NOVEL NEXT Volume 8 19
~???’s Point of View~
"Is the intelligence gathering going well? The previous defeat against the anomaly that is Procell has shown... that we have vastly underestimated his power. We will not be making that mistake again. We shall be investigating him down to the littlest detail, exposing all he has to us. And then, we crush him."
The Demon Lord leading the anti-Procell alliance asked so to his subordinates.
The five Demon Lords that gathered here were all relatively young. The oldest would only be at around a hundred years old. As such, their ambition was still at the peak.
The youngest among them was actually their leader. He was a humanoid Demon Lord that wore an elegant obsidian-black mantle.
It might seem odd for the youngest to be at the top, but he wasn’t actually himself.
This was an open secret to the group.
A few days ago, he had fought and defeated a certain Great Demon Lord. In accordance to the stipulation of their fight, he inherited everything that belonged to that Great Demon Lord. In exchange for that though, his identity, his very being was snatched away.
This was of course all part of the Great Demon Lord’s schemes. That Great Demon Lord had the ability to make anyone his new vessel by looking at them directly.
However, this situation was also not ideal for the Great Demon Lord. At best, it was tolerable.
Originally, he wanted [Creation] Demon Lord Procell to be his new vessel, but due to several unforeseen failures, he did not have much choice but to use the spare.
Moreover, he had lost all functions of his Unique Skill except for one.
Still, because the spare had an A rank medal, a strong body, a useful ability, and, above all, allowed him more time, he couldn’t really complain.
"I shall now commence with the report. It seems like our sworn enemy is improving his war potential everyday......at a terrifying pace."
[Ice] Demon Lord Crocell read out loud the report.
"Of note are the number of the powerful golems that we had encountered in the war against the [Beast] Demon Lord as well as the number of the B rank dragons that unleashes powerful explosives from above. It seems the B rank dragons are being produced via [Maelstroms] now. It cannot be stressed enough how dire the situation is."
"We already know those things. The question is, is there any way to counter them?"
The other Demon Lords remained quiet.
Procell’s golems were unfair, to say the very least.
Normally, they held power equal to an A rank monster—which was absurd enough—but for a limited time, they could exhibit power equal to even an S rank monster. Just to handle one full-powered golem, they would need to allocate perhaps at least 5 average A rank monsters.
"As long as those golems continue to be produced, we do not stand a chance. It is of utmost importance that we crush their production line."
According to their investigations, the Avalon-Ritters, the aforementioned powerful golems, were being produced at a rate of four per month. That was very roughly equal to 20 A rank monsters a month.
As if that wasn’t enough, Procell also produced Mithril Golems that came equipped with powerful weapons called heavy machineguns. These Mithril Golems were produced at the rate of 20 per month. Assuming that each machinegun-wielding Mithril Golem was as strong as three A rank monsters, it would take about 7 A rank monsters to match all of the 20 made in a single month.
Adding it all, at least 27 A rank monsters were required to deal with a month’s worth of golems made by Procell.
Meanwhile, the [Synthesis] of two A rank medals only had a 2/3 chance that the outcome would be an A rank monster. So, even a Demon Lord that produced an A rank medal would have, on average, only 4 A rank monsters per year.
"Without even using a single A rank medal, he can build up 6 years’ worth of war potential in just a month in the form of those blasted golems. And that’s not even factoring in his genuine S rank monsters yet!"
The reason behind Procell’s suddenly large war potential was that a good number of it didn’t need medals to be made.
And because of that, the anti-Procell faction saw the need to conspire together and nip Procell in the bud. If given even just a few years, Procell could become an unstoppable force.
"With all due respect, it isn’t just the golems we have to contend with; his dragons as well. That explosive magic they fire from high in the sky is more powerful than an A rank monster’s advanced magic."
The [Ice] Demon Lord spoke again.
Procell’s Darkness Dragons were strong, both in terms of stats and skills. Outshining even that though was their wide-ranged, high-powered aerial bombing. It was just ridiculous that a B rank monster could fire off such an attack.
"They are a threat, yes, but one that we have an easy countermeasure for. We just have to shoot them down before they drop their explosive attack. His dragons are of the darkness and undead attribute. That means they are twice as weak against an attack of the holy attribute. Even holy-attribute C rank monster should be able to swiftly take them down. Fortunately, we have [Maelstroms] that produce holy-attribute cranes. On top of our monsters being able to take down the dragons in a one on one fight, our monsters also outnumber them. Clearly, there is no need to be wary of them."
Monsters that had either the darkness or undead attributes had great power, but that came at the cost of being vulnerable against monsters of the holy attribute.
Procell’s Darkness Dragons had both and were thus even more vulnerable against the holy attribute.
So long as there were enough holy monsters, the Darkness Dragons shouldn’t be a worry.
"To reiterate, our absolute top priority in our mission to defeat [Creation] Demon Lord Procell is to stop the production of his golems! Now, does anyone have a good idea on how to accomplish this?!"
The leader shouted so.
However, the other Demon Lords only kept their heads down.
None of them had a good idea.
Or so it seemed until a Demon Lord that resembled an orc—a race of big, bipedal pigs—raised his hand.
"I have idea"
"Hoh, you have an idea, do you, [Pig] Demon Lord Agares? Speak then."
"I investigated. Golems many. But monster making strong golems just one."
It might not seem like it based on his appearance, but Agares was rather smart. He had used a hero-class human adventurer as a spy rather than sending a monster. Through that, he had found out that the Avalon-Ritters and Mithril Golems were made by just one monster: Rorono the Elder Dwarf.
That analysis of theirs was correct, but to be more specific, Rorono would create a golem core each day and see if it was compatible for the twin-drive system with any of the golem cores she had made previously. If it matched with another core, the pair would be put into an Avalon-Ritter. If it didn’t, it would be made into a Mithril Golem until a match could be made.
On average, four Avalon-Ritters were made each month.
By the way, even though the Dwarf Smiths also made golem cores, theirs could only be used for up to C rank equivalent Gold and Silver Golems.
"That monster make not just golems. That monster make weapons Procell’s monsters use and explosive dropped by dragons. Procell’s war potential, almost thanks to that monster."
All of the other Demon Lords present were visibly shocked.
Procell’s strength came not only from his powerful monsters but also his peculiar weapons called guns.
Until this moment, the Demon Lords in the alliance thought that he had made those weapons through his [Creation]. Nobody ever imagined it was made by his monsters.
Upon hearing this new information and thus seeing Procell’s lifeline, the leader laughed maniacally.
"Then, if we kill that monster, the Procell’s war potential should be reduced by more than half... but if we were to snatch her away, the powerful golems, those weapons, all of it, we would be able to gain access to those things too."
"I investigated a lot. I sure. Monster is Elder Dwarf. Name is Rorono. Rorono not just make golems, Rorono also controls. All golems can be stolen. That monster, Rorono, humanoid wench. Tasty."
"Wonderful! Not only will we finally crush Procell, we will also be able to improve our own war potential."
When the leader said such things, the other Demon Lords became excited.
Normally, to gain possession of a monster, approval of its current Demon Lord was necessary.
However, [Pig] Demon Lord Agares had a means of snatching away such right of control so long as the monster in question was a humanoid female.
And so, the leader began formulating their strategy to snatch away Rorono and gain Procell’s war potential for themselves.
All that being said, they were overlooking four points.
The first was that they gravely underestimated Rorono. The strategy they were making was focused on how to break through Avalon’s defenses as though actually taking away Rorono was a foregone conclusion.
They were applying the general perception that production-type monsters were weak to her despite her being an S rank monster, being a [Monster of the Covenant], and having experienced multiple battles and wars already. Such estimation was simply too naïve.
Their second mistake was their belief that the C rank holy birds were enough to take care of Avalon’s aerial forces. They arbitrarily concluded that Procell neglected to deal with the Darkness Dragons’ weakness.
The third point was that Procell and Rorono themselves recognized that Rorono was Avalon’s lifeline and thus have set every possible kind of defense available to them to protect her.
Finally, they misjudged how much love Procell had for his daughters. To him, his daughters were the most important things in the world. If anyone dared to hurt his daughters, he was willing to become the devil and use the inhuman weapon he had prepared but hoped to never use.
Unaware of these four points, the alliance continued to make their plans.
It might not be too far off though for them to be forced to realized their mistakes.
TL note: [Pig] is what I’ve decided for the time being. 【豪】 is the one used in the raws. It can translate to tremendous, huge. That kanji uses the radical 豕 which by itself can mean pig. This leads me to think this might be some kind of wordplay that doesn’t translate well. It’s very possible that I’m wrong, but for now, that’s how I’m gonna address Agares. Thanks for your patience.