"Well, sure. Since you're the thing we're talking about, I don't see why you two shouldn't be allowed to join in, at least this once. You already declared yourself a demon lord, anyways, so you should at least have some leg to stand on, if I endorse you. Just lemme call Guy, and the Great Master Ramiris will take care of everything!" Ramiris agreed almost instantly to Risa's request.
But I had one problem with that. "Risa, I'm going to need you and Benimaru somewhere else. I'm sorry, but you can't go to Walpurgis."
"Of course I'm going, Big Bro." She replied instantly, cocking her head in confusion.
"No, Risa. I'm going to need you for a special mission." I shot her down again.
"Bwa-ha-ha! Don't worry, Risa! I'll be with Rimuru the whole way! No harm will befall any of our friends while I, Veldora the Storm Dragon, is there!" Veldora said, clapping his hand on my shoulder.
"Oh, hell no! You're staying here and protecting Tempest, Veldora. It's the most important job, and I can only entrust it to you. Just like I can only entrust this mission to Risa, and I can only entrust command of the battle that's going to go down between us and Clayman's army to Benimaru." I explained, "Soei."
Soei appeared in the middle of the room using Spatial Movement. "I immediately investigated. It is as you expected. As we speak, the army is leaving Clayman's country of Dhistav. It is expected that they'll pass through Lady Milim's domain, then straight through Eurazania on their way to Jura."
"Great." I liked knowing things before anyone else. Wait. "Milim's domain? Did she tell you about that?" I directed my question at Risa, who shook her head.
"They call themselves the Dragon Faithful. Essentially, they worship Lady Milim in exchange for her divine protection. They lead simple lives, devoting everything they are to Lady Milim." Soei explained to me.
"...If they're Milim's people, then they're our friends. Even if they end up marching against us. Soei, I'm gonna record a little message, and I'll need you to give it to the leader of the Dragon Faithful, okay? I'm talking 'slip into his office, plant it, and leave without being sighted.' Okay?"
"Understood, Lord Rimuru." Soei immediately nodded.
"Now, it's time to get down to business. Soei, give your report on Clayman's forces." I demanded.
"Sir!"
Soei's Gift upon my evolution, along with his evolution to Oni, was the evolution of his Unique Skill. Now, it was called Shadow Master, and apparently it allowed him to puppet shadow-bodies kind-of like Replications, except he could pilot dozens at once. He, along with most of the stronger members of my cabinet, had also had his Shadow Motion evolve into Spatial Motion, which meant that he could now teleport anywhere that he or his clones had personally been. That basically included the entire West by now.
Soei's report was on Clayman's army. They were already camping right on the Dragon Faithful's front doorstep.
The army itself was composed of 30,000 majin. According to Soei, it was a pretty piecemeal, but fairly high-quality despite, with the vast majority being somewhere between A and B-rank. But still, other than its commander, the strongest majin there was only around Gelmud level.
As for the commander, it naturally wasn't Clayman. Instead, according to Mjurran, it was his closest henchman, Yamza of Ice, the strongest of the 'five fingers' that Clayman considered his most useful henchmen. He was covered head to toe in unique equipment, and Soei estimated his strength to be on par with the three Lycanthropeers.
Fitting of a demon lord's henchman, I supposed, but nothing Benimaru couldn't utterly annihilate. In fact, after his latest evolution, Benimaru was probably as strong, maybe even stronger, than Carillon himself by now.
"Alright. Benimaru, Clayman's forces are going to go through Eurazania and slaughter everyone they can get their hands on. Alvis, Suphia, Phobio. You're going to come with me and we're going to teleport all of the refugees left in the Beast Kingdom over to Tempest. Soei, can you streamline the process by giving me spots to teleport to?" I ordered.
"Absolutely." Soei replied. That way, I could simply teleport to wherever Soei had marked with a Replication or something, have a quick conversation with the beast people in the vicinity, using one of the Lycanthropeers as a proof of my trustworthiness, and then use the legion teleportation spell that Isis cooked up using Dominion to protect the teleportees to instantly teleport vast swaths of people over to Tempest.
That way, Clayman's army wouldn't find a soul. Except for whoever I chose to put there.
As for that… "Benimaru. I'm leaving the rest of this up to you. Beyond Carillon's army, I'm leaving the forces that we bring to the fight, and where and when the fight happens, entirely in your hands. You guys plan the entire battle strategy, okay? Consider it your own personal revenge for the Farmus incident. Beat him so badly that not a single person dies on either side, alright?" I threw it entirely into Benimaru's lap. Clayman's forces were… worthy of a demon lord seed. But Carillon's forces were just as incredible. Stronger, even, maybe.
And I knew for a fact that Benimaru by himself could probably take both armies on simultaneously and hold his own. Not to mention whatever army he had under his command. Soei, Gabil, Geld, and Gobta each led their own forces capable of doing the same, so I just left it to them. I knew that not a single death was a bit unreasonable, but I honestly kinda expected them to be able to do it, even though Risa's White Force was too busy to help out.
"Meanwhile, Risa and I are gonna be pretty busy preparing for Walpurgis."
"And what's this 'special mission' you wanted me to do during Walpurgis, Big Bro?" Risa asked.
"Oh, that. Yeah, you're gonna take Clayman's castle."
"Kay, kay." I could already see the wheels spinning in Risa's head. She was definitely going to teleport in on me during Walpurgis.
'Report. Chances of that are 99.99%.' Thanks, Isis.