Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

"Well then."

(The Arbiter God is gone, huh.)

Saying that, Allen returned his gaze from the broken wall and back into the temple, looking at his friends and Shea's group.

All of them, including Lud who had just revived, wanted to ask him what to do next.

"So, what should we do now?"

Cecile asked him, representing the question in everyone's minds..

"There's something I want to search for. I want to know what is keeping this island afloat."

He wanted them to help him with that search.

"Huh? Its power source?"

Allen wanted to find a way to move the island.

Everyone agreed to help him search for that.

Many portions of the temple had been blown away, but they searched everywhere that was still intact.

There were still undead monsters and ghosts in the floors below, so Allen took care of that with Wraith A summons, and the many beastmen soldiers.

Their first time going through they simply killed those monsters that got in their way, leaving a multitude of them alive.

They killed all the monsters, and then they began checking every corridor and room in the temple, trying to find the device keeping the island in the air.

They slowly worked their way down the temple, eventually reaching the first floor and going into a floor underground.

"Wh-what's that?"

Shea blurted out.

"It looks like some form of cube device."

"What's a cube device?"

Shea did not understand what he was talking about.

Allen would often use words more common amongst gamers in his past life.

Sometimes some words would exist in this world as well, but it was rare for them to carry over the same meaning.

His friends were slowly getting used to them and understanding what he was talking about.

Many of his specialized terms were called 'Allen's Language' amongst his friends, and a collection of them were called 'Allen's Sayings'.

That was common amongst many parties, not just Allen's. They would often come up with words only they would understand fully.

Sometimes being able to detail a complex strategy in just a few words, or conveying information without others understanding it, could sometimes save the lives of some adventurers.

Shea had gotten confused by Allen's way to talk many times already, but she considered that normal considering he had reached S Rank with his party, so they had developed their own lingo.

The first underground floor was a rather large room.

An enormous cube, each side measuring multiple meters, was floating above what looked like a form of pedestal.

There were many unknown magic devices scattered around it as well.

"I guess it's safe to assume that this is the power source then.

"Yes, what do you want to do with it?"

"Oh, I was thinking we could try dropping the island on the Demon King's Army stronghold."

"""What?"""

Allen was thinking of carrying the island high up in the air, then leaving it to gravity and momentum to do their thing and let it fall on top of the Demon King's Army stronghold.

It was hard to say exactly how much effect it would have on Demon Generals and the Demon King, but considering its size it would cause considerable damage.

The island was likely as large as the meteorite that had made dinosaurs go extinct in Allen's past world.

Allen really wanted to carry it as high as possible, and let it destroy the Demon King's Army.

But first he needed to figure out how it was kept aloft.

"B-but that feels like such a waste."

"Hm?"

Sophie asked, her voice sounding unexpectedly distressed.

Allen looked at her wondering why she said that, and everyone's attention shifted to Sophie as well.

It was even more surprising since she usually did not show much emotion.

"Oh, sorry, it's nothing…"

She decided to let the matter go.

"Anyway, hmhmhm I'm pretty sure these are some sort of magic devices. They look similar to those in Dungeons."

"Ohhh, hmhm…"

Merle began touching various devices, trying to activate them somehow.

Kurena stood next to her, trying her best to pretend she understood what Merle was doing.

"I think a Magic Engineer would have better chances at doing something with them."

"A Magic Engineer? Maybe we can try to find one in Baukis?"

Baukis had built a powerful air force with Golems and Magic Devices, powering floating ships. They also had a numerous navy, which was locked in combat with the Demon King's Army.

They had a large demand for Mythril Golems, considered the most valuables no matter their size, and people with the [Magic Engineer] Talent that specialized on activating magic devices.

Magic Engineers would take the magic devices made by Dungeon Master Digragni, studying them and even reverse engineering them to produce replicas.

Since the floating island seemed to be suspended with some sort of magic device, Merle figured a Magic Engineer would be able to understand its workings better.

"Maybe we could try asking the Admiral then."

Merle was convinced that Admiral Galara would choose to help if they asked him.

Allen was going to add procuring a Magic Engineer onto the many favors he already owed Admiral Galara.

"That could work. We'll need to help him during his next battle though."

There was still a war going on in Rosenheim's northern regions, and the northern extreme of the Central Continent.

Allen had already sent armies of twenty thousand Beelings to both fronts.

It seemed like the battle would reach its climax soon, so Allen wanted to help more directly.

Allen had not yet finished exterminating all the monsters and Pagan Worshippers in the Confederation, but time would take care of that.

Kingship made the Insect A summons extremely powerful.

The thirty thousand Beelings born from Insect A summons and Queen Bees in this continent would easily take down all the monsters.

(We also need to tell the Holy Land that the issue has been taken care of.)

'Allen, do you think we could talk later?'

"Hm? Ah, is it about our future fight against Kyubel?"

Merus interrupted while Allen was busy thinking about his future plans.

He sounded like he had to say something important.

There were still [Nests] in the Holy Land, though Merus did not sound too pleased even after defeating Gushara, the founder of the Evil Cult.

Soon after Allen was back inside of Tam-Tam.

The party was gathered in the cockpit cabin.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

(Wait, Princess Shea followed us here too.)

Allen had used [Homing Instinct] to return the two thousand beastmen back to Clebeur, but Shea, Lud, and Rath, had stayed behind.

Shea had some things to say after their latest fight.

It had also seemed like Allen wanted to have a proper debriefing after that fight, so she chose to stay behind and see what he would say.

'So about this fight, it was my fault Kyubel got ahead of us like that.'

"""..."""

Merus said it was his fault that Kyubel, also known as the Primordial Demon General, had been allowed to get this far without him explaining anything.

"That might be true. I wonder if they wouldn't have been able to score the first hit if we had known more about them beforehand."

Merus sounded truly apologetic explaining what he meant.

The entire fight had been a plan by Kyubel to kill the hero chosen by the God of Creation Elmea.

Though even if Allen had known a bit more beforehand, such a fight would have been a really close one.

If Allen knew what kind of roadblocks he would find, maybe he would have been able to think of a safer plan to avoid them.

Maybe they would not have been trapped inside the temple like that, or Allen would have chosen to not even attempt fighting them

But that also meant there could be more Pagan Worshipper attacks everywhere.

Or maybe other continents would start being affected by that.

(Those are all what-ifs though. Not to mention Merus has only started talking since like three months ago.)

Even though it was such a short time, Merus had already taught them a lot of things.

But their fight in the temple had been a success in the end, so Allen did not feel like Merus deserved to blame himself so much.

"I hate how little we know about our enemy's objectives though."

Cecile mentioned the main issue with the entire problem they had.

(She's right. We still don't know exactly what they're trying to accomplish. Though we've found plenty of clues already.)

The Demon King Army was still shrouded in secrets.

"I wonder why Kyubel didn't fight in the end. I feel like if we had to fight him too, they might have been able to kill all of us."

Allen looked at Merus saying that.

'That's right. I wonder if they had no intention to actually kill us, or if we fit their designs better alive, or if his calculations underestimated us too much.'

All of those were valid possibilities in that situation.

Allen had only recently obtained his Kingship Skill, and Dogora had formed a pact with the Goddess of Fire Freya halfway through the fight.

If Allen had not started training his Skills like crazy since he was one year old, his future self would not have had enough Experience to unseal the Kingship Skill.

Dogora's pact with Freya had also been a big factor in winning the fight.

Basque's power, defenses, and his quick decisions to run away, were more powerful than Gushara's.

It was essentially a miracle that Dogora had been able to come back to life and defeat him.

"..."

Dogora still struggled to move properly, and now he was leaning back on his chair with his eyes closed.

Maybe he was no longer thinking of anything.

Or maybe he had fallen asleep at some point.

"In the end, both Helmios and Basque were kept alive."

So far Kyubel had refused to kill Helmios, and he was the one who turned Basque into a Demon General.

Kyubel had also shown up during the fight, when things were getting nasty.

(Is the Demon King's Army not one singular entity maybe? I wonder if Kyubel really has no qualms serving a Demon King that was born in this last century, while he's a Demon General who lived for thousands of years. Maybe they're in a position where they both benefit somehow.)

Kyubel's acts made it even harder to predict what the Demon King's Army would attempt next.

"Is it safe to assume that the black flames we saw were souls and lives of the millions of people that got turned into Pagain Worshippers?"

After thinking of a multitude of questions and mysteries, Allen chose to start with an explanation of the black flames.

'Yes, that is correct. And the portion Kyubel took with him is probably as powerful as many millions of lives too.'

"How many Demon Generals can be created with such a quantity of souls?"

The first possibility that jumped to mind, was the creation of Demon Generals like the ones Allen's party defeated one after another in the four different places.

Usually they were content with having only one Demon General in the world, and many of them had been defeated during the last few years.

It was almost obvious that the Demon King's Army was looking to increase your ranks.

'I don't know what they'll do with the souls, and I don't know how they make new Demon Generals. Though I know that a Demon Great General requires at least ten times more lives.'

Merus explained how life and faith were deeply related in some aspects.

Though he did not know if simply gathering an obscene amount of souls was enough to create new Demong Generals.

(I wonder if making Demon Generals is like a very inefficient engine then? Though once they're created they don't just vanish, so I guess it's not the same as burning fuel.)

Gushara had become nearly immortal with the power of the black flame.

Kyubel had probably left around 10% or 20% of the power gathered in the altar.

There were only two Demon Generals receiving that power there, but only one received a considerable buff to its stats.

Creating a Demon Great General also needed around ten times more lives than a regular Demon General.

The buff Gushara obtained from the black flame inflated his stats so much that all attacks from Allen's group caused next to no damage, making him essentially immortal.

"""?!"""

Unlike Allen who seemed to take everything at face value, his friends and Shea's group looked shocked.

"Wait, so the Demon King's Army is going to keep getting stronger then?"

Cecile could only try to imagine how many Demon Generals could be created now.

If everything Merus said was true, then it was easy to imagine an influx of dozens of Demon Generals was coming.

"By the way, you mentioned there were Demon Generals in the Demon King's Army when they stormed the Divine Realm, but do you remember how many of them there were?"

Merus had fought against the Demon King's Army in the Divine Realm before.

That attack was conducted by a group of Demon Generals, Demon Great Generals, and S Rank monsters.

Most of them were Demon Generals, so they wanted to know how many existed back then.

'Hm? Why do you ask? Though I believe there were a couple hundred of them.'

"""Hundreds of Demon Generals…"""

That meant there were still hundreds of such powerful foes still unaccounted for in the current battlefields.

"Hmm, maybe they aren't really thinking of making more Demon Generals then. If there's a way the Demon King can get more powerful with them, I think that's a more likely option."

'Powering up the Demon King himself with more lives, huh. That might be possible, in fact.'

It was hard to imagine, but considering how disconnected from reality the Demon King's Army seemed, Merus believed that was still a possibility.

"What do you mean?"

Cecile wanted to know why Allen discarded the idea of creating more Demon Generals.

"Well, I guess if you consider how long they've existed and their results since then, it wouldn't make much sense. They already have plenty of numbers so making more would be redundant."

It would make sense if the Demon King's Army was short in hands.

But if there were many hundreds of Demon Generals already, no matter how many more could be created with the gathered souls, it felt superfluous.

"I see, that makes sense."

Cecile could understand now.

There was also the fact that Allen's party had gotten so powerful that they could handle a Demon General without much issue.

Fighting dozens of them at the same time would be a tricky situation, but at this point they would be able to manage that somehow.

'There's one more thing you should know. Though I also don't know what specific means they plan on using for this either.'

"Hm?"

'There's the possibility that the Demon King's Army is trying to get into the Underworld.'

"Oh?"

(Well, the Underworld is a real place here after all. Though wait? I thought Elmea had banished the Underworld?)

This universe was divided into different realms, the Divine Realm, the Surface (Human Realm), and the Underworld.

The entrance to the Underworld had been banished by the God of Creation Elmea a long time ago, with the agreement of other Gods.

Apparently the Underworld was inhabited by immensely powerful Demons, Demon Generals, and monsters.

It was said that if the entrance to the Underworld was ever broken open again, an onrush of monsters would overtake the human world and ruin it.

Allen had learned that in the Academy's History of Creation classes.

That was one of the main reasons why so many people venerated Elmea.

It was only thanks to him that humans could live in relative peace.

'Maybe there's some way to use those souls to create a new path to the Underworld, opening the gates. Or maybe they plan on waking up the Evil God somehow.'

Merus mentioned some confusing possibilities.

"""Evil God?"""

"An Evil God? Was there one?"

Allen tried to remember if he had ever heard about that before.

'Yes, a very long time ago. But he was separated from his physical body by Elmea, and banished together with the gates to the Underworld.'

Merus began talking about the Evil God.

The Evil God possessed power that matched Elmea's.

In the annals of history, before Merus was born, the Evil God attempted to destroy the Divine Realm and the Gods, but Elmea with the help of the other Gods managed to defeat the Evil God, splitting his body into many pieces and scattering them.

Then he was banished to the Underworld so he would never come back.

"W-wait, he was as powerful as Elmea?"

Sophie was taken aback hearing Merus' story.

"So you think the Demon King's Army is trying to liberate that Evil God, trying to power up their army even more?"

'I don't even know if there's a way or means to accomplish that, but the Divine Realm is in accord that it would grant them unrivaled power.'

No one knew if the seal on the Underworld could be broken, or if the Evil God could be revived.

But no one could imagine trying to fight off the Evil God.

In the end, no one found a satisfying conclusion to their conversation that day.

But they all knew the Demon King's Army would strike again eventually.

Allen's party had to somehow take the lead and anticipate it.

Their meeting ended with a reminder to think of that.