Chapter 196
Chapter 196
Chapter 196
Preparations for War (4)
Helheim.
One of the dimensions that make up the demon realm, and one of the representative conflict zones between the demon realm and the heavenly realm.
Rudian utilized the short period until the Continental Nation Conference was held to cross dimensions aboard Dilmun.
Naturally, his goal was to retrieve the 14 legions left behind by Leviathan.
Since they were the forces that the Seven Seats' Leviathan had hidden until the very end, they were certain to be the most elite, surpassing the power of most other legions.
'Is this... really a place where life can survive?'
While the demon realm was originally a place where living beings could hardly survive, Helheim ran at the forefront among them.
Most of the continent consisted of bizarre rock formations and volcanic zones, with no vegetation or animals to be found.
The only life forms he managed to discover were special entities like Rock Eaters that fed on stones, or Lava Worms.
Rudian came outside aboard a small airship loaded within Dilmun.
No matter how much stealth functionality it had, Dilmun's size meant it could cause unknown problems.
'According to the setting, Helheim is the origin of Hellenium, the eternally immortal metal. There must definitely be beings gathered in military units...'
Hellenium, which goes into the raw materials of all kinds of holy swords, demon swords, and divine artifacts existing in , is the finest metal where the grade of the final product rises to mythical level depending on its content.
The demon sword Diablo currently in his hand belonged to the mythical-grade artifacts with its blade made entirely of solid Hellenium.
-Master, there are a total of 32 locations in the current dimension where massive life reactions of 10,000 units or more can be felt.
"Let's go north first. It should be there."
Rudian designated the location where the mark of Leviathan on his wrist resonated with the Authority of Envy.
Then he entrusted automatic navigation to Adi and turned his gaze back to the scenery outside.
'...It's really gloomy.'
Even if volcanic ash blocked the sky but the sun was shining brightly, his mood would still be lifted, but here even the sun was purple.
This was probably exactly how the middle realm at the end of Chapter 3 of the original work would feel.
-Master, I found it.
Adi's words erased his gloomy thoughts.
After breaking through the ash and clouds that blocked his vision, an environment where at least living beings could survive appeared before his eyes.
Even so, it was still a harsh environment not much different from other places, but at least water flowed and something called a forest existed.
'...Most of those look like carnivorous plants though?'
The only flaw was that the forest itself was a demon realm...
Rudian jumped down from the airship and landed on the ground.
Then he immediately felt numerous gazes watching him.
'They're well hidden.'
The military force Leviathan had hidden in Helheim was certainly elite, but its essence was still remnant soldiers.
This place was a conflict zone between the heavenly realm and demon realm.
And it was located at what could be called the front lines.
'Even if they know, they can't easily touch them.'
These beings had cleverly hidden themselves near the territory of the heavenly realm.
Being caught in the middle would mean getting beaten by both sides, so they had positioned themselves appropriately to the north, creating a form of tripod legs.
"If they don't interfere, they won't rampage, so they probably left them alone to a reasonable extent for war deterrence."
No matter how much demons were war-crazed battle maniacs, they didn't try to fight at every opportunity.
Well, there were seriously crazy ones like Marbas and Rigos, but anyway, there was a high possibility that Baal had been tolerating them within reasonable limits for various reasons.
'I guess you didn't know that these guys could all cross to the middle realm at once?'
Rudian blew a pleasant breath through his nose, thinking he had caught an opportunity to give Baal a big blow.
***
And so time passed to the present.
"I am Keppel, chief of the Demon Wolf Tribe and legion commander of the 12th Legion under Lord Leviathan! Successor, I will test your strength!"
Shocked by those words, Rudian widened his eyes and shouted toward Keppel.
"...De, Demon Dog Tribe, not?"
That head was clearly a dog, not a wolf!
He did somewhat resemble a Siberian Husky, but he didn't have eyes that couldn't distinguish between dog and wolf!
"Th, th, this insolent fool! How dare you make such a lowly provocation!"
KRAAAAK!
Giant slashes shot out from Keppel's claws and struck Rudian.
"Ah, no... I'm being serious though..."
"I'll kill you!"
He had experience summoning a dog-headed legion commander called Baskerville or something before, so he thought this one might be the same, but it seemed he had completely missed the mark.
"KYAAAAAAK!"
Keppel's attack didn't end there.
Having become skilled at targeting small prey, he didn't swing wildly but precisely and certainly aimed for Rudian's neck.
'...He's quite strong?'
He was a technician capable of accurately targeting Rudian's neck with a build over 10 meters tall.
Moreover, his outer hide looked tough and solid enough that ordinary weapons would have difficulty even causing scratches.
Rudian tried attacking Keppel's outer hide with basic aura infused into Diablo, just in case.
"Hmph!"
As expected, despite being a strike enhanced by aura, Keppel rather seemed to find it laughable and charged straight ahead without thinking of defense or evasion.
KANGANGANG!
He successfully attacked while flowing like water to avoid Keppel's counterattack, but...
"Are you looking down on me?"
Keppel stopped his attack with an incredulous expression and let both arms hang down.
"Tsk, I had some hope, but as expected, not even a scratch."
"If you're also a warrior, don't ignore me. This is the demon realm, not the middle realm where my hide becomes soft like fat!"
A world where he could exert his full power at 100% without being constrained by causality.
His opponent was a legion commander and a supreme-grade demon.
Moreover, he was a rare physical-type demon who didn't rely on authority or chaos for battle.
Responding with ordinary aura was no different from insulting Keppel.
"...You're certainly right. I apologize."
Rudian looked directly at Keppel with coldly sunken eyes.
...Shiver!
The moment he made eye contact with Rudian, Keppel unknowingly stepped back one step.
'...What is this?'
He definitely couldn't feel anything special.
Just an ordinary, calm momentum that wasn't particularly fierce or violent.
But feeling the emotion of fear within that momentum... was definitely not a mistake.
"I'll overwhelm you with strength."
Now Leviathan's core, which had replaced Rudian's heart, began to pulsate.
CRACK! CRACKLE!
"...!"
Not relying on authority or chaos, but pursuing only strength and speed.
A posture of overwhelming power that crushes everything with force alone.
From such an appearance of Rudian, Keppel spoke the name of a certain Demon King who had defeated him in the past.
"...Marbas?"
The one whom Keppel, who worshipped strength, respected second only to Leviathan.
A young rising star who had brought the various strongmen of the demon realm to their knees with physical ability alone.
From Rudian's current momentum, the strong scent of Marbas from the past was wafting.
"Hey, you..."
SWOOSH!
Before Keppel could finish his words, Rudian's form had reached Keppel.
Rudian swung his fist holding Diablo straight at Keppel's face!
"...!"
CRACK!
He hastily raised his arms to guard, but Keppel felt in that moment that his bones had broken.
"OOOOOOH!"
"WAAAAAAAH!"
"WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!"
As Keppel was sent flying far away with a single blow, the 12th Legion under Leviathan, the Demon Wolf Tribe surrounding them, rather burst into cheers.
'They'd get along well with orcs.'
The orcs from the Great Forest in the past had also burst into cheers like this even while their great chief was getting beaten.
"KAHAHAHA!"
Keppel, the leader of such beings, quickly got up despite one arm dangling.
And he laughed pleasantly while grinning widely toward Rudian.
"Yes, this is how it should be!"
CRACK!
As strength filled his dangling arm, something like bone grinding sounds occurred and Keppel's swollen arm returned to normal again.
'Insane recovery ability.'
Well, at this level, it wouldn't be strange to have super-regeneration ability as a basic requirement.
"It's obvious, but if you've declared to succeed Lord Leviathan, I cannot acknowledge you with just a slight difference."
"Don't worry, I'll overwhelmingly crush you, so just come at me."
"Heh, hehehe... Your spirit is certainly at the Seven Seats level."
"There should be other legion commanders besides you, where did they all go?"
Since there are 14 legions, there should be fourteen legion commanders.
Of course, given that ten thousand years had passed, he didn't think all fourteen would be completely alive, but there couldn't be only Keppel.
"They're all watching from over there."
Keppel's finger pointed to the top of a fairly steep rocky mountain.
'Eight people...'
Including Keppel, that makes nine, meaning that during the long time of ten thousand years, five legion commanders had faced defection or death.
Still, with nine surviving and still not joining under other Demon Kings, their loyalty was certainly genuine.
But that was that, and...
Rudian emitted killing intent toward those eight.
"How impudent?"
"What?"
Rudian raised his voice loudly and shouted.
"All of you come down here. You're going to be subordinates now, so where do you get off looking down from above?"
"...!"
"And including this guy, all nine of you come at me. If I crush you all at once, that should serve as proof of qualification."
Immediately, emotions of anger, absurdity, and incredulity were felt from over there.
Perhaps Rudian's words seemed quite absurd, as even Diablo, who had been watching, tilted his head slightly.
-Nine legion commander-level beings... Hmm, that would be quite difficult?
-I also think it's somewhat reckless, Master.
Adi also agreed with Diablo's words.
-If you mobilize all the means you possess, it would be easy. But there's no way those guys would accept you borrowing the power of tools. Your pure capabilities are at most enough to handle one or two of them.
Diablo precisely hit the core point in this aspect.
'Just when I was getting excited, why the sudden cold water?'
-...Are you saying you're confident?
'The point is to make it not look like the power of tools, right?'
-What?
'Since when have I acted like a martial arts seeker? I'm the one who depends on external power more than anyone else.'
The incarnation of gear dependency, the emperor of expedients.
That's exactly who I am, Rudian.
Diablo gaped his mouth and asked Rudian.
-...Th, then what did you mean earlier when you said you'd overwhelm with strength?
'I just said it for show. The power that sent that guy flying was slightly drawing on Marbas's authority.'
-...
'Just shut up and lend me your power. Here, Uriel's seal becomes meaningless, so I can ignore restrictions as much as I want, right?'
Just as he said, here in Helheim, Uriel's seal becomes meaningless.
That means he can draw on Diablo's power without limits.
-You brat, don't tell me you...
'The Karma stat I obtained functions similarly to divinity.'
Divinity has the function of being able to reverse all kinds of power.
In other words, it's possible to change Diablo's power into Leviathan's power.
-What nonsense! No matter how much divinity, such a thing couldn't be possible!
Previously, Rudian had experience converting divinity into psionic energy.
But converting divinity into not simple 'magic' but 'Leviathan's power' was a problem of different dimensions.
'Of course it normally wouldn't work. If ordinary gods or Demon Kings tried such a thing, their very essence would be reversed.'
This kind of power conversion was only possible for special cases that hadn't yet established their identity as a deity but had become familiar with handling other gods' powers sufficiently.
But Rudian belonged to that 'special case.'
'Well then, shall we go?'
-W, wait! Converting my power into something like Leviathan's power is something my pride cannot tolerate...
"...Gasp!"
Rudian ignored Diablo's words and forcibly drew in the power.
"...!"
"...!"
The Authority of Envy possessed by the Seven Seats' Leviathan.
'Domination.'
"O, OOOOOOH!"
The legion commanders who had been watching the battle from afar recognized Leviathan's power felt for the first time in ten thousand years and fell into rapture.
"I'll say it once more. All nine of you come at me."
Rudian pointed the tip of Diablo at the legion commanders who still showed no signs of coming down.
"I'll smash you all to pieces."