The Subjugation Campaign (4)
[1. Use Lena to disrupt the rear and wage a mobile war]
[2. Break through the gate with the Grand Lord’s size]
[3. Devastate the city walls]
"This isn’t just about handing down a simple order to attack. To rule and command a force—that is the true duty of a monarch."
Even in the instant a grim war came crashing down on a peaceful border town, the choices did not stop coming. At Agares’s snickering words, he thought for a moment before selecting an option.
[1. Use Lena to disrupt the rear and wage a mobile war]
Among the tactical options for bringing down a city that defended itself behind proper stone walls rather than a mud rampart or a wooden palisade, he decided to make free use of Lena, who had now gained the ability to fly. The choice was made with great care, because he believed Lena’s life depended on it.
Keep her alive. Maximize efficiency.
Even if this was a game, there was no convenient resurrection feature to fall back on.
She was not only the one precious knight-class unit he had sunk so much into, but also someone he had grown attached to over time. So, even as he ordered her into battle, he sincerely prayed for her safety.
His command. I will carry it out, no matter what.
And Lena, too, was grinding her teeth and throwing her whole heart into the task.
As their allied minions reached the wall, they drew out their tentacles and drove them into the stone, climbing the ramparts one after another. Meanwhile, Lena not only wrecked part of the wall, but also blocked the soldiers who had gone white-faced and were scrambling toward the breach in a panic.
"Where do you think you’re going?"
"H-hic..."
"A monster!"
She looked like a petite, beautiful girl, but her body was clad in black carapace, and from her back spread translucent wings that glimmered faintly with red light. Seeing her grin and flash her crimson eyes, the soldiers rushing in all staggered back in alarm.
"What are you hesitating for!"
That was when a knight barked the order, drew his sword, and shoved the stunned soldiers aside to stride forward.
But even he, after stepping up with confidence, froze at the sight of Lena, who was so much smaller and more slender than him.
"What the hell are you? A monster that can speak human words—why are you attacking us?!"
"Everyone who sees us says the same thing. Why are you attacking us? What are you? It’s all so funny. In the end, you’re no different. You just devour others, too."
Lena sneered at the knight’s tense question. Having transcended humanity and become a knight of Ascalas, she still had not forgotten what had happened back then.
The helplessness, rage, and hatred she had been forced to taste when she was betrayed by her own kind and stood on the verge of losing everything.
It was the Grand Lord of Ascalas who had saved her life and given her the chance to release all of that.
"Back then, I was stupid. I was so furious that I thought it was unfair—why did it have to be me? But the truth was, it was all perfectly natural."
"Kuh... Wha—"
"If you’re weak, of course you get devoured, don’t you?"
As her emotions swelled, the dark red-black energy rippling around her body grew more intense. The knight recoiled in shock. The ways mana could be used were countless and wildly varied, but if pure mana was leaking out of the body, that was proof that the amount of mana possessed was by no means small.
In fact, thanks to the Grand Lord, who could refine even the mana absorbed through Devour into essence and distribute it to the units beneath him, Lena’s strength had already reached a considerable level.
Grinning and baring her teeth at that sight, Lena lifted her spear.
"Damn it! Charge her!"
Then, just as the Ascalas minions who had climbed over the wall began battling on the ramparts, the knight finally raised his sword and, shouting at the top of his lungs, lunged at Lena.
***
"כולם, run! Run now!"
"Monsters have breached the wall!"
The city, where most people had been living peacefully and without a clue, was thrown into chaos in an instant.
So the people began screaming and running. The enemy that had attacked the city was no ordinary foe. They were monsters.
Not bandits trying to take hostages for ransom, nor an invading army from an outside power seeking to seize the city.
Devour
"Pl-please... spare me—aaaagh!"
They were monsters of greed and terror, driven by nothing but slaughter and devouring.
A middle-aged man who had been fleeing was pierced clean through by a hobgoblin minion’s tentacle and spasmed violently.
[2. Accept the inefficiency and use minions to absorb nutrients immediately]
The minions obeyed orders without question. Though it was a little less efficient, this choice stored nutrients directly in the bodies of the minions so that the Grand Lord could absorb them later.
It was a way to extract as much nourishment as possible from a wide-area, indiscriminate assault.
"Uuugh..."
Before long, the man had all his vitality drained out through the tentacle and collapsed to the ground as a shriveled corpse.
The grotesque, merciless scene was one no one could bear to look at, and once it began spreading across the city, it turned into fear itself—spreading uncontrollably like a forest fire consuming a dense mountainside.
"This is it."
Watching that scene unfold, Agares smiled with obvious satisfaction.
"Rule through fear. That’s how your avatar expands his power base."
"The pros and cons are obvious."
He shook his head as he looked down at the disaster on a screen no bigger than his palm.
"At this rate, we can’t actually make allies."
"How utterly expected. Do you really think the incarnation of greed would bother with concessions or cooperation?"
At his words, Agares openly snickered.
"But as you said, the advantages are just as obvious. At this rate of expansion, I can assure you, you’ll be among the top."
The violent, merciless methods of Ascalas were not without merit. Its power to devour prey, turn that nourishment into sustenance, and convert part of it into minions was tailor-made for expanding a faction.
"If we swallow this city whole, just how much stronger will your forces become? How many enemies will recognize you, fear you, and come picking fights with you?"
"The second half of that doesn’t sound like good news. Still, let’s focus on the task in front of us first."
Clicking his tongue, he looked at the choice that had appeared before him.
[1. Essence Infusion to targets with 50% or higher compatibility]
[2. Essence Infusion to targets with 60% or higher compatibility]
[3. Essence Infusion to targets with 70% or higher compatibility]
"...Fifty percent is probably better."
The options that had appeared were asking which targets should be infused with Ascalas’s essence and turned into minions.
Obviously, this choice hadn’t appeared for no reason. On the screen he was looking at now, the compatibility of each person was being displayed above their heads—whether they were fleeing in panic or resisting desperately.
With the ability he had gained upon reaching 600 Insight, he could now determine a target’s compatibility without direct contact.
"Depending on your choice, the minions will not devour those with 50% or higher compatibility. They will capture them alive and bring them to the Grand Lord."
Thinking he should swell the numbers as much as possible, he chose number 1, and it was carried out at once.
Of course, from the victims’ point of view, the distinction meant nothing.
By then, the Grand Lord had completely broken through the defenses and appeared in the middle of the city, flashing its fangs as it raced down walls and across the ground alongside the minions at terrifying speed.
"Run! Toward the south gate! Hurry—"
"H-hey!!"
And the screams and shouts from outside. That uproar of chaos reached her even in the cellar where she had been locked away.
"Hey! You bastard!"
Using all her strength, she kicked at the cellar door and rammed it with her body. But Hex, who had already run off, had completely forgotten her existence, and all she could do was rattle the lock uselessly while remaining trapped inside.
I can’t stay here.
She clenched her teeth. Her half-brother had suddenly appeared and sold her off even though she had been living a perfectly ordinary life. She was about to be sold to a brothel, and she had been unable to resist any of it, dragged around helplessly from one place to another. She could not accept any of it.
"Aaaah!"
Gathering every ounce of strength she had, she did everything she could to break the door. Finding an old, worn wood-splitting axe abandoned in a corner of the cellar was a stroke of luck.
With trembling arms, she grabbed the axe and slammed it into the cellar door.
"Hah... haah..."
She kept hacking at it for several minutes. At last, she carved out just enough space to squeeze through, ignoring the scrapes all over her body and the way her clothes tore as she shoved herself through and finally made it out of the cellar.
"What the hell is going on..."
But when she carefully climbed up to the ground and looked out the window, she lost her voice and froze solid.
A spider. It was a giant spider. It was spewing tentacles, wrapping them around fleeing people and piercing them through with its enormous venomous fangs.
"N-no..."
Her terror was swallowed in an instant as she stared with wide eyes. That was when she met the spider’s gaze.
"Aaaagh!"
At the same time, she screamed, spun around, kicked open the tavern’s back door, and ran down the street as if she had gone mad. In this moment, she could think of nothing at all.
"Hold it right there."
That was when someone came hurtling across the sky at high speed and blocked her path.
***