Demon King of the Royal Class
Chapter 546

Chapter 546

Near the rear area of the battlefield...

“Your Highness, the final checks are complete.”

“We’re finished here as well.”

Even in this hellscape filled with the cries of monsters, the screams of people, and the clamor and drums of battle, there was a spot of relative calm.

Grand Duke Saint-Ouen was observing the massive mechanical devices scattered in the middle of the rear area when he received Adelia’s report.

Adelia and Grand Duke Saint-Ouen weren’t the only ones there. The whole mage corps of the Duchy of Saint-Ouen was also busily inspecting the massive mechanical devices.

The Grand Duke looked at the devices, which to an outsider might appear as remnants of a large building, with concern.

“I’m uneasy because we’ve never done a test run...”

“I believe it will function properly,” said Adelia, and the grand duke nodded quietly.

Conducting research on the battlefield was extremely difficult. After joining the Allied Forces, the grand duke and the mage division had sacrificed sleep to pursue this long and arduous project, while working alongside Adelia, the genius who created the Power Cartridge artifact and possessed a rare talent for magical crafting. Although the Grand Duke’s daughter had also contributed to the development of the Power Cartridge, it would not have been possible without Adelia.

The Demon King, Reinhart, had gathered the youngsters of the Temple’s Royal Class to create impossible items, and in less than a year, those items had been created. Both Moonshine and the Power Cartridge were now indispensable resources for the Allied Forces. The Arc Crystal that Rudina was using was also one of the many improved versions of the Power Cartridge.

Grand Duke Saint-Ouen had once doubted Reinhart’s ideas. But, just as the Demon King had said, those two artifacts had been successfully created—almost as if he had foreseen the future. Reinhart had accurately assessed his classmates’ potential.

Having successfully created something small, something gigantic was now being built—something larger than the largest artificial structure in the world.

Believing that creating it was possible, the Grand Duke had devised a plan. The Emperor approved of that plan, and the girl who had designed the Power Cartridge had offered her full cooperation.

The Grand Duke’s proposal was to achieve another impossible feat by imparting the knowledge and the technology of the duchy to the child who had previously created an impossible item. And after numerous trials, experiments, and sleepless nights, this construct had finally been created.

“I hope this will continue to be helpful in future battles...”

“I hope so too, Your Highness.”

The Grand Duke held a blue orb, and Adelia held a red orb. It was too powerful a weapon for a single person to activate. The chief researcher, Grand Duke Saint-Ouen, and the lead researcher, Adelia, had to activate the artifact together for it to function.

“Activating...”

Before the Serandia campaign, it had been a prototype that had only been inspected but never test-run. Could it even be called an artifact?

Rumble...

The pieces of the massive mechanical device began to float into the air. It looked as if a giant mountain, rather than a building, was rising.

Zap! Zzzzap!

Sparks flew as the mechanical devices connected, one by one.

Crash! Thud...

With a heavy boom, the massive structure came together, its pieces interlocking, leaving not only the mages in the rear but also the soldiers guarding them staring up in awe.

A huge cloud of dust was kicked up by the interlocking of the enormous parts. They had all fused together into a single construct. A giant golem, the size of a literal mountain, was standing on the ground, supported by its massive legs. It was impossible to measure how tall this giant stood, even when looking up until one’s head was tilted all the way back.

“Activation confirmed,” Adelia said quietly as she looked at the colossal creation.

“The activation time is short, so there’s no time to waste. Deploy immediately.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Rumble!

The blue mana core embedded in the heart of the giant weapon began to surge with electricity.

Zzzzzap!

The body of the giant golem slowly began to vanish, beginning from the ends of its limbs.

The body of the giant golem, engulfed in electricity, wasn’t disappearing. It was moving.

***

Stationed in the same rear area, standing on top of the Arc Crystal, Rudina saw something as massive as a mountain appear in the middle of the sea of monsters in the city of Serandia.

Something enveloped in blue electricity, the secret that Rudina had heard would soon be activated, had appeared.

Rumble!

A golem three times larger than the largest monster on this battlefield had just appeared.

“Is that... Titan...?”

It was the final weapon of the Allied Forces, created through the technological prowess of the Duchy of Saint-Ouen and Adelia’s genius.

The giant god (巨神), Titan... Even though she was watching that enormous body performing short-range teleportation in real time, Rudina found it hard to believe.

The giant god could teleport across a large distance. But due to its excessive size, the teleportation did not occur instantaneously, making it seem as if the massive body was slowly revealing itself from within space.

Rumble!

Rudina watched in a daze as the giant fired the mana cannon in its hand, pulverizing the monsters in its path as if they were mere paper.

Thud!

The monsters not pulverized by the mana cannon were crushed underfoot, disappearing with a single step of the giant.

Thud...

The giant turned its gaze toward the city of Serandia. Titan began to move, taking massive steps toward Serandia.

Thud!

Titan knelt and raised its fist high into the sky, bringing it down on one of the warp gates that was spewing out monsters. The impact unleashed a destructive physical force that seemed capable of shattering the world.

Thud...

Rudina saw hope.

With a single strike from Titan, even a small warp gate shattered and disappeared. Rudina, as if discovering hope amidst despair, clenched her teeth and gazed at Titan’s majesty.

She now had hope that even something other than humans could destroy a warp gate, at least for the moment.

“It’s... done... It’s done! Kaier! Kaier!”

Though there was no place for laughter on such a horrific battlefield, Rudina whooped with joy, having discovered hope.

“Titan destroyed a warp gate!”

Kaier, in the depths of the Arc Crystal, had likely been unable to witness that scene.

“You can destroy a warp gate with Titan!” she shouted down to him, to let him feel even a part of this joy.

However, there was no reply.

“Hey! Aren’t you going to answer me?!”

They communicated through internal channels within the Arc Crystal, so there was no way he couldn’t hear her. Even after shouting a third time, there was no response.

And then, Rudina confirmed that the energy reserves of the Arc Crystal were not being charged at all.

Suddenly and swiftly, as if possessed, Rudina descended from the Arc Crystal’s observation deck and headed for the depths.

When she reached the core power section of the Arc Crystal, she found Kaier, collapsed to the floor.

“Ka... Kaier...?”

Rudina’s complexion turned pale.

***

Titan could only stay activated for about seven minutes. Operating a golem of that size required an enormous amount of mana, and Titan had been hastily activated, as it was needed in this large-scale battle and could not be delayed any further.

Therefore, Titan could only directly participate in a small fraction of this long and arduous battle.

However, the Allied Forces were left speechless by what Titan had accomplished in those seven minutes.

Adriana had barely subdued a dragon-like monster thanks to something akin to a divine miracle. Titan, however, incapacitated a similar flying creature by simply grabbing it and throwing it to the ground. The monsters it crushed under its massive body were a bonus.

TItan burst the bodies of other giant monsters by squeezing them in one hand, or tore them apart with both hands. Monsters susceptible to magic were reduced to ashes by the mana cannons mounted on Titan’s limbs, while those immune to magic were crushed by Titan’s immense physical power.

Even amidst the brutal and urgent battle, Titan’s majesty was a glorious sight to behold, and was visible from anywhere on the battlefield. The giant Titan stood firm against the wave of monsters as it crushed them underfoot.

Soldiers, commanders, knights, mages, and even holy knights... None could help but feel divinity radiating from the massive Titan.

It seemed as if the god of magic had answered the call of the mage-priests and descended to the world, crushing and trampling all the monsters in its wake.

At this rate, shouldn’t another god be added to the Five Great Gods? If this was the totality of magic, culminating in a single form, then magic deserved to be called the only god in existence.

As they watched the giant-crusher as it trampled and crushed the incomprehensible calamity, those on the battlefield could not help but sense some divinity that was unrelated to the giant golem’s true nature.

Whoosh!

Titan raised its fist high and brought it down to the ground.

Baaaaang!

The ground underneath exploded as if a meteor had fallen, dirt fountaining into the air and burying or crushing the monsters all around them, in plain sight all the allied soldiers.

However, this miracle of the gods was not eternal.

Zap! Zzzzap!

The miracle of magic that had descended upon the world for seven minutes soon disappeared, enveloped in blue electricity, just as it had appeared.

Seven minutes was a short time, but how effective that time could be utilized depended on who was using it.

—Charge! Chaaaarge!

The seven minutes that Titan had been active was enough to allow it to create a massive hole in the wave of monsters.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The Allied Forces, intoxicated by the miracle, began to charge into Serandia once more.

Monsters had no fear, no morale, and no will. But just as that did not prove to be a weakness, it also failed to be a possible strength.

The only strengths of the monsters were their numbers and their size, and their numbers had just been drastically reduced.

Therefore, the outcome was predetermined. The Allied Forces occupied Serandia.

***

“The battle of Serandia is over, Your Highness.”

“It didn’t last a full day... That’s fortunate.”

I was listening to Eleris’s report from the spire of Rajak.

I could have watched the battle, but not only were monsters everywhere, but the Allied Forces would be there as well. Any careless attempts at observation might provoke the Allied Forces or the monsters, leading to unnecessary battles.

Having decided not to intervene after the single preemptive strike, I stayed in Rajak and only sent Eleris to observe. In truth, I did not want to watch countless people die without being able to do anything. My body might act on impulse, and if that happened, things would spiral out of control.

The battle of Serandia was over. With this, the Allied Forces had achieved one of their major objectives.

“Also, Titan was activated during this battle.”

“How was it?”

Eleris paused for a moment then said, “It was an indescribable sight. It was like a great mountain moving.”

The giant god, Titan... I was aware that the Allied Forces had undertaken a war machine project as I occasionally visited the Royal Class garrison and Sarkegar was there. Titan was one of those projects.

Although there were no specific countermeasures against spying, magic was still inherently a secretive discipline. Therefore, extracting information was not easy.

I had a tremendous desire to see a collaboration between Adelia and the Grand Duke with my own eyes.

There was no mention of such a giant weapon in the original work. This was another deviation, created due to my presence.

The capital of the Duchy of Saint-Ouen, Arnaka, as well as the White Palace within it, Arnaria, used golems as the bulk of their security force, and so the duchy was at the forefront of such technology.

Harriet had disappeared, and the Grand Duke, along with Adelia, a friend of his daughter, had created a giant war golem named Titan.

I couldn’t even begin to estimate how many resources the empire poured into creating it.

“Although it could only stay active for a short period of time, if that were improved, it seems it will continue to play a significant role in future battles.”

“Indeed.”

It was truly a weapon suited for war. It was obvious that a giant weapon could kill more monsters than a single hero could.

Our preemptive strike had destroyed some warp gates in advance, and thus, the Allied Forces had to contend with relatively fewer gates and monsters.

The appearance of Titan also made it easier to secure the victory in this battle. Compared to my original work, the Allied Forces were stronger, and our forces, which did not even exist in the original timeline, ahad joined in. Therefore, dealing with the Gate Incident would inevitably be easier than in the original work.

Future battles would become increasingly difficult, but the situation would be better than in the original timeline. However, the fact that there were still innumerable enemies remained unchanged. Just because countless people survived this time didn’t mean that countless people wouldn’t die later.

Despite this victory, my thoughts were still grim.

‘What if someone I know died? What if someone I know suffered something irreversible?’

The Allied Forces had won. Yet, I feared learning about the aftermath of that victory—especially the news concerning the Royal Class.