Vol. 13 - Ch. 778 - Preparation for Conquer Day #4 - Demons of the Forgotten Continent

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The morning of the 4th day. 

Allen took a three hour nap after analysing the new awakening skill of Graham, and once again set his focus on improving his Creation skill. The resting area of the base was brimming with the whiff of «Herb» scent, Grass F skill, which had the effect of improving the potency of sleeping. A three hour nap to Allen was equivalent to half a day of sleep.

Sophie knew this well, too, and yet, she couldn't help but look at Allen with concerned gazes. After all, despite taking a rest late than everyone, he would still be the one to wake up first, working on improving his Creation Skill. 

At the background, Kurena and Dogora's shout could be heard from the Sword God's Martial Hall.

"Haaaa!!"

«What did I say, use your trunk too! How will you be able to learn my secret techniques if you can't control your body at your whim!!»

«Hegyaahh?! I am not done yet!!"

Sword God's training had become more intense than before. 

Kurena slashed, but Sword God parried it with ease, and did a leg swipe to throw Kurena off her feet. Kurena's body spun, and she landed face first on the floor. There were still some hours till noon, and yet, Kurena had already been made to lick the floor again and again. 

Nevertheless, Kurena's spirit just flared even more in opposition as she once again faced Sword God.

«Good! This is the spirit!!»

(Heh, they all sure are motivated, unlike yesterday.)

«It's because you took the lead, and went through a duel with the Sword God, Allen-dono.»

Seemingly figuring out what was going inside Allen's mind, Merus replied. Then again, the sharing of thoughts was a two-way connection between the summoner and the summoned. 

"I see. Well, I only did what was necessary. And look at it, Graham unexpectedly got a power up—...Hmm?"

*Fwoosh*

 «A Nest of Bird A's summon has been destroyed.»

"Is something the matter, Allen-sama?"

Sophia had been quietly listening to the conversation between two, and noticing a doubt in Allen's voice, she turned around to inquire.

"It's nothing, just a nest has been destroyed. The placement of the nest is quite tough, eh."

"Can it somehow affect the blitzkrieg tactic?"

"Fret not, this is still an option, though how this may fare is another question."

(We still have two nest locations. Let's see, the search has been progressing well, but have they finally adopted a no-trepassing stand?)

The Human Realm had ten days until they must initiate war with the Demon King and his forces.

Allen enlisted the help of every major party, including Hero Army and Admiral Galara, as well as major powers—the Five Continental Alliance, while he himself devoted to strengthen his party members as well as summons and one's own skill.

In parallel, Allen had dispatched his Bird A and Bird E summons in search of the Lost Continent. Whether it's to gain an upper hand against Demon King's Army, or improvise their strategy, information gathering and preparation were indispensable. 

The Lost Continent was estimated to be in the north of Central Continent. It was dominated by demons, and was under the govern of Demon King. If Kyubel's words were to be believed, Demon King Castle should be located closer to the centre of the ellipse shaped continent, stretching in eastwest direction. 

On an additional note, while the Gate of Judgement, which connected the Human Realm to Divine Realm, was governed by the Dragon King, the Demon King had the hold of the Gate of Judgement leading to the Dark Realm. 

(Dark Realm has such a nice ring to it. Alright, let's explore it once we've dealt with Demon King.)

Dark Realm was like a DLC of a game in Allen's perception. 

But aside from that, whether it was to fight the Demon King's army, or to save Lupto, they all required them to first reach the Lost Continent. As of now, Bird A and Bird E were already spreading out to gather intel, and also for the preliminary skirmishes. 

There was great distance between Central Continent and Lost Continent to cover, which resulted in wasting too much time. Hence, To ease the distance, Allen had been guiding the summoned birds to set-up Nest at the solitary islands south of Lost Continent. The solitary islands, located off the coast of Lost Continent, were one of the few places demons hadn't yet setup their base.

Through the eyes of his summons, Allen learned that Lost Continent was a desolate land, filled with rocks. A majority of the land was covered by ice. The continent reminded Allen of Antarctica from Earth, a south-pole region sealed in ice.

Incidentally, Allen's current world was shaped in a plane, unlike the spherical shape of Earth. There were some coincidences like the extreme north of the Continent featured the same region as south pole and north pole, though there was no concrete answer as to whether it was due to divine power, or just natural phenomenon. 

The sea at the coast of the Lost Continent was covered by icebergs, and the continent itself was being besieged by a furious blizzard. When the continent wasn't buried in blizzard, sometimes, one could catch a glimpse of an expanse of land filled with bare rocks. Meanwhile, the coast was covered with fortified cities and strongholds under the protection of bulwark.

The Lost Continent came to an existence by the handiwork of present Demon King Zerdias, and it was now 120 year old. The defensive network must have been laid out by the demons to protect the continent from raids. 

(They sure has created one heck of a protected land. It's surprising they're so devoted to it, despite no human being or their army ever managing to lead a war against them. Hmm, is it due to the assasination by Graham that had spurred them to take strict action?)

There was no word on how Demon King Zerdias had managed to reincarnate after being killed by his Knight Captain Graham, who was like a close kin to him, a thousand years in the past. Had he retained his memories, or was just led by instinct, but the Demon King had been quite through in his preparation.

In the meantime, no human forces had managed to invade the Lost Continent even once since Demon King had begun his invasion from over 50 years ago. Perhaps, they never managed to locate the source because the northern region of the Central Continent had been under the thumb of Demon King until Allen's appearance. 

While humans were mired in ignorance, Demon King took this opportunity to fortify their own base. This was the general consensus. 

In the last four days, Allen had been quietly observing the situation from the coast, and guiding Bird A to install «Nest» nearby. Allen's plan was to lead a blitzkrieg strike. The Nest allowed him to teleport an army in the range of 1 kilometer radius. 

Allen had managed to install four Nest in the timeframe of half a day since yesternight. And just now, he had been informed via log in Grimorie that one of the Nest had been destroyed. 

(Hmm, I did make sure to hide from plain sight, choosing the shade of rock with enough distance...)

This wasn't the first time it had happened. The coastal area was besieged by its complex terrain, like steep cliffs, sandy beaches, or being closed by congestion of drifting ice. 

Aside from the Demon King's Castle, which stood at the central region, surrounded by the continent's harsh terrain and environment as the natural line of defense, the Nest were mostly placed in scattered spots, like somewhere between the strongholds, or before the coast. 

Allen had to take the environment in equation to find out plausible locations he could install them, while also making sure they're not found by demons. 

(Oh, well. What about other Nest? ...Hmm, someone is approaching one of the Nest? Hawk, observe the situation from the sky!!)

After having Nest destroyed again, and again, Allen instructed Bird E summon to flew high into the air and determine what had been causing all this.

"It's here! In the shade of rock, 30 meters ahead."

«Alright.»

It was a demon with pale-blue skin, carrying a box shaped magic tool on his shoulder. The magic tool featured a sonar-like screen, displaying what appeared to be their target with a blinking dot. 

He had been followed by several archdemons, each featuring muscular build, tanned skins closer to purple, and horns growing on their head. Their backs were adorned with several types of tattoos. 

The archdemons were donning armors or robes over their bodies, while carrying broadblade, wands or bows in their hands. 

(The demon at the lead seems more like a researcher. Is he the true demon? I recall hearing that Shinonom's research is about strengthening demons, and archdemons. The Demon Modification project, I think?)

The demons with no horns were donning white robes. Allen figured they must be the researchers of the Demon King's army. 

Peeping at the situation from an altitude of several hundreds of meter in the sky, Bird E summon captured the movement of demons; Allen saw through its eye as demons came out of the strongholds, and unhesitatingly walked in the direction of «Nest» his summons had setup under the veil of night sky yesterday. 

(The distance is too much. It seems I can only rely on lip-sync to understand what they're saying.)

Due to the distance, Allen focused on the movement of their lips and expression via Bird E's ability «Farsight». 

«I found it. It's around that ice lump. Let's open the distance here. We must make sure none of our enemies' plans come to pass. —Buster Blade!!»

One of the archdemon swings his broadblade, invoking an Extra Skill against a floating ice block at the shore. The shockwave released from the broadsword teared through the ground as it crashed into the ice block.

*Boooom*

«A Nest of Bird A's summon has been destroyed.»

The iceblock was obliterated into nothingness, along with installed «Nest», and immediately, a new entry appeared into the log of grimoire. 

The «Nest» were unable to sustain their presence should the spots they're installed, like ground or ship for instance, were to be destroyed. 

(Damn it. They didn't have to go that hard against mere ice blocks... Then again, it seems they're relying on a magic tool, so they would have still found it if it had survived. I guess they must have learned the trick to handle «Nest» after destroying them again and again. If this is true, then the strongholds seem to be sharing information between them, huh.)

Allen was amazed they went overboard to even use an Extra Skill just to destroy the iceblock.

(We've been consistently using teleportation to hop into the situation ever since Evil God's battle. I should've expected this. Alas, all the hard work was for naught...)

It wasn't an unexpected outcome. Allen had often appeared and disappeared like a ghost, even  showing capabilities of bringing in several thousands of soldiers in a battle with mere snap of finger. The demons had learned from their past experiences, and built up countermeasures. 

Soon, Allen received yet another shock.

 «A Nest of Bird A's summon has been destroyed.»

It was the notification of the last Nest being destroyed. This one seemed to be destroyed by the scouting party of another stronghold. And yet, the situation continued to proceed against Allen's expectation.

"In the sky, above 280 metres, north longitude at 90 degree angle. There's the presence of the enemy!!"

«In the sky, you say?! Ah, it's that bird!!»

Through Bird E's synchronised vision, Allen's eyes crossed with bow wielding archdemon. The bow wielding archdemon used its «Farsight» skill to capture Bird E. 

(Fly away now, Hawk. You've been spotted! Go off the coast!)

«Sqeak!!»

It turned out the demon's magic tools were far more prepared to detect their enemies, and not even sky had escaped the range.

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