DID YOU KNOW? YOU CAN NOW READ THREE TO SIX CHAPTERS AHEAD. CHECK MY PROFILE FOR THE LINK.
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The Magic Knight Corps of El Dorado. Other than the Platinum Devil himself, Leon Cromwell, they were the absolute backbone of El Dorado's formidable military power.
Unlike standard human armies that relied heavily on numerical superiority and basic foot soldiers, every single member within the Magic Knights was an elite warrior whose strength ranged from the realm of A-rank all the way to Special A and pseudo Special S-rank threats.
They were organized into five distinct, specialized orders, each numbering roughly two thousand battle-hardened magic knights.
The Red Knights, who served as the primary strike force with heavy offensive fire magic.
The Blue Knights, masters of tactical support, enchantment, and battlefield control.
The Yellow Knights, who maintained absolute defensive perimeters using high-tier barriers.
The White Knights, who specialized in recovery and large-scale emergency healing.
And the Silver and Black Knights, who comprised the grand commanders and elite bodyguard unit directly beneath Leon.
Ten thousand elite magic knights in total, anchoring an army nearly a hundred thousand strong.
Standing before the wide tactical map in the command room, Benimaru knew it was entirely wrong of him to feel a trace of relief at a time like this. Tempest was under active siege by the full military might of one of the Twelve Sovereigns, after all.
Yet, in this overwhelming storm of chaos, he found himself desperately clinging to any semblance of control he could grasp.
Just a few short minutes ago, the leaders of Tempest, Maple Tree, and the Holy Empire of Lubelius had simply been sitting around a table trying to mend fractured relationships and smooth over diplomatic tension.
Then, without a moment's warning, an incomprehensible entity who could as well be a version of Demon Lord Kaede had torn through space, trapping the world's absolute strongest beings in a void and actively threatening the very existence of reality itself.
How was he supposed to be of any use in a situation like that? When gods, primordial entities, and True Dragons were trading world-ending blows in a broken dimension, Benimaru had felt acutely, terrifyingly small.
But now? Now an army was besieging Tempest. It was led by a Demon Lord, yes, but it was an army of flesh, blood, steel, and magic. This was not a hopeless, cosmic catastrophe or an incomprehensible, world-erasing anomaly.
This was a war. And thanks to his unique skill, [Generallisimo], war was something he understood.
He could lead here. He could command. He could protect.
Thanks to the preliminary tactical breakdown provided by Kanade earlier, Benimaru already possessed a solid understanding of El Dorado's military structure. Learning that the core of their Magic Knights was heavily populated by summoned Otherworlders, individuals granted unique gifts and tailored combat skills, gave him a momentary pause, but that was as far as his hesitation went.
Compared to the terrifying void plunging into Hell just beyond their plane, this invasion felt almost refreshing.
'Yes,' Benimaru thought, his crimson eyes igniting with a sharp, burning resolve as his fingers gripped the edge of the tactical table. 'While Lord Rimuru is out there fighting to save the entire world, I will fulfill my absolute duty. I will defend my Lord's nation and our home from these invaders, even if I have to strike down a Demon Lord to do it.'
"Soei, have you located any of their top brass yet?" Benimaru projected directly, his words rippling through the dark oni's mind via [Thought Communication]. "We still do not fully grasp the scope of their strategy, and we cannot afford to let them dictate the pace of this invasion. We will return this sudden pressure fold by fold by taking out their commanders immediately."
Leaning against the tactical console a few paces away, Kanade crossed his arms, his expression carrying a flicker of genuine caution. "Are you entirely sure they can pull this off, Sir Benimaru? The magic knight commanders of El Dorado are pretty strong."
"I have absolute faith in them, Lord Kanade," Benimaru declared without a second's hesitation, his crimson gaze remaining locked on the glowing map. "They will not fail Lord Rimuru."
A short distance away, near the heavy oak doors of the chamber, Saare let out a slow, heavy breath, his eyes narrowing as he glanced sideways at Grigori. The large, muscular paladin was shifting restlessly in his seat, his massive hands clenching and unclenching against his knees.
"You really want to jump out there and fight that badly, huh?" Saare asked quietly, breaking the heavy tension hanging between the two remaining saints.
Grigori gave a dry, self-deprecating chuckle, the towering warrior uncharacteristically resisting the urge to look away under Saare's scrutiny. "You've got me, I suppose," Grigori answered, his voice dropping into a low, subdued rumble. "I'm with you on staying back, obviously. But... this creeping feeling of utter helplessness..."
"Yeah, I get it too," Saare sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly as the weight of the moment pressed down on him. He lifted his gaze upward, staring blankly at the reinforced ceiling before slowly lowering his head back toward the war room. "What right did I even have yelling out there? Everyone... every single one of them is fighting tooth and nail to protect what matters to them."
A soft, melancholic laugh escaped Grigori's lips. "Monsters actually fighting to protect a home. What a completely crazy thought. That's supposed to be our job as holy knights, isn't it?"
Before Saare could formulate a reply, the shadows coiled tightly in the corner of the room.
With a silent, seamless flicker of absolute darkness, Soei materialized right beside Benimaru, his expression calm and collected.
"We have located them," Soei reported smoothly.
Benimaru's eyes sharpened. "Good."
"If your shadow division is targeting their high-ranking officers, you're going to need people who can crack heavy magical barriers," Saare muttered, crossing his arms over his chest as he stepped forward.
"Change of heart?" Benimaru asked.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm not doing this for you, and I certainly aren't doing it for a monster nation. But my pride as a paladin won't allow me to sit here twiddling my thumbs."
Grigori grinned broadly, hefting his massive warhammer onto his shoulder with a dull, resonant thud against the floorboards. "What he said. Point us toward the heavy units. Let's show these El Dorado knights how the Holy Empire's finest handle stubborn opposition."
Benimaru offered a brief, respectful nod to the two paladins, recognizing the shift in their resolve. "Very well. However you'll both be under Soei's command. Soei, coordinate with them."
"Understood," Soei replied quietly.
With a soft, fluid ripple of dark energy, Soei vanished back into the shadows, leaving behind a residual chill in the air as Saare and Grigori strode purposefully toward the exit.
[xxx]
Ari wasn't particularly surprised when a blinding pillar of concentrated light slammed directly into her chest, carrying a raw destructive intensity that easily surpassed a nuclear explosion the very microsecond she materialized upon the high-altitude platform.
Of course, the concentrated beam of thermal energy merely splashed futilely against her immortal form like gentle water against ancient stone.
Slowly, she lifted her gaze, running her eyes over the one foolish enough to have initiated the attack. It was a man encased completely in gleaming silver armor that shrouded every single portion of his body other than his head, Alrose, the Silver Knight.
Yet, even as she stood there, the true target of her arrival remained entirely turned away. Standing just a few paces behind his chief knight, the Platinum Devil himself, Demon Lord Leon Cromwell, continued to stare coldly down toward the sprawling expanse of Tempest below, utterly unbothered by her presence.
'You dare to ignore me?'
A dark, suffocating wave of fury surged through Ari's veins, making her blood boil at the profound insult of his apathy. Beneath her boots, her shadows churned and writhed like living serpents, calling out to her with a haunting cacophony of overlapping voices, myriads of them, each one a chilling reflection of her own.
"How on earth did they get up here?!" the black-armored knight, Claude, demanded, his voice laced with sudden, sharp disbelief.
"It doesn't matter. Stop them right now! We won't let them get a single step closer to His Lordship!" the silver-armored knight barked back in command, raising his weapon high.
In the next instant, the massive vanguard of nearly ten thousand foot soldiers charged forward across the floating platform toward Ari and her companion, screaming fierce war cries as if such trivial numbers would be able to accomplish a single meaningful thing against them.
All it would have taken was a single, lazy wave of her hand, and every last one of those soldiers would have instantly dissolved into her expanding darkness, becoming one with her shadow and joining her eternal, unyielding army.
Of course, she didn't even need to dirty her own hands.
"Get out of our way!" Kirara yelled fiercely from beside her, stepping forward with her unique power flaring to life.
The effect of her voice was both immediate and catastrophic. The nearly ten thousand strong army of El Dorado soldiers froze dead in their tracks for a fraction of a second, their eyes glazing over in absolute terror before they all abruptly turned around and stampeded wildly toward the open edge of the floating platform, recklessly hurling themselves off the towering heights into the open air.
Ari paid not a single ounce of attention to the mass of screaming soldiers as they plummeted downward. Whichever ones proved lucky enough to survive the terrifying fall would simply be put out of their misery by the waiting Tempest forces stationed down on the ground below.
No, her true, unyielding goal was the golden-haired man standing ahead, who still stubbornly refused to acknowledge her arrival. As she swept forward, she noted that while the foot soldiers had completely capitulated, the silver-armored man and the heavy black-armored knight had managed to retain their senses, entirely resisting the terrifying mental compulsion of Kirara's [Bewilder].
It seemed Kirara would have to take care of those two troublesome obstacles on her own.
"You wretch!" the silver-armored knight screamed with raw fury, drawing his glowing broadsword as he charged straight at them, the heavy black-armored knight closing in closely right behind him.
Suddenly, the frantic rush of the battlefield slowed to an absolute, dragging crawl. Worldly motion stuttered, and Ari simply glided past their frozen, suspended forms as if walking through thick amber, her dark shadows billowing behind her like a magnificent, regal mantle.
High upon the dais, Leon Cromwell's radiant, golden eyes finally shifted, slowly trailing after her silent movement.
Clang!
Time snapped violently back to normal speed with a deafening ring of steel. In the very same breath, Ari could already hear the sharp impact of Kirara punting the black-armored knight away with a brutal, earth-shaking smack of her shield, while her blade locked dead against the silver knight's sword in a shower of brilliant sparks.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world faded into the background. Ari and the Platinum Devil, Demon Lord Leon Cromwell, stood directly across from one another in absolute, unblinking silence.