The Victory Ceremony ended without a hitch.
All in all, a success I’d say.
The troops that invaded Tempest were all taken care of, but there were still the Aircrafts coming in from the north by the sea ―― or rather, air ―― route.
I’ve already contacted Ruminas and Hinata.
“Hmph! I’ll just turn the tables on them!”
Ruminas had declared.
But the Council and the Holy City Ruberius were in a cooperation pact with us.
In other words, Ruberius, being on the western edge, was the best place to position those troops.
Hinata, who was head of the Committee, and Ruminas didn’t show that much hostility towards each other, and in fact, the latter was probably helping out in earnest.
Ruminas may just want to be of help to Hinata, but her reasons didn’t matter.
After contacting Hinata, I sent the reserve troops, who had come as out reinforcement back, to Ingracia.
They would be swiftly deployed to Ruberius as support in case Ruminas was in a pinch.
Soon enough, the majority of travelers would also flow through Tempest, but at present, Ingracia held that role.
Around a third of the soldiers and adventurers, rather than returning to Ingracia, had opted to lodge in the kingdom of Brumund and surrounding towns to see how things would play out.
They were wise to observe the situation.
Though, if we could expect 300 Aircrafts coming fully equipped, that would mean around 100,000 troops.
Consulting with Calgurio, Aircrafts ―― or rather Airships, he insisted ―― could each carry 400 troops.
The transport of the Beast Corps was left to an individual called Major General Xam’d.
“In all likelihood, the remaining of the Aerial Fighter Legion members would likely be scientist.
Therefore, including some extras, the ships should have around 100 Mages each.
In total, 90,000 was the likely number of troops approaching.
Also, Xam’d wouldn’t put the scientists on the frontlines.”
That was what Calgurio predicted.
Well, the prediction was probably right.
And there would probably be a number of repairmen.
100,000 will be a piece of cake, Ruminas boasted.
The Blood Knights were the strongest of the Vampire Knights who were all A ranked themselves; They were an Elite Knight force.
Vampires, similar to Demons, gained higher levels of strength with increasing classes of Aristocracy.
Having 700 troops that broke though the ceiling of power known as A rank was, in itself, a great combat force.
These were apparently human Paladins who had evolved.
Paladins were fostered in the Holy City of Ruberius, and then deployed in combat by the Western Saints Church.
When humans evolved, they became Sages.
The highest Aristocratic class of Vampires had combat strength comparable to the old Demon Lords, and Ruminas had a decent amount of them too.
Well, just in case, I opened up a transfer gate and sent her the Holy Knights, led by Arnaud, who were residing in Tempest, as support.
He had gone to take Apito’s abuse again and again, so much that one would worry if he went and developed any weird fetishes……
His swordsmanship already being good enough to hold its own against Arc Demons, ascending would take him to Albert levels of strength.
By the way, as for Albert himself.
The method was different, but basically, he got powers comparable to a Sage.
Along with Adalman, and under the effects of Holy-Demonic Reversal, they could ascend from Sage to Saint-class and attain Sacred Power…… to be honest, it was a rather non-standard power up.
His thousand-year training had resulted in extreme specialization in a single art.
Like that, I received a confident reply from Ruminas, and didn’t worry too much about the matter of support.
The other side weren’t done yet, and here we were relaxing, but there was no need to think about ‘what ifs’.
Now, it was the time for each of them to work on truly getting a hold of their new powers.
“Kuhahahaha! I’m glad it went well. I’ll head back to the control room now.”
“Yeah me too ~!”
Veldora and Ramiris went back to the control room with jolly faces.
It’s true that we’re at war now, but these guys just wanted to mess with the Large Screen to look for places they wanted to go play in.
It wasn’t much of a problem, so I made it so that anyone could easily use it.
Those two had recently been enjoying the scenery from different parts of the world using this magic.
They were carefully researching what places to go beforehand.
These two had been living for so long, yet hadn’t properly experienced the world. They were looking forward to it much more than I was.
Well, they’re having fun, so It’s all good.
“Okay. I’ll join you guys later.”
I said as I saw them off.
It’s because I feel responsible as their guardian.
It is certainly not me also wanting to have fun.
Veldora and Ramiris went back into the Labyrinth, and the Executives also went back after their salutations.
The ones in charge of domestic affairs like Rigrudo or Myourmilles started the cleanup. I was very grateful.
And he didn’t forget to put in a word about our planned yearly events, or about the specialty products of the Labyrinth.
As I gave them my words of appreciation, they all smiled broadly.
But then it happened.
“Alert. Detecting entity with high density Energy fast approaching. Arrival at this location in 3 seconds.”
Wisdom Lord Raphael issued an emergency alert.
Raphael’s presence detection range is around 20km.
It was coming at more than Mach 20, and it wasn’t possible to warn anyone verbally.
Just as I set up an Absolute Barrier with Covenant King Uriel, a single man descended following a shockwave.
What a guy. The destruction was not caused by any Skills or techniques; it was simply from the impact with his body.
This guy came in without using any law manipulations just because it was cumbersome.
Three to my knowledge.
Veldora was out.
I realized this later, but even the first time she came, she had tried her best to be careful.
She may seem like a tyrant, but she had a surprisingly kind side.
Sure enough, when the dust had settled, there stood the Demon Lord with blazing red hair.
A ruler in this world probably stronger than myself.
The scene was submerged in tension, and civilians like Rigrudo and Myourmilles were being evacuated by Souei’s Shadows.
I don’t wanna fight right now okay?
“Yo, it’s been a while, Rimuru. By the way, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What am I doing? What are YOU doing!?”
What can I say, Guy was just casually talking.
He just suddenly came over with no reason I know of.
“Mm? I see, you’re the type who cares for their underlings.
Well, sorry about that. And ―― Napalm Burst!”
As he said some words of apology, Guy suddenly shot out a Heat Explosion type magic.
Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera.
Unbelievably, the Demon Dukes who had strong resistance to magic could not defend against Guy’s attack.
Though I myself am also able to do it, casting this strong a magic without any incantations somehow didn’t sit well with me.
“Awawa. That’s surprising.
Are there still more of those in the Underworld, or are have they evolved here?
Demon Dukes are stronger than unawakened Demon Lords.
But the awakened Demon Lord presences I felt a while ago, what’s up with those?”
Ignoring the three, who lay on the ground having failed to defend against his magic, Guy spoke.
Is what I was thinking when,
“Solution. If connected to the Voice of the World, an instance awakening can be sensed form any location.”
I was reassured with Wisdom Lord Raphael-san’s words.
So that also meant that when someone attains an Ultimate Skill……
“Solution. It is possible. However, sensing may not be possible when in possession of multiple Ultimate Skills.”
I see.
I kind of wanted to be informed of these kinds of things, but it seems Wisdom Lord Raphael’s policy was to only answer when asked.
However, the type of power couldn’t be determined without collecting information about it or seeing it directly.
So if there was an Ultimate Skill already present, new ones would not be detected.
Which mean that, Guy hasn’t realized that I have multiple Ultimates?
“Solution. There is no cause for concern. Gluttony King Beelzebub has been put out as the only one, and the rest are being hidden.”
As expected of sensei.
Though I still can’t relax thinking he doesn’t know.
The previous conversation with Raphael only took an instant, and it was time to think about handling Guy.
Indeed, he had an abnormal amount of high density magic, and the arena had also been damaged.
They were probably thinking of me, and attacked without mercy.
The surprise attack of the three Demon Dukes, wasn’t even near the level of being a problem for Guy, the strongest Demon Lord.
That aside, it was the matter of magic.
What in the world do you have to do to cause magic damage to Demon Dukes?
“Solution. It is Effect Overlap. It seems that he is overlapping the effects of an Ultimate Skill with that of magic.”
Is that possible? It must be possible.
Well, if it’s possible, I want to try it.
Leaving that matter to Raphael-san, I needed to focus on answering Guys question.
“What’s going on? Well, even if you say that……
But, suddenly appearing like this, you share the blame too you know?
“Mm? Ah, yeah sorry about that.
Put in a bit too much power, and couldn’t stop. My bad!
Demons can’t help but fight.
Rather, I need you to explain the ascended ones over there okay?”
I could comfortably work with those conditions.
Or rather, I’m seriously glad, he didn’t come over to destroy me or something.
We didn’t have the option of immediate elimination with everyone. Now they were in Diablo’s care, probably already sitting in his severe lecturing course.
It would be a pain, if the lot of them wanted a fight too.
She had understood the different in power, and decided to at least act as a shield for me.
Anyway, Guy looks to not have any blatant enmity, so everyone should be more relaxed.
With that in mind, I went about guiding Guy to a guest room.