The war began just like that.
With the Five-Headed Dragon's elemental roar as its opening, the moment the road leading to the underground city was blasted apart, vast numbers of mechanical armored units poured out through the breach.
Mechanical soldiers clashed with powerful demons. Amid interweaving artillery fire and demonic flames, the front lines stretched out, and the fighting spread to every corner.
"Lord Hades, we cannot break through their defenses for the moment!"
"Lord Hades, our vanguard has fallen into the monsters' encirclement!"
"Lord Hades, Mecha Force from New Domino City is counterattacking!"
"Lord Hades, a giant whale equipped with weapons has been spotted at the river on the left!"
"Lord Hades, some kind of curse has been discovered on the right. Our forces cannot advance!"
"Lord Hades, a large number of Blaze Cannons have appeared behind us!"
"Should I say I expected no less from you?"
Amid one shrill screech after another, the great demon opened his clouded eyes.
"Even without personally taking the front lines, your defenses remain airtight... It reminds me of the days when I was your enemy."
Overlooking the seemingly endless battlefield, like a giant meat grinder, and listening to the ceaseless cries of agony, Hades's lips curled upward.
Even if those cries came from the demons under his command, they could not spoil his enjoyment.
But before long, his refined mood was disturbed.
There was no sudden explosion, nor any shift in the situation. It was merely an utterly ordinary moment when the demon sorcerer noticed something.
When he turned around, something seemed to be writhing within the shadow that appeared impossible to dispel.
"Come out."
At Hades's commanding words, the writhing shadow spread outward.
Then, a glint of gold emerged.
"It's you."
Dark Invader!
"What are you wandering around here for? Don't you have your own task?"
Faced with Hades's unfriendly tone, the Invader merely slowly placed his hands behind his back.
"Of course I have a task. But I hope Lord Hades does not forget that I am also a messenger."
"Then what guidance does our esteemed messenger have for coming here?"
As though he had recalled something amusing, the goblin grinned, exposing rotten yellow teeth crawling with maggots.
"Could it be that your kindness has flared up again, and you're thinking of sending something to our enemies?"
"There's no need for the sarcasm, Hades."
Faced with the mockery dripping from every word, the Invader replied unhurriedly.
"I came here merely to convey His Majesty's will."
In an instant, time itself seemed to freeze at those words.
Beneath his broad cloak, a pair of shriveled hands clenched into fists. A barely perceptible trace of humiliation and rage appeared on Hades's already blue-gray face.
Yet in the end, he did not erupt.
Or rather, he was not qualified to be angry.
"Then what orders does the great King of the Dead have?"
"Nothing much. His Majesty merely hopes that you can speed things up... Don't delay important matters because of your little pointless indulgences."
Staring at the dark-gold face beneath the other's black hood, which seemed to be smiling, Hades finally lowered his head.
"...Then please report to the great King of the Dead that Hades will carry out his will."
"..."
"Did you hear me?!"
After a brief silence, Hades could not help but look up, only to see nothing at all.
The golden demon who should have been standing before him, even a head taller than him, seemed never to have appeared from beginning to end, as though everything had merely been his delusion.
"An illusion..."
The corners of his mouth rose instinctively, but the smile twisted into a grimace.
The moment he clenched his teeth, wriggling maggots even crawled from his mouth.
"Damn thing!"
"Lord Hades! Our defensive line has been torn apart!"
A piercing cry suddenly rang out as a blue familiar rapidly approached.
"Lord Hades! Those steel brutes are charging this way! Those tanks, those robots, those—"
Boom!
Before the panicked demon could continue screaming, a burst of golden lightning directly scorched it black.
"Hah... Lord Hades."
The familiar looked as if it still wanted to say something, but the demon had already stepped over its body, which gave off the stench of burnt flesh.
Plop.
A maggot fell and landed beside him.
"Forget it. I had wanted to keep enjoying this scenery."
The former Pluto sighed.
His scarlet eyes turned forward, reflecting a massive combined machine.
"Mecha Force: Armed Power"!
With its cannon sniper rifle and high-frequency vibrating blade working in tandem, this efficient killing machine effortlessly tore through the demons' primitive flesh-and-blood defenses, displaying technological military-industrial superiority through raw violence.
But unfortunately, this was not some science-fiction world.
"Raigeki Break."
"Rumble!"
As lightning flashed, the Mecha Force that had been slaughtering everything in its path collapsed like a heap of scrap metal.
But that was not the end. The instant Hades waved his hand, a furious roar like a wail came from the sky.
"Roar!"
The next moment, the elemental power unleashed by the evil dragon descended from the heavens like an orbital weapon, indiscriminately clearing everything on the battlefield, friend and foe alike.
Immediately afterward, strange purple smoke blanketed the entire field.
"Awaken once more."
Of course, he was not talking about those machines.
When Hades's command echoed out, the demons who had already fallen and been confirmed dead staggered to their feet once more, beginning another assault.
Even shattered bones and flesh, whose owners could no longer be identified, were forcibly fused together by some strange power, gradually gathering into monstrous forms resembling evil dragons.
At that moment, the slaughter and counterattack from before seemed like some kind of joke, as if everything earlier had been nothing more than a sandbox game.
Or rather... this was an aftershow for duelists.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's only been a few minutes."
Witnessing this, the frail old demon could not help sighing.
"Though I don't want to admit it, setting aside all the other messy nonsense, Hades really is an extremely powerful sorcerer."
"Then, Lord Pluto, are you going to make a move?"
"..."
Faced with his seemingly devoted subordinate's question, the demon could not help turning around and slapping him.
"Make a move? You stupid pig, don't you know what condition I'm in? I don't have a shred of power left! Right now, I can only help carry bombs!"
After a loud outburst, the old Pluto's face was nearly red with anger.
Once he had completely calmed down, he could not help sighing again.
"For now, we can only place our hopes on those young kids... In any case, Hades never took me seriously."
"Holy Knight, how much longer are you going to hide!"
Across the battlefield, which seemed to have fallen silent, only the demon's hoarse roar echoed.
"If you still refuse to come out..."
As the demon raised his hand, the Five-Headed Dragon in the sky began gathering elemental power once more.
"Brother Noah!"
Inside the control room, the children watching this revealed alarmed expressions.
They could not help looking toward the center, where the boy in white merely rested his chin in his hands.
"Though it is indeed somewhat different from what we expected... we did manage to buy some time."
He gazed at the frontal battlefield displayed on the screen.
"In fact, it went even better than expected."
"Hm?"
Hades's breath suddenly caught.
Sensing something, he looked toward the sky and saw that a shuttle had already arrived directly overhead.
"Hey, hey, hey, who would've thought that Five-Headed Dragon was practically blind? It just didn't see us at all."
"Enough, kid. Quit yapping. That guy's down there."
"Then isn't this plane going down?"
"Take a look around. Is there anywhere we can land? I've already burned through every Mecha Force card I brought. Jump!"
Boom!
Amid that incomprehensible chatter, a scarlet figure descended from the sky.
Amid the roar of its motor, the massive Machine Motor plummeted wildly, tearing through a string of undead zombies before arriving before him.
Then he saw a black-clad youth step out from the scarlet haze.
"Yo, hello."
Though they were complete strangers, he still raised a hand in greeting.
Then...
"Want to play cards?"
After taking another careful look at the rules, it seemed that updates no longer counted toward the eighteenth after all. But it was fine—there had to be people staying up late to read at dawn, right? Let's count this as a third update... That should be fine, shouldn't it?
Also, because I'm going out to eat tomorrow, the update will be a little later.
Before you continue