Demon King
I activated my Far-seeing Eye and surveyed the state of the battlefield.
Even in my weakened state, using a Skill of this magnitude doesn't pose much of a burden.
"Should I summon another Queen over here?"
"No. We'll watch the situation for a while and summon at the right moment."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, it should be fine."
Summoning is far more taxing than something like the Far-seeing Eye. Once you use it, you need time to rest afterward.
The major subordinates like the Queens and Puppets have already been summoned, so that's fine — but given that the battle has already begun, we can probably only pull off one emergency summoning to call in additional subordinates. We'll have to carefully judge the right moment.
"Summoning sure is convenient."
"Sofia can call back Melazophis and the like too."
Melazophis, and
Unlike me, Sofia hasn't been weakened, so she faces virtually no restrictions.
Well, she does consume MP.
"A subordinate that's been summoned summoning its own subordinates — feels kind of unfair, doesn't it?"
"I suppose it does."
Right now, most of the Taratect swarm fighting on the surface were newly summoned by the Queen. A summoned subordinate can call its own subordinates, and if those subordinates have their own underlings, they can summon those too. And so a swarm is assembled. All I have to do is summon a Queen, and I can call forth an entire swarm.
Of course, summoning does consume MP, so the Queen's MP serves as the cost.
And if I'm going to summon a Queen to our side, it's probably better to have her use that MP to fight personally rather than spending it summoning even more subordinates. A single Queen is more powerful as a fighting force than any number of expendable minions.
"Well, if we're talking about being unfair, vampires are far more broken than I am."
Vampires can replenish their subordinates infinitely. All they have to do is suck blood — friend or foe, it doesn't matter. Anyone can be turned into a vampire. The first Demon King, Fodooi, used this method to mass-produce vampires, nearly driving humanity to the brink of extinction. In terms of sheer numbers, vampires are far more terrifying.
"Sofia could do it too, if she wanted."
"No thank you. Melazophis alone is enough for my subordinates."
...And just like that, Wald was smoothly forgotten.
Well, I suppose Sofia has some principled objection to putting Melazophis on the same level as other expendable fodder. I can understand that sentiment. If you're willing to use any means necessary, then mass-producing vampires would be the way to go — but forcing that on someone just feels wrong.
"Hmm. Anyway, so the Queen is up against that wind-and-thunder combo from before."
I checked the battlefield with my Far-seeing Eye and saw the Queen trading blows with two Ancient Dragons. It was the Wind Dragon and Thunder Dragon combo that Lars had repelled before. Judging from the looks of it, the wounds Lars had inflicted seemed to have already healed.
The Wind Dragon is the type that truly shows its strength outdoors, in the sky — so I understand why they'd pit it against the Queen here. The Thunder Dragon is all about reckless charges, so maybe the strategy is to have it go all-out from the start and spend itself here? If you let it tag along inside the Great Ello Dungeon carelessly, it could run out of steam halfway through.
These two might come across as idiots — and the Thunder Dragon genuinely is one — but their power is the real deal.
"...Two Ancient Dragons is going to be tough even for her."
It's only a matter of time before the Queen falls. Even a Queen of her caliber would struggle against two Ancient Dragons, and on top of that, the current Queen is weaker than she was at her peak. Thanks to Shiro! Because of the damage from Shiro sending in her parallel consciousness to erode her!
One-on-one against an Ancient Dragon, she could probably win. But two at once is rough. That's just how it is.
It is what it is, but...
"Where did the other Ancient Dragons go?"
What's bothering me is that the other Ancient Dragons are nowhere to be seen. If all they wanted was to break through the Queen, it'd be far more efficient for all of them to attack at once. And yet, they've left it to just the wind-and-thunder combo and haven't shown themselves.
"Could they already be inside the Great Ello Dungeon?"
"I can't say it's impossible, but there haven't been any reports to that effect."
I've already placed subordinates throughout the interior of the Great Ello Dungeon. Even if they use teleportation or some unexpected passage to infiltrate, they should trip our warning net somewhere. So far, nothing has. Even if the enemy has someone capable of teleportation, they can only teleport to places they've actually been.
As far as I know, none of the Ancient Dragons have ever set foot in this deepest layer — except for the Earth Dragon Gakia, who guarded it. And humanity has never set foot here either. Humans rarely venture even into the Middle Layer, let alone the Lower Layer.
If they were to teleport in, it'd be as far as the Upper Layer. And in the Upper Layer, there are the powerful reinforcements Shiro left behind. If someone powerful enough to drive them back had infiltrated, it would be strange for us not to notice.
"Still, something about this feels really off."
They're plotting something, aren't they? This kind of thing is always a prelude to something bad.
As if to confirm that premonition, a telepathic message arrives from one of my subordinates.
"What's wrong? ...Water?"
When I received the telepathic thoughts, what was conveyed to me was a single word — water. While I was tilting my head in confusion, the telepathic link cut off abruptly.
"Is something wrong?"
"I'm not sure, but something has definitely happened."
The subordinate who had sent the telepathic message was stationed in the Upper Layer of the Great Ello Dungeon. I directed my Far-seeing Eye toward that location to ascertain what had happened.
"Oh."
And like a fool, I let my voice slip out.
"Wh-what the hell has that bastard done?!"
Before my eyes spread a scene that defied all my imagination. An enormous volume of water was surging into the Upper Layer of the Great Ello Dungeon.
"A flood attack — are they insane?!"
It was seawater, pouring in from the sea that spread across the surface above the Great Ello Dungeon.