In The Name Of Ingrad! (7)

Riana, who had learned for the first time that when too much blood flowed, it became mist, was so stunned by the scene unfolding before her eyes that she nearly lost her mind, unable to say anything.

She thought this might have to be called a one-sided slaughter steeped in madness rather than a “battle.”

The Behemoths and the True Dragon Tribe were strong, far too strong.

The Behemoths’ true forms were no exaggeration to call demons.

They were exactly as the figures she had learned from books, and seeing them run wild in their original forms rather than as humans truly felt like cheating, to the point that the Demonic Tribe looked pitiful.

Moreover, even the beastkin-transformed True Dragon Tribe could not be explained with the word amazing, and while not all of them were powerful, they displayed strength that did not look as if they could be killed by the Demonic Tribe, moving freely across the battlefield.

Furthermore, in the case of some members of the True Dragon Tribe, including Idsel and those who were in charge of the True Dragon Tribe’s military might, the sight of them easily tearing even Demon Realm nobles to death was a situation that overturned all the thoughts she had held until now.

But why did they have to fight?

She seriously thought about it, but in the end, the answer probably lay in the relationship between Goddess Artemisia and the Demon God. Since she was in no position to ask this, she was only observing the situation when it happened.

Some of the Behemoths shot up into the air as if they had been bounced away, then fell down and rolled miserably across the ground.

Had even the Demon God stepped forward? As she thought that, she confirmed that the Demon God was standing where Goddess Artemisia’s gaze rested without doing anything, and looked for the being that had sent the Behemoths flying into the air.

And a moment later, a woman whose large horns looked nothing but heavy emerged from among the Behemoths, and Riana could not help but feel chills when she saw her tear Behemoths to pieces with nothing more than a light wave of her hand in the process.

“You must watch carefully. She will become the greatest enemy of your ‘him.’”

Did that mean they could not stop her with their current forces?

Keeping her gaze fixed in doubt, Riana looked at the being who had appeared, and Goddess Artemisia said,

“She is the Demon King’s first seat, Bloody Rose. It seems she was not newly created, but summoned.”

At Goddess Artemisia’s words, which seemed as if she knew everything, Riana looked at the Demon King named Bloody Rose. The name certainly did not suit a Demon King, but if she truly was a Demon King, then she would definitely be like that!

She was radiating that sort of tremendous presence. Moreover, seeing her easily dispose of the Behemoths let Riana feel that this battle would not be easy.

‘What… can I do?’

It was a thought that suddenly came to her. To Riana, who was seriously wondering what she should do, Goddess Artemisia spoke. It felt as if she was reading every single one of her thoughts.

“The ring on your finger. With that one thing alone, you have shouldered much. There is no need… for you to step forward.”

Riana asked, feeling the calmness in her voice.

“What can I do with this ring?”

“It is giving power to all your allies here. The power of a ring from which magic power wells up—by that alone, it can be called an infinite source of power for beings who live by feeding on magic power.”

Riana felt as if she could understand, yet could not understand, but she turned her gaze away from Goddess Artemisia, who no longer opened her mouth, and looked at the Demon King once more.

The battle began to continue fiercely.

As if they intended to avenge the Behemoth that had been torn apart and killed, the swarm of Behemoths, which had begun to charge with all their might, and Aksik, who stood at their head, clashed with Bloody Rose and sent tremendous roars bursting in every direction.

The earth broke apart, and the countless corpses lying on the ground were ground down and scattered in all directions.

A terrifying slaughter ground unfolded, enough to be called hell, but Bloody Rose, who carried on the battle with composure from beginning to end, looked like a flower even in Riana’s eyes.

It was to the point that even Goddess Artemisia implicitly praised Bloody Rose, saying, “She dances splendidly.”

But why was the True Dragon Tribe not stepping forward?

No, it seemed they were not interfering in the battle between the Behemoths and Bloody Rose, and were instead focusing on reducing the number of the Demonic Tribe.

Was this also an action with its own reason? Whatever the reason was, Riana thought the battle between the Behemoths and Bloody Rose would determine the rise or fall of the fight, and as the battlefield gradually grew fiercer, even the clouds drifting in the sky seemed to be turning red.

Meanwhile, one man who was deeply thinking over how to create something, and the large crowd watching him, had taken place in a field and were exchanging opinions.

“…So you are saying we should mass-produce that object and build a kind of prefabricated fortress?”

“That’s right. Structurally speaking, I’m certain this will be extremely sturdy.”

The main topic of the conversation was the material for making a fortress, and those discussing it were the King of Ingrad and his retainers.

“We make blocks in this shape and fit them together like this. And the parts that fit together are made in this form.”

He was talking about something called “cube blocks.”

If Construction was used well, honestly speaking, it was possible to create structures that were thin yet absurdly sturdy.

He was trying to make blocks of suitable weight by using that.

If this worked well, he thought it could achieve an innovation close to a “revolution.” To put it bluntly, after erecting the frame with cube blocks, if the exterior was coated with materials that could easily be found around the place where the fortress was being built, he thought it could be reinforced to look even sturdier.

Besides, the advantage of cube blocks was that it was easy to shape them.

It would be possible to try all sorts of things, and as a result, they would also be easy to dismantle.

Moreover, although his retainers were very worried about durability, before being summoned to this world, I had seen through videos and the like that cube blocks could withstand tremendous weight and impact, so I made the decision.

‘If I make them using Construction, the weight should definitely be suitable too. If these are connected as one and stacked up, then fast construction should definitely be possible.’

It was something I came up with because I was not in an environment where I could go directly to the battlefield, and if this worked as I imagined, I thought it would become another specialty product of Ingrad.

Moreover, the fact that it was something only “I” could currently do felt fairly plausible.

“I’ll make one about the size of a fist first and show you, so watch carefully. Once you understand the principle, all of you will nod along.”

It could be called knowledge that did not exist in this world. When I began making cube blocks of various lengths and shapes like that, my retainers watched with interest, and soon, when they saw me fit the completed cube blocks together here and there to shape them into the form of a “house,” they looked at me in disbelief.

“How is it? This is the method for building a fortress.”

“…How in the world do you come up with thoughts like this?”

Richard asked me with his eyes shining, and since I could not say that I had imitated it, I merely smiled awkwardly.

But perhaps even that looked mysterious to Richard, because he trotted up in front of me and asked,

“I also think the method of creating various forms of prefabricated objects and shaping them… is amazing. To think you came up with this… As expected, you are my idol!”

It was my first time learning that I was Richard’s idol, but I said to him,

“There are various forms of blocks besides this kind of block shape. Depending on imagination, all kinds of prefabricated blocks can be born. Still, when viewed in terms of versatility, I don’t think anything compares to this.”

They only had to be fitted together.

Because of the scale, I thought they probably could not be assembled easily unless one was about the size of a whale beastkin, but the place where these would be sent was a place packed with whale beastkin anyway.

That meant there was absolutely no problem.

“What size do you intend to produce them in?”

At Wijel’s question, I thought for a moment, then first adjusted the amount of magic power and began making several blocks measuring two meters in width and height.

Then I asked Wijel for a favor.

“Could you raise your aura and try attacking it once?”

At the word aura, several of the retainers became curious and began to focus, and Wijel manifested aura on his fist, then approached the block and swung powerfully.

In this world, it was common sense that even a castle wall made of rock would break if it was struck by a fist wrapped in aura.

But Wijel frowned as he looked at the block that only had a fist mark left on it along with a “crack!” sound, and all the other retainers were surprised after confirming this sight and looked at me.

“Mm, first of all, Wijel didn’t use his full strength, but it did take an impact… If it’s hit by siege weapons, it’ll take damage. Then this time, try this one. I pushed a little more magic power into it, so could you attack them in order?”

But the problem was, had his competitive spirit been triggered? Wijel’s eyes shone as he clenched his fist and gradually began drawing up his strength, and each time one blow rang out with a “crack,” I could only scratch my head for no reason while looking at the blocks splitting with cracks.

Honestly, the magic power consumption was not large.

That was because if I made them all day, I was confident I could produce over a thousand blocks measuring two meters in width and height. But the problem was that the amount of magic power used could not increase because of the hardness.

It had to be adjusted to a certain level for them to be useful in war.

After seeing the fifth block get destroyed like that, I made a new block and said to Wijel,

“This is a block with exactly twice as much magic power put into it compared to the very first block I made. This is the final answer I have in mind, so could you evaluate it?”

“Understood. First, in my opinion, even the fourth block would be sufficient for its function as a fortress… but since you say this is the final answer, I shall evaluate it.”

Then Wijel stood in front of the block and clenched his fist with a serious expression, and all the retainers watched him with expressions of curiosity about what result would come out.

I was curious too. What would happen? Would it break in the same way as the others? Or would it somehow be able to withstand it? It was a moment when my curiosity was greatly stimulated, and soon Wijel’s fist was slowly pulled back, then swung at a speed invisible to the eye.

A tremendous roar of “craaaack!!” rang out.

It was quite a loud noise, enough to make my ears ring, but the result turned out even better than expected.

“Only the fist sank in slightly… This much should be able to block even a penetrating super-heavy ballista. It is tremendous.”

Wijel was sincerely impressed, and all the retainers looked at me and offered congratulations.

It was a pleasing result, and with this, I thought I could catch the two rabbits of “mobility” and “safety.”

“Let’s mass-produce them. Not the fourth one as Wijel said, but the last one. With this, I can make a thousand a day. Let’s work hard to make them and send them.”

After hearing my words, the retainers shook their heads.