Work Text:
Year 856
After years of hard work planning and masterminding, our war against humanity is in full swing. Let's break down what's going down across the world right now:
- Boobs' Second Army utilized those annoying "revenge monkeys" to take down Fort Okun (from my own personal experience, that's a rough end for those human soldiers, ouch), resulting in the utter destruction of the human forces there with basically no losses on our side. However, the monkeys have moved into the fort now, so pretty much nobody gets to have it in the end.
- Shota's Sixth Army attacked Fort Dazzaro, but the humans there put up a better resistance. In the end, Shota himself was killed by a long distance Light Magic shot by the enemy commander.
- At another fort, Mera and his Fourth Army had to retreat. His old "enemies" Tagawa and Kushitani were there to fight him, but the biggest trouble came from an unexpectedly powerful magic user that even shot Mera through the heart! Luckily he's okay, but sheesh...
- Me and my Tenth Army ambushed a squad of elves that attempted to use the chaos as a way to sneak onto our lands, and we even took down one of Potimas' clones.
- Mr. Oni utterly annihilated both enemy and ally forces with his magic sword booby traps. The fort fell to his Eighth Army, although like I said, they suffered heavy casualties themselves.
- I guess the Third and Fifth armies are also doing things too.
Right now, the First and Seventh Armies led by Colonel and Deadbeat respectively are attacking Fort Kusorion. Out of all the battles, this one is maybe the most consequential of all, due to one unique factor: the hero is here!
That's right, I've been keeping tabs on him, and his whole party is here in anticipation of our war. We have the Seventh Army going out to bait the party into coming out of their fortified hidey-hole - and then I'm gonna drop a queen taratect on them all!
Hm? What's that? Doesn't that mean we'll lose the Seventh Army, too? Well, it's entirely made up of the failed rebellion we took care of a few years back, so if anything, this is gonna be their penance for trying to fight the Demon Lord. In fact, their leader Deadbeat still hates the Demon Lord (he's not really good at hiding it either), but at least we've got an exit plan in place for him, on account of him being a decent commander and Balto's little brother.
Due to having to rain on Potimas' parade, I wasn't here when the battle first began, but by the time that I teleport into the area, the hero's party has finally been lured out. Currently, Colonel is taking on the hero's friends while Deadbeat is doing a one-on-one with the hero himself. I have to admit, even though he doesn't have a chance at beating the hero, he's holding up his own fairly well.
He's riding on his trusty steed while trading sword blows with the hero. I imagine that besides the Colonel, any other demon here who tried that against the hero would've been done for in less than a minute. In fact, the battlefield is littered by demons that the hero cut through.
Meanwhile, I have to give the same kudos to the hero's party. Even without their main guy, they're lasting decently long against the Colonel. They've even managed to get him off his flying mount and forced him to fight on the ground with them.
I know the plan is to throw a queen taratect upon them and extract Colonel and Deadbeat, but seeing these fierce fights go on, I can't help but let them have their fun.
For the humans, it's the last normal fight they'll get to have before they die in despair, and for the other two, it's the last they'll get to contribute to this war before I steal the spotlight.
I can be nice, you know?
So I sit down and enjoy the show, while everyone else involved are none the wiser to my presence.
I guess I could be doing this back at the command center, which I've decked out to be able to witness these events from the comfort of home, but then I'd just have to teleport back in a few minutes anyway, so I might as well just stay put.
Maybe in another life, I would've decided to head there first, just to be sure that this battle had reached the stage where I need to get involved. But it's not this life.
Suddenly, the hero manages to knock Deadbeat's sword back so far, it creates the opportunity for him to strike out hard before Deadbeat can respond. Just before I can think that maybe now's a good time for a queen taratect, somebody else reacts first.
Deadbeat's loyal steed thrashes around, keeping its rider away from the hero's sword, but taking the hit instead. Its back leg is cut into, and with a terrible sound the whole limb comes off, bringing the poor horsie to the ground. This also makes Deadbeat get thrown off, but he executes two or three rolls on the ground and springs back to his feet.
Somewhere, someone's holding up a 10 score sign board.
Deadbeat looks over and the look on his face, for once, makes me forget how annoying he can be. Not only did he just lose his loyal horse, but it was all due to self-sacrifice.
I think I recall Balto once mentioning that Deadbeat raised that thing since it was a baby, so that must make it all the worse to see it laying there for dead.
Because even though it hasn't breathed its last, such an injury is fatal to a horse, and there's no way Deadbeat can beat the hero fast enough to allow the horse to get healed up.
There's no way Deadbeat can beat the hero at all, and at the same time, the hero's party is just resisting falling to the Colonel.
I guess we're nearing the time where I need to step in, huh?
With a new drive following his horse's sacrifice, Deadbeat resumes his one-on-one duel with the hero, but it's still not enough to turn the odds in his favor.
Eventually, the hero knocks him back with Light Magic. Deadbeat tries to heal himself, but it uses up precious stamina.
The hero stands over him, yet doesn't move to end things. In fact, I can see his lips moving, while Deadbeat is shouting back at him.
I've been observing this hero for awhile, so I got a feeling I know what's going on.
Unlike the Demon Lord title, the Hero title is inherited. When the hero dies, the system sifts through all the living humans for the one most worthy of the title, then bestows it upon them.
And this one is truly befitting the title "hero". He's a goody two shoes that wants to make the world a peaceful place and is willing to throw himself at any suicidal venture to do so. No matter how much of the world's darkness gets thrown at him, like Potimas' human-trafficking schemes, he doesn't give up hope that his ideal can be reached, and neither does he give in to selfishness.
Even now, he must not have given up on the idea that he could potentially reason with the demons and end the war peacefully.
What he doesn't realize is that these guys have no choice. Defying the Demon Lord results in death, and the Demon Lord only wants war with humans.
From the demons' perspective at least. In actuality, the Demon Lord and I need a calamity with tons of losses on all sides in order to complete our plan of breaking the system and saving the world.
And that means sending all these demons out to kill humans and die in the process.
There's no way the hero can convince them to go turncoat now. We've already culled out the open rebels, and intimidated the rest into submission. They know that they'll die anyway, but the path with the tiniest bit of hope left is if they win this war, so that's the plan they'll go all-in on.
Deadbeat included.
"Well, I guess I'll go bring down the Demon Lord, then."
The hero makes this declaration as Deadbeat, with far less eloquence than I, makes him see as much.
"If the Demon Lord is the cause of the war, then all I have to do is defeat her. Besides..." He pauses for a moment, taking on a half-joking tone while his eyes maintain seriousness. "It's the hero's duty to defeat the Demon Lord, isn't it?"
What a perfect cue for me! If that's what he thinks, then I might as well answer the challenge, right?
Even though I'm not the Demon Lord he's talking about, defeating her means defeating me, and there's plenty of strong allies he'll have to get through first.
Like this queen taratect!
I pull it out from my pocket dimension and the ground shakes the moment its legs plop onto it.
Speaking of defeating me, this queen taratect is actually one of my mini-mes.
All these years, I've been feeding them corpses and letting them train, until they got as strong as a real queen taratect.
So, yes, technically this isn't actually a real queen taratect. However, the outcome should still be the same as if I brought out a real one, so let's just keep referring to it as a queen taratect, okay?
This mini-me worked really hard to become one after all!
Its arrival brings a halt to all the battle that's been going on as everyone in the area looks at the thing in fear.
Among the first to break out of the stupor is the hero, who begins to shout to the remaining forces.
"Run! I'll buy some time! Run away!"
Then he sprints toward the queen taratect, leaving Deadbeat behind. Meanwhile, Deadbeat is still kneeling on the ground, stunned. And maybe not just because of the queen taratect at this point.
Seeing this, I make my move and head towards him. When I stop in front of him, the sight of my feet snaps him out of it, and he looks up at me.
After a moment of thought, he suddenly starts shouting and jumping to his feet.
"Don't tell me you summoned that thing?"
The shout combined with the sudden movement startles me, and I lean away as he draws closer.
Okay, so even though I'm up to date on everyone else, maybe they're not up to date on me.
Tactically, you don't want the enemy to know every trick up your sleeve, but not all of our allies are in the know either.
To be fair, in the case of Deadbeat, he's been busy training up his Seventh Army and keeping the former-rebels in line.
But really?! That doesn't give him the right to scare a girl like that!
"You idiot! What if you die out here, huh?!"
At Deadbeat's continued shouting, and talking strangely at that, I tilt my head despite the nerves.
What's he talking about? I know not everyone knows the full deal about me, but even so, just being a commander in the Demon Army should show I'm pretty strong. Especially since I got this cushy job from being a close ally of the Demon Lord, who doesn't just keep scrubs around.
What? That sounds like nepotism, and would give anyone the right to doubt if I'm truly capable? Now you're talking even crazier than Deadbeat, silly!
Besides that, there's also the fact I'm specifically the commander of the Tenth Army.
Before I took charge, that army was just for show. There weren't that many members and they never saw real battle. The same was true for the Eighth and Ninth armies.
After I became the commander, however, I completely refined the training regiment and made all my soldiers so strong, I think they could even give some of the army commanders a run for their money.
However, it's also true that up to this point, most of the Tenth Army's time was spent training up to be badasses, and as a consequence they haven't been seen in public. This led to the rumor that it's mainly for intelligence-gathering, which I guess isn't entirely false. I do that kind of work and I started having the soldiers help with my workload. Yet everyone in the Tenth Army is also trained for proper combat, and have even taken out some strong targets before.
Like I said before, we just took out an elf squad led by Potimas.
So surely, even if Deadbeat doesn't know everything, just these facts should clue him in that I'm not so weak as to die here.
As he said, I brought this queen taratect here. And while he doesn't know it's really a mini-me from my pocket dimension, his own misunderstandings are contradicting themselves.
He's just looking angrier and angrier every second, though, and I don't know how to deal with that. It's just all so out of the blue. How can I reason with a ticking bomb like that?
"Why the hell didn't you refuse such a dangerous mission?!"
But I guess I should, because otherwise we're just gonna be stuck here with him shouting at me while the queen taratect destroys everything around us. Which, despite what he may think, is only gonna be trouble for him.
Plus, I gotta also grab the Colonel, too.
"Dammit!"
At that exclamation, Deadbeat suddenly turns on his heel.
"You get outta here right now!"
Huh? Did I hear that correctly? He's ordering me around?
He does know those "Seventh Army" and "Tenth Army" names don't mean anything hierarchical, right? It's just counting out how many individual armies we have at our disposal. It's organizational.
We're both commanders. Commanders don't have any power over each other, they're equals.
Although, if anyone does have power over another, it's me! I'm more important in the grand scheme of the Demon Lord's forces, and I'm even a freaking god!
Yeah, that's right! I'm a god and Deadbeat here is just a puny commander! His whole army isn't even a real thing, just a place we scrambled all the surviving rebels into so they could eventually fulfill their role as sacrificial pawns.
So I should just go up to this guy and lay it on him! You don't get to call me weak and then boss me around!
"Bloe."
What comes out of my mouth is Deadbeat's real name.
Look, my feet are tired from standing around, so I'll just call him over to me instead.
It's a better power move than catching up with him, trust me!
"What is it?"
"Retreat."
I try to muster all my rage and bossiness into the word, but it's still pretty soft and monotone.
To accent the command, though, I hold out my hand.
How do you like that, asshole?! No way you can just do as you please now!
Come here like a good puppy dog, huh?!
Ah, maybe I'm letting the bossiness get to my head a little.
"...I appreciate the thought, but 'fraid I can't do that."
Yet despite my attempt, he still shoots me down.
"A commander can't run away before his troops do, yeah?"
But our plan was all about letting them die...
"Go ahead without me. I'll be right behind ya."
He breaks into a run afterward, not even giving me a chance to speak.
I pause and blink. Even if he gave me the opportunity, I wouldn't have been able to say anything quickly, and now I definitely don't know what to do.
What the hell just happened? From the way he was talking, it sounded almost heroic.
Yet this is the most idiotic thing he could do! Everything's already going to plan, idiot! Everything except me extracting you and the Colonel!
But I guess it's a little on me, for having such difficulty in talking.
What should I do, though? At this rate, the queen taratect is gonna kill the two people that were supposed to survive.
At that, I realize there's only one thing I can do.
I teleport into the command center. The Demon Lord and Balto's eyes are glued to the screens, but the former is able to detect my arrival.
"Oh? Good timing, White."
This brings Balto's attention back from the screen. To be fair to him, he's anxious at the thought of his little brother dying.
"Kinda looks like Bloe's gonna die at this rate."
The Demon Lord remarks as much.
"Hrmmm. I thought Agner would be able to hold his own against the hero, but maybe I was giving him too much credit?"
She even goes as far as to joke about the Colonel.
"Agner's fighting hard. The hero's party is just really strong."
I can't help myself. She's talking things far too lightly.
"What-? ...Whoa, I thought I was hearing things. White, did you just speak up for Agner or what?"
Both the Demon Lord and Balto stare at me in shock.
You could even say that the act of me speaking up scared them or something.
I shut my trap in response.
Why are you staring at me like that?! This is exactly why I stay quiet!
Talk about punishing the behavior you wanna see! Unreal.
"Huh. So that's what you're into, huh? The fatherly type?"
The Demon Lord recovers and is back to talking nonsense.
But what she's implying instantly makes me shake my head, to the point of my hair whipping around.
"I know, I know. It was just a joke."
Well, now's not the time for jokes!
To emphasize that, I point towards Deadbeat on the screen.
"Hm? Actually, weren't you supposed to be grabbing him and Agner and bringing them over here? What happened with that?"
"Won't listen to me."
I say that, but technically, I never even approached the Colonel in the first place.
Well, it's not like he'd be as disobedient as Deadbeat, so he can hold on for another few minutes.
"Uh... hoo boy, really? If those two get killed in this mess, what was the point of tagging in the queen taratect in the first place?"
The Demon Lord furrowed her brow.
She says that, as if we weren't going to throw it down there anyway.
Then she turns to Balto.
"Hey, Balto."
"Yes?"
Despite everything he's witnessed so far, he maintains a calm expression.
"Would you mind giving Bloe a little call?"
She's referring to the smartphones, allowing us to speak with our commanders from a long distance.
It's also what was on my mind when I came here, but I let her teasing distract me.
I couldn't manage to get through to Deadbeat, in part because I have trouble with talking to others. But here's two candidates who can do that for me.
But I understand why the Demon Lord is delegating the task to Balto. Besides the fact he's Deadbeat's older brother, even though the Demon Lord is ruler over all demons, Deadbeat's anger towards her might influence him.
"Uh, is this thing on?"
"Bloe!"
It takes a little while, but Deadbeat soon answers.
Smartphones are still new tech around here, so it makes sense that he wasn't sure what he had to do.
In fact, it takes a moment for him to fully realize that he's talking to his brother.
"Bloe, Lady White is coming back for you. Leave your soldiers and return with her."
"Hungh?! You're really tellin' me to just ditch my people and get out of here?"
Yet just like with me, Deadbeat just starts getting pissy about it. It looks like not even his brother can get through to him on this.
"Sorry, brother. I'm not gonna do that, even if it's on your order."
"...I thought you might say that."
In fact, it looks like Balto himself was expecting this.
"Bloe. The Seventh Army soldiers are former rebels. You shouldn't worry about them."
"Former, yeah? But they're my soldiers now. That's a more than good enough reason to worry about them."
So that's what the problem was? Even though they were rebels and marked for death, he still feels responsible for them? To the point of throwing away his life for them?
But on reflection, I guess that's how he managed to wrangle them this whole time. We didn't exactly hide the fact that we didn't care for them. If anyone else was their commander, even though they knew rebellion was useless, they might still be demoralized to the point of being dead weight.
Deadbeat managed to lift their spirits somehow, even if it wasn't by that much. It was enough that they gave it their all in their suicidal battle. Maybe it wasn't out of desperation like every other army is motivated by. Maybe it was out of true respect for their commander.
Wait, that sounds like Deadbeat has some redeeming qualities after all, besides just being decent with swinging a sword?
"Even so! ...Bloe, please. You're far more important to me than any of them..."
"Brother..."
Balto's finally pulled out the brotherly-love card. If this fails, then there's truly no getting Deadbeat outta there.
"...I'm sorry."
"...You really insist on staying there?"
"Yeah."
And there it is.
The phone conversation between brothers continues, but now it's not about convincing Deadbeat to retreat. Everyone's accepted his decision.
Including me.
Because hearing his side of the story and reflecting on it, I look back at the screen showing the battle with a new outlook.
All our forces there believe they're gonna die.
Colonel's now the one holding out against the hero's party. Even though two of their members go down in a suicidal play, he struggles against the remaining two.
Deadbeat's going around the battlefield, trying to gather his remaining soldiers and get them away from where the queen taratect is attacking.
They're in a nightmare scenario against a legendary monster, yet they're still holding onto their weapons and going about with fighting intent.
They've accepted their deaths, but not the possibility they can take the enemy with them.
I look into their eyes on the screen and see a specific pair reflected back.
Not my own.
Araba.
The terrifying earth dragon that once traumatized me, that seemed like the pinnacle of strength back when I was a tiny spider monster.
Since escaping the labyrinth, I've since met monsters and warriors that trump his strength, yet there's one thing I'll never forget about him.
His resolve at the end of his life. He gave it his all when I finally grew strong enough to face him, throwing out tricks I imagine he hadn't needed to use in years. I even forced him to have to tap into his hoard of saved up supplies.
Once his strength was exhausted and his defeat certain, he laid there and accepted my domination over him.
I wanted so badly for him to keep fighting. I couldn't bear to see the peak of the world just lay there and take it from me.
That determination I wanted to see is now playing out on this battlefield. Agner is displaying it. Bloe is displaying. Even the throwaway former-rebel soldiers are displaying it.
At this point, how could I ruin that by swooping in and saving them from what they want?
Because yeah, I didn't even need Bloe's consent to teleport him. I could've gone over and grabbed him and teleported here.
At first, I was just too nervous to do such a thing. But I think now I was also subconsciously picking up on what I just realized. Maybe that's also why I didn't go over to Agner, and why I defended him when the Demon Lord remarked so lightly about his performance.
"All right, I better get going."
"Ah, wait! Bloe?! Bloe!"
Bloe finally hangs up on his brother, and we're forced to do nothing else but watch the rest of the battle unfold.
Agner is finally killed by the hero's party, but at the cost of two of their members. The remaining two rush over to catch up with the hero, who is struggling to fight the queen taratect.
The saint pushes the hero out of the way of one of the queen taratect's leg attacks, being crushed to death in the process.
But that ends up causing the hero to summon up a newfound strength, and he rallies the remaining human forces to defeat the queen taratect.
And to our surprise, he beats it with his regular old sword and one of Mr. Oni's magic ones.
Besides the fact we didn't expect him to somehow get his hands on one, what we were hoping to draw out of his arsenal never came.
An enemy that should've only gone down against the legendary Sword of the Hero instead was taken out through other means, while the hero still lives.
We lost everyone, and we didn't even achieve our goal in the end.
I say that, but Bloe is still up and running. However, he's getting ready to challenge the hero one more time, so it's a no-brainer what his fate will be.
Which means we need to do something else in order to salvage this.
"White?"
At the Demon Lord's call, I know what I must do.
I teleport to the battlefield right as Bloe suffers a fatal blow, his corpse collapsing.
"I'll say it one more time. Leave now!"
The hero turns to the remaining demon forces, issuing them a final warning.
Still clinging to that desperate hope.
Unfortunately for him...
I step out into view.