The last city had been destroyed, and the army of demons, and monsters was stationed at the nearest border to Aria. Joining Rose, and Riley by teleporting to them, Haruki and Asuka came up with an army of soul marionettes created by Fay. Consisting of shards of broken souls, the artificial monsters were the perfect soldier who followed orders even if it meant certain death for them all.
"Are you sure these, uh…" Standing at the very edge of the city walls, Rose looked over Haruki's shoulders to try and figure out just exactly what those creatures were. "Why is there a kobold head on that centaur? And what are these things?"
Noticing the confusion in her eyes, Haruki turned around to the marionettes and decided to give Rose a brief explanation.
"Fay and I combined different parts of monsters to make them more vicious," Haruki said, pointing at a collection of goblins with wings and glowing eyes.
"Where did you find their body parts so quickly?" Riley asked her thumb curiously resting under the chin.
"You'll probably know soon enough, for now, let's just focus on getting ready for the warlock. I can already see his army heading here," watching the undead king from afar with demonic spies, Haruki urged the rest to get back to the preparations.
Once the army was lined up into a row of tens of hundred, they all locked their arms with each other with Riley being at the very head. Closing her eyes, she channeled her mana through the army to connect them all, and when she was just about to run out, Haruki and Rose who were right by her side, shot her body with as much as she needed.
"God tier summon: Lonesome Widow!" Consuming all her strength came out the haloed giant. Looming over the entire army, she glanced down at her panting master.
"What do you want now?" Her words reverberating through the air pierced the ears of all monsters present.
"Ta-take us all!" Held up by Haruki and Rose, Riley could barely look up to order her own familiar.
"All of you?" As expected the scythed devil wasn't too inclined to follow her weakened master.
Seeing how Riley's body had begun to fever up, and she struggled to even stand, Haruki glared up at the devil to take matters into his own hands.
"Let the souls lost in this battle be your offering," upon hearing that, the haloed reaped, straightened her back, and looked forward.
Even from that distance, she could see the approaching army of undead and the sight of a man thundering over to where she stood. Invisible to them, she felt no threat or any desire to fight, but the offer of souls was too good for her to let go.
"Very well, but I have one more demand," glancing down, she peered right at Haruki. "I want to taste the soul of a demon lord, be it that undead or the one hiding amongst your army of monsters."
'What?' Baffled by her words, Haruki turned his head to try and spot who the other demon lord was. But given the severity of the situation, and the rumbling sound of the approaching undead army, he was forced to abandon his search and just agree with the haloed familiar.
"Fuck…Go ahead, if we manage to bring him down, you're free to consume his soul!" From the edge of his eyes, he could still see Rose, as well as Asuka, trying to find the demon lord masking in the army.
'It has to be Asmodia, but why is she hiding from me?' Familiar with her approach of bursting through reality, Haruki just couldn't figure out what exactly she was trying to achieve by hiding.
The creak from the familiar taking hold of her scythe broke everyone's chain of thought. Bringing their attention back to the widow, they watched as she struck the hilt of the weapon on the ground and a wave of green flames passed through the entire army. Enshroud with a mystical aura every single one of them turned invisible even to each other.
"Hide, and prey on the enemy!" Haruki howled the order to scatter the army all around the forest right outside the city gate.
He himself, however, first teleported Riley into a dungeon room designed for resting. And then calling on Rose, he flew up high in the sky with her. Having kept most of the plan a secret, Haruki hadn't told her about using Riley's familiar to turn his army invisible or even what he wanted to do next.
"Low tier summon: Demonic spy," summoning a single demonic spy, he kept Rose's hand clutched in his. "I need this little guy to eat part of your flesh."
Although a bit shocked by the request, Rose couldn't reflect her emotions through her expressions at the moment.
"Why?" She asked with a raised invisible eyebrow.
"It's the only way for me to create a clone of you without turning you into a demon," recalling the time when he'd first tried to clone Rose and failed, Haruki wanted to amend the mistake he'd made for the cloning process. "Also, just in case I end up dying, I don't want you to face Michael or that crazy warlock."
"Is this a trick?" To her, his intentions seemed too pure to be that of a demon.
Gripping her hand tighter, he let out a sigh followed by a chuckle.
"Remember how I asked you to teleport me to Laria after I was done with the precautionary measures?" His tone sounding a bit tired, made Rose wonder if something had happened to him.
"Yeah, but that was to prepare the marionettes, right?" Beyond curiosity, she asked.
"Well, back when I was there, Fay made me promise that at least Stella's godmother will return home safely to take care of the kids," giving her no time to think the matter through, Haruki made the demon spy bite into her skin.
Nibbling out just a small portion of her body, the spy made it possible to make a clone of Rose as well.
"I know you mean well, but I can't just leave you here!" Ignoring the bite, Rose tried to fight back against the idea.
However, with her hand clutched tight in his, he already had a plan ready for this exact situation.
"Tormentous dungeon…" Letting go of her hand, Haruki opened up a dungeon portal underneath her feet. But since she could fly on her own, her body didn't fall through it.
"What the hell are you doing-"
Before long, reaching from under her the tentacle monster called Lulu pulled her into the same dungeon room as Riley was taken into.
'Now let's just hope Moriyana can pull them out through the dungeon in case I die.' Leaving the escape in the hand of the succubus who'd escaped the Asmodia's mist prison, he felt confident that even if he was killed, Rose as well as Riley would definitely make it back to Laria. 'The fewer people involved in this the better.'
Peering down where Asuka was supposed to be, he felt his heart aching for dragging her into this mess. Yet, with every one of his servants gone, he at least wanted her to remain by his side in case of an unfortunate event.
'And what the hell is Asmodia doing blending with the rest of the army anyways?' He thought but with the sight of the demon slayer coming into view, along with the undead army, he had to push those questions to the side.
"Clone: Roselia Ironfrost, dragon form!" As the dragoness came into being, an earth-shattering roar from her gaping jaws heralded the start of the battle.
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