Tactics vs tactics.

Author’s comments: Demon King Ariel’s perspective.

「The Queen has begun her battle.」

With Clairvoyance activated, I observe the battle. Even if I have gotten weak, using a skill of this level is no burden at all.

「Are you going to call the other Queen here?」

「Nah. I’ll watch over things for now, then I’ll Summon it at an appropriate time.」

「Will it be okay?」

「Well, more or less.」

Unlike Clairvoyance and such, the Summoning skill places a heavy burden. After using Summoning once, I need to take a rest afterwards. I’ve already finished Summoning my primary subordinates such as the Queens and Puppets so that’s fine, but since the battle has already started, I’ll probably only be able to perform Summoning on a subordinate once as an emergency measure. I’ll need to carefully judge when to draw the line.

「Summoning sure is convenient.」

「That’s right Sophia-chan, you can call Merazofis-kun and so on too.」 Merazofis-kun, and incidentally Waldo-kun. Because those two are considered to be Sophia-chan’s kin, it is possible for her to use Summoning to call them any time. Since unlike me Sophia-chan isn’t weakened, there’s almost no limit. MP is still consumed though.

「That a Summoned subordinate can call more subordinates by Summoning in turn, sure stinks of cheating though.」

「Well, yeah.」

Right now, most of the Taratekt swarm fighting above ground are those newly Summoned by the Queen. The Summoned subordinates call further subordinates in turn, and if those subordinates have additional subordinates then it’s possible for even them to be Summoned. That’s how that army was called forth. Just with my Summoning of the Queen, it was possible to call up an army, basically. Of course, the amount of MP consumed is in proportion to that though, so the Queen’s MP needs to be replenished. In addition, if I Summoned the Queen here, instead of making the Queen do further Summoning, it’s likely that it would be better for the Queen to use the MP for combat. After all, the Queen herself would have greater combat strength than any Summoned rabble.

「Well, in the sense of it being cheating, I think vampires are a far greater cheat than I am though.」

Vampires can recruit subordinates indefinitely. By sucking someone’s blood, they can turn others into vampires regardless of whether they’re enemies or allies. The first Demon King Foddway used that method to mass produce vampires, pushing humanity to practically the brink of extinction. When it comes to “the violence of numbers”, vampires are many times more terrifying.

「If you wanted to Sophia-chan, you could do that too you know?」

「No way. Having Merazofis alone as my kin is enough for me.」

……Waldo-kun, you’ve been completely forgotten. Well, in Sophia-chan’s case she likely hates the idea of putting rabble on the same level as Merazofis-kun. It’s not like I don’t understand how she feels. If you were willing to stop at nothing then it would be better to mass produce vampires, but it’s a different thing to force someone to do it huh.

「Hrm. Putting that aside, the ones facing the Queen are that wind and lightning pair from before huh.」

When I used Clairvoyance to check the state of the battle, I saw that the Queen was fighting with two elder dragons. It’s that combo of a Wind Dragon and a Lightning Dragon that Wrath-kun drove back the other day. From what I can tell, it seems that the wounds inflicted on them by Wrath-kun have already been healed. Because Wind Dragons are the type to really shine when it comes to outdoor openair battles, I can understand them battling with the Queen here. Lightning Dragons are the type to recklessly charge in with all their power, so perhaps the strategy is to use that all up here? Since he’d likely fail to restrain himself inside the Elro Great Labyrinth, he’s liable to run out of energy inside anyway. These two are stupidly eager and the Lighting Dragon is a genuine idiot, but their strength is the real deal.

「……Taking on two ancient dragons sure is tough.」

I guess it’s a matter of time until the Queen gets beaten huh. At the best of times it would be difficult for even a mighty Queen to take on two ancient dragons. On top of that, the Queen is currently weaker than in her heyday. It’s all Shiro-chan’s fault you know! It’s Shiro-chan’s fault for using her Parallel Wills to encroach her mind you know! Against a single ancient dragon she’d likely still win, but against two it sure is tough. That can’t be helped. It can’t be helped, but……

「Where did the other ancient dragons go?」 I’m worried that the other ancient dragons can’t be seen anywhere. If they simply wanted to break through the Queen, it would be easy enough if all the ancient dragons attacked together. Instead, they’re not appearing and everything is being left to the wind and lightning pair.

「Perhaps they have already invaded the Elro Great Labyrinth or something?」

「I can’t say it’s impossible, but I haven’t received any reports to the contrary though.」

My kin have already been deployed throughout the entire Elro Great Labyrinth. Even if the enemy used Teleport or a secret path to enter the Elro Great Labyrinth, they should get caught in that surveillance net at some point. So far, nothing has been caught. Even if there was someone amongst the enemy who could use Teleport, then they can only Teleport to places where the caster has gone before. As far as I know, apart from Earth Dragon Gakia who protected this lowest layer, none of the ancient dragons have ever set foot in this area. And of course, no humans have ever set foot in this place either. After all, humanity has rarely even approached the middle layer, let alone the lowest layer. Even if there was an invasion by Teleport, it would be limited to the upper layer. And on that upper layer, there are powerful support troops left behind by Shiro-chan. If someone tough enough to drive back those kids had invaded, it would be ridiculous for it to go unnoticed.

「But, there’s odd about this huh.」

There’s gotta be some plan behind this. Things like this, are a sign that something bad is about to happen. As if to support that premonition, a report from my kin came via Telepathy.

「What happened? Eh? Water?」

The thought that I received via Telepathy was… water. While I was tilting my head in confusion, the Telepathy was suddenly broken off.

「Is there something wrong?」

「I’m not sure, but something has definitely happened.」

The member of my kin that had sent the Telepathy was one that had been deployed on the upper layer of the Elro Great Labyrinth. I activate Clairvoyance at its location. To determine what happened to it.

「Ah.」

Then, I let out that foolish sound.

「Wh, what the heck has that bastard done!?」

What I had seen there, was something beyond my imagination. A huge amount of water is surging through the upper layer of the Elro Great Labyrinth.

「Is this something crazy like inundation tactics!?」

Spreading out on the upper layer of the Elro Great Labyrinth, was sea water surging in from the sea.