Momonga sat in his office with a light hum as he looked over the scattered papers on his desk. They compiled all the pacts and agreements made with the visiting Demon Lord and national leaders.
Behind his humming was a deep feeling of relief now that things were starting to return back to how they were. The guests were starting to depart one by one, promising a return to a more routine life once again.
Not wanting to let things fall apart at the last second, Momonga made sure for each and every of their entourage to be observed from a safe distance by Tempest's hidden reconnaissance units. They had played a critical role in watching the visitors coming into their nation, so naturally their duty also fell on ensuring minimal disturbance coming from the same people who were now leaving.
Frey was first to depart the moment the non-aggression pact was signed. Both sides were already aware of the signs converging towards the possibility of Charybdis' awakening, so Momonga could understand her hasty departure.
The next one to leave was Carrion. Like Frey, he was very eager to sign a non-aggression pact with Tempest. He had also planned to participate in the upcoming battle with Charybdis.
As the king of lycanthropes, he was not about to pass up a chance to show his might and valor. He wouldn't be at any disadvantage either as his true form possessed wings, although Frey would showcase a greater superiority in aerial battles.
It was said that Charybdis' awakening would occur within a month, giving both Frey and Carrion good reason to prepare their forces as soon as possible. But it was Frey who could not help but act slightly frantic in her actions in response to the growing threat.
To begin with, there was an area where magicule concentration was experiencing a volatile increase. She expected it to be where Charybdis would resurrect itself.
Unfortunately, Frey came to the realization that she had to move her forces halfway across the Great Forest of Jura in order to reach the soon-to-be danger zone. She had no time to linger any further within Tempest's grounds, but it was not as if she was the type of person to laze around in these dire circumstances.
With how Frey handled the general movement of her forces, it had become increasingly obvious to Momonga that for the harpy queen, along with the rest of the world, transportation magic was rather limited. Only a few extremely powerful individuals had enough power to transport entire armies.
Tempest, on the other hand, was composed of a number of people who could use transportation magic in such a manner. This easily gave them an immense tactical advantage when it came to conventional warfare. Though in rare cases when individuals like Milim were concerned, the idea of amassing armies would be foolish.
For instance, the main hitters who would be going up against Charybdis were Frey, Carrion, and Pero. All three of them had natural flying abilities, and were quite strong in their own right.
Each of the three knew the calamity-class monster could easily invalidate aerial-based tactics. Not only was it able to fly, but the magical beast possessed a magic jamming aura that prevented using flying magic within its proximity.
However, the avian archer said himself that he could easily counter the beast's two main advantages. The two Demon Lords who would be working together with Pero asked him what he was going to use to give them an upper advantage, but they were simply left with the words, 'Just watch.'
'They seem eager to prove themselves. The arena show has worked better than I imagined.' Momonga mused as he looked over the battle plan Frey had proposed. His eyes then fell on the ceiling as he continued to think.
It was only natural that in a world where the 'might makes right' approach was the most reasonable one, chosen leaders first and foremost would be powerful. If not, then creating a believable illusion of power would also work as that would lead the opposition to underestimate the other side, which may make them drop their guard at some point.
If Momonga had to guess, Frey and Carrion were aligned with a healthy balance of power and diplomacy. Their eagerness to get along with Tempest had completely dropped the curtain that concealed their intentions, or so that was what Demiurge and Albedo mused.
But there was one Demon Lord whose intentions he could not completely pinpoint other than them signing a non-aggression pact. The Demon Lord Clayman, also being rather eager to depart Tempest, still eluded the undead in some cases.
His connection to Yuuki and Kagali was clear even if their communication was not yet fully deciphered. However, as if sensing that they were being observed, the group added and switched around encryption every few hours. Their stalwart resistance towards any form of scrying magic continued to intrigue Momonga as time went by.
Even with Omniscience, decryption was rather lacking and most of the intercepted information was useless. This frustrating lack of information was eventually made known to Demiurge, who said he would look into more decryption methods in order to circumvent their current dilemma.
Still, it was clear that they worked together, even if the goal was unclear. Since Momonga was not entirely in a rush, he did not bother to worry about what Clayman and his people were doing on a day-to-day basis.
Additionally, the girl in the clown outfit was being carefully monitored. Her actions from the beginning had already attracted attention from the leadership of Tempest. Should a pressing need to interrogate her directly arise in the future, Momonga knew she could just be captured with not much effort.
'Maybe the spy could be provoked to do something stupid and reveal her connection with not only Yuuki but Clayman as well. A proof that the free guild is working with a Demon Lord likely would be useful. I should consult Demiurge on the topic.'
Gazel's case was the least pressing one. The dwarven king was more than eager to enter an alliance. It almost surprised Momonga when he saw momentary looks of trepidation on his face, but he moved that thought aside. He was more interested in the fact that Dwargon would now share their technological and historical knowledge on how to prepare for the inevitable return of the angels.
Both nations would also provide military aid if either was attacked. Gazel even revealed the details his spy network had gathered in the western nations on the overall sentiment towards the emergence of Tempest. This sudden increase in trust coming from the dwarven king made Momonga a little suspicious, but he was still happy for any opportunity to strengthen Tempest's spy network nonetheless.
'Their magi-soldier project does look interesting. I wonder if we could find the disgraced lead scientist and make him work for us. I'll have to ask Pero for details. I think he mentioned that Kaijin was involved in the project as well.'
The most difficult leader to pin down was Elmesia.
For one, she rivaled floor guardians in power, making any covert espionage on her impossible. And as a very experienced ruler, she knew how to get beneficial deals for her nation, making sure to squeeze as many droplets as possible from the juicy potential that was their developing trade network.
Elmesia, being as cunning as she was powerful, pushed for a mutually, beneficial relationship between her nation and Tempest. Seeing how she was able to weave her way into negotiations with virtually no effort made Momonga stay high on guard.
'Right, the annexation of the mountain was pushed forward so a steady trade route could be established. Why do I have the feeling she managed to play Pero like a fiddle?' Momonga looked over the details of the trade agreement once again. 'No matter. For now it is better to have her as a friend. Still, we have yet to see what sort of magical technology Sarion will sell us. Homunculus bodies likely could be created with Nazarick's resources anyway.'
The final two Demon Lords were now semi-permanent residents of Tempest. Milim, as Veldora's niece, was likely to be an ally for a long time. By Buku's report, it was obvious that both of them wanted for their familiar bond to grow.
Additionally, Milim seemingly had a crush on Mare, which, although reluctantly, was tolerated by the boy's somewhat overbearing mother.
And then there was Ramiris, the loose-lipped pixie. She gleefully gave her knowledge on the rest of the Demon Lord- at least as much as she could remember.
She was rather dismissive about a former hero turned Demon Lord, Leon Cromwell. According to her, he was just a crybaby who hid in his own domain on a smaller, uncontested continent to the south of the main continent.
Still, unlike the three official guests, who turned out to be the weakest of them all and were just Demon Lord seeds, Leon was an awakened Demon Lord. He had gained his position by killing another Demon Lord, and Clayman's former master, Kazareem.
She could say much less about the next one.
An ancient vampire known as Roy Valentine was among the older generation of Demon Lord. According to Ramiris, there was some sort of big secret about him but she could not recall what that secret was.
Roy himself was considered the most mysterious out of Ten Great Demon Lord as no one knew where he resided.
Ramiris didn't have much to say about the Demon Lord Dino apart from that he was a fallen angel, but besides that there was nothing. He supposedly was known as the Sleeping Ruler who didn't actually rule over any realm and used every opportunity to just live in the domains of his fellow Demon Lord and mooch off them.
The giant, Dagruel, was a rather reclusive Demon Lord who ruled over the barren lands in the far west of the continent and only left his domain to attend Walpurgis. How powerful he was, Ramiris couldn't tell, but he had fought Veldora in the past and lived to tell the tale.
And then there was Guy Crimson. He was the original Demon Lord and was considered the most powerful one.
Ramiris was somewhat reluctant to talk about the distant past, but one thing she remembered was that Guy was capable of fighting enraged Milim to a standstill and the resulting battle had destroyed an entire country. Her own fall from grace was related to that event.
The only positive was that he lived on a frozen continent to the north and rarely came to cause trouble in the main continent.
What sort of relationship Tempest would have with the five yet uncontacted Demon Lord was hard to tell but considering that four out of ten Demon Lord were friendly to Tempest, the rest likely would not choose open aggression.
For now, the only uncertainty was Clayman and his true agenda.
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The prediction of Charybdis's awakening was on point. The moment the massive beast emerged and gained a physical form, Frey was on the move.
Frey had hesitantly accepted Tempest's offer to transport her forces directly to the monster's proximity so as not to exhaust her army with travel. She knew it was risky to accept this move as it would make them indebted. She took Momonga's words with a grain of salt when she was assured Tempest was acting out of goodwill.
Carrion and his eagle battalion accepted the same offer, arriving less than an hour after Frey.
Their armies were gathered on a small mountain which gave a great vantage point.
"So the regular forces do their best to kill off the sharks flying beside Charybdis and we three are going for the main target?"
Someone spoke with a casual tone, prompting the two Demon Lords to temporarily shift their gazes away from Charybdis. They stared at the other person who was accompanying them.
One of Tempest's Lords, Peroroncino, was made the leader of Tempest's forces participating in the allied operation. Although at first Momonga had planned to attend the fight personally, it seemed to both Frey and Carrion that there were last-minute changes.
"Depending on how powerful Charybdis has become, the rest of the army might have to assist us after clearing the sharks and opening the path for us," Frey said, refocusing her attention on the magical beast.
Charybdis himself was about a hundred meters long and seemed to be a winged whale covered in scaly armor, making him very resistant to any sort of damage. He was accompanied by megalodon-sized sharks that were acting as flying sentries around their creator.
On top of that, he had ultra-speed regeneration, making it difficult for a quick and decisive battle. That did not change the strategy whatsoever, which was simply to hit fast and hard for his physical form to be destroyed and have the spirit pushed back into another century-long slumber.
"I doubt that will be necessary. My scouts reported that I alone should be enough to take it down. The beast is not as powerful as legends paint him to be." Pero replied.
"Agreed. Between the three of us, the beast does not stand a chance. Frey, you are a lot stronger than you were when you fought Charybdis the last time." Carrion agreed.
"There is another thing we need to decide before the battle. How are we splitting the remains? Even at a passive glance, Charybdis' scales should be rather valuable, not to mention its meat and bones." Pero asked.
"Splitting the reward into three equal parts should be fine. Unless one side agrees to do all the harvesting and then pay the rest of us a tribute." Carrion proposed.
"I guess that could work. How about my people do the harvest and each of you gets twenty-five percent and we even deliver everything to your doorstep?" Pero asked.
"Sounds good," Carrion replied.
"I agree to these terms as well." Frey chipped in.
Once the negotiations were over, they could turn their attention back to Charybdis, who was slowly but surely moving in their direction. The beast was but a small dot in the distance when Pero spoke up.
"Hey, do you mind if I do some practice shots at the beast from here?"
"You mean you can hit him from such a distance?" Frey asked, tilting her head in confusion. Even she herself could barely shoot arrows further than three kilometers away and Charybdis was still about ten kilometers away from them.
"Yeah, easily." Pero replied boastfully.
"Be my guest. The more the beast is damaged the easier it will be to fight it." Frey said with a shrug.
"Lord Peroroncino, you must be an amazing archer." Luchia, Frey's middle daughter, said as she inched closer to the avian.
"Best there is in Tempest," Pero said to the young harpy that leaned in to give a plentiful view of her proportional figure clad only in a thin bodysuit.
"Maybe you could find time to teach me some lessons. I have a lot to learn to surpass my mother one day." She asked in a voice that was a pitch higher than her usual speaking tone.
"If Lady Frey is not against it, I think we can arrange something." Pero glanced at the young harpy's mother.
"I have no qualms about letting my daughter train under you, but we have yet to see the amazing feats you claim to be able to do," Frey tilted her head ever so slightly.
Luchia played her role to perfection, just as she was taught to do. With only one of Pero's concubines present, this was the best moment to strike.
"Sure, watch and be amazed," Pero said and pulled out his divine-tier weapon, Houyi's Bow, from the inventory.
'Let's see if I can hit all of them at the same time. Should look impressive enough.' Pero took aim and fueled his sun-based energy into the small ball of yellow light that was forming at the tip of the arrow.
"S-so much power!" Luchia gasped as the feathers on her wings started to darken in the proximity of the energy ball.
The grass under his feet dried up in a rapidly increasing circle. Save for the careless harpy who did her very best to seduce the powerful avian, the rest of the onlookers took a step back instinctively. A burning sensation gradually began to prickle everyones' skin while Luchia started to find it immensely difficult to breathe.
{ Do you feel it? That power! It's as if the sun itself is concentrating all of its heat into this one spot, } Frey messaged Carrion.
{ You know he is just showing off, right? Lord Peroroncino needs to impress your daughter if he plans to add her to his collection. } Carrion replied casually. Behind his stony expression was him wanting to save face before the power that made his legs tremble.
After a couple of seconds, Pero finally let the bowstring go, sending the energy hurling toward the distant target. Everyone around the avian let out sighs of relief when the heat around them immediately dissipated.
No one other than Pero could figure out as to why they later heard loud screeching from the avian's attack, but the noise nonetheless was something dreadful to hear.
"…Wait, what's happening to the energy you shot out?" Carrion whispered, blinking rapidly in disbelief. The same, loud dissonance of noise disappeared all of a sudden, confusing him and the others.
To make matters more bewildering, they sensed something was off about the heavily concentrated ball of energy heading towards Charybdis. It was halfway towards its intended target when something phenomenal happened.
The central energy ball had split itself into twenty smaller ones, still jam packed with frightening amounts of magicules. They looked as though they were spiraling out of control.
In reality, they were actually intended on hitting various targets ranging from Charbydis's main body to the megalodons. The latter monsters must have sensed the imminent danger that was heading towards them since they started to move in an attempt to protect their master.
It was too late for them though as there were plenty of small projectiles to go around. They not only collided with their targets, but Charbydis was not spared from the onslaught that was about to come.
A bright light soon engulfed everyones' visions. Frey briefly could have sworn there was a second sun being born at where Charbydis was. They did not have the time to recover their vision as a shockwave burst from the epicenter of the attack, reaching the astounded onlookers a moment later.
The magnificent light show that was introduced with a cacophony of booms was nothing short of amazing to everyone who had witnessed Pero's singular strike. But if they thought that was all there was to it, they had another thing coming.
Eventually, a horrifying fact dawned upon everyone; from the ground and aerial battalions to the ones leading the forces. The legendary monster wasn't there anymore.
Both Carrion and Frey had excellent eye vision, but they had the same thoughts in their head. The magical torrents caused by this singular attack tore apart the massive beast.
Frey let out a quiet, incoherent shrieking sound at the unbelievable sight, while Carrion just stared in the distance, wide-eyed, with his right hand clutching his mouth.
Pero started the slowly falling remains of Charybdis with a rather confused look as if surprised that his attack had such an effect. Luchia beside him tried to act as though she was superbly impressed, and while she was to a certain degree, she could not stop glancing around with a worried expression.
A catastrophic sound boomed in the horizon, confirming that Charybdis had finally fallen.
Frey instantly clasped her hands together to prevent them from shaking. She looked first at Pero who seemed disappointed and Carrion who looked at the carnage with a haunted expression.
The monster that the harpy queen thought she would have to go all out on had turned out dead within a single hit.
"Damn, I hoped it would take more than one shot. What a letdown." Pero said, shockingly with a disappointing tone to his voice. He then turned to Frey and Carrion bowing his head lightly. "Sorry. It turns out dragging your armies here was such a waste. Who knew that a legendary beast would end up as nothing more than target practice?"
"Target practice…" Frey whispered in response. 'He could kill all my armies with one such hit. Just what sort of power does this man possess?"
{ Do not fail me! } Frey messaged Luchia who once again inched closer to the avian with a lustful look on her face.
Her daughter had to pull out all her cards in order to win Pero over. Her goal was still the same, but the stakes were now much higher. Frey did not even want to think about the consequences if their true intentions were revealed, knowing now how Pero could easily crush her nation without even trying.
{ He is so powerful! And that majestic pose. } Luchia replied dreamily, snapping Frey out of her brooding. The harpy queen's daughter pressed her breasts against Pero's arm and shouted, "That was so amazing! I knew that with you around, Charbydis would be made short work of, but this had exceeded everything I could have thought of!"
"Sure was." Pero turned his full attention to the beautiful harpy. He wrapped his arm around her lower back and asked, "Do you still want some archery lessons?"
Luchia enthusiastically nodded in agreement and made cooing noises. Carrion just stared at Frey's obvious tactics being at full display before finally snapping out of his own shock.
"I…guess we are done here. About the resources… Since you killed it single handedly we cannot demand an equal share…" Carrion slowly said.
In the current situation, making any sort of demand would be entirely foolish. His most powerful attack, Beast Roar, the one he believed could kill a Demon Lord, paled in comparison to what he just witnessed.
"Agreed. We can't demand anything in this case." Frey said, hiding the growing despair in her voice.
Carrion was surprised to see Frey in such a vulnerable state. Not that he couldn't understand; he was just as scared as his old ally.
Perhaps he would have been more aggravated were it not for witnessing Suphia being utterly thrashed by the one called Lupus. He was well aware what even a mere servant of Tempest was capable of, but it still made his skin crawl when thinking about how powerful their upper echelon was.
"No, you still were prepared to face the monster. It's not your fault it turned out to be so weak."
Somehow, Pero's casual demeanor was beginning to make the two Demon Lords nervously sweat. Ignoring their visible trepidations, the avian continued.
"How about I send, let's say, five percent of resources to each of you? It's to at least cover the preparation and travel expenses, yeah?" Pero said.
Both instantly agreed, wanting to be done with this as soon as possible. To them it was pretty much a handout anyway, and neither would have done the same with a weaker ally in a similar case.
All that remained was to start organizing the gathering of Charybdis' remains and returning Frey's and Carrion's armies to their respective territories.
Once the two Demon Lord were slightly out of his vicinity, Pero started to shake. Luchia thought something was wrong until she realized that the avian was not moving out of sheer fear.
'Ahh…fuck yes!' Pero mentally shouted, holding back the urge to do a victory pose.
He wanted to do a fist bump in the air, but knew he couldn't in this situation. If his physiology could allow it, he would have had a shit-eating grin on his face. He just settled with several amounts of prideful nodding, ignoring Luchia's confused look on her face.
This day could not have gone better for him.
Not only did he get all the glory for the kill, but on top of that, another pretty girl was added to his collection. Sure, Luchia was on the curvier side, but as a simple man, he could appreciate the female form in its many expressions, not just his most preferred one.
He took some time to relish in this euphoria before finally moving on to his next task. There was still a lot on his plate, but who was to say he could not have some fun in his duties?
Edited by Zirmeister.
Proofreading by Sad_Smiles, Visur Nyxan, I AM THE STRING CUTTER, Tophrel, Ethal07, Miracle of Gods, and Alassandro.
AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available or if you are interested in becoming a beta reader.