Volume 10 Chapter 16 (1/2)

Through Belial's crystal, we watched the three knights fight.

Our initial strategy was to lure the enemies to the grassland, hold the line for as long as we could, and when we have gathered most, if not all of them, we would then make the Darkness Dragons bombard and annihilate them.

However, if it was just Belial's monsters to hold the line, some of the enemies would break through before we have gathered enough. For that reason, I decided to deploy the three knights.

In order to identify the enemy Demon Lords, I was recording via a hidden camera what was being displayed in Belial's crystal. If I showed the recordings to Marcho later, she should be able to tell to whom the monsters belonged to.

Even so…

”How many Demon Lords are we facing here?”

”I think five, at the very least.”

Not only was there a high number of enemies, there were many kinds as well.

There were:

Blood Wolfman which were werewolf-type monsters;

Clay Dolls, which were mud dolls whose upper bodies were in a constant state of liquification.

Winged Snakes, which were frill-necked, large serpents.

Ice Giants, which were moving ice sculptures.

Small Tyranos, which were bipedal dinosaurs that had helmet-like carapaces.

Treants, which were walking trees.

Undead Sleip, which were decaying zombie sheep.

Heracles, which were beetles that had horns that could pierce through steel.

And there were many more.

As far as I could tell, there was no sense of uniformity among the enemy monsters. Not in terms of attributes or appearance. It wasn't wise to come to a conclusion when there were so many other factors to consider, but I couldn't help but feel there were more than two Demon Lords leading this army.

In all likelihood, each enemy Demon Lord must have placed monsters in this army so that all of them could gain exemption from the rule that's protecting us new Demon Lords. But still, do they have to be so obvious?

Due to this, my suspicion on Belial grew stronger.

Moreover, he said that both sides had exhausted their elites. If there was only one or two enemy Demon Lords, that could just be the case, but each additional Demon Lord would make that harder and harder to believe.

Well, there will always be exceptions. Maybe his elites are that strong. Either way, that's why I have my trap.

While watching the crystal, I was also observing Belial's facial expressions.

From his point of view, the golems attacking the enemies were doing so while under my control.

If he was in league with the enemies, he should be sending a signal of some sort to the others soon.

And so, I waited. As an added insurance, I was holding onto the necklace that Rorono made.

It was only for one use, but it could instantly create a Transfer array. It was such a top-class item that only an alchemist of Rorono's caliber could be able to reproduce such a thing.

I had used it in public before, but that was in the [Time] Demon Lord's dungeon, so Belial should have no idea of its existence.

”So, these are the golems made by your [Monster of the Covenant]. They're so amazing. They're not even monsters, and yet… I think they can go toe to toe with A rank monsters. …no, even stronger than that! How frightening. Haha, considering it's very much possible make more of them, it won't even take a century before you become untouchable, Procell-sama.”

Technically speaking, the three knights weren't made through Rorono's abilities alone, but there was no need to tell him that. At least, for now.

”Perhaps, but it'll still take a long time. Unlike normal golems, we can't make one of these per day.”

”They're amazing nevertheless. Oh, how I want one for myself. I'm so envious.”

Belial wasn't doing anything; he was just watching his crystal.

I decided to continue doing the same.

Red Lance, or the evolved red knight, was on the screen.

Thanks to its evolution, it grew a size larger. Meanwhile, its main weapon, the piledriver, became two sizes larger.

Moreover, a prominent feature of this knight was the gigantic thrusters on its back. Through the utilization of both its strengthened twin-drive golem cores and the Avalon Jewel at the same time, the thrusters' output was more than twice than before, which meant an improved propulsive power.

The Red Lance has just finished its preparations to use its new special attack. It repositioned its large right arm and then made that merge with the auxiliary parts in its legs. So, with the arm in front, the Red Lance itself became a gigantic lance.

The piledriver was now glowing bright red. Most of the generated magic power was being diverted toward the thrusters, and the rest was being used toward the reinforcement of its defenses.

And then, it disappeared. Closely following its disappearance was a loud sonic boom.

Left and right, enemy monsters were being turned into minced meat. In response, the heavily-armored enemies huddled together to form a wall.

As though affected by this, the Red Lance stopped.

In actuality, there was no problem at all. If anything, this was the intended outcome.

And so, a loud clinking sound was made…

In the next moment, boom.

It was the piledriver's true function in action: making a large amount of magic power explode, resulting in the launching of the metallic stake.

The attack just now, as powerful as it was, was no simple physical attack; damage was also done up to the atomic level by the generated shockwave. In fact, even the very earth was gouged by the said shockwave.

Obviously, because such an attack of this level required massive amounts of magic power, the red knight before it evolved wouldn't have been able to pull it off. It was only because magic power was stored in the Avalon Jewel and then released instantly that the Red Lance was just barely able to do it.

”Wow, Procell-sama, that golem of yours make all the enemies look like they're made of paper! What a powerful golem!”

”Yes, thanks for the praise. The other two look like they're doing well too.”

”That black golem with four arms who's slicing and shooting all that it comes near with, yeah. But the white one, I don't seem to see it…”

Just as Belial said, the Black Armor was doing quite the decimation with its four arms. Two of those arms held 2 of Rorono's latest heavy machineguns while the other two arms held beautiful single-edged swords.

At first glance, there was nothing special about the Black Armor's fighting style. Upon closer inspection though, the strangeness in it becomes apparent: the Black Armor had no wasted movements. Each slice of the sword and each bullet had a purpose. It was able to make the possible moves largely thanks to its amazing artificial brain and sensors, which were outstanding even among the knights. That allowed it to receive and process information quickly and accurately.

As though that wasn't enough, it was also able to share information with the other two knights. This allowed the Black Armor to not only make the other two do more efficient movements, but also do combination attacks with each other. Due to this, it wasn't an exaggeration to call it the leader unit.

Now, as for the last knight, the White Bow, the reason it wasn't visible on the crystal was quite simple: it was attacking the enemies from a height of two thousand meters above the ground. At such a height, even flying monsters couldn't reach it. And because there was no need to worry about defense, it could convert all the extra magic power to increase its attack power.

Not that it needed it this time due to the enemies only being small fries. So, it used it to fire magic projectiles continuously instead, which in the process didn't use up any of its regular ammunitions. By the way, thanks to its evolution, it was now able to fire regular ammunition, magic projectiles, and combinations of both.