Mid-Game and the VIP Room

Core Number 666 cut her communication from Kehma.

They thought she'd continue toward the stairs as she'd been, but she didn't.

"Oh, it seems Number 666 started something."

"Oh, it's true. I wonder what?"

"It seems like she received an order from your younger sister's Master…?"

She carried the furniture from a nearby room — wooden shelves and a small dresser — over to the foot of the stairs and destroyed it with her sword. Bang, bang, bang… everything was demolished and turned to firewood right before their eyes.

"Really, what is she doing…?"

"Is there a meaning to this?"

Pushing what was now just a mountain of wood chips up against the wall next to the stairs, Core Number 666 thrust the doppelganger — the fire magic sword into it, causing flames to swell up.

"… …"

"… Wh-What is Number 666 doing?"

Having began burning, the mountain of wood sent out plumes of billowing smoke. Some curtains she got from a nearby room was tossed onto the fire as well.

Woosh! The fire became all the more fierce. It was too grand a fire to be lit within a residence.

"Fufu, it's burning well."

The fire scorched the wall and singed the ceiling. With this, Core Number 666's — no, Kehma's plan had become incredibly obvious.

"S-Surely he's not… surely he's not intending to burn the mansion down!? Is he insane!?"

"Ahahahaha! I'd expect nothing else of Kehma-kun! Who needs to think outside the box when you can just burn it down!"

"… One normally wouldn't think up such a method as this."

The Great Demon King was in shock, [Father] was in a laughing fit, and Haku was simply amazed.

Still though, the fire was incredibly effective. The mansion was burning, after all.

The mansion had been made sturdier by the dungeon's protection effect, and it could be repaired with DP, as well.

It wasn't to the point that it was impossible to destroy, though. Moreover, although it was hard to begin burning, it wasn't as if it couldn't burn. It would just look as though it was unscathed in the event its burned areas were repaired. Repairing through DP would create new construction materials, leaving the remains.

Take the wooden pillars, flooring, ceiling, and stairs for example. If one were to destroy them just once, they would be reduced to ordinary wood. Therefore, it would lose the dungeon's protection effect.

In other words, it could burn. And boy would it burn.

Core Number 666 destroyed the walls, cut down the pillars, and fed them to the fire.

The destroyed walls were restored, as well as the pillars.

However, they would once more be demolished and subsequently catch fire.

Let's assume she only broke the stairs that went up to the second floor to turn them into fuel. In the case that the Dungeon Core was on the top floor, the area below would become separated from the dungeon's first floor. As such, it would immediately lose the dungeon's protection effect and would quickly catch fire.

And thus there was no choice but to repair them.

But even then, Core Number 666 would simply continue to indifferently destroy them and feed the remains to the fire.

The mansion absolutely could not be allowed to burn. Therefore, nothing could be done but to mend it.

More destruction. More fire-feeding.

Noticing that the repairs always started with the stairs, Core Number 666 focused on them as her priority.

The stairs were repaired, destroyed, then fed to the fire. The stairs were repaired, destroyed, then fed to the fire. The stairs were repaired, destroyed, then fed to the fire.

With this, a system that could keep the bonfire going indefinitely was complete.

"Oh. This is nice. It's actually fun. If only Rokuko had come along."

By the way, in the case where the core were actually in the basement, that would lead to the second floor and everything after being burned without the dungeon's protection.

As long as he intended to defend the mansion, he absolutely could not allow the stairs to burn.

Would the fire cause Core Number 564 to abandon his mansion or cause his DP to run out first?

Core Number 666, who was originally a fire magic sword, found fire to be a comforting existence. She could likely keep on dancing, drenched in flames, for as long as she liked.

The mansion-type dungeon, Core Number 666, and the burn-everything-down strategy. Everything formed a balance.

"The more I think about it, the worse it gets…!"

"Hey, is that Master a demon? He's not really a human, right?"

Although it was Core Number 564 that should have been the demon, from all appearances, Kehma's methods were much more demonic.

Core Number 564's gargoyles came to drive off Core Number 666, or else to put out the fire, but—

"～♪"

She unceremoniously kicked them down. These gargoyles couldn't even be considered proper opponents to her. Core Number 564 was likely starting to panic about now.

"Alright, I talked with Kehma-kun a bit ago, so let's try having an interview with Number 564 next! Number 6!"

"If that is your wish, Father."

With that, he connected his monitor to Core Number 564.

"Uoooh!? That blasted Number 666, stop it, stop! Gaaah! Don't destroy those staaaaairs!!"

Although they'd expected it, what they saw through the monitor was Core Number 564's panic. From the other side of the monitor, [Father] laughed.

"… Cough."

"Ah! Great Demon King-sama! Th-This is… apologies for showing you such an unsightly manner!"

"It's fine. How are you progressing?"

"S-Sir! Th-This is nothing! My Magnificent Self will show them true power!"

Core Number 564 composed himself and said as such.

"Hmm."

Core Number 6 nodded solemnly.

"My Magnificent Self was intending to punish Number 666 for her impertinence, do you mind?"

"Do as you wish."

"Thank you, Sir! In that case, things will be growing busy, so — gaaah, stop burning it!"

With that, the communication was cut off.

"Are you sure? Do as you wish?"

"I've given up on him. I'd meant that there's no longer any relation between us, Father."

"Oh hoh. You're fine abandoning a 500 series? What a cold heart you have there, Demon King-sama."

"Drop it. It's not as though I'm actively trying to destroy him. I've merely withdrawn my protection, nothing more… Well, there's only so much he can do even if I let him do as he pleases. At best, he'll serve as a stepping stone for Number 666."

"Hmm?"

Haku placed her hand on her cheek in thought.

"To defeat a 500 series despite being a 600 series… is it that Number 564 is weak, or that Number 666 is strong? I wonder which."

"Both. Number 666 is a genius if I do say so myself. Moreover, she has rapidly grown since acquiring a Master. Well, she still couldn't beat me, though."

Just then, there was movement in Core Number 629's dungeon.

It appeared that a succubus had somehow survived and was earnestly reciting [Summon Gargoyle] in attempts to put together some level of fighting potential. However—

Naturally, it was shown by the map. Therefore, it was attacked by the gargoyles on Core Number 629's side.

The gargoyles and the succubus ran away even as they fought. Then, once they'd been driven into a corner—

"Oh, the hero."

"And that's check."

They were quickly annihilated. They'd likely not received any orders from Number 564. If not, they never would have lost their heading and ran into the hero.

But still, there was no helping it. Core Number 564's dungeon was currently being ravaged by a campfire of Core Number 666's doing. Moreover, a total of two hundred additional [Enemies] had infiltrated his underground floors.

"All he had to do was allocate work to his subordinates, too bad."

"Thinking about Number 66's final days, even placing trust in one's own monsters is a difficult thing."

"That's… well, there's no helping it, I suppose. I won't butt into that matter."

With that, Core Number 564's underground dungeon was being captured as well.

The first floor had quickly been broken through.

"But… are those squirrels?"

"Yet another example of his brutishness… He'd flooded everything with water and fish before. I suppose this is less objectionable, but still."

Even with the DP-summoned gargoyles that were left to stay there, the swarms of squirrels quickly and freely dashed through the statues' feet and ran their way through. Even if the gargoyles fired magic at them, small ball-type projectiles like fireball were dodged by the swarm simply opening up a hole right where the shot would land.

Clearly, the ones manipulating these were well accustomed to [Swarm] manipulation.

"These subordinates of Kehma-kun's are good."

"… What excellent subordinates. Enviable, even."

"Really. I think so too. I wonder if I could trade Misha… hmm. They're better than before."

Although some were cornered against the walls, they were the vast minority. The rest scattered through the dungeon to advance their search. Soon after, they'd discovered the stairs leading to the following floor. They'd managed to explore an entire floor without so much as a single hour passing — a frightening speed.

"His tactics are as great as ever. Number 6, how would you have gone about doing this?"

"Hmm? Let's see… an area-of-effect attack skill, I suppose. Their small size and numbers make it tricky, but it would be fine to blanket them with a type of magic that damages every enemy within its range. Something like poison mist would probably work."

"So the Great Demon King of all people would resort to poison?"

"Kukuku, I am the Great Demon King, am I not? What's so wrong about that?"

Like this, Kehma dominated together with Core Number 629 even upon heading into the mid-game.

… Incidentally, Core Number 564 said something about punishing Core Number 666, but what was he planning? If he wanted to do something, he would be better off doing it sooner rather than later to put on a better show for his spectators.