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The fight thus began.

The [Tree] Demon Lord’s forces rushed into my dungeon all at once.

In a [War] between Demon Lords, the first side to break the other’s crystal was the victor, so every second counts.

…however, if felt like the [Tree] Demon Lord’s army was too straightforward in their charge.

Maybe it’s because the Demon Lords of his world aren’t used to [War]?

 

The Creator had said that this world was a failed work. It wasn’t then a stretch to assume he lost interest in such a failed work and not sparing it any of his time.

Due to [Wars] being extremely risky endeavors, Demon Lords would rarely do it on their own. So, without any pressure from the Creator, it was understandable if the Demon Lords of this world had little experience in [Wars].

In contrast, even though I was a rather young Demon Lord, I was already a veteran at [War] because the Creator relentlessly amused himself at my expense.

 

“Rorono, go strike the first blow.”

“Mhm. I’ll give them a taste of our best and use the Purple and the Scarlet Knights.”

 

Among the golems that Rorono made, there were those with high-grade capabilities. These were called Avalon-Ritters.

And of those Avalon-Ritters, 12 models were made without any regard to cost-to-performance ratios or function outside of their area of expertise. But what those 12 could do, they did extremely well. Rorono had chosen to call these 12 models the [Knights of the Round Table].

For example, the Red Knight uses its heavy armor and propulsive power to charge close into enemies and release its high-firepower attack.

Another example was the White Knight which functioned as an ultralight, ultraprecise aerial bomber.

Another example was the Black Knight which stood out for its maneuverability, adaptability, and its highly intelligent artificial brain that allowed it to act as the Knights’ leader.

 

“Go, Atomic Scarlet!”

 

At Rorono’s command, the scarlet Knight of the Round Table booted itself up.

Compared to most Avalon-Ritters, this one had a thicker body yet smaller height. More noteworthy though was the thing attached to its back: a missile that was just as big as it was.

 

The Scarlet Knight’s area of expertise was mass destruction.

It possessed the ability to release large amounts of magic power at once. Its magic circuits were also capable of enduring and controlling such bursts of magic power. So much so that almost no magic power was wasted.

Its large build and heavy armor was less for enduring the enemies’ attacks and more for enduring its own attacks’ aftereffects. In exchange for that though, its mobility was horrible, its close-quarters combat was nonexistent, and its overall abilities were inferior even to regular Avalon-Ritters. Not that any of that mattered when it could take down a whole host of enemies with one attack.

I certainly couldn’t complain.

Still, in order to make it work, another thing was needed.

 

“Master, I’ve received the data from Purple. The enemies are indeed employing a by-the-book strategy.”

“I see. The [Tree] Demon Lord really is too straightforward.”

 

The by-the-book strategy in this case was the deployment of a great number of their forces in a vast and totally open dungeon room.

Such a vast and open space was favorable for the numerically superior side, so I could see why he would choose to use this. However, I had seen such a strategy countless times before, so naturally, I had knowledge on how to deal with it.

 

“Rorono, how long ‘til you’ve finished analyzing the data?”

“About…20 seconds. …mhm, it’s confirmed: there are no monsters that have absorption or reflection abilities. Scarlet’s attack will demolish the enemies. I’m calling back Purple now.”

 

In response to Rorono’s command, something purple slowly materialized in a place that was empty just moments ago.

This was another Knight of the Round Table. It was a slim humanoid golem with smooth surfaces.

It was assigned the name Invisible Violet.

Its specialty was in stealth and information gathering.

It emitted no heat, scent, or even magic power; moved silently; and blocked off visible light from hitting itself. Even against monsters specializing in presence perception, this golem could go undetected.

On top of all that, it was equipped with all sorts of sensors. It could tell what kinds of monsters there were and even analyze their stats and skills.  This information was then sent to Rorono and, through my connection with her, to me as well. The enemies might as well be stark naked against us.

 

Unleashing an ultra-wide-range attack on such a great number of enemies would be a good move, but we still needed to be careful. If we make even one mistake, it could be us that were in danger.

If the worst we had to deal with were monsters with skills that could nullify physical and magical damage, we would still go ahead with the attack. It wasn’t like all of them would have such skills, so as long as we could take down the others, the attack would be a success already.

Our real concern was whether there were those that could reflect back the damage. In order to proceed with the wide-range attack safely, we needed to make sure our attack wouldn’t backfire on us first. Hence, why Violet was deployed.

 

Having received and analyzed the data, Rorono then issued a command to the nearby Atomic Scarlet.

 

“Atomic Scarlet, use your fire element to eliminate the enemies. …ready Atomic Buster Fire Mode.”

 

The scarlet knight then shined brightly. To the point it was blinding.

To an ordinary Avalon-Ritter, this would be what we called [Burst Drive].

By making their twin-drive golem cores operate at maximum capacity, Avalon-Ritters could increase their magic power output several times over. So much so that they could rival the output of even an S rank monster.

The scarlet knight was different from an ordinary Avalon-Ritters in a lot of ways, but one of those was that instead of having two golem cores, it had three. Obviously, ordinary magic circuits would burn out right away with such a load, thus necessitating them to have more durable magic circuits.

However, more durable magic circuits had its own downsides. It was heavier than normal magic circuits; it was physically larger, so it interfered with joint movements; its size also limited the options for the unit’s design; it also limited it to only one preloaded magic spell.

Even with all those downsides though, its one attack made it worth the effort.

 

“Every time I see Scarlet, I can’t help but be at awe at its power.”

“Mhm, I’m quite proud of it. However, because it’s a masterpiece with only destruction as its goal, it has many weaknesses, which the other children can make up for.”

 

All of the Atomic Scarlet’s enormous magic power were diverted to the large missile on its back. Such an act would increase the total damage the missile would do.

The missile was called the Atomic Buster. And it was the fusion of science and magic.

As for the magic spell the Atomic Scarlet was preloaded with, it was [Charge]. Using the spell, the Atomic Scarlet could change the element of its attack. The choices it had were: fire, water, darkness, light, and null.

Right now, it was using fire because according to the data the purple knight gathered, most of the [Tree] Demon Lord’s monsters were weak to it.

 

A few moments later, the Atomic Scarlet gave off a high-pitched sound. That meant that it had finished using [Charge].

 

“Master, your command?”

“Okay. Atomic Scarlet, attack!”

 

In response to my command, a mechanical sound came from the Atomic Scarlet. It then proceeded to enter the enemy dungeon.

 

“Master, would you like to watch the Atomic Scarlet in action?”

“Yeah, please.”

 

We could watch simply by entering the dungeon alongside the scarlet knight, but then, because the [Tree] Demon Lord’s first dungeon room was only about 90,000 square meters, we would also get caught in the attack.

Thankfully, had prepared for this beforehand. After operating a device she held, it projected images into the air before us.

Now, [Tree] Demon Lord, how will you respond to my first move? Will you be at your wit’s end already or will you be able turn it around?

 

◇

 

The moment the scarlet knight entered the dungeon room, the monsters waiting there pounced on it.

Druid-type monsters fired off wooden arrows as well as magic attacks, while trees with human faces used their ability to control plants to move the trees around the scarlet knight and attack it.

Several others used earth magic to rain down rocks and metallic spears toward the lone golem.

Despite all that, the scarlet knight had nothing to worry about. It was designed to withstand the aftereffects of its own attacks, so these attacks should be light in comparison. That was not to say that the scarlet knight was being careless. After all, even though it had finished using [Charge], it still continued still using its [Burst Drive] so that it could divert the extra magic power into its armor, thus increasing its defense.

 

And now, it was the scarlet knight’s turn.

The scarlet knight fired off the Atomic Buster. The missile rose and rose until it almost touched the ceiling. Afterwards, it began its descent toward the middle of the enemies.

In response, [Tree]’s monsters deployed anti-magic barriers. Gathering such number of monsters ran the risk of being attack by wide-range magic spells, but it would seem that not only have they recognized such a threat, they also prepared countermeasures.

However, even though it might seem like a magical attack because of the vast amount of magic power within the missile, it was at present still a missile, a weapon. Their barriers would be of little help.

And so, the Atomic Buster continued its descent. Given its momentum, it was no surprise it broke through the barriers as though the latter was nothing but glass. And then, it hit the ground.

 

For one short moment, the enemy monsters who saw the half-buried missile looked relieved. They might have thought that they somehow stopped it from doing whatever it was supposed to do.

Oh, how wrong they are.

The magic power contained within the missile swelled and swelled until its threshold. Soon after, a scorching light swallowed everything.

There were monsters who had defensive skills and magic, but their efforts meant nothing before the scorching light. It was simply too powerful. Whatever they could do, it would be much like pouring water on the burning sun.

 

The basis of the Atomic Buster was a small nuclear missile.

Yes, the strongest weapon in history, the tabooed invention, the thing every nation coveted.

That said, the Atomic Buster was more than that. The aforementioned [Charge] added a magical component to it. In order to make the attack both have a magical component and physical component to it, we purposely limited the magical component to only 30%. 

The reason we decided to mix the damage types instead of fully committing one or way or the other was so that we could take down as many monsters as we could. There were monsters that could nullify physical damage or magic damage, but it was extremely rare for a monster to be able to nullify both.

Case in point, the scarlet knight was the only one left standing when the explosion subsided.

 

“…as strong as always.”

“Mhm, nuclear attacks really are strong.”

 

When Rorono first announced that she was going to make a nuclear missile, I thought it was overkill. Soon enough, I realized how much we needed it. Honestly, we might have lost some of the fights we had since then if we didn’t have it.

So now, whenever the situation calls for it, we use it.

 

“How many Atomic Busters do we have?”

“Two. We’ll have no problem in using the next one, but I fear the Scarlet wouldn’t be able to withstand a third use.”

 

She then showed me data about the Atomic Scarlet’s present condition.

According to the report, even after enhancing its defense using the magic power from its triple-golem-core [Burst Drive], the Atomic Scarlet’s heavy armor was still destroyed. Some of its internal parts was also damaged.

This was all within expectations though. The assumption has always been that the armor would have to be changed after every instance of use of the Atomic Buster.

As for the damage to the internal parts, it was quite heavy but repairable. The power generator and the magic circuits were safe enough, but another use of the Atomic Buster would surely cause damage it. And the third use would surely break it beyond repair.

We got to make the last Atomic Buster count.

 

“Alright, let’s go.”

 

The large number of enemy monsters gone, the way was clear.

Moreover, because of our attack, the [Tree] Demon Lord should be at least hesitant about deploying a large war force all in one place again. We might only have one use of the Atomic Buster left, but for all he knows, we could use it an infinite number of times.

In other words, his numbers advantage should be lessened if not completely eliminated. Sure, it could be argued that using a trump card this early was rather wasteful, but if it was for deterring the opponent from using their numbers, it was worth it.

And if it was a fight between small armies, it was impossible for my [Monsters of the Covenant] as well as most of the Knights of the Round Table to lose.

 

I had fought against numerically better armies many times and this was one of the approaches I developed to deal with them.

 

“The next one’s Kuina’s turn!”

“Kuina-chan, don’t forget our strategy now. Your role is to deal with the enemy’s ace, so conserve your strength.”

“Uuuuu. What a bummer.”

“I and my Knights will be more than enough for the small fries. Let’s proceed.”

 

Rorono said so and took the lead along with her Knights.

Her Knights were the main stars right now, so the proud expression she had was understandable.

This was just two of her 12 Knights. Each one was capable of outrageous things, so there was a chance her Knights alone could break the enemy’s crystal this time.

 

Which reminds, I wonder how our defense is going…

Ciel was there, so I was confident they would manage.

That girl was the pupil of everyone in Avalon. Just the tactics she had gained from Duke was enough to put me at ease.

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