Chapter 341: 339

Allen's party and the beastmen were going to discuss their plan to take down the Demon General.

They all sat inside the tent, surrounding a very simple map built with stones and twigs.

They were next to the outer walls, and just across stood a temple.

It was built to worship the Goddess of Water Aqua, and the streak of light emanated from it.

Merus and the Wraith A summon had already updated the rest of the Allen's party about the situation there.

Princess Shea was also aware that a Demon General stood next to the streak of light.

"So about that Demon General…"

"I'm sorry, mind waiting a bit?"

(What is it?)

"Hm?"

Allen looked at Princess Shea wondering what had happened, and noticed she was looking at Sophie, who had granted him the principal seat.

It seemed Shea wanted to talk with Sophie first.

"I'm Shea Von Albahal, Princess of the Beast Kingdom of Albahal. We're both princesses, so let's get along for this fight."

She still represented an entire country as princess, so she wanted to greet Sophie properly.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sophiarone. Please call me just Sophie like Master Allen does, though."

"I see. You may call me simply Shea too then."

Shea replied that way, but was still slightly irked by her calling Allen 'Master'.

The beastmen that left the Giamut Empire to build Albahar had instilled a similar social structure as Giamut.

The only big difference was that no serfs existed, since they had left Giamut due to a lack of freedom, so they did not want to keep others in a similar state.

Slavery was kept only as a punishment for criminals, but it was not hereditary, so the children of slaves would be regular people.

Princess Shea felt a strange disconnect.

Sophie had asked her to speak casually, yet she called Allen Master.

While Shea was in Albahar, she had done various research on Allen.

He was born and raised in a small country next to Giamut, called Latash.

He was just a commoner in Latash, but after his exploits in Rosenheim he had gained the position of Chief of Staff.

Sophie, who was heralded as the potential next queen, treated him as a superior.

Shea had told Allen that he could call her Lady Shea, as a way to be more friendly.

Usually her servants and common people would refer to her as Her Highness, Princess Shea, but she wanted those that fought alongside her to just call her Lady Shea.

Now she was wondering if she should have gone one step further and accepted being called simply Shea.

"Should we start the meeting then?"

"Right."

Allen was about to ask "What are we waiting for now?", but Lud raised his voice first, prompting the meeting to start.

Shea was still stuck in her thoughts, but she was not the only one caught off guard there.

The commanders and officers, the leaders of the various platoons, and even the soldiers acting as servants for the meeting, were all overwhelmed by Allen's party.

Kurena was looking at Shea with slight annoyance, wondering when the meeting would start.

She had taken off her huge adamantite greatsword and placed it flat on the ground.

Sophie was there too, fully aware that they would be heading to battle shortly, but she had not gathered her weapons yet either.

They were covered in imposing gear, even if they did not hold their weapons ready, and they feared not a single one of the beastmen.

The beastmen had all been chosen by Princess Shea herself, and they had proudly put their lives on the line to capture the leader of the Evil Cult.

They were talented individuals, ahead of the pack enough for the princess to notice them.

But seeing Allen's party act with so little worry made their confidence waver.

"So, the Demon General is in the temple nearby?"

Shea had given him the right to continue, so Lud kept talking.

She was going to join the fight against the Demon General as well.

"That's correct. We've already checked the place. There's one Demon General in front of the altar."

During the five days that Allen was fighting the Pagan Worshippers, he had used a Bird A summon to check on the temple and placed multiple Nests around.

Through the summon he could tell there was still a Demon General sitting in front of the altar.

They were planning on heading straight for the temple the moment the meeting was over.

In one of the last five days, Allen had asked Lud how Shea had built up her army.

Lud had known the princess for around five years, starting off as her instructor.

Because of that relationship, she assigned him as commander of her troops when the time came.

Rath was a mercenary she hired for a large sum of money, and assigned him as Deputy Commander for a few years.

The rest of her men had slowly gathered over the years.

It was almost like the entire army was built by knights who grew up wanting to be knights.

Maybe it was simply Shea's charisma, but it was clear that everyone there was working earnestly to keep their spot.

"Hmm…"

Lud seemed to be thinking of something after hearing that reply.

Lud, Rath, and Shea were all part of the same circle Allen's party formed around the map.

When Shea heard they were going to fight a Demon General, her first instinct was to join the fight as well.

She probably thought that it would not matter how much she helped fight the monsters and Pagan Worshippers in Clebeur if she was simply going to step away when they needed to fight the main enemy.

"And you said you want to proceed with just a small group of cherry-picked individuals?"

"Yes. We'll do it with two parties, one will be mine, the other will be led by Princess Shea and her men."

Allen had already told them how lacking most of the soldiers would be. Even an army of 2000 beastmen would not be able to stand against the Demon General in the Holy Land, perishing to its hand in less than an hour.

That could barely be called fighting the Demon General.

The way to fight the Demon General was to use only the necessary amount of men, with the correct skill sets.

If they allowed this continent to fall, the Demon King's Army would easily be able to take over the next continent, where Albahar stood.

The soldiers were willing to die for that cause, but that was different from having a clear strategy, so they were persuaded to stand back.

There were a couple of soldiers with 3 Star Talents, but only four of them were similar to Sword Saints or Hammer Saints.

Those four would be led by Princess Shea, forming her party of five.

3 Star Fighter Saint, Princess Shea

3 Star Hammer Saint, Commander Lud

3 Star Archer Saint, Archer Troops Leader Kam

3 Star Spirit Medium, Support Troops Leader Gonoo

3 Star Maiden, Healing Troops Leader Sera

Gonoo was a monkey beastman, able to summon wandering spirits of the dead, which could either weaken the enemy or strengthen allies.

Being able to grant buffs and debuffs was a great asset in the fight.

The Maiden had a similar skill set as a Saintess.

Shea had been given an army of 3000 soldiers by the king to defeat the leader of the Evil Cult.

The Beast Kingdom was not taking part in the battle against the Demon King's Army, so there were more soldiers with Talents available than in the Central Continent.

But the appearance of the dangerous S Rank Dungeon in Baukis had slowly started to whittle down their numbers.

Still, 3 and 4 Star Talents were rare.

Shea's army had 2500 soldiers with 1 Star, 500 with 2 Stars, and only 5 leaders and Shea had 3 Star Talents.

After the Pagan Worshippers attacked, and Clebeur's capital had to be evacuated, 1000 of her soldiers and one leader with a 3 Star Talent had already perished.

Rath was a Great Spearman with a 2 Star Talent, so he was not taking part in the fight against the Demon General.

He was unhappy with that decision, but he did not insist on joining either.

According to what Prince Zew had told Allen, beastmen got their Talents assigned at random, irrelevant of their status of noble or commoner.

"Lady Shea's party will largely act independent of ours, so you'll be a separate group of five."

The princess and four beastmen, acting as a complete party.

They had two frontliners, one halfback, one support, and one healer, making a pretty well-rounded party.

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"So we won't fight him as a whole group."

"Precisely. But as we're still fighting the same enemy, we'll need to agree on how we'll tackle things."

Allen wanted some commonality in the two parties' fighting style.

He had already expected she and her commander would join that fight, so he had been observing their movements for the last five days.

They were used to fighting as an organized army as well, rather than a party of adventurers, so Allen felt the need to explain some common strategies and habits of such a fighting style.

""...""

Lud and Rath listened in silence.

Allen's strategy was rather straightforward, but still well thought out.

He covered everything, from how the party as a whole had to move, to what the frontliners, halfback, and rear guard had to keep in mind at all times.

He mentioned in which situation to pull back, and in which it was best to be more aggressive.

Allen seemed fully aware of the exact capabilities of all five members.

Such a feat was only possible if Allen had been paying very careful attention to all their movements as they fought the Pagan Worshippers for five days.

Allen seemed fully aware of strategies that only someone with more than ten years of experience on the front would know, so it made them wonder just how he had lived and what he thought of to gain such knowledge at his young age.

"So he's really a genius."

Shea was also thinking the same.

"By the way, can you go into Beast King mode, Lady Shea?"

"Not yet."

"I see. Please try it if you can."

From her answer, it could be gleaned that she had tried but not succeeded yet.

At least she refused to say she could not do it.

While Allen was busy fighting the legacy of Gushara and the Evil Cult, the Central Continent, Rosenheim, and Baukis were all reaching the climax of their war against the Demon King's Army.

The Hero Helmios' party Sacred and Prince Zew's Ten Heroic Beasts were too busy for Allen to bring them as assistance.

Admiral Galara was also likely busy.

"We can figure out the rest while we fight. If you feel like you really can't do anything, or if it turns out we can't work well together, always consider retreating. In the worst case scenario we might destroy the entire temple."

If Allen's party decided to destroy the entire temple with the Demon General inside, the damage would spread to the entire capital city.

Or at the very least the royal palace would crumble as well.

"Understood."

Cecile was standing opposite to Allen and Sophie, and understood that would be her task.

"Again, that's just the worst case scenario."

(I feel like Cecile with Makris' Sacred Bead could easily destroy the entire city after all.)

As a display of appreciation for his people, the king had built the temple in the city's suburbs.

There was also a port in front of the temple, which went quite some ways into the sea.

Just some further away, and under the water, was the Prostia Empire.

The temple was built so that while the people prayed to Aqua, they also lowered their heads to the empire.

"I knowww."

(You don't. Your Skills are so powerful you'll destroy a lot more than just the temple.)

"We're retreating if the battle proves unwinnable, so make sure you coordinate that as well."

Allen also explained to them in much detail how they should disengage if things went south.

Princess Shea's party had been assembled in a rush, so Allen took more time to tell them what to do if they lost or needed to retreat.

At first the beastmen wondered if there really was a point to planning for defeat, but Allen's party was serious about that.

They fought without letting a single member die.

They knew that was harder to plan for than simply fighting to death.

"Also, keep in mind that depending on how things go, you might need to fight the Demon General with your fists."

"Of course, we're all ready to do what it takes."

Princess Shea was on board with Allen's strategy.

The meeting took around one hour more to discuss their strategy.

When that was done, Allen and Shea's parties headed towards the temple to hunt down the Demon General.

"We'll be on our way then. Deputy Commander Rath, take care of things here."

"Yessir!"

Rath answered vigorously, and Shea climbed onto the Bird B summon and headed towards the temple.

They crossed the wall and went to the temple inside the capital city.

Allen had placed Nests really close to the Demon General in case they wanted to rush there, but he wanted to try talking to him first.

Gathering information was important too.

There was a statue of the Goddess of Water Aqua next to the entrance, but its head was missing.

It had been cut off with something sharp.

The head was a distance away on the ground, split in two.

The temple was built above high ground, so they had to climb a set of stairs before entering the building.

Its construction had been overseen by Clebeur's royal family.

Allen had seen diagrams of the internal layout, which he had recorded inside his Grimoire.

They quickly reached a large hall.

The temple was built solely to pray to god, so it was a rather simple building.

An altar stood in the center of the hall, light gushing up from it.

It looked identical to the altar in Theomenia's temple.

"""..."""

The parties barely looked at the altar.

There was a man sitting in front of it.

He had been there, almost completely still for five days.

Everyone's attention was focused on him.

There were two greatswords stuck into the ground to stand vertically.

The man had reddish brown hair, cut short. He was half naked, so his large muscles were clearly visible.

Allen could guess he had an aggressive and proactive fighting style.

'Damn it took you a while, I almost thought you'd never get here. So you're that Allen chump huh?'

Somehow his voice sounded bored, almost languid.

But he was aware of their arrival.

And seemed to know who Allen was.

"That's me. Are you the Demon General protecting that altar?"

(For a moment I thought he might be a beastman turned Demon General, but huh? What's going on?)

Allen had thought this Demon General used to be a beastman, a monkey or gorilla beastman to be precise.

At least that was how he seemed while surveying with his Bird A summon.

But something told Allen that was not quite it when actually talking to him.

The Demon General showed an even bigger reaction hearing that answer.

He grinned and raised his head, his eyes looking straight at Allen. There was no white around his pupils, just a creepy blood red.

'Kids these days, they reeeally don't know how to talk to their seniors anymore. Though well, I guess I can say the same about myself. Still, it seems I'll have to beat some respect into you heehee.'

Even though he declared he was the same, he still felt the need to correct Allen.

His tone sounded really playful though, not really mad.

"Senior? How come?"

'Well, when I was still human I used to be called Basque, the Shura King! Does that ring any bells, my dear Allen?'

He grinned even more as he said that, his red eyes focused on Allen.

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