17-34. Offenses and Defenses at Purple Towers

Satou here. In games with level systems, you often see enemies that prove challenging in the beginning end up being pushovers at the endgame. Though that"s not limited to games, you see things in real life that mimic such.

“…Fumu.”

Sera relayed me an oracle from G.o.d Tenion, [Go to the Netherworld, and take back the White Imperial Radiant Crystal from Demon G.o.d].
A ridiculous request, but it would also be bad if the Realm of G.o.ds lost its divinity.

『Master, you don"t have to obey such a ridiculous order!』
『Un, I don"t think there"s any need for Satou to willingly step into a minefield.』

Arisa and Hikaru are against it.

『However, the only one who can save the world from this crisis is–』
『Not only Satou-san.』

Princess Sistina interrupted as Sera was about to make a plea.

『Yep yep, those G.o.ds can just go fetch it themselves.』
『Nn, only right.』

Arisa followed after princess Sistina, Mia gave her affirmation.

Zensan and Lulu seemed like they had something to say as well, but they kept it to themselves due to their reserved personalities.
The beastkin girls and Lady Karina tend not to partic.i.p.ate in difficult topics like this.

『Master, are there no specialty products and sightseeing spots in the Netherworld? so I inquire.』

Mu, I wonder about that.

Though I don"t think we can expect much on the culinary side of things–

『Ah hey, Nana!』
『That"s one thing you shouldn"t say out loud! It"s going to latch on Ichirou-nii"s mind!』

–There might be Netherworld-exclusive monsters that can be made into food.

I mean, the word [Netherworld] itself makes it sound like it"ll be littered with sightseeing spots everywhere.

『This is bad! The thought leaking through Familiar Link is leaning over there! Karinsama! Catch Master"s little clone and shove it inside the cleavage on your armor! That"ll surely make his mind go blank!』
『O-Okay…』

Lady Karina thrust her hand inside her shadow below and grabbed my little clone out.
I can"t see her face under the silver armor, but her trembling hand tells me her state of mind.

『…I can"t do something so shameless after allllllllll!』

Lady Karina threw my little clone beyond the horizon, then she ran off and started mowing down the surviving vanguard monsters and demons.
That"s quite a violent way to hide embarra.s.sment.

『–Kuro-sama.』

I could hear a voice from the little clone attached to Echigoya Firm"s Manager Elterina.
I put aside thinking about Netherworld Trip and switch my consciousness to the little clone.

“Saga Empire"s Emperor has made concessions.”
“I see, well done. I expected nothing less from you, Manager.”

My little clone in Kuro"s getup praised the manager as I focus on talking in Kuro"s speech pattern which I haven"t done for a while.
All members of Echigoya Firm including her have been dispatched all over the world with Bridal Knights as their escorts to seek agreements from kings and territorial lords for the destruction of Purple Towers.

Since a lot of people treat Purple Towers as Magic Core mines not unlike dungeons, destroying them without permissions could potentially garner hostilities instead of grat.i.tudes.

Naturally there were many kings and lords who refused the towers" destruction, but once we declared that Hero Nanas.h.i.+ and Golden Knights won"t be dispatched if another stampede is ever to occur again, many suddenly had a change of heart.
Only militaristic nations like Saga Empire wouldn"t budge until the end, but the manager had finally made them relent.

“No, it"s all thanks to her highness Maryest helping to persuade them for us.”
“Is that right, I have to remember to give Maryest-dono my thanks later.”

Since I couldn"t let anything happen to Manager, I had sought the a.s.sistance of princess Maryest and lady Ringrande to help guard her alongside Bridal Knights, they proved useful in more ways than one.

“With this, only a few percent of all territorial lords in the entire world still oppose the destruction of purple towers.”
“Yeah, we can put that plan into motion now.”
“Before you do. Saga Emperor has asked the Purple Tower in the old capital to be the last as their condition…”
“That shall be done.”

The Purple Tower located near Saga Empire"s old capital–also known as [Labyrinth of Heroes] behind public eyes–has grown exponentially over the last half year to become the biggest tower in the whole world.
I"m planning to use that spot as the final battleground of the stampedes anyway, so this is convenient.

Matching the enormity of being the largest in the world, the scale of monster stampede there was also enormous, but thanks to the united front of two heroes, hero Hayato"s attendants, light warriors Rusus and Fifi, priestess Loreiya and the attendant of past generation hero, Lady Brum Julberg, none of the vanguard monsters managed to set foot on the old capital.
The longearkin (Booch) Wiyaryi didn"t partic.i.p.ate because she was leading a force of longearkin tribe to aid villages located at remote regions of her hometown.

Hayato"s attendants were included as Bridal Knights until half a year ago, but they"ve been working independently recently.

“Well then, we will now enter the final phase. Manager, call your subordinates at the airs.h.i.+p and withdraw.”

I put my consciousness back to my real body.

◇

『Do you read me, everyone?』

Using s.p.a.ce magic [Tactical Talk], I call out to the girls fighting all over world while floating around in a zero gravity room.
After confirming everyone"s replies, I get to the point.

『We will enter the final phase of the plan in 30 minutes from now. If you don"t think you can exterminate all the vanguard monsters in time, just concentrate on individuals that are too much for the local forces to deal themselves.』

From what I can see through Map and satellite orbit, there are still many locations left unresolved.

“To all Burg One to Burg Thousands in the satellite orbit, start up mana refill.”

I gave an order to the void sky-use artificial spirits, [Burgtomai Concar].

These are a modified version of the artificial spirits [Burgtomai] developed by Burainan Elf clan intended to shoot down mysterious creatures from a distant, these ones have been modified to launch air-to-ground attacks.
They have no means to move at all so they need to be placed at the shooting positions, but that"s no problem for me and my Unit Arrangement. After annihilating the mysterious creatures back then, the satellite orbit has somehow turned into my domain after all.

The artificial spirits spread open their dragonfly-like gigantic wings to gather magic element from streams of Ether Veins in the void sky, filling up their laser cannons with mana.

『Master, we"re all ready over here.』

Arisa informed me as a representative of the girls.
I"m done with my side of things as well.

『I"ll fetch everyone here.』

With Unit Arrangement, I bring everyone to where I am–the dock of a large-scale s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p.
I also sent all non-combatants including Bridal Knights who aren"t of golden and silver members to the airport at s.h.i.+ga Kingdom"s capital. Of course, that excludes Hayato"s attendants who are still fighting at Saga Empire.

“Back am~?”
“Pochi is back nanodesu!”

With Tama and Pochi leading, the girls fly in the zero gravity room.
The girls who aren"t used to s.p.a.ce are flapping around, but before I could support them, Aze-san followed by the other girls came to their rescue.

“Is it still going as planned?”
“Yeah, it is. Hero Nanas.h.i.+ will announce the destruction of Purple Towers through a projection in the sky, then the artificial spirits at satellite orbit will bombard the towers with lasers.”
“–Lasers? Can physical attacks even destroy those purple towers?”

Hikaru pointed the obvious problematic point.

“Those lasers are mainly for eliminating small fry around the towers and to act as a smokescreen that averts people and G.o.ds" eyes from the real attacks.”

The sealing amulets I asked the girls to put on those towers will act as markings for those real attacks. They also serve as a ward to prevent local adventurers from secretly going into the towers.

After telling that to the girls, I head to the room with the projector facility.

“It kind of looks like the Communique Room in the royal castle.”
“That"s cause I copied that device.”

While replying to Hikaru, I entered the egg-shaped magic device in Hero Nanas.h.i.+"s form.
Countless eyes (cameras) inside this egg-shaped device are used to create a three-dimensional projection of the person inside. The way all these eyes turn toward me all at once is pretty eerie.

I shake off the innumerable gazes and start the broadcasting as scheduled.

『h.e.l.lo, people of the world. I am Hero Nanas.h.i.+.』

I refrained from using [of s.h.i.+ga Kingdom].

I seemed to be a little tense today as I ended up using Satou"s speech pattern instead of Nanas.h.i.+"s.
I"m gonna run with it since changing now would be weird.

『I will now proceed to destroy the Purple Towers that have put this world in danger. We have obtained permissions from kings and lords of many nations already, but there may be some of you listening to this broadcast who are against it. However, for the sake of your safety, we have to destroy these Demon G.o.d"s traps in the form of Purple Towers, I very much hope for your understanding.』

There are people who rely on Purple Towers for their livelihoods, I"ve set up Echigoya Firm to aid them all over the world.
We"ve stockpiled more than enough provisions in preparation for this, I"m sure it will work.

I could hear Arisa"s murmuring, “Doesn"t it feel like we"re doing the same thing as demon G.o.d and G.o.ds?”, via Familiar Link, I"m ignoring that.

『I hope you could stay 300 meters away from the Purple Towers until sunset of this day.』

If everything goes as planned, it should be over shortly, but you"ve got to have a flexible schedule for everything always.
I execute Unit Arrangement to put the artificial spirits on their positions.

『Well then, >.』

With my command, all the artificial spirits shot out their lasers toward the ground.

“Satou, I have set your standby pose to be on loop.”
“Thank you, Aze-san.”

After thanking Aze-san, I get to the next step.

“Well then, time to go smash all those purple towers.”
“Do your best, Master.”

I smile back at the girls and put up defensive magic before teleporting away with Unit Arrangement.

–Mythology Down.

I cast the anti-G.o.d magic inside a pillar of laser light with a deliberately weakened output.
A tremendous flash and explosion occurred before my eyes, and the purple tower vanished just like it did during the test back then.

After confirming the result, I move to the next tower with Unit Arrangement.

It"s possible for these artificial spirits to radiate out their lasers continuously for a period of time, but their rate of mana recharge won"t be able to keep up with the output after a few minutes.

While thinking that, I go around all over the world casting anti-G.o.d magic, Unit Arrangement and occasionally recharge my mana, destroying the purple towers in the process.

There were times when some extremists would try to get in my way destroying the towers, but they always ended up evacuating to avoid the lasers, so I faced no particular problem.

But the fact that there were not insignificant numbers of people who took a praying pose toward the pillars of laser lights and Hero Nanas.h.i.+"s projection in the sky bothered me a bit.
Don"t tell me they"re gonna start believing in Hero Nanas.h.i.+ now?

I continued the work of destroying purple towers while stuffing that worry away in the corner of my mind.

“…The 700th one huh, this is getting tiring.”

Magic dragons and greater demons started appearing in the latter half of my quest for destruction, but they all ended up becoming victim of anti-G.o.d magic along with the purple towers.

From my point of view, they looked more like bonus experience point characters rather than a hindrance.
I mean, by the time the majority of Purple Towers have been destroyed, I have leveled up 15 times to level 328.

If I knew this, I might have let Arisa try to destroy these towers and see if she would reach level 100.
Though well, even if 99 is the level cap, we can safely reduce level using demon lord s.h.i.+zuka"s Unique Skills [Familiar Transform] and [Transfer] so they can learn more skills anyway.

『Everyone, any change with the destroyed purple towers?』
『It"s all fine, there"s no change at the moment. We see no change in the area around the remaining 24 towers either.』

I"m leaving everything to the demons and apostles at the 23 towers that refused destruction.
Unlike the towers I"ve destroyed, the demons at those places are still playing their savior act so there"s no dangerous vanguards like the magic dragons and the likes there.

If the remaining towers start regenerating other towers like some sort of root divisions, I"ll just take care of them all then.

『What about the tower at Saga Empire"s old capital?』
『Hero Yuuki is trouncing the remaining mobs over there.』

Fumu, it doesn"t seem like Demon G.o.d is gonna launch a counteroffensive, this after everyone is gathered at the anti-demon G.o.d large s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p and all.

While feeling a bit anticlimatic, I joined up with the girls waiting at the large s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p dock, and came down to the purple tower at the old capital all together using Unit Arrangement.
Aze-san who"s unfit for battle is on stand by at the s.p.a.ce s.h.i.+p with the infant dragon and Core Two as her escort. I"ve put my little clones on them each, it should be fine.

At the site, Hero Yuuki was just done purging the vanguard monsters in front of the tower.
His attendants are encircling him as they"re discussing about something.

Noticing us walking toward them, Hero Seigi informed Hero Yuuki with his finger.

“Hero Nanas.h.i.+.”

Hero Yuuki turned around and called my name.

That"s fine and all, but his voice sounded stiff, and it"s like there"s some kind of resolute light dwelling in his eyes looking at me.

“I have just received an oracle from Parion.”
“–Oracle?”

Did she tell them to go invade the Netherworld with me?
I don"t plan to though, so please relax.

“That"s right.”

In place of the two hesitating Heroes, an attendant of a hero long past, Lady Brum Julberg took a step forward.

“Kill the treasonous one who threatens world peace. That is you, avatar of Demon G.o.d.”

Lady Brum turned her sword toward me.

Looks like G.o.d Parion has decided to take Demon G.o.d"s side.