Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Now then, things have gone according to plan so far, but it’s still too early to relax.
The island octopus is the type that disguises itself as a reef and lies in wait, but if it takes a near-fatal blow, it will of course try to flee. A terrifying monster it may be, if it’s essentially a wild animal, that’s usually how it goes.
If it escapes deep underwater, there’ll be no way to pursue it.
So we need to capture it.

“Crossbow unit, begin attack!”

At the signal flare, thick bolts were fired one after another from the six armed merchant ships.
I could see the dogfolk running all over the decks, busy winding the strings and loading bolts. At a glance it looked comical, but their efficiency was solid.
Their small stature worked in their favor, letting them divide roles without colliding even on the cramped decks.

These bolts were as long as spears, so they couldn’t be fired very far, but their power was excellent. The tips were barbed, so once they pierced something, they wouldn’t come out.
On top of that, each one was attached to a sturdy rope. Even if the bolt missed, the rope could still entangle the target, and if not, it could simply be retrieved.
Basically, harpoons.
The question was where to drive them in.
The reef-like part was too hard for the bolts to penetrate, the tentacles were thrashing wildly, and the main body was submerged underwater.
Thinking it over like this, it was surprisingly solidly built.
No wonder humans had feared it as the “Demonic Sea.”

But I knew something.
As is often the case with creatures like this, their endurance wasn’t all that great. Due to differences in circulatory systems, there aren’t many beings that can fight longer than mammals or birds.
Octopuses, if I remembered right, also had issues with stamina. And besides, this one was currently neutralizing a strongly alkaline solution inside its own body.
We should wait a bit.

“Armed merchant ship No. 3, Raging Wave, main mast moderately damaged! Military ship No. 4, Pirate Soul, starboard side lightly damaged!”

It seemed some ships had gotten too close to the tentacles and taken damage. Since we didn’t really know its reach, that couldn’t be helped.

“All ships, fall back! Form a battle line in a half-encirclement!”

There was some damage from the flailing tentacles, but since there were no casualties, it was acceptable.

“Admiral, what are we supposed to do about this!?”
“This is bad!”

The sailors were panicking, but I leaned against the railing and scratched my head.

“There’s no need to worry that much. We’ll take a break until it gets tired.”

Sorry for being such an ad-hoc, useless admiral.

Once the island octopus began to sag sluggishly, I ordered the armed merchant ships to fire again.
The crossbows’ accuracy wasn’t very high, but the shooters were energetic dogfolk troops. They relentlessly repeated their attacks, and one by one, the harpoons sank into the tentacles.
The ropes were secured to the hulls, so no matter where the island octopus tried to flee, it would have to drag six sailing ships along with it. Diving would obviously be difficult.
Even if it somehow managed to pull all six at once, in its current exhausted state there would be a limit.

“If a bolt comes loose, retrieve it and keep firing them in! You’ll never get another chance to harpoon a monster octopus this big!”
“Okaaay!”

From a nearby ship, the dogfolk waved energetically.

Eventually, all the harpoons were either embedded or broken and unusable. The crossbow unit’s job was done.
That accursed octopus b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ was now literally caught by six sailing ships, pierced by countless harpoons. Its proud tentacles were useless when it came to cutting ropes.
And its insides must have been heavily damaged by the explosion and the strongly alkaline poison.
Even so, the “Demonic Sea” proved to be a far more formidable enemy than I had expected.

“Admiral! Look at that!”

A dragonfolk engineer pointed at the sea surface.
A gigantic octopus tentacle was floating unattached, writhing grotesquely.
There were three of them in total. All of the tentacles with harpoons stuck in them.
Damn it. Now that I think about it, octopuses can cut off their limbs to escape.
I had completely forgotten.
Still, cutting off every limb that had been hit in order to escape took some serious resolve.

The island octopus severed its legs one after another and slowly began to flee. It was obvious at a glance that it was near death.
Garsche hurriedly asked me,

“Hey, Admiral, aren’t you going to have the centaur troops attack!?”
“It’s impossible. The seawater around it has turned into a deadly poison. We can’t attack until it gets farther away.”

Besides, the mermaids had no means of physical attack, and the centaur chivalries couldn’t strike the submerged parts.
If only we had one more sodium bomb to throw in.

No choice. We’ll pursue it until it dies of exhaustion and keep attacking with the centaur troops.
We’ll chase it all the way to the horizon.
That was what I thought—
Then suddenly, the air around us grew cold.

“What the hell, it’s strangely cold…”

Someone muttered.

The fog drifting around us glittered for a moment, then scattered.
No—wrong. The fog had frozen. It turned into ice particles, sank into the sea, and the surrounding mist rapidly cleared.
An impossible chill for southern Miraldia enveloped the fleet.

Kurtze, the engineer, exhaled white breath and murmured as if he’d realized something.

“Sir Veit, could this be…?”
“Yeah. No doubt about it.”

Our Demon Lord herself had arrived.
An extra-large trump card.
Not that we’d called her.

“Looks like I made it in time.”

Descending from above the fleet was Her Majesty Gomoviroa, the second Demon Lord.
While everyone else was shivering from the cold, she alone wore a light dress. She was probably absorbing vast amounts of surrounding heat and feeling quite warm.

“Master, Master.”

When I called to her quietly, she drifted over while floating gently.

“What’s the matter?”
“Is it really okay for you to come out to the very front lines like this?”

I had expected her to come anyway, given how overprotective she was, but seeing her actually appear still surprised me.

She smiled cheerfully and answered,

“Right now, I am merely a passing old woman. Just a great sage, nothing more.”

I’d seen that line in period dramas in my previous life.

“One day, I will have to reveal my true identity to the humans. I thought I’d surprise them then.”
“Well, I did tell you about a story like that before.”
“Have you forgotten my face?”
“Again, you don’t need to say that line right now.”

Not when the island octopus was about to escape.

She floated off again and descended onto the sea surface.

“I won’t let you escape.”

The moment she touched the water with her staff, the sea rapidly began to freeze outward.

“W-what the hell is this…”
“So this is demonic magic…”
“Amazing, I’ve never seen ice this big in my life.”
“She’s like a fairy from a fairy tale…”

The sailors, who lived their lives on warm seas, found the ice fascinating.
As if they’d forgotten their fear of the island octopus, they stared, transfixed, at the graceful girl dancing atop the ice.

Her true specialty was necromancy, and her other magic wasn’t usually this powerful. Of course, instantly freezing seawater like this should have been impossible.
However, in her current state, Master was a thermodynamic vacuum cleaner that absorbed any kind of energy.
She drew heat from the seawater and converted it into magic power to cast freezing spells. The heat displaced by the freezing magic was absorbed by her and turned into more magic power.
In other words, without expending anything at all, she could cool her surroundings indefinitely.
The Demon Lord, now an angel dancing upon drifting ice, laughed happily.

“I always wanted to try this once. It should be possible in theory, so I wanted to confirm it.”
“Glad you’re still dedicated to your research…”

Please take it easy, or we’ll end up in an ice age.

While the humans stared in astonishment, the ice spread out in a circle centered on her. The island octopus’s reef and our warships were connected by a single sheet of ice.
And its tentacles were beneath that ice.
There was nothing protecting the reef—its topmost part.
We can do this.

“Centaur unit, charge! Destroy the reef!”

The moment I shouted, Filnier sprinted forward.
When she swung her two-handed spear, a giant blade unfolded with a sharp metallic clang.
It seemed to use the same mechanism as a folding knife. A custom weapon from Tubarn, perhaps.

“LET’S GOOOOO!”
“OOOOOHHHHH!”

Everyone switched their weapons to hand axes and charged while spinning them around. They were traditional centaur tools, both for daily life and combat.

“Hey, wait, Filnier! I told you not to take off your clothes!”

I really want to do something about that bad habit.
Surrounded by the centaur unit, the island octopus was quickly subjected to a literal beating.

“Die already!”
“We offer this to our ancestral spirits!”

Countless hand axes slammed into the reef-like shell.
Broken handles slid across the ice, and then they started kicking with their hooves instead.
With their fighting instincts ignited, the centaur cavalries became terrifying destroyers.

Checking through a telescope, I could see the reef slowly being chipped away. Even if it looked like rock, it was still just a shell, supposedly made of a material similar to seashells.
I could see Filnier smashing away at it with that huge folding blade.
Still, it was taking longer than expected…
As the centaur unit’s war cries gradually weakened, a centaur messenger returned.

“Report from Lady Filnier! The shell of the ‘Demonic Sea’ is too hard and extremely thick. The centaur unit’s attacks can’t break it!”
“What!?”

It was more heavily armored than expected.
Looking closer, more than half of the centaur cavalries had already exhausted themselves and were catching their breath nearby.
If even those muscle-brained horses were worn down this badly, then without bombs, this wasn’t happening.

As if seeing through my thoughts, Kurtze said,

“There are none left.”
“…I see.”

We’d brought only a small amount of gunpowder, and it was absolutely necessary for communication at sea.
The crossbow bolts were all used up, so that left only one option.
As I flipped through my spellbook to prepare a spell, I spoke quietly to the Belrüsa soldiers so Kurtze wouldn’t hear.

“Alright. I’ll go.”
“The Admiral himself!?”

The Belrüsa soldiers were shocked, but in battles involving demons, what ultimately mattered was the commander’s personal valor.

“I’ll use magic. Launch me with the catapult.”
“What!?”
“Just hurry up and do it.”

If the Demon Lord’s Army heard this, they’d absolutely object, so we had to do it quickly.
I leapt onto the catapult arm and transformed into a werewolf.

“I’ll handle fine trajectory adjustments myself. Just launch me at maximum output. Make sure the direction is accurate.”
“U-understood!”

The rough sailors set the catapult, and the arm bent to its limit.
At that moment, Kurtze, who had been preparing a signal flare, turned around.
His expression instantly froze.

“What are you doing!?”

Oops, he saw me.