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We lowered the casualties to the bare minimum with the grand wall, and most of the army of the Black Demon Lord was defeated. 

A giant defensive wall appeared right in front of them, and an army of massive dragons burned them down. 

Normal soldiers would lose their fighting spirit and might even run away, but the army of the Black Demon Lord was trying to climb the wall until the very end. 

“I doubt this is going to be the end.” 

The representatives of the nations nodded.

Most of the monsters that were seen in the Nether have been defeated, but all of the demons on their side still remain. 

Also, it is hard to believe that the invasion of the Demon Lord spoken in legends as the strongest, the Black Demon Lord, will end with just this. 

Even though we should have been standing at an advantage here considering the situation, I could feel the unstableness of my footing with my whole body. 

My instincts are telling me that this war state can be easily overturned.

“Taizu King, there’s the need to think about how to deal with the demons first. Every single demon is capable of fighting a whole army on their own. We won’t even be able to secure safety until we do something about this.” 

Zahava, Lazarikata, Ofaro; the strength of these 3 demons was far beyond what we imagined. 

First is Zahava. The demon that can transform into a spider. 

We have both Lady Ratzel and Arcreal -our current strongest fighters- together, moreover, Haakudoku, who excels in wariness, and Girista, who excels in quick thinking, as assistants. And yet, they couldn’t defeat her despite all that. 

Lady Ratzel seemed to be pushing back at the end, but I have been told that she is still hiding something.

Next is Lazarikata. 

The Green Demon Lord overwhelmed Lazarikata, but the ability to control matter with words is troublesome beyond belief. 

If someone who can’t deal with that were to stand in front of Lazarikata, they would just be killed without being able to do anything. 

And then, there’s Ofaro. 

He is the embodiment of a sun that descended on the planet. 

He wiped out the unit of Archbishop Ukka, and overwhelmed powerhouses like Archbishop Maya, Ekdoik, and Dyuvuleori.

I can’t think of any detailed countermeasures as of present.

“There’s no way we can win even if we challenge this with an army. There’s no choice other than trying to strike them down with a few elites.” (Green)

“Green Demon Lord…” (Marito)

The one who appeared in the room was the Green Demon Lord together with Niruryates.

A number of representatives looked at both me and the Green Demon Lord, and were surprised. 

The Green Demon Lord must have found that unpleasant, he snorted while narrowing his eyes. 

“In the first place, the existence of demons and the fight between monsters and soldiers is just decoration. The victory condition was already set from the very beginning.” (Green)

“…Whether the Green Demon Lord or the Colorless Demon Lord falls first…” (Marito)

“That’s right. They will be aiming for my life next. And so, the one we should aim for is the Colorless Demon Lord.” (Green)

The Green Demon Lord overwhelmed the demon Lazarikata. But the Colorless Demon Lord easily managed to make Lazarikata escape. 

The Black Demon Lord herself isn’t in a state where she can fight, and if Yugura isn’t in a state where he can put a hand in this, there’s no doubt the strongest within the enemy army is the Colorless Demon Lord. 

On the other hand, our strongest fighting force is the Green Demon Lord. 

The Demon Lords that both sides have will divide the war state greatly. 

The existence of the Green Demon Lord is absolutely necessary in order to defeat the Colorless Demon Lord. 

It is not like I have no means to increase that possibility, but the issue is how we can suppress the movements of the other demons in the time until that battle is settled. 

“I understand. Including the fact that you will need to pour all your strength in order to defeat the Colorless Demon Lord.” (Marito)

“You think about the groundwork. I will make preparations for the board pieces.” (Green)

I understand the intention of the Green Demon Lord and change the prerequisite conditions. 

Strategies are of no use when coming this far. What’s useful is something like the specialty of my friend: reading the heart of the other party.

“It is okay to leave it to you, right? You will be taking on the burden…” (Marito)

“I don’t mind if there are benefits for me. Squeeze out everything from that brain of yours, and prepare the best stage for my sake. This is an advance payment.” (Green)

The Green Demon Lord placed a black crystal in front of me. 

I have heard about what happened from Lord Ragudo who was there, but I could tell my heart shook when I saw the real thing. 

This is the core of the curse in the heart of Ruko… 

“I have finished analyzing it. It is real and there’s no mistake in the method to dispel it. Use that head of yours without any fetters.” (Green)

“…You have my gratitude. And also, I promise: I will definitely guide you to a result far better than you expect.” (Marito)

“I shall look forward to it.” (Green)

The Green Demon Lord left the room just like that. 

I put the black crystal into my pocket just like that, and when I tried to put the place back in order, King Zenotta coughed loudly. 

“Ah, sorry. My stomach got hit a bit because of the pressure of the Green Demon Lord… We won’t be making any further immediate preparations for the invasion of the monsters, right? Can we wrap this meeting here for now?” (Zenotta)

“That’s…” (Marito)

“It is tough on the stomach, you see. My brain that can’t turn that well normally won’t be able to turn at all unless I drink medicine for my stomach. Man, sorry about that!” (Zenotta)

King Zenotta stood up slowly and left the place with light steps. No no, those are not the movements of a person who is in pain. 

King Tarma and Pope Euparo laughed lightly after seeing that, and stood up just like him.

“Now that I think about it, we haven’t had any proper rest since the battle began. I am getting sleepy after seeing that king of Kuama. I shall take a rest as well.” (Tarma)

“Wa… Torin King?!” (Marito)

“Hahaha, King Tarma, isn’t that way too sloppy?” (Euparo)

“It is easy to act better than that man, but there’s no need to steal the spotlight of the man that showed consideration first.” (Tarma)

“I see. Then, I will rest for a bit too. I wanted to check out the state of Archbishop Maya after all.” (Euparo)

The representatives of the countries left the room one after the other. It is true that there’s nothing that they can do at this present state, but if they were to slip out so casually like this…

“Nfufufu, Wise King, yer so tired ya don’t even notice that they are showing consideration to ya, right?” (Gold)

“Gold Demon Lord…” (Marito)

The Gold Demon Lord, who has been silent until now, is looking over here with a wry smile. 

They are being considerate to me? In other words…ah. 

“The kings of the other nations know the meaning of the crystal in your pocket at least.” (Gold)

“…I knew I could heal her, so I thought there was no need to hurry…” (Marito)

Basically, hurry and heal Ruko -is what King Zenotta and the others were considerate towards me about. 

Looks like I was tired to a degree where I even took a sloppy lie like that at face value. 

“It was not really just for yer sake. They must have judged that the biggest priority here is having ya rest and erase yer grievings.” (Gold)

“…I was trying not to show it in my face though.” (Marito)

“By the way, it was probably only Zenotta who was being truly considerate towards ya though.” (Gold)

“No doubt. I will send him my thanks some other time.” (Marito)

I smack my cheeks lightly and stand up from my seat too. 

The Green Demon Lord told me to use my head without any fetters. 

What I will be doing from here on is not my specialty, but an imitation of my friend. 

I have to do this in perfect condition, with no idle thoughts. 

“By the way, is there nothing for this one?” (Gold)

“What, you want me to thank you?” (Marito)

“I wouldn’t feel worth in something that ya give me.” (Gold)

“Figures. Well, I can prepare the groundwork for you at least once.” (Marito)

“Umu, I look forward to it.” (Gold)

This Demon Lord is also having expectations on me, huh. I have really changed a lot. 

I have been thinking a lot as the king of Taizu to protect the country. 

I worked hard for the sake of changing the stifled ideals, to not get buried in time, while still treasuring history and tradition; I wanted to rule in a way that everyone would think that it was great for me to be the king.

That desire was only directed at my own country, and I thought that was my own limit. 

I am a king, not a god. 

But what about now? I am shouldering the future of all the humans in this world.

“…Yeah, look forward to it.” (Marito)

But I am standing here. 

I made no mistake when measuring my own capabilities. I have overcome the limits I thought of myself a long time ago. 

Me being able to stand despite that is because I feel the presence of the people who are shouldering all this together with me. 

My friend, are you watching? If you are not, I will tell you as many times as you want. 

I can still go further beyond. I will show you that I can definitely reach all the way to where you are.

◇◇

“So Idolak has left…” 

I returned to the place of Black Sis, and finish giving her a simple report. 

That said, Black Sis had a grasp of the battlefield with the ‘eyes’ that Yugura prepared, so this report is simply confirming the facts. 

Zahava and Ofaro are still the same. 

Lazarikata alone seems to be in a pretty bad mood, but I am the one who wants to complain here.

“What should we do, Black? We lost our monsters, and we are the only ones left. Do you plan on making us continue doing surprise attacks?” (Lazarikata)

“I told you before. What I want from you all is to bring the monsters to the humans.” (Black)

Lazarikata muttered this begrudgingly, but Black Sis wasn’t fazed by this and stood up. 

And then, she walked over to me. 

“Tedoral, you can use the power of your scythe, right?” (Black)

“…Yeah.” (Colorless)

She simply confirmed this and walked out of the castle. 

Well, she is basically telling me to use the power of the scythe.

Aah, I don’t feel like it…

I moved to the top of the cliff together with Zahava and the others, and looked down. 

There’s not a single remaining one from the monsters that were filling up my vision completely.

I actually prefer this since it is more clean. 

“Demon Lord-sama, what will we be doing from here on?” (Zahava)

“…I don’t have the power I had in the past, but I still have the power I left behind. Two things aside from you all. First is my demonic tool that Tedoral retrieved. And the other one is this Nether that I created.” (Black)

Black Sis moved her gaze towards me. 

I sighed lightly, moved to the very edge of the cliff, and brought out the scythe from the pocket dimension. 

This scythe is a demonic tool that Black Sis made, and it is also one of the weapons that Black Sis herself used. 

This scythe was the only means for Black Sis to escape from the seal of Yugura with her own power, but Yugura didn’t miss that possibility, retrieved it, and entrusted it to me. 

“I knew I had seen it before. So it was the scythe of Black. And so, what about it?” (Lazarikata)

“The demonic tools I created were trinkets that granted things to you demons. I put my powers in them so that you could employ one of my abilities. Just like how Yugura granted his own abilities to the Demon Lords.” (Black)

Yugura gave Omnipotence to Black Sis, and one ability to each of the other Demon Lords. 

And then, Black Sis divided the abilities of her Omnipotence to their respective demonic tools and granted them to the demons. 

For Zahava who specializes in physical combat, she granted her a means of movement for the times when her mobility is sealed; a means to use heat for Ofaro who releases heat; giving them each abilities that matched their powers. 

But this scythe is different. 

It is what Black Sis used often for battle, and also something that she prepared as insurance for the time when she herself lost her powers… For the sake of having her demons employ the same techniques as her. 

“How much, Black Sis?” (Colorless)

“I don’t mind it being to a degree where it is the same scenery. That’s most likely the limit to how much we can carry them in one go.” (Black)

“Kay. Well then, I will be shaving off…your Nether, Black Sis.” (Colorless)

I activate the feature in the scythe. 

A magic circle was drawn in the air, and the magic formula was deploying itself automatically. 

The Nether is a space that exists for the presence of the Demon Lord, and it is a weapon vault for them. 

Monsters spawn with the will of the Demon Lord without doing anything. 

But them appearing naturally means that you can also make them appear artificially. 

Princess Purple already established a method to create monsters, but there’s no need to go through so much trouble each time to begin with. 

This Nether is a part of the Demon Lord’s body in the first place. If you shave it off, you can immediately prepare the ingredients to create monsters.

The magic circle magnified even further, and spread out over the whole base of the cliff. And then, it began to absorb the mana in the air of the Nether and created new creatures.

“This is…” 

“The Nether and the monsters are born from the mana of the Demon Lord. In that case, it should be possible to easily switch both sides by tinkering with the boundary. My army will resurrect as many times as needed as long as there’s mana in the Nether.” (Black)

Yugura didn’t teach this technique to the other Demon Lords. No, he couldn’t afford to teach them would be the better way to put it. 

It is because the world would have perished a long time ago if the Demon Lords were to obtain this technique. 

The magic circle finished its duty, and by the time it lost its light, the army of monsters that we saw before was back. 

Idolak is naturally nowhere around, but you could say it is back to how it was.

“Feeh~. Quite a lot of mana is used just from activating it… I will rest for a bit.” (Colorless)

I am feeling super languid. 

Tinkering with the Nether to create monsters is like a combination technique of the Annihilation of Blue Oni and the Prosperity of Green Lord after all. 

The process in itself is done by the scythe, but the bare minimum mana used to activate it can’t be scoffed at considering the scale of it. 

Most of all, I didn’t want to activate this power, so the mental burden was also pretty big. 

The feeling of shaving away what Black Sis has prepared…feels really bad. 

“The next invasion will happen once Tedoral has recovered his mana.” (Black)

“I don’t mind that, but Black Sis, continuing these battles of attrition would just be a waste of time. You will obviously be putting a twist to it, right?” (Colorless)

“It is as you think. I will have you eliminate Green in the next invasion.” (Black)

Well, of course it would come to that. 

Demons are needed as leaders to carry the monsters into the human realm. 

But Green Lord is aware of this. 

They will try to crush each demon one by one after realizing that the monsters have come back. 

And so, I am the only one when it comes to defeating Green Lord. 

Ofaro…might be able to do it, but there’s no telling if he would have the motivation.

“Okay, I’ve got it. But, Black Sis, I used my only negotiation means with Green Lord to save that arrogant woman there. I won’t be able to come back anymore if I end up losing. That’s why…” (Colorless)

I looked at the face of Black Sis, and the feelings that were clogging my words melted. 

The Black Sis of a long time ago would have moved her face a bit more at this though…

“…That’s why, I am counting on you to look after the idiots, okay?” (Colorless)

Oh well, this is good enough, I guess… This level of a conclusion. 

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