Is it Okay to be a Hero as well as the Demon Lord?

Chapter 22: Prelude (Part 5)

With Sayuri's battle over, I chose to save my congratulations for later. The Heroes were getting more powerful day by day but none of us were truly ready for what was to come. I headed to Warten's laboratory instead. As I entered Warten was surrounded by his assistants, they scattered away as they saw me.

"First," Warten greeted me with a slight bow.

"What have you got for me?" I asked getting immediately to the point.

"We've just finished analysing the notes from the Mil Kingdom and have confirmed several things. It is as you suspected, when you entered the sealed laboratory a small trace of mana was released. Its purpose was to enrage the Monster so it would repel any intruders, however as it was sealed the rage was subdued but it took a toll on the seal itself."

"Have you found a clear time when it might collapse?"

Warten looked at me painfully, "We have at least one month left but I suggest any actions should be taken in no more than three weeks else it may break on its own."

Three weeks... I internally cried. Just how much could we do in three weeks?

"The good news is," Warten smiled, "we have found a way to deal with its armour."

"Really?" I became excited. The Monster's armour was the major reason why it was so hard to deal with. It was able to destabilize mana that drew near it and had incredible resistant to physical attacks making the Monster near invincible.

"Yes, although the way to make the material no longer exists we have discovered its flaw. Although the armour can cause magic to collapse it does so by absorbing and discharging the energy. Meaning we could in theory cause it to break apart by hitting it with a huge amount of energy in a short period of time. And we just so happen to have the perfect weapon for that." Warten grinned and gestured to the cannon parked at the back of the room. It had been our combined idea after my mother's death and was supposed to be used for the next generation.

"Does it work?" I asked cautiously.

"It should... however we'll only get one shot. It takes far too long to reload as the battery efficiency is terrible. But the biggest flaw is that we won't be able to take it into the mountain. We'll need to shoot it from outside."

I grit my teeth. It would be best if we shot the Monster as soon as we dropped the inner seal but if the cannon entered it would malfunction due to the seals nature. The Monster laid dormant in a cavern at the Mountains depths. A large and long tunnel led to it from midway up the mountain. We couldn't change the terrain either in case of breaking the seal early. Which left the best option to luring the Monster to the large cavern at the entrance and firing at it from a distance. However that would require us to be able to restrain it there and survive long enough....

"Thank you Warten. Continue your investigation and make sure the cannon is ready in three weeks. I don't want to die because it jammed on the day."

"Yes my Lord."

After leaving the laboratory I crashed into the Heroes in the corridor. They were staring at the paintings on the wall.

"Oh Dave there you are," Gary smiled noticing me first. "We've all done it. Beat your Generals fair and square."

"I noticed. You all did marvellously," I replied encouragingly.

Alicia jumped at Sayuri, "What about Sayuri? Did you see her last fight, it was pretty incredible. You know she did it for you."

"Alicia it's not like that," Sayuri blushed hard. See, if I had misunderstood her before it would have been a terrible embarrassment.