"Monsters, like the ones in movies?" Miura asked.
"Exactly, from zombies and mummies to minotaurs and fauns, honestly I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself," Hikigaya said.
Through the undead wyverns he had spread across the entire perimeter, he could observe the whole situation at any moment as if they were security cameras.
"How strong are they?" Koneko asked.
"I can't be sure since I only share vision with the undead and not the other senses, but they don't seem too strong."
"Then most likely they are just the vanguard troops, meant to test the waters," Kirito analyzed, and the rest nodded at his words, finding it the most likely scenario.
"It seems it's already starting, but before acting..." Kirito turned toward Koneko before addressing her with respect. "Miss Koneko, when Lord Lucifer is not present, the next in line who can command the demons are Kaguya, Ai, and you, I request permission to give orders."
"Granted," Koneko agreed immediately, since she did not really want to take charge of the task, Kirito was much more suited for it.
"Good, then the current troops consist of 10000 units.
Among them there are 300 mid level demons and 30 high level ones.
As for us, although sending low and mid level troops and demons is fine since they can resurrect, I recommend that anyone whose power is not at least equal to high level demons refrain from going. Of course, excluding special support cases," Kirito said while looking at the others.
"Tomoya, Eriri, and Utaha are in their villages, I made them stay there since they are not very powerful," Megumi nodded, having thought something similar.
As for her own strength, although she could not fight head on, ambushing and dealing with beings at the level of high level demons was easy.
"Although individually we are not very strong, together we can reach that level, and since we are at a distance, we will not suffer damage."
With the resources of Kaito's territory, Hikigaya and Miura had leveled up much faster than when they were alone.
Additionally, just as the title of "territory lord" increases a lord's stats and skill effects by 100% within their territory, the title of "territory sublord" increases them by 50%.
Because of that, the control area of Hikigaya and Miura's undead had already reached Kaito's entire territory.
Which, by the way, currently measures around 95000 square meters, within Hell, almost the same as the capital of the dark elves in the black forest.
"I... am not that strong, I guess I'll stay here."
"Same here."
Chika and Maki stepped back, fully aware of their limits.
While Maki's ability is an almost perfect imitation of her target, it does not include their skills, and her overall strength outside that ability is quite low.
The same goes for Chika, who outside her special abilities did not have much strength, and as for those same abilities, aside from some like entering other people's minds or knowing their desires, most were perverted abilities she did not want to use.
Of course, entering other people's minds is quite powerful, but it first requires them to be extremely relaxed, something that is most easily achieved while they are asleep. In short, her ability was useless at this moment.
"Even if we are not strong, the ode of power and the ode of weakness can be useful on the battlefield," Arima said while holding Kaori's hand, and she nodded.
Just as their names suggest, these were their most powerful abilities, a combined musical skill that strengthened allies and one that weakened enemies.
"I don't have any kind of combat power, I'll stay here," Shiho said.
"My strength can't do anything against a large army, but I can communicate with all the citizens who have taken classes with me in the magic tower before, I'll coordinate them along with Gwen to keep them safe," Charmcaster spoke, pulling Gwen along with her.
"Me?" Gwen pointed at herself, confused.
"Yes, stop sticking to your second mother all the time and help me."
"...Alright," Gwen resigned herself before looking at Lala with concern.
"You're not going out there, right?"
"Me? Of course not," Lala denied immediately, as if Gwen had said something impossible. "I'll be in charge of controlling the device I built to vibrate the city, just let me know when you need it," she explained.
"Good," Kirito nodded. "Miss Koneko, Miss Mashiro, you are the only ones left."
"After helping Kaguya, I have little mana left," Mashiro said, frowning, annoyed at herself.
"So you won't be able to participate?"
"I can, but I won't be able to do much," Mashiro denied.
"Just do your best," Kirito nodded and looked at Koneko.
"As the strongest, I will stay here to protect the territory core," Koneko said.
"Good, I was thinking the same," Kirito agreed with her choice, and finally looked at Asuna beside him, he did not need an answer, she simply nodded confidently and took his hand.
"Alright then, this is how we will split..."
...
Shu, the bulky man who had just released dozens of skeletons, was sitting on top of a rock, watching the monsters advance in the distance with boredom.
"Aren't they taking too long to react?" he wondered, noticing that Kaito's territory had not responded yet.
"You know how this is, the Union tends to take any problem too seriously, maybe they simply don't have a way."
Hearing him mutter, another man with the same build nearby approached to chat.
"Maybe," Shu snorted.
"ROOOARRR."
But they could not continue their conversation, as everyone's attention was drawn to the enormous skeletal wyverns filling the sky as they roared, announcing their presence.
"Are those dragons?" his companion asked, no longer interested in chatting, turning serious.
"Wyverns," Shu corrected before muttering. "Looks like the necromancer in the area has already joined him."
As the seconds passed, the wyverns finally reached the monsters and began attacking.
Monsters like zombies, ghouls, or skeletons were instantly destroyed with a single swipe.
"Useless trash," Shu mocked as he watched.
Luckily, they had brought stronger monsters than just those, and he trusted in numbers.
Just as he expected, in the distance, Shu saw a skeletal wyvern trapped within hundreds of bandages.
"Rooaaar," the wyvern roared, trying to break free, flapping its large bone wings without success.
Finally, as it struggled, a massive minotaur took advantage of it being trapped and slammed a huge mace onto its skeletal head, destroying it completely.
The rest of the wyvern's body fell apart like Lego pieces, collapsing to the ground without maintaining its shape.
Shu smiled at the sight and turned his attention back to the battlefield.
Similar situations were repeating all over the battlefield, although many monsters were dying quickly, numbers prevailed, slowly defeating the wyverns.
"Looks like we won't even have to act, huh?" he joked to his companion.
However, when he received no response, he found it strange and turned to check on him.
And there he saw it, his companion was on the ground, completely motionless, not just him, the others nearby were also all lying on the ground.
Shu crouched and touched his companion's body.
"His body is completely relaxed, he was attacked by surprise, and very quickly," he analyzed.
Knowing the attacker's method, he became alert, cautiously looking around.
To his left, everyone was dead, to his right, they were alive, it was obvious to assume he would be next.
At that moment, he felt something behind him and immediately turned.
It was a girl, a teenager, short dark bob cut hair at neck length, and a completely indifferent expression.
"I found you," she said, moving toward her and throwing a direct punch.
He knew that Lords had strange abilities, but he still trusted in his own strength of 5000 kg.
However, his punch never connected, instead it passed completely through the girl as if nothing was there.
At the same time, he felt something at his neck.
Looking down, he saw blood running down his chest from his neck.
Without understanding what had happened, he grabbed his neck trying to stop the bleeding, but in the end he simply fell to the ground without ever truly understanding how he died.
At the end of his life, he could only see how the girl looked at him with indifference, her expression never changing, before moving on to her next victim.
Who had not even noticed the dead companions beside him, as if the girl and her actions were completely invisible.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the wyverns continued to decrease.
Although less than a third of the original monsters remained, they managed to eliminate every last wyvern.
However...
Clack Clack Clack.
Fortunately, most of the monsters sent here only had basic awareness, otherwise they would have fainted from fear upon seeing all the wyverns they had struggled so much to defeat come back to life as if nothing had happened.
Having advanced toward the territory, the wyverns' corpses were now on the outside, surrounding them completely.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)