CH 63

[The Opening Signal Shot!]

――When I opened my eyes, I found myself inside the castle in ‘Holy City Helheim’.

In front of me was a sphere giving off jet-black light, as well as Seele and Grimm who also had just been teleported like me.

“Oh, heya, Great Demon King. The event is finally starting, huh?”

“Yeah. Seele, as planned, lead the mercenary NPCs and summoner NPCs to destroy hostile guild bases.”

“Gotcha. Those NPCs are much more loyal and stronger than the PKs who used to serve me as my servants.

“Since I’ll be leading them, you, Great Demon King, may not get the chance to play, you know~♪.”

“Haha, that’s fine as well. Do your best so that I can take it easy, Seele.”

“Your wish is my command!” Seele immediately headed outside with her red hair fluttering behind her.

She didn’t seem to be nervous at all, I probably didn’t have to worry about her.

Compared to her…

“A-awawawawa…! D-Demon King, what should I do…!” The blond gothic girl, Grimm, was trembling violently.

Until the day before the event, she’d kept on saying “I’ll kill all those players with my equipment!” with righteous indignation, but when the d-day finally came, her nervousness seemed to have won out.

I bent over to make eye contact with her and grabbed her soft cheek.

“Ahyuu!?”

“Calm down, Grimm. I want you to hold down the fort here as always. Our 9,000 monsters and ‘Guardian Deity’ will be helping you protect Helheim. –Right, Ku-chan?”

[Kue~~~!]

In response to my call, the city itself cried out.

Yeah, now all the places and structures in Helheim had become the body of Ku-chan, the ‘Forbidden Evil Dragon Cthulhu・Replica’.

A slimy tentacle grew out of the wall and gently stroked Grimm’s head.

“Uu, Cthulhu…!”

“So, Grimm, together with Ku-chan and the monsters, please protect the ‘Guild Core’ over there,” I said as I pointed to the jet-black sphere.

When I stared at it [Name: Guild Core. Appears in the center of the guild base. Can only move up to 10 meters away from the initial spawn point.] was displayed. I would be battling 60,000 players aiming to destroy it.

“It is our heart. Can I leave it to you, Grimm?”

“…Yes! Leave it to me, Demon King! I’ll protect it even if it costs my life!”

Grimm firmly clenched her hands. Her eyes were burning with resolve.

Alright, looked like she had calmed down. Now that she had completely regained her motivation, I said goodbye to her and went out of the castle.

Just like in the previous battle royale, the sky was deep red.

At that time, a voice suddenly echoed from the other side of the sky.

[The Guild War has finally begun! I, Navi, the Player-Navigating Fairy, will be in charge of commentary this time as well!]

“Tch, you finally showed up… devs’ dog!”

The figure of the cute yet hateful little fairy surfaced in my mind.

This time, too, she must be looking out over the battlefield from the town square with the spectators.

Minion of the evil devs… when this battle is over, I’m gonna grind your head with my finger, you’d better prepare yourself!

[A-a chill ran down my spine just now, or was it just my imagination…?

[Ahem! Now then, this time too, I will give some additional explanation for the participants~!

[Can you see the number ‘60936’ in the corner of your vision? That’s the number of players alive!

[And the number ‘87’ next to it is the number of remaining guilds.

[You can check where in the plain is your guild located from the map, please take a look at it. Also, when you get into a hostile guild’s base, the map will switch to show you the structure of the base and the location of the Guild Core, so please be sure to make good use of it!

[Because some players had managed to achieve the crazy feat of turning an entire city into a guild base, the developers hastily added such a function.]

Wait, she’s talking about me! Don’t add such a convenient feature to target certain players, you shitty devs!

Well, whatever… let’s check where the ‘Guild of Yuri’ had been teleported to in the plain.

So, I looked at the map… wait, it’s dead in the center?! Enemies will surge toward us from all sides!

Hey, was the teleportation really random?! Hey, answer me?!

[That is all for the additional explanation! To all participants, may the fortune of war be with you~!] and following that, [Now, everyone in the audience, place your bet on which guild will win~! Our most popular contender at the moment is the ‘13th Order of Phantom Burial—Grand Batallion—’… what the hell is up with this name?! How cringe! Ah, I mean how unique!] so Navi excitedly began to encourage gambling.

I’d expect no less from the devs’ minion. She got a scummy side hidden behind her adorable look…!

“Haa… no use getting angry over it. I was determined to defeat all other guilds anyway, so be it the edge or the center of the field doesn’t matter.”

I gently exhaled and regained my calm.

Now, let’s do this—our goal this time was a quick and decisive war.

Most of our members were made up of NPCs.

While players would get revived 30 minutes after they died, the NPCs would get ejected from the field, instead. If the 60,000 enemies surrounded us at the same time, it’d be game over for us, to begin with.

With that being the case, there was only one way we could win this war!

“And that’s to go full force from the beginning! Come forth, Gigantic Dragon Plant!”

“—Ggraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

In response to my shout, a gigantic summoning formation appeared under my feet.

From the center of it, a Gigantic Dragon Plant that had a total length of more than 100 meters showed up!

It was Gigataro, my strongest familiar as well as my reliable partner. Standing with my arms crossed on top of his head, I stared at the buildings dotting the plain.

“Now, Gigataro! Let’s signal the start of this event with a big bang!!!”

“Graaaaaaaaa!”

Gigataro roared and made seven flowers bloom on his back.

In the next moment, extremely large laser beams were released from their shining petals!