- 332: Tactics
Just like this, hundreds of Golems clash and a big battle began.
A big war was unfolding right before our eyes.
We spectators might get dragged in it, so we were watching the battle from a pretty faraway location that allowed us to see the whole picture.
The view from there was truly a battle where you wash blood with blood…Well, the ones fighting there are Golems, so there’s no blood though. In substitute, clouds of dust were made as their rocky body was broken and the location was noisy.
The basic Golems of Uriel and Sasae-chan’s refined Goddess Golems had mixed and was in a chaotic state as they destroyed each other.
When the basic Golems destroy the head of the Goddess Golems with their fists, the Goddess Golems would sever the Basic ones with their swordhand.
Even when they are broken and fall, new ones are continuously made from the back, so destruction with destruction overlapped without showing signs of ending.
It is truly a battle; truly a war.
It was clearly a different type of battle to the ones we have experienced until now.
“It is kind of…scary!” (Karen)
Karen-san, who had overcome several trials and tribulations from the many giant monsters she has defeated, was feeling fear from this —this sight where Golems are being destroyed one after the other.
“Sasae is fighting in a way so that doesn’t destroy the Life Blocks of the enemy Golems. The Golems of Sasae were shaped from her divine power so, as long as Sasae herself is in good shape, they can come back as many times as they want. They are destined to return to the earth when their divine power is taken away.” (Mirack)
Mirack was watching this with a stout heart.
“But, this just…doesn’t feel right. As I thought, battles should be done one on one. Group battles don’t go with my nature.” (Mirack)
And she also said words that were truly fitting of a person of the Fire nation.
On the other hand…
“The cruel battlefield, the noise of drearily resounding clashes; conflicts truly make the heart of people race and stir!” (Celestis)
Celestis was saying some strange things.
“Why is it that I am shaken by this important war-like battle and compositions are flowing one after the other inside of me?! New songs are overflowing inside of me and are not stopping! At this rate, by the next live, I might be able to have one with all new songs!!” (Celestis)
“Incredible. This is also culture, isn’t it!!” (Gabriel)
And Gabriel once again rides on it.
“Let there be hot-bloodedness.” (Michael)
To finish, Michael mutters this with his arms crossed.
“I can only describe this battlefield with those words. I understand that this is too rough of a description and it doesn’t capture it all. In order to grasp and feel it all, I still need to learn a lot of words and values.” (Michael)
That’s right.
And then, after learning it all and being able to separate the things that are unnecessary, you will steadily take out the unnecessary parts and, in the end, you will return to those words again —Let there be hot-bloodedness.
“But the ones learning the most in this battle are the ones who are actually in it, Uriel and that hero girl. In this battle, just what will they learn and what kind of answer will they reach? I will be watching over this.” (Michael)
***
Time passed and the state of things was slowly tilting to one side.
Within the repetition of Basic Golems breaking and Goddess Golems breaking, the amount of times the Goddess Golems were being destroyed was slowly increasing.
It looked as if Uriel and Sasae-chan were making new Golems one after the other, but…as I thought, there’s no mistake. Uriel is slowly pushing it to his favour.
“Kukuku… What’s the matter? Aren’t your Golems brittle?” (Uriel)
“Kugh…-dasu!!” (Sasae)
Even from afar, we could see that the adult Sasae-chan had a strained expression.
“This is the reality! Unrelated to things like appearance and elegance; in the end, the true value of Golems is their strength! Rather than your Golems that have unnecessary things added to them, my Golems that are simply aimed at strength are stronger! That’s the simple reality!” (Uriel)
*Crash!
Another Goddess Golem broke from the punch of the regular Golem.
The same thing was occurring here and there in the battlefield.
“Not good-dasu! Retreat-dasu!!” (Sasae)
“Like I will let you!!” (Uriel)
Uriel’s Golems chase after the Goddess Golems that were retreating.
Does he plan on finishing it now?!
How impatient!
“It is because you make them in the shape of a feeble woman that the Golems themselves turn out feeble. As I thought, there’s no need for glamour in Golems! Utility is the true worth! Unnecessary factors that would affect it negatively should all be taken away!!” (Uriel)
…That Uriel, is he holding a grudge on ornamenting because his Golems were spoken ill of before the battle?
But this flow of things…is Uriel really the one in the advantage?
***
“Hey, these movements…!” (Celestis)
Even within the group of spectators, someone else had noticed it as well.
As expected, the literate Hydra Ville resident Celestis was the one.
“Isn’t it strange? At a glance, it looks as if Sasae-chi is the one being pushed back, but…!” (Celestis)
“It is not strange, is it? The Sasae army is actually being pushed back after all.” (Mirack)
“What a fool, Mirack-chi. Your brain really only works for one on one battles?!” (Celestis)
“Sasae-chan’s Golem army looks as if they are retreating, but they are actually extending their formation to the sides.” (Haine)
When I pointed this out, Celestis snapped her fingers.
“Right! On the other hand, Uriel’s Golem army is steadily stepping forward due to him chasing after Sasae-chi’s army!!” (Celestis)
The formation of Sasae’s army that has extended to the sides looked as if they were going to wrap Uriel’s army from left and right.
“The Crescent Formation.” (Haine)
“That Uriel! Did he get baited into a trap?!” (Michael)
Looks like Michael has also noticed it —the crafty scheme that Sasae-chan had prepared.
***
“What?! W-What is this?!” (Uriel)
By the time Uriel himself had noticed, it was already after the fact.
The half encirclement of Sasae’s army had already been finished and it had already become a disastrous scene where Uriel’s army was being beaten up.
The breaking of the Goddess Golems were simply used to bait him into a trap.
“The fourth daughter of Sobo-chan, Sano Oba-chan, told me this-dasu. ‘The specialty of women be pinning techniques’. That ye be the strongest after ya got ‘em down!” (Sasae)
Following that advice, she acted as if she were a weak girl, and when the man has lowered his guard, you constrict them to death like a snake.
Sasae-chan’s tactic worked well.
“One of dah teachings of the earth! ‘At first, like a maiden; in the end, like a predator’-dasu!!” (Sasae)
The Goddess Golems had already stopped their acting and had begun fighting back with all their strength.
The half encirclement had already been finished and the Sasae army could attack from many directions, so it gave her even more of an advantage; Uriel’s army who is the one taking the brunt of this was thrown into a predicament.
“Damn it! Damn it!!” (Uriel)
If Uriel were to have a relative understanding of the terrain, he could aim for the weak points of the formation created from the encirclement and escape from it by rushing one point. But, not knowing this, Uriel decided on retreating instead of pushing out of the encirclement.
“All forces, fall back! Retreat!” (Uriel)
But with that, he will simply be chased after at the same speed he retreats and get one-sidedly beat up.
He is completely caught up in the advantage of Sasae’s army.
“Damn it! That’s dirty! Are you telling me you were feigning as if you were losing in order to get an advantageous position?!” (Uriel)
“‘The lies of God are teachings, the lies of a warrior are strategies’, that be what the sixth son of Sobo-chan, Saruga Oji-san, told me-dasu! Fooling and being fooled be the basics of war! Being fooled be the mistake of the fooled-dasu!!” (Sasae)
Even what Sasae-chan is saying is beginning to sound adult-like?!
Moreover, in a not so desirable direction!
Did Sasae-chan become a bad adult because of Mantle?!
- 333: Match of the Generals
“Fantastic! Beast! This must be the ‘art of war’ that comes from the battle culture of humans, right?!” (Gabriel)
It looks like Gabriel-san is getting excited, but I am not that familiar with this Demon Lord, so let’s leave her alone.
“Hey, don’t you think this might end just like this?” (Celestis)
I agreed with Celestis’ opinion.
The ability of a commander is shown in whether they can get out of situations like this when they have fallen in them.
But the moment Uriel noticed that he was surrounded, he couldn’t see through the weak points of the opponent’s thinned formation, and threw away the option of pushing through.
He lost the timing to turn a turnaround into a turnaround and the situation worsened.
The more timings you miss, the harder it is to recover.
Honestly speaking, I don’t think Uriel has the intelligence and courage to deal with this situation. Then, what’s left is to be washed away by the flow that Sasae-chan created.
“Demon Lord… So they are still beings that rely fully on their great amount of divine power huh.” (Haine)
To think they would be so brittle the moment they are against an opponent that has a divine power that rivals theirs.
At that moment, someone reacted to my mutter.
***
“Damn it! Damn iiiitt!!” (Uriel)
And so, Uriel was finally beginning to look like it is no good.
His own army had already been reduced to half of what was before and, even when he tried to add new Golems, the pace couldn’t keep up.
“Now that it has come to this, crowd up and harden the defense! Resist the attacks of the enemy!!” (Uriel)
A stupid decision.
If they were to stand ground crowded, they won’t be able to move properly and will have no choice but be destroyed steadily from the outside.
Uriel has once again made a bad choice in a bad situation.
The Goddess Golems had already become slaughtering amazonesses.
The outcome of this battle was once again affected by the nature of these two.
The actual Golems that are born from Life Blocks, as long as they have their Life Blocks, they can think on their own to a certain extent.
On the other hand, Sasae-chan’s Goddess Golems had Sasae-chan’s divine power running through every piece of the Golems and are basically marionettes.
In other words, Uriel’s Golems are semi-automatic with their Life Blocks while Sasae-chan’s Goddess Golems are completely manual control.
They show different advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation, but in this occasion, it was completely tilting into Uriel’s disadvantage.
It is exactly because you can leave the decision making to the Life Blocks that Uriel’s burden in giving orders decreases, but with Uriel sucking this much, there’s no point in reducing the burden.
In this situation where they are cornered, the movements of each individual Golem is important, and yet, the semi-automatic Golems of Uriel can’t act quickly to the situation and were in confusion as they were being attacked from different directions.
Compared to that, Sasae-chan’s Goddess Golems have to be controlled even in the smallest of details and this makes the burden in Sasae-chan as much, but that problem has already been cleared when she became a God Hero.
In that case, all the Goddess Golems are basically the limbs of Sasae-chan. Each one of them can move as if they were living beings.
An army that has coordination and one that doesn’t. There’s no need to think about which one would win.
The basic Golems of Uriel were already just waiting to be completely hunted down by Sasae-chan’s Goddess Golems.
If these were a battle between humans, these would be the point where they would raise the white flag.
“Now that it has come to this…! Now that it has come to this…I myself will be entering the fray!” (Uriel)
Oh.
“Or more like, why didn’t I do so from the beginning?! My strength is higher than all the Golems I made combined! I will fight myself and dominate the enemy army!!” (Uriel)
So he noticed it. There were actions he should have taken the moment his army was surrounded, but he can still do something about it.
But there’s one thing he is overlooking.
That trump card is something that the other side also holds.
“Then, I will be yer opponent as ye wish-dasu!!” (Sasae)
“Wa?!” (Uriel)
Uriel somehow managed to avoid the scythe that came from overhead.
Adult Sasae-chan had suddenly appeared in front of Uriel.
“You! Why are you here?!” (Uriel)
The positioning in the battlefield of Sasae-chan and Uriel should be one end and the other.
As the Generals watching over the battle, they should have been at the deep parts in order to be able to properly see both armies.
And yet, at some point in time, Sasae-chan had rushed deep into enemy territory and was right in front of the enemy General.
“The moment the half encirclement was finished, I moved around-dasu. In the climax, it needs to be a one on one battle between the Generals-dasu!!” (Sasae)
Sasae-chan takes stance with her earth scythe.
With this, Uriel has been completely checkmated.
Sasae-chan definitely won’t withdraw her blade.
In the first place, Sasae-chan issued this challenge with her thoughts as a resident of the Earth nation. If Uriel doesn’t oppose her here, the decision of Mantle about ‘Destroying the Demon Lords’ would be correct and Uriel will be killed.
That is the way of thinking of the Earth nation people.
“Ah…Ah…!” (Uriel)
“If ya ain’t gonna resist, I will be taking that neck of yers-dasu!” (Sasae)
The scythe of judgment was swung.
With this, the match to decide who is the top of the Earth between Uriel and Sasae-chan has been decided—
“What are you doing, Uriel?!”
And there, an unexpected interruption appeared.
Right in the middle of Uriel and Sasae-chan, a fireball crashed and broke the ground.
“Hiih?! What-dasu?!” (Sasae)
“Michael?!” (Uriel)
The one who stopped the last moment was the Fire Demon Lord.
The leader of the four Demon Lords with a big muscular body and fire wings spread.
I thought he interrupted to save his comrade Uriel, but…
“That’s pathetic, Uriel!!” (Michael)
“Hiih?!” (Uriel)
He suddenly began reprimanding that comrade of his?!
“What a pathetic sight you are showing as one of the Demon Lords! Don’t you have guts?! Because of you, we Demon Lords are being thought of as cowards that only rely on our strength in divine power!!” (Michael)
Could it be…Michael heard what I muttered before? And because of that, he is pissed?
“Even…Even if you tell me that…! Didn’t you come here to save me?!” (Uriel)
“Don’t delude yourself!! This is your battle, Uriel! If you don’t fight on your own, it won’t have meaning!! But don’t forget that you are shouldering the name of all us Demon Lords!! I won’t allow an unsightly defeat!! Fight with all you have!! I will be your witness!!” (Michael)
What he was saying was all jumbled up, but he continued.
“Don’t give up! Do your best, Uriel!!” (Michael)
- 334: Encouragement
“Do your best? Is that all?!” (Uriel)
“That’s right. What else would be needed?!” (Michael)
Saying this, Michael stretches his arms horizontally and releases high ranged fire dragons.
The direction of those burning flames was the Golem armies that were still in battle. Without a care of ally or foe, all Golems were swallowed by it; their surface was burned and, due to them being made out of earth, they ended up hardening like pots —every single one of them.
As expected, the divine power of a Demon Lord is incredible.
“Now, what’s left are the only people that need to fight! Bring out your all and fight! Without using Golems; with your own body!!” (Michael)
“W-Wait!” (Uriel)
Even with that, Uriel-san clings onto him.
“Michael, you saw it too, right?! That God Hero is abnormal! She is on another level even when compared to other God Heroes!” (Uriel)
Well, that’s true after all.
In the first place, a God Hero is a system where you only give a part of a God. However, in this occasion, Mantle, who always goes overboard in everything she does, poured everything of her so, looking at that point alone, Sasae-chan’s God Hero form is several times stronger than the others.
Moreover, Sasae-chan and Mantle have a similar mind at the most weirdest of places and, because of that synchronicity, the power increases by even more. Thanks to the work of the Golems, Mantle managed to get a lot more prayers than the other Gods, so that makes the power go up by even more. Because she didn’t have to maintain the ‘Nameless Desert’ that Inflation had forced her to due to her being thrown into a Black Hole, her use of divine power has been zero until now.
On top of that, Sasae-chan herself has inherited completely the talent of a legend, but because she was young, it was supposed to raise with time, however, the God Hero transformation had released it all.
…
The more I think about it, the more I end up thinking ‘what kind of beast have we awakened’.
I even feel pity for Uriel who is being made to fight against something like that.
“It is impossible to fight her upfront and win! We should run away or attack her all at once!” (Uriel)
“Like hell I care!” (Michael)
The wordy complain of Uriel was blown away by the few words of Michael.
“That’s pathetic, Uriel! Are you going to give up just because your opponent is strong?! From the very beginning, humans were in those same circumstances!!” (Michael)
“Wa?!” (Uriel)
“Even against the Demon Lords that were far superior in strength, the humans didn’t surrender and fought head on! As a result, they obtained the new strength that is the God Hero form! There’s no evolution for the ones that give up and turn their backs! Uriel, your decision is akin to throwing away the possibilities of monsters!!” (Michael)
“E-Even if you tell me that…!” (Uriel)
Uriel was on the verge of crying.
“I also think that way, Uriel.” (Gabriel)
“Even Gabriel?!” (Uriel)
The Water Demon Lord had gone down there as well.
“The humans not only have strength. They also possess the wits and love to overcome difficult situations where strength is a nonfactor. Whether we monsters can obtain this or not; I think that is what will decide if we monsters can become true living beings!” (Gabriel)
“What does that have to do with this fight?!” (Uriel)
“Don’t you understand?! This fight has our will and pride at stake! Show an unsightly display at such a fight and you would be throwing dirt at the pride of all the Demon Lords!” (Gabriel)
“I think exactly the same.” (Karen)
Karen-san, Mirack, and Celestis had also joined?!
“This battle is one that one of the Gods of Creation, Mantle-sama, is watching over personally. This is a fight where you are showcasing your very meaning of existence to a God.” (Karen)
“Your God told you that you monsters are just tools, you know?! Are you not feeling frustrated by that?! This battle is your best chance at showing the true meaning of your existence and making that God go wow!” (Mirack)
“That’s why there’s meaning in you fighting alone. There’s no one aside from you who can show her the reason of your existence! This is something that only you alone can do!!” (Celestis)
“What, even the humans?! What is it you are trying to make me do by ganging up on me?!” (Uriel)
This must be a pain to the max for Uriel.
A difficult situation, an enemy he cannot win against. It would be a lot easier to just run away.
But…
“Everyone here has overcome that and has gotten all the way to this point.” (Haine)
“Kuromiya Haine?!” (Uriel)
Unknowingly, I had followed everyone and had arrived to where Uriel was.
“Everyone wants you to overcome that as well. They want you to stand at the same summit; in order to stand side by side. To stand as equal friends.” (Haine)
“Friends, you say?! Friends?! What a joke. Demon Lords are simply joining forces in order to eradicate humans. Moreover, humans are the enemies!” (Uriel)
“In order to realize this, this battle is necessary. Overcome it as well. Overcome this battle and find the answer at the other side that can’t be expressed in words! And then, show it to all of us!!” (Haine)
Those words became the trigger. Everyone began to speak out their share.
“Do your best, Uriel! Show your will as a Demon Lord!” (Michael)
“You can do it, Uriel! You can definitely do it!!” (Gabriel)
“Please do your best, Uriel-san!” (Karen)
“Do your damn best already and show your guts!!” (Mirack)
“Do you best~ Uriel! Do your best~!” (Celestis)
Support from everyone.
Everyone here is wishing for Uriel to overcome this.
“Do your best, Uriel! If you are one of the powers that stand at the top of the demons, show it!!” (Michael)
“Aaaaaaahhhh!! Gaaaaaahhh!! Kishaaaaa!!” (Uriel)
Uriel broke.
“Aaaah! Geeeez!! Every damn single one of you irresponsibly telling me to do my best!! I get it already! I just have to do it, right?! I just have to bring out my all and defeat that beast woman, right?!” (Uriel)
“““““““Oooh!”””””””
*Clap *Clap *Clap
Everyone began to clap together.
The already pissed off Uriel had broke his limit in the pissed off meter.
“Y-Ya done now-dasu ka?” (Sasae)
Sasae-chan was waiting mannerdly.
Well, that’s a given. For her, this fight was already not one where the survival of humans or monsters is at stake. It is like a court where it is decided whether you are right or wrong.
A match where the God is watching over it.
You can’t just choose right or wrong lightheartedly.
“Then, we resume the battle-dasu! But before that, Uriel-dono, I also wanna say something to ya-dasu!” (Sasae)
“?” (Uriel)
“Do yer best-dasu!” (Sasae)
“Shat up!!” (Uriel)
Everyone is saying it, so Sasae-chan felt like saying it as well.
That nature of going with the flow of things, maybe she really is being influenced by Mantle?
