Chapter 779 Vol. 13 - Ch. 784 - Preparation for Conquer Day #7 - «The Strength of the Masses» 3rd POV

It was the 7th day of the 10 day deadline. While Allen had been taking strides at one end, the demons, too, stood not idle in wait. 

It was the activity area of «The Wisdom of Masses», one of the core departments of the demon army, on the Forgotten Continent.

«Phew. Mhm, it's truly been a while since I am here.»

Kyubel, one of the chief executives of Demon King's army, murmured as he skipped over the narrow scaffolding and entered inside. 

*Thump-Thump*

The facility, now a place for gathering, had a wide, open space, like a vault. It reminisces of a Dock used to modify large-size ships, albeit with the inside being empty and clean now.

Kyubel was skipping over a suspension rope-like bridge, about ten meters in width, as it stretched up horizontally. And beneath him, of the several hundred meters of altitude from the floor of the facility to the ceiling, there was something slumbering, its rhythmic drumming, like some sort of heartbeat, filled the space with itself. Whatever it was, it had occupied at least one-third of the empty space. 

The thing, perhaps having no skeleton structure, had no definite shape. The only distinctive feature was its giant eye and mouth. Its entire surface was covered by innumerable eyes—seemingly in hundreds of thousands—and its tentacles something, just as countless as its eyes, were stretching outward, swaying. 

The bridge, when put against the vastness of the building, was like a thread around the basketball. Still, like a sea monster peeking from the sea, Kyubel felt its gaze as he covered the bridge. 

*Stare*

«Kyu-Kyubel-sama......»

The infinite-eye monster opened its huge mouth, and addressed Kyubel, its voice filled with anguish as if seeking salvation.

«Mhm-mm, it's great to see «The Wisdom of Masses» is still as great as ever. Also, I am not your 'food,' so don't come attacking me, alright? ...Oops, they're here. Hey, you all!! You didn't wait long, eh?»

«I am not... I am not «The Wisdom of Masses». My name is...»

The mysterious thing shook its body when it heard Kyubel calling it «The Wisdom of Masses», seemingly denying it, but Kyubel didn't seem interested in whatever It had to say and returned his gaze to his destination. 

Beyond his gaze, he saw his fellow executive and Supreme Commander Ordo, as well as the Director Magic Beast Construct Shinonom. They'd twenty or something demons around, too. 

After walking through the narrow bridge, a platform was arranged at the centre, stretching 100 metres in both length and breadth. The demons had already been at their seats—the seating arrangement was laid out in three rows, and in arc shape reminiscent of lecture halls—behind Ordo and Shinonom, fiddling with some devices. 

«You're late!! And not just by just hair breath, you know!! You're supposed to be here first, in wait. Where the hell have you been!?»

«Geez~. You know, even I have been busy preparing to give Allen-kun a warm welcome. There's no need to hang up on such matters~.»

Ordo immediately lambasted Kyubel for his late arrival, his hollering echoing through the whole building. Kyubel and Shinonom almost immediately covered their ears, as if in pre-planned motion. 

"You're being loud! Will you take the responsibility for disturbing «The Wisdom of Masses» with your grating noise, and causing it to make a blunder in calculations?!"

Shinonom hollered in return, and running contrary to what he said, even his voice had been over the top.

«I concur. The last thing anyone would like to see is an error in the intelligence reports.»

«Wait, why am I being blamed?!»

As the two had a banter, the demons behind them murmured something while fiddling with the display in their hands. These demons had no horns, and were donning pure white lab coats. 

"Coordinated 8245, 0541. Confirmed the mana signature of aquatic category summon in the water southwest. Notify Goromer Fort to destroy them immediately."

"Coordinate 1790, 0023. I have received the report of the destruction of a teleportation point  in the distance from Herzes Fort."

"Coordinate 8251, 1178. I have confirmed the infiltration of two new Bird category summons. Calculating their route... In the meantime, relay the command to the fort, and have them prepare for countermeasures..."

The hornless demons’ gazes were locked into the display before them, while their fingers furiously tapped against the touch panels, with what seemed to be electric wires like objects connected to them over the desk. Albeit, unlike the typical inorganic objects, the cables pulsed like arteries of a living being. 

Then, at the floor, the *cables* were bundled together as they stretched beyond the platform, joining with the countless eyes and tentacles monser—«The Wisdom of Masses».

«Rrrgghh... suffocating.»

It appeared «The Wisdom of Masses» was made to be the information processing centre. With each tap of demons's fingers on the touch panel, their mana sapped from them which flowed into the monster, causing magic circles to float in their eyes. Albeit, the monster's eyes were closed, perhaps due to the assailing drowsiness, so the magic circles vaguely appeared on its eyes instead.

«...I have to say this, though. Allen-kun truly doesn't know when to give up, eh. He can try sneaking any day he wants, but he will never get to «The Wisdom of Masses».»

"Kikiki! Exactly. «The Wisdom of Masses» has been fed with millions of talented prodigies. A mere human can only be as witty in its own region, but against several millions of intelligence «The Wisdom of Masses» had, he can never break through the Demon King's Castle in this lifetime."

Shinonom cackled, puffing his chest in pride. There was not a shred of doubt that they'd already won in his eyes. He wasn't wrong per se, with his developed «The Wisdom of Masses» dwarfing Allen in intelligence stats, it'd definitely be impossible for them to lose.

«You have a point, Director Shinonom. I see, so that's why you had asked to retrieve the geniuses when we brought the fort down.»

Ordo had previously heard of this situation, but since he didn't have any jurisdiction of this thing, he hadn't delved deeper. But, now that he heard of the capabilities of «The Wisdom of Masses», he couldn't help but be impressed by the safeguard. 

«Mhm, yeah. Hmm? Do you want that?»

«Rgh?!»

«H-help us, Kyubel-sama!!»

«K-Kyubel-sama, I promise I will not slack next time, please!!»

«Tch, shut yer trap! Since when does the food have any right to be this noisy!!»

Just then, Kyubel took notice of the ten demons, all tied up like caterpillars, squirming in the corner of the command centre. As soon as the demons noticed their superior, Kyubel's gaze finally landing on them, they immediately called out for help. 

"Right, these people had been slacking on their work, so it has been decided to turn them into «The Wisdom of Masses»'s food. «The Wisdom of Masses» must be tired, too, after a whole day of extensive work. Hey, I say it's about time to toss them down."

«You raised a good point.The Demon King's Castle is at stake right now. A simple mistake can lead to devastating consequences.»

Ordo had been one of the loyal retainers of Demon King. He already had his mind filled about their loss of Heavenly Demons, and he couldn't help but dispatch a sharp glare at the demons when he heard they're involved in misconduct. 

Their last invasion of the Divine Realm, to abduct First Angel Lupto, had come at the cost of the lives of three Heavenly Demons. Saving the one presented there, they'd lost everyone else.

—The Current Status of Six Heavenly Demon—

Ordo - Alive. He's the chief of Six Heavenly Demon, and the Supreme Commander of Demon King's Army.

Lukimon - Alive. He's the subordinate of Kyubel, working under him.

Doraizen - Dead. ※Yet to make appearance in WEB novel version.

Mara - Fell at Divine Realm.

Gandira - Fell at Divine Realm.

Virdiga - Fell at Divine Realm.

※Kyubel isn't one of the Six Heavenly Demons.

※Bask is more of hired for muscles, and held no position.

※Shinonom is just average demon.

«You reap what you sow. You shouldn't have slacked off!!»

«N-noo—stooooppp!!»

The tentacles crept up to the two of the bound demons—they're archdemons, each with a leading role—coiling themselves around their neck, and dragged them to the dark, hell like abyss beneath the platform.

«Uh-huh, and they're our comrades......»

The tentacles kept rising from beneath, binding themselves around the neck or torso of the tossed demons, and then twisted them like squeezing a cloth.

«Gaaah! I-I can't brea—aaaaargh!?»

«I-It's going to swallow us!»

"Please, save me! I do not want to become the «The Strength of Masses»!!"

Like a mouse being captured into the coil of a snake, the tentacles covered each demon's body, their bones snapping as tentacles constricted even tighter, and their internal organs, in a literal fashion, vomited out of their mouth. It was a hellish scene, filled with gore and blood. 

Once it had enough, «The Wisdom of Masses» dragged the bodies below, where its countless mouths awaited. 

When it seemed like they'd been swallowed, a new eye popped in its surface, and then another. The  pair of new eyes harbored the same expression of despair, and desperation as the demons that had been swallowed.

"Mhm, this is something atleast. It's truly a struggle to feed «The Strength of Masses» with some nutritious, talented feeds of humans ever since we had to leave the Central Continent. Faulting them while delaying information on purpose is the only thing we can do for now."

With a content expression, Shinonom monologued how the archdemon’s delay was planned by him to feed «The Strength of Masses». 

«Well, Allen-kun captured it, after all. But in these several tens of years, we did manage to retrieve bodies of over a million elites of other races. It's rather impressive «The Strength of Masses» has grown so far.»

"Yeah, we were completely focused on attacking the Central Continent then, and the growth was delayed because feeding only the human race was leaning toward an unbalanced diet."

Shinonom had been working on «The Strength of Masses» for far too long now. Albeit, in their conquest of the Central Continent, they’d been too focused on the human race to feed it, which became the source of its stagnated growth. Eventually, they did find the crux of their problem, and set their eyes on three continents to diversify their options. 

The demons would capture or retrieve the soldiers of other races whenever they brought down a fort, and continued to feed them to the monster to fasten its growth. This also led to the rumours of Demon King's army ravaging and slaughtering the entire fort, leaving no one alive. 

By feeding «The Strength of Masses» with talented elites of other races, its intelligence had reached the realm which would’ve been otherwise impossible to breakthrough with simply the human race as fodder. Now, it acted as the command centre of the demons, where the top executives would go through information, and create a strategy.

Though, while Kyubel praised Shinonom for the creation of «The Strength of Masses» lurking beneath, Ordo raised his eyebrows in skepticism.

«What? What did you say just now? You made them the target on purpose? You really are risking giving Allen-kun a cinch to crawl in!»

To ensure diversity of the feed, even demons weren't spared from being monster's sacrifices. But, Ordo couldn't help but shout back when he heard Shinonom had been intentionally luring Allen for their purpose, a confusion laced on his face.

"«The Strength of Masses» is in complete know-how of Allen's thought. However, while we have our defense, it wouldn’t do much good by showing ourselves as flawless and risk Allen-kun figure out its existence—"

«We run the risk of Allen figuring the situation out. It's why we deliver loose information to other forts, and by using his hand, we purposely pick up the targets to feed. In fact, «The Strength of Masses» had been the one to predict Allen-kun would crash on us right after the deadline of ten days. Hey, «The Strength of Masses», repeat the information once again—When will Allen-kun be coming?»

«Allen and his army has a 99.99% probability to launch an invasion immediately after the 10 days deadline.»

«The Strength of Masses» promptly made a calculation and replied to Kyubel.

«Mhm, and what's the timeframe...?»

«With the movements of humans, a joint multi-race invasion should be expected. The probability of joint race invasion at 12:00 PM sharp—to match their rhythm with rising sun and to make sure they've enough time to save Lupto—is 99.9987%. The next—»

«And how is it figuring out all of this? Are you saying it has gone through countless calculations to arrive at that answer?»

"It's indeed as you've guessed, Supreme Commander Ordo-sama. «The Strength of Masses» can go through ten billions of calculations at once. We have been inquiring every day to make sure of the situation, and not once did the answer change since Day 1. It's the culmination of my research results, after all."

Shinonom proudly asserted himself.

«......Ten billions of calculations?»

"Yes, ten billions of calculations at once. And the same answer has been re-verified again, and again, for at least thousands, no, tens of thousands of times to ultimately settle on it."

Shinonom appeared to be truly taking pride in his creation, and gladly mentioned the computing prowess.

«I am working hard, Supreme Commander Ordo-sama. Please spare some words of praise to me.»

While Ordo had been sinking in appreciation at the capability of «The Strength of Masses», the latter shifted its huge eyeball, and sought praises.

«...True enough. You're amazing, «The Strength of Masses» Rukimon. With your assistance, the Demon King's Castle shall not be toppled ever. I am counting on you.»

Ordo truthfully laid out his praise for the eyeball—no, one of the Six Heavenly Demon Rukimon. 

«Aah, I have been acknowledged! You can be rest assured. I, Rukimon, an executive of the Demon King's Army, and the Heavenly Demon, the being who has bested even the gods in intelligence, will devote my entire being to the rise of Demon King's Castle.»

Moisture seemed to have gathered around the huge eyeball of «The Strength of Masses». It appeared the monster had been moved by Ordo's praise.

T/N - If your preferred genre is dungeon x light-hearted story, try out LET ME SPEND MONEY, DAMMIT!