"...I invited you and tried to converse with you because,"
The King of Flies sighed deeply before quietly adding,
"In the memories of that imp and the lich, you were deemed the most outstanding human. I thought it worthwhile to engage in conversation with you, hoping perhaps you could understand my intentions."
"..."
"It seems I was mistaken."
"That's laughable. At best, your courtesy would involve feeding me to slightly higher grade maggots or something of that sort."
I, too, let out a deep sigh.
"Got nothing more to say? Seems like our meeting time is about to end. Don't you have any last words?"
"You... have never tried to understand the world from the perspective of our flies. Thus, you remain ignorant. We flies-"
"Listen, King of Flies."
I interrupted him, speaking coldly.
"Just because we disagree doesn't give you the right to kill and stuff your kind to use their skeletons as decorations."
"...!"
"Perhaps it's you who should try understanding the perspective of your kin."
Caught off guard, the King of Flies was momentarily speechless.
I turned away sharply.
Conversations with monsters are always bound to feel empty, but they weren't entirely without gain.
'Until now, the King of Flies was an unknown enemy.'
A monster I had never encountered in the game.
An enemy with motives unknown, for purposes unknown, in ways unknown, seeking to destroy the world.
That's why I truly feared the King of Flies.
However, our recent conversation allowed me to understand him a bit.
And understanding is the first step towards strategizing.
I walked briskly towards the end of this white space, pondering how to combine the information gained from our conversation with what I already knew for a strategy.
That's when it happened.
"Ash...!"
A familiar voice called out.
Turning around in curiosity, I saw Soya, with only her head remaining, beneath a mountain of corpses.
"Soya?!"
She wasn't completely consumed yet?
She opened her mouth, desperately trying to form words.
"Let me go...! Then...!"
In the next moment.
Crunch!
The King of Flies's leg brutally grabbed Soya's head and crushed it.
The monster's blood-red compound eyes emotionlessly glared at me. I glared back at it.
And then-
***
"Ugh!"
I abruptly woke up.
Quickly scanning my surroundings, I saw my comrades, with tense faces, watching over me. I asked urgently.
"How long was I unconscious?"
Junior, checking a pocket watch, answered.
"30 minutes."
Ten turns. Precise.
"Is the retreat ready?"
"Yes. Just give the order, and we can begin to escape."
"Good, let's start."
Knowing how to deal with the mutant specimens and having gained a significant understanding of the King of Flies himself, it made sense to retreat without overextending.
First, Verdandi's party used a dungeon escape teleport scroll. Being a light armor party, they had sustained quite a few injuries.
Verdandi and her teammates waved at me with a smile before disappearing in a flash. Good, one team sent off.
"Kuilan's party, next..."
Before I could finish,
Rumble rumble rumble...
The King of Flies's entire body began to violently vibrate.
The ground trembled, and the atmosphere felt as if it was boiling. Everyone looked at each other in panic.
"What is this?!"
"Hold on tight!"
Then, in the next moment.
Crack!
A sound like hundreds of legs colliding rang out fiercely, followed by.
Roaaar!
An enormous shockwave emanated from the King of Flies's head. We all screamed, managing to maintain our balance barely.
After the shockwave passed and calm returned, we slowly stood up, checking on each other.
"Ah, my back... Is everyone okay?"
"Yes, we're fine. Are you, Your Highness?"
"I'm okay too. Damn, what was that?"
Kellibey, wiping off cold sweat, said.
"We've experienced this shockwave before."
"When?"
"When the air fleet was trying to block it, the moment it stripped our magical barrier... We felt the same shockwave."
Junior, standing pale beside me, also stammered in response.
"Also, during the second line of defense when we cast joint magic, when the King of Flies blocked our magic... We felt the same shockwave."
Imitating the King of Flies, Junior lightly clapped her hands in front of her chest.
"When the King of Flies smashes the ring above its head like this, clapping... Our magic gets nullified, and at the same time..."
Junior spoke with a grimace.
"We felt 'robbed.'"
"Robbed...?"
"Yes. It's not just that our magicians' magic vanished... It's as if it was devoured, concept and all."
I bit my lip hard.
It was this clap that had nullified the airship barriers and the joint magic of Junior and the magicians.
So, what did it nullify this time...?
"...Your Highness."
That's when Kuilan, looking uneasy, muttered to me.
"The scrolls aren't working."
"What?"
Everyone was shocked and looked his way. Kuilan, with a blank expression, shook the scroll in his hand.
The scroll, devoid of magical light, had turned into a dull piece of parchment.
Everyone checked their own teleport scrolls. Frustratingly, all the scrolls had lost their magical light.
"The teleport scrolls, all... have lost their efficacy?"
Everyone looked at me in panic. I unwittingly swallowed dryly.
These dungeon escape teleport scrolls were our only means of escape. We had ventured deep into enemy territory relying solely on them.
If they were rendered unusable, then...
"Escaping is a problem, Your Highness,"
Junior said calmly, yet with a trembling voice.
"Like the airship's barrier technology was taken, these teleports... might have been stolen by the enemy."
"...!"
If, by any chance, the King of Flies had indeed stolen the teleportation technology.
It could teleport directly to the Crossroad walls in an instant...!
"What do we do, Your Highness?! Should we still try to escape from here..."
"But if the King of Flies teleports to Crossroad like this-"
"Then do we have to hold out here?"
"But this is the enemy's stronghold! If more monster flies pour out, we won't be able to withstand..."
It was right when the heroes were urgently exchanging words.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Loud footsteps began to echo from above. We all clamped our mouths shut and looked up simultaneously.
And through... the hole in the ceiling.
We could clearly see the shape of mutant flies pouring down from the floor above.
Swarming, swarming, swarming, swarming...
There appeared to be hundreds of them.
"...Damn it."
I muttered, and everyone sensed it.
This was beyond our ability to handle.
"Run to the lower floor, hurry-!"
As I shouted, the heroes swiftly jumped into the hole leading down.
Even as we fell, Burnout, remaining at the rear, fired explosive bolts upwards haphazardly.
Bang! Ppppppppppp!
Mutant flies trying to squeeze through the narrow hole were engulfed in a massive explosion.
...And then, not dying, they began to fall towards us, piercing through the flames.
Next to Burnout, Bodybag also threw and retrieved Excannibal, trying to block them.
However, as we were fleeing, the motion of throwing and retrieving the sword was slow and lacking in precision.
"Hercules-!"
I shouted, and Hercules, falling beside me, spread its giant beetle wings and soared upwards.
Crunch-!
Hercules valiantly speared the leading mutant fly to death.
But the next moment, it was surrounded by dozens of mutant flies, which simultaneously thrust their long stingers into Hercules.
Groooo...
Hercules trembled and then collapsed. Damn, poison?!
Thunk!
After landing on the lower floor, I hurriedly canceled Hercules' summoning and stored him in a pocket dimension.
Then I tried to give orders to other captured monsters, but they were ignoring my commands and scattering in all directions.
'What?!'
With the fall of legion-class captured monster Hercules, the loyalty of all the captured monsters plummeted.
Most of these captured monsters were units transferred from Jackal. However, they were not as loyal as Jackal's subordinates.
Their not-so-high loyalty was covered up until now by the ultimate skill [The Foremost Flag]'s effect. But since I had to deactivate the barrier to escape, that cover was no longer available.
Hercules' defeat led to a sudden drop in morale, causing the unit to disintegrate, a situation known in game terms as 'morale bust.'
This was not a mental state anomaly but a loyalty management issue, so even my [Unyielding Commander] skill couldn't stop it.
The captured monsters either sought their own escape or tried to surrender to the flies. I gritted my teeth.
"You fools...!"
And the Fly Legion was not merciful enough to accept any surrender, nor sloppy enough to let those who lost their discipline escape.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwomp...!
The captured monster legion was slaughtered from all sides. I turned my eyes away, trembling.
"Kraken! Stall for time!"
Roooar-!
The Kraken, roaring and surging upwards, swung its tentacles, battering the mutant flies in all directions.
Like Hercules, the mutant flies shot their poisonous stingers at the Kraken, but the poison-immune Kraken held its ground.
However, as hundreds of mutant flies' sharp forelegs slashed at its body, it eventually couldn't bear it and let out a miserable scream.
Rooooar...!
"Damn!"
Seeing my summons suffer miserably hurt me inside.
But Kraken, being a monster I could summon only once every three stages, had to be used without reservation to buy time in this situation.
Clatter!
I didn't even know how many floors we had frantically descended.
The Kraken was nowhere to be seen, and, having possibly killed it, hundreds of mutant flies were hot on our heels, pouring down after us.
'Crap...!'
The personnel currently fleeing included Kuilan and five from the Penal Squad. Me, Bodybag, Burnout, Junior, Kellibey, Kellison.
With this lineup, we were no match for that many monsters.
Perhaps Junior could make a difference, but she was extremely depleted, making it difficult even to perform basic magic.
As we ran towards the next hole after landing, I clenched my teeth.
'This won't do...!'
Right then, a mutant fly at the lead smoothly performed acrobatic flying, dodging Burnout's suppressive fire and charged at me.
"Crud...?!"
As I clenched my teeth, looking for a way to counter.
Suddenly, a giant shield rose in front of me.
Bang-!
The mutant fly's scythe-like foreleg collided with the shield.
I looked in surprise at the owner of the shield. The familiar figure of the hefty man wearing a helmet caught my eye.
"Torkel...!"
"Are you alright, Your Highness?"
Swoosh-!
Following that, a clean slash split the air.
The sharp sword strike split even the magical barrier in two and cut the mutant fly in half.
The Blind Swordsman Nobody appeared, rolling on the ground after drawing his longsword.
Crack-!
Then, three people who had leaped up from the hole below stood side by side in front of me.
Zenis, Dearmudin, and Lucas.
Zenis, wearing a full suit of holy armor, scattered wide-area healing magic, while Dearmudin, his beard fluttering, prepared fire magic in both hands.
"Sorry for the delay, my lord."
Standing calmly in the center, Lucas reported, drawing the [Bestowed Sword].
"I searched for survivors down to the last floor but found none. Instead, I've cleanly incinerated the fly eggs on my way here."
Lucas muttered coolly.
"I will join the fight. Your Highness, your orders."
Not just me, but all of us, who had been frantically fleeing, were filled with relief and gratitude at their arrival.
In all my life, I've never been so glad to see these men.