The False Hero, Volume 12, Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

----- Lutz -----

“That should do it.” I stand from my kneeling position and look down at my handiwork. “The final teleportation circle is complete.”

“But Master, I thought you said they weren’t teleportation circles?” Alisha tilts her head, as if imagining the recent conversation where I explained what I intended to do here.

“They aren’t, since this magic is slightly different from the normal [Teleport] spell. But I already know that everyone is just going to call them teleportation circles anyway, so I’m just preemptively rolling with it.”

“Rolling sounds fun!”

While Alisha visibly gets lost in thought–presumably about rolling down a long hill–I take a sweeping glance over my teleportation circles.

There are precisely thirty of them, each the size of a basketball court. Larger actually, since the teleporters are all circles, giving them an even bigger footprint.

These huge teleporters need a lot of empty space, which is why I asked King Akuma to pick a suitable spot and get it ready while we were farming the dungeons. By getting it ready, I really just mean securing the perimeter and clearing any brush so it’s nice and open.

I’m the only one who can actually create the circles, after all.

We conquered The Valley of Giants, of course. That was pretty much a given, considering I had RAM guiding me through it. But since we have a lot of things to do, we split up after finishing our grinding session.

Only Alisha and Akuma are with me, with the rest of the kings and important people going back to their own countries. It takes half a day for the dungeons to reset, so we plan to gather back up and go for a second farming session tomorrow morning.

Until then, I’ve got some important things to do, like setting up these teleporters.

“Thought you said each teleporter could hold a thousand men.” Akuma looks over the circles. “Shouldn’t we only need twenty-five of them, not thirty?”

“I made a few extra, just in case you end up gathering more than 25,000 troops.”

“That depends on how long I have until the battle.”

I shrug. “I wish I could give you an exact time, but the best I can do is an educated guess. Five days, maybe. A week, tops.”

“You’ll be lucky to get 25,000.”

“I figured. But it’s still good to have a few extra.”

The teleportation circles are all unpowered, not even glowing with the usual soft light that’s common for the spell. Normally, the circles themselves will simply vanish once the power inside runs dry, as all magic does.

But there is an exception to that rule. The [Divine Summoning] teleportation circle used to summon Great Heroes will never fade, no matter how much time passes. That’s because it remains in an inactive state when not in use, drawing in ambient mana to keep only the bare minimum of processes powered to prevent it from simply fading away like any other circle.

I’ve applied that same attribute to my teleporters, allowing them to remain inert until we need them.

“And what of these magical spheres you say will allow us to activate the teleportation circles?” Akuma asks. “Where are they now?”

“They’re far from here, but they’ll be ready when we need them.”

“They aren’t ready now?”

“It takes time to power them up. That’s another reason I added a few more circles here, in case the battle happens sooner than I expect and the spheres aren’t filled up. In that case, we may need all thirty teleporters.”

“Lot of things I don’t understand.” King Akuma clenches his fists. “But I don’t care about that. As long as I get to fight one of those Archfiends, that’s all that I need.”

“That’s unavoidable, so look forward to it.”

“You.” Akuma motions to the most powerful soldier stationed here to guard the teleporters. “We’re dueling.”

Since there’s already quite a large army here, being the strongest amongst them actually carries some weight to it. The man is still many steps below us in every way, but he’s at the level where even an Archfiend couldn’t defeat him in a single hit. Though if he were to fight one alone, his chances of victory are essentially zero.

Still, it’s obvious that King Akuma chose him precisely because of his strength. In other words, he really wants to face another human opponent to really gauge how much he’s grown in just a single dungeon dive. Fighting a dungeon boss isn’t the same as pvp, after all.

And to be honest, I share his sentiment.

At this point, there’s nobody who can match me in strength anymore.

Well, other than the Immortal Beings and the Lord of Chaos. But they’re playing by an entirely different ruleset than the rest of us, so it couldn’t really be considered a fair duel.

Although I only gained a single level during the recent grinding session, it still put me at level 89. That makes me the highest level person in the entire world.

I’m only one level above Lumina and Elise, while being two levels above Alisha and Belle. Tylith and Laya need double my experience points, so they’ve grown a bit slower, putting them three levels behind me.

Normally, a few levels wouldn’t make much difference at this point. The only edge that would give me is a couple skill points, a handful of stats, and a slight increase in power gained from whatever equipment I’m wearing.

None of that will ensure a victory over a better, smarter fighter. With that in mind, I understand why most people assume that the girls and I are of relatively equal strength. We’re all summoned heroes, with relatively equal levels.

But they’re wrong.

Facing the girls two-on-one is still a nice challenge, but I really do miss a good, traditional duel.

Just me and one other, giving it all we have.

Amongst my main party, each girl has a dedicated specialty. That’s great when fighting as a team, but in solo combat, specializing too much can leave them vulnerable to tactics that do well against their specialization.

The most obvious example is Belle, who’s the world’s most powerful mage, just going by the amount of pure damage she can deal in a single spell. But when I close the distance with my spear, she has a hard time using her magic effectively.

Each of the girls have their own points of both strength and weakness, with Tylith being the most well-rounded amongst them as both a competent warrior and mage. Yet even against the newly-crowned Vampire Overlord, I can still exploit several weaknesses that make victory almost inevitable for me.

Then there’s Laya. None of the problems that come with specialization apply to her. Not only is she one of our strongest mages, but she’s also one of our strongest warriors. Although it’s true Laya is a Agility-based warrior and not a Strength-based one, that doesn’t leave much room to exploit when her speed makes it hard to pin her down and force a frontal confrontation.

She has a more powerful version of the hero’s Unique Skill, [Grand Blessing of the Goddess], along with the memories of the former elven hero, Myra. Those memories don’t grant her every ounce of Myra’s combat experience and knowledge, but she’s certainly gotten a lot better at fighting since she unlocked them.

That’s why when it comes to our practice duels, Laya is the only one who can really stand against me alone. But even then…

Haven’t lost a single duel to her or anyone else ever since I unlocked my own Unique Skill, [True Blessing of the Goddess].

It really is lonely at the top.

Though it’s still fun when Laya teams up with one of the other girls. Now that’s a challenge.

Speaking of duels, Akuma is already fighting that nameless soldier. In the king’s face, I see both the enjoyment of battle and the disappointment from completely outclassing his opponent.

It’s a feeling I understand well, and I’ve spent enough time around beastkin to know when it’s time to leave.

Better get outta here before he drags me into a duel next.

“Have fun!” I wave to Akuma.

“Fight, fight, fight!” Alisha cheers them on.

The king recognizes my intent to leave, the frown on his face an obvious tell that he did indeed plan to challenge me next.

Unfortunately for him, I’m a little too busy to enjoy a duel.

The world vanishes, replaced by comforting darkness. It’s not pitch-black, though. There are streaks of light all around me, like a spaceship when it enters warp speed.

Soon, those vanish as well, the light of the world returning.

In front of me is a stone platform a few paces long and just as wide. Sitting in it are crystalline spheres, held in by a short wall that rises from the edges of the platform. It gives the impression of those ball pits I used to play in as a kid.

But the spheres aren’t cheap, plastic toys. In fact, they’re some of the most advanced artifacts in this entire world, not counting leftovers from before the Devastation, like dungeon orbs.

I pick up one of the spheres. “This one’s halfway charged in a little over a week.”

“Is that good?” Alisha looks at the rest of the spheres still sitting on the stone platform.

“If Chaos moves faster than expected, then they might not be ready. But as long as we have at least five days, I think we’ll be fine.” I replace the sphere so it can continue soaking up energy from the mana spring.

I chose one of the wells of mana that’s not connected to the network so that mad god won’t find them. Though there’s always a chance that he’ll figure it out somehow.

This place is so remote that the nearest human couldn’t make it here, even with a full day of walking. Even with that, I’m still nervous about leaving these orbs here. Without them, our entire plan could fall apart.

“Let’s go. The girls are waiting for us.”

“Okay!”

As is common these days, the world once again goes dark as we enter the strange teleportation dimension.