The Deceiver's Desperate Gamble
Antonis faced an overwhelming enemy approaching him. Despite her beautiful appearance, seeing their legs tremble just from looking at them, Antonis gritted his teeth so hard they might break. 'Damn it... I have no choice! Whether I die this way or that, it's all or nothing!'
With that thought, Antonis pulled something out from his bosom. "Look here, you idiots!"
"Huh?"
"..."
The black orb in his hand. As the two demonkin approaching saw the unusual magic power emanating from it, they paused for a moment. They too recognized the magic power flowing from the orb. Antonis smiled triumphantly and declared boldly.
"This orb contains a special magic! The moment this body dies, it will blow away everything within a 1km radius!"
"What... what did you say?"
"..."
Fenrir showed a moment of bewilderment at Antonis's words. Seeing that, Antonis shouted even more triumphantly.
"Kukuk... You think you've won, don't you? But what if this goes off in this situation? I'll die too, but you two, and all the demonkin who invaded here, won't be safe."
Along with those words, the magic power of the orb began to ripple even more strongly. Holding it, which emitted an ominous presence as if it would explode at any moment, Antonis displayed an even more despicable smile.
"Choose! Whether we all die together like this! Or let me go quietly!"
"Kuk... This cowardly..."
Fenrir gritted her teeth in deep frustration. In this situation where she was about to lose the prey she had caught right before her eyes, she couldn't help but be consumed by intense anger.
'We've come so far... We've reached the point where we can avenge our kin with just a stretch of the hand... The Demon King even helped... In the end... In the end, I...'
Trembling once again at her own incompetence, Fenrir could neither do this nor that. If this had been about her own life alone, she would have finished him off even at the cost of her life. To repay the debt to her kin who had died because of her foolish and incompetent self.
However, right beside her was her friend Hela, and outside were the undead created for her master's plan. Above all, her master's command: never do anything dangerous. It was a gentle order with an irresistible force reminding her that her life was not her own.
In the end, Fenrir had no choice but to lower her blazing sword and swallow her anger.
And. Watching such Fenrir, a wave of relief passed through Antonis's mind.
'Thank goodness... At this rate, I can barely escape. What a pathetic fool, falling for something like this.'
The black orb he had taken out for the threat. In reality, it was nothing more than a simple decorative talisman with no explosion or anything. An object with no function other than emitting an unusual magical power. Using it to tie up the hands and feet of those powerful demonkin, he once again felt superior in his own stratagem.
'As expected, to deal with ignorant demonkin, one must use their head. Just wait... Once I get through this crisis, I'll definitely get my revenge...'
As Antonis was about to act while gauging an opportunity to slip away, at that moment...
"That orb... you said it activates when you die?"
She spoke in an extremely quiet voice. Even in this situation, her calm demeanor carried a strange sense of foreboding... Antonis maintained his leisurely smile and said.
"That's right! The moment I die, it is set to blow up this entire area. So it's best not to do anything foolish....."
-Crack!!!!
"!!!Kuaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!"
"...Huh?"
Before the words were even finished, the incident happened in an instant. It was Hela's action of snapping Antonis's wrist right in front of their eyes.
"He... Hela? Wh... what is this...?"
Hela had committed an extremely dangerous act without hesitation. Fenrir's face was filled with bewilderment, but despite her reaction, Hela twisted Antonis's already broken wrist even harder and said.
"The condition for the explosion is this guy's death."
"Huh?"
"?!"
"That means... if we torture this guy without killing him, the explosion won't happen, right?"
"...Ah..."
"!!!"
Understanding dawned on Fenrir's face at Hela's words. On the other hand, the moment he heard those words, bewilderment and fear simultaneously bloomed on Antonis's face.
If it had been his usual self, he would have bluffed more thoroughly. However, in such a dire situation, he belatedly realized that his smokescreen had been flawed.
'Th... this... damn it! Mi... mistake... Kuaaaaaagh!!!'
At that moment, Fenrir grabbed his other arm. Her face was filled with a deep, intense smile of ecstasy instead of the previous frustration.
"I see... As long as he doesn't die... Perfect. That happens to be my specialty."
"! W... wait... wait a moment.... Kurghhh!!!"
Fenrir's sword pierced into Antonis's shoulder. The sword blazing with magical flames began to inflict pain far greater than being branded with a hot iron.
"Then, I'll take this with me. If it's outside 1km, there won't be any problem even if I kill you."
"Kuheo... uooooorgh...."
With those words, Hela disappeared with the orb she had snatched away at some point. Immediately after, Fenrir pulled out the sword embedded in Antonis's shoulder and threw his body to the ground.
"Kuk! Sa... sa... save me...."
"Don't say boring things like save me. We haven't even started yet."
-Pak!!!
"Kuaaaaaaaaagh!!!"
Along with those words, Fenrir gouged out Antonis's eyeball with her fingernails. Now that the anguish she had just moments ago had completely disappeared, there was nothing left to hold her back.
"A... aa... aaaa..."
Antonis couldn't even close his mouth properly as he shed tears of blood. Grabbing his teeth with her fingers, Fenrir began to slowly apply force to her fingertips.
"Does it hurt? That's good, hurt more. Keep screaming with that arrogant mouth of yours. If my mood improves, you'll be able to rest a little faster!"
-Crack!!!
*
"Kuoooo..."
"Keoooo..."
After the situation ended and the adventurers' campsite was perfectly cleaned up. In front of my eyes as I slowly walked through the now hardened ground after the rain had stopped.
Countless undead were bowing their heads toward me.
-"Eternal loyalty to the great sovereign."
There were no more living humans here. All 2000 adventurers were either dead or turned into undead. Among them were about 10 Plutos created using priests and high-ranking adventurers.
'A bit disappointing, the proportion of priests was lower than expected.'
I had tried to fill the numbers using high-ranking adventurers, but the efficiency wasn't good after all. Since the combat power of Plutos was proportional only to the divine power they used in life, even if they were originally powerful adventurers, their combat power wasn't very high. At least if they had a good head like Crassus or possessed various knowledge to be useful, it would be different, but adventurers who were simply strong in power had little meaning.
However, apart from a slight disappointment, I concluded that this was sufficient for a burglary and turned to the undead in front of me...
To be precise, I spoke to the Plutos standing before me as their representatives.
"I command you. Offer to me the place where you stayed in life. The city of Sagunto."
As the order was given, blue flames began to brightly flicker in the empty eye sockets of the Plutos. Now, they no longer had any guilt about attacking their homes. The only emotion they felt was joy at receiving their first command from me.
*
The Kerks branch located in Sagunto. The place where most of the hunters were absent was unusually busy, unlike usual.
"What the hell is going on? Why is everyone so busy today? And what are all these supplies?"
"I heard a fairly high-ranking executive has arrived. The order is to transport not only the stored supplies but also supplies from other regions because there's work to be done."
"Well, there has been a lot of work lately... But isn't this a bit excessive? At this rate, it seems like we could feed an army too?"
"I don't know, the higher-ups must have their reasons. Let's just work quietly without complaining."
The suddenly issued order that seemed quite unreasonable. However, since it was an order directly from a high-ranking executive and not someone else, while there might be personal complaints, there was not a single person who could openly rebel.
The enormous amount of military supplies piling up in the warehouse. After confirming them, he... the one who issued all these orders, the executive Crassus, displayed a satisfied smile on his lips.
-"Good. Then let's wrap this up here and move on to the next."
-"Understood."
With those words, Crassus left the Kerks branch building with Zik. This side of the work was almost finished. But he still had things to take care of.
-"Next, we go to the bank. We need to bring the maximum withdrawable amount here."
-"I've already contacted them in advance. We should be able to start work right away."
-"Mistakes will not be tolerated. There must not be even the slightest disruption to that person's plan."
"That person... I'd like to hear more about that story."
-"!"
-"Heh"
At that moment, a woman's voice suddenly heard. Crassus and Zik, despite being undead, felt bewildered and turned around.
-"! Wh... what...?"
A figure appeared from an unexpected place. An elf woman wearing a gray nun's habit. Zik, who had originally been a priest, could recognize who she was at a glance.
-"Fr... Freeder-nim?"