Chapter 313 – Nina’s Movements
Three hours after the humans began their full-scale invasion of my sectors.
While Saburou and Izayoi were struggling with the defense work, our invasion force had commenced its attack into the Domains of Itoigawa.
The number of our sectors being invaded: 10
The number of sectors we are invading: 5As might be expected, I can’t control everything. I leave the finer details to the commanders of the respective units. And as far as I can see on my smartphone, the invasion force seems to not have any problems so far. Our side is excelling on both sides, individual and numerical strength. As such I don’t see much of a possibility for us to lose.
The problem lies with the defense, I guess.
As initially promised, 『Storm』 Sati made his move. Moreover, in combination with Sati’s movements, 《Genocider》 Nana also moved out. In addition, Kyushu’s 《Princess》 Yaoi also took the field, although it wouldn’t have any impact on our war theater.
Four of the strongest Demon Kings, who were designated as 『Thirteen Evil Stars』, had suddenly started to deploy their armies. The humans must be in panic right now.
But, it’s still not enough.
When is 『Secret』――Nina going to move?
He’s always messing around on the forum, but I thought he’s a Demon King capable of seeing the whole situation, yet…has he betrayed us after all this time?It might be an option to join hands with Sati and invade Nagano, once the current operations are over. If we do that, it might destroy the 『Upper Class Demon King Thread』, which would be slightly regrettable.
It’s not my objective to conquer this world. I want to survive. And thus it’d be an attractive prospect to forge alliances with several high-ranking Demon Kings, but I guess things rarely go as you want them to go.
Anyway, I’ll consider what to do about Nina later on. For now I’ve got to sort the problems in front of my nose.
I focused my attention on the humans who were invading my sectors like surging water.
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72 hours since the humans started their full-blown invasion of my sectors.
The humans still concentrated their combat forces on the 304th and 305th sector. We dealt with that by deploying Izayoi to the 305th sector to push the humans back with quantity, and Saburou to the 304th sector to push back with quality.
“But, it’s really annoying…just how many people are they throwing into this!?”
Many subordinates, beginning with Izayoi and Saburou, have been defeating a multitude of humans, and yet the humans’ vigor didn’t die down.
“Hmm, their half-baked strength is more of a problem than their numbers.”
“Half-baked strength, huh…? Quite the fitting way to express it.”
Just as Kanon said, the half-assed strength of the humans was the issue here. Very likely, none of the humans were stronger than Izayoi or Saburou. But, many of the humans were stronger than my created, small-fry subordinates.
“Looking at the general situation, our side comes with quantity while the opposing side uses quality.”
Giving it a power chart, I think you can say it goes like this: bloodkin (leaders) >> humans >>> subordinates. Of course, the humans didn’t all have the same strength. However, on average they were more powerful than my created mass-subordinates.
The leaders such as Izyaoi and Saburou would win at the locations they fought, but going by the whole situation, the humans were overpowering our side.
In reality, I took the safety of my bloodkin into account first and foremost. Even so, the humans still managed to invade all the way down to the third floor.
“It hurts that the equipment pieces of our defeated subordinates are being stolen.”
“Equipment alchemized by Shion-san is first-class gear after all,” Kanon agreed with Yataro.
Usually we wouldn’t allow the humans to get equipment pieces of Aster cheaply, but this time we didn’t have the leeway to go after the thieves and thus the humans looted our dead subordinates as if it was their only chance in life.
“No equipment above B-Rank has been stolen, right?”
“Yes. We have only handed out equipment of C-Rank and below to the subordinates on defense duty.”
If we raise the quality of the equipment, my subordinates’ strength will definitely go up as well, but…if they die, their gear will be looted, resulting in the humans’ strength getting remarkably boosted.
“Can’t we set something like a drop rate…?”
“This is no game, so the drop rate will be 100%.”
“If it comes to such a large-scale invasion, recovering the items will be impossible. Hence the balance of the equipment pieces in the field now also plays a major role.”
“Using the equipment they just ripped off corpses…did the morals and cleanliness of mankind collapse altogether?”
“Are you in any position to say that as a Demon King, Shion-san?”
“So, what are we going to do?”
“Hmm…let’s see…what’s your opinion as the one in charge of defense, Yataro?”
“I guess we’ll have to maintain the status quo as it is right now. If things ease up a bit, I’ll try to deploy subordinates I want to gain some experience.”
“I agree.”
We’ve been complaining all the time and it’s a fact that our forces are being pushed back, but neither of us felt an acute sense of impending danger.
“Muhahaha, Strategist Kanon agrees as well! It looks like the humans have the upper hand, but…I predict that they won’t be able to keep up this momentum to the very end.”
“Well, so far they’re only on the third floor.”
The sectors of the Aster Empire have 32 floors each. The humans are slowly advancing deeper into the sectors, but at their current pace, it’ll be impossible for them to reach the final floor.
“You’re right. The main point would be the question how much we can limit our losses. …――! Shion! You still have CP over that should have been normally used if the losses start to mount! In other words! It’s the perfect opportunity for 《Random Creation》!”
“I don’t get the meaning of the “in other words” in there.”
“Don’t worry! I will later give you a full report on how many rolls of 《Random Creation》 in CP I managed to save!”
“I think there’s plenty of other stuff you should report to me before that…”
“Bah, let’s not bicker so much and use the energy for challenging our luck by offering to the goddess!”
“…Well ,if the losses are lower than my estimations, I guess we can try one 《Random Creation》.”
“――! It’s a promise! Hoh hoh hoh! Yataro Shion must excuse himself at this point because he has urgent business to attend to!”
Yataro stormed out of my room while breathing hard through his nose.
“I-Is that okay?”
“If only he didn’t have that illness, Yataro would be an outstanding man. I guess he’s doing his best in some ways.”
Nina didn’t make a move, but I don’t think that our victory is in danger. And just then――
“Shion, we have a problem!”
Yataro rushed back into my room after leaving it just moments ago.
