"Alright, guys. First things first, I'm going to open a Warp Gate outside of town and connect it to Blummund. Anyone who shouldn't be here during the actual war, all of our guests, will go through that gate. Mjollmile, I think you and your friends should get going now. Rigur, have a team of Riders escort them back to the Lodge to prepare." I ordered.
"Understood." And Mollie was gone.
"Next, we need to talk about the Holy Field. Soei." I had Soei transmit his report through one of Risa's video-transmission magic tools.
Essentially, Rimuru City was surrounded in all four cardinal directions by camps full of Temple Knights, handed from the Western Holy Church to Farmus for the purpose of maintaining the Field. In each of these camps was a large crystal-like magic tool in charge of maintaining the barrier. The only way for the barrier to be gone was to destroy the tool in each camp.
While Risa had attacked the western camp herself, she hadn't had any desire to destroy the Holy Field at the time, so I'd had Soei destroy it while he scouted. That left three camps left.
According to Soei, he didn't think that a half-assed assault would be able to take one of those camps without casualties, and I was inclined to agree with him.
Which meant that we needed powerhouses to fight at each camp.
Immediately, my cabinet began bickering about who would take which camp, but I'd already made up my mind.
"I'm not sending out full forces for this battle. Just small groups of elites. The real fight's gonna be later, against the Demon Lord Clayman." I told everyone.
"What do you mean, milord?" Geld asked.
"I mean, Geld, I want you and the Goblin Riders to stay in town and protect it. Help saturate the air with magicules, too, alright?"
"Yes, my lord!"
Gobta's right hand man, Gobchi, didn't seem too thrilled by this, but he didn't argue against it, either, so I took it as a win.
"Don't worry, Gobchi. You'll get to avenge Gobta later… and when you do, he'll be right by your side, just as pissed off." I consoled the hobgoblin.
"Yessir!"
"That doesn't mean that I'm just going to keep every one of you guys on the sidelines during this, though. Rigur, I want you and Hakuro to take the south camp."
"Just us two, Lord Rimuru?" Rigur wondered pensively.
"Your specialty's forest combat, right? I bet Hakuro would probably be strong enough to do it by himself, but I'm sending you in as his backup just in case something goes wrong and he needs to beat a hasty retreat, alright?"
"We won't let you down, Lord Rimuru." My imaginary spine tingled at the terrifying, bloodthirsty look on Hakuro's face just then, but I brushed it off.
"Benimaru. The east." I said simply.
"Understood." Ahh, the always reliable Benimaru. I almost felt sorry for those east camp bastards.
"And that leaves Gabil and his team in the north. I also want Soka's team to monitor all three battles, just in case. I don't want any more casualties."
I was fully aware that I was being a bit more than just overprotective. By himself, I'd say that Beminaru was a good matchup with the entire army of 20,000 headed our way. In fact, sending any two of those three teams against that gigantic army would likely result in a complete rout.
But I didn't want to lose anyone else. Through the telepathic link I'd set up with Soei, I could hear Gabil's "I will not fail you, sir!" clear as day.
"As for Soei, I have a special mission for you." I continued. I was on a roll, with all of these assignments.
"Sir?"
"I'm going to take the entire army out by myself. If I'm going to be a real demon lord, then I feel like I have to prove it with my actions, I can't just gather the souls and call it a day." Risa'd pulled her own weight with her own awakening. If I couldn't do the same, then I didn't deserve to be her big brother.
"My lord, that's dangerous!" Rigurd exclaimed.
"I'll be fine, Rigurd. I'm angry." My tone brooked no argument. "But I don't want to waste my time and effort picking the king and the Church's emissary out of the crowd, since I can't just slaughter them along with everyone else."
"You wish for me to kidnap them?" Soei picked up right away.
"After I slaughter everyone, I'm going to use the bodies to summon a demon to keep them in line throughout the process of transferring Farmus's government to the new one that Risa's currently setting up. Save me the effort of searching for the king. Only kidnap them when I give the signal, okay, Soei?" I asked.
"Understood." Good old Soei. Always reliable. He and Benimaru really were like brothers.
"Okay, does everyone know their job?" I asked. Nobody raised any questions. "Alright, then. Let's get to work bringing everyone back!"
"Yeah!"