A grim atmosphere settles over the military headquarters.
The situation is bleak.
Our other headquarters that we had set up near the battlefield was attacked and destroyed by white-robed agents.
As for the battle itself, while we managed to defeat the queen taratect, thanks to great efforts from Chief Nguyen and Chief Gohka, the swarm of Nightmare’s Vestiges that appeared partway through dealt major losses to both the human alliance and the demon army, ultimately driving them to retreat.
Of course, I never had high expectations for the human nor demon armies.
Given the strength of Lady Ariel’s main forces, it would be foolish to even count them among our assets.
But she couldn’t just ignore them if they all attacked at once, either.
She would have to send some of her forces to deal with them, and if Chief Iena’s assault went well in the meantime, the next steps would be a little bit easier…or so I hoped.
Yet I have already lost contact with Lady Iena.
I had one of my Panoptic Vision users try to investigate the Upper Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth, only to find it frozen as far as the eye could see.
I did not truly expect to submerge the entire labyrinth, but I still hoped that Chief Iena’s power would be enough to eliminate one or two of the enemy’s strongest players.
At the very least, I believed she would be able to buy us a fair amount of time.
But if the Upper Stratum has been frozen over so quickly, that must mean Lady Iena was defeated after almost no time at all.
My original plan was to wait for Chief Nguyen and Chief Gohka to recover while Lady Iena kept some of the enemy’s main forces occupied, or to perhaps even defeat them, allowing us to go on the offensive.
Since Lady Iena was defeated instead, I was forced to speed those plans along and send in Chief Nguyen and Chief Gohka right away, only for both of them to fall as well.
At this point, we no longer stand a chance of conquering the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
Chief Hyuvan, Chief Nia, and Chief Reise simply left too large a void behind.
All we can do now is pray for Lord Black Dragon’s victory.
And now, in the midst of this situation, I received a report from one of the reincarnations—Kenichi Ogiwara—that somehow made everything even worse.
“Are you certain this is true?”
“Would I lie about something like this? That would be an awful thing to joke about.”
I did not actually think young Ogiwara was lying, of course.
Perhaps it was just that I so desperately wanted it to be false that I could not help asking.
I know that Ogiwara is not the sort to lie at a time like this.
He has an advanced form of telepathy called “Unlimited Telephone,” and used this skill to leak information to me from the elf village for many years.
Though we only met in person once, to register me as a contact for his Unlimited Telephone skill, I know him quite well through our regular conversations.
“At this rate, the evil god is going to wipe out half of humanity no matter which side wins.”
Despite myself, I put a hand to my forehead and groan.
I cannot believe that we would receive such terrible news when we’ve just reached the point that our side can only pray for the ebony god’s victory.
If this information had come just a little sooner, perhaps we would not have lost chiefs Iena, Nguyen, and Gohka in vain.
“Ah, hang on a second, please… There! It’s all set up! I’m switching this to a group call!”
After those words, my mind is filled with noise.
It’s as if I can hear several people breathing all at once.
“What’s this?”
“Hrm? Is that you, Dustin?”
The voice I hear next belongs to Lady Ariel.
“It’s a group call. An ability of mine that allows multiple people to have a telepathic conversation at the same time.”
“You can do such a thing?”
“It’s not like I was hiding it on purpose. It just never really came up.”
Evidently, this “group call” uses Ogiwara as a conduit to allow several people to communicate via telepathy.
I never imagined that I would speak to Lady Ariel again, let alone like this.
But my senses tell me there are others besides Lady Ariel connected to this call.
“Okay, sooo…I guess let’s start by having everyone introduce themselves one at a time, when I say your name. Shun, you go first.”
“Oh, sure. Um, I’m Schlain, a reincarnation and the current Hero. Please call me Shun. Thank you for having me.”
“Wow, so formal.”
“Shut up, Ogi.”
The first to be introduced is Sir Schlain.
So it was his group that supplied the information about the evil god, then.
He did decide to pursue the unlikely hope of making both the ebony and ivory gods’ wishes come true, after all.
Perhaps it took a soul like his to find out the truth.
Someone who refused to give up or compromise until the very end.
“Next, Mr. Hyrince.”
“Right. My name is Hyrince Quarto. But at this point, maybe I should introduce myself as a double of Güliedistodiez, the ebony god. I’ll be participating in this meeting from that position, anyway. Thanks.”
Sir Hyrince is the next to speak.
He was a member of the previous hero Sir Julius’s party, and of the current hero Schlain’s as well.
But just as he says, we ought to treat him as a double of the ebony god now.
Most of the ebony god’s doubles live their entire lives as ordinary humans, never revealing their second identity until the very end unless extreme circumstances require it.
His primary aim is to experience life from a purely human point of view.
That he is making an exception to participate in this meeting is additional proof that what’s happening is of the utmost importance.
“Okay, next! Our teacher, Ms. Oka…I mean, Miss Filimøs!”
“Ogiwara, did you really forget my name just now?”
“I mean, you’ve always been Ms. Oka to us, sooo…”
“Ogi, Ms. Oka, now isn’t the time for that sort of thing.”
This familiar exchange goes to show how close the reincarnations were in their previous lives.
Our world did them a grave disservice by tearing them apart and plunging them into chaos.
And the fact that we must now depend on their help only further emphasizes how inadequate we residents of this world truly are.
We should all be ashamed.
“Hello, my name is Filimøs. I am a reincarnation and former teacher to the others, which is why many of them call me by my prior name, Ms. Oka. I am pleased to meet you all.”
Miss Filimøs is the elf reincarnation, I believe.
After the massacre at the elf village, she is likely the only survivor of their race.
That may lead to many complications if she survives after this battle, but I suppose now is not the time to concern myself with such things.