess I could cause that just by messing with space a little.
Anyway, while I’m thinking about that stuff, I arrive at my destination.
“I’ll head over there now, but don’t expect too much in terms of reinforce…ments…”
As soon as the view in front of me changes, I lock eyes with a man from across the room.
That might sound like the beginning of a love story, but no, we’re mortal enemies.
Before my eyes is Potimas, frozen in surprise with a phone-like object held to his ear.
When something unexpected happens, people’s thoughts stop for a moment.
I guess Potimas is no exception.
Good to know.
“……”
“……”
Take this! Beat-you-to-the-PUNCH!
“Guh?!”
hahaha, too good, I would make fun of it a lot