291 – Elf Village Battle ①

There’s been one thing or another, but what’s left is to break the barrier and storm in. And so, about that barrier thing, when I see it for real with my own eyes it’s bad news. To put it in a word, it’s AMAZING. Not just amazing, it’s AMAZING. That’s just how bad news this barrier is.

From the fact that the Demon King can’t break it, it’s readily apparent just how strange it is. The Demon King’s status values of approximately 90,000 are a step below the System maximum. Given that she can’t break it, it means that with any status values in this world, it’s already impossible to break it. Not unless you surpass the limit. Thus, it can be said to be impossible to create such a thing with the power of the System. In other words, this barrier was created using technology that is unrelated to the System. Therefore, if you consider the technology capable of creating such a thing without using the System, there’s basically only one type. The super-technology that uses MA Energy. Moreover, to maintain a barrier of this intensity, a large quantity of MA Energy needs to be consumed. It takes some nerve to use a barrier with such ridiculous conditions. This is defective equipment that shortens the life of this planet while in use, basically. Hey Kuro, why did you neglect this thing all this time?

Well, all that ends today as well. It’s finally time to destroy this dangerous thing. And so, I take out a golden bat! It’s time for some baseball!

「Eh?」

The Demon King makes some kind of stupid voice, but this bat is amazing okay? Anyhow, it’s something from D’s place. The second convenient item from the single-use only series! If a full swing is made with this, oh my how strange! No matter what it’s made out of, it gets smashed to smithereens! Even the barrier would be no big deal.

Basically, it would be rather difficult to try to destroy this barrier with just my own power. That’s because my basic abilities are rather lopsided you see. If things didn’t go well it’s possible that a great quantity of MA Energy would be consumed. Therefore I’ll use whatever I can. Even if it’s something that D made!

Any time now the Imperial Army will fire off their great magic. I then just have to do a full swing with this at the same time. Well then… The batter’s box is ready! Player Shiro hits! It’s a home run! As if.

I do a full swing with the bat to match the timing of the Imperial Army firing the great magic. The bat pulverises the barrier into tiny pieces, and having performed its role the bat also breaks apart.

Okay. Let’s go then.

「Shiro-chan, what’s with that bat that had a totally AMAZING sinister aura just now?」

「Demon King, there’s many things that you are better off not knowing about, okay?」

Although the Demon King asked about the bat, I’d rather not have her poke her nose into D’s carefully made convenient goods. While they certainly are convenient, on the other hand they’re all terrifying to use. After all, it’s D who made them you know? Wouldn’t you be scared of having some terrible curse attached to you? I did do a careful check on them, and only used the ones that I could confirm don’t have such a thing, you see. But this is D we’re talking about, so it wouldn’t be surprising for something to slip through my checks. Even so, I will use them when it’s appropriate. They’re so convenient after all! Though saying that I only have one item left now. I used the clock on Kuro already, and the bat just now. I should have the cards left still, but I lost those at some point though. I wonder where they ended up?

Well, rather than worry about that now, it’s time to get the action started. When I use clairvoyance to get an overview of the state of the entire elf village, I see that losing the barrier has thrown the elves into panic and that the Imperial Army has begun to advance in high spirits with Natsume-kun in the vanguard. I shift my attention to the reincarnator residential area. Currently I can’t see any indication that the elves are about to do something to the reincarnators. In the past I had infiltrated inside the barrier with my clones just in case, secretly deploying the bile sisters, so that I could quickly rescue them in case anything happened. There’s an atmosphere like trouble seems to have broken out between the reincarnators themselves, but I guess that’s Ogiwara-kun, the spy the pope had sent in? It kinda seems like he screwed up. Hmm, well, there’s no problem to leave it as is.

Now while the elves are focused on the Imperial Army, it’s time that we began our own jobs. And so, let’s start moving. With me in the vanguard, I’m guiding the Demon King and co. I myself am capable of teleporting all over the place, but the Demon King isn’t able to you see. Besides, if I use teleportation it’s likely that the space tremor will be detected and our movement exposed. While we might have been exposed already, maybe we haven’t either. So just in case, we’ll take covert action.

I chose places without elves and plunge forwards. As we rush through the forest, I limit my speed enough so that the Demon King’s subordinates, the Puppet Taratekts, can keep up with us. I don’t neglect my intelligence gathering with clairvoyance while doing all this.

In spite of the desperate search made by the bile sisters, the exact location of Potimas has not been confirmed. It seems he was seriously rigorous about concealing himself. Truly, such prudence is typical of Potimas. However, the fact that he can’t be found instead becomes a clue for identifying his location. Not being able to find him after searching so much, means that he is in the places that can’t be searched. Having said that, it’s inconceivable that he chose somewhere outside the village. Since that Potimas is using a barrier of that magnitude, I doubt he would take a gamble on placing his main body outside. His main body must be inside the most secure barrier. And also, in a place within that barrier that couldn’t be searched. Considering all that, it’s possible to identify his location. He’s underground. Since he couldn’t be found after searching every nook and cranny above ground, he has to be there.

What I must discover, are the passages that lead underground. However, there’s no need to search. Above ground, there hasn’t been even a single sighting of a robot created using the super-technology that Potimas should have. In that case, they should be concealed below ground in the same place as Potimas’s main body. With the attack they’re facing, they won’t be able to cope without using those robots. At some point they will definitely be released. When that happens, we just have to attack the place that they come out from. Since the very place that they come out from should be a path that connects to where Potimas is.

And, right when I say that, about one kilometer ahead of us the ground surface suddenly splits open, and from there robots come creeping out. Wow. It’s some robots with an appearance like something that could appear in a certain war amongst the stars movie. Four arms and four legs. Those four arms have guns attached. A bunch of SF-like robots that don’t fit this fantasy world.

As soon as the robots get above ground, they start moving towards us. It seems that Mr Enemy has already noticed us. Using four legs for dexterity, they dash through the forest at high speed. They’re fast huh. Converting them into System status values, I guess around 5,000? For the Demon King and I that level of speed is trivial, but for the Puppet Taratekts it might be a bit of a hard fight. The Puppet Taratekts might have status values of over 10,000, but I don’t know how powerful the weapons that those robots are equipped with are though, and there’s a lot of them as well.

「Enemies approaching. I will deal with them.」

I briefly report to the Demon King and co. Immediately I move at high speed, before the robots can get close enough for visual contact, I activate my magecraft. Multiple bullets of darkness fly out, and rain down on the robot army. The robots are penetrated with barely any resistance, and are destroyed.

……How fragile. This is Potimas’s combat ability? Nah, can’t be. There’s no way it’s just this junk.

But, well, I’ve found the underground entrance. I ignore the wreckage of the destroyed robots as I pass through them, and arrive at the entrance that the robot army came out from. It seems that the lid to the entrance is being closed in a hurry, but I stop that by force. Or rather, I smash the lid itself.

The entrance that the robots came out from, has become a steep descent. Down there, is Potimas.

I exchange glances with the Demon King, who silently nods her head and heads down. From here on, only the Demon King will proceed. Because that is the Demon King’s desire. We will not interfere. However, to watch over her I’ve secretly placed a single miniscule size clone, and it accompanies her. Don’t die, demon King.

Now then, time for me to do what I can here.