[One-of-a-Kind!!! The Awakened Demon King Army!]
–Light began to shine through the cloudy sky.
The falling snow glistened in the sunlight, beautifying the world.
Ahh, that was right… given a chance or a slight shift in perspective, even the freezing cold snow could be more brilliant than jewels.
“I love despair. I love predicaments and crises…!” I confessed to everyone gathered on the land of snow.
Thanks, all of you… without you, I wouldn’t have gained this enlightenment.
“Your plotting and scheming are incredible. There’s nothing I like more than getting outnumbered. Just the thought of being stabbed, beaten, tormented, and trampled on by so many people in public makes me feel like my heart is going to beat out of my chest!!!” I clenched my fists tightly, savoring the joy welling up inside me.
–As a leader, I couldn’t afford to lose. Yet right from the start, I’d been led around the nose by the enemy…
A normal leader would have been saddened. He would be mad, frustrated, as he struggled to support his comrades.
But… I wasn’t feeling any of that…
Instead… I couldn’t be happier!
“I hate bad luck. I hate unreasonable things.
“—But I love you, my enemies!! You’ve gone through so much trouble and spent countless hours just to try cornering me!
“Ahh, I can’t be happier! To think so many people would put all their hearts into bring me despair, my heart might burst from joy!”
So, thanks, all of you.
I was fortunate to have met you. I couldn’t put into words just how grateful I was.
“Especially you, Pendragon. Thanks a bunch. Your schemes are second to none.”
“Wha… erm… eh…?”
With tears of joy, I smiled as wide as I could.
Did my smile look good? I was often told that my eyes looked dead, but now I should be able to make a smile that could make others happy, right?
“I really, really love you guys so much!”
So…
“—I’m going to kill you all!”
With that, I approached one of the mass-produced mes behind Pendragon.
Only after I stroked his cheek did he finally notice me.
“H-huuuu?! S-since when?!”
“Monster skill ‘Flickering’. My familiar can activate it at his own will without me having to tell him to.”
Because Maa-kun, possessing my boots, and I were connected by hearts.
Further, Maa-kun’s Agility had gone up tremendously after his special evolution.
Combined with his skill, I could move so fast I’d look like I had teleported.
“Now, my copies. I’ll start off by giving you a lecture on how to die–!”
I shoved my hand into the astonished mass-produced me’s mouth and shouted–!
“Giant Monster Summon!”
In the next moment, the mass-produced me’s body swelled up like a balloon, turning into a round, gigantic sphere.
Then came his death throes. Ceased to be a human, his eyes went white and he screamed madly.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!?!?!”
That was his last word–if that counted as one, at least.
His swelled body popped, and pieces of flesh and blood rained down on the stunned enemy army, and at the same time–
“Unleash your first cry! ‘Doom-Bringing Spider Atlach-Nacha’!”
“Gishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
And so, the monster descended.
With thousands of armor growing out of her body like maggots, the huge spider cried–!
“Ahahahahahahaha! First lesson! Even if you have ‘Tenacity’, you’ll still die if your body is completely destroyed! And!”
My new friend, A-chan, shook her huge body.
The ‘Armor Knights’ growing all over her body shot off while spewing viscous liquid and began to attack the mass-produced mes army–!
[Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!]
“L-Living Armor Knights?! And there’s so many of them?!”
The pure white battlefield was instantly dyed black.
This Armor Knight mass-summoning was temporary. Just like the Giant Monster Summon only lasted 10 seconds, the Armor Knights produced by A-chan would disappear in a minute.
But.
[Activate art! ‘Summon Evil Sword’!]
[Kishaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!]
One minute was enough for them to dominate the battlefield…!
The thousands of Armor Knights summoned thousands of ‘Living Weapons’, and thus began the slaughter…!
“Fuck, think you can kill me that easily?! ‘Tenacity’! ‘Tenacity’! Tena—gyaaaaaaa?!”
“T-there’re too many of them!”
“Shit, they’re weak individually, but–gah!”
The mass-produced mes were being massacred by the army of Armor Knights and Living Weapons.
This was your–and my weakness.
“Armor Knights and Living Weapons are low-level monsters, to begin with. Further, with them being by-summons of the Giant Monster Summon, their levels are lowered to 1 and will disappear in one minute.”
Their stats were shit. It was likely to make it difficult to hunt newbies with it.
“However. We will die even if so much as one attack gets through our ‘Tenacity’. They’re a big threat to us with their numbers. Now, use this opportunity to get used to being outnumbered…!”
Death filled the battlefield. White was getting devoured by black.
In the midst of such a gruesome and exciting scene, I called out to my stunned comrades.
“Hey, you guys! Do you believe me?!”
[–?!]
With a twitch, they all woke up from their stupor.
They then directed their eyes at me.
“Pendragon said most of you had joined my side because you admire my strength. Said you wouldn’t be able to face the mass-produced mes.
“But look! The mass-produced mes are dying!! I always get the best equipment, the strongest familiar, and the newest skills and arts! There’s no way they can hold a candle to me!”
The splatter of blood and screams of terror dissipated the air of despair around them.
The broken-hearted bastards began to regain their spirits…!
“There’s an easy way to defeat Pendragon’s schemes! All you have to do is put more faith in me! Admire me more!
“I will never let you down. Watch, this is me when I go all out!”
I made arrows appear in my hand and used ‘Arms Barrier’ skill to summon black weapons, floating around me.
Then, I shot them all toward the sky.
Soaring into the sky, they split into countless weapons, spread out, and then began to wrap themselves in storms and explosive flames–!
“Activate arts! ‘Raging Dragon Shot’ 30x!!!”
[Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!]
With that, an army of demonic dragons took form–!
The dragons of wind and fire tore and burned the mass-produced mes, wiping them out of the world…!
This was my new move.
A super special ‘Raging Dragon Shot’ using Pontaro and gang who had evolved into ‘Possession God Hastur Weapon’ and ‘Possession God Ctugha Weapon’. The former’s wind attribute tore everything to pieces and the latter’s fire attribute burned everything to cinders.
Nothing but death and destruction were left in their wake.
“Well, what do you guys think? Is this not enough?! To make you believe me?! To make you proudly say that we, the Demon King army, is the strongest?!”
[T–the Demon King army is the strongest! The Demon King army is the strongest! The Demon King army is the strongest!!!] Lifting up their chins, my comrades yelled as they raised their weapons.
Good, good. You guys were frustrated to be toyed around by the enemy, right? You didn’t want to end up as a nothing but mobs, right?!
You guys joined me because you admired my strength and wanted to be strong as I was, right?!
“Unleash your fury! Rampage!! Consequences be damned! They call us evil, anyway! Show them hell and make them regret messing with us!!”
[Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!]
Loud screams filled the battlefield!
All at once, they charged forward and attacked the still-living mass-produced mes and mass-produced Zanswords!
They had cast away all reasons. They kept on swinging their weapons without paying attention to their injuries while shouting “Die, die, die, die, dieeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”
–As a result.
“S-stop, stay away—gaaaaaaaaah?!”
“Wait, what?! I’m dying!!!”
…As if their previous despair was a lie, they began to send the enemy soldiers six feet under one after another.
Yeah. We didn’t lose yet. This ‘challenge’ was just a stage play directed by Pendragon to make us lose morale, that was all.
“Hahaha, you guys got fooled hard. The mass-produced mes and Zanswords are easy to kill. They’ll die if you keep hitting them with strong attacks.”
The mass-produced mes’ stats were all zero except Luck, and their attack power was supplemented by possessed weapons.
All you needed to do was grab them before they could shoot their arrows and rain down punches on their faces. They’d drop dead before long.
The mass-produced Zansword was the same.
Most of them were newbies who made up for their lack of experience with their jobs’ power.
They’d die if you just kept on hitting them with strong attacks since their levels were low.
“Let’s goooooooooooooo! All this slaughter fired me up!!!”
“Shit, now I feel so stupid for despairing before!”
“Hell yeaaaaah, kill ‘em all!!! Killing’s forbidden irl, so better enjoy it to your heart’s content in-game!!!”
“Oh right, wasn’t this being broadcast?! Heeeeeeeeeeeey, all you newbies! Are you watching this~? Now we feel like we don’t mind losing as long as we make our enemies suffer, so don’t be shy to join the Goddess’ side! We’ll definitely kill you all later~!”
The Demon King army swung their fists and swords like there was no tomorrow.
Hehehe, they were cute, alright. Between being branded as evil by the devs and Pendragon’s schemes, they’d been mentally cornered for too long, and now their brakes were completely broken.
Imitating me, the magician players stabbed their staffs into the enemies’ bodies and blast them from the inside, those rascals.
“—Anyway, how are you feeling now, Pendragon? The devs, too. We’re bringing about evil, as you wish.
“Well, I don’t like to waste words, so just know I’m going to pay you back for everything you’ve done. We’ll hunt down your men, torture them, and toy with them until they wish they were dead.”
“…?!”
I smiled again at Pendragon who stood still.
So did my comrades. They all smiled with their faces covered in blood.
The remaining enemy soldiers cutely cried, “Eek?!”
Looking at us, Pendragon smiled while breaking into a cold sweat. “Ha-hahaha! Y-you guys sure are… unique! The developers must be shaking in their boots with teary eyes right now! The way things are going, there will be no more public order in this game.”
“Pssh, what’s wrong with that? Let’s all despair, get angry, cry, and resent each other. Then, we can resolve everything in the ‘War of Extermination’ four days later, right?”
This was a game after all. The exchange of lives, the violence, and the screams were nothing more than temporary things that would disappear if we returned to real life.
This was where we could vent out negative emotions we couldn’t in real life, and that was why we should fight our opponents with everything you had!
“So, Pendragon! Corner me further! No matter what kind of hardships you’re going to throw at me, I’m going to enjoy! I mean it!”
“~~~?! Hahahahahaha! You truly are the best! I’ve worked tirelessly to come up with all these plans solely to kill you and you enjoy—no, savor them? You really are a one-of-a-kind!
“My men! Everyone that’s still alive! That’s the top of this game! The one who holds the seat of the strongest that you all are gunning for!”
Pendragon pointed her white sword at me like a baton.
At the same time, the Goddess’ side players who had fallen down stood up.
Despite the wounds all over their bodies, their eyes burned with hostility and excitement.
“That is to say, anyone who defeats will be the strongest player! Kill her!!!”
[Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!]
Then the enemy army rushed my way.
Burning with the desire to kill me, they all charged at me simultaneously–!
“Good, good. Now you’re speaking my language…!”
Just as the hordes of enemy soldiers were about to swarm me, however–
“—Sorry, guys. The right to kill ‘Demon King Yuri’ belongs only to me!!!”
In the next moment, all the enemy soldiers were blown away like fireworks in the sky!
There were ‘fist’ marks on their chests. And before I knew it, a big, strong, and reliable back was before me…!
Oh, it was you…!
“Baldhead!”
“Yo, Yuri. Your new outfit is damn hot!”
With that, he gave my bare thigh a couple of slaps.
Feeling his thick hand made me become nostalgic.
“Sorry, I’m late ‘Leader’. But you can rest easy now, cause I’m gonna take part in this war as part of the ‘Demon King Army’…!”
