The [War] had begun. At the same time as the start of the war, several shadows leapt out of [Creation]"s dungeon.
At the forefront were a golden-haired, fox-eared girl and a silver-haired girl.
"Kuina, you"re going too fast"
"But Oto-san ordered us to hurry"
Their true ident.i.ty was that they were powerful S rank monsters made by [Creation] Demon Lord Procell.
Kuina the Celestial Fox sprinted and Rorono the Elder Dwarf followed suit. Their destination was the limestone cave made by the [Viscosity] Demon Lord.
"Aside from me, no one else can keep up with you; you ought to slow down a little."
"Ah, sorry"
And so, Kuina slowed her pace a little. Thanks to that, the High Elves of the first platoon that were chasing after them finally caught up.
The girls then checked their surroundings. There were no one else but their ally monsters. The enemy Demon Lords didn"t yet show any indication that they would attack themselves.
"What do you think, Rorono-chan?"
"I"m certain they"re just waiting to see what we will do. I think they"re hoping for master to attack and split his forces, making our defense even less."
"Yeah, I think so too."
But then, Kuina twisted he mouth into a smile.
"Are you planning something?"
"Oto-san did say to cause as much ruckus as possible."
Kuina then enhanced her magic power. Her magic power was so great, the s.p.a.ce around her distorted.
And acting as a battery to store that magic power was each strand of hair on her golden, fluffy tail which now stood on end. Each of these strands could hold up magic power up to what a B rank mage-type monster could have.
This made the fur such a valuable material for magic tools. So much so that obtaining a single strand would allow an adventurer to live out an entire year quite luxuriously.
For when her beloved father, [Creation] Demon Lord Procell, needs it most, Kuina, up until now, was diligently saving up her magic power onto her fluffy tail. One reason she could spare to do so was because rather than use magic that would eat up her magic power, she was constantly using a weapon that had high offensive capabilities: a gun.
She had acc.u.mulated equal to 120 B rank monsters" worth of magic power which was enough to rival an entire army. Just knowing only this much would make one realize just how much outside of the norm a Celestial Fox was.
"Rorono-chan, so long as the enemy aims to counter us like that, there should be a high chance that a lot of their fighting force would be gathered in place where they can launch an offensive of their own right after confirming their dungeon is not under siege. I"m gonna surprise them with a big one ♪"
Kuina was planning on activating a magic attack that would use an amount of magic power so large, she could just barely control it. The magic power for it, however, would come from the magic power she had stored up in the furs in her tail.
Even if it was her though, without her tail to act as a battery, releasing about 30 B rank monsters" worth of magic power in just one magic attack wasn"t advisable even if said magic attack was indeed powerful.
By the way, Kuina would need more than half a month"s worth of time to store this much magic power.
"Whenever I look at Kuina, I feel like my common sense is going to break."
"Rorono-chan"s also amazing though. Kuina can"t ever make something like a gun. And Kuina"s magic attacks are so specialized in area of effect destruction that in terms of pure destructive power versus a single enemy, my magic will be no match against the shotgun you made."
Kuina didn"t say such out of humility; it was what she perceived as the truth.
A pragmatist at her core, she didn"t like useless things and based on her own judgement that guns were anything but useless, she grew to love them.
"Mhm, okay. Well then, after a long time, show us your power as a Celestial Fox"
""Kay ♪! Watch me properly! Also, Elf-chan"s little sisters, I"d like you to lend me powers."
Kuina addressed the High Elves following behind her.
"Yes, Kuina-sama. We"ll back your flames with our wind."
"As expected of being trained by Elf-chan"
Wind could increase the intensity of flames and the wind of a powerful monster such as the B rank High Elves would increase it even further.
Originally, it was a combination technique Kuina and Ancient Elf developed and was then taught to the High Elves by Ancient Elf.
"At last, the enemy"s dungeon! Everyone, ready yourselves!"
The monsters behind her nodded and they all finally entered the dungeon.
◇
The first room of the dungeon that Kuina"s platoon entered was a very wide s.p.a.ce.
At the center was an underground lake where the aquatic monsters swam. Slimes, frogs, and fishmen monsters could be seen in and out of the water.
There were about 50 monsters in total. That much were gathered there due to [Steel]"s strategy. In it, any dungeon not attacked would launch an attack of their own against [Creation]"s dungeon. Thus, the Demon Lords instructed most of their fighting force to gather somewhere near their respective dungeon entrances so that the counteroffensive could be done immediately.
At that, however, Kuina just fearlessly smiled.
"Ahead of us aren"t obstacles, just prey, lots of prey. Perfect, a wide area. It seems like we will be able to fire up huge fireworks just like Oto-san expects."
The monsters that took notice of the platoon glared and yelled at them.
Kuina didn"t flinch, much less feared them for although the enemy side had a few B rank monsters, none really stood out that could be seen as her match.
With frightening force, the enemy monsters rushed toward the platoon.
The fishmen monsters readied their oddly shaped spears; the slimes heaved their bodies onward; and the frog monsters moved both of their arms while their eyes coa.r.s.ened.
The intelligence of most of these monsters was incredibly low. So low in fact that they couldn"t even comprehend that the monster before them was one way out of the norm: a Celestial Fox.
If any of them had any deep understanding of magic, then perhaps they would have recognized just how deadly the magic being readied right before their eyes. Magic that was already about to hit a critical point and so impatient to be released.
"This will be the opening act. Know the might of Oto-san"s monsters! [Golden Flamed Purgatory]!"
TL note: 【金炎煉獄】
Kuina thrusted her palms forward and released a lot flames.
The two High Elves behind her then followed suit and let loose green winds.
The area was engulfed by the sea of golden flames—flames that were unnatural to this world.
However, do not be under the a.s.sumption that Kuina released and directed her magic toward the h.o.a.rd of enemies awaiting her. Instead, the magic targeted and affected the room itself to burn everything within it. Yes, it was such a great magic that it could be called a world-altering magic[1].
Next came the sound of an explosion. It was a steam explosion caused by the instantaneous evaporation of the water in the underground lake. A large number of the monsters pitifully got caught up in the explosion.
"Everyone, you might die if you take even just one step away from Kuina so be careful."
Kuina had complete control over her flames and made it so that her magic wouldn"t affect anything behind her. However, if an ally of hers was to take even a single step outside of the area she"s protecting, even they would be swallowed mercilessly by the golden flames.
A Celestial Fox"s true flames burn everything to the ground.
After about five minutes, the flames finally died down. There was nothing but ashes left within a 500 meter radius of the vast limestone cave, even the underground lake was no longer there.
This was an S rank monster.
A monster capable of an attack that would release magic power was beyond absurd.
Afterwards, Kuina with her head held high, turned around and spoke to the platoon.
"Now, let"s go everyone. The [Viscosity] Demon Lord should be trying to reconsolidate his defenses! Now is the perfect opportunity for us to strike!"
They didn"t have enough time to spare. They were told by their father to smash the enemy"s crystal as soon as possible and they had every intention to see it done. If they could break the crystal and return to Avalon, their beloved city, as quick as their father expected—or even quicker—then they were bound to receive lots of praise from him. That alone drove Kuina forward.
Her line of thought wasn"t wrong but unknown to her was the powerful being lying in wait in the dungeon"s innermost room.
[1] Anti-World magic was the term used here. If the context provided isn’t enough, try reading up on in the Fate series