As the army of Eastern Empire drew closer to the Borders of Jura Forest, a slither of worry crept inside the minds of the people of Tempest. Why was there still no sign of Orion's army? Was all they were now thinking.
Rimuru was especially worried, because is Orion was too late then Tempest will have to initiate the Fight first, and as a Passive Pacifists, he'd rather have peace then fight.
Not that he wouldn't fight of forced to, but it was his nature to choose peace first.
"Souei prepare to intercept the Enemy. We will attempt to negotiate first, if that doesn't turn out well, which I expect it to, then Benimaru are you guys ready?" Rimuru asked.
"Yes Rimuru Sama all the Corps are ready and awaiting orders." Benimaru affirmed.
"That won't be necessary." A female voice came from nowhere and also everywhere as a swarm of Bats flooded a spot in the meeting room. The bats soon began to take the shape of a female figure and suddenly disappeared, revealing the owner of the voice.
A regal lady dressed in a Victorian styled gown, her pale skin, long ears and slitted red eyes hinted her origin as a nonhuman, as she spoke it already confirmed the guess in Rimuru's mind.
'A vampire!!' Rimuru exclaimed.
So far he had only encountered That Valentine guy from the Walpurgis, Luminous and Roy. Adding this lady here, he had seen a total of Four Vampires. What was next, Dracula Himself?
"My name is Elizabeth, the Minister of Internal Defence of Orion. " Elizabeth elegantly spoke befitting her appearance.
A small smile on her face as she spoke.
"Welcome to tempest Elizabeth san, I believe Bael sent you?" Rimuru said in confusion.
"Indeed. By the wish of the Supreme One, me and my fellow ministers will assist you in fighting the Army of the Eastern Empire. " She responded.
"Not to be rude, lady Elizabeth but I don't see your army or any of your fellow ministers." Benimaru asked.
"Well, that's why I am here. As a courtesy , and sign of respect I have come here to ask for permission to open a portal outside the City." Elizabeth spoke.
'A portal? Ohh! They're using that method.'
He thought back to the way he transferred his army right inside Jistav. Doing something like that had advantages of its own, the enemy will be caught off guard and also it negates the need of time and Resources needed for travel.
"Granted!"
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In the clearing few kilometres away from The Town. The group was gathered there with Elizabeth.
Soon, she opened a Purple black Gate as it quickly expanded. As the gate stabilized, the army of Orion arrived. Soldiers, armed to the teeth with dragonscale armour, holding lances and swords on their waists. Occasional Large towering Golems 2 metres tall marched with the Dragon Knights.
The knights were about 800thousand as the golems numbered to 125 thousand.
These knights had an aura of honour, pride and discipline on them.
After 5 whole minutes passed with them marching out, another group emerged, they were dressed in long robes concealing most of their bodies. They wore masks with intricate designs as they held staffs. It was clear that they were mages.
This one was clearly smaller but they still numbered to 500 thousand.
After them another group emerged from the portal, unlike the uniform and orderly March of the previous two, this one was chaotic, howls and roars were echoing as the Beastmen exited the portal.
There were various types of Beastmen in the group. All numbered to about 600 thousand.
Next was the most Ominous of them all, the Undead. Seeing the Death Knights, Soul Eaters and many more of the Undead the group couldn't help but feel a bit cautious.
The aura that they radiated made the surrounding feel deathly.
These undead numbered to 500 thousand.
But everyone present her knew that the Number of Undead would never be constant. If a human dies they could be resurrected as undead this increasing this number.
"About time you opened the portal. I was getting impatiented." Roku held his large broad Sword on his shoulders as he grinned at Elizabeth.
"So this is the New Demon Lord." A Ghastly voice sounded as Shah el Ru approached Rimuru. Before he could come any closer to him, Shion and Benimaru blocked Shah's pay. Rightfully so, Wherever Shah went death followed him. As evidend by the trail of withered plants he left.
"Apologies, I got too carried away." Shah apologized as he backed away.
This action of his made the group confused and shocked. A seemingly necromancer apologizing? Something completely unheard of, they always prided over their powers and looked down on living beings.
Understanding the look, Adrigal explained.
"Shah's not that evil if you know him, he's quite a Shy guy. Always deep into biological research. Studying the mysteries of the Living Body as he calls it." Adrigal spoke.
"I do not agree to whatever this woman just said." Shah defended as he went towards his army.
'He's really shy.'
Seeing the retreating figure further solidified Adrigal's stalemate in their heart.
*Ahem*
"So, Adrigal san. I heard you have dragons as you army?" Rimuru asked. Curious as to how hundreds of thousands of dragon heard would look like in real life.
"They won't be here for now. Lord Bael said that they will protect the Continent against any sneak attacks." Adrigal spoke.
"If they did they'd be no better than scums. Such cowardly act is not befitting of a Warrior." Roku added.
"Well, those 'warriors' are about an hour away from reaching the border. Shall we go now?" Elizabeth rhetorically asked.
"Yes yes. Sound the horn." Roku said.
One of the Beastmen blew a large horn as soon multiple other sounded from different part of the army, immediately after, the army began marching East, to meet with the Enemy.
"Wow...such a large number. Hey, Benimaru how many do we have?" Rimuru asked curiously.
"About half a million Rimuru Sama." Benimaru answered.
"And their 's is almost 2million, not counting the Golem and Undead." Rimuru spoke in a dry tone.
It was rumoured that Orion had a vast number of army reaching almost 7 Million. To that, Tempest's army was just a drop in the ocean. Not to mention all their armour, weapons and robes were filled to the brim with runes. Making each individual A rank.
With this, toppling a kingdom would be quite easy right? Yep.
'But I don't see any advanced weapons though...' Rimuru wondered. From all those news of Orion advancing ten steps ahead of the World's current technology he guessed that Orion would have guns and ranks by now, but it seems the didn't.
[Report. In a Magical World. Guns and tanks would be redundant simply because here, individual strength of an A rank was enough to become much stronger than normal tanks and have more magic firepower than guns.]
'Yeah. That's right. Why need cold weapons when you have hot magic to blast you to pieces in a snap.' Rimuru joked in his mind.
[.....]
'I guess Raphael-sensei didn't like it.'
"Rimuru Sama, should we move out too?" Benimaru asked.
According to the intelligence gathered from Diablo's expedition, the Eastern Empire was currently sending 4.5 million strong army. Maybe Orion's 2 million might not stand against them so it was better to mobilize Tempest's miniscule 500 thousand.
"That won't be necessary. Rimuru dono, your army can stay in Tempest and protect it. This is our fight and it is an order from Bael Sama , that no interference occurs in our fight here." Adrigal spoke.
"But are you guys confident? The enemy's number is 4.5 million." Rimuru asked.
"Yes. We will win. For it is the Will of Our Supreme One." Adrigal smiled as they left.
'Whoah~ Thay are very loyal to himI guess. And what's with that Supreme One title. It's edgy...' Rimuru thought as he told Benimaru to stand by and Left to join Adrigal.
Even though he agreed to not participate, it wouldn't hurt to look. Right? What could possibly go wrong?
★★★★★★★