Attack Operation (7)

"… Ku, this is absurd… It seems I have no choice but to retreat…"

Moya…!

A black haze appeared, and Miria was trying to enter it.

Eh, she was supposed to be incapacitated, yet she was using magic to escape…?

Miria's form was slowly fading. It looked like it would take a while to fully vanish, but…

I couldn't let her get away. If I let Miria escape here, we'd be back to square one!

"Ursula, capture Miria!"

"It is no use! That is an escape teleport technique that Demon Generals and Demon Gods… high-rank Demon Race, can use.

"She had prepared it after all… Regrettable, but we cannot pin Miria down here.

"We have no choice but to give it up…"

"Eh, what do you mean? Her form's still visible, so if we pin her down…"

"This is something like a specification of Garumon Battle."

"A 'specification.'"

A business-y term had come out…

"The Demon Race wield mighty power, but when they fight us humans, they must fight within the Garumon Battle ruleset.

"When that happens, the power they can display gets suppressed to about 80%, sometimes as low as 50%.

"Advantageous for us, fine and good, but unbearable from the Demon Race's side.

"However, in exchange for accepting the demerit of fighting under such restrictions, the Demon Race side is granted several advantages.

"One of those is this escape teleport technique.

"They can flee whenever they please. Even after being incapacitated.

"Of course, prior preparation, like staging part of their power at a remote location, is required…

"A schemer, as expected. Even while looking like she had flown out in a fit of passion, she had not neglected the most prudent precautions.

"When this is invoked, it becomes the same state as the end of a Garumon Battle, where neither side can interfere. The human side cannot lay a hand on her.

"That is why, to defeat the Demon Race, one must either kill them outright, or subjugate them so overwhelmingly that they have no will to flee.

"We managed to defeat Miria once, but to truly subjugate her… perhaps our strength was insufficient…"

"No way…"

The classic game cliché where you finally beat a boss, only to have them somehow slip away… so even that was included…

This was no joke. We weren't playing a game. If I let her slip away here, there'd be no taking it back!

What did I think I went through that monstrous, inhuman method for!

If she got teleported somewhere far away again and reassembled her formation… if she recovered that "divided power"… wouldn't she even revive from incapacitation?

Could we put a finger on which fort Miria attacked next? Hard. Only a 1-in-9 wild guess.

Or maybe she'd be wary and never show herself again, just focusing on directing the Magical Beasts. That would be the worst.

At the current pace of Magical Beast assault alone, we couldn't hold out.

No good, at this rate… we'd lose. Was there no way? Something…!

"Miria-chan, no!"

Zubāan!

In that moment, a wave of magic power loosed by Vivia blew away the haze enveloping Miria.

Had Vivia done something to block it?

"… Eh!? Vivia, what are you doing!? That's your escape magic tool…! Why aren't you escaping with it, why are you obstructing me…!"

Dōnn!

Cutting off Miria's words, Vivia tackled her! Brought her down.

"L-let go, Vivia!"

"Goshujin-sama! Hurry and contract with Miria-chan! Quickly!"

Vivia pinned down the thrashing Miria.

"Eh, ah, mn!"

I didn't quite get what had happened, but there wasn't a moment to spare!

I hurriedly pounced on Miria and forcibly kissed her on those adorable lips!

"… Forcibly making you a companion, I'm really sorry… Once this attack operation ends, I'll release you once. I promise."

I bowed my head as I said it.

"… How dare you… brainwash Vivia this far…"

Miria was extremely sulky.

I forcibly kissed her, forcibly contracted with her.

… It was unwanted on my part too. Truly, I wanted to grow closer with her, have her wish wholeheartedly to be a companion, and recruit her that way.

Well, I understood that wasn't going to be possible.

By rights, we should have failed to make Miria a companion.

Thanks to Vivia obstructing her, we'd just barely managed to do it this way.

… A miscalculation on both sides, probably.

"Miria-chan! I'm so happy that we can serve Goshujin-sama together!"

Gyū, Vivia squeezed Miria in a hug.

But Vivia was innocent, and looked truly happy.

"… I see. Once an escape teleport activates, we cannot lay a hand on them.

"… However, the magic tool Vivia secretly held is of Demon Race make. Using its magic power, she could at least interfere with the teleport."

Ursula explained for me.

The logic of magic was beyond me, but I clearly understood that Vivia had saved us from our big pinch.

"… Vivia, truly, thank you."

I gently stroked Vivia's head, good girl, good girl.

This girl might actually be clever… Maybe with the smarter Miria always beside her, she'd stopped thinking for herself.

Separated from Miria, forced to think on her own, she came up with a play that betrayed Miria's predictions.

Though from Miria's perspective, it was outright betrayal…

"… Naoto… was it? Why have you not used psychic manipulation on me? Like Vivia, why not manipulate my heart so I come to love you?"

Miria said this angrily.

"Uh, I don't follow… psychic manipulation? No, nobody's doing anything like that."

"Liar! Then why does Vivia gladly obey you to such an extent! She'd even hinder me, her dearest friend! This is… impossible! In this Magical Beast territory, we two alone were the finest companions, trusting only each other! And you…"

Even if she said that…

Miria looked about to cry.

… I felt sorry for her.

"Miria-chan, I'm sorry.

"But Goshujin-sama is so kind, such a wonderful person…

"I just couldn't bear the thought of not having Miria-chan serve Goshujin-sama with me…

"If you spend a little time with Goshujin-sama, you'll understand right away too."

Vivia bowed her head, but stood by her conviction that what she'd done wasn't wrong.

"… Vivia. You're being deceived. I absolutely, absolutely, ab-so-lute-ly will not obey a human!"

Miria declared this firmly.

I'd set Miria's heart aside for now…

There still wasn't a moment to spare. The second party we hadn't ended up needing had to be rushed back!

"All right, Adelia to 5, Setsuna to 2, Luna hurry back to 8!

"Ursula, Vivia, Miria stay here.

"We've now cleared the biggest peak! From here it only gets easier! But we're still in the rugged peaks! Stay sharp, be careful!"

There was no time to take it easy. The attack operation continued.

Everyone deployed in a hurry.

… But the biggest peak having been cleared was exactly as I'd said.

That day's Magical Beast assault was harsh at first.

Because Miria, their leader, had become my Garumon, all command authority over the Magical Beasts was lost.

Which meant we couldn't even halt the Magical Beast assault.

Of course, Miria, who wasn't attached to me, would have defied the order even if I'd given it.

The Magical Beasts attacked each fort fiercely under Miria's last orders.

Against that, lacking Seika, Moruna, and Libera, we had to push back.

In terms of harshness, this might have been the worst of these 4 days.

Knights kept falling one after another. B-Class Masters, and damage reaching even A-Class Masters…

If this momentum had continued a few more hours, everything would have collapsed.

Fort 9 had been one where Miria initially refused combat, so even with my command, defending with just Ursula and Vivia was a struggle.

… If the A-Class Master stationed at this fort hadn't been Eve, I don't think we could have held Fort 9.

Eve was splendid. Strong, defeating Magical Beasts with accurate precision…

Her companions too were beautiful and charming.

Thanks to their hard fighting, we somehow held on.

"… Why don't you command me to fight?

"Even if you don't like it, I'm your Garumon now. If you commanded me firmly, I'd have to use a skill or two.

"… You understand this fight would turn in our favor if I did, right? Why?"

At one point, Miria asked me that.

Frankly, I was so busy I could have died, and I would have preferred her to keep quiet, but…

"I won't make anyone do something they hate.

"To you, the Magical Beasts were companions who followed your orders and fought for you, right?

"I can't tell you to fight those companions."

"But you're making Vivia fight!"

"But Vivia is fighting eagerly. If she says she'll fight, of course I won't stop her.

"… Vivia in battle is beautiful, you know. Really lively."

I smiled.

"… Aah, geez!"

At that moment…

"… Fine… Just for now, just for now! … I'll lend you a little of my power."

"… Eh?"

"It's not that I've gotten attached to you or anything! Don't get the wrong idea!

"… One way or another, you did defeat me in the end… so, i-it's like a kind of reward.

"Vivia, come! That, we'll do it!"

"… Mn! Miria-chan!"

When Miria called, Vivia came flying.

"Flame…"

"Water…"

"Rage forth, golden-flame inferno!"

"Run wild, silver-water torrent!"

The two chanted as if singing. A shining whirlpool of magic power rose up, and then…

"Now!"

"Take thiiiiis!"

"""Combination Magic, Demon Art - Vermilion Flare!"""

Dōgōn!

And there it was, the combination magic I'd wanted to try since seeing it on the stat sheet!

Tremendous flame and water! Two opposing elements forcibly fused by demonic power, a devastating compound spell that was a nightmare from the enemy's perspective!

Dogo, dogo, dogo, dogo, dogōōōōōōō!

A tremendous heat-and-steam explosion was unleashed, and it kept chain-reacting… in one stroke blowing away the Magical Beast army.

When two hits would already kill most of the Magical Beasts, this dealt 8 hits in total.

… It was an attack of tremendous destruction that altered the terrain itself.

… In this way, a fairly wide range of the Demon Race assaulting Fort 9 was wiped out.

How many had vanished, I couldn't even calculate.

… Well, calculating the area of this giant crater opened in the ground times Magical Beast density, you could estimate it, but…

So damage exists at a scale where you refuse to calculate, huh…

A failure… maybe.

This wasn't an attack you could just unleash in an out-of-battle situation.

A strike that altered the terrain. Just that, exactly.

This giant crater… what would we do with it? Wouldn't it have a bad impact on the future city planning of nation-building…?

It was a strike severe enough to make me worry like that.

"A… amazing, amazing! Vivia! Miria! You two are the strongest!"

I praised the two of them to the heavens.

"… Ehehe… Goshujin-sama… I'm so glad to be of use…!"

Vivia, shy and happy, and…

"H-hmph… well, of course… I've been irritated, so it was a good change of pace."

That sort of acid-tongued remark, but Miria didn't seem entirely displeased either.

… As if that one strike had decided everything…

From there, the Magical Beasts' momentum waned all at once.

In fact, time was probably about to run out. Miria's command effect was wearing off.

The Magical Beasts spreading out wide and launching wave attacks so they wouldn't be wiped out by all-target attacks: that had only been possible because Miria periodically loosed mental waves directing them.

With this strategy we'd been kept on the back foot the whole time.

If she hadn't thrown out an insane wide-range attack like Vermilion Flare, we might have been pushed straight through.

… But now, left alone, the Magical Beasts hated the White Wave and clustered together.

We could easily reduce numbers by hitting bunched-up groups with regular all-target attacks.

… This had been the day-one flow.

Now, that flow had returned.

From here on, things only got easier.

That night… for the first time in a long while, restful sleep came.

Up to now, even at night Magical Beasts had attacked intermittently, howling, doing everything to sleep-deprive us.

Mean, but very effective. Our sleep deprivation steadily mounted, and mistakes increased.

… But without Miria's commands, this was the result. Magical Beasts rested at night too.

"Eve, good work.

"Today's battle, you really saved us. Thank you."

Since I'd come to Fort 9, I had a chat with Eve.

"P-please…! Your words are too kind. Naoto-sama yourself, with two Demon Generals at your command…

"Aah, even words of praise from me are presumptuous; with my paltry mind I can't even think how to extol you!"

Eve heaped praise on me.

"No no, that's more than enough praise…

"But Eve, you're really strong too. You were a huge help. Truly, thank you. For supporting us this firmly…"

"Mn. Eve is a fine Master. I have taken a liking to her."

Ursula praised Eve too.

"Ursula-sama! Thank you. I… want to be of use to Naoto-sama, and I'm doing my best."

Eve cutely struck a guts pose.

"This time the A-Class and B-Class Masters all worked hard, but among them Eve's performance stood out.

"Up to now, and in today's offensive, the low damage to this fort owes a great deal to Eve's command.

"… You've gained a fine subordinate.

"Just as Naoto supported me when I was an S-Class Master, Eve may yet become a help to Naoto."

Ursula too seemed to value Eve highly.

"Yes! I wish to be just that!"

Eve seemed deeply moved.

Certainly Eve's work had been splendid. I patted Eve's head.

"Fufufu… With this I've taken a huge lead over Ruria…!"

Was that Eve's inner voice leaking through, or was it just my imagination?

We hadn't just defeated two Demon Generals; we'd made them companions, and beaten back the Magical Beasts' final big offensive…

The final damage situation looked like this.

Whoa… already ragged. There were still 3 days of the attack operation left.

Honestly, with things eased a bit, I worried whether we'd really be all right these next 3 days…

But, well, what with making 2 Demon Generals companions, everyone's morale was more than high enough.

Add in the weakening Magical Beast offensive…

We probably wouldn't take any more big damage. At last… the tide was basically decided.

In this attack operation, victory was finally… in sight.

"… The tide is not yet decided, surely?"

Ursula nudged me.

In her line of sight… was the sulky-looking Miria.

"Thou wishest to formally invite her as a companion, dost thou not. That power, that talent. A lump of genius.

"There is no reason to let her slip away.

"… All thou needest do now is think only of becoming close with Miria."

So Ursula told me.

This attack operation. The final battle, as it were.

A wholly different sort of fun battle than what we'd had till now seemed to be in store.