CHAPTER 3
ATTACKED BY TITANS
Along the border between the Barren Lands and the Western Nations was a structure called the Long Wall.
The stories said it was built by the god Luminus to guard civilization—nowadays, the small nations on the other side—from the hot sands known as the Deadly Desert. It had been considered a sacred wall because it was protected by a special barrier of its own: the Monster Exclusion Barrier. It was common knowledge that it protected human-inhabited lands from outside intruders.
This barrier was activated to protect the Long Wall, blocking any monsters looking to invade from the Deadly Desert. The mechanism behind it was simple: It dispersed any large gathering of magicules in the area, preventing the spontaneous formation of giant monsters. At the same time, it actively repelled magicules, which meant the more powerful the monster, the more it was pushed away from the wall.
It wasn’t perfect, of course, and sometimes monsters made their way in through holes. However, since many desert dwellers hunted these monsters for a living, there hadn’t been any major problems so far.
The Long Wall was also considered the front line in the ongoing battle against monsters, making it a regular patrol site for the Crusaders. The paladins running these tours of duty would look for and repair wall breaches, as well as defeat monsters on the wrong side of the wall to keep the locals safe.
This long history behind the Long Wall had helped entrench the people’s faith in the god Luminus. The legend of this wall and the safety it offered had become an unshakable part of the culture.
But that day, after two thousand years, the Long Wall would reveal its true face.
A skeleton clad in sacred robes was atop the Long Wall. It was Adalmann.
Just a few moments before, a spatial distortion had been detected in the area. From it immediately sprang an army of giants, freshly teleported in.
“The enemy transported itself here. Ohhh, just as my master said!”
Adalmann almost sounded happy about it. Rimuru’s prediction coming true was a moment more of excitement for him than fear. But he wasn’t carried away enough to forget his task, either. Now that he had just sent a Thought Communication back home, he switched his attention to the battle in earnest.
Meanwhile, the giants who came in through the transport were totally convinced their sneak attack was a success. Thanks to Mai’s skill, they had just replaced several days of marching with a few quick steps through a portal. The enemy must have been in a state of complete panic.
Daggrull and his men had demonstrated their intention to march in order to catch Luminus off guard. They must’ve been basing their strategy on what they saw, so their ability to engage the giants couldn’t have been at its best.
But that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t anything worth panicking about—at least, not yet—and besides, they had built a defense network that could handle a monster strike, morning, noon, and night. They knew full well the real threats of the Bound Titans would take a while longer to arrive.
The threat with these invaders wasn’t numbers, but sheer overwhelming force. Each giant was built like a rock, and there were several different types of them—giant ogres, cyclops, multi-armed hecatoncheires. All had converged to stage this assault.
Seeing this army of Daggrull’s, Adalmann laughed. “Heavens, what a spectacle this is! It may be a little too much for my poor little skeletons to handle.”
“A little, you say…?”
A beautiful purple-haired woman next to him provided this retort. It was Shion, looking fine as always in her suit.
“To be honest, it may not be…all that easy, but I’m sure it’ll work out.”
Adalmann, being an unexpectedly competitive sort, didn’t like whining about his plight before a battle began. His army was all undead, after all, so he could always revive them.
“Oh? Do you have a plan?”
Shion was wondering why Adalmann was so confident.
“Well, nothing as elaborate as a plan, but Alberto’s command is certainly an impressive thing. And look at that! Feast your eyes on our army ranks!”
He pointed to the orderly lines of soldiers—the Immortal Legion—he ruled over.
“Have you noticed? The equipment granted to us by our god has reached even our swarms of bone soldiers!”
Shion realized what this was. Adalmann just wanted to show off to her.
………
……
…
Adalmann had command over a legion of undead monsters he had summoned. These immortal creatures, marching in a single lengthy line in perfect rhythm, were one of the more spectacular sights inside the Long Wall at that moment.
It consisted of two thousand death knights. This was an unkillable order of undead knights, mounted on death horses and led by Death Lord officers. Each death knight was clad in full-body “magic mail,” top-quality armor crafted in the dwarven workshops. They weren’t forged by Garm himself, but the apprentices responsible used generous amounts of highly purified magisteel in each set, making them truly high-end products. They all did their jobs exceedingly well, and the magic mail resonated with the demonic force of the death knights themselves, merging with each body.
With this dramatic increase in their defense and offense, these death knights were much more dangerous than the A-minus they were originally assigned would suggest. They were all now about as close to an A as one could get, strong enough to live up to their reputations as their force’s main attackers.
They weren’t alone, either. In addition to that main force, there were a few other hidden gems on the team.
Deployed atop the Long Wall were sets of lower-ranked monsters, the sort that lacked any really direct offensive punch. There were fifty thousand of them in all—ten thousand zombie soldiers, twenty thousand bone soldiers, ten thousand bone archers, and ten thousand bone knights. A lot of large numbers, but each troop was a pushover, ranking a D at best.
None of them would be useful as soldiers, but their secret lay in their equipment. Adalmann had reason to be proud of it—it was a vast investment, with the Tempest workshops working overtime to craft this new set of weapons. They all sported matching armor, and although the colors varied by rank, this armor was as high-quality as anything else bearing the Tempest seal. Each set offered a decent amount of protection, as well as fire and cold resistance as an added bonus.
Another thing that stood out was the portable, recoil-free missile launchers the bone archers carried. These weapons, capable of firing projectiles at five times the speed of sound, were packed with both explosives and compressed magical force. The ammunition was carried by the bone soldiers, two of them assigned to support a single bone archer. The result: ten thousand mobile artillery batteries. Each trio didn’t have a ton of bullets, though—just the one loaded from the start, plus two more carried by each soldier, for a total of fifty thousand shots across the whole force.
Furthermore, the zombie shoulders were carrying assault rifles. These worked with gunpowder, no magic involved, but their destructive force was underestimated at one’s peril. The rifles wouldn’t affect enemies that were resistant to physical attacks, but against the low-level giants, they’d probably perform quite well.
Firearms like these had been fully researched and implemented in battle, but they were illegal to manufacture by decree from Rimuru. For this war, however, permission was granted for their experimental deployment, on the condition that each gun needed both an engraved production number and a magic tracker installed. This was one of those cases where Rimuru was so busy with work one day that he just stamped his seal of approval on whatever documents crossed his desk without really looking at them. (Only Ciel knew that, however.) Rimuru had no idea he had approved this, and maybe Adalmann was better off not knowing that.
These weren’t the only secret weapons, either. Last but not least were the bone knights’ equipment. Remarkably, they were all equipped with the same type of imperial magic saber and even had spellguns dangling from their belts—thorough if nothing else. These arms were seized from the Empire and redistributed, greatly boosting the bone knights’ offense, although it left them much more undefended. It was a pretty rash move to make, but the way Adalmann saw it, if these undead rank and filers didn’t fear death at all, their weak fighting strength could be somewhat covered for if he incorporated some suicide tactics into their orders.
That was the whole Immortal Legion—an army of immortals who didn’t have to eat or sleep, assigned to provide the first line of defense against attacks.
The thing about this army, though, was that all their stats had gone up after accepting Adalmann’s rule. Their attributes had also been changed by Holy-Evil Inversion, a part of the ultimate gift Grimoire, so they were unaffected by the Monster Exclusion Barrier placed over the Long Wall. Even by day, they could conduct their maneuvers with no difficulty at all. These troops couldn’t be revived if defeated, unlike in the labyrinth…but holy magic no longer worked on them, so they couldn’t be “purified” by moves like Turn Undead.
How terrifying would an undead foe that had become a holy entity be? Just ask the enemies forced to deal with them. Normal attacks didn’t kill them, so the only way to stop them at all was to hack them apart.
So the Immortal Legion was deployed to engage the enemy, taking advantage of the Long Wall’s structure as it did.
The wall was built so an observer up at the top, sixteen feet above, had a full view ahead of them, which was useful for sniper warfare. It was originally constructed under the command of Luminus, after all, as a defense line against Daggrull’s attempts at territorial expansion. They weren’t expecting the Immortal Legion to carry these sorts of weapons, though. The original plan called for vampires to lob magic at any invaders to fend them off, but if they had something better now, there was no reason not to use it. Better not to sweat the details, as Rimuru would say.
………
……
…
Shion’s eyes narrowed as she looked down at the proud soldiers serving Adalmann. Her initial, honest assessment: No matter how many skeletons you lined up, what was the use? But when she saw the equipment they had, she changed her mind. Or more to the point…
“Adalmann… If I might ask, how did you procure all that equipment?”
A soldier’s gear was provided by their superiors. That was the common understanding among all the officers. If you applied for something and got permission, it’d be sent right over to you. Such gear deployments, however, ran on a waiting list, one not even the top brass could skip ahead on.
First dibs on the gear produced in Tempest’s forges were given to the Second Army Corps, headed by Geld. No one complained about that, as that corps was directly involved with homeland defense. Everyone in that force had at least some equipment. There was so much around that maintenance was a hassle, but being made of magisteel, most scratches repaired themselves. Even now, in fact, most of the forges’ output went right to the Second Corps.
After the Second Corps, the forges’ second job was to build commercial gear for adventurers. This was one way Tempest earned its foreign currency, so even if Team Reborn leader Shion wanted to nab some of that gear for her own squad, she was barred from it.
Thanks to all this, if a Tempest officer like her wanted to get some free gear for their troops, they’d have to wait far too long for it.
Team Reborn, for example, was full of beefy guys who trained constantly every day. That was commendable, of course, but could also be counterproductive. Some might take it for granted, since they were professional soldiers, but they often broke their equipment or tore their uniforms, so they had to visit repair shops on a pretty frequent basis. All the work was provided for free, of course, something Shion received a lot of complaints about.
There was no way she could beg for new equipment while her army was antagonizing the top brass, so Team Reborn’s official gear set hadn’t changed at all from its first version. Even that first-gen stuff was only given to officers and the original members; new recruits couldn’t even touch any of it. They’d instead get equipment made by apprentices for practice and stuff like that. Work was being done on improving these items, but there was no uniformity to any of it, forcing soldiers to demonstrate their Team Reborn affiliation by wearing purple armbands or bandannas.
For Shion, who had no choice but to plead to Rimuru for some new gear, seeing the relative newcomer Adalmann secure all this fancy junk raised all sorts of questions. When she asked about it, the skeleton smiled.
“Oh, it’s very simple. I took several wagonloads of the cheap equipment worn by adventurers, melted it down, then used the monetary proceeds to purchase iron ore directly… That sort of thing. I have contacts in the merchant class, so I called in some favors, too.”
“Wait. I didn’t think you saw any labyrinth challengers make it down to your floor yet.”
Shion was right to suspect Adalmann. He was the overseer of Floors 61 through 70, which counted as hidden levels.
“Ha-ha-ha! Well, I have my best handmade monsters visit the other levels. It helps train them, too, you know. Two birds with one stone!”
So Adalmann was sending his monsters around to work a side gig of sorts for him. The classic “it’s not a crime if nobody saw it” kind of thing. Shion was impressed he had kept it going for this long.
“Oh, and you know, the imperial soldiers who invaded the labyrinth… I was quite impressed with all the rather nice equipment they had! But hunting down iron golems was the big moneymaker, of course…”
Adalmann’s cheerful voice explained everything to Shion. Now she was sure of it. He wasn’t just playing around with adventurers in the labyrinth. He was gathering raw materials, too.
Floors 51 to 60 had a lot of rocky terrain; you’d occasionally see golems down there. The iron golems among them were rich in high-quality ore, and if you defeated them, stored them somewhere in the labyrinth, and waited long enough, you’d “grow” a cache of high-quality magisteel. Iron golems were tough enough to make for good training, and you could also harvest material from them. It really was two birds with one stone, and Shion couldn’t help but grit her teeth after seeing how well-funded it had made Adalmann.
Or, really…
Wait. Is he making more money than I am?!
The thought struck Shion like a thunderbolt. For all she knew, Adalmann wasn’t the only floor boss padding his wallet this way. As for Shion? Well, she never had much attachment to money in the first place.
The ogre homeland she lived in had some otherworlder blood, so they had knowledge of their practices. She understood the concept of money and all…but really, she was indifferent to it. Only recently did she begin paying attention to stuff like that. It felt patently absurd to see her worry about Adalmann raking more of it in than her, given she didn’t even own a wallet.
Recently, though, Shion’s force had seen a wealth of new recruits. She recognized she could no longer run it like some money-rejecting commune. They couldn’t dance around it any longer—Team Reborn’s officers seemed to be struggling more than she was, and clearly she couldn’t keep ignoring her financial situation any longer.
Incidentally, people like Benimaru and Soei were earning a surprisingly large amount of money, using their abundant funds to purchase all kinds of new equipment for those serving them. They also offered generous job benefits to their troops, making their forces a popular place of employment. Gabil, unexpectedly enough, was also doing pretty well for himself. Anything he and Vester discovered in the lab was patented in both of their names, earning them a regular income. They paid their employees regular salaries, too, and none of them ever had any trouble covering equipment costs.
So yes, Shion was the poorest among them.
The shocking revelation was just starting to sink in when Ultima, ordered by Rimuru to provide support, called out to her.
“Don’t worry about it, Shion. Who cares about earning money when you can just take it from the enemy?”
The classic demon’s solution. And this was the chief prosecutor of Tempest, charged with taking on crime and evil deeds. The media would have a field day.
“Oh, I see! That does make sense!”
“Right! I’m really smart, so I know!”
And as they carried on, Adalmann next to them couldn’t help but think:
I’m really not sure this a suitable topic to bring up in a war zone…
Yes, he was taking equipment away from adventurers in the labyrinth. But he only seized that gear after ensuring the party was all safe. Besides, Adalmann was a person with uncommonly decent common sense, a throwback to when he was still a living human. As he shopped around for this equipment, he gave assorted bribes to the relevant craftsmen, ensuring he got preferential treatment. Shion would probably shout, “do it for free!” at them, but Adalmann would never dream of that. That was why he was able to acquire all this decent-enough gear for all the undead around there.
Maybe I should have kept quiet about this with Lady Shion, he thought—a very wise conclusion. Loose lips sink ships and all. Master Gadora, his good friend who had also come to help him, nodded in agreement.
Certainly even Adalmann thought it was a bit of an issue for his troops to have better gear than the most senior of Shion’s elite guard. Common sense dictated the strong should be favored over the weak…but he didn’t want to get targeted, and he really should have kept all this from Shion.
“Now, Lady Shion,” he said, in a hurry to change the subject, “we will be taking the lead on this as planned.”
Shion nodded. Her attention was on the enemy ahead.
“Sounds great! I will allow that, so go teach them a lesson!”
Permission was given—a tremendous relief to Adalmann.
The battle began. And just like that, Daggrull’s army—ready to mow down everything in their way as they stormed the holy city—found themselves suddenly blocked.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login