The Dreadful Corps
After summarizing the military formations to some extent, I headed over to Benimaru's room.
My purpose was to show the organization chart that I had just made.
While Benimaru had the authority to command, I held the supreme commanding authority and the authority to appoint rights.
Although it was complicated, originally, he also held supreme commanding authority, but he was relieved of that.
In terms of commanding the military, my amateurish self really shouldn't have any say in these kind of matters.
So all issues related to commanding the military are left to Benimaru.
As mentioned earlier, Benimaru's orders to the army take precedence over mine.
However, it was a different story for strategic commands.
Those are commands such as appointing generals before the war, and making the final judgment during the war.
Even if the number appointed was less than the number of the posts available for generals, it arbitrarily falls to Benimaru's jurisdiction without any problems, but the appointment of generals for the corps was left to my discretion.
Therefore, I handed the completed organization chart to Benimaru.
「Seriously? Gobuta, a general?」
As expected, that huh.
Certainly, I could agree that giving that idiot the responsibility of many lives was indeed an anxiety-inducing topic.
But I knew that for the sake of protecting this country, Gobuta secluded himself to do intensive training.
And above all, it may not look like it but the trust I had for my comrades was deep.
「It's probably alright. I see the natural qualities in him for this.」
「Oh well, I'll acknowledge it. Shall we give it a try?」
Benimaru nodded, seemingly convinced.
Nothing was said about Gabil.
Sure, Gabil got carried away easily, but even so, he had the right character to be a general.
He was considerate to his subordinates, and he also knew when to draw the line.
While strategic planning was clearly not his strong suit, his tactical judgments were precise.
Even if I gave him a troop there probably wouldn't be any problems.
Needless to say, Gerudo was a reliable general.
I made arrangements for the reinforcement of the lookout points in each location I had prepared against the empire's movement, and then I left Benimaru's room.
I should leave the trifling matters to Benimaru.
Benimaru is also busy.
He's been checking the assembly point for the monster soldiers and makes arrangements with Gerudo about the food distribution and so forth.
It won't be good for me to disturb him for a while.
Eh? How about giving him a hand? I have no idea what you're talking about.
Amateurs shouldn't interfere.
"Those are some convenient words", I immediately think so.
Now then, my destination after I leaving Benimaru's room was Ramiris' workshop.
I was going to check on the growth of the cultured golems (magic dolls)[1]. I wondered if they had generated souls.
Once the golems were complete, if they could take independent action, it could possibly influence the war greatly.
There was no need for them to be ready right now, but it was still unknown if they would be ready for the upcoming war. Even so, just their existence would make a large difference.
Their strength was equivalent to 1000 A-rank.
If they were able to take independent action, their range of usage would expand greatly.
Well, even if they couldn't take independent action, when used collectively they could become the strongest corps surpassing an army.
So treating them like a golem corps of destruction that didn't even fear death was possible.
In that case, I was considering issuing simple commands to them and using them in a suicide attack.
I transferred through the space, and instantly arrived in Veldora's large room.
I opened the large door in the rear, went inside, and passed through it as usual.
Since there was no sign of Veldora in his private quarters, he must have been helping Ramiris again. He was probably conducting another stupid experiment with Ramiris.
And as expected, they were conducting stupid experiments inside.
It seemed like they were trying to integrate the core I had given them.
As always, Bester was recording.
Dino seemed to be working together with him, though there was a paper thin difference between working and playing.
He had been spouting nonsense about not wanting to work, but I guess there were things he had worked on without me knowing.
In the room, aside from the usual four, like Veldora and Ramiris, there was a guest.
It was the Dryad, Trainee-san.
「Well, well, well, Rimuru-sama. It's really been a while since we last met.」
Trainee-san greeted me.
As usual, she was a translucent bishoujo.
「Trainee-san, it's been a while. I want to thank you for your cooperation with the dungeon's management.」
「Now, now, you've given us a place to live in inside the dungeon…
And as a subordinate of Ramiris-sama, this much is a given.」
「No, no, it's still true that you've been a great help. Please take care of me in the future as well.」
I expressed my gratitude.
She had certainly been a great help when I asked her to help with the labyrinth's management.
By the way, what was she doing here?
The answer was,
「As I expected, a soul didn't dwell inside the cultured golem (magic doll).
And so, I was thinking of various ideas.
I could get them all to start activating by linking them to Baretta, but that would be a waste of treasure.
And then, it struck me!
I could place Dryads and Treants that are close to Spiritual life forms in a temporary body like that!
In fact, based off the data of the technological information we got from Sarion, it's like possessing a Homunculus.
That's why we've asked Trainee to conduct the experiment!」
She informed me.
I see.
It was hard to move around without possessing a body. It was possible for the Dryads, but there were severe limitations for the Treants.
Dryads were stronger than actual Devils, since they had a higher position in the upper echelons of A rank monsters.
However, there was the issue of magic leakage due to not having a physical body.
And so, when they were apart from the trees, which were their main bodies, they were unable to exhibit their true prowess.
If they used the cultured golems (magic doll), it would be possible for them to move around freely. This didn't just apply to the Dryads, but for to Treants as well!
In addition, the Treants could show their off strength, which was equivalent to an A rank; and as for the dryads, they would be able to demonstrate their true power from a distant location.
It was a wonderful idea.
The experiment was a big success.
There was also no problem with compatibility, it seemed that tens of Dryads and hundreds of dozens of Treants would be able to obtain a new body.
It seemed the transfer was completed.
Trainee-san's role was to witness the transfer process during the experiment. After that, if there was a need to fix the appearance, she seemed to be trying her best to model them after her own figure as much as possible.
It seemed that Trainee-san was doing all of this on behalf of her sisters.
The Dryads had many female types, and the Treants had many male types.[2]
Though they shouldn't have any gender, for some reason the differences in their outward appearance was clearly visible.
The Treants didn't seem to pay too much attention to the body's appearance, I'll have to say that the concern mainly originated from the Dryad sisters.
If you were talking about bishoujos, it was my turn.
I offered my cooperation because I could alter their appearance to some extent.
In the first place, it was going to be difficult to change the outward appearance without altering the skeletal structure.
As there seems to be a dozens of sisters, I remodeled and shaped the skeletal structure for each of the sisters while they conveyed their desired figures to me through the thought link.
Afterwards, I adjusted the flow of magic power and finished arranging the quantity of muscles, it was perfect.
As an extra service, I refined the skeleton with gold and made it possible for it to change into Orichalcum.
With this, it would be possible to adjust it to some extent in accordance to the owner's Will later.
In this world, gold was a versatile metal. Thus, it had a very great affinity and adaptability to magical power as well.
Though I couldn't use it en mass because it was a rare metal, it was fine to mix it with magic steel.
「Thank you very much, Rimuru-sama!」
In response to Trainee san's thanks, I replied with shaking and wobbling.
This much was nothing. It was also as thank for her usual aid.
「Then, I'll leave the rest to you guys. Ramiris, please inform me if it seems a soul will dwell in the golems.」
「Roger! I'll immediately come flying and inform you.」
After I asked her to inform me if a soul successfully formed, I returned to my office.
There was still some work left to do.
I wanted to help with the research there forever, but I didn't have the liberty to do so.
While the desire remained in my heart, I returned to my room.
...…
...
…
The Demon was unruly, it was trampling the demonic territory.
In the underworld, or as it was sometimes called, hell, in this spiritual world it defeated strong demons just like the incarnation of violence.
The powerless ones had long fled, and those with strength had banded together to fight it head on.
But for that Demon, the grief of the weak and worthless could not be heard.
That Demon completely destroyed its opponents, and continued to trample them calmly.
Demons were a spiritual life form.
Therefore, even if their bodies were destroyed, they would revive themselves through self-regeneration over time.
Maybe knowing this, that Demon didn't restrain itself and did not give mercy to those who came.
That Demon was the avatar of dreadful violence.
「Kufufufu. There was no chance for my defeat, even if all of you small fries gather like this.
That reminds me, a long time ago, there were several people who rivaled me.
Shall I give them a visit?」
Leaving behind those mysterious words, the red-haired demon teleported from its position and vanished.
What remained were the remains of demons.
...…
...
…
I returned to my room, and check the construction of the surveillance system.
Intelligence agents were placed in important points of the Great Jura Forest, from the sea coast to atop the mountains, but even to that extend unease still remains concerning about the information gathering.
Or rather, it was expected that it didn't function well when the actual fight began.
And so, I thought about whether it would be possible to use magic to monitor.
Magic of distance view series with purpose of observing was present in the Hex series.[3]
However, the usability of it was poorer than I thought. It was only to the extent where I can check my target's appearance.
It was inflexible, and it could only monitor from one position.
To view from a different position, the magic must be invoked once more.
It's impossible to view the top guns like us demon lords. Since it would repelled by the magic barrier we always erected.
And so, using the existing magic didn't go well.
However, I had an idea.
For example, the 〈Physics magic〉"Megiddo (God's Wrath)"
It was magic that collected sunlight using floating droplets of water to converge it.
I could make the droplets of water float at various locations to transcribe the local situation and copy it.
Alternatively, I could copy the image from a high altitude then magnify the image and project it onto a monitor.
That meant I was creating a surveillance satellite with magic.
According to Raphael's answer, this could be possible with the utilization of 〈Physics Magic〉〈Spirit Magic〉 and 『Spatial Manipulation』.[4]
Afterwards, I made a detailed request, and made the arrangements for it with Raphael.
Once the surveillance system was completed, collecting information would be simple.
The amount of information I could collect would be enormous, and grasping the movements of the enemy's armies could be done easily.
During the Battle of Tsushima (Sea of Japan Naval Battle), the Russian Baltic Fleet was destroyed by the Imperial Japanese Navy under the command of the Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Heihachirō Tōgō.
The most crucial aspect of this naval battle, was whether you could encounter your enemy or not.
To predict the point where the encounter was going to happen.
If that had failed, Japan would have lost because the battle would have never occurred.
In other words, I could say it was quite similar to our current situation.
Since I dispersed our forces to various places and calculated the expected inferiority in the number of our forces, defeat was the most probable outcome.
Grasping the empire's movements and focusing our forces accordingly would be the decisive factor for victory.
If the empire dispersed their forces, using timely calculation, it would become possible for us to defeat them individually.
In order to turn the tides of battle in our favor and to ultimately grasp victory, the completion of this magic was crucial.
So, although the magic was already completed, I wanted to improve it.
Demanding Raphael-san to make this spell easy to use in a small place, I madea complaint like that.
Eh? Can't I do it by myself?
Don't be foolish.
Wisdom King Raphael was my ability. In other words, I could say I have been doing my best.
I might have been slightly overworked lately.
After I take a bit of a breather, let's use the finished surveillance magic.
Thinking that, I requested the maid, who was on standby in the adjacent room, to prepare some tea.
Shuna would usually do it if she didn't have any errands, but when she was unavailable it would be this maid instead.
It was more than satisfactory.
Though the maid was a former goblin who had evolved into Goburina, her appearance was hardly any different from a human's.
Recently, light make-up[5] had become a trend and they seemed to have become increasingly prettier.
She came carrying the prepared tea.
And then, after serving the tea, she bowed,
「Diablo-sama seems to have returned.
He requested an audience, what should I tell him?」
So she asked me.
I asked her to tell him to come here.
The maid bowed to me once, and then left my presence.
Apparently, she was still tense around me, her movement was stiff.
If it was Diablo or the other executives, they should able to enter without reservation, but the surroundings prevented that.
That was the only problem.
Diablo came in while smiling.
I didn't know what he was going to say, but I could see wickedness in Diablo's smile.
Me aside, I think that for other people, it would be a symbol of misfortune.
He seemed like he was doing something really evil, but this was because he was clad in an evil atmosphere.
「Rimuru-sama, I have just returned.
I have brought people who would like to have an audience with Rimuru-sama today.
By all means, if it is possible for you to meet them, nothing would bring them greater joy.」
As usual, Diablo came to greet me in a reverential manner.
This fellow decided that I was his only master and he served me like I was a god.
In any case, the protégés or something like that, that he had said he was going to gather earlier, might be those people.
「Were there people who satisfied you?」
「Yes, though it was only about ten people.....
I'm very sorry, I'm really ashamed by my own incompetence since I'm unable to prepare the corps.」
「Ah, no. Don't worry about it. Anyways, let's meet them.」
「Oh, thank you very much! Well then, I have kept them waiting.」
Did he seriously plan on making a corps?
He was a terrifying demon.
I walked behind Diablo while stealthy thinking about such things.
I wondered how far he was going to go, it seemed to be outside of Tempest.
「Kufufufufu.
Though it is possible for them to pass through the barrier, it would be a problem if the barrier accidentally broken.」
So, Diablo apologized, but what the heck are the people you're bringing along?
Using Leon's country as a reference, I had installed a mechanism that created a large barrier.
Thanks to this, the city was continuously covered by a defensive barrier that could differentiate between enemies and allies, and spread around the circumference of the city.
As for a big shot that could break it, that was only possible by a monster of disaster class beyond 'A' rank.
In addition, if it was going to be broken soon, it would immediately be handled by the sentry.
Non-intelligent 'A' rank monsters and the like, are already no longer a match for our country's soldiers who have high skill.
But, even among the devils, only high-ranking ones could destroy the barrier. This was because there was a large difference between passing through and destroying it.
Seriously, what the heck are the fellows he brought along? Were they really devil class?
「I allow you all to show yourselves. Manifest!」
Diablo issued an order when we stopped.
Ten demons appeared.
Hey, aren't three of them Arc Demons!?
Even with high-rank demon summoning, to summon Arc Demon was nearly an impossible task.
Anyway, one of them had the strength of a strategic class.
It was on the degree of whether preparing a big compensation and summoning them in the first time was possible or not.
If humans were to attempt to summon them, they needed a large-scale ritual on a national scale to do it.
And there were three of them.
That reminded me, Diablo was also originally an Arc Demon.
They might have been his acquaintances or something like that at that time.
The other seven were Greater Demons, but they seemed to be special individuals.
They had the dignified presence of great demon.
「These people were once my comrades...
Because they cried and swore that they wanted to be useful to Rimuru-sama by all means, I thought to allow them to accompany me.」
Diablo explained while smiling.
However, the part about them crying might be true, but the part about them wanting to be useful to me was questionable.
After all, they still had traces of being beat up.
They seemed like wanted to say something, but they didn't utter a word.
It seemed like they had been given strict, detailed instructions by Diablo.
『We are the faithful servants of the Demon Lord Rimuru. We await your instructions!』
The demons bowed their heads simultaneously and swore their allegiance to me.
Diablo nodded, he seemed satisfied as he watched at the spectacle.
Truly, I was glad he was an ally.
What a terrifying fellow.
Well then, we had ten new companions, but because they are demons, spiritual life-forms that is, magic power was needed to manifest their physical bodies.
I see, they were especially made to wait in the outside for this.
Then, suddenly, I recalled the thing that Trainee-san had said a while ago.
Eh? It's should be okay for me to make them dwell inside the cultured golems, right? So I thought.
Let's implement that immediately.
First of all, I prey on the demons with Gluttonous King Beelzebub. And I stored them in my stomach.
With Diablo, I transferred to Ramiris's Workshop.
I explained the circumstances to Ramiris and we let them dwell inside each golem in the capsules.
The result of their embodiment was a big success.
The demons drifted like they were asleep inside the magic water.
When they awakened, the embodiment would grant them a complete body, they might be useful then.
Oh yeah, it would be inconvenient if I didn't give them names.
Thinking that, I decided to give them names.
Because it was unpleasant when a large amount of magic power was consumed, I needed to be careful.
I looked at the amount and set a limit of once a day.
First of all, it was for Diablo's fight buddies, the three Arc Demons.
Each one of them was going to recieve two Greater Demons as their respective aides.
One of them was a unique 'Stray'
It seemed he picked a fight with Diablo and was incidentally crushed by him.
That was the highlight of the people Diablo brought
Anyway, let's give them names.
Testarossa
Ultima
Carrera
Those were the names of the three Arc Demons.
While I was giving them names, their embodiments and evolutions were completed in an instant, and then, Demon Dukes emerged from the culture capsules.
Among the three of them, there was a beautiful female type.
When I first named it Testarossa, I was surprised since its evolution and birth immediately occurred before my very eyes, but as expected I got used to it.
Their ability was tremendously overwhelming and the dimensions of their strength went beyond common sense.
「Is this for real! Aren't they more powerful than the former demon lords?!」
Moaned Dino, but Veldora and Ramiris were not shaken.
It might because of this, right?
"If it's Rimuru, it's natural, right!"
I warded off such a feeling lightly.
Bester who was in the corner was muttering,
「I don't see anything, hahaha, I don't know. I don't know anything, I'm unrelated......」
While he repeated such incoherent grief inducing muttering, he was rubbing his head.
I decided that I never saw that.
Next were the Greater Demons.
Venom
Veyron
Moss
Cien
Zonda
Agera
Esprit
I named them respectively.
These guys also instantly finished their evolutions and emerged from the culture capsules.
As powerful Arc Demons.
I felt I had acquired an unbelievable war force, but this was still just the beginning.
「Rimuru-sama, they couldn't endure the joy of you granting them wonderful names and power.
Please by all means permit me to pledge my loyalty to you later.
There is a request.
Our, the souls of the people who were the subordinates of this one...
If you can allow it, please let us use these dolls――」
I didn't know how many dolls he needed, but I decided to allow him to do it.
It seemed just perfect to let the souls of the Lesser Demons (Low-rank demon), dwell inside the cultured golems.
Though it was likely that they would become Greater Demons with their ability, even so there was no problem.
Because I had consumed a large amount of magic power, to go further and give them names seemed impossible, even so there was no issue.
Dozens of Greater Demons with abilities beyond A rank huh...
If it was a unique individual who was stronger than the average or weaker demons, it might be born as a stronger Arc Demon than the others.
I gave him permission while thinking that...
The Greater Demons seemed to have 100 subordinates each.
There were a total of 700 souls of Lesser Demons dwelling inside the cultured golems.
If these fellows gained physical bodies and emerged, it would only serve to increase their dreadful force.
No, normally, even with only ten demons...
I may have done it again.
Let's feign ignorance.
It's all Diablo's responsibility.
I was irresponsibly sitting next to Bester and thought of such a thing.
After this, the demons that were born here manifested as Greater Demons.
Terrifying Greater Demons with abilities stronger than a devil's.
My prediction was correct, the Arc Demons that were just born were stronger than the summoned ones.
It had become an unimaginable corps.
Black Numbers (Black Corps)[6]: 700 people.
The group called themselves a corps even though their numbers was the lowest.
They were the strongest unit in Tempest, the Symbol of Terror.
When the other demons emerged from the culture capsule, that time is the moment of the birth of the Black Numbers (Black Corps).