«Arguehagaaaj......»
Under the shower of eerie light, the archdemon—though he had his head popped off a moment ago—rose to his feet once again, his head back to its prime state.
It was a resurrection if one would like to play it out like that, however the expression of resentment and despair hanging on his face was a clear cut sign the resurrection came at a price. From its mouth, drool dripped down as he fumbled around to pick up the wand he had dropped earlier when the arrow struck him.
However, the way he searched the ground made it clear he must be facing haziness before his eyes, or something similar, like vertigo. He tried many times to feel for the wand, and often mistook the shattered piece of floor for the wand then threw it afterward. It took a while but it finally grasped the wand.
(H-hey, don't tell me...)
Allen gasped, recalling the nature of the enemy resembling the one he had slain a lot in the Elmea Theocracy.
«Heurgen-sama. What's the matter with this?»
«We haven't heard anything about it. Mara-sama, pray tell us what's going on?»
«Yeah, we aren't here to turn into monsters...»
A wave of shock spread amidst the crowd of demons when they witnessed the transformation and demanded an answer. It seemed they were stupefied by the situation, much like Allen and his team.Perhaps because the means of their leaders were going too overboard even for them, the demons and archdemons were seized in bafflement.
«Fufu, you all are so cute. Hey, Scree, wake up that boy as well.»
«Screee!!»
However, turning a deaf ear to her soldiers, Mara continued to have Scree revive the fallen soldiers. Once again, eerie radiance released from Scree's huge eye, illuminating the corpse of the demon.
«Graaaghh!!»
Dead demon's flesh wriggled, rapidly closing up as it got up with a ghoulish expression, a far cry from the expression of living.
(They're really making out to be the personification of evil god. No, wait. isn't that what they wanted? To make an immortal army, they'd been transforming the people from their research to gather their souls.)
The pieces of puzzles had started to fall in their places as Allen recalled the chaos in Prostia Empire; they'd used a similar evil god’s incarnation to gather souls to revive the evil god slumbering beneath crystal flower.
«So all of this research was to turn into your mindless weapon?!»
«W-we didn't come here to turn into monsters...»
(Oh, maybe this is our chance? Let's see if they listen...)
«Listen, all of you! As you can see, the only fate awaits you is to be turned into a monster like them! I can turn a blind eye if you were to immediately turn back from this scene!!»
Since the Demon King's Army had split into three divisions, it fell on their shoulders to constrict the movement of two divisions at least. Allen tried to advise the hesitant opponents to give up on their arms with a threatening attitude, hoping they could avoid this fight here.
«Fufu, you really are foolish ones. Do you think you could've become demon or archdemon had it not been the grace of Lord Demon King? Soon, the three realms shall be at the footsteps of Demon King to command. Consider this a trial to overcome if you want a place among the executives of that supreme force. Had not we all been mere angels? But look at us, by our merits we are now the Fiend Kings!»
"Don't forget my research helped too!"
«Scree!!»
Shinonom, the Director of Monster Soldier's Research Division, also raised his voice from below the hole opened, making his claim that he had as much of a hand in increasing the number of demons and archdemons as much Demon King had. Scree raised its tentacle, seemingly affirming it.
«Alright, it's time to make you choices. Will you follow the grace of Demon King, and acquire the unimaginable power in the Demon King dominated world, or will you choose to be the traitor and face the punishment? Take your stand!!»
Mara spread her arms in theatrical gestures, and demanded the choice of archdemons.
It appeared her words had shown them the direction they must take as an expression of determination flashed across the demons. Maybe they cling to vague hope that they could be returned to their former shape even after becoming a monster once their dominion is spread across the realms.
On other hand, they also must have realised they had no other options if they refused to fight here as well. What could they even go? One of them tightened their grasp on the weapon, followed by the second demon, then third, then fourth... and soon, the embers of motivation had re-ignited within them.
«That was one hell of a charade. But anyway, one thing is correct. Our turning point is just around us.»
The two-legged and four armed beetle shaped demon—Virdiga step forward as the sickle in his biggest arm gleamed with an ominous shine, preparing for the combat.
(It's not going to be easy with that eyeball thing around. I see, so this is what he means when he said they don't need much force to deal with us.)
"W-what's our plan, Allen-sama?"
«Enemies can revive themselves. Formar and Luck, your role is to protect the integrity of formation. I and Leon will hold the frontline.»
At the verge of battle, Allen passed his instruction via Bird F's skill while having Kuwataro use his two eyes—the other two eyes were keeping an eye on the other demons via «Tracking Sight»—to cast «Appraisal Gaze».
——————————————————————————————
Name: Mara
Age: 187200
Race: Fiend King
Strength: 284050 + 50000
Attack: 195000
Magic Attack: 338000 + 100000
Endurance: 224250 + 50000
Agility: 221000 + 50000
Intelligence: 338000 + 150000
Luck: 156000
Elements: Nil, -50% Offensive Spell Cast Duration, -50% Cooldown, +50% Spell Damage
Resistance: Nil, Spell Resistance (Strong), Dodge Chance (Strong), Abnormal Status Resistance (Strong0
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
Name: Virdiga
Age: 1289995
Race: Fiend King
Strength: 299000
Attack: 273000
Magic Attack: 247000
Endurance: 388700
Agility: 338000
Intelligence: 221000
Luck: 195000
Elements: Nil, +50% Critical Rate
Resistance: Physical Resistance (Extreme), Breath Resistance (Strong), Spell Resistance (Strong)
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
Name: Scree
Age: 105
Race: Ultimate Demon-Construct Weapon
Strength: 239200
Attack: 169000
Magic Attack: 143000
Age: 8200
Race: Archdemon Incarnation (Supreme Demon-Construct)
Strength: 89700
Attack: 67600
Magic Attack: 104000
Endurance: 74750
Agility: 91000
Intelligence: 104000
Luck: 39000
Elements: Nil, -30% Offensive Spell Cast Duration, -30% Cooldown
Resistance: Nik, Spell Resistance (Mid)
——————————————————————————————
——————————————————————————————
Name: Grilmore
Age: 450
Race: Archdemon Incarnation (Supreme Demon-Construct)
Strength: 56810
Attack: 45500
Magic Attack: 54600
Endurance: 47840
Agility: 49400
Intelligence: 58500
Luck: 15600
Elements: Nil, -30% Offensive Spell Cast Duration, -30% Cooldown
Resistance: Nik, Spell Resistance (Mid)
——————————————————————————————
[Shared Buffs and Resistances]:
Offense Buffs: +30% physical attack, +30% critical hit rate, +20% Spell Casting Time, -30% cooldown, -30% Aria Casting Time
Resistances: Spell Resistance (Strong), Breath Resistance (Strong), Strength recovery 100/sec, Mana recovery: 100/sec
Since the persuasion had failed, Allen quickly shifted the stance to battle the Demon King Army.
«That eyeball is the main opponent. We need to defeat it first or we will be locked into a never ending loop of battle!!»
(Virdiga is clearly above Andrey in strength, so we will have to leave him for later!)
Now, the mainstay in their battle was who to prioritise and with whom they shouldn't engage too much. It was helpful that the eyeball monster lacked any resistance against breath attack too.
«Gotcha. Extreme Flame!»
«Scree!?»
«Hehe, I know you will choose that.»
Surprised to be suddenly at the brunt of someone's attack, Scree curled the tentacle around to protect itself, turning into a ball. Virdiga was expecting their opponent to target their weak link first, and plunged himself between them promptly.
The huge mass of flames slammed against Virdiga, and while it left a slightly burnt mark on his robust carapace, the special technique never made it to Scree.
Still, the superheated blast incinerated a dozen demons in the front line, buffed or not. They collapsed, charred husks before they hit the ground.
«Scree, sweetheart... Wake them all up for me.»
«Scree!!»
Realising the breath attack was completely blocked, Scree opened its eyes wide, illuminating the area around with an eerie radiance. The charred remains of the demons wriggled and returned to their former state within a blink of an eye as they rose up.
(Oh man, so it can raise 10 zombies at once? Then an area wide attack wouldn't cut in. We will have to somehow outpace its resurrection ability. But it would not be so easy, eh. We would have to at least reduce them to dust to prevent it seems.)
Allen pieces together his plan inwardly as he picks more details on their opponent.
«Mara. Recovery.»
«Evil Energy Rain!»
With Mara at its epicentre, jet black droplets started to rain down.
«Take your position, everyone. We are going to face strong breath attacks, so make sure you keep recovery and breath resistance up all time.»
«Understood!!»
«Graargh!!»
As the Virdiga took the command, the zombi-fied demons immediately pace themselves to create a formation, splitting themselves into vanguard, midguard, rearguard, supports et cetera.
(It's obvious which role they have from their equipment.)
Whenever Kuwataro wasn't using appraisal gaze, Allen would have him use «Thousand Mile Gaze» for the duration.
[Demon King Army's Formation - Space-Time God & Magic God Arc]
Commander - Mara, Virdiga
Archdemons - 15 vanguard, 15 midguard, 10 rearguard, 10 healers (50 all around)
Demons - 30 vanguard, 10 midguard, 5 rearguard, 5 healers (50 all around)
Extras - Shinonom, Scree
(A defensive-heavy formation... I wonder how long it would take for Space-Time God's arm to be healed.)
«Space-Time God. Would it be possible for you to keep the enemies isolated, and provide suppressive ranged fire?»
«O-of course. There's no way I would let them rampage around when Isiris is still here and do nothing.»
Space-Time God had yet to recover from damage inflicted by Supreme Commander Ordo. But given the situation, Allen enlisted his help as they couldn't afford to not use any of their cards.
«Aww man, this is going to be really exhausting, isn't it?»
«Sophia, and Tonis. I would like you to focus on recovery and cover fire. Use fire magic.»
«Understood. Leave this task to me.»
“Hey, Kaka! Burn 'em all down!!”
“Got it! Oryaaaa!!”
Tonis, the great spirit of water, had also been stupefied at the sight of Zombie-esque demons.
Allen left the management of great spirits and spirits to Sophia and Luck. With her skill strengthening, Sophia could now summon four spirits in tandem with four great spirits.
Receiving the command, Kaka, the great spirit of fire in bikini armor, enthusiastically plunged into the ranks of the enemy.
«RAAAAHHHHH!!»
«Too slow!! Take this!!»
«Gah!?»
She slipped past the swing of a demon wielding a massive axe and drove a blazing punch into his gut. But even after taking the hit, the demon didn’t go down. Instead, he dropped his weapon—and lunged at Kaka, grappling her.
«What the hell? Are you trying to hug me?! I will burn you to ashes!!»
«GYAAARRRGHHHH!?»
Kaka engulfed herself into a giant pillar of fire in retaliation, burning the demon.
"Wai—arg, my m-mana is..."
Luck felt dizziness assaulting him as his spirit consumed all the mana he had conferred following their contract.
«Hey, Kaka! You're using too much of Luck's mana!!»
«Ohh, my bad. But you see, this atleast reduced one to mere charcoal.»
*Tumble*
Kaka said, pointing at the fossilised body of the demon, and this time, Scree didn't appear in intent to revive it.
(Oh, great. So it indeed can't revive them if they're completely burnt up huh.)
«Fufu, splending. It stands to reason why you're the biggest eyesore of our plan, Allen-san. Everyone, be careful, alright. A mistake would mean forfeiting your dream to step into the glorious world ruled by the demons.»
The Fiend King Mara inspired the demons, guiding them to target Allen.
And thus, the curtain rises on the Allen Party versus Demon King Army battle.