Ch 52: The Battle for Howard

It was today. Today that the battle for the Capital of the Haihiri Kingdom would take place. The Battle in which Gods and demons would fight. The Battle to protect Howard City and everyone living in it.

Looking at the mountain and waiting for his enemy to appear. That was what Akame was doing at the moment.

She stared at the bright light on the mountain, but her mind was immersed in thought and her gaze did not focus well.

"Akame-san, is everything okay?" Chloe asked worriedly.

"Eh... Yes, everything is fine."

Of course she was going to ask that. Akame thought.

Akame had only spent a few days with Rimuru and the group, but in this short time she learned a lot about them.

Akame was not much of a talker, so she often paid attention to others. So she was able to understand the personalities of the group members in a short time.

Yue was cold, but with Hajime and the other members of the group she was kind. She didn't care about things like justice and put Hajime above all else.

Tio looked like a mere pervert on the outside, but she was actually wise and sensible. She seemed to care about people, but she also put Hajime's will first.

Sakura was cold on the outside, except with Rimuru and Chloe. However she cared about the other members of the group as well, even if she didn't show it. She had a great sense of justice, but Rimuru came first.

Kaori, was kind and gentle with everyone. She quarreled with Yue, but it was not a bad relationship. Even though Kaori cared more for Hajime, she would still be reluctant to do things she didn't think were right.

Shia was one of the kindest and gentlest people Akame had ever seen, but she was also a bit naive. Which was normal given her age. She also followed Hajime.

Chloe was kind, fair, loving, and cared about others. She lived up to her title of "Hero". Yet she was not naive and had two thousand years of experience. Her love for Rimuru was really strong and she always trusted him with decisions.

Hajime was rude to anyone, and to his enemies he was cold and ruthless. He had no sense of justice, but he had his values. The way he saw the world was a bit radical, but Akame didn't feel entitled to judge him, because she herself was once like that. Maybe one day she would talk to him about it, but for now Hajime hated her.

Ciel was strange. Akame was surprised to learn that she was an ability that developed personality, but she thought that explained a lot. All that mattered to her was Rimuru's happiness, nothing else. It was total devotion.

And the person who intrigued Akame the most. Rimuru. Rimuru was the one Akame talked to the most, as he was training her to use her "Goddess of Rot Aclis" ability and the two of them had many opportunities to talk.

Akame saw Rimuru's gentle personality, but also realized that he had no mercy on his enemies. If Chloe had not noticed Akame's hesitation in attacking Hajime, Rimuru would have killed her without hesitation. Upon hearing this Akame wanted to know more about Rimuru. Rimuru told her several stories about himself and Akame was impressed.

He was someone who was kind, but who did not hesitate to kill. He put the welfare of Chloe, Sakura and Ciel above others, but that didn't mean he didn't care about them, quite the opposite. Rimuru held a power that could only be considered absolute, but he had no great ambitions. When Akame asked him his goals, he said: I want to Find Someone after that I want to protect my country and stay with Chloe, Sakura and Ciel-san. However my country doesn't need me at the moment, so I just want to live with them.

He really is someone unusual.

That was Akame's sincere thought.    Someone who has decimated armies and overthrown governments, to have such a simple goal and be able to smile so sincerely. It reminded her very much of her former companions, several of whom were always smiling.

Akame felt a tightness in her chest as she remembered Rimuru's smile.

He is like... No I don't think so.

Akame couldn't help but compare Rimuru to a certain person from his past. However the memory of this person was sacred to Akame and should not be touched.

Akame just looked at the light again and waited again.

●●●

"I think they've arrived." Hajime commented as he saw the light grow stronger.

Chloe pulled out her thin sword, Hajime pulled out his pistols and Akame pulled out her katana.

The light shone stronger and a small portal appeared. From this portal God Apostles began to come out as if they were cockroaches.

The group's eyes widened as they saw the large number of enemies, but none of them cowered. Chloe used "magical perception" to get a look at the enemy army. About ten thousand apostles and that guy. Maybe a general? Chloe couldn't guess his true identity, but this man was much stronger than the apostles.

He had golden armor covering his entire body, a giant axe in his hands, and metal wings. The man was staring at the three of them, but his expression was not visible because of his helmet.

Chloe was about to say that she would face the man, but then her magical perception detected two more people.

One of them was a pointy-eared goblin fully covered by golden armor, he had a silver dagger in his hand.

The other was a 20 foot tall man without any armor, his clothes resembled a karate kimono, he was bald and had tanned skin.

Chloe had a power measuring device that Rimuru gave her, this device could only measure the amount of magic a person had, not their actual strength. For example Hakurou, today has a magic amount of 100,000, but can fight people much stronger. Chloe used the device on the three people and the army.

The apostles had an Existence Power(EP) of .20,000, this classified them as A-. They were comparable to Superior Demons (demons from Rimuru's world). It was not a threat, but here they were in great numbers.

The man in armor had two million EP. That was considered an S rank. His magic amount equaled that of an awakened demon lord like Gabil or Geld.

The goblin in armor had 1.500.000 Ep, a high value, but not S, he was Special A.

It was the giant that scared Chloe. 5.300.000 EP. That was an SS class. Five million EP would be comparable to some of Rimuru's strongest subordinates like Testarossa and Ultima. Diablo, Zegion Benimaru were also SS class, but their strength was on another level.

Chloe quickly shared the information with Akame and Hajime.

"I'm going to take on that big guy." Akame said as she listened.

"A- Akame-san, are you sure you can do this?"

Chloe was worried as Akame's EP was 4 million, only, but Akame confidently agreed. Chloe decided to trust her.

"Okay, one of us needs to hold the army and the other needs to fight those two." Chloe said directing herself towards Hajime, "I think you should take care of the army, while Hajime-kun, hold those two, even if you don't beat them, you just need to buy time until I arrive."

"I think that's a good idea." Hajime agreed easily. Normally it would be better for him to take on the army, since Hajime still didn't have full control over his new power and he could also use the spirit-possessed golens to help. However Hajime had handed over all the golens to Yue, to help with comfort against the demon race army.

"Okay, go!"

Everyone went to face their respective enemies.

●●●

Yue, Shia and Sakura were in charge of facing the demon army. First they took Lily and Kaori to the Royal Palace so they could warn the students, and then they headed toward the army.

A hundred thousand demons were here. None of them spotted a general or anything. Yue wanted to find Freed and beat him up for trying to kill Hajime, but that could wait. First they had to find the generals and decide what to do about the other nine hundred thousand who were not yet here. They were not sure that they could defeat almost a million opponents. In fact they were not at all confident of doing so.

After they discovered a plan, Yue was the first to move. She commanded all the legions of golens that Hajime gave her to fight the army. Here they had golens of fire, water, lightning, earth, wind, light and dark. If you counted them all there would be 140 golens. They would be quite useful.

The Demons and the Magical Beasts were frightened to be attacked by metal creatures with elemental powers.

Shia was the next to move. She needed to find the magic space movement circles and destroy them. So she would not help in the battle.

Sakura opened her large butterfly wings and flew over the army. They had some demons mounted on wyverns that tried to attack her, but they were killed.

Sakura looked at the army below and uttered, "Flowers of Despair." Immediately countless pink flowers began to fall over the battlefield. These flowers were falling slowly and confused all the soldiers. This was not a battlefield thing. All the barriers had already been destroyed, so the soldiers kept moving forward and ignored the flowers. Oh, what a mistake.

Sakura snapped her fingers.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOM

All the flowers generated huge explosions of colored fire. The screams were audible on the battlefield and with that alone five thousand demons died.

"Attack that woman!"

A man of the demon race ordered an attack on Sakura. This man was Mikahil, husband of the woman Hajime killed in Orcus and one of the demon lords of this world. Here with him were also five other demon lords.

Several members of the army stood at the woman with butterfly wings hovering up there. However it was a mistake for Mikahil to shout an order like this, because...

"So you are the leader? I found you."

"Kh!?"

Mikahil who was mounted on a Wyvern had almost no time to react. Several wind blades were thrown and hit him. Causing him to be wounded.

"Who..." He looked at his attacker. A beautiful girl with blonde hair and scarlet eyes. Her skin was pale and her gaze was deadly.

"I am your executioner." Yue replied and raised her hand. "Blue Dragon" she declared and cast her spell that fused fire and gravity.

A ball of blue fire appeared in front of her. The fire took the form of a dragon-headed snake and headed towards the demon lords who were mounted on their Wyverns.

"Dodge it! Stay away from that!" Mikahil ordered, but there was no way to follow his orders. Both they and the Wyverns were being pulled into the dragon's mouth.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"Help!"

"Help me! Aaaaaaaah!"

Everyone died. The dragon didn't stop and killed five thousand more soldiers.

.......

...

...

Sakura was preparing a new spell. She was on the ground while preparing it and it would take a while to get ready, but it would be worth it.

"Haha! There's a woman who dared to attack us!"

Three men appeared in front of her, they appeared to be demon lords, but they were no threat to Sakura, so she just continued her spell and stared at them.

"Tsk, are you going to ignore us? Maybe your death won't be quick."

"Gehehe, we'll guarantee a very painful death."

"That filthy monster! Let's kill it soon!"

Sakura hadn't said anything yet, but a smile had formed on her lips. If anyone who knew Sakura were here, they would feel sorry for these men.

Sakura finally opened her mouth to speak.

"You guys are army commanders, right?"

"Of course we are, you idiot."

"We're the great demon lords!"

"Why? Were you scared? Guahaha."

To the arrogant men Sakura just smiled and said, "Shouldn't you guys take better care of your army then?"

"Huh..."

The three looked at the battlefield with confused looks. Everything seemed normal, but then a large plant began to grow next to the army. The plant was about 40 meters tall and drew stares from every soldier there.

The plant grew bigger, its handle was green and its main part was red and rounded. This part had some small white petals on the... wait for it. They were not petals, they were teeth. It was a giant carnivorous plant. A toxic gas was coming out of its mouth. The carnivorous plant opened its mouth and showed its big teeth

"Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!"

Each soldier froze at the sight of the plant's roar. That was the magic that Sakura called "Devourer". The plant roared once again and ran to attack the army.

"Wuaaaaaa!"

"Run! Aaaaaaaah!"

"Stay away! Someone me---- Aaaaaah!"

The carnivorous plant stretched its handle at will and there was no escaping it. It would pass by and devour rows of soldiers and Magical Beasts. The plant also left a toxic gas where it passed. This gas if breathed in would paralyze the lungs and kill instantly.

"You should be more careful with your enemies. Not one of you is going to get out of here alive to put my advice into practice."

"".....""

The demon lords were visibly trembling. Sakura pulled out her pink katana and stepped forward.

"Sa--Saak! Don't come near me!"

"Stay away! Stay right there! If not I-- Uaaaack!?"

The second to speak had his head cut off in the blink of an eye. The other two were horrified to see this and fell to the ground. Sakura was too fast for them to keep up.

"Please! Please spare me!"

One of them knelt down and begged for mercy. Sakura approached and said, "You're the one who said I would die a painful death, right?"

"I- I..."

"Lucky for you I'm not as rotten as you are." The man was relieved as he thought he would be spared.

"Then die quickly."

Sakura cut the kneeling man in half. The other tried to run, only to have his throat slit by her.

●●●

Shia searched for quite a while, but she finally found the magical circle of space movement. Half a kilometer away from the battlefield, there were several people of the demon race there protecting a magic circle. It was here.

"Hi guys, desu." She greeted as she arrived.

"Who--- who are you!" A man in yellow armor stood dumbfounded. "Stand aside, filthy creature!" A woman in red armor pointed a spear.

"Look, I've come to destroy the---"

"Shut up! God-forsaken creatures like you have no right to talk to us!" another man spoke up. By now all 20 soldiers of the demon race had surrounded Shia.

Shia sighed. She wanted to offer surrender, but they wouldn't listen. She decided to try to speak one more time. However if they didn't listen, she would go up. Shia couldn't risk the rest of the army coming.

"I'm just talking, surrender or----"

"Stand still and die!"

The woman in red tried to push her away with her spear, but Shia easily deflected.

"If that's the way you want it." Shia pulled Doryucken away.

"What the---" the man couldn't finish speaking as he was crushed by Shia's sledgehammer. The others were visibly startled by this.

"Deya!" Shia spun Doryucken horizontally and killed 5 of them. The others realized that Shia was responsible and pulled out their weapons.

"Yaaah!"

Three more died. "Die!" One of them tried to attack Shia from behind, but was kicked several meters away. He couldn't take the impact and died.

"Get away from me!" The man in yellow tried to dodge, but Shia smashed his head.

"Die in the name of God!" A man in black armor tried to kill her with a halberd, but Shia just turned his hammer one more time.

Shia easily killed the others and when only one man was left, he was terrified.

"Mo- monster..."

"Hehehe, thanks for the compliment, Desu!" Shia crushed her head.

She was happy to be called a monster as it indicated that she was closer to the other members of the group who were called that.

Shia destroyed the space movement magic circle and returned to the battlefield.

.......

...

...

Yue received word from Shia that the magic circle had been destroyed. She saw the giant plant engulfing the army and smiled.

"Sakura seems to be enjoying herself. Well, let's hurry things along."

Yue raised her hand and summoned her new magic. The most powerful destruction magic she could make.

"Five elemental dragons."

The clouds opened up. Out of it came five eastern dragons. One of water, one of fire, one of wind, one of earth and one of lightning.

The dragons roared and attacked the last soldiers of the army.

●●●

Chloe was fighting an army of ten thousand.

This was not easy for her as the apostles were not an opponent to be trifled with. On top of that she couldn't use her abilities to manipulate time, so this made things much worse.

Chloe had already killed a thousand apostles and as she battled, she watched the battles of Akame and Hajime. Akame seemed evenly matched with her opponent, but Hajime seemed at a disadvantage. This was normal, as his opponents had a similar amount of magic as his and Hajime had not learned to control his power well. In fact Hajime deserved praise for being alive. The probable cause was that he activated Limit Break and in addition Hajime had his artifacts.

"That's not good." Chloe couldn't help but speak up.

Chloe was better at one-on-one battles and that's why it took her a minute to kill a thousand of the apostles. Not only that, but something was happening now.

The apostles' bodies were surrounded by a thin membrane that glowed white. This membrane was made of sacred energy and seemed to strengthen them. If they got stronger, it would take Chloe longer to beat them and Hajime's Limit Break would end. Chloe didn't know the time limit, but she didn't want to bet on luck.

Chloe used her detection skills to figure out who this strengthening spell was coming from. She was surprised to find that it was coming from the headquarters of the Church on God's Mountain. It was too far for her to go. If she simply went there, the apostles would take the opportunity and attack Hajime and Akame.

So Chloe decided to ask Tio for help.

●●●

"Oh?"

"Tio-san? Is everything okay?"

Aiko was flying on Tio's back and asked when she suddenly stopped.

"Goushin-sama and the girls are in trouble. From the looks of it the Church members are strengthening the heavenly army."

"What? But that's..." Aiko was going to ask why, but she knew. The members really thought it was "God" who sent the army and would gladly help them.

"So after I put Goushin-sama's Sensei in a safe place I will go there and destroy them."

"Wait Tio-san."

"Hm?"

"It will take time for you to come down and come back here, right? I'll go along."

"But Goushin-sama said..." Tio gave up arguing when he saw Aiko's determined look.

"Okay, then let's go!"

Tio flew at high speed to the church headquarters. It didn't take long for her to arrive, so Tio already arrived and launched a blast of black fire.

"Um, barrier?"

"I guess so, it must be several barriers or my breath should have worked."

Tio and Aiko were thoughtful and after a while Aiko had an idea. She was going to use her "fermentation" magic and release several flammable gases into the church. The barrier would not block as it would not consider something "hostile" and then Tio would use her breath again.

KABOOM

It worked well. A gigantic explosion happened and all the church members burned to death.

Aiko was happy to have helped, but soon after the regret of having killed someone came over her and she threw up. Fortunately she didn't throw up behind Tio's back. After that the two decided to join Kaori and the students.

●●●

Yay!

Chloe celebrated internally as she saw the church being blown up. Normally celebrating seeing a church being destroyed would only be the act of a terrorist, but let's leave that aside.

Now that the apostles were no longer strong, Chloe decided to give it her all. She would use all her strength to kill her enemies.

Chloe went full force.

.......

.....

...

It was useless.

That was Chloe's only thought.

She went full force and in three minutes destroyed the apostles' army, but it was useless.

Right after Chloe killed all the apostles, a white portal opened again. However, this portal was larger than the other one. Not only that, but the portal released an army of one hundred thousand apostles and three more generals with a count of EP 2 million.

This army was not visible from the city because of the gigantic size of the Mountain of God, but if it were the inhabitants would surely have strong reactions.

This army was very powerful. Chloe could defeat them all, but that would take time and by then Hajime would be dead. Not only that, but Chloe was no longer able to see the battle from Akame, so she might be in danger.

Unfortunately now the only hope was for Rimuru to finish his battle quickly and come to her aid. The chances of Rimuru coming to her aid now were very low, but it didn't matter. Chloe would never give up hope especially if it was about trusting Rimuru.

Chope readied her sword once more. She would fight this army until Rimuru came. That was her only chance.

Or so Chloe thought.

"What?"

Both Chloe and her enemies were surprised. That was because a large ring of black smoke had formed around the army. This dense smoke that you couldn't see anything inside confused everyone. A smoke that gave off a bad feeling, a bad omen.

"Gehehehehehe."

"Huhuhuhuhu."

Evil laughter began to come out of the smoke. These laughter would make anyone sound cold, but it wasn't just the laughter. A huge pressure was coming out of the smoke.

"Fufufufufufufu."

"Hahahaha!"

"Hehehehehehe."

More and more laughter was heard and the evil feeling got worse and worse. Red lights flashed in the smoke and after a few seconds Chloe could see silhouettes there.

Finally three figures came out of the smoke. These female figures that exuded tyrannical power had beautiful faces, and on these faces were smiles.

One of the women had white hair and clothes, the other had black clothes and purple hair, and the last one wore a coat and had bright blond hair. The three of them walked over to Chloe.

""Chloe-sama, allow us to help."" They spoke happily and knelt down.

The only people who called Chloe in such a respectful way were the subordinates of their beloved. And only those who knew about his marriage, not yet publicized.

Now Chloe knew very well who the people hiding in the smoke were.

Members of the upper echelons of Tempest.

Originated from the underworld.

Those who spread fear across the Multiverse.

The most powerful squad in Tempest.

Led by four of the primordial Demons.

Rimuru's personal squad.

The smoke cleared revealed them...

"The Black Numbers are at your disposal."

Testarossa said loudly and all the demons smiled.... Thinking of the Massacre to come.