Hell Mode: Volume 7, page 8
For the past two years, Allen had distributed Blessings from Heaven and sent out Summons to provide support, but even so, he could not save everyone from the Rank A monsters.
Speaking of which, the strength of all monsters increased by one rank after the Great Calamity.
Ever since the Demon Lord first appeared in this world, not a day went by where the people were not threatened by monsters. The number of lives taken by the Demon Lord Army and its monsters was impossible to measure.
“Still, we can’t save everyone. We’re not omnipotent.”
“I know that,” Keel said, his voice tinged with regret. The rest of the Gamers also seemed to feel helpless. Sophie and Krena especially looked dark and sullen.
Allen Summoned Merus. It was for this reason that he had not allowed any priests into the conference room with them. As the former First Angel, every one of them would have recognized Merus. If it became necessary to use him to get the priests to act, Allen would do so, but if they inadvertently learned of Merus’s existence, it risked causing unnecessary problems. Given this, he opted to keep Merus away from the priests.
“Tell me about the situation in Teomenia.”
“I still haven’t spotted any survivors,” Merus answered. “It seems that any believers of Elmea and townsfolk unable to escape were killed by that Demonic Deity and his subordinates.”
Merus had fought the demons guarding the altars in Teomenia’s churches many times over the past three days, and each time he had been defeated. Were he still an angel, his death would have been permanent and irreversible, but now that he was a Summon, he could be endlessly revived using Allen’s MP and magic stones. Between battles with the Demonic Deity, he would report back to Allen on the situation in Teomenia.
“I couldn’t find the person named Shia you mentioned. It looks like she left Teomenia and didn’t come back, just as the priest said.” Allen had heard from the cardinal that after Princess Shia handed over Gushara, she had left Teomenia on other business, saying that she had no interest in watching the execution.
“Is Gushara the Demonic Deity?” Allen asked.
“No,” Merus replied. “He called himself Lycaoron.”
A mysterious altar protected by one of the Demon Lord Army’s Demonic Deities, huh? Unless something changes, we’re always going to be caught on the back foot. If we just knew what the Demon Lord Army was planning, we could get the upper hand.
“Then we have to defeat that Demonic Deity and save Teomenia!” Krena clenched her fist and huffed eagerly. Her dark and sullen expression from earlier was gone.
“You’re right; that’s where we need to start.” Allen appreciated how Krena always focused on what was important at times like this. “All right, we’re going Demonic Deity hunting tomorrow. Let’s show it what we’ve got!”
“Hell yeah! Let’s crush ’em!” Dogora bellowed eagerly.
Looks like Dogora’s in high spirits too.
All his friends nodded in agreement with his words.
Chapter 5: Battle against Demonic Deity Lycaoron
About one thousand years ago, a young emperor was born in the Central Continent’s northern Empire of Giamut. As soon as he ascended the throne, he began to invade other countries, and before long, he had succeeded in unifying the entire Central Continent for the first time in history. This was the beginning of despair for the nonhuman races, as this emperor was infamously known as the “Dreaded Emperor”—even in the present—due to his national policy of putting humans first and forcibly suppressing other races.
After escaping the oppression of the Dreaded Emperor, the dwarves, who possessed advanced metalworking skills, and the elves, who communicated with the spirits of nature, left the Central Continent entirely. As a result, a thousand years later, there were very few dungeons remaining other than those Giamut had deemed useful. Furthermore, the races who could not flee the Central Continent, such as the beastkin, were severely oppressed just because they were not human.
The Adventurer’s Guild and the Church of Elmea boldly protested these actions. The Guild, whose goal was to operate without interference from any nation, had always aimed to protect people from all sorts of hardships. Therefore, in protest against Giamut’s cruelty, it moved its headquarters to another country until the death of the Dreaded Emperor.
The Church of Elmea advocated that all were equal under Elmea, the God of Creation who gave birth to the world, and as they had nonhuman followers and priests, they directly opposed the Dreaded Emperor’s actions. However, while the Church had soldiers, they were few in number and, unlike the Adventurer’s Guild, did not have the strength to withstand the empire’s military. The blood of a great many priests and believers alike was spilled as a result of Giamut’s oppression. In response, the Church finally left the Central Continent. Its members crossed the sea, negotiated with the group of nations that formed the Union, and established a nation of their own in a corner of the Southeast Continent. That was how the Holy Land of Elmahl came into being.
Teomenia was named the new headquarters of the Church, and after the death of the Dreaded Emperor, while a branch was set up in Giamut, the headquarters never moved back. The biggest factor behind this move was that imperialism was inherently incompatible with Church doctrine. A thousand years later, Teomenia continued to be the religious capital of Elmahl and stood as a symbol of the prosperity of the Elmea religion, which had followers around the world.
The Teomenia that stood before Allen and the Gamers now, however, was completely changed.
“This is terrible. Who would do such a thing?” Cecil groaned from her seat behind Allen atop a Bird B.
Teomenia was quite different from the glamorous Empire of Baukis. Its infrastructure was of rather simple design made up of stone buildings adorned with trees and waterways fed by a pure stream originating in the mountains to the south. The city was renowned for having a rather subdued appearance. But now, all the trees had burned down, quite a few buildings had collapsed, and the waterways were filled with rubble and corpses, overflowing into muddied streets. A large number of daemonic incarnations wandered through the damp streets—some stumbling, some staggering, some spinning around where they stood, and others continuously falling and getting up again.
Allen and the others watched the goings-on from above the city.
The square in the center of the city had taken the most damage. Its main gate, once decorated with gorgeous patterns, was charred black. It was evident at a glance that this was where Gushara, the Pontiff of Daemonism, had created the huge pillar of fire, from which the flames had spread throughout the city.
Adjacent to the square was a hill that looked like an upside-down bowl, with a long staircase leading straight to its crest and a ramp that spiraled around it. It was obviously an artificial hill, given the huge church standing atop it. This hilltop church had been built so that God of Creation Elmea could see Teomenia and the activities of its citizens in their entirety when he descended upon the world.
The roof of the church had been completely destroyed, and a pillar of bluish-white light rose from within. Far up in the sky, it broke off at a right angle and extended straight to the south.
“What do you think that is, Allen? I’ve been wondering about it for a while now,” Dogora said from the back of his Bird B, which maintained its position next to Allen’s. The pillar of light had been visible ever since they had left Neel that morning.
“I don’t know, but I guess we can ask the demon waiting inside the church.” With that, Allen Summoned Merus. “The Demonic Deity’s down there, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Thanks.”
Merus nodded and flew away. He would come and launch a surprise attack from behind in the upcoming fight against the Demonic Deity. Allen would show no mercy to those who had caused so much destruction and sacrificed so many lives.
Allen landed his Bird B in front of the church, deciding to go the rest of the way on foot.
A Bird B was roughly the size of a small elephant and boasted powerful wings, allowing it to not only move at high speed, but also hover and stay in the air when necessary. It could easily keep its balance even when Krena and Dogora swung their weapons while riding on its back. If they could communicate well, it would allow the party to course correct toward the enemy as needed. It was particularly indispensable when fighting huge enemies with wide attack ranges, such as the golems they had fought in the Rank S dungeon.
Though the church they would be fighting inside was larger than most Elmean churches, it was nowhere near as tall or spacious as the Rank S dungeon. Going in with Bird Bs would actually restrict their movement. Thinking ahead, Allen had decided to go on foot.
Once inside the church, the Gamers found themselves enveloped in silence. The church, built to serve as a shrine to the gods, was filled with mostly empty rooms and corridors marked only by relatively simple structures, making it easy for sounds to echo. In spite of that, judging by the eerie silence, Allen determined that there must be no one else except the Demonic Deity Merus had fought.
The party walked straight down the corridor and came to a place where stone statues lined the walls. Each represented one of the gods who controlled various phenomena, all of whom served under Elmea, the God of Creation.
There’s God of Bountiful Harvest Molmol. And next to it is Goddess of Fire Freyja.
The statue of Freyja showed a woman with loose hair flowing down the sides of her face and extending to her knees. She was holding a sword with a wavy-edged blade and no guard. According to Rohzen, she had been rapidly drained of her power when her divine vessel was stolen. Was it possible that her divine vessel was actually that sword?
In any case, once her power was lost, fire would no longer be able to be created in this world. Apparently, they still had another two to three years until that happened, but as the Baukisian master craftsman Habarak had said, the future looked bleak. For example, his furnace could no longer generate enough heat to process orichalcum.
Passing through the aisles lined with statues of the gods, the Gamers came upon a large hall where worshipping and gatherings took place. The stone floor had been crushed in places, several pillars had fallen, and other scars of Merus’s many fierce battles yet remained.
The hall was large enough to hold a thousand people. Allen looked to the front and saw a huge statue of Elmea in the depths of the room, in front of which was a sinister-looking altar. The skins and heads of monsters and the bones of humans adorned the tray enshrined in its center. On the tray was something that could only be described as a bluish-white mass of light, and a pillar of light erupted upward from that mass, extending into the sky.
None of the other Gamers had ever seen this place before, but as he was able to share Merus’s vision, Allen was already familiar with the layout. He knew that there was a Demonic Deity nearby.
As he had expected, a demon with a big-eared, canine-like head sat cross-legged in front of the altar, waiting.
“Are you Demonic Deity Lycaoron?”
“That’s correct. You must be Allen So, Merus joined you, I see. I’ll have to report this.”
Lycaoron was lightly dressed, wearing only a cloth around his waist, as well as bracelets and anklets. He did not look to be very tough, but given that Merus had lost every one of their fights, he was most certainly agile.
I wonder if he was a lycaon beastkin before becoming a Demonic Deity.
According to Merus, the only real distinguishing factor between Demonic Deities and normal demons was that their average stat values exceeded 10,000 for one reason or another. Similarly, Allen recalled from his previous life that the only major difference between dolphins and whales was their size. Following the appearance of the Demon Lord, however, it seemed that the number of demons with stat values reaching up to 30,000 or so had increased now that natural law had been broken. When asked why, Merus vaguely responded that it was probably due to the Demon Lord’s power.
Allen continued to ask questions. “What is this pillar of light?” He still did not have enough information to come up with a way to resolve this situation.
“Do you think I’ll answer honestly? I heard that you and your companions were pretty smart, but apparently I was wrong.” Lycaoron bared his canines and sneered.
He seems to know about us, so he might have been ordered to not give us any information. In that case, I guess we should get down to it.
“I see. Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to destroy it, then,” Allen said.
At that moment, Merus flew through a hole in the ceiling and attacked the tray behind Lycaoron. However, before he knew it, Lycaoron had moved to his side and caught his arm midswing.
“Too slow. You’ll never catch me in a pincer attack like that.”
Allen, who had started running as Merus launched his surprise assault, attacked Lycaoron’s back, but the Demonic Deity twisted his body forward to avoid it. Without even turning around, the Demonic Deity landed a kick into Allen’s side, hitting him so hard that he was blown backward and smashed into a pillar.
“Gyaugh!”
“Allen, are you okay?!”
“It’s okay, Cecil,” Allen called back. “He’s a wimp, just like I expected.”
“A wimp, huh? I thought I’d give you a taste of the difference in our power, but are you trying to catch me off guard?,” Lycaoron sneered.
He’s definitely pretty agile. If we don’t take him down, I’ll need to call back some of the Summons I put away.
In preparation for the battle with the Demonic Deity, Allen had changed the composition of his Summons holder quite a bit. The area around Elmahl was still not safe, so he wanted to defeat this Demonic Deity and restart the cleanup operations as soon as possible.
Alas, Lycaoron did not give Allen much of an opportunity to think his situation over. After being kicked in the side and knocked back, he saw Lycaoron pounce at him for a follow-up blow. Allen crossed his arms in front of him to defend himself, but the kick still slammed him into the temple wall.
Because Insect As fought in large numbers, Allen would not be using them directly in his fight against Lycaoron. Thanks to that, he was benefiting from their Endurance buffs and thus only his arm was crushed. However, this attack also gave him the information he needed to gauge his enemy’s Attack power.
“Okay, we’re good! Everyone, let’s start attacking!” Allen shouted to his companions.
“Hell yeah!” Dogora, who had been waiting for just that command, readied his large shield and greataxe, then rushed straight toward Lycaoron. He’d been focusing on this battle since yesterday.
“Is that why you attacked me? Did your leader risk himself to test my power? Not like it matters. No matter how many of you there are, it’s all the same to me!”
Merus shook his arm free from Lycaoron’s grip and attacked him once more. As before, however, the Demonic Deity easily dodged. Dogora and Krena arrived and took turns attacking Lycaoron, but he evaded all of their swings as well. And he did so with only minimal changes to his positioning, showing off just how confident he was in his agility and ability to avoid melee attacks.
“Flare!” Cecil suddenly shot a fireball right as Lycaoron focused his attention on an incoming attack. However, without even looking, he waved one fist at the ball of flames, nullifying it with his bare hand.
“Hmph, a magic user? Perhaps I should take care of you first,” Lycaoron muttered. For the first time since the battle began, he left his standing position and attempted to move. He seemed to have decided that it was best to not neglect the rear guard and shot a glance toward Cecil.
“As if I’m gonna let you do that! Gyaugh!”
Dogora stood between Cecil and Lycaoron, but was blown back when the Demonic Deity punched his massive shield.
“Rah! Haugh?!”
Krena swung her greatsword down from behind Lycaoron, but his fist hit the side of her sword, deflecting her attack and causing her to stagger.
Lycaoron then launched an attack on Krena, who resumed her assault after she jumped backward and readjusted her stance. While thrusting his fist with tremendous speed, he quickly changed his position, making sure that Krena was between him and Cecil, Sophie, and Volmaar. Just like how Dogora had stood in his way to protect Cecil, he planned to use Krena as a shield against long-range attacks.
However, Krena desperately parried his brutal punches with her massive sword. She saw Lycaoron use Allen, Merus, and Dogora as his shield, and was observing the Demonic Deity’s minute movements. Once Krena found a pattern, she tried to make her way behind Lycaoron. In doing so, with his mind rather than his body, Allen recalled the tactics he and his companions had practiced—ones that were based on battle theories cultivated in the games he had played in his previous life.
Allen’s Axioms
There’s nothing more important than staying alive.
If you want to win, don’t concern yourself with fairness or one-on-one fights. Work together with your friends and attack your enemies from behind and the flanks, not head-on.
Allen had explained this to his friends to help them understand that attacking from the back or side increased their chances of landing a critical hit. He reviewed his grimoire’s log and decided that, like most of the games he had played in his previous life, critical hits—which dealt double the normal amount of damage—existed in this world too. There seem to be several conditions under which one would occur, and though he still had not figured them all out, he did know that there were definitely factors that affected a person’s critical hit rate. The difference in Agility between the attacker and the target and whether a target’s vital point was hit were two such factors.
Among all of the conditions that could be met, the easiest was for the attacker to strike at an enemy’s blind spot. Aiming for the target’s back or side increased the chance of a critical hit. In that respect, Dogora, who tended to blindly attack head-on, did not often land critical blows. Though his Endurance, which allowed him to tank an opponent’s attacks, was indispensable in helping his companions survive, Krena’s skill and flexibility in battle were clearly superior. This had been true back during their time in Krena Village, and it remained true even following their clearing of the Rank S dungeon.
