Half a day later, I teleported the Demon Lord's Army to the southern part of our territory.
The destination was a grassland with a clear, open view.
Far ahead, an army could be seen.
It was the Magitactical Army, led by the Steel Knight.
Some of their soldiers were equipped with firearms.
These were the weapons that had spread throughout the Magitactical Nation.
John Du's inventions — I had seized the majority of them and thoroughly confiscated the blueprints as well.
However, firearms were being manufactured in various locations, and I had been unable to put a complete stop to their production.
Currently, firearms served as the mainstay weapons of the Magitactical Nation.
They were excellent weapons that boasted respectable range and power.
From a magician's perspective, they would surely be extremely difficult opponents.
That said, the Demon Lord's Army I had brought along this time was no less formidable.
Deployed in a fan formation nearby were the firearm troops.
The weapons they carried were firearms independently developed at our research institute.
Their performance was several grades above the ones the enemy had.
They also held the advantage in both the quality and quantity of their training.
That was only natural, given that Henry had personally forged them into shape.
In front of the firearm units, tanks were lined up at equal intervals.
They were prepared to fire their beams at a moment's notice.
As for our basic strategy, the tanks would advance first.
The firearm troops would follow behind, using the tanks as cover.
The idea was to use the tanks as shields to defend against arrows and magic from long range.
To that end, the tanks were built with exceptionally sturdy construction.
Under normal attacks, leaving a scratch on the armor would be about the limit.
Parked beside me, separate from those two unit types, was a single tank.
What set it apart was its appearance — it was covered in a hybrid of scales and carapace.
The tank mounted three cannons, two of which were magical cannons.
The third was a standard tank cannon that could use both solid rounds and beam fire.
"Kuha-ha-ha! My heart is racing! It's been ages since I've felt this kind of fresh excitement!"
From inside the modified tank, a muffled voice rang out.
The one who opened the hatch and poked her head out was Diera.
As for why she was riding the modified tank — it was because she herself had requested it.
Right before the army's departure, Diera had asked for permission to use the confiscated modified tank.
She had apparently grown fond of the weapon she had co-manufactured with Yura.
According to Diera, she had always wanted to ride it into battle someday.
I granted her request.
The modified tank had yet to experience actual combat.
Since its high-level performance had been confirmed through analysis, I too had been planning to deploy it on the battlefield eventually.
If Diera wanted to use it, I saw no reason to stop her.
I would simply keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't go berserk.
Any actions that went too far would need to be reined in from my end.
Having thought that far, I then asked Diera something that had been on my mind.
"Are you planning to fight in that tank all the way through this time?"
"That's right. I'm no mere ornament."
"You'd be stronger without using the tank. Couldn't you leave the test drive to one of the other subordinates?"
When I added that observation, Diera looked at me as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"That may be so, but there's such a thing as romance! The piloting of the Demon Dragon Rakshasa is something I cannot yield to anyone. You would do well to learn from me!"
"I'll take it under consideration."
Romance was a concept that had absolutely nothing to do with me.
It wasn't a priority, but I was interested enough that I thought I might study it someday.
Meanwhile, Diera pointed at me.
"You yourself are quite the embodiment of romance as well. I look forward to watching you fight."
"Romance, huh…"
Certainly, the body I currently inhabited was not that of an undead.
It was a pitch-black golem composed of special metals.
It was a frame developed at the research institute, readjusted based on Yura's custom model.
This golem had just recently been presented to me by the research institute.
It served as both a test run and a token of daily gratitude, so I had decided to put it to use right away.
My original body had been left behind in the Royal Capital.
My consciousness was currently anchored to this golem.
In the early stages of the battle, I planned to verify the frame's performance, and in the final stages, I intended to fight with my original body.
Given the quality of the opposition, there should be no shortcomings.
I ought to be able to draw out this golem's full power.
The two armies stared each other down in silence.
A taut tension hung in the air, filled with killing intent.
I fixed my gaze on the enemy army.
My eyes settled on the center of their formation.
Towering atop a massive horse was a knight clad in dun-colored armor.
In his hands was a weapon that looked like a combination of spear and axe.
It was a polearm known as a halberd.
The knight radiated an immense fighting spirit.
He exuded an overwhelming presence — enough that even his own allies might flinch.
That was the Steel Knight.
He was also the general of the Magitactical Army.
The Steel Knight had a somewhat unusual background.
As a recruit, he had sustained a fatal wound on the battlefield, and now more than half of his body had been replaced with golem parts.
By circulating blood infused with large amounts of magical power, he possessed physical abilities comparable to those of a monster, despite being human.
Furthermore, he had leveraged those characteristics to install countless weapons throughout his entire body.
Multiple eyewitness accounts had surfaced from various battlefields.
Many of them would be difficult to avoid if one did not know about them in advance.
Of course, he did not rely solely on his golem prosthetics.
The Steel Knight's halberd unleashed seamless chains of attack and defense.
His pure strength alone was equally jaw-dropping.
For all these reasons, the Steel Knight could be evaluated as a formidable warrior worthy of the hero's title.
However, there was one point that remained puzzling.
The Steel Knight had only recently begun to be called a hero.
Until then, he had been known within the nation as a strong fighter, but not one who possessed the power to hold his own against a thousand.
The Steel Knight had suddenly become powerful.
(Could it be that his fierce battles against the Demon Lord's Army spurred his rapid growth…?)
It wasn't an impossible explanation, but it lacked persuasiveness.
I suspected there had been some other catalyst.
I did not know what it was, but something about it gnawed at me.
It wasn't a thought grounded in evidence.
It was purely an intuitive judgment.
But such instincts should not be dismissed.
There was something about the Steel Knight that warranted them.
I intended to capture the Steel Knight as a prisoner.
For interrogation.
There was a possibility he possessed classified information.
He was someone trusted enough to command an entire army.
Even if he did not hold what I desired, he was surely concealing some form of intelligence.
In any case, interrogation was unlikely to be a waste of effort.
(Three heroes who appeared during the same period… What is going on?)
To resolve this question, I had to win this battle.