45
Chapter 45: Malicious Plans
Epic of Caterpillar
Fallen Kingdom of Ollathir, now known as the Dark Nation. King Castle.
A pale young human was sitting on a grandiose throne, holding a translucent crystal ball. Its body emitted a strong yellow-colored aura. Creating a powerful pressure on anyone with a weak soul.
"Phew… That was the last soul… Even you trash were very useful after all… I don't like to waste any part of my prey body, and soul…"
The boy checked its own System Window.
"Still not rank 3 Soul… But how?! I already consumed more than 700 human souls! So, I really need the souls of the sealed spirits in the Grand Forest after all. I was hoping on not having to deal with Kireina anymore… Anyways, I have already sent my largest Undead army. I have taught every spell that could probe them useful on their tiny souls. Too bad I can't get more Soul stats by consuming Undead souls…"
The pale young man looked at an Undead girl which was standing motionless at his side.
"What do you think, sister? Will they win? I have to bet everything I got into this attack… Hahaha… This is the thrill of life, will I triumph? Will I lose? What do I even do if my troops lose? Hahaha! Even I, someone who has lived for hundreds of years can't figure out. Kireina appearance on the Grand Forest was the biggest unpredicted event that has happened since long ago"
The young man grabbed countless black colored rings from a small steel box.
"The souls of the strongest demons I have managed to summon… Without a Rank 3 Soul, I cannot be in complete control of their Soul Energy thirst… If everything goes to the worst outcome, I will have to fight with everything I got and prematurely obtain a demon body… After this, I will need to quickly take care of Kireina and devour her soul. After this, I will be able to reach Rank 3 and relief the Soul Energy consumption"
The man approached the Undead girl and patted her head.
"Don't worry, little sister. After all of this is done, I will travel to the Realm of Hel and quickly retrieve your soul, so we can meet up again, and live happily for eternity…"
A strange and obsessed smile appeared on the young man face, giving him a seemingly creepy expression.
***
Middle of the Night, near the Dark Moon Kingdom.
A massive group of undead marched to their destiny, some were complete skeletons, others still remained some of their rooted flesh.
This big amount of undead were led by four powerful beings.
A dignified fallen King, whith a long white hair, which lacked eyes. Mounted on an undead white horse. Once the ultimate monarch of its Kingdom, but now, no more than a puppet, obeying a fallen necromancer.
At the King right side, there was a loyal knight, a strong and muscular undead, wearing a heavy and spiky armor and holding an intimidating axe. Once known as the right hand of the King, even until now, it tries to protect its King from any arm, even after completely loosing its memories and emotions.
To his back, there was an archer, who once was a renewed champion, now cursed to be an undead for eternity, losing all its emotions and the love of its life.
And at the King left side, there was an intimidating skeleton, wearing tattered robes and an old staff made of skulls. A powerful magic aura could be felt coming from this undead core. Once a talented and gifted magician, beloved by its Kingdom and its family, but now stripped from its humanity, its freedom, and its family.
The fallen King leading its dead army stopped its horse, and raised its intimidating demon sword.
"We are here. Troops, organize. Do not strike yet"
The loyal knight at his right side glanced at the King with doubt.
"My King, we must strike now. While the demon is still sleeping"
The archer at the King back talked on a slow voice.
"Not yet. The demon has already detected us. If we advance further. We will fall on her traps"
The skeleton mage at the King left side offered his help.
"My King, I can disarm the traps around. Let me take care of this"
The King looked the skeleton with an indifferent glance.
"Very well. Do as you say"
***
While on dreamland, I felt a strong shock inside my head. Waking me up immediately.
"Ah! The bats! They are trying to alert me! Zehe, Nesiphae, Rimuru, Brontes, wake up!"
I quickly woke my wives up and told them about the alert, they quickly put on their clothes and armor and followed me through the castle halls.
"H-Honey, how long will they take to get here?"
"In around two hours!"
"That's too little time!"
"Guuuu!"
Brontes raised her arms, ready to fight.
"No matter, I will fight all of them!"
"Calm down, Brontes. We must alert the whole Kingdom first"
While on the way, I contacted the Rin Sisters and told them about this. I also woke all my other servants through the System Direct Message.
Most of the Wolves and Monkey leaders woke incredibly fast and after two minutes, they were all ready to fight.
After 10 more minutes, the Wyverns also joined me, alongside Celica and Truhan.
The Rin sisters called every people living on the town to refuge inside the Castle underground, and in mere minutes, countless monsters started to enter the castle, running towards a safe place.
Some brave Dryads offered me their strength, but I denied and sent them all to the Castle Underground, if any of them gets killed on battle, her Empress would hate me forever.
On the way to the Castle Underground, I saw Nereid with Sylph and Nymph. They seemed worried.
Nereid noticed me on her way and came to greet me.
"Master, what is going on?"
"No time to explain, go to the undergrounds!"
"B-But Master!"
"No buts!"
"Ugh!"
It seems that the fairies were still weak compared to the rest of Meiji spirits, Kjata also joined us. It already evolved twice and was a massive flaming armor now.
While on the outside of the castle, I quickly flew around the town and activated all the traps, creating a strong Magic Dome.
Fluosh!
"This dome should be able to protect the buildings inside, for now"
Kizuato, Yukan, Kekensha and Wagyu approached me.
"Master Kireina! Let's organize our troops!"
"Master Kireina, I got some plans"
"Master, please let me lead my people, we have designed a plan!"
"We will also join!"
"Alright! Lets quickly develop a strategy!"
I held a quick and improvised strategy meeting with all the strongest servants, while the rookies and soldiers prepared themselves outside, grabbing potions and food, while equipping themselves with armor and weapons.
Kizuato was the first to talk.
"According to Master scouting. This undead army is quickly approaching right in front of us, and haven't changed any route whatsoever. They also don't seem to be coming from the back of the Kingdom…"
Yukan analyzed.
"Hmmph, quite brave to come right in front of us? That actually leave us with few options"
Kekensha nodded.
"There are still some… We could do a pincer attack, dividing our physical troops in three parts. Initiating the clash of armies with the ones with highest defense, and while we have the enemy attention, the other two groups intercept the whole undead army from both sides"
Wagyu praised Kekensha quick thinking.
"Impressive, Kekensha!"
Meiji liked Kekensha idea, and made it even better.
"I like your idea, Kekensha. But there is way more potential on our troops. Aside from the pincer attack. We can divide three magic teams too, which would quickly blow the undead army when it most concentrated"
Zehe also added.
"That would be the best way to utilize our current strength. We can also add the undead soldiers to the front lines, and utilize them as meat shields, like we did on the Goblin invasion"
My servants are very intelligent, they know how to use the full potential of our troops, if it were me, I would had just charged ahead. And would had probably get myself on a deadly situation like last time with the Goblin Emperor.
"Very well, we shall go with that. I will divide the strongest warriors through the armies"
Kekensha, Kizuato and Abellona will lead the three physical armies.
The first army is the "Defense Army" and will be led by Undead soldiers, heavy armored humanoids and Kekensha, alongside Nesiphae and some wolves that are qualified as tanks.
The second army will be the "Fast Offense Army", this one will be led by Kizuato, and the fastest and offensive fighters. These include Wagyu, Goruden, Jinsoku, Celica, Yuki and most of the Crimson and Ice Wolves. While the enemy is distracted on hitting the high defense tanks, this army will penetrate the enemy defense on a flash.
The third army will be the "Strong Blow Army", this army will be led by Abellona and the rest of the heavy hitters, this include Abellona brothers, Truhan, Brontes and most of Meiji spirits, which will add elemental and magic damage to the mix.
The first magic army will be the "Distortion Magic Army", this army will confuse the enemy and bomb them with fast spells. It will be led by Meiji alongside most of the newborn monkey mages, who have incredible potential. This team will also heal and support the three physical teams.
The second magic army will be the "Trapping and Binding Magic Army", this army will mostly trap and bind the enemy with powerful spells. It will be led by Zehe, who has plenty of trapping and binding shadow moves at her disposal. She will be accompanied by other strong Shadow manipulators; these include the Undead Goblin Mages and Arch mages and Dark Squirrels.
The third and last magic army will be the "Last Blasting Magic Army", this army will be the one that will finish the undead army for good, blasting it completely with very strong and potent area-of-effect spells, because of the large range of their spells, the other armies must retreat a bit for this army to do their job without holding back. It will be led by Rimuru and most of the Slime Family.
I won't join any army and will watch the fight from the skies, supporting when I see an army having a hard time, if a strong boss appears, I will regroup with my wives and fight it off.
My wives were kind of sad for not being able to accompany me on this war, but I knew that their strength could be used somewhere else, being stuck to me would be a waste of their strength.
Before going to the battlefield, I quickly packed as much food and potions as my Item Box and Portable Treasure Box skill could handle. This skill was quite useful, as it was pretty much a little expansion of Item Box, almost everyone possessed this skill already after the big Blood Monster feast from two days ago.
The sky was still very dark and there was no moon, giving very low visibility. Thankfully, most of my named servants possessed strong vision skills. Being able to move easily around even in complete darkness.
As everyone was getting ready, time flew and the Undead army was getting more and more closer. While packing things up, I felt as various of the traps I set on the forest were swiftly removed.
"Huh? They got someone who can remove traps of my level? Hmph"
I quickly created 10 flesh minion bats and sent them to scout the area even more, and use appraisal in anything they found.
After some minutes, I lost contact with all my bats, but managed to get some sneak peeks of the inside of the undead army.
There were 4 very strong auras inside the undead army, flowing with power. My bats managed to appraise only one of them before getting killed, but its stats were absurd, at least at High Emperor level or even a bit higher.
| NAME: DAMIAN BITEFROST
| CLASS: HIGH UNDEAD KING KNIGHT
| RACE: UNDEAD ZOMBIE (HUMAN)
| LEVEL 154/999 EXP 076421/154000 STATUS: UNDEAD (GOOD)
| ITEM BOX 008/100
| HP: 463/463 MP: 357/357 STAMINA: 170/170
| STRENGTH: 296 (+150)
| DEFENCE: 205 (+80)
| MAGIC: 229 (+150)
| RESISTANCE: 145 (+80)
| SPEED: 213 (+50)
| CHARISMA: 100
| LUCK: -5
| EQUIPMENT |
| SHADOW DEMON SWORD: OLLATHIR |
| SHADOW UNDEAD KING FULL ARMOR SET |
| SHADOW AWAKENING RING: AGARES |
| SHADOW AWAKENING RING: LEGION |
| SKILLS |
| ROYAL BLOODLINE | | PRINCE BLESSING | | ROYAL SWORD ARTS: 5 |
| KING BLESSING || UNDEAD CURSE |
| REGRETFUL SOUL CURSE | | DARK SHADOW BLAST |
| SHADOW SWORD ARTS: 7 | | SHADOW SWORD AFFINITY |
| SHADOW MAGIC: GRAVITY HOLE | | SHADOW MAGIC: GRAVITY CONTROL |
| SHADOW MAGIC: REVERSE GRAVITY |
"W-What in the heck are these stats? They are incredible! And its just an Undead! What if it were alive? And those skills… Shadow Sword Arts: 7? And overpowered Gravity magic! Add all of that with a broken sword and two Shadow Awakening Rings! This guy will be a tough nut to crack… When these guys join the war, I will have to immediately join the fight. I can already imagine the other three"
Seeing how this army bosses were absurdly strong, I prepared myself on advice, reinforcing my magic shield using Magic Solidification, and eating prepared food to boost my stats passively. I will activate every buff possible when I get on the fighting, to not waste their time.
***
The first army, commanded by Kekensha, was already in front of the magic dome, awaiting the Undead army.
Kekensha looked at the horizon with worry, he also detected the power of this undead army generals, and was afraid that he would probably not get outside of this alive.
But it was fine. He didn't mind dying. If it were protecting what it was most precious to him, his family, it was fine. He would die as many times as he could if it were to do any help on their family survival.
This was the mindset of an experienced wolf like Kekensha.
Kekensha golden and shiny fur illuminated the dark night around his troops, giving them a feeling of warm and reliability.
"They are here"
Clank clank
The powerful hears of Kekensha were able to immediately detect the cracking noises that the skeleton undead does when it moves.
"Activate skill: Golden Eyes"
Fluosh!
Kekensha activated a powerful vision skill, expanding its vision range over kilometers, finally being able to detect the massive undead army. Countless skeleton and zombies wearing heavy armor and mounting undead horses were slowly approaching. After seeing such a big amount of undead, his heart started beating at an increasing speed.
"Luckily, my high affinity over Light Element will grant me an edge over these undead"
Kekensha started to cast several golden shields around its troops, giving them a boost in Defense and Resistance.
"Sir Kekensha!"
Clank clank
As the undead army approached the town, Kekensha silently awaited.
Clank clank
The undead soldiers had no emotions or memories of their past, and walked slowly, as if tired of existing. Wielding big weapons and heavy armor.
Nesiphae who was at Kekensha's back was excited over this battle, casting countless buffing skills, increasing her muscular density and size.
"Aaah! Kekensha, I am awaiting your command"
"Yes, Lady Nesiphae… (Perhaps with Lady Nesiphae here, my worries are exaggerations. However, even if she is stronger than most of us, I must protect her over anything else. She is a sub-governor of our Kingdom and also Master's beloved wife)"
Clank clank
When the undead army finally approached enough, Kekensha gave the command.
"Charge!"
"Oooohhh!"
"Oooraaaaaaahh!"
"Let's go!"
"Awwoooo!"
A big group of heavy armored humanoids charged over the undead army, alongside some big wolves and a giant lamia.
The undead army quickly noticed this unexpected charge, and raised their weapons, moving like puppets, increasing their speed.
"Clack! Clack!"
The first to clash with Kekensha was a big skeleton with a massive size, wearing a strong blue colored armor. It had two demonic horns on its head. And was holding a long sword.
Kekensha activated a strong Light Wall and intercepted the skeleton attack with all his might.
CLASH!
The strong blow barely put any restraint on Kekensha charge, disappointing him.
"Hmph! Light Lance!"
Kekensha deactivated its Light Shield and quickly moved to the back of the undead, activating a powerful skill, which formed a long horn made of light on its forehead. It stabbed right through the skeleton head.
FLUOSH!
CRASH!
However, after having its head completely destroyed, the skeleton kept moving, this made Kekensha worried about the resiliency of these soldiers.
"Light Arrows!"
Kekensha chanted the name of its favorite skill, summoning a floating golden bow which started to shot countless arrows made of Light towards the undead whole body, ripping it into countless pieces.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
When a system message popped in front of Kekensha, saying how much EXP he acquired from this undead, he was sure that the fiend was dead.
But it was too early to celebrate its victory, as more of the same type of undead skeleton approached wagyu wielding axes and long swords.
"Light Shield! Light Arrows!"
Kekensha intercepted the axe wielding undead with its Light Shield, while shooting Light Arrows towards the long sword wielding undead on its back, killing it on the spot.
Clash! Clash!
The axe wielding undead wasn't smart enough to go around the Light Shield, and started to repeatedly hit it with its axe.
"Hmmph! Light Flash!"
Kekensha casted a strong spell, blinding the undead and giving it Light damage, burning its skeleton body and diminishing its HP.
"Light Arrows!"
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Kekensha moved to the undead back and shot more of its Light Arrows, quickly destroying the undead whole body into bone pieces.
With no time to even glance at the EXP learned, three more undead came towards him, raising their big weapons.
"Light Shield! Light Shield! Light Shield!"
Clash!
The three undead were greeted by three large Light Shields, blocking their attacks with ease.
Flash! Flash!
While the undead soldiers were trying to destroy the shields, countless Light Arrows rained over their bodies, destroying them into pieces.
When Kekensha was finally able to take a breath, he immediately watched over its companions, seeing that most were handling fine and Nesiphae was devastating the army with her large fire-infused axe, slashing all the undead that came her way.
However, not everyone was experienced, as some rookies were having a hard time trying to kill the undead, as they still kept moving even after destroying their heads or limbs.
A group of three armored Trolls were dealing with more than 7 undead, no matter how many times you break their parts, the bastards raised again and grabbed their feet, trying to make them trip over.
"T-These damned undead! Die already!"
"Big brother, watch out!"
"Ah!"
From the back of the biggest troll, a strong axe wielding undead came slashing its weapon, going for a sneak attack!
However!
Clash!
The axe slash was blocked by a floating Light Shield, that appeared out of thin air.
"Clack?!"
The undead was surprised by this sudden event, trying to destroy this annoying obstacle.
Clash! Clash!
"Light Arrows!"
Kekensha came rushing towards the undead and shot countless Light Arrows, quickly getting rid of the undead.
The troll rookies were happy to see who once was their enemy.
"Ah! Its Sir Kekensha!"
"Rookies! Don't distract yourselves!"
From the back of the Troll, two undead came trying to slash his head off with long swords!
"Uaah!"
CLASH!
However, their attacks were once again blocked by Kekensha Light Shield!
"You rookies must keep your eyes on the battlefield! Light Arrows!"
Flash! Flash!
Countless arrows shattered the two undead into tiny pieces, easily killing them.
"T-Thanks, Sir Kekensha!"
"Rookies, undead are weak to fire, light and holy! Use your flaming thrust technique!"
"Ah! It's true!"
While Kekensha instructed the trolls, three undead came rushing toward them, raising their weapons.
"Now! Flaming Axe Thrust!"
"Flaming Riposte!"
"Flame Counter!"
Clash! Clash! Clash!
The three trolls were able to counter the undead with a strong fire infused attack, setting the three undead in fire.
"Clack!"
Slash! Slash! Slash!
The trolls didn't waste this opportunity and slashed the skeletons in pieces.
"W-We did it!"
"I told you to not take away your eyes from the battlefield!"
Clash!
Another undead came rushing trying to stab a troll with its long lance, but Kekensha was able to block it with its Light Shield.
"I will help you out blocking attacks, and you kill them!"
The trolls raised their weapons and infused them with fire, going for the kill.
"Yes!"
While Kekensha helped as many rookies as he could, Nesiphae was slashing waves after waves of undead, using her massive flaming axe, they were disintegrated the moment they were slashed by it.
And while doing this, she multi tasked, casting countless of her serpents, which expanded around the battlefield, grabbed a ton of undead and detonated. Each time they detonated, tiny snakes would be produced, which would grow larger as they killed more undead.
"Flaming Vertical Slash!"
SLASH!
Nesiphae raised her flaming axe and threw a potent vertical slash, destroying countless undead in one shot.
"Nice!"
***
On the distance, I saw as Kekensha team was handling fine without any casualties. This is mostly thanks for Kekensha useful Light Shields, which he can cast around easily, blocking enemy attacks and protecting its comrades.
Nesiphae was also doing wonderfully, being able to take care of half the battlefield by herself with ease.
"That Light Shield is a very useful skill, way better than my own magic shield in terms of utility… It seems that the bosses haven't moved yet…"
As I glanced on the battlefield, I saw as more and more undead approached the first army.
These undead seemed to have no end.
"How many are there?"
I sent more and more flesh minion bats, but most of them were instantly killed, giving very little information.
"Ugh… There is someone there that is constantly destroying my bats"
I realized that my mass has decreased heavily, because of creating too many flesh minions and not having them back. I decided to assimilate some raw Blood Monster meat. Which quickly became part of my body, revitalizing it.
"Assimilation is surely useful in this regard, eh?"
While I finished assimilating a piece of meat, I noticed that the big wave of undead finally stopped, and came together on the first army, the density of undead suddenly raised incredibly fast, they were more than 700, putting a lot of pressure on Kekensha and its comrades.
"Very well, its time"
I gave the command to do the pincer attack to the other two armies, however, Kizuato would charge first.
Kizuato raised its weapon and yelled.
"Charge!"
Countless monkeys and wolves charged ahead, raising their weapons or howling.
"Let's go!"
"Oooraaah!"
"Awwooo!"
Kizuato charged at max speed, using all its speed boosting skills and Stamina. He was worried over Kekensha pressure, fighting so many undead concentrated in one single space was extremely hard, if it wasn't for his Light Shields and Nesiphae aid, they would have to retreat and ruin the whole plan.
Suddenly, Wagyu came rushing towards Kizuato, some monkeys and Celica were sitting over his wide back.
"Kizuato, jump over my back, it will be faster!"
"Thanks, Wagyu!"
Thump!
Kizuato quickly jumped over Wagyu's back, after doing this, Wagyu increased its speed and went right ahead of the army, trying to catch up with Kekensha.
On the distance, I saw how Nesiphae was holding the massive undead army with her large axe, but was already getting tired, as her big body asks for a big amount of Stamina.
"I should give them a hand. Activate skill: Benevolent Reinforcement and Healing"
Fluosh!
Suddenly, Kekensha army was enveloped in a strong aura that both healed their wounds and boosted their stats, even recovering MP and Stamina by a small amount.
"Ah! Master Kireina is giving us a hand, let's not waste this opportunity! We must resist until the two armies get here!"
"Ah! My beloved Kireina! Thank you very much! I will do my best!"
"Yes!"
"Oooraaaah!"
Clash! Clash!
I watched as Kekensha and its army slashed through countless undead with their new strength. Even the rookie soldiers had such strength boost that were easily able to crush through the strongest of armored undead soldiers.
Nesiphae used her regained Stamina to slash even more undead with her flaming axe, resembling a fire tornado.
"This should keep them in a nice condition for a while… I wish I could join them, but I need to save my MP and look out for any of the undead generals… If I'm too distracted when one attacks, that could cost the lives of my servants, I can't let that happen"
***
At the back of the undead army, present.
The Undead King glanced at the battlefield with indifference.
"Good work, Lich, you have successfully disabled most of this demon traps, while detecting its flesh minions trying to spy on us"
"I live to serve you, my King"
"Hmmph. The situation is looking quite grim, our undead soldiers are pathetically weak. And the demon army is formidable and very well trained"
The loyal knight at the King right side analyzed their enemy army.
"This demon army possess a variety of skills and ways of fighting. They have already come with a plan and are successfully developing it. They will pincer our whole army, and then, slowly destroy it entirely with magic"
The King nodded.
"Good observation, Knight"
"Yes, I only live to serve you, my King"
"However, our army dying or not does not matter. As long as it maintains this demon entertained. After their whole fight, this demon army will become exhausted and won't be able to aid her"
The archer at the King back said on a slow voice.
"And that's… When we strike"
"Yes. We will strike the demon. We will take apart each of her limbs, feast on her flesh and offer her soul to our benevolent Master"
The Lich at the King left side watched the army with his powerful vision, analyzing each soldier, until he met with a familiar face.
It was a beautiful woman with golden eyes, blue skin, silver hair, and four arms. She had a beautiful complexion and was quite tall.
"Z-Zehe?"