Attack Operation (4)

And so Cellas began her attack. Two actions per turn, after all.

"Divine Art - Gungnir!"

Zgaan!

… Whoa… in one strike, more than double the earlier amount. That meant she wiped out 90% of Vivia's remaining HP.

"H-higi… a… aaa…"

Vivia was being blown around.

"… Now then, more? Wouldn't it be better to surrender?"

"… Ha, haha… hahaha! N-not yet, not yet! I… I haven't lost yet!"

Oh, fired up. But the rough-guy "I" speech dropping out was a sign of waning confidence.

Then…

"Divine Art - Gungnir!"

One more shot, and the HP was wiped out. With that…

"Ahahahaha!"

Zgaan!

In that instant, Vivia stood up with HP fully restored.

"Ahahahaha! Behold this regenerative power! Indomitable Vivia, that's me! Now, despair!

Destruction, I'll wreak destruction, ahahahaha!"

… Somehow she was wringing out one last show of false bravado. Painful to watch.

"Looks like there's a second helping. Cellas."

"Got it. Divine Art - Gungnir!"

Dogoon, dogoon, dogoon…

"Wa-wait a minute, how many, how many attacks are you…?"

"Hmm… Speed 8x is no longer in doubt, so 4 attacks.

Plus Gungnir's a 2-hit, so 8 attacks. On the next turn it'd be 16 attacks from her alone.

But thanks to Yumi's Earth's Resonance, on this turn it's still 16 attacks. Next turn would be 32 attacks.

It seems your HP gets blown away in 4 attacks. I can kill you 4 times in one turn, but…

So how many times can you get back up?"

"…3 times. 2 more times. I'm sorry, don't kill me… I surrender."

Vivia prostrated herself in dogeza, and the battle ended.

"… W-what… I never thought I'd see a Demon General forced into submission without being killed…"

Himeno was astonished.

"So that means the conditions for recruiting a Demon God or Demon General have been met, right?"

"That's correct. Capture them alive, then conclude a contract and they can join as a Garumon.

Afterwards they can be treated as a normal Garumon."

So Lyuka informed me.

"All right… so Vivia, will you become my companion?"

I asked, but what would I do if she said no.

Would I forcibly make her a companion even then?

But in this severe attack operation, I couldn't afford to let her go.

… That meant… killing her? Eeeh…? That's… I don't want to.

Killing a girl this cute would be… a loss to the world. Absolutely don't want to.

But everyone else was fighting a hard battle… Could I afford to be that soft?

If it was for victory, I had to become a demon… I was agonizing, but…

"… Y-yes, I will. To Akai Naoto-sama… to my Goshujin-sama, I shall serve."

She told me.

"Good… then, the contract."

I tipped her face up… and kissed her on her adorable lips.

… Eh, strong! Isn't she crazy strong!? Surprised. She really was quite strong.

Seen this way, strong was strong. No, really strong.

"… Maybe when she was an enemy, she could use Demon General Awakening from turn 1, with HP 20x?"

It's the game cliché where bosses are strong but become weaker as allies.

"… Y-yes, that's right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being weakened…"

Vivia shrank down.

"Ah, no, getting weakened on becoming a companion is the cliché, so don't worry about that.

… But put the other way, are you sure you don't get weakened more? Demon-Blood Frenzy is still intact. Element-nullify, 4x fixed, piercing…

… That feels a bit too strong…"

Well worth waiting 3 turns.

Frenzy was a demerit trait, but… it wasn't much of a demerit. The only problem was when the opponent had a counter.

Eh, was it really okay to make her a companion? Would an errata come later?

"E-ehehe… am I strong? Ehehe…"

Praised, Vivia smiled bashfully.

… Cute.

"What happened to the rough-guy 'I' from earlier? Which is the real one?"

"Oh, t-the rough-guy 'I' — Miria-chan suggested I do it that way so I wouldn't get looked down on… I-I tried my best.

T-this is my real self… If you prefer the rough-guy 'I'… t-then I'll try my best."

"No, don't force it. Be natural.

The part where you put in effort to look strong is cute, but natural is best."

When I said that, Vivia looked happy.

"Now then, Vivia. The Magical Beasts attacking us so fiercely — could you make them withdraw?"

"T-that's impossible… I'm no longer their ally…"

So that was how it was. Things didn't go so conveniently…

"Plus, Miria-chan would scold me…"

Hm, Miria?

"… Miria, you say — a Demon General comrade?"

"Y-yes! Miria-chan is my friend, my sister… a girl like an older sister to me! Miria-chan is my onee-chan!"

"This attack…"

"Y-yes. Miria-chan noticed humans coming to attack… and said let's take out the annoying humans together…"

…! So it had been an attack by two Demon Generals.

"… Ah, aah!"

At that moment, Himeno cried out.

"What is it, Himeno?"

Could it be…

"Aah… w-we're already too late… s-sorry…"

"!? Himeno, calm down.

… What's coming?"

"P-probably… a Demon General… The presence is faint… My mother could have foreseen it… I-I'm sorry… we're too late…"

Himeno shrank down dejectedly.

"Where!?"

At that moment, a transmission came over my ear.

"This is Fort 7! We've come under attack! Seika is…!"

Leone's pained cry reached my ears.

"T-this is bad… Seika's in danger!"

"Lyuka, Sawako, Lizalind, Vivia, Himeno! Come with me as is.

Yumi, Cellas, Mira, please continue defending Fort 3!"

I leapt onto Lizalind's back.

"Lizalind! Full speed to the gate!"

"Y-yes!"

Everyone dashed at once. Seika, please be safe…!

… I think we reached Fort 7 in about 3 minutes.

But…

"Whoa…"

A wretched sight. The fort had collapsed in places.

But the central orb at the heart was barely safe.

And…

"Seika, Setsuna, Leone!"

The three were deeply damaged…

And Seika in particular was incapacitated.

"… S-sorry. But somehow we held the fort…"

"Seika, don't say that… No, you did so well. Truly, thank you."

To be blunt, even if Fort 7 collapsed, we didn't need to rebuild the castle wall, so the impact would be minimal.

We could have just moved to a different fort.

… That's what I thought in the back of my head, but I had enough delicacy not to say such a thing to a wounded Seika.

Seika had fulfilled her mission of defending this fort.

… Maybe it was because I set a weird flag. I'm sorry…

"… I'm sorry. I…"

"No, just rest. Take it slow.

… But, at least tell me what happened."

"I'll explain. I'm sorry… for not being able to protect Seika."

Leone and Setsuna spoke up with regretful expressions.

"Leone, Setsuna… so you two are safe."

"Yes, we're fine. Because Seika protected us…"

"In any case, the Magical Beast attacks started coming in scattered, wavelike strikes, so we were forced to fight scattered ourselves.

Receiving Seika and Setsuna's buffs, I was running around the battlefield…"

"I was using Underworld Requiem to thin enemies whenever I got the chance.

… And so Seika stayed back at the fort to defend…

Suddenly, a strong magic attack came in a straight line from a distance toward the fort.

Since we were scattered… if Seika hadn't blocked the follow-up continuous attacks, the fort would have collapsed completely, I think.

The attacker confirmed they'd inflicted some level of damage and… withdrew without pressing further."

So Leone reported.

"Ranged attack, huh… Garumon attacks basically don't reach that far, do they?"

"Not necessarily. Ranged attacks of several km exist. A Demon General would surely possess powerful attacks at about that range."

Lyuka added.

"… Vivia, is this Miria's doing?"

"… I'm sorry. Without a doubt… yes."

So Vivia informed me. I'd thought she might balk at selling out a friend, but she was completely obedient.

But even I'd rather not ask her to sell info on a companion she called onee-chan…

We couldn't pick and choose here, though.

If she was cooperative, I wanted to draw out as much info as I could.

"I see… so long as we have to defend the forts, going for them via long-range sniping is the enemy's optimal play."

"… Yes. If we're fully braced and waiting, even if hit by an out-of-battle preemptive strike, we can deploy a battle field and defend.

… But if caught off-guard, we'd eat one hit… and at worst the fort could collapse."

"… The opponent was one step ahead… if she pulls back, we can't search for where she is."

"This is why we used the White Wave attraction strategy, since searching enemy territory to hunt Magical Beasts is difficult.

If she hides, finding her is hard… In the end, we can only wait.

From here on we have no choice but to plaster ourselves to the forts and tighten our guard.

Even if Demon Generals remain, if defense holds for one week, human-realm rule is established and the attack operation succeeds.

If they get stranded in our territory, the Demon Generals become free Garumon, ripe for capturing.

Attacks from outside the territory allow them to withdraw if they get unfavorable, but inside the territory they can't escape.

The other side must be desperate too.

They have to attack within the week, so we can catch them then, but…

Since they've slipped inside the country, we don't know which fort will be attacked."

"Eh, but if she's near Fort 7, isn't her range of movement limited?"

"No, teleportation outside the territory is impossible, but inside it's possible.

… But not many times. At most about once a day.

Still, that doesn't change the fact that we don't know where she'll attack next."

So Lyuka explained.

She'd been deferring to Ursula until now, but in fact she was knowledgeable about attack operations.

"So she can teleport…

The forts emitting a weak pulse really don't need to worry about attack?"

"That's because forts with a weak pulse have the Recognition Obstruction magic active against the Demon Race. So they can't be targeted.

Rest easy on that point.

You only have to protect the 9 forts emitting strong pulses."

"… I see. Anyway, all we can do is tighten our watch from here on…"

We had to fend off the Magical Beast attacks while also bracing for Demon General attacks.

It was going to be busy…

"Seika, with this you can't take part in the rest of this attack operation, can you…"

"… Yes, that's right. Keeping the fort from being broken is important, but not getting Garumon incapacitated is also crucial.

If she stays in the combat zone, she can't recover during the week the contest is decided.

… Sending her home would be best. It's one-way only, but it's possible to send someone outside the territory."

"… Yeah. Truly, thank you, Seika. The rest… watch over us. As we win properly.

… When I come home, I'll keep our promise."

I kissed Seika.

… And she went home.

A regretful retirement.

"Lyuka, Sawako, Lizalind. Continue defending Fort 7.

Leone, Setsuna, come with me. Himeno and Vivia too.

Until the Demon General appears again, let's keep defending the forts."

I had to check the battle situation.

"Whoa, lots of knights wounded too…!"

Knight incapacitations meant the defensive line couldn't be maintained, so the Demon Race got plastered onto the forts, apparently.

Nowhere was defense complete, and lines were being broken through.

Reida-san was hurriedly directing the whole field from the strategy room.

"Whoa… I-I'm sorry, Reida-san… my failings caused…"

"N-no. I should be the one apologizing… the knights are doing their best, but they are C-Class… they cannot stably win against Magical Beasts."

"Is the knight order's casualty rescue okay? Are there any wounded…?"

"It's all right. We pull them back as soon as they're incapacitated, so for now there are no injured."

"That's good."

I re-examined the battle situation.

"In any case, 3 and 7 took damage from the Demon General's attack. Particularly tough are 1 and 6.

… Leone, go to Fort 6 as reinforcement. Setsuna, go to Fort 1."

"Got it."

"Mn."

To think that the two I particularly relied on, Ursula and Suzanne, were taking especially heavy damage.

Conversely, that meant our deployment balance was good.

If other members had been defending 1 or 6, more damage would've come out.

"8 and 9 are stable, so can you redistribute some of the knight order personnel to 3, 6, and 7?"

"Understood."

Reida-san issued the orders.

"Ursula, Suzanne, are you all right? I don't doubt your strength… The offensive is severe, huh."

"… Mn… I am sorry for being inadequate. Setsuna's reinforcement is a help.

There are many Magical Beasts over LV 100 coming here.

It's not that I cannot defeat them, but it taketh time. In the meantime the fort gets attacked.

… I'm on the back foot."

"It's the same with me. Even with my Testament, powerful Magical Beasts unkillable in one strike are pushing in waves…

I've been broken through several times. My apologies.

Sorry to the knights. Leone's reinforcement is welcome."

Ursula and Suzanne, both calm with flawless commands. Yet damage was coming out.

… The enemy's military force was simply tremendous.

Suzanne's side seemed to be regaining balance, but Ursula's was still rough.

Maybe it'd be better to switch Fort 1's defense over to Melvis?

Just as Kishilia was firmly defending Fort 8 against a similarly intense assault, Melvis was probably better suited to fights against many Magical Beasts.

"All right, let's swap Fort 1's defense with Melvis.

Fort 9 is close to Fort 7, and there's a high chance Miria will attack it.

So I want Ursula to defend Fort 9."

"Fufu, no need for such consideration. Understood."

It wasn't consideration, though…

"Right, while Setsuna, Libera, and Luna hold, Ursula and Melvis switch.

Once Melvis has her forces deployed, Libera and Luna move too. Setsuna, put buffs on Melvis before moving."

"Yes!"

"… How shameful. This was supposed to be a battle I prepared for. But there's a peace of mind in thy commanding. Things will be all right.

Understood. Let us move."

Per my orders, Ursula and Melvis switched.

Then I had Reida-san reorganize the knight order.

With this, we'd somehow hold on.

The sun was about to set. Then we'd have a breather.

… So I thought.

… But the Magical Beasts continued to attack intermittently even at night, piling even more burden on us.

"Again…! Kanan, Maika!

… This is rough. They want to keep us awake?

Magical Beasts sleep at night, so they don't attack then, right?"

"Originally, yes… But that's when a Demon General isn't commanding.

When a Demon General commands, if needed they force the Magical Beasts.

The attack operation failure rate when a Demon General appears exceeds 70%.

But Demon General is mostly name-only, with most being purely combat-power-driven brutes.

A Demon General continuing to take optimal tactics like this is something I'm encountering for the first time.

… It might be better to reference the failure rate when a Demon God appears."

"What's the failure rate when a Demon God appears?"

"100%."

"… I see. So this is rough."

To think we were still only on day 2. Were we really going to be all right…?

"If it gets even rougher, I'll have Vivia fight too."

"Y-yes. I'll do my best, Goshujin-sama!"

Reliable Vivia had become a companion, so we'd manage.

… If we could take down the remaining Demon General… Miria.

It seemed uneasy days would continue.