Vol. 12 - Ch. 760 - Battle for Retreat - Side Fabul

[3 minutes until Demon King's army retreat.]

As Allen captured the battlefield situation via Bird E, he noticed Fiend King Mara taking separate action when she suddenly left Virdiga behind to deal with the situation alone, and seemed to have left for Rabul along with 10 other archdemons in tow.

With their shared vision, Merus caught that too. 

(Follow Mara! And bring her down no matter what! Kuwataro, assist Merus with your vision!!)

«No escape this time. I know that.»

«Understood. I can see her movement.»

Hovering above Shaupa, a town adjutant to Royal Capital, Merus left his few more commands to Allen's comrade, Dragonkin and began his pursuit of Mara. 

But it wasn't an easy chase. Mara's agility had surpassed 300,000 with all the buff she had. She was like a fighter jet, and Merus guessed she would take less than a minute to arrive at Rabul, which was barely 50 kilometres in distance from Shaupa. 

And sure enough, she disappeared from Bird E's «Hawk's Eye» in a few moments. 

Allen had perceived Mara's movements were related to Demon King's objective, and promptly helped Merus by sending him Kuwataro from his side, turning him into a card. 

The quick action of Allen made sure Merus remained on the same wavelength as Mara, and without a moment's delay, Kuwataro's «Farsight» caught up to Mara. Merus took off at full speed while Kuwataro perched atop Merus's shoulder in the form of a young chick—Kuwataro's skill «Infatalisation». Kuwataro's status was too far from Merus to keep up with his own speed.

At the start of their chase, Mara had already crossed the 10km distance, but Merus' chase put them in a 5km gap. 

(Phew, I'm so glad Mara doesn't have any flight skills. It would've been hard with inherent ability otherwise.)

One must have inherent skill for flying at minimum. Merus, or Bird category summoned beasts came under this categorisation. While agility determines flying speed in general, the presence of flying skill would undoubtedly be a nice boost one would want to have. 

In the current pursuit, Merus's agility triumphs over Mara, and he was decisively closing up the distance with her. 

«Tch. Two of you stay here and stop him!!»

(Hmm, she noticed me, even with that distance? ...She must have used detection skills. Oh, the magic circle above her head, huh. ...So that's how it is. She's searching for something, and she noticed me due to that. It seems I must prepare my means to deal with her, too.|)

With their distance, it should've been impossible for Mara to notice the existence of human-size Merus, and neither Merus had noticed her attempt to look behind. But if the magic circle conjured around her head seemed to be for searching something, then that would explain many things. Mara noticing him was a mere 'side-effect.'

Allen, who had been sharing the vision, captured the situation and ran through his analysis while he fought Virdiga on the other end. 

Meanwhile, Mara left two of Evil Incarnate Archdemons to chase after Merus—though they're still the same mindless beast, their droops dripping out of their mouths. One of them extended his claws with intention to shred his face from the right flank, while another held the broadsword from the left flank, pincering him between them.

«Hmph, eyesores!! Infinite Thunder King Strike!!»

Just as the two archdemon's weapons were inches apart, Merus invoked the awakening skill of Angel B. 

«Gyyargh!»

«Geegahh!!»

Merus, too, had received the blessing of Rosen or Easley. And with further buffs from «Pom-Pom» ability and awakening skill, he triumphs over archdemons by multi-fold stats as he unleashes his slashes at an invincible tempo. 

[Race] Angel

[Rank] S

[Growth] S

[Name] Merus

[Strength] 268,203+10,000 (B)+10,000 (C)

[Spiritual Power] 268,040

[Mana] 248,040+10,000+10,000

[Attack] 354,770+30,000+30,000

[Endurance] 241,930+10,000+10,000

[Agility] 387,400+30,000+30,000

[Intelligence] 354,770+10,000+10,000

[Luck] 223,600+10,000+10,000

[Blessing] All stats (10,000+10,000) + (5,000+5,000) x 2

[Techniques] Element Bestowal, Angel's Halo, Spirit-Devil Union, Prisma Ball, Flurry of Twin Sword, Presence Detection, Twin Sword Mastery (9)

[Awakening] Judgment Lightning, Sealing, Infinite Thunder King Strike, Multi-Hit Strikes

—Includes Angel B (Twin Sword) and Angel C (Vest of the Wind) equipment. Either of them are excluded from benefit of buffs due to them being in equipment slot

—Strengthening, Golden Egg, Royal Aura, Royal Guard.

—Angel B [Pom-Pom]'s Funny Pom-Pom, and Crazy Dance.

—Blessing of Spirits, Spirit God, and Great Spirit God active.

—Includes buff from Roselina

The claw-bearer archdemon appeared to be specialised in glass canon style. Merus's thunder clad sword effortlessly turned him into a mincemeat. The broadsword-bearer archdemon had even lower agility than claw-bearer, so it could never escape from the range of Merus's attack. He, too, was cut apart by innumerable blade strikes, but perhaps he had boasted more endurance, the archdemon countered.

«Luvanka!!»

«I got it!!»

But Merus spared him not a glance and instead invoked the right of «Angel Halo», reverting Luvanka back to summon card before re-summoning him by his side. 

S-rank summoned beasts on average had 40,000-50,000 stats, and with buff, they boasted nearly 300,000-400,000 stats, though still incomparable to Merus, and that was enough to overpower the broadsword archdemon.

With a torrent of winds wrapped around, Luvanka flew around and delivered the finishing blow to the desperate archdemon. 

Now that he had used Angel B's awakening skill, Merus unequipped it, and re-summon it to refresh the cooldown. 

Though he had kept his chase, and within a few moments, the familiar huge pyramid jumped into his vision. Mara further increased her altitude, putting her in line with the topmost floors. It appeared her objective lies in the top three floors—where royalty resides. 

(I knew it. Their target is Homaru.)

Allen affirmed his guess amidst their shared senses. The demons had to be targeting newborn First Angel, each of their actions were glaringly alluding to this fact. 

Typically, if one wanted to visit the Divine Realm from the Human Realm, they must go through the Gate of Judgment at Dragon God's village which lies at the passageway that connects the two realms. And if demons had initially bruteforce their way, and went for Homaru in Rabul, the gods would've become their biggest roadblock.

The clash of three Combat God Sisters and eight God of Armaments against Demon King's army were bound to incur demons incredible loss. 

They'd required an intense assault on Divine Realm to avoid that loss. That's why, they seized Space-Time God's Administrative System, and teleported the Demon King's army. 

(But, why target Homaru of all things? Moreso when it's barely a day since the Soul-Rite Festival. Oh man, don't tell me that's somehow a way to strengthen the Demon King?)

This assault on the Divine Realm wasn't a small one. With demons immobilising their Supreme Commander Ordo, or head military executives Kyubel as well as Fiend King, archdemons, and demons, it wouldn't be farfetched to call it a war. Then, there was an odd action taken by Mara, to leave Virdiga behind. It tells how important this mission was to them, so much so that even the sacrifice of top military executives was an acceptable outcome.

Thus, the question arises, why would they go through this motion at all cost? Sacred Artifact? They'd already plundered in their previous assault. It also couldn't be that they'd wanted to destroy Divine Realm for their retreat. 

Demon King had been strengthening himself by plundering sacred artifacts, reviving evil gods before absorbing them. They might not have explained, but Allen had this hunch that every action of demons was for the Demon King to gain the power ups. 

The first step demons took was to isolate and entrap Divine Arena's forces to stop them joining the battle at other fronts, with Ordo and Kyubel as well as a demon squadron taking the helm. 

On the other front, Gandira raged the town adjutant to Rabul, destroying whatever came in his way. But he had shown a gesture of scouting the angels or citizens inside the building, and if they're the objective, throwing them apart. 

(After their one hour of rampage, almost all of the forces have been at Shaupa, which means Royal Capital is now an easy target for them to search. Since their first target is Shaupa, then they definitely have their intel on where young angels were educated. But First Angel has just been born, he would obviously not be put for education so soon. They must have realised it as well.)

The foremost intriguing aspect that solved the riddle for Allen was why demons choose 'this time' to attack. And it was just the other day Queen's child was conferred a name by God of Harvest Mormor, where he was instilled with divine energy. Officially, one could say Homaru became First Angel yesterday. 

Though the reason eludes Allen as he watched Mara's desperate rush toward Royal Castle, the outline of their objective—First Angel Homaru—was now apparent. 

With much of their forces depleted as the aftermath of the raging battle, Royal Capital's defense was certainly not enough. It was a cunning move to target institutions for young angels to draw in soldiers. 

(She's heading for the Royal Family's 3rd floor, Merus! Hurry up!!)

«...I can see it, alright!»

Kuwataro reflected the view of Mara entering the 3rd floor via the passageway. There were barely a few soldiers in sight.

[2 minutes and 15 seconds until Demon King's army retreat.]

"Who're you!!"

«Scram out of my way!!»

"Aaargh!"

One of the soldiers stationed at the Royal Castle promptly noticed the arrival of Mara. But they'd only called her out when two of the archdemon blasted them out with their mana bullet at the gesture of Mara. 

And three seconds later, Merus made it to the Rabul's 3rd floor. 

«Damn it! You're quite stubborn!! You two, stop him!!»

«Guggyaaa!!»

«Leave it to uuuus!!»

Mara's voice was laced with urgency, a far cry from the jeering tone she had when she first invaded Space-Time God's territory. She directed two of the biggest archdemons, their stature nearly 30 meter tall, to block the passageway and halt Merus's chase. 

Merus summoned Magla and Makris when he noticed that, and went on for a full powered charged attack. The body slam of two giant summoned beasts easily hurled them against the outer wall of the Pyramid structure, though it wasn't enough to one-shot them with their 200,000 stats. 

Incidentally, with the battle at Shaupa already past its climax, with now allied forces hunting down remaining demons, Magla was no longer a necessity to protect his kins. So Merus had leeway to re-summon them by his side without consequence, as the rest could now be left to their comrades.

Merus left the processment of two archdemons to them, and himself rushed inside Rabul with the opening created.

(Everyone, hurry and find Homaru's whereabouts before Mara's hand reaches him!! Tsubamen, register this place for Nest!!)

«Peeep!!»

«Piiiii!!»

It was the same tactic he had learned in the Earth Labyrinth's campaign, utilising detection with teleportation with the help of Bird E and Bird A. 

After directing the command, Merus resumed his chase after Mara. 

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