After leaving [Time] Demon Lord Dantalian"s dungeon, we immediately returned to Avalon via the crow monster"s Transfer.
I was able to safely persuade him into helping in the form of protecting my city of Avalon during my absence.
I also got two other things from him.
The first was the [King] medal which was a powerful A rank medal.
The second was the monster that Dantalian had made using my [Creation] medal. It was the S rank Celestial Wolf.
"Why does Celestial Wolf have to be separated from Father and follow such an unreliable Demon Lord? This is the worst. I wanna go home."
For some time now, the Celestial Wolf was twitching her white wolf-ears as she spouted off such complaints.
Her appearance might be almost the same as Kuina"s but since her facial expressions and aura were cold and tough, the two of them were worlds apart.
"Well, please be patient until this campaign is over. Once we"ve helped out Marcho, you can go back. But for the meantime, you"re my monster and that means you must obey my commands."
"It can"t be helped. But if you command Celestial Wolf to do anything lewd, I"m going to tell Father about it later!"
"Command you to what!?"
Her appearance was that of a 13 year old"s. I wasn"t a lolicon so of course I wouldn"t do such a thing to her.
At any rate, what surprised me was the intimacy between her and the [Time] Demon Lord. I had thought that he had a business-like relationship with his subordinates but looking at the Celestial Wolf, it seemed like they had built a close and good connection.
Race: Celestial Wolf
S rank
Name: Felsias (フェルシアス)
Level: 72
Physical Strength: A+
Endurance: A
Agility: S
Magic: A
Luck: A
Special: S+
Skills:
Wolf King
Time Control
Atomic Motion Control
Ultra-rapid Reaction
Beast Transformation
Becoming a subordinate of mine made it possible for me to check her status.
Simply put, she was amazing.
She was born as an S rank with a progressive level and had already reached the 70s mark which even Kuina hadn"t done yet. Reaching level 70 meant that she was already on par with a static-level S rank.
With none of her stats dropping below the grade of A, she was the ultimate all-rounder. Not to mention, each of her skills was outside of the norm.
Wolf King: Physical Strength, Endurance, and Agility are all improved by one grade.
Time Control: Grants the ability to control the time of oneself or those within 1 meter of the user.
Atomic Motion Control: Grants the ability to control the amount of heat via the manipulation of the movement of atoms.
Ultra-rapid Reaction: Grants the utmost of reflexes. There isn"t any delay between thought and movement.
Beast Transformation: Transforms the user into an ice-attributed wolf. Upon activation, all stats except for Luck and Special are improved by one grade.
Time Control and Atomic Motion Control were tremendously versatile.
Furthermore, if Wolf King and Beast Transformation were used at the same time, she would gain absurd stats. Using Ultra-rapid Reaction with those absurd stats made her broken, if she wasn"t already.
There were probably only a few monsters that could match her. The ones that could from my own monsters were probably only Kuina, Wight, and Aura.
Besides those, one other thing surprised me.
"You have been given a name?"
The Celestial Wolf was given the name Felsias.
The [Time] Demon Lord only referred to her as Celestial Wolf so it wasn"t until I viewed her status that I was made aware of such.
The Celestial Wolf, a monster that had a name and this much power, could very well be table-turner for this war, I thought.
"You"re the worst for peeping at the secret between Celestial Wolf and Father; it"s a name he uses only when it"s just the two of us."
Celestial Wolf, or rather, Fel, proudly and somewhat gleefully told me so.
It was likely that the reason why [Time] didn"t say her name in public was that he was embarra.s.sed.
For him to base Celestial Wolf"s name after Marcho, it immediately humanized him to me.
"Woaaahhhh! What a cute name! Kuina will also call you Fel-chan now."
"Did you even listen to what I said? Only Father gets to call me Fel."
"Don"t be so stiff, Fel-chan! Kuina is Fel-chan"s older sister so Kuina"s special. There"s problem in calling you Fel-chan!"
"Sto-stop it"
Their fluffy tails swayed while being intertwined with one another.
The sight of the two who were unmistakably sisters was a very pleasant thing.
Even though Celestial Wolf was saying such things, she didn"t seem to hate what Kuina was doing.
Surely, it"s because she wants a friend of the same age, I thought.
If it was the friendly and helpful Kuina, making friends with Celestial Wolf was more than possible.
"I"d like to ask Rorono to make a weapon for Celestial Wolf too but right now, she"s just too busy."
I wanted to give Celestial Wolf a weapon of her own to make better use of her strengths. After all, the total attack power was the sum of the attack power of one"s weapon and their own attack power.
Moreover, a weapon that could deal great damage from afar was greatly better.
"Ah, Oto-san, I have a good idea. Instead of a gun, how about that experimental weapon Rorono has been working on for the Avalon-Ritters?"
"Ahh, that, huh. But can anybody even handle it?"
The disappointing weapon that even the absurdly strong Avalon-Ritters couldn"t wield came to mind. The results were so disappointing that the development for the weapon was cancelled.
"Uh-huh. If Kuina tries, Kuina can use that. So, if it"s Fel-chan, there"s no problem too."
For reasons unclear to me, Kuina gave her seal of approval.
Given that, I thought about it for a while.
Considering Celestial Wolf"s Magic, Physical Strength, and Ultra-rapid Reaction…
"Yeah, it"ll probably be alright. Ok, Kuina, hand over that weapon to Fel and teach her how to use it. And then, the two of you do some practice together. I"m entrusting her to you."
"Ah! [Creation] Demon Lord, did you just call me Fel!?"
"Understood, Oto-san!"
Kuina then pulled Celestial Wolf, or rather, Fel by the scruff of her neck until they were gone.
What I could do for the moment was to figure out how to make use of the monsters that weren"t in my initial plans. Namely, Rozelitte who I got from [Wind] Demon Lord Stolas and Fel who I got from [Time] Demon Lord Dantalian.
Not making use of such powerful monsters was something I could not afford.
Time to plan a strategy that will better my chances, then. Looks like I"ll be busy for a while.
◇
Finally, the day of our departure arrived.
While my monsters were busy preparing for the said departure, I was speaking with the commanding officer of Avalon"s intelligence corps.
"Fuu, you"re really a slave worker, patron. I thought I was gonna die. Somehow though, I was able to make it back."
The blue-haired, androgynous-looking girl I was talking to was R"lyeh Diva.
She informed me so with a tired voice while waiting for the Aura-made potion she drank to take effect and heal her tattered body.
"I"m glad you made it back."
"Uh-huh. The other dimension was crawling with enemies. The most dangerous of them all was this ninja-like person. Oh man, that ninja, he just suddenly tried kill me. If it was somebody else, they would have died! Later on though, I found out he was a monster of the [Beast] Demon Lord so I gave him the medicines."
I had made my monsters who could hide in another dimension—which were R"lyeh Diva and her subordinates, the Ocean Singers—go first and gather some intelligence for us.
Aside from reconnaissance so that we could improve our strategy, I had given them another task which was the delivery of a letter and a few of the potions we had already made to Marcho"s side.
R"lyeh Diva had safely accomplished that task and returned albeit at a much later time than expected. Not only that, she also received a written letter from ninja monster which contained additional information about the enemies.
"That ninja is actually of one Marcho"s Covenant monsters. You did well; that"s quite the feat."
I had fought with Marcho"s Monsters of the Covenant before our departure for the [Evening Party].
It was done in order to drill into me a sense of fear for old Demon Lords.
During that lesson, there was a monster that hid itself within my shadow and then grabbed me from the back. That was probably the same monster that R"lyeh Diva had encountered.
For not dying on the first murderous blow of that monster, R"lyeh Diva was truly worthy of praise.
"I"m happy for your words of praise, patron, but a show of appreciation would be better."
Really, this girl…
"I"ll think about it. If we survive this ordeal, I"ll give you an astonishing reward."
"I"ll be looking forward to it. Well then, my wounds have healed so I"ll venture forth once more. After all, regarding other-dimension business, I"m the only one you can rely on!"
I smiled wryly at her words but what she said was indeed true. The only monsters I had that could control dimensions were her and her Ocean Singers.
Their contribution was extremely great.
Now then, it"s about time.
I thought so and went out of my residence together with R"lyeh Diva.
◇
Lined up in the ground were all of the Darkness Dragons. And attached to each one"s head was a container.
These containers were packed full with golems, monsters, weapons, ammunitions, and healing items.
Marcho had destroyed the Transfer array that led to her dungeon in order to prevent her enemies from using it against me. Due to that however, transportation via the sky became the fastest mode of travel.
Of course, I had intended to construct a new Transfer array once we got there. I also planned on posting monsters to guard the array.
All of my other monsters were in their corresponding positions while the leaders were gathered around me.
"You did well, Rorono."
"Master, the servicing of the trump card is complete. It"s already loaded into the containers. We have also prepared the required amount of customized Avalon-Ritters as well as the new weapons thought up by master."
"Thank you. I can now see the prospect of victory thanks to your efforts. For this campaign, I ask you to take command of the golems including the Avalon-Ritters."
Rorono, the Elder Dwarf, had been working without sleep for three consecutive days, probably even more, all so that she could meet my expectations.
"Master, we have also managed to secure all of the required number of potions. With this, no matter the injury, it will be fine! We"ve used up all our stock of the golden apples though!"
"Splendid, Aura. Thanks to you, we can now expect Marcho"s wounded monsters to be able to fight again. For this war, I task you to lead the High Elves and dedicate yourselves to sniping troublesome monsters from afar."
R"lyeh Diva and her subordinates had managed to deliver only but a few potions. However, upon the arrival of our full army, we would be able to bring and distribute as much potions as needed.
And then, there were Aura and the High Elves" long-range attacks from outside of their enemies" perception range. For us, the side with the inferior fighting force, such attacks were extremely vital.
"Oto-san, I"ve finished teaching Fel-chan how to use that experimental weapon!"
"Kuina! Like! I! Said! Don"t call me Fel-chan!"
The fox-eared Kuina and the wolf-eared Fel seemed energetic on this day as well.
"As for you two, because of your overwhelming fighting strengths, I will entrust you the task of leading the shock troops and trample over the enemy"s aces. Rampage more than anyone, more than any army."
The two stopped their messing around and then nodded to me with earnest looks on their face.
On account of them being made using three A rank medals, they were two of the most powerful S rank monsters.
And so, how many enemy aces they could defeat would prove to be very crucial in this war.
"Wight, you will be in charge of commanding everyone. Also, as my final ace, remain close to me at all times. I know this burden is great but I"m relying on you."
"Yes, my lord. So long as my lord wills it, I will overcome no matter what ordeal."
By unleashing his [Berserk], Wight was a genuine beast that is stronger than even Kuina. He was the staff officer I could rely on more than anybody.
"R"lyeh Diva, continue gathering information from that other dimension and relay it to us. If you lose control of the other dimension, our circ.u.mstances for this war will quickly turn sour. In a sense, you are our lifeline."
"I"ll do my best for that reward. Well, being impressed by my talents is good too."
As confident as ever, the blue-haired R"lyeh Diva replied so.
"Now, everyone, to your positions and move out!"
"""Yes!"""
My monsters nodded and then dispersed.
After a few minutes, 10 Darkness Dragons that carried containers flapped their wings.
Now, let"s go! To Marcho"s dungeon!