Heavenly Sandal Kingdom. Through First Angel Lupto's help, Allen's party, Admiral Galara's party, as well as Dragon King Matildora were teleported to its capital.
Of Allen's party, the ones present were Dogora, Keel, Meruru, Shea, Ignomas, Rosaria, Peromas, and Tam-Tam. The other members were either fighting war at other places, or under training.
"What the hell?! They're wrecking the town like they own it?!!"
Meruru exclaimed in an aghast tone, his eyes glancing over the Saupa castletown from Rabul's airspace.
Teleported in the air above Rabul's Royal Castle, they saw columns of smoke rising here and there from Saupa City, located just in the corner of Rabul.
«Everyone, I want you to eliminate all the demons that’s swarming Saupa!! You've already seen the situation of Divine Arena, and the reinforcement should still take some time. I am counting on you guys here!! I will be visiting the Spirit Paradise meanwhile!»
Lupto announced she wouldn't be joining them. With the grim situation they'd had, she wanted to gather as much support as possible. With her abilities to teleport and telepathy, she knew very well this was where she must dedicate her effort to.
In other scenarios, she would have sought reinforcement from Divine Arena, but even that place was besieged by the demons. They had not much of their force to spare.
Spirit Paradise certainly wasn’t the place of strongest, at least they're far from the Eight Armaments Gods and Three Combat Gods, but if she could recruit Great Spirit God Easley and the other spirits, that would still be better than nothing. And besides, among the 255 pillars of gods where not everyone had aptitude for combat, she could only rely on that much.
While sighing at their luck, to be tossed into one ridiculous situation right after the completion of trial, Dogora and the rest of team swiftly jumped on the back of Dragon King Matildora, and flew off to survey the severity of the situation.Meruru also hoped on Tam-Tam, its eyes gleaming. Then, affirming the situation, Tam-Tam spoke to him.
«The situation is certainly grim. My analysis shows citizens and dragonkins have sustained heavy damages. Please insert the special slate [Falcon]. I have judged that we must make haste.»
"Alright, then let's first check the places fire’s appearing. —Mode Falcon!!"
As soon as Meruru inserted a slate, Tam-Tam transformed into a sleek, falcon-esque frame, its wings spread wide. The wings had been equipped with two varying sizes of jet engine, and once it saw Meruru's signal, they turned on, releasing a rumbling noise.
«Then, I must make haste, too. Beware of falling out!!»
"Kyaaa! Why am I being put through this!?"
Matildora, perhaps sensing the distress of dragonkins, flapped its wings intensely, emanating an intimidating presence. Anyone familiar with him would’ve hard pressed to say he was long past his prime.
Peromas squealed in fright when he suddenly soared into the sky, though no one bothered to jab at his squeals.
"Alright guys, prepare yourself. It's time to jump into the flames of war!!"
"Yes, sir!!"
Admiral Galara reminded his 14 teammates, and then with everyone, he also inserted Special Slate «Falcon», «Gigantification» Slate, and Mega-Gigantification Slate into the magic disk, and rushed in the direction of downtown, which had been turned into a battlefield.
«We should be on our way, too!!»
"Got it! Then I am leaving ahead. Let's go, Tam-Tam! Speedster mode!"
While Admiral Galara and other dwarves were preparing themselves, Meruru urged Tam-Tam for their departure. Unlike others, Tam-Tam was super efficient when it came to fuel consumption, allowing it to use the Special Slate «Falcon» with no drawbacks.
[An Overview of Tam-Tam's abilities - After acquiring Magic Cube, and having breathed a new life in it after the battle with Dungeon Master Digragini]
—The shape, effects and duration of function «Jet Engine» granted by Special Slate
1. Eagle
2. Horse
3. Penguin
4. +5000 Agility
5. Mobility 1.5x
6. Mana Consumption - 10/sec.
—The shape, effects and duration of function «Speedster» granted by Special Slate
1. Cheetah
2. Falcon
3. Marin
4. +5000 Agility
5, Mobility 3x
6. Mana Consumption - 1000/sec.
"H-Hey, wait for us. Surely, you are not thinking you can face all those demons alone?!!"
"It's okay! Just make sure to catch up quickly!!"
Since there was a huge gap between their agility, Meruru decided to leave first, eliciting an objection from Admiral Galara. And before he or Dragon King Matildora could stop him, Meruru had already flown off.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Mert and Bask were engaged in a heated battle. Bask released a flurry of attacks with his Magic Sword Onuba, grasped in his right hand, and orchalcum greatsword on left hand. Merus countered with his twin swords from «Angel B».
The downtown was littered with broken buildings, and the cries of citizens. The tranquility of the area had been completely obliterated by demons.
Allen had transferred Merle, as well 40 other summoned beasts, to counter the ongoing situation, but the demon boasted six figure stats with the buffs. He, too, had Mackris’s buff, who had raised it to growth level 9, but his status barely made it to the 50% of demons stats, much less against archdemons. He wasn’t even their opponent, only reaching 25% of their stats.
Now, the 200 something demons had been greatly overwhelmed by Merle and the other summoned beasts. The gulf seemed impossible to cross even with the help of insect category summons to increase their numbers.
The demons, too, had set their focus on summoned beasts, making sure to hunt them down before the dragonkin or citizens, filling the scenery with light luminescent bubbles.
«Hey, hey! Are you sure you should be distracting yourself, eh!?»
It was quite harsh to deal with a stronger opponent, and Merle never stopped confronting his opponent, but it was a fact that nothing he did could gain them even a slightest favour. Though he was a summoned beast created by Creation God Elmea, Merle wasn't some invincible being, unaffected by the situation. The stress of the hard-fought battle had been increasingly eroding even his battle-veteran spirit. He was almost at the mercy of Bask.
Bask sneering reached Merle's ear when his gaze had been drawn by the movement of Gandira.
A behemoth he was, reaching 300 metres with his giant stature, Gandira was making his advancement while laying waste to the building he came across. A many magic circles hovered at or near the contour of his eyes, seemingly to expand his visibility and improvised it. It appeared he was searching for something.
In a few moments, Gandira would reach the most conspicuous building of the castle downtown—a school.
The tremors brought by Gandira's heavy footsteps elicit cries and screams from inside the school building.
«Calm down, everyone. Believe in the gods, their blessing shall shine upon us, definitely!!»
«*Sniff* Nooooo! That monster is coming here!!»
The school was an educational institute for angels, born among the people of Divine Realm. From a glance, it appeared the angel kids, their age varying between 3 years old to 6 years old, had evacuated in one of its classrooms, huddled against an adult angel. The situation had left them terrified, filling the room with their tears and shivers.
*Fwoosh-Crash*
Summoned beasts and dragonkins tried their best to bombard Gandira with their attacks, but to no avail. Unfazed, he bent down, scooping out the school building with his hands, and brought it closer to his eyes.
«Noooooooooooo!!»
«Eeeeeeeekkkk!!»
And this time, screams erupted from the kids and adults alike. One could've mistaken that they're seeing the end of the world.
«...No target here, either. All of the angels are already in their growth phase, or adults. Disposing them.»
He peeked inside the building, the magic circle appearing before his eyes. After sorting every angel through some sort of appraisal, he dismissed them, seemingly not achieving his target, or whatever he might be doing. Then, with no care to the world, he lowered his hand, ready to toss away the school building just like others he had been doing.
Meruru had just happened to take his entry.
«Hmm? Wh-what in the world is this disaster! The whole place is raged! Tam-Tam, scan that building for life presence.»
Though he had no idea what might be happening, Meruru promptly instructed Tam-Tam to use his «Life Detection»—a skill capable of observing the presence of life, friends and enemies alike, even through obstacles.
Merle, too, noticed his presence and shouted.
«Meruru!! Save that building!!»
«Woah there, Mel-chan. This is a no-no!!»
He tried to slip away, but Bask immediately blocked his path.
«Life presence detected! It's positive that the building in the hand of that giant golem has many lives trapped inside! Meruru-sama, please change the interface!!»
Tam-Tam, equipped with artificial intelligence, analyzed the situation, and changed the interface screen to display the situation of school. Meruru glanced toward Merle, but he was locked in a confrontation against Bask. It was clear it was on him to save the people trapped in that building.
"Heeey!! Stop for meeee!!"
Once it was clear to him, Meruru hollered in an attempt to stop Gandira, however the other side—Gandira clearly ignored him, and instead bent slightly backward, and then threw the school building toward the horizon.
«Speedster!! Utilising every reserve of mana and spiritual aura!!»
—*Vrroooooom*
The four engines rumbled, and without any further ado, Tam-Tam cut through the air and made a desperate fly to catch it.
They'd to be one kilometer apart, but instead of the school building becoming another twinkle in the sky, Tam-Tam mad dash brought them closer with every passing moment.
800 meters away......
600 meters away......
400 meters away......
200 meters away.......
"Come on, we must make it to theeeeem!!"
Meruru shouted, praying to reach the school building even a second faster. Tam-Tam, too, guzzled the mana and spiritual power at blinding pace, bringing out its greatest speed as the sound of shockwave departed from its engines.
Despite their relentless effort, though, it gradually became clear the building might crash into the outer wall of downtown first. Meruru felt bitterness spreading in his mouth, the situation so tragic he had wanted to close his eyes.
«Watch out, Meruru! An unknown obstacle has appeared! Prepare for the impact in...»
"Grrrh, whaaa?! Now what's going on!?"
Suddenly, a warning came out from Tam-Tam, however before it could explain, the unknown obstacle was already before them. Yet, instead of an impact, Tam-Tam’s speed had decelerated drastically, bringing its 100 meter long, and several ton heavy body to halt before pushing it back with the same speed.
Meruru, having tossed high into the air, was bewildered by the sudden transpiring of the situation. As a golem master, he couldn't have been any more familiar with how heavy the golems weigh. Yet, Tam-Tam not only had not only slowed them down from an inconceivable speed, it even backtracked at nearly the similar speed.
Just what kind of strength one would need to achieve it—no, to begin with, was it even conceivable? And even beyond that, this inhuman feat was performed without a single strain on Tam-Tam.
"Wait, the building is floating?!"
Well, there was no helping about the unknown, so next, he timidly moved his gaze toward the school building. Though, the scene reflected wasn't the tragedy he had feared, instead the building was caught in the embrace of a giant wind bubble, preventing it from crashing into the outerwall.
A vortex of wind gradually lifted it up from under it, and there, he managed to capture the presence of a silhouette. He enlarged the screen, and gradually figured out who it was.
"Ohh, it's that familiar angle! And Gaia-sama is there, too!! They must have been here for help!!"
It wasn't just one person. The screen reflected the presence of many—gods, to be precise, and an angel. Meruru exclaimed in joy, a wave of relief washing over him.
«T-Thank you, Wind God Ninril-sama... Your timely presence prevented the tragedy.»
Great Angel Aula immediately expressed her gratitude to the Wind God. The Earth God Gaia was next to him, his gnarly, trained-to-epitome muscles out for everyone to stare at. There was also water goddess Aqua, a torrent of water swirling near her.
"You have got to be kidding me, seriously. The whole place is wrecked. I nearly got jumpscared when I arrived due to that urgent summon.»
«Ha... They're here for another invasion, ain't they? I guess, it's about time to teach them a lesson.»
Gaia grumbled off, and Kairi remarked in annoyance. Ninril joined after them.
«Yup. They deserve just punishment. How dare they terrified my adorable kids!!»
Unlike his lackadaisical appearance, Wind God was emanating with a seething fury, his glare trained on the demons at the other hand.