Blitz

It's currently mid-afternoon on a dark and rainy day. The body of my messenger is currently in the public square in a cage. Rocks, rotten fruit, and other items are being thrown at me while my face bleeds.

Carrion punched me in the face extremely hard when I delivered the news. I could tell he was embarrassed when I showed the video because he was bright red when he sent me flying.

I was expecting the 'killing' of the messenger to be quick, but apparently, Carrion wants to make an example out of me and raise his people's spirits. Unfortunately for him, I have other plans. I look over towards Albis who is giving a heartwarming speech about how we are 'fools to declare war against a Demon Lord' and how 'Lord Carrion' will 'show us our place'.

It's quite riveting and if I wasn't the one currently in a cage receiving their ridicule, then I would probably hate myself too.

After her speech, she lights a fire and throws it onto the mound of sticks she put my cage upon. As the fire spreads, I am expected to scream and cry in agony to give the people some sort of feeling of justice for their actions.

To their credit,I see multiple parents leaving with or covering their children's eyes, but unfortunately, even though I can seal my aura, I can't turn off my resistances, so fire of this level is only mildly warm to me.

Not that that won't stop me from freaking them all out.

I begin to squirm and grit my teeth before looking at Albis with hatred in my eyes (not really). I then begin to yell out to the crowd.

"You think I'll die in the way you want me to! I'll show you all the power of my and your future master Rimuru Tempest!" I yell out while creating a complex magical circle on my chest.

In reality, this magic circle is just a bit of illusion magic, but they don't need to know that. Once it's complete, and before Albis can do anything, I create a {Flare Circle} around the base of my cage to block their vision.

"{Spirit Summoning: Ifrit}!" I yell as I spit out Ifrit and disappear with [Spacial Motion] while their view is still covered.

Left behind in the plaza, where the now melted cage used to be, is the Flame Giant himself. He roars and the crowd immediately begins to scatter. Albis engages Ifrit in a melee battle using [Magic Haki], but she is quickly being pushed back and the fire is spreading.

I sneakily start to save people from the shadows after I change my appearance to that of a lion beastman. I ensure that no one dies or is injured beyond minor burns that can be healed with magic.

After a minute or two, the square and the surrounding building are both evacuated while the guards try to keep onlookers back. Albis lands a critical strike, chopping of one of Ifrit's arms but is blasted by a fireball to the face in the process. Ifrit spits a stream of super-hot fire towards her as she lies on the ground dazed for a moment. Just before it hits her, however, she swaps to her lamia form and coil-jumps out of the way.

By now, several blocks of Earizania's capital city Morotomo are now aflame while their battle rages on. Eventually, the Voice of the World recognizes her achievements and grants her [Fire Resistance]. After which, she stopped dodging and directly attacked Ifrit, who was unable to damage her anymore. Albis decapitated Ifrit and he returns to the Dwelling of the Spirits once his material body is destroyed.

Carrion arrives a few minutes later and organizes the rescue and fire-fighting efforts personally to try and save the already plummeting morale of his country. The average citizen saw, first hand, just how one single suicidal member of Tempest caused so much damage and now their drive to crush Tempest was replaced with fear and dread.

Carrion grit his teeth and regretted holding back his earlier punch, thinking he should have splattered his brains all over the floor rather than holding the public execution. Thankfully, the rain helped put out the fires and no one died, but massive amounts of the city would have to be rebuilt and the people's confidence in the Three Beastkeepers was wavering, since Albis, their leader, had such a tough time fighting off one opponent.

What they didn't know, however, was that Ifrit was actually buffed by being recently named by Veldora. That's right. Ifrit was now Charys, the S-Ranked loyal attendant of Veldora Tempest.

(A/N: This is true. Ifrit's wiki page said so.)

...

I was currently sitting in the tent of the Second Army's main base camp. It was set up just outside of the forest and inside of Carrion's territory. Benimaru was giving instructions to everyone while organizing a frontal assault straight down the river towards the capital. Everyone had 'Rings of Mortal Denial' so there wasn't really any need for supplies other than metal for the few Gremlins and Dwarves in the support division of the army for repairing weapons and armor, which could be carried via air by Dragonewts.

Artoria was sent off to raid the few military outposts all across the borders with Milim's Domain while the Dragonewts would swiftly attack the border outposts to Frey's territory. This would greatly confuse Carrion and lead him to make mistakes, thinking Milim and Frey were betraying him.

His spies knew about Frey's preparations to fight an enemy but didn't know they were to fight Charybdis, so he now assumed they were to fight him. He also heard from Phobio's crew, who reported their conversation with me about 'respect to Ramiris and Milim' and assumed that Milim was supporting my assault with her own subordinates, so he divided his forces up and spread them incredibly thin.

Ironically, due to the large number of warriors approaching her borders, Frey actually began mobilizing the troops she was going to use against Charybdis to fight off Carrion, reinforcing the misunderstanding.

I nodded when I heard Benimaru's plan. This would lead to the least amount of bloodshed possible without dragging out the battles any longer than they needed. Demiurge and Shiroe were also impressed and recommended Benimaur for some sort of promotion or reward after the war was over, so I agreed.

Benimaru wanted to fight Carrion one-on-one so I gave the ok and the assault began. In two days, we had successfully marched half of the way to Morotomo. All of the 'major' fights were ended swiftly since our forces could move at once in a coordinated fashion with [Though Communication EX] courtesy of my crest. Carrion probably couldn't understand why my forces always seemed to move in perfect sync with each other, leading to many encirclements and devastating losses for his troops.

I imagine the effect is similar to when tank crews first began using radios to coordinate their assaults in WW2 burning the blitz. There was a reason France fell so quickly despite having a comparable army size and tank force. Tactics make or break warfare after all. It also didn't help that the average Tempest soldier was a whole disaster rank above the average beastman soldier.

Like this, a week passed.

...

...

...

(3rd POV)

"Damn! How can they move like that!?!" Carrion said as he slammed his fist against his throne.

Yet another encirclement had caused the surrender of his reinforcement army to the town of Leotis. At this rate, Morotomo would fall by the end of tomorrow. Albis and Phobio were also captured and it was now common when Dragonewts flew down and destroyed the supply convoys to the front. Apparently, one Dragonewt named Gabiru had defeated Phobio in a one-on-one dual while Artoria, one of Milim's subordinates, he assumed, easily defeated Albis' unit in the town of Sarac near the border of Milim's Domain.

The greatest humiliation of them all though, was how bloodless the war had been. His forces were almost always surrounded and surrendered and even during major battles when it didn't happen, his forces were always defeated by having most of his soldiers knocked unconscious in the fighting or by magic.

'Were they not worthy enough for them to kill?' Carrion thought with a deep-seated frown.

"Lord Carrion!" A Lion-Beastman ran in with a report.

Carrion sighed heavily before looking over the report. Leotis had fallen and Suphia was captured. Now only he was left to defend Morotomo. The report also stated that the enemy general requested a dual with him.

Carrion looked over the report incredulously. The enemy general, often called 'Red Lightning' due to his red hair and the speed at which his forces moved, was someone Carrion had clashed with once already. He called himself Benimaru and Carrion knew that he was, in fact, too strong for Carrion to deal with during a battle.

If it was a dual, he may win, but in the open field, where the other strong members of the enemy army could interfere, it was too risky. Even now, it was hard to tell if he was walking into a trap. If he lost, then the war would be over and his people would be under the rule of Tempest. If he won and he slew the general, it wouldn't matter, since the war was practically over anyways.

His only comfort was that it turned out that Frey wasn't attacking him. He communicated with her a few days after their armies were busy staring at each other all day without making a move and found out the truth that it had been a diversion.

What worried Carrion even more, though was that Frey's army retreated before he even cleared it up. It was reported that they left in a significant hurry and moved to their northern border where he sensed a powerful presence.

Carrion didn't know it at the time, but while Rimuru's armies were busy devastating Carrions, Rimuru himself was paying a visit to Frey on his 'new mount' Charybdis, but that's a story for another time.

Carrion let out one last sigh before standing and hardening his resolve. If he was going down, he would take the enemy's 'greatest' general down with him. He turned to the lion beastman and gave the order.

"I shall accept this dual with 'Red Lightning' Benimaru! We shall fight tomorrow at dawn in front of the gates of Morotomo!" He declared to his council of officers.

"""Yes Sir!"""

...

Benimaru received the reports of Carrion's acceptance immediately. Of course, this was because one of Rimuru's bodies was the lion beastman giving the reports. If Carrion knew just how many of his soldiers were actually spies, he would cry. Most of his messengers were captured on route to give orders and he had to draft new messengers off the street who were of the faster beastmen races to do the work.

Banimaru laughed as his army continued to walk towards the gates of the final city. Tomorrow, it would all be over. Win or lose the dual, Rimuru's ambitions would still be met and this made him happy. Of course, the fact that Rimuru told him everyone was going to be revived even if they died in the fighting might have also helped ease his nerves about dealing with a demon lord.

Ok, maybe the last one helped a little more than it should have.

Benimaru turned to Souei and began to give orders. "Souei, tomorrow, while I am fighting, I want you to lead the Dawnshadows into the city. Find the locations of all the troops. If I die, they capture them all. Rimuru-sama will appear and defeat Carrion in my place."

(A/N: The Dawnshadows are the group of Kijin trained by Akatsuki)

"Are you sure this is the correct move Benimaru? Even if you will be revived, there is no need to put yourself at risk."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Benimaur looked up towards the sky. It was late into the afternoon and he needed to get to bed or he would be too tired for tomorrow's dual.

"As your friend, I just want to ask. Why?"

"You know. Rimuru-sama has given us Ogres everything we could ever want. He made us all into Kijin, granted us boons in new weapons and skills. Introduced us to entertainment we never could have imagined. He even gave little Cherry a formal education. Something that not even many human noble children can get, yet he gives it to everyone for free. He has given us so much and we rely on him to live our lives now.

I want to have him rely on me too. I want to break into that selective group of 'NPCs' and be one of the ones Rimuru-sama relies on for more than just leading troops."

"I see. I understand your desire and will not attempt to stop you anymore. Good luck" Souei said as he disappeared.

"Heh. That guy was never one for emotional moments, though I guess I wasn't either..." He said as he walked back towards where his tent was being set up.

Tomorrow would be the day that Two Demon Lords would fall at once, and the world would never be the same again.