Vol. 12 - Ch. 759 - Stopping the Demon’s Retreat (3)

[3 minutes until the retreat of Demon King's army]

With Shinonom's operating the Space-Time Administrative System, the demons prepared for their retreat. 

Back at Heavenly Kingdom, the battle continued to rage between demons and allied force, now under the new guidance of Great Spirit God Easley, and Spirit God Rosen. Their buffs brought in the new breath of life for the allied force. 

Merus provided assistance of nearly 60,000 dragonkins from Primordial Beast's Sanctuary, and thousands of beastkin who had followed them. 

Dragonkins had placed themselves into semi-circle formation at the rearguard, and from there they assisted their kins and allies at the frontline with ranged Extra Skills. 

Meanwhile, the battles of the three elemental gods grew ever fiercer, shaking the very air and ground.

Shinonom dispatched another 90 demons-turned Evil-Incarnates for support with the help of the system, but allied forces had ultimately gained a stronger offensive in various fronts that they took in stride. 

"H-Hey! Not again?!"

Dogora shouted in exasperation when he noticed Merus flying toward Rabul. 

«......»

But Merus ignored his shout, his attention trained on Fiend King Mara, and disappeared from their vision in his pursuit. But soon, the allies heard his voice through Bird F's skill «Transmission». 

«Don't waver. The victory is just before our eyes! Defender Abigail, please set up a secure formation, and prioritise ranged support!! The chief executives are currently suppressed by Allen's team and the gods, so as to prevent demons from breaching further into the kingdom!! Use summoned beasts as your shield, but you must endure for just a while longer!!»

He left his command for their next pace. Now, the bigger troubles were handled by Allen and the other gods, so it made no sense to act on desperate measures, so he passed his reminder. 

With so much support, and victory right before their eyes, the priority should be to prevent any more sacrifices of Heavenly Kingdom's citizens or the dragonkins who weren't part of the protector's group. For further assistance, Merus also created Fish F and Spirit D with rapid summon, bringing them up to Rank S and left them behind. 

Under the multiple buffs and blessings, the stats of summoned beasts were as follow—

[Race] Fish

[Rank] F

[Growth] S

[Name] Kabayaki

[Strength] 216,294

[Spiritual Power] 200,850

[Attack] 299,000

[Endurance] 194,740

[Agility] 271,050 

[Intelligence] 299,000

[Luck] 180,700 

[Blessing] Mana 500+500, Intelligence 500+500

[Techniques] Swamp

[Awakening] Boiling Fountain

[Race] Spirit 

[Rank] D

[Growth] S

[Name] Matsuhime

[Strength] 208,429

[Spiritual Power] 193,700

[Attack] 193,700

[Endurance] 299,000

[Agility] 201,890

[Intelligence] 280,8000

[Luck] 180,700

[Blessing] 500+500, 500+500

[Techniques] Porcupinefish

[Awakening] Stretching Hair

Merus had chosen them specifically for their support capabilities among Allen's other varied summoned beasts. 

The Fish F—it had been in the appearance of a rabbit—moved to the frontline, even ahead of dragonkin, and invoked its skill «Swamp. The ground before them turned into a big marshland, dragging in approaching demons and archdemons, slowing down their pace.

Just as demons had sunk knee deep in the marshland, dragonkins targeted them with their spears.

*Rustle*. Some of the winged demons found themselves an escape route in the sky, and tried to attack from air. Spirit D invoked its skill «Stretching Hair», which increased the length of its hair by several hundred meters, and used them to bind on demon's legs or wings to drag them down to marshland.

*Fwloop*

"Damn youuuu!! Kill them!!"

As they fell, some tried to claw their way out, while some were rendered immobilised by hair, the dragonkin squad surrounded them in a circle, and stabbed them with their swords or claws.

"You heard him, everyone!! We're going to win, just protect everyone! God's protection will definitely usher us!! Uooooo!! Wing Parry!!"

At the frontline, Abigail swung his «Wing Crusher», a weapon conferred to him by the Wind God, forcing the demons to retreat. 

Merus commanded fly in amidst his chase against Fiend King Mara. 

«First Unit, Fireeee!!»

It was a command to the dragonkin unit specialised in ranged attack. 

"It's our tuuuurn!!"

Well, there were three of the ranged dragonkin units, each comprising 20,000 individuals, who had been taking their turns in launching offense as Spirit God Rosen's blessing reset their extra skill. 

Restrained, evil incarnate demons had nowhere to escape and 1st Unit's spear lunged at them,  destroying their bodies.   

The Evil Incarnates weren't immortal by any means, except receiving a power up to their strength and endurance, while also able to tank much of the damage. So even now, despite their internal organs sticking out, lips scattered around, they didn't stop and continued to push in dragonkin direction, all intent to kill them.

"Guaaahhh!?"

The archdemon, who had even more resilience than demons, leaped toward the formation, a groan like weeping escaping out of him. The archdemon had its entire body pierced with spears, but in its mindlessness, it ignored everything, seemingly going for a body slam. 

Though, just as it was about to fall into dragonkins formation, who had prepared themselves to lambast it with their attack, a figure cut in from their flank.

«You've lived long enough, I believe. But it must come to an end, your soul's weeping out for an end.»

It was Easley. The 100 meter giant goat swooped in, and captured the archdemon from the air into its mouth, gently holding it.

Easley's voice was melancholic as it pressed the archdemon within its mouth, despite the reluctance of later. But soon, the archdemon stopped flailing around. His soul must have been absorbed.

*Fissure*. Cracks ran through the body of the archdemon pinched between Easley's mouth, and jet black fumes escaped out of the cracks.

«Ah, what a corrupted soul. Just how much anguish must you've been pressed on. ...But it's the end, let all the wandering souls meet its deliverance.»

«Aaaauuaaa?!»

After dealing with the archdemon, Great Spirit God set his sight on the demon's army, and began to reap away their lives. 

Meanwhile, the battle between Dogora, Shea and Bask also reached its climax. After receiving power ups from the buffs, Bask no longer had any leeway as he was subjected to the repeated strikes of Dogora with his sacred artifact Kagutsuchi, and Shea in her «The Beast» incarnation state. Slashes and punches marred his entire body, with blood seeping out of the wounds. 

«Damn you!! You're all a coward!! Who fights with that many protections?!?»

Now that he was at the receiving end, Bask grumbled out in dissatisfaction while swinging around the magic sword Onuba. 

"You're not the one to speak when you'd done the same earlier, you whelp!"

Dogora immediately snarked back, reminding Bask he had done the exact same thing earlier, and it was them that were forced back then. 

Bask staggered, and used the demons around him as shields to escape from the attacks of two. Shea was enraged as she saw Bask treating his allies like that.

«Yeah, if you've the guts, then come and fight fair and square!!»

«Fair and square? Shut up, I don't want to hear from a brutish girl like you!! No, what's even with your style. Look at how you all are so hairy, totally yuck!!»

«Hey, Bask. Cut with that nonsense, and be serious. We're already at a disadvantage, and if you continue to push their buttons, it would be bad for us!!»

Magic Sword Onuba reprimanded him, but the warning came a bit late. 

"Do not badmouth Shea!! Flame Burst Strike!!"

Dogora's furious shout followed as he unleashed his divine technique at him. The divine technique's effect was simple, enchanting the Kagutsuchi with burning flames, as it smashed against Bask. It was too quick for Bask to dodge, and too powerful for him to tank.

«Gaaahhh!!»

Bask's groan escaped out as Kagutsuchi smashed into his abdomen, and blasted him away like a cannon ball, while also toppling the demons that fall into the trajectory. 

"Did we defeat him?!"

At the end of his crashing site, Bask laid limpidly, and barely a few seconds later, his eyes wide open and he jumped open.

«Hehe, you're naive! You should've continued attacking me!»

Shea immediately pursued as Bask jeered at them, but he pulled in more demons to throw her off, and turned around to depart from the place.

«Wh—hey! Are you seriously running away?!»

«Gegege! The match's postponed until next time!! See yaa—wha—gaaaahhh!!»

Suddenly, his escape was cut short when a Magic Cannon locked on him. He was blasted away, his body entirely scorched. 

He had tried to use Onuba, and even pulled demons as shields, but they immediately burst into flames as soon as the cannon touched them. Caught off-guard, Bask glanced up at the sky, from where the attack had come in, and found out it was the work of golem driven by dwarves.

Powered by the two divine techniques «Extreme Divine Fusion Golem» and «Dungeon Master Descent», Divine Golem had been fighting off Gandira, and the earlier strike—one of the Magic Cannon (Super)—was fired to target demons and archdemons. 

Meanwhile, Divine Golem unloaded the rest of the arsenal in a one concentrated barrage against Gandira. In the aftermath, it destroyed Gandira's shoulder, and one of the legs, immobilising him.

«Damage to Demon King's army above 80%. All my function's at limit. ...Danger detected beyond drastic. Requesting Urgent Reinforcement......»

"Bingo, the giant bastard's finally stopped. Continue, blast him with everything we have!!"

"Now that's how you do it! Never lower your guard until you've thoroughly destroyed your enemies!!"

The excited shout of admiral Galara and Commander Zaurele echoed inside the cockpit, and pressed on Meruru, the Hand Unit, to continue their offense. But to their surprise, their opponent didn't try to recover the destroyed part, and instead curled himself like a ball, descending into serenity.

*Blink*

"Hmm? There's something strange about him!!"

Meruru's skeptical voice filled the cockpit when he captured that. From the situation shown on the large screen, Gandira's eyes were rapidly blinking, and its entire mana reserve was converging at its torso. They also heard him mumbling something, though too vague to make out anything. 

Hurriedly, the lowered the megaphone device—a tool to amplify their voice from inside the golem to outside—and activated it at full volume,

«Changing to Objective No.2. Destruction Range 10 kilometres. Enhancing Torso's Defense. Self Destruction in T-30 second... T-29 second... T-28 second......»

"Wait, is he going to self-destruct?!"

The dwarves immediately found themselves in panic when they realised Gandira's plan. 

«We can't let him do that!! We need to go down!! Please take care of the fusion state meanwhile!»

«How would going down even help in this case? Fine, I will do it!! Put over the fusion connection!!»

Tam-Tam figured they must take quick action and hurriedly brought Digragni in his plan. There was no time left for explanation, so Tam-Tam didn't bother with it, and swiftly lowered the altitude of Divine Golem before passing his next command to Digragni.

«Bring out your Magic Cannon!!»

«Hmm, so that's your plan huh. You know there's no winning anymore, so might as well bring everyone down. Damn you, I am going to blow you so beyond the horizon!! Ultimate Cannon!!»

Another cannon blast was let loose on Gandira, but having already steeled his resolve, Gandira  diverted his entire mana into the torso part. The aftermath left him completely scorched, with the remaining limbs meeting destruction, however the torso was intact. 

"What the heck, it didn't crack it. Tch, the defense of the torso is too damn tough!!"

«Damn it, and we I fear this blast is our limit!"

Gandira was now only left in the form of its head and torso, with the cannon blast pushed him far til the very end of demon's formation.

«T-15 second until self-destruction.......»

«But I believe he's compact enough. I think that's enough to blow him apart!!»

Tam-Tam announced his next plan. Though he didn't specify, Meruru was clear enough about the tactic. Their objective wasn't to simply destroy him after all. Tam-Tam had already taken this situation into account.

"So we're doing that, huh. —Megaton Puuuuuuunch!!"

Under the command of Meruru, Divine Golem's punch smashed into Gandira, who now was reduced to mere one-third of its height in contrast to Divine Golem. But that wasn't the end, as the punch—the punch and arm section was joint via a cable—detached itself from the Right Arm Unit, and propelled itself, along with Gandira. 

"Hey, that distance isn't enough. We need to push him far! It's still an urban area!!"

With every second ticking closer to self-destruction, Gandira gradually turned red like an iron ball out of a furnace, a flash of radiance extending from him. But they couldn't let it self-destruct still, not when the distance between was mere one kilometer which was enough to leave an impact on them too.

«T-10 second...»

"I know that, too! But that punch was already at full power!!"

Admiral Galara's frantic shout reminded them of the situation, and Meruru shouted back their predicament. Just as they were at their wits end, Wind God Ninril appeared before them, wrapped in a gentle embrace of whirlwind, and perched himself atop the Divine Golem's left shoulder. 

«......Hmph, you even need help here. The wicked one, it's now time for you to disappear from the view of my adorable people.»

"Huh—woah, the right hand just turned skyrocket!?"

A flabbergasted voice leaked from Meruru as he noticed the «Megaton Punch» skill accelerating beyond what they could've offered. 

Needless to say, it was the handiwork of Wind God. The Right Hand of the Divine Golem was gently wrapped in the divine wind, with Wind God joining together, and pushed back Gandira beyond their field of vision. 

«Never besmirch this realm with your corrupted touch, and disappear for good.»

Within a flash, all they could saw was the rapid blinking of Gandira which had intensified. 

«Self-destruction in T-3 second......»

«Self-destruction in T-2 second......»

«Self-destruction in T-1 second......»

—*BOOOOOOOOM* 

Shockwaves crashed onto the residential area as Gandira self-destructed at a far distance place, but with dragonkins having already taken their distance, they avoided any danger. 

"We, we did it! That giant bastard is finally gone!!"

Meruru and other dwarves erupted into cheers as they witnessed Gandira self-destructing into  a pillar of fire at the horizon.

T/N - If your preferred genre is dungeon x light-hearted story, try out LET ME SPEND MONEY, DAMMIT!