Chapter 218 : Dwarven Madness

“...Insane.”

“Why are there so many? Is that really a tower with just one Demon King inside?”

At the feast of monsters filling the lake, the soldiers clicked their tongues.

If that many monsters were released onto the surface, what would happen? Several kingdoms would simply be wiped out.

“...There are a lot.”

“There are far too many.”

The Supreme Commander, Duke Olten, swallowed a groan.

During the subjugation using floating battleship, the heroes had all said the same thing. That False had aided Dark Flame. That he had led an enormous army.

So they had known it wouldn’t be easy. But facing tens of thousands of monsters in person made a hollow laugh slip out on its own.

‘This isn’t just a matter of being difficult.’

A legion of monsters filling the land, the sky, and the lake.

Even while leading a massive army of one hundred thousand, he couldn’t be confident of victory.

“Is that one False?”

He checked the demon race member who had fired the flash of light through a telescope.

“No, sir.”

“Then an ordinary high-ranking demon race member can do that much?”

Although it had headed for the lead ship carrying the hero and the Crown Princess, and although it had been completely blocked, the shockwave alone made their skin tremble and sent chills down their spines.

And yet, it wasn’t a Demon King?

“...Perhaps we gave False far too much time.”

That was the true face of a Demon King. Something that emerged when given enough time.

“We really must eradicate not only False, but all Demon Kings without exception.”

“They’re moving.”

Duke Olten checked the surroundings. Waves rose from the shockwaves, and as a result the formation wavered.

“Reform the formation.”

“Yes!”

The order was given.

“Reform the formation!”

“Combat formation!”

The ships moved busily. The Duke’s gaze turned toward the lead vessel.

“My duty is to send them safely to the tower.”

If they expended the heroes from the start, they could approach the tower more easily.

But in the end, what mattered was the Demon King. Whether they killed the Demon King or not would decide the outcome of this subjugation.

How powerful a Demon King commanding such a legion would be—he couldn’t even begin to guess.

Because of that, it was right to preserve the heroes’ strength as much as possible.

“Inform the Guildmaster. Pull the heroes’ ship back and prepare to fire.”

“Yes.”

Chwarururuk—

The distance closed rapidly. A monster swarm like dark storm clouds, and the currents cutting through the lake.

If there was any consolation, it was that the monsters on the island were still staying put.

But was that really fortunate?

‘The ones on the island look especially strong.’

Most of those packed masses were demons.

He felt it instinctively. The moment they moved, a catastrophe would unfold.

‘Before that, we need to kill as many of the others as possible and prepare to receive them.’

A veteran who had roamed battlefields for countless years made his judgment swiftly.

‘If this weren’t a lake, there would’ve been many other methods....’

The restricted environment of a lake limited many things. All they could do was give it their best.

“Preparations complete.”

“Fire.”

“Fire!”

──!

Thousands of mana cannons fired their shells in unison.

In an instant, they tore through space and struck the monsters.

Kieeeek—

Kiaaaahk—

A griffin with torn wings screamed as it fell. A massive Sea Serpent took dozens of hits, was reduced to a pulp, and floated up limply.

The lake was stained with corpses and blood. At their screams, the soldiers roared in triumph.

But compared to the whole, the damage inflicted wasn’t that great.

“Prepare torpedoes.”

“Prepare torpedoes!”

Gigigigik—

The bottoms of some ships slowly opened. Mana warheads modified with magic circuits bared savage fangs as they locked onto their targets.

“Fire!”

“Fire!”

Kwaaaar—

Guided by demonic energy and heat, the torpedoes moved through the cold lake and collided with their targets, sending ripples through the water. Monsters that had been stealthily approaching the ships shattered with screams.

Looking at the corpses floating up, the Duke issued the next order.

“Prepare fragmentation shells. Target the sky.”

“Prepare fragmentation shells!”

The ship guns adjusted their angles toward the air all at once. Newly developed mana shells were loaded.

Soon, just as the flying monsters rapidly closed in—

“Fire.”

“Fire!”

The mana cannons spewed flame simultaneously. The shells flew into the air and exploded as they were. Then they vomited hundreds of small submunitions.

───!

Thousands of shells multiplied into hundreds of thousands, ravaging the sky. The monsters fell without even managing to scream.

Kraaaah!

A balrog. A ten-meter monster more powerful than any other ground creature roared with its wings shredded and its hide torn.

True to its reputation, it didn’t lose its fighting spirit and smashed straight into a ship. Screams erupted from the vessel as it lurched and holes were torn open.

“Block it!”

“Kill it!”

One ship sank. But waiting for the balrog as it tried to move to the next ship were dozens of mana cannons.

Bang bang bang—

Shells tore into its open wounds, and the balrog screamed. Knights who had honed their aura hunted down the wounded balrog.

“...Impressive.”

Duke Olten voiced his honest impression at the sight.

“Fragmentation shells, was it? Those crazy dwarves. To think they’d stuff other shells inside a shell.”

They had supplied not just tens, but hundreds of thousands of such shells. And that wasn’t all. There were force-breaking shells specialized in shattering tough aura and barriers, and incendiary shells that ignited flames.

Dwarven weapons were now far beyond anything imaginable to humans who had only just begun to crawl.

‘Especially, the torpedoes....’

They had modified some ships to be capable of using torpedoes and provided the ammunition.

Why would dwarves with no connection to the sea, not even lakes, create something like torpedoes?

Out of curiosity, he had once asked the Berfht envoy who had agreed to supply the weapons. Honestly, he hadn’t expected an answer. Strategic weapons were usually treated as top secret.

‘From the moment the floating battleship was destroyed. As long as the Tower of the Demon King of Dark Flame remains at sea, we will continue to create weapons that are efficient in the sea.’

It could only be described as the anger and obsession of dwarves who had lost their kingdom’s treasure to a Demon King.

‘Well, that’s understandable.’

A floating battleship—an aerial fortress that dared to call itself a ship—was worth that much. If he had lost something like that, he would’ve gone mad too.

‘I shouldn’t think this way, but in some respects I’m grateful to the Demon King of Dark Flame.’

Just imagining firing those damn fragmentation mana cannons from flying floating battleships made chills run down his spine.

Even so, in this battle, there was no denying that the dwarves’ obsession and madness were a tremendous help.

Look at that clear sky. Everything wasn’t settled in one go, but hundreds of monsters were falling. It gave the alliance breathing room—and confidence.

“W, we have the latest dwarven weapons!”

“Come at us, you bastards!”

“Let’s kill the Demon King!”

That fearsome power naturally boosted the soldiers’ morale.

Because they knew.

The power of the shells.

And the fact that there were still plenty of shells left.

*         *         *

Under the pretense of conserving strength for the final battle, the ship carrying Berje and the heroes hid itself among the fleet.

Thanks to that, Berje could comfortably observe the course of the battle.

“...Amazing. As expected of the dwarves.”

Ernan exclaimed as bombs exploded everywhere and monsters fell.

“Beautiful.”

Berje also admired it.

“Fragmentation shells, huh? When we get back, I’ll have to hound Roger about it.”

A tower that flew in the sky, thousands of mana cannons filling that tower, and fragmentation shells fired from there.

A miracle where thousands of shells became hundreds of thousands.

It could truly turn the land into a wasteland.

“By the way, what do you think, Hillan?”

Berje’s gaze turned to the island. Hillan followed.

“That thing.”

The Demon King, still unmoving aside from the initial breath, was visible.

“Can you win?”

“...I don’t know.”

“Because your weapon was taken?”

“I won’t deny that, but even if I had it....”

Hillan swallowed dryly. Even while sitting still, the pressure it gave off was enough to make one shudder.

“That thing is a Demon Dragon. The strongest, most powerful species in the Demon Realm. From the look of it, it seems to have completely released its interference power.”

“...I see.”

Dorche was a Demon King who had completely conquered five dimensions.

To completely conquer a dimension meant defeating all its heroes and thoroughly staining the dimensional power as that of the Demon Realm, reducing it to a lower sub-dimension of the Demon Realm.

How much negative emotional energy would it have received in the process, and how many heroes would it have devoured?

‘No, is that few?’

It was only because Arein alone had over three thousand heroes. In other dimensions, no matter how many there were, they couldn’t exceed a hundred.

And that was an extreme rarity. Usually, it was around ten.

Even if it conquered just five such dimensions...

‘Fifty.’

Even if one dimension had many heroes, that would make one hundred forty.

Right after regressing, Berje had once lived briefly in the Demon Realm’s library because he couldn’t understand the dimension called Arein. At that time, he had learned about dimensions and heroes.

‘The number of heroes....’

It was an expression of the power a dimension possessed.

Countless dimensions stretching endlessly each had different power. That power manifested as the number of heroes.

Having many heroes meant the dimension’s potential and power were great.

The greater the power of a dimension, the greater the absolute amount its created beings could possess.

In other words, having many heroes didn’t mean each hero was weak, and having few heroes didn’t mean each hero was strong.

There were simply many individuals worthy of becoming heroes, and enough dimensional power for them to become heroes.

‘Rather....’

Stars that shone even among thousands of heroes were far stronger than heroes who survived competitions of mere dozens.

So.

A Demon King who had conquered only five dimensions with merely dozens of heroes each—

“There’s no need to rate it highly, is there?”

Rather, the number of heroes Berje himself had killed so far was probably greater.

“Yes? What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing.”

Still, considering the toughness of the Demon Dragon species and the level he was currently sensing, it wasn’t weak.

The moment he thought that—

* Foolish humans.

The creature finally raised its heavy body.

It spread its wings and opened its maw.

────!

A black flash shot out.

It tore through the air, the lake, and space itself, striking a corner of the alliance.

“M, blo—!”

The feeble defensive magic circles engraved on the ships didn’t last even one second.

The hurried spells of the mages failed to finish.

The screams of the soldiers didn’t even carry through to the end.

Four ships sank into the lake.

“....”

“...Huh?”

At the disaster that occurred in an instant, the morale of the soldiers who had been intoxicated by dwarven weapons plummeted to the floor.

At the same time, the demons and monsters on the island who had been watching the situation began to move.

The atmosphere shifted abruptly.

*         *         *

The summit of the Tower of False.

Jason slowly savored his wine as he looked out over the battlefield.

Exploding bombs, monsters and creatures dying.

“They prepared quite a lot.”

As expected, dwarves were troublesome.

Humans gathered together were also troublesome.

That was why he had tried to proceed as quietly and carefully as possible.

If that had worked, their shells would’ve been aimed somewhere else, not at him.

Tsk, Jason clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“What’s the point of regretting it now? I should blame my own foolishness for failing to recognize Lord Berje’s true nature at the start.”

“The heroes aren’t moving.”

“It’s obvious. Since we’re coming out openly, they intend to let the legions clash and conserve the heroes’ strength as much as possible until they can send them into the tower.”

But that wasn’t what Jason wanted.

“Today, they won’t be entering the tower.”

“Must it be so? Meeting the enemies outside the tower throws away the tower’s advantage.”

Aina Sermyun voiced a negative opinion.

“I know it’s foolish. It goes against the standard. But you do know that I detest the standard, don’t you?”

“But you aren’t someone who does foolish things.”

“That was true until recently.”

Crack—

The wineglass shattered. Aina wiped the wine flowing down Jason’s hand.

“But now that things have progressed this far, there’s a need to purify things once.”

“Purify, you say?”

“Yes, purification. Everything we’ve laid out so far has turned to foam, so we need to refresh the atmosphere and head in a completely different direction.”

Since he had kicked aside the path of moderation, what remained was domination.

“They fear Lord Berje. That fear spread and reached me as well. They’re afraid of Dark Flame, but they think I’m an easy mark.”

Why was it that when you treated humans kindly, they took you for a sucker?

“Isn’t it ridiculous?”

“It was Berje’s scheme.”

“Indeed. Rumors are spreading that I aided Lord Berje. But do you really think that’s all there is to it? Do you think they’re attacking me for that reason alone?”

“...No.”

They had failed multiple times at the Tower of Dark Flame. To restore their honor, to turn back the bleak public sentiment, they needed to conquer any tower at all.

But Dark Flame was impossible, Gold-Steel was already dead, and Lust and Frost had vanished without a trace.

In the end, only False remained. It was inevitable.

“That means everything I’ve done so far has become meaningless.”

The Demon King’s notoriety had regressed to what it was over a hundred years ago.

So had humanity’s anger and hatred.

There was no going back to the past anymore.

“A changed environment requires a changed strategy.”

And so.

“There’s a need to let them know. Who I am, what a Demon King is. Whose claws they dared to bare themselves to.”

They had to feel it to the bone.

“It’s ironic that I, who worked so hard to make them forget that, now have to do the opposite.”

This was a declaration.

That the strategy had changed.

“A declaration that the Demon King will act like a Demon King and set out to conquer the continent.”

Jason crushed the glass on the table with his palm and lifted his monocle.

“It will take a long time to recover.”

“Indeed. But the dimension’s potential is still overwhelming. We’ve already waited hundreds of years. Can’t we wait a little longer?”

Tsk, he clicked his tongue.

“If not for Lord Berje, I could’ve easily taken not just Zespine but several other nations as well. What a shame.”

Nothing had gone according to plan.

“In any case, since it’s come to this, we’ll just do our best. Shall we go out to greet the heroes, then? As a Demon King, I should at least receive my guests properly.”

The Demon King, who had hidden his power and deceived the world, finally threw down his challenge.