Chapter 448: Countermove

[Meanwhile, Astaroth's dungeon, 1st floor.]

"This dungeon is structured so that all four sectors must be cleared before we can descend. I believe it would be best to split our forces into four and attack simultaneously."

Anthonius compiled the opinions of the adventurers, who were dungeon assault specialists, and presented his proposal. If he were the decision-maker, he would have dispatched troops immediately, but the one calling the shots on troop deployment was Andaihal.

"I'm not so sure about that."

Andaihal, visibly tense, rejected Anthonius's suggestion.

"We don't even know how many enemy forces are down there, and you want to split up? What if we divide into four and get picked off one group at a time?"

"But, Your Excellency, that approach will take far too long."

"Even if it takes longer, I believe clearing them one at a time is safer. If knights start dying, can you take responsibility for that, Sir Anthonius?"

"This isn't a matter of responsibility. It's a matter of efficiency. While we spend time clearing one sector, the enemies in the other sectors will be fortifying their defenses."

"I don't see it that way, Sir."

Andaihal gestured in all directions from the dungeon's dead center. The doors to the four sectors branching out from the central area stood wide open, as if eagerly welcoming intruders to their deaths.

"This formation would leave us surrounded from all sides if we stationed troops in the center. You want us to advance in different directions from here? If even one side gets breached, our rear is exposed."

Anthonius couldn't refute Andaihal's logical reasoning. But he couldn't back down either.

"Your Excellency, there is an overriding reason why we must clear this dungeon as quickly as possible."

"And what would that be?"

"Because even as we waste time on this pointless debate, the elves are suffering in the enemy's clutches!"

"Hmph."

Andaihal couldn't help but scoff at the old knight's righteous, hot-blooded declaration. He held Anthonius in low regard, and the contempt slipped out before he could stop it.

"What, do you want to rescue an elf and take her as a mistress too?"

"Your Excellency!"

Anthonius's face turned beet red at the blatant insult. Andaihal shrugged and gestured toward the knights behind them.

"Isn't that why everyone came here? And with monsters right on our doorstep, no less."

The Legion of Wrath. Having struck an accord with the humans, they had established a forward position in front of the dungeon, with orcs and elves together. They'd built what looked like a forward operating base as if planning for a prolonged campaign, and the Marquisate had sought their understanding before striking the dungeon first.

"I don't like having entered enemy territory when we don't even know if those creatures behind us will offer us bread or a blade. And I don't like the rush when there's no fire under our feet. You seem to have even more fire in your blood than I do, Sir."

"Ngh..."

How could father and son be so alike? Anthonius bit his lip.

"This is a dungeon we've never seen before. The 29th-ranked dungeon, no less. No matter how strong the Marquisate's knight order is, no matter how many veteran adventurers we've hired, an arrow between the eyes kills everyone just the same. So let's minimize the risk."

Even though the dungeon's monsters had burst out and occupied the barony, Marquis Gotdaihal had sought stability to prevent all-out war. And the heir who'd inherited his blood likewise intended to manage their forces with an extremely safety-first mindset.

"It's not as if the world will end if we don't clear this dungeon quickly. And it's not as if we're short on time, are we?"

"...I understand Your Excellency's position."

The Marquis's temperament showing through was certainly a good thing, but at times like these, bold decisiveness was also needed.

"I apologize for calling it a pointless debate. However, having the strength to move efficiently and choosing not to use it is waste."

"...I know. But there have been some unsettling rumors going around lately."

"What kind of rumors?"

"Something about needing to rescue the elves quickly, before the incubi 'use' them any further."

Anthonius's face flushed crimson at Andaihal's blunt words.

Talking about elves as if they were prostitutes was vulgar to the point of being an outright insult to the elves, but it wasn't as though such talk didn't exist at all.

"I'd rather not share a woman with an incubus, but if she's an elf, that's a different story, or so they say... Surely there aren't any knights here who came to rescue elves because they want to bed one?"

"....."

Every knight fell silent. None of them could say they'd never entertained the thought, and some of the older bachelor knights had even cracked dirty jokes about wanting to spend a night with an elf, even a dark elf.

"I trust that none of you are like that, of course. That's the kind of talk you'd expect from street rabble. Surely there aren't any shameless individuals here thinking they can get a 'less-used' elf if they rescue them fast enough? The elves outside would be absolutely furious."

"No, that's not the same as..."

Anthonius started to object but swallowed his words.

Thanks to Andaihal's framing, if he pushed back or got angry here, he'd inevitably be branded as a lust-driven man who wanted to rescue elves quickly just to have sex with them, dark elf or otherwise.

"Let's clear one sector at a time, nice and steady. It's not as if the captured elves are going to vanish somewhere in the meantime."

Andaihal's face brimmed with confidence and composure.

"I agree we should rescue the elves a bit faster, but the most important thing is our lives. Of course I respect your opinion. I'm not completely rigid, you know."

In the end, the old knight couldn't overcome the supreme commander's stubbornness. Andaihal left only a skeleton defense force in the center of the Marquisate's knight order, then poured all remaining forces into a concentrated assault on a single sector.

Approximately one hour later.

They achieved the feat of rescuing two dark elves.

***

[Astaroth's dungeon, Basement 1, the core.]

"Damn it, every last one of them is a horny bastard drooling to get their hands on an elf!"

Astaroth seethed as she surveyed the situation across the entire dungeon. Low-grade nightmares deployed for reconnaissance served as her eyes throughout the dungeon, and all they showed her was the bleeding soldiers of the Lust Legion.

"The Legion of Wrath... the Legion of Pride... you conniving little shits!"

On the surface, the Legion of Wrath, colluding with the humans.

Underground, the Legion of Pride, hell-bent on rescuing the elves.

The Legion of Wrath had drawn in the humans to begin assaulting the surface, and the Legion of Pride used the system to assault the underground. Astaroth had pieced it all together from the enemy's troop composition and the circumstances of the fighting.

The two legions had joined forces. They were so tight-knit that they freely sent reinforcements into each other's dungeons without hesitation.

"There's no way I can handle this alone."

She should have realized it the moment Halphas, the 38th-ranked who was nearly as strong as her on her own, challenged her to a Seizure Battle. She should have realized it the moment they deployed a Holy Sword's Hero who could wield divine power.

"Fuck... every last one of them is having an orgy."

The enemy had forged their alliance through sex. They had undoubtedly formed their tight-knit bond through group sex. With the demon eye possessed by Astaroth, the Lust Legion Commander, she could see at a glance who had slept with whom and how much.

Orcs and elves being connected was nothing unusual; even a unicorn and a dullahan were linked by red threads. The filthiest, most perverted orc of them all had red threads wrapped around his entire body, making it painful just to look at him with the demon eye active.

"Those bastards are definitely going to try to fuck the elves I captured too."

Astaroth fell deep into thought. Simply fighting two legions simultaneously was feasible, but the addition of the human forces was a truly massive problem.

"...Should I toss them the elves and cut a deal?"

The number of elf prisoners stationed in each sector was fewer than five apiece.

All the elf prisoners, originally placed on Basement 2, had been moved upward after an orc from the Legion of Wrath, who appeared to have been impersonating the Legion of Pride, had paid a visit.

"Right now I've got about thirty in my sector alone..."

Aside from the three to five dark elves left behind in each sector as sex slaves for long-term engagements, all dark elves had been relocated to the core of Astaroth's dungeon on Basement 1. They were all trembling with fear, yet clinging to the hope that someone had come to rescue them.

"...No, no."

Astaroth licked her lips and rose to her feet. She placed a hand on her crotch and activated her holy-demonic magic.

"Sitting around taking hits isn't my style. If I just sit here like an idiot getting slapped, they'll be disappointed in me."

Slurp. Astaroth's holy-demonic magic engorged her clit to a massive size. Swinging her stiffened clit, Astaroth grabbed a dark elf by the hair and headed toward the summoning facility.

"I don't like becoming one with women who aren't virgins... but heh heh heh. They're elves, so I'll eat."

Stab!

Astaroth plunged her erect clit into the dark elf's sex. The ambushed dark elf shuddered violently, then soon began bleeding from her eyes and nose.

"That makes one."

Astaroth tossed the bleeding, convulsing dark elf onto the magic circle. The dark elf, trembling from head to toe, began dying with her eyes rolled back.

"Elves, from now on you and I are going to become one. I'll keep you safe and sound inside my womb and... once this crisis is over, I'll birth you all back out again. Ahahaha!"

The dark elves screamed and resisted, but none could escape Astaroth's grasp.

***

[Meanwhile, Basement 2.]

"Incubus sector, cleared. We rescued two dark elves. There were two more, but... the incubi killed them."

"Cambion sector is cleared too. Four dark elves rescued. There was one more, but... she said she'd rather die than be captured by us and took her own life."

"Nightmare sector is also cleared. We rescued three dark elves, but they're all in a catatonic state, completely out of their minds."

The reports coming in from each sector left a bitter taste in my mouth.

"The intel Asmodeus gave me was wrong. ...Then again, you'd have to be a moron to leave your prisoners sitting right where they were."

When I first came to raid this dungeon, I'd rescued a whopping seventeen dark elves from the succubus sector.

Asmodeus had said roughly fifteen dark elves were imprisoned in each sector, but Astaroth wasn't a complete idiot either. She must have left only a bare minimum of dark elf prisoners on Basement 2 and moved the rest upstairs.

"Were Lune, Lime, and Halphas hurt?"

"No. Not a scratch on any of them. The minotaurs and orc guards individually assigned to each of them threw themselves in harm's way to protect them. They have wounds, but everyone's safe."

"Wash the rescued livestock clean and send them to the Green Camp, then send the wounded warriors down for breaking-in first. And make sure to pass along my special thanks to anyone who was seriously injured."

For the subordinates who'd put their bodies on the line to protect my women, I could give them all the rest and recreation at the Green Camp they wanted. The orcs fucked every day anyway, and the minotaurs...

"...Actually, hold off on the minotaurs. The elves need some conditioning before they can handle those guys. There were specialists in bull-handling among the Cream Elves, right? I'll send them instead."

"We'll carry out your orders accordingly."

The Slamia right beneath me committed my instructions to memory. I wasn't counting on victory just yet, but rescuing nine dark elves was a decent result in its own right.

"Tch. All I can do is hope things work out up above... ugh, she's firing again."

Splurt.

Levis wanted to kill me so badly that divine power had beaded at her nipples yet again. I discharged it carelessly into empty air and steadied my breathing.

"Ugh, my dick's getting sore..."

"Legion Commander, should we insert a tentacle?"

"No. That would break the dream link. She's only using divine power in her dream to try to kill me because my dick is inside her. We need to at least wait until this sector is fully cleared before..."

"Master!"

From deeper in the sector, Lune, Lime, and Halphas returned to the center. They all came back holding the leashes of incubi they'd stripped naked.

Caim, Orias, Focalor. Each of them had served as sector chiefs within the Lust Legion, and they'd been captured by our legion with laughable ease.

"Weaklings, the lot of you. That's what you get for calling yourselves the Lust Legion and doing nothing but having sex all day. You have to work out and train like us to get this strong. Understand?"

"Pfft."

Every officer and soldier burst into stifled laughter. The joke I'd thrown out to ease the tension landed perfectly, and even produced an unexpected bonus.

"Shut your mouth, you horny piece of shit who sits around raping women!"

"Excuse me? I do it standing up too."

I rose to my feet and thrust up into Levis from below. She was completely spent; even jabbing her cervix showed no sign of divine power firing.

"Do you even know how many times I've killed you? I don't either. Whatever number you're remembering, it's about to be plus one. Oh, the light's on."

The sealed gate was glowing one-quarter bright. Meri must have combed through the succubus sector with a fine-tooth comb and killed the succubus who'd been newly appointed sector chief after Asmodeus.

"Why bother making a door that only opens when all four are taken out at once? Everyone knows the standard is three from the same sector. Anyway, die, you tasteless hacks who go around cutting off elf ears."

Whirr. Levis's chest began glowing silver. I gripped the blazing-hot breasts and aimed at the incubi.

"This is Divine Punishment, delivered by the Goddess."

Thwack, thwack thwack.

Lances of divine power pierced the incubi's hearts.