Finally got around to doing this chapter, probably not going to be updating the Fairy Tail or Overlord fic in a while since I don't have much inspo to wright them. I've had a lot of ideas for this story and the Slime one I started. There should be a poll on my profile about adding legitimate servants to the story so give that a check and if most of you want to see them. I'll put up another poll for whom if enough people say yes, so keep an eye out for multiple polls. Or you can just leave a review and say yes or no, maybe even a suggestion on whom. Other than that, I hope you enjoy!
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'I guess I kind of expected this' I thought to myself as we arrived to the encampment 'I've heard that humans have been struggling for a while, but I didn't think this bad…'. We arrived at the encampment not too long after setting out with Erik and his men and the people had definitely seen better days. We were a decent ways out from the kingdoms walls and the encampment was located on a hill that overlooked a large, mostly flat, area.
Multiple large tents, makeshift barricades, towers and even cooking areas were littered throughout the area. The soldiers themselves were pretty roughed up and looked to be on edge, but almost all of them released a sigh as we arrived. We mostly travelled on foot, much to Aqua's annoyance, and once Erik came in to view, all the soldiers were excited. They gave Kazuma's party and me, a weird glance but mostly dismissed us.
"Erik sir!" a soldier ran up to greet us, he had a tired look on his face but he had a small smile none the less. He wore a standard set of plate armour and wore a helmet that had the face plate lifted up so you were able to see his face. "You're just in time! We just received word from our scouts that a large wave of demons will arrive within the hour. What are your orders?"
Erik hummed and rubbed his chin with his left hand as he carried his helmet in his right "Take me to the war room and we will discuss a plan. For now, have my men assist yours in preparing for battle and have any seriously wounded sent back with the carriages after all the supplies are unloaded".
The soldier saluted "Yes sir!" he turned his head "You heard the man let's move it!" all the soldiers moved into action.
"If I may intrude" Kazuma poked his head out from behind me "As useless as she is" he thumbed at Aqua who let out a 'Hey!' and pouted "She's an archpriest and can heal some of your guys".
Erik and the soldier nodded before Erik spoke "If you wouldn't mind" Erik gave a kind smile over to Aqua "Your help would be greatly appreciated"
Aqua's somewhat sour face, directed at Kazuma, brightened up "Something like this would be easy for someone of my status!" she smugly smiled.
A group of soldiers lead her towards the injured "Now please follow me" the soldier that was speaking with us saluted as he led us away.
We walked through the camp and passed a large amount of tents and soldiers rushing around, we arrived at the tent and went inside. There was no one else in there "Are you the commanding officer?" I asked as we entered. The tent itself was large on the inside and housed multiple chairs throughout and had a square table in the center with a map laid out on it.
"Currently yes" he nodded as we moved around the table "Our chain of command was broken when our general died in a surprise attack a few hours ago so I'm the only one capable"
Erik lowered his head "Unfortunate" he said with a grim tone "How big is the force that's arriving?"
The soldier took the head of the table, Erik went to his right, I was at his left, Kazuma and his party, minus Aqua, were at the other end of the table.
On the map was a general layout of the terrain "As you can see here" he pointed to a part of the map "We are here and there's an opposing force of about four thousand demons, split into two groups, heading our way currently". There were a few groups of figures on the map, one of them was a set of blue pieces that acted as the kingdoms troops and the other was a set of red pieces that acted as the demons.
"Four thousand!" Kazuma exclaimed as Darkness and Megumin seemed on a state that was hard to tell if it was fear or excitement. Probably both.
The soldier nodded as I asked him "And how many do we have with us?"
"Roughly two thousand, if we're counting for Erik's forces as well as mine"
"So we're outnumbered two to one" Erik placed his helmet on the table "Even with the troops that I brought, it doesn't give us too much of an advantage. Considering that demons are generally superior to humans. What's the state of moral?"
"Down the toilet" the soldier sighed
"Figures" Erik then looked at me directly "That's where I'm hoping you can turn the tides"
I smirked "It would be my pleasure"
"And who are they exactly?" the soldier asked.
"They" I started "Are the people going to get you out of this mess"
"And what exactly are you going to do against an army that size?"
"I have a few ideas" I smirked as I started to arrange the pieces on the table "First off, how much cavalry do you have?"
"Only around three hundred units"
"Archers?"
"About seven hundred"
"Mages?"
"Three hundred"
"That leaves around seven hundred general units left" I said while finishing my arrangements. "First off, we have a decent sized force, compromised of mages and archers in the front to meet the opposing force head on" I then pointed to two sets of pieces behind the main force "Self-explanatory, but have the mages and archers provide support and blast them from afar and take out any units that can fly or cast magic. Once the demons meet your troops, have them 'fall back' and goad them almost in a V like shape".
"And have the cavalry attack from behind and force them into a trap" Erik finished "A good plan, but even if we catch them by surprise, they are too strong on their own for us to take out four thousand of them without heavy casualties".
"And that's why" I opened up a gate and had a king chess piece drop into my hand and placed it on the map "We have me and the rest of his party" I thumbed at Kazuma as I moved half of the demon pieces in front of the king piece "Take on the other half" only the most smug grin was on my face.
"Are you out of your mind?" the soldier all but shouted "There's no way in hell that some guy in gold armour and a bunch of kids can take out a hoard of two thousand demons on their own".
I chuckled "For an ordinary party maybe, but not for us"
"Erik sir" the soldier looked to Erik "Not to say your judgement is wrong, but how the hell are these random people you grabbed going to be able to do this? Only someone like Mitsurugi, the prince and a handful of others could hope to do something like that!"
Erik furrowed his brow a bit but eventually sighed "This man has taken a Demon King General in close quarters and was assisted by them" he pointed to Kazuma and his party "And I've heard tales of him being able to shred hundreds of enemies in seconds with some strange power, that I have yet to fully see, and magic power that exceeds most of the top mages that I know of from just a quick feel of his magic energy". Erik looked directly at me "Look me straight in the eyes and tell me that you can do this".
I looked him dead in the eyes "I assure you that I will be able to take them down"
We stared at each other for a good minute before Erik broke the silence "I believe you"
"Sir!"
"Enough" he said with a stern voice "Let us go prepare for the attack and position the troops as needed" he looked back to me "I trust you to organize your group and prepare accordingly" I only nodded as he and the soldier left the tent.
"The thought of using my magic to take out so many…" guess who.
"Having a hoard of two thousand demons rushing all at once…" guess who again.
"I got no doubt that you could take em" Kazuma started "What the heck are we supposed to do!?"
I waved my hand "Simple" I put my hands on my hips "I bombard all of them as they're arriving, Megumin blasts the main force, Aqua uses her turn undead and other archpriest magic, Darkness…" I paused momentarily "Will do her usual rush while you and I make sure she doesn't die".
"And how am I going to do that?"
"With a gift" I said while opening up a gate above him and having a black bow with a quiver full of arrows drop into his hands. The quiver was a standard quiver and the bow itself had a few ornate silver designs running along it. "The bow has a small enchantment on it, it propels arrows with a small burst of wind magic. So pair that with snipe and you'll be able to take down most of them in one shot".
"Whoa thanks man!" Kazuma admired the bow.
"Do I get a cool magic item!?" Megumin seemed excited.
"Sure why not" I chuckled at her child like response "Let me see your staff" she handed me the staff and I appraised it with my eyes. 'Seems to just be a basic staff to be used as a casting focus. I have a similar looking staff that should do the trick'. I handed her back the staff and opened a gate in order to pull out a new staff. Her current staff was a simple light wooden staff that had a white wrap around where she usually held it from and a red magic orb in a small hooked area at the top of the staff that had two gold rings on it. The new staff I pulled out was of a similar design but was made of a darker wood and had a much deeper red colour on the magic orb. I handed it to her as she had stars in her eyes "It acts as a normal, but slightly better, casting focus and should increase the attack potency of your magic by a small amount.
"Whooooa it so cool…" she stared at it in awe.
And before Darkness could even ask, I tossed her another pendant from my gate. It was a silver chain that held a blue gem "This'll increase your defence by a small amount so you can endure whatever these demons got".
She stared at the pendant before panting "I can't wait…"
"Of course you can't" I made my way out of the tent "Aqua has everything she needs and you can fill her in on the plan while I scout the battlefield" they all nodded as I left to scope out the battlefield.
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'So Erik and his men are about a hundred meters away setting up' looking to my left, I saw a bunch of soldiers, Erik included, setting up. They managed to push out a catapult along with a few large rocks 'Primitive artillery, but it'll work. Once the demons are within roughly one thousand feet, they'll be able to launch projectiles'. There wasn't really much going for the terrain, only the hill that the encampment is on that descends into a vast field that stretched for miles and a small hill that I could just barely see in the distance, which was about a mile or two away. 'So they'll have to pass over that hill until they come into view. I doubt the archers can shoot that far but at least we can see them coming from literally a mile away'. Not too far away from both groups were small groups of trees that could hardly be called a forest.
'Erik will probably keep the cavalry hidden in the trees, as weird as that sounds, or have them be a ways off and to attack once the battle starts'. With a wave of my hand, a chair was summoned in front of me, it was more akin to a small wooden throne with a few pillows on it, but who's gonna sweat the small stuff?
After taking a seat on the chair, I sighed 'Guess I just have to wait'.
A few minutes had gone by until I was finally joined by someone "Any new plans?"
Tilting my head revealed Darkness just to my right "Nothing new, just that we'll be able to see the demons once they pass the threshold of the hill a ways away" I went back to looking ahead.
"I see"
The silence seemed to last awhile before it was broken by me "Where are the others?"
"Aqua was still healing some of the soldiers and was… showing off"
"Did you inform her of my plan?"
"Kazuma and Megumin are working on that, they sent me to tell you"
"Hmm… as long as it gets done"
Another moment of silence, this time being broken by Darkness "So… about earlier"
I tilted my head back towards her "What about earlier?"
She seemed to fidget a bit "It's just… I wanted to say that… That I am actually-"
"INCOMING!" a soldier from across the way shouted.
I glanced from Darkness towards the hill, and could see a hoard of demons rising above the hill a ways away, they were already moving at high speeds towards us all. With a heavy sigh I looked back to Darkness "Whatever you were going to say is going to have to wait". She seemed dejected but nodded "Go find the others and bring them here now".
"No need we're right here!" the voice of Kazuma was heard behind me "Sorry we're late" he came up to my left "Somebody was insisting that they show off their abilities to the local soldiers"
"I bet I can guess who" I mumbled.
"How are they supposed to trust me and view me like a goddess if I don't show them my beauty!?" Aqua shouted as her and Megumin caught up to Kazuma.
"If you want them to acknowledge you" I spoke while standing from the chair and dismissing it "You don't show parlour tricks or be kind to them" I strutted a few feet forwards. A smirk then made its way on to my face as golden portals slowly started to open above and behind me "You demonstrate your power in a way that can truly show just how powerful you really are" the portals started to number in the dozens, they were even approaching fifty, as weapons poked their way through. The demons were a little less than a mile away by now "Now ready yourselves, because I won't be holding your hands through this".
There was a unanimous 'Yes!' that was shouted between the party as the demons started get within range, they were running at us with their presumable top speeds. I could easily see the kinds of creatures they had amongst them. They were split into two groups that all ran or flew across the field and headed to the individual groups. All of them had a skin tone that ranged from red to blue or black to grey. Some were bi pedal and looked human like, but with more sinister looks, some were capable of flight and had fire almost dripping from their open mouths as they flew. And some of them ranged from the size of a normal human, all the way to the size of a troll or an ogre.
By the time they reached a distance of about four hundred meters from both groups, Erik and his group were ready for battle.
"RALLY MY MEN!" Erik's voice carried throughout the area "These demons DARE to try and take our lives from us! We must live up to the expectations of OUR people! AND SHOW THESE BASTARDS WHAT IT MEANS TO MESS WITH THE KINGDOM OF BELZIRG!" Erik's men yelled out their battle cries and rushed to meet the enemy head on.
"Hmph" I half chuckled "Well said" I then raised my right arm and addressed the hoard of blood thirsty demons that approached Kazuma's party and I. "Today you will all learn the power of Gilgamesh!" I then shot my hand forward and unleashed the gates.
Soon a whole blanket of weapons dotted out the sky and it looked like a large cloud had overtaken the demons before the many bladed weapons made contact. Hundreds upon hundreds of weapons made contact with the demons and it sounded like a fighter plane had carpet bombed the area. All the gates weapons all but exploded on contact and wiped out hundreds of the demons in seconds. Not a single demon that was directly impacted survived the onslaught.
By now, Erik and his men were already forming the V shape I had mentioned to them and the demons were falling for it. Erik raised his sword up high after slaying a grey ogre sized demon in one strike "NOW!" he shouted aloud as his sword lit up with a radiating light that flashed brightly. Demons that were immediately in front of him got stunned by the flash as the resounding sound of a few hundred horses echoed throughout the battlefield. While dazed and confused, the cavalry hammered into the rear of the demons and effectively trapped them. While a few of Erik's soldiers were falling every few seconds, the demons were losing dozens by the second. All the demons that could fly and shoot fireballs were brought down by blasts of magic from the mages and penetrated by arrows from the archers. Progress was slow but they were steadily reducing the demons numbers.
"Megumin" I called out
Her eyes lit up "Is it my turn now!"
"It is" I nodded and smiled.
"Can't wait to test this out!" she squealed and held her new staff out. She closed her eyes and started to chant "O lord of destruction, I beseech thee" particles of magic were filling the air as a large magic circle sprung from beneath her as she started her speech. "The time has come to shroud the darkness in light and rid these demons from the world…" The winds were picking up all around her as she opened her eye and shouted "Ex-PLOSION" her voice rang out. The tip of her staff grew a bright orange as a red magic circle appeared in front of the hoard of demons that were still running towards us.
An explosion that was comparable to a fat man explosion covered the demons in magical fire. If they weren't outright killed, they were flung hundreds of feet away or completely vaporized by the blast. The demons that remained still numbered in the hundreds, but just from the combined assault of Megumin and I, they were reduced from two thousand to about five hundred or so.
"That… was… awesome" Megumin panted as she face planted into the dirt, her magic being completely spent.
"You did well" I smiled as she gave a week thumbs up from the ground "I will keep an eye on her" I looked to the rest "Have at it".
Without wasting a breath, Darkness ran in with gusto to approach the demons from head on. "At least wait for us!" Kazuma exclaimed as he tried to run after her with his bow at the ready.
Aqua followed close behind and summoned her staff with the pink flower at the top "Time to show these demons what a goddess is made of!"
Darkness met them first and crashed into a few dozen of them and sent them tumbling with just a charge. She attempted to slash at a demon in front of her, but completely missed and hit the ground which caused a large crack in the ground to form. She was then hit from behind by a small fire ball that was shot from one of the flying demons. She stumbled and was immediately ganged up on by a few dozen of them that began to smack and try to stab with their weapons. She took the hits in stride and was so breathless and red faced that she couldn't form any words or thoughts.
"Freaking masochist!" Kazuma shouted as he notched an arrow and fired into the head of a winged demon. He stumbled as the arrow fired a lot harder and faster than he was prepared for, but it whizzed through the air at high speeds and impacted a winged demon directly in the forehead. The beast was dead on the spot and was flung back into another winged demon and they ended up crashing into a few of the smaller demons and crushed them. "Holy crap this thing is awesome!" he notched another arrow and shot one directly into one of the demons that was dog piling Darkness. It was a medium sized demon and it was sent tumbling into a couple more. Before Darkness wasn't visible with how many demons were on her, but now she could be seen and she was barely putting up any form of resistance.
"I got this one!" Aqua went beside Kazuma and twirled her staff around before a magic circle erupted from beneath her and Darkness. "Mass turn undead!" she shouted as a holy light crashed onto the demons surrounding Darkness. Demons of all size were howling in pain as they either evaporated or were turned into burnt husks from the holy light.
The holy light had stunned the demons enough for Darkness to get up "Is that all you have!" she shouted in bliss as a few cracks had appeared in her armour. "Show me more of your brutality! Take me to your lair and defile me!" All of them roared/screeched at her and began to charge.
As they were approaching her, Kazuma unleashed a few more arrows to help try and reduce the amount that would attack her. 'While she's doing it for another reason as usual' I thought while watching Aqua and Kazuma use their respective abilities to take the demons out. 'She's doing well to draw their attention while Kazuma snipes the little ones and Aqua uses her turn undead to take them out in groups'.
I crossed my arms and reduced the amount of gates open to only about a dozen and started to fire upon them again. Many more were shredded down by me at a slower rate than before, but they still fell quickly 'As much as she'd like it. I probably shouldn't hit Darkness with hundreds of magical weapons that can explode on contact'. I continued to release the hail of weapons upon the demons, but careful enough to not injure any of Kazuma's party.
Erik and his men were continuing to slay more demons each second. Erik himself was like a whirlwind of death as he hacked and slashed his way through demons by the dozen. His sword would occasionally glow in a holy light as it added more to the damage he dealt. Any strike that did manage to hit him was deflected by his more than sturdy armour or they were deflected by his shield. Even if they managed to hit his shield, it glowed with radiant light and blasted plenty of demons back with a burst of force and light.
While his men weren't performing as spectacularly as Erik, they were successful in pushing the demons further together, to the point they were almost shoulder to shoulder and only the demons capable of flight were able to do anything serious. But the archers and mages made quick work of them.
'I knew this was going to be easy for me' I thought while continuing to fire out weapons 'This seems almost too easy'. I pushed out my senses and found something odd 'Is there something watching us?' my head was on a swivel as I looked around. 'Hmm… It doesn't seem to be malicious from what I can tell… maybe a scout or something to assess the battle?' Barely a moment after that thought 'And it's gone. Did it realise I was looking for it?' pushing my senses further, I still found nothing within the immediate area. 'I'll dismiss it for now, we'll see what happens in the future' with that train of thought over, I surveyed the battlefield.
There were barely any demons left on both sides and the battle was nearly over. With a wave of my hand, the gate portals grew and proceeded to fire even faster and completely wiped out any of the remaining demons on my end.
With all the demons on our end gone, Kazuma and his party hit the floor and were panting. Aqua seemed relatively okay, considering she had large magic reserves, Kazuma was just tired and Darkness was just being her usual self.
A few minutes after our battle had concluded, Erik and his men had slayed the last of their own demons. With a thrust of his sword into the air, Erik bellowed "VICTORY IS OURS!" a resounding roar of approval was met by Erik's words as the soldiers thrust their weapons into the air and cheered.
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All the magic users, after the battle, burned away the bodies of the demons and I collected a few of the weapons that caught my eye. Most of them were either too crude or too distasteful, so I only took the few finely crafted weapons. Only a couple magical ones were found, so it wasn't an unsuccessful haul but not a great one.
By now I was out of my armour and in my more casual outfit with the leather jacket. I dismissed the armour after the battle was won. Kazuma's party and I helped out with bringing wounded soldiers back to camp and anything else that they needed us to do. Aqua was even able to resurrect a small amount of the soldiers who had died closer to the end of the battle so the soldiers were even more grateful for that. She did kind of ruin it by insisting for them to praise her, but the soldiers were thankful all the same.
It took a few hours for everything to wind down and the sun was in its beginning phase of setting. Currently I was off to the side of the camp with Erik while most of the soldiers either mourned or were celebrating the big win. Aqua was at the center doing party trick while the rest of the party were doing what they usually do, Megumin still being tired/drained so she wasn't able to do much.
I leaned against the support of a tent with my arms crossed while speaking with Erik "Are the invading forces usually that big?"
Erik had his helmet removed and had it tucked under his left arm "Not normally that large but it happens. We usually suffer losses nearing the hundreds every battle, but today was one of the good days".
"I see" I closed my eyes for a moment before opening them "I would still be very cautious in the near future".
"Why is that?"
"There was something watching us during the battle. Whether it was an enemy scout, an ally or random person who happened to be watching, I'm not certain. But I would stay cautious".
"Hmm… So someone was watching" Erik hummed in thought "Their forces were made up of the lower level demons and there didn't seem to be a leader among them and certainly not one of the King's Generals".
"They usually have higher level demons?"
"Mostly in forces that are smaller in size, but the few times we've had to fight forces this big, there's usually a few higher level demons that give even me some form of trouble".
"That does seem odd" a sigh escaped me "They could've been scouting us for a specific reason"
"My thoughts exactly" Erik responded before sighing "I guess I will stay on my toes tonight to be safe" he extended his hand towards me. "I thank you for your services" I grasped his hand and shook it "All your rewards should have been forwarded to your guild".
I let go of his hand "It was a pleasure" I got up off the support "I will make my way back to the city and collect the carriage I brought and leave for Axel"
Erik nodded "I bid you farewell and a safe travel"
Erik went in another direction as I made my way to the party 'wouldn't mind staying for a while but I'd like to return home at a good time'. Almost right after that thought, I could feel my vision warping a bit 'What's happening now?' I was having another vision. My mind almost felt like it was rumbling as I was able to see what looked like a metal pillar moving as if it were a part of a spider leg. It rumbled my mind with every move it made and with every move, more legs appeared until, what could only be described as a massive fortress marched on its way. This fortress was hazy, but I felt as if I could hear the words 'Axel' and 'danger' while seeing multiple flashes of Axel.
I snapped from my daze and looked around, no one had noticed me standing and staring blankly at nothing. 'Something is heading for Axel. I'm not too sure what it is, but it's coming soon'.
I didn't really want to stay much longer anyway, so I grabbed Kazuma and his party so that we could leave. Aqua wanted to stay but after threatening to leave her behind, she quickly changed her mind. They were all curious by the fact that I wanted to leave so early, but they didn't really press it.
Once they were ready, I teleported us back to the front gates of the castle and we were escorted back to our carriage. When we got back to it, I teleported us and the carriage back to Axel.
'Wiz was right' I thought to myself as I had teleported us back in front of the mansion. 'While I haven't even depleted half of my magic, the amount that was used to teleport us and all this stuff would be a lot for anyone else'.
Kazuma let out a happy sigh as he opened the gates to the mansion "It's going to be so nice to sleep in a bed tonight". He turned towards me "You gonna stay a night with us again?"
I shook my head "No, I have neglected my home for a while"
"I guess that's understandable" Kazuma responded as I opened up a gate and gave them back any of their stuff that I was carrying for them. "I guess we can meet up at the guild tomorrow morning or something and collect our payment. See ya and thanks for the bow!" he waved as he made his way back in to the mansion.
Aqua and Megumin said there goodbyes and Megumin thanked me for the staff I gave her. It was only me and Darkness left outside "I guess I should give this back you" she pulled off the necklace that I gave her, the one that altered her appearance.
I took it back and dismissed it to my gate "If you need it again just let me know"
My hand was on the cart and I was about to teleport the cart back to the rental place "Thank you" Darkness spoke.
"Think nothing of it" I waved my other hand "When you are truly ready to tell me what you wanted to before. I'll be waiting" with a shimmer and a flash, I had teleported back to the rental place, which was still open thankfully, then back home.
There was a lot on my mind in that moment, when I made it inside, I flashed on my white shirt and loose black pants and went to my room. I sat on my bed with my eyes closed and began to think 'I have to get a visual on what that was earlier'. With a cleared mind, I began to imagine what I saw before, the images that were seen before, played in my mind again. 'Fortress, Destroy, Axel and Danger. What else is there to see?' New images and words started to flash in my mind 'Mobile Fortress, tomorrow, danger, Destroyer'. I then almost had a bird's eye view over a valley as a walking spider like fortress flashed in my mind.
Beady red 'eyes' that numbered at seven, stared ahead as its mechanical legs carried it with no purpose. Birds flew above the fortress but were vaporized when they reached it.
'This… is not good'
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Probably a shorter chapter than what you were expecting, but I was going to wright this with the last chapter and I ended up separating them. Be sure to check the poll on my profile or leave a review about whether I should introduce a servant to the story at some point.