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It seemed among the 12 Heavenly Stars, the man called Karkinos was one of the individuals with better communication skill.

Even after the previous event, he continued speaking with Aries, Libra and Aigokeros in a friendly manner whilst occasionally getting slashed at by Libra. Nevertheless, the place stayed in an uplifting atmosphere.

Unfortunately, only Virgo who had just recently joined the group was unable to get into the clique. She was left looking at the others from the outside.

She might have been considerate and putting effort into not interrupting the reunion, however, amongst these colourful personalities she seemed to be the only normal individual, thus she came off as being unable to blend in with them.

I left the rowdy bunch of 12 Heavenly Stars to go and sit beside Virgo.

“Can’t blend in?”

“Ah, Ruphas-sama.”

Virgo was sort of forcibly ordered by Parthenos to accompany us.

In other words, unlike the others who had followed me out of their own wills, she was dragged away by us from what could potentially be her peaceful and serene life.

As such, I was a little worried about her.
Come read for free at the original source two more free thoughts

I also did not wish for her to have a hard time on this journey.

“No, I was just wondering if it was alright for me to be here… everyone… here is such amazing people. I was just thinking that I wouldn’t be of any use to anyone with how low-leveled I was. And ability wise, I’m like a downgraded version of Dina-san.”

Notwithstanding that Virgo’s and Dina’s element affinities were different, just as Virgo stated, their positions in the group were overlapping with one another.

Both were backline support types, however, as opposed to Dina who could use both arcane magic and divine magic, Virgo could only use divine magic.

Furthermore, Dina had an affinity with both the Water and Metal elements and came with a superior spec associated with the maximum level of 1000.

To top things off, she was able to use a cheat skill such as X-Gate and render enemy long distance attacks ineffective and create appropriate distance between herself and her enemies even though she was a rearguard, effectively allowing her to get by without the protection of the vanguard.

Now that I thought about it, what was with that cheat character….

Well anyways, depending on the way she’s trained, Virgo had the potential to rival Dina.

Although flugels were unable to use arcane magic, they had superior base stats, thus they stood in a perfect position to become strong backline support.

Looking at things from that point of view, it could be said that Virgo’s potential was more than enough to rival Dina’s.

“There’s no need to jump to such conclusion. You are a successor personally chosen by that Parthenos. You will be able to stand side by side with those guys in the near future.”

“Would things really become like that?”

“That’s right, young girl. You shouldn’t be making such a depressing face.”

While Virgo and I were having a conversation, a very refined and pleasant voice cut in.

At the very least, it was a voice I could not recognise.

To determine where it was coming from, I turned my face towards the voice. What I saw there was an ingredient for a dish – the barometz.

A plant was growing from a flower pot. Coming out from its unnaturally big bud was the head of a sheep which was speaking to us.

“……. The magical beast can speak, huh.”

“Oi oi, the lady with the black wings, you say such a strange thing. Of course, magical beasts can also speak. Even the orcs are constantly talking.”

…….Ahh, yeah. Now that I thought about it orcs were indeed speaking non-stop.

Or more like, thinking about it properly, Aries and Aigokeros were also magical beasts.

The barometz which had a needlessly refined and dandy voice continued speaking as if it was completely normal.

“Young girl, there’s nothing to think too deeply about. There’s no one that can’t be of use. Whoever you are, whatever you are, you will always have a role to fulfil. There’s a stage where you can shine. Even if there’s no spotlight on you right now, there’s a shine that only you possess. Stop undervaluing yourself. It doesn’t match your cute face.”

For some reason, an ingredient was saying something excessively cool…….

I did not know why, but although the things that it was saying were correct, for some reason, it was irritating.

“Even I’m the same. I’m just a lame magical beast who can’t even move on my own, but by being cooked and eaten, I can bring happiness to people’s face. When I’m in a dish, I can shine.”

“Ba, Barometz-san.”

“Are you even fine with that?”

What should I do? I did not even know where to begin retorting.

Whilst I was lost on what to say and was staring at the barometz, Karkinos who had finished speaking with Aries and the group came over and tightly gripped onto the barometz’s head.

“Ruphas-sama, in preparation for the journey, me’s going to go turn the whole barometz into smoked meat. If you don’t mind, please give me some time.”

After saying as such, Karkinos went to the back of the kitchen.

It seemed he went to create food which could be stored for our long journey.

The barometz kept saying, “Young girl, believe in your own potential!” as it was being taken to the back and eventually stopped making noise.

In the future, it would most probably become smoked meat and help us out.

…. Well, it was a good guy. Yeah.

All that side, Dina was awfully quiet today for some reason.

It almost seemed as if… she was preparing herself so that she could move any time if anything were to happen.

As if she was waiting for something, no, as if she knew something was going to happen.

…. Or was that just my intuition going on overdrive?

*

A single woman was walking on the top of the wasteland.

She was a beautiful lady with an alluring body and looked to be in her early twenties.

She was wearing a black bondage clothing which exposed much of her skin. On top of that, she had a similarly black coat with furs equipped, nevertheless, she did not put her arms through that coat.
Her lips were dyed purple and on her left cheek was a tattoo with the shape of a crimson heart with black wings coming out of it.

Her hair which was tied on the top of her head flowed all the way to her foot and the end of it was shaped like a scorpion’s sting.

No, it was not “like a”. It was truly the sting of a scorpion.

The hair which should have been soft and smooth became harder as it neared the end, and by the end of it, completely became scorpion’s sting.

If one were to summarise it in a single phrase, she would be a poisonous woman. She would assault man using her seductive body whilst poisoning and eating him up. Let alone hiding that dangerous scent, she was going around and scattering them.

Her name was Scorpius. She was a specialist in poison as well as one of the pillars of the Tyrannical Way 12 Heavenly Stars.

Right now, in her line of sight was a steel capital created by Mizar, one of the despicable late [7 Heroes], who had betrayed her master in the past.

“Haa, that thing looks disgusting, what a senseless capital. It’s lacking in grace and elegance. Right? Don’t you guys think so too?”

She spoke as if she was drunk or clingy.

Hearing the words she spoke of were the army of thousands or tens of thousands of magical beasts.

They were not the weak fodders she had borrowed from the demon race. It was an army of scorpions which were personally subdued by her.

Emperor Berserk Scorpion. The title of an emperor which was within her name was not just for show.

She was without a doubt, the king amongst the scorpions. She was a pinnacle of all living things in the desert, the pinnacle of all magical beasts which had mutated out of scorpion.

As such, every magical beast originating from a scorpion was her child, her subordinate and her pawn.

In addition to the immense power she possessed herself, she had the army with both the quality and quantity at her beck and call.

Because she possessed all of that, she was able to singlehandedly destroy the country of [Hrotti] which was founded by the late [Adventure King].

Ruphas had misunderstood one thing.

She had believed there was nothing protecting Hrotti at the time.

She had mistakenly believed that there was no protective system around Hrotti to prevent the advancement of the demons. She had believed there was nothing like Levia protecting Svalinn, nothing like the defensive field protecting Laevateinn and nothing like the demon preventative system possessed by Blutgang. She was under such misunderstanding.

Wrong. She was wrong.

Hrotti had indeed had a defensive mechanism. It indeed had something that would not even lose to Levia.

If anything, it would have been most strange for Phecda who had the monster tamer skill to not leave anything behind once he passed away.

Before he passed away, he had gone through the magical beasts he tamed and left the four most powerful and excellent beasts as guardian deities.

But even then, they were all annihilated.

The army of scorpions trampled down the country into oblivion as it it ate away all the protections left by the late Adventure King.

“But that thing’s such an ideal prey. If they’re holing up in that tiny place, the poisons will circulate really quickly. Haa… haa… I can’t wait… I wonder what kind of face the dwarves will make as they suffer and drop dead. To be bleeding from every hole you can imagine. Ohh, I can just imagine them trying to run away from that tight coffin, but dying with despair and misery… ohh so unbearable, I’m going to wet myself.”

She stuck her red tongue out seductively and licked her lips.

She believed it was perfectly normal for the humanoids to be suffering.

If anything, she believed it was their duty to suffer and die.

Because if that was not so, there will be no retribution for her master.

After all, her master had given her all for the sake of the world and the humanoids, yet she was betrayed and taken down by them. Ahh, there was no way she could forgive them.

As such, Scorpius became crazed. By her own will, she abandoned her reasoning, ethics, morals, discipline and self-control to become a lunatic murdering machine.

To make them drown in the lake full of blood, to make them struggle and suffer. To make them scream from misery. To put them under utter despair.

To make people scream from the bottom of their lungs and to make them cry so that her beloved master could hear them.

Those were the only thoughts that were keeping her moving nowadays.

Her master was her everything. And to be next to her master meant the world for her.

Now that her master was taken away from her, she no longer had any meaning in continuing to live. As a consequence, to completely annihilate the people that took her master away became her only reason in life. It became the only way she could repay her late master.

That was why she had no hesitation and felt absolutely no remorse in what she was doing.

Women? Child? Infant? Elder? She could not care less about any of them.

As such, she became crazed of her own choice. She allowed herself to continually be enveloped in insanity and madness.

So that she could sink this world into despair, for that one and only reason.

Her advance was also detected by those in Blutgang.

If anything, there was not the slightest indication to hide it.

If anyone were to take bring tens of thousands of magical beasts which had mutated from scorpions, it would be natural that they were found out.

In the 15th City, the highest floor of Blutgang.

There, the marshal who was permitted to operate Blutgang was making a grim expression whilst looking at the outside view displayed on the monitors.

The Marshal… indicated the highest position within Blutgang, and had the power to command every individual in the 15th City. It was the highest position with tangible power.

Of course, position wise, the royalty sat higher.

However, he was entrusted with the complete power to command and control Blutgang in the time of war and as such, would not be wrong to call him the most powerful individual in the capital.

“So you’ve come… poisonous woman.”

The marshal who had a white beard could be said to possess one of the bigger bodies amongst the dwarves and was not much different in size as compared to a human.

He wore a blue military uniform and on his head was a hat with five ornamental stars.

There was a pipe in his mouth as he continued to sit on his chair without being agitated.

His name was Genell. Although just a little, he carried the blood of royalty and was a dwarven elder of such age to have lived side by side with late Mizar.

There was some nervousness. However, there was no agitation.

From the very day Hrotti was destroyed, he had expected that one day it would come to this.

In the 15th City, there were already Type 1 Battle Deployments on standby and all the subordinates were sitting in their respective position.

“Emergency transmission to all cities within Blutgang! Beginning now, Blutgang will be entering into battle against the Tyrannical Way 12 Heavenly Stars’ Scorpius of the [Scorpion]!”

“Emergency transmission received!”

After receiving Genell’s order, one of the subordinates put his hands on the microphone and repeatedly gave instructions out.

Subsequently, those instructions were simultaneously transmitted throughout the capital and heard by all citizens within.

In practice, even they themselves did not know the mechanics behind how such a thing was possible.

Blutgang was created by the hands of the great Smith King and the technology that was utilised was so advanced that even after 200 years of time, most features seemed like a black box that had yet to be made clear.

“We will be the one to make the initial move! Prepare to fire!”

“Prepare to fire!”

“Target acquired!”

“Firrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

With Genell’s order as the trigger, muzzles which were coming out from all over Blutgang all fired at the same time.

The shockwave shook the earth as the cannons fired in rapid succession, scattering the scorpions away.

Nevertheless, the important Scorpius herself was not perturbed in the slightest and started walking forward calmly and graciously.

It was not effective? No, even before the cannon could reach her, she used the sting on her hair to strike away at the cannonballs!

“It’s no use, it’s not working at all!”

“Doesn’t matter, continue firing! We can reduce their number!”

“Marshal, the deployment of the golem squad is ready!”

“Good, send them out!”

Next moment, Blutgang’s gates opened and a bunch of golems came out in a squad and advanced forward whilst ringing a rigid sound.

The golems that were deployed were not lacking in the least as not only the recently created models but even the high-level golems made by Mizar 200 years to serve as the steel guardians were sent out.

The manned type golems were boarded by the dwarves who were wearing armours and advanced forward without fear.

“Attaaacckkkkk!!”

As the dwarf who was leading the squad shouted, the golem squad all accelerated forward.

Steel guardians who did know what fear was all embarked right onto the wilderness with their bodies, and advanced onto the army of magical beasts.

“Give them a welcome.”

As if to match up with the advancing golems, the scorpion army of magical beasts also advanced forward and clashed with the golems in the middle.

The situation was approximately even.

Neither side had the emotion called fear, thus they neither ran nor flinched.

They only thought about annihilating the enemy leading them to wholeheartedly striking the enemy down.

At times they would use their allies’ corpses or broken debris as a foothold as the magical beasts and golems continued to reduce the number of enemies.

“Charging completed!”

“Target, acquired!”

“Target, set!”

“Firing location determined!”

“Enemy number 600! The number of allies 100! All allies are golems! There is only a single Mizar type!”

“Alright…. Artillery, fireeeeeeeeeee!!”

If they could erase more enemies, they did not even care about the allies becoming collateral damage.

Essentially, as long as there were no living dwarves, it was all fine.

It was fine to remake the golems.

Unfortunately, the Mizar models would not be subject to reproduction, however, they still could not hesitate because of that.

They could not miss the chance because they were unwilling to trade 1 for 600.

Just as they aimed, a lot of golems shattered into pieces, however, using that as the sacrifice, they were able to turn a lot of magical beasts into meat paste.

“Oh dear, involving your own allies, quite a playful bunch, aren’t cha?”

With this, the balance shifted towards Blutgang a little.

However strong they were, the enemies were a gathering of magical beasts which knew neither tactics nor strategy.

They believed if quality could be matched by quantity, the side which could utilise strategy would be in an advantageous position.

The way they thought was not wrong by any means. The wars were always foretold using strategy as the basis.

However, they could not underestimate the enemy. The one that they were fighting was a monster which could easily overturn those strategies in a flash.

That was why they were the Tyrannical Way. That was what they were the 12 Stars.

Exactly because there was that pride, Scorpius was not agitated in the slightest.

“In that case, maybe I’ll try playing around a little too!”

Scorpius’s form became painted in madness.

Her eyes were opened wide and her smile caused her mouth to open from one ear to another. Even her beautiful look turned ugly as she went in towards the bunch of golems.

By the time one thought her hair – no, her sting moved, all the golems in the area had already been cleared away.

Scorpius’s true power might have been in relation to poison, however, it did not mean that her attack power was low.

Especially now that she had continuously been in this state of insanity, her norm had become madness.

By always been in this crazed state, her attack power had increased as a matter of fact.

Needless to mention the low-level golems, her attacks could not be withstood by even the level 300 or 400 golems.

“Here, here, here here here herehereherehere!”

Her sting was swung with a speed so fast one could not even follow and mowed down and turned one golem after another into a mere debris.

In order to try and stop her by any means possible, golems were rushed onto her, nevertheless, however many were thrown at her, the result stayed exactly the same.

And from this little battle, Blutgang which had lost many high-level golems was plunged into a position of inferiority.

As the balance was broken, the magical beasts started their attack like an avalanche, further decreasing the number of golems.

It did not matter who was looking at the fight, if this continued, the side which would win was as clear as black and white.

“Ma, marshal! Now that it’s come to this, please give the order for Blutgang to enter battle form!”

“Rejected! Don’t forget, that thing possesses poison! If we get close to her, even if we win, the citizens will die! Think of that as a loss!”

“But what should we do!”

“Send out the Scales Squad! They’re the only things that can hold their own against her!”

“……! Understood, sending out the Scales Squad!”

The greatest battle prowess of Blutgang was to have the Blutgang itself be on the offensive.

However, for this battle, that was not a viable option.

By going close to her, they would be subjected to her poison and lose the citizens within, which would signify their loss.

However, the cards in Blutgang’s hands were not limited to one.

They possessed another trump card – “The Scales Squad”.

Just as its name was mentioned, four shadowy figures charged out and took battle formation in mid-air.

“Hmm?”

Scorpius looked up into the air as carefree as she could be. What she saw was the nostalgic appearance of her comrade.

Belonging to the same group; the Tyrannical Way 12 Heavenly Stars, and possessing the name of the [Scales], the murderous maid, Libra.

And for some reason, there were four of her in the air looking down at the magical beasts.

“What? What is that…. Isn’t that Libra?”

“Target acquired… commence destroying.”

If she looked at things properly, the colour was different.

Compared to Libra who had brown hair, these four possessed white hairs.

Besides that, however, they were no different from her comrade which existed in her memory. Furthermore, two of them expanded their weapons resembled the one in Scorpius’s memory.

“The Right Scale (Zubenelgenubi)… fire!”

“! Tsk!”

Libra’s main long distance weapon [The Right Scale]. And its destructive power was well known by Scorpius.

Two rows of ray were fired in a flash as it continued to pierce the ground, scattering many magical beasts in the process.

Although Scorpius had avoided the attack instinctively, as if to strike while she was taking her time recovering, two fake Libras came out from the smoke.

“The Left Scale (Zububeschamali).”

An attack by the left arm which had been turned into a blade that could even slice through steel. Again, it was an attack that Scorpius could recall.

Scorpius used her sting to intercept this as she withstood the attack.

However, the second Libra quickly moved around to the side and mowed towards Scorpius with the blade.

A narrow escape – the blade merely scratched the cheek before it was stopped, nevertheless, anybody could see that managed to wound Scorpius.