Chapter 194
In the Fourth Area―――
The demon king army third division led by Harlot was engaged in battle with the monsters of Yuguru Great Forest led by the four chiefs of the forest.
The forest monsters had superiority in numbers, but the demon king army was superior in quality.
Overall, it was about an even match if they fought.
However,
「―――『Charm』」
When Harlot chanted so, the monsters of the forest that had rushed towards her earlier turned on their heels and attacked their companions.
「Gigya?!」「Ga, GAAA?!」「GOAHHH?!」
The forest monsters that were suddenly attacked by their allies fell into confusion.
Harlot―in other words, the race-specific magic “Charm” possessed by succubi. As the name suggests, it is a spell that charms the target and makes them follow one’s will. With this, the demon king army overturned the numerical advantage.
Likewise, other succubi also used “Charm” to seduce the monsters one after another.
「Focus on support! Don’t make any moves; just wait for them to destroy themselves!」
While solely aiming for infighting, her own troops would focus completely on supporting the charmed monsters.
When the charmed monsters died, they would charm the other monsters that had been fighting again.
Especially against Harlot’s “Charm” as the commander of the demon king army, there were few fierce warriors who could defend against it.
Even if they could not charm, slowing down their movements would be good enough. For golems and such that were immune to charm, they simply directed the charmed monsters to slam into them. No matter how they staggered, they could minimize damage to their own force while inflicting maximum damage to the enemy.
The third division led by Harlot was a division boasting unparalleled strength in group battles, as well as infiltration missions.
Even so, Harlot thought.
（I can’t see that girl and the slime anywhere… I wonder where on earth they’re hiding?）
That was her only worry.
She had her magic sense open completely earlier, yet there wasn’t a single hit.
No, to be precise, she could feel the slime’s magical power here and there.
However, its magical power was far too scattered, so she couldn’t quite grasp an accurate fix on its location.
Just where was it?
The girl aside, that slime posed trouble.
A Gluttony Hell Slime.
Among the currently confirmed slime species, it was close to the strongest race.
It could absorb not just material, but magic, mana – anything and everything, and in the single point of “devouring”, it boasted capabilities surpassing even earth dragons. An utterly voracious slime.
On top of that, this slime had no “magical core”. Or rather, its entire body was the “magical core”. Therefore, the only way to defeat it was to leave no trace of its flesh behind with ultra high firepower annihilation-type spells that would reduce it to dust.
An extremely troublesome slime that was strong and hard to defeat.
Such was the Glutony Hell Slime race.
It would be too terrifying to turn into an enemy.
（It makes me nostalgic for when it was an ally…）
At one time, the demon king army also had a slime of the same species that existed as a commander.
It was a wonderful comrade – cute, and also extremely reliable.
However, during the great war, it acted as bait to allow her and the others to escape, and was subjugated by the hero and their companions. Although this was an entirely different individual from that slime, she honestly would prefer not to oppose it if possible.
「Oh well, that’s no reason to go easy on it…」
「What’s going on, Captain?」
As her subordinate looked at her with a bewildered expression, she brushed it off as nothing and deflected.
In any case, for now she had to focus on the battle before her eyes.
「Looks like the number of charmed magical beasts is decreasing. Alright then―――」
Just as she was about to charm the next enemy,
「’Blazing Lament’!!」
From directly above together with the war cry, several massive pillars of light rained down.
「―――! Everyone, deploy defense spells!」
Almost simultaneously with Harlot’s voice, her subordinates deployed defense spells.
The pillars of light descended with a heavy rumbling sound as they burned away at the defense spells.
To think they could even incinerate barriers; what fearsome might.
Looking up, there was the girl from earlier―Tres.
In her hands she held the degraded Sacred Sword Leviathan.
I see, so she had used the holy sword’s power amplification to enhance her spells.
Furthermore, behind the girl was a spider monster.
It seemed to have stuck to the ceiling with its threads.
「You’ve done well…」
With the enemy before their eyes, an environment unnatural to this forest dungeon, and the glowing magic stones illuminating from above unconsciously causing them to let down their guard against the ceiling.
It was an excellent ambush striking at that opening.
However, that was all it was.
Harlot moved before the second volley could be fired.
「Monsters! Become our shields!」
The charmed magical beasts moved to shield them.
Now then, what will you do? Will you continue attacking without hesitation? Or perhaps―――
「No, stop―!」
As expected, Tres deflected her magic.
The pillars of light warped and vanished.
In that instant, Harlot swiftly closed the distance using flight magic.
「Fufu, that was careless of you. To ruin such an excellent ambush?」
「Eek―!?」
Harlot tried to stab Tres with the short sword in her hand.
「Kishii!!」
However, Taran manipulated his threads and forcibly shifted their position.
Harlot’s short sword only grazed Tres’s cheek.
「Oh my, what a shame. While I’m at it, how about this too? Thousand Grand Fireballs―」
As if to pay her back for earlier, Harlot unleashed countless fire bullets.
「Wah!」
「Kishii!!」
Having lost their stance, Tres and Taran were unable to fully evade them and took the hits.
The threads burned away as well, and the girl and spider fell straight down into the forest.
「How trifling… But why is it just that girl? Where on earth could the slime be…?」
Even from her aerial view, she couldn’t spot anything resembling it.
Oh well. In that case, I would take care of the girl first.
「Uugh… One more time! Blazing Lament―!」
As Tres tried to press the attack once more, Harlot casually avoided it with ease.
「There’s no way such a sloppy attack with no real aim could hit me, right?」
The misaligned pillar of light passed by Harlot’s side and struck the wall.
It had ended in a wasted shot.
Or so she thought.
However,
「―――Gah!? Wha…t…」
Unbelievably, the Blazing Lament that had struck the wall reflected right back and scored a direct hit on Harlot. Getting blindsided from completely outside her awareness, her defense spells didn’t activate in time and she took the full brunt of the attack.
（What’s going on? Could they have set up a magic reflection spell formula on this wall…?）
To the naked eye it looked like an ordinary wall. Just what was the principle behind this?
Unable to endure, she dispelled her flight spell and lowered herself to the ground.
「It’s over, bye-bye lady」
Tres and Taran were standing a small distance away.
「Over…? With wounds of this degree, it’s nothing for me to heal instantly, you know? Don’t underestimate your big sister now~」
「That’s not it. Because we’ve already bought enough time.」
「What do you mean…?」
In that moment―――squelch
A bizarre noise could be heard from below.
「…..?」
Sensing something off, Harlot looked down at her feet.
There, she saw only the bare ground.
Yet for some reason…her own feet were sinking into it.
「…!」
A chill ran down Harlot’s entire body.
「Everyone, deploy flight spells! Leave the ground right now!!!」
Harlot’s command was like a shriek.
Some immediately deployed flight spells, while others faltered briefly at her voice.
That small hesitation marked the difference between life and death for them.
In the next instant, the place that had been the ground transformed into something like mud.
Squelch squelch squelch squelch
And it wasn’t just the ground.
The walls and ceiling around them had also begun melting into a slimy state.
「Don’t tell me this is…!」
Then, the “voices” echoing from all around hit home with her unease.
「「「「「Pururururururu!!」「「Pu」「ruuu!」Puru!」「「「「Puu」puru!」Puru!!」」」
It was the voice of that slime.
From the walls and ceiling, floor and trees, that voice could be heard coming from every direction.
Harlot immediately grasped what it signified.
「Retreat! All troops, retreat at once!!」
Not just the ground, but the walls and ceiling, everything in the vicinity was encroaching on them as if trying to absorb them.
Those who moved too slowly were swallowed with a squelch to be digested away.
Even the monsters they had been fighting earlier sank into the sea of slime.
「Don’t tell me this whole forest is…that slime’s mimicry…!?」
Unbelievable.
She didn’t want to believe it.
Yet the space before her eyes gradually transformed little by little into a single gigantic slime.
「Nice and slow, you see―」
She could hear the girl’s voice.
「Bit by bit, slowly but surely, I replaced the dungeon with Pururu’s body―」
As she explained, her own body sank into the slime as well.
So that was why she had been sensing the slime’s magical power from all over!
Why hadn’t she thought it through better? Too little, too late, Harlot cursed her own shallowness and foolishness.
But really, there was no way anyone could have imagined this.
Mimicking an entire dungeon of this scale was outrageously beyond common sense!
「It’s payback time… Gobble gobble…」
Then, the girl’s whole body sank into the slime.
And in that state,
『―――’Blazing Lament’』
Light flared in every direction.
Pillars of light poured down relentlessly from all sides.
They burned away the demon king army troops one after another.
（I see, so earlier it absorbed that girl’s spells…!）
Slimes couldn’t use magic.
However, it seemed this slime could regurgitate the magic it absorbed unchanged.
And likely amplified with its own magical power on top of that.
How preposterous… Not even the slime of the same species they had in the demon king army before had such an ability.
「Tch…we’re pulling back!」
Harlot immediately ordered their retreat.
This is bad. We need to regain our footing first.
However,
「N-No good, Captain! The passages have been blocked by the slime…!」
「Are there any other routes!?」
「None at all! Everywhere is covered in slime!」
Damn it all.
In other words, they were now inside its stomach.
If so, Harlot thought.
「Everyone, focus our strongest magic on the point I indicate! All at once!」
「「「「「「Yes ma’am!!!」」」」」」
Pouring all their focus into invoking their magic.
「―――’Purgatory’s Bane’!!」
A massive vortex of flames centered on Harlot.
Her strongest wide-range annihilation spell – the Soul King-class fire attribute magic “Purgatory’s Bane”.
In addition, a variety of other high destructive power spells simultaneously struck down on Pururu above.
「PURUUU!!」
The collision.
Pururu began absorbing them.
「PU… RUUUUUUU!!?」
However, it seemed that even Pururu couldn’t swallow down everything.
The magic unleashed by Harlot’s group pierced through Pururu’s flesh, blowing open a hole in the ceiling.
「Now! Escape!」
「「「「Yes ma’am!」」」」
The demon king army retreated out through the opened hole as fast as they could.
But of course, not everyone made it out.
The hole sealed up in no time, and those left behind were swallowed up by Pururu one after another to be digested away.
Then, once the demon king army troops had completely vanished, Pururu undid her bodily expansion.
In the process, she spit out Tres and the monsters.
「Phew… Good work, Pururu~」
「Puruu~」
Having returned to her original size, Pururu bounced happily onto Tres’s flat chest.
A very lovely gesture.
「Ahaha, that tickles Pururu~ Good work everyone else too!」
It seemed the brainwashing from “Charm” had been lifted as well.
Though some forest magical beasts had been sacrificed, their defense could be called a success for the moment.
「But they still managed to escape…」
「Puruu…」
「We’ll make graves for everyone later. For now, let’s focus on repairing the dungeon. Shall we go report to dad?」
「Puru!」
To report their military gains, Tres and Pururu headed towards the deeper levels through a teleportation gate.
◇◆◇◆◇
And slightly away from the Middle Level Fourth Area, Harlot was assessing her troops.
「Pant… pant… W-What’s the damage situation?」
「We’ve lost over ninety percent of our forces… Lady Harlot, at this rate…」
「I’m well aware…」
Their situation was far worse than she had imagined.
It would be impossible to invade further into the dungeon like this.
They had no choice but to retreat for now and regroup.
As she resolved herself and was about to give the order to move out,
「―――Haa… Honestly, why is it I have to handle the mopping up of the survivors? Well, Lord Earth ordered it so it can’t be helped…」
She heard a voice.
A woman’s voice.
When she turned, Harlot saw an impossible being there.
Blue skin and horns like a cow’s growing twistedly from her head.
And a piercing gaze that seemed almost violent locked straight onto Harlot.
Seeing that figure, Harlot trembled.
「K-Kshathra? Why is the ‘Intimidating Ox’ in a place like this…!?」
Harlot somehow squeezed the question out.
Kshathra the Intimidating Ox. Guardian of the Stellar Vein Dungeon and a followerof Jibru.
One of the final obstacles barring their ultimate goal.
What was someone like her doing here?
With a sneering grin, Kshathra opened her mouth.
「Well now, isn’t that something I should be asking?」
Zuzun!!! A tremendous roar that sounded like the earth itself being gouged apart.
That was the sound of Kshathra stomping her foot down.
Accompanied by magical power orders of magnitude beyond theirs.
The shocking pressure made not just Harlot, but everyone there tremble violently.
「Ah… Ahh…. Ahhhhhh…」
「Well, shall we begin? Please, at least let me enjoy blowing off some steam with eight good whacks, ‘kay?」
Together with her haughty declaration of hostilities, Kshathra unleashed her power.
Thus ― the Demon King Army Third Division was completely annihilated.
Fourth Area ― Battle’s End
Demon King Army Harlot and Third Divison entirely wiped out
Dungeon Damage Assessment
Some damage to forest monsters, but extremely minor.
Currently under repairs.
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