Part 3
─────Underwood Harvest Festival Main Quarters.
The [Draco Greif] Alliance had fallen into chaos. The messengers could not even deliver their messages all the way down to the servants in all the confusion, and the cooperation between communities was already close to non-existent. While the chaos spread, Sala Doltrake, the administrator seated directly beneath the Alliance’s flag, folded her arms and waited for a single piece of information. Depending on the nature of that information─────there is no doubt that this crisis will take a turn for the worse, she thought as she clenched her sweaty hand.
(The southern floor master was defeated, and to take down their successor, a demon lord appeared. ………This feels like deja vu. It’s like what happened 3 years ago.)
What kept bubbling back up in her heart was the memory of the alliance that Salamandra formed with another community long ago under the setting sun. It was the incident which became the impetus for causing Sala, the first successor, to run away from her home town. Looking back at the tragedy of her past, she sat in the administrator’s chair, her arms still folded while she waited for the report. Soon after, a messenger barged in, gasping for breath.
“A,Administrator!! I have returned from the northern area!!”
“Well done. So, how are things in the north?”
“Y,yes. It is just as you said, a demon lord has also appeared near the north’s floor master. Currently, a part of the Salamandra-Demon Princess alliance has been assaulted by the demon lord and has been rendered immobile!”
“………I see. It doesn’t sound like they’ll be able to send help.”
Sala tensed the grip in her fist. Sala tried to convey her thanks, but in no time at all, the next messenger barged in.
“A,Administrator! It’s bad news! We’ve been notified that a demon lord has also appeared near Shiroyasha of the east, and she is currently unreachable………!”
The northern messenger turned pale as if he were about to faint at the news of the messenger who barged in from the east. It didn’t show on Sala’s face, but her heart was in turmoil.
(………The south has been destroyed, and demon lords have appeared in the north and east. What’s more is that they seem to be targeting the floor masters and their successive candidates. This can’t be a coincidence.)
Strong-willed demon lords, seemingly under someone’s control, simultaneously began an assault on the floor masters. If this is the truth, then this bad news could be called a bolt from the blue. A demon lord who once placed other demon lords under their control, wasn’t all that uncommon. But that was only in cases like Zoroaster’s demon lords or Grim Grimoire’s means of using a creation summoning from scratch, or like the Heavenly Ones, gathering all of their affiliates under a single flag. A demon lord carrying their own flag would never mix their flag with someone else’s. The very reason why a demon lord is considered to be a natural disaster is because of their lofty pride. So in following through with your conceit, without any predictions or preparation, there would be no other outcome than to be battered and broken by a raging storm. To be able to command these natural disasters as if they were working together, there was probably no worse nightmare than this.
(As long as the floor masters are unable to move, the [Draco Greif] Alliance has no means of taking down the demon lord. But as the sponsor, it’s my responsibility to at least get the participants to the outer gate………!!)
Sala stood up from the administrator’s chair, and spoke to the two messengers sharply.
“Thank you for your hard work. I would like you two to keep the situation in the north and east under wraps. Recklessly revealing this will cause the confusion to spread unnecessarily. You two will proceed to the four-legged chief and tell him to prepare as many wagons and chariots as he can to carry the participants to the outer gate. While we draw the attention of the Titan’s army, the participants must be taken to a safe place!”
“Y,Yes, ma’am!”
The two messengers left the main quarters, sliding down the large trees’ trunks. To prepare for her debut against the Titans, she equipped her usual sword and her favorite metal based gift on her wrists and ankles. This gift was also for raising the strength of her flames.
(The exalted first’s─────without the Dragon King of the Stars and Sea dragon’s horn, I am just a hybrid, a distant relative of a dragon. Let’s see how far I can get with the gift I have on me………!)
With a tense look on her face, Sala continued her preparations. But, as if kicking away the tense atmosphere, Kuro Usagi came flying in through the window.
“Sala-sama! So you were alright!”
“Kuro Usagi-dono………wait, you’re just in time. Gather your companions and prepare to go home. While we take on the Titans, the No Names should also take cover─────”
“There is no need! [SUN SYNCHRONOUS ORBIT in VAMPIRE KING] will soon be paused for mediation due to a deliberation resolution! There is no response from the host, but I think we should be able to get at least a week of postponement!”
Sala took a deep breath, and the color returned to her face.
“I see………! With a judgemaster, the game can temporarily be put on hold!”
“Yes! So first, I would like to ask you to mop up the rabid beasts in Underwood!”
Kuro Usagi pricked up her ears as she answered. Sala had a clue on how to counterattack, but conversely, she let loose an anxious tone.
“That’s fine with me, but the Titans are almost here. What are we going to do about that?”
“About that─────”
“A,A,Administrator!! It’s an emergency!!”
Bursting in and trying to catch his breath was a beastman messenger that was different than the ones from before. Wondering what it was, Sala asked with a stern expression.
“What is it? Is something wrong?”
“T,That’s not it! Actually, in a sense, you could say that, but………!”
He was too shocked to put it in words. That would probably be the best way to express the messenger’s surprise. To Sala, the way the messenger panicked was what was shocking. Even if he had run into the Titans, he wouldn’t have been panicking this much. What’s more, the messenger’s face, while shocked for whatever reason, didn’t seem to show any hint of fear. If the strange expression on the messenger’s excellent face were put into words─────as though all wondrous things between heaven and earth had been gathered; like he had seen an extraordinarily strange and mysterious adventure’s cheat-level apparition─────put simply, that kind of complex expression painted his excellent face. While Sala pondered this, she rebuked the messenger who hadn’t fulfilled his duty.
“I don’t know what happened, but if it’s an emergency, then be quick about it! While we’re wasting time like this, the Titans will be─────”
Approaching, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence. When she tried to say that last word, what happened right after was─────a Titan had been speared through the window.
“………Hah……!?”
Crash!!! The window ruptured magnificently. Then the large tree rocked and shook violently. Sala suddenly became speechless. The Titan warrior, covered from head to toe in dust and rubble, did not just come flying in, but was hit with a force strong enough to break its armor and passed out.
“Wha………What happened,”
She didn’t know what had happened. It showed on Sala’s face. Next to her, Kuro Usagi, with an unusually uncomfortable expression, gave her a timely explanation.
“W,Well………This Titan was probably thrown over here by one of our companions………”
“………Thrown?”
Sala questioned on reflex. But Kuro Usagi didn’t raise her voice to correct her. While Sala became dubious about this, she went out through the collapsed wall and looked down upon the battlefield where the Titans and the [Draco Greif] Alliance were fighting. Underwood encompasses a length of 500 meters with a massive water tree famed for its size. From the mountainside where the harvest festival’s main quarters was located, she could see the entire battlefield. There, Sala was shocked for a second time. The Draco Greif’s front lines, which should have been pushed back to the nearby parts of the city within a few minutes─────had rallied back, securing a path all the way to the outer gate. And, leading them at the front, was a single boy.
“It can’t be………that boy threw a Titan all the way here?!”
How is that possible!!? Sala’s voice rasped. For her, who had lived 200 years, she knew the limits of the human body well. Even if he had been approved divinity by a holy spirit, it was impossible for him to have such herculean strength. Sala was confused, but the messenger that was standing by near her, to support Kuro Usagi’s words, added his own.
“Administrator. Usagi-dono here isn’t lying. And if I might add, the Titans’ invasion was, by that boy alone………ah, no……that is, to be specific! That boy alone is attempting to destroy the Titans by force!!”
“………Wha,”
Sala stared at the messenger’s menacing expression with her mouth half-open, shocked. She came back to her senses when the second Titan was speared.
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