Chapter 26: Conflict only begets tragedy, oink.

"W-wait, Clarice!? Please stop! I may be okay with guy-on-guy stuff, but I'm not into doing that between girls! I only watch yuri ships from the sidelines!"

"But Natsumi-chan, you're a boy right now, aren't you? And I'm a girl? There's nothing strange about this...♡"

"Heterosexuality is completely outside my wheelhouse, you know!!"

The slender, cross-dressing elf squirmed beneath me. Though he put on a show of resistance, the cute, rounded bulge wrapped in feminine underwear—peeking from under his hitched-up short skirt—twitched and trembled insistently.

Poor thing. It must be so uncomfortable, squeezed into such a tiny piece of fabric.

I wanted to quickly meet the adorable, bashful boy that was Natsumi, but first, I should take off this bothersome full-body suit. I reached for the zipper on my back.

Ah, seriously, this outfit was so hard to get out of! It was nice that it showed off your figure, but it was pitch black and not cute at all! If anything, I’d rather have a pink one with a much naughtier design!

"Master! Get a hold of yourself!"

Just as I struggled with the zipper, Erika's voice rang out, and an electric shock-like jolt ran through my head.

"Huh...? Wh-why was I about to do this to some perverted cross-dressing shota elf..."

"You can't call someone else a pervert when you're the one trying to assault them!!"

I hurriedly scrambled away from the disheveled boy.

"Your brainwaves showed an abnormal reaction, so I performed shock therapy via nanomachine control, albeit somewhat forcibly. Have you regained your senses, Master?"

"Y-yeah, thanks. I think I was in serious trouble..."

"I'll need a detailed explanation later as to why Master attacked that long-ear instead of me. For now, I'll eliminate this mist, which appears to have aphrodisiac properties."

Saying this, Erika blasted a jet stream from her feet, scattering the surrounding mist.

"T-thanks, nya. Good thing Erika-nyan was here, nya. Thank you, nya."

"I almost had my precious 'first time' with Mekemeke-chan stolen from me, you know..."

Ririka and Natsumi also wobbled to their feet, unsteady but confronting the succubi.

"Aww man, you broke free from the fragrance's illusion just when things were getting good, huh?"

"Shit, this feels awful... Even if you're a sexy lady, there are things you should and shouldn't do."

"Anyway, give back the villagers, nya!"

"I don't dislike the scenario, but I can't forgive you for involving me! Prepare yourself!"

The succubi entangled with the village men also stood up, approaching us with smiles that were different from their earlier seductive ones.

"Fufun, you think you can fight us with just that many people?"

"We are not weak demons who'd lose to just any adventurers, you know♡"

"It's a shame you're girls, but I guess sucking the levels from adventurers does fill our bellies better than villagers' energy, doesn't it...♡"

We and the succubus army cautiously closed the distance between us.

"This is bad, nya. Succubi are on the weaker side among demons in direct combat, nya, but their recommended level is over 100, nya. This many is tough, nya."

"And level drain has no countermeasures; if we get hit, our combat power drops too. Do you have any secret weapons, Miss Erika?"

"If I judge the situation dangerous, I will only protect Master and escape. Please handle yourselves."

"Damn, as frustrating as it is, should we retreat for now...?"

The odds seemed bad, but we had no choice. Just as things were about to explode, a voice calling for a halt rang out.

"Stop, oink! We only need to get the village men back, oink!"

"That's right, gob! Settling everything with fighting is barbaric, gob! First, we should talk and seek a compromise for both sides, gob!"

Both we and the succubi stared blankly at the orc and goblin who had intervened.

"W-well, but they started it first... Um, well, sorry."

"But nya, if we don't defeat the succubi, won't they not return the village men, nya...?"

"Th-that's right! No matter how useless and good-for-nothing the village men are, they'll be killed if they stay here!"

"Ah, well, we planned to release these men once we were satisfied from draining their energy, you know? Once nothing comes out anymore, keeping them here would just be a nuisance."

"Even we aren't into doing it with dried-up corpses, you know♡"

"Squeezing them until they die is nonsense, gob. If you keep them alive, they'll refill in about three days anyway, gob♡"

Seriously?

It seemed the succubi didn't intend to drain the village men dry.

"Humans and monsters have fought meaninglessly until now, oink. Conflict only begets tragedy, oink. Repeating the same mistakes forever is foolish, oink."

"Among those who speak the same language, we should absolutely be able to understand each other, gob. Now is the time to talk and deepen understanding for our mutual coexistence, gob."

"You're right, nya. I'm sorry, nya..."

Even when people speak the same language, it doesn’t mean they can understand each other. You can find plenty of people like that in the world—but bringing that up right now would just be pedantic. Fortunately, the succubi seemed to be the type you could reason with.

For some reason, the four of us—including Erika—and the succubi were all made to sit formally on our knees while listening to a lecture from the orc and the goblin. The succubi were no longer naked; instead, their bodies were covered in body-paint-like patterns that concealed the parts that shouldn't be visible in a wholesome game.

Meanwhile, the village men—who still seemed dazed and half-conscious—were left lying completely naked in the center of the underground great hall.

"That aside, why are succubi who should be deep in the underground labyrinth hanging around somewhere this shallow, nya? And what even is this place, nya?"

"Don't ask us—if anything, the way things were before was the weird part. Why would we, whose staple food is human life energy, live somewhere people almost never come? We realized we were starving and came up here looking for food. Then we found a village full of men with plenty of energy, and this place was right nearby, so we brought them here. We don't know what this place is either."

"That's strange, though. This is past a hidden door in a cave that was a goblin dwelling, you know?"

"That barely counts as hidden. You humans seriously underestimate life in labyrinths. Well, I don't mind being underestimated—being licked is very welcome too♡"

"Cut out the dirty jokes, nya. But that door is part of the kingdom’s underground waterway system, nya. Is there really nothing else here besides that weird stone statue? No hidden passage leading deeper, nya?"

"Nope. Just that weird statue and an altar. Oh, but there was some kind of switch on the altar."

As she said that, one of the succubi stood up and climbed onto the altar.

"This thing here. We were starving and not interested, so we ignored it, but if you press this, maybe a hidden passage will open or something."

"Ah! Wait, nya! Don't press something like that without thinking, nya!"

Click—♪♡

Just a moment before Ririka could stop her, the succubus pressed the protruding stone on the altar. Immediately, a deep rumble shook the underground chamber, and the stone statue began to collapse with a grinding roar.

"N-Nya… isn’t this bad, nya?"

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry. That girl has always been a bit careless, even among us."

From within the collapsing statue emerged a massive iron giant—an awkwardly shaped humanoid with four arms, easily three times a human’s height. Each of its arms held a vicious weapon bristling with spikes and blades. With a heavy thud, it stepped forward, and a single red eye glowed beneath the visor-like brow of its armored head.

It didn't seem to possess anything like human consciousness, but it was clearly eager to act. And this was obviously not something you could reason with.

"Uh-oh, an iron golem. And it’s an ancient dwarf-made mechanical type. That’s a seriously old model."

"Don't admire it—do something, nya! You're the one who pressed that obviously suspicious switch and activated it, nya!?"

"No way, no way—that’s impossible. We’re specialized strictly for fighting living beings. We’re demons, after all."

"This is not the time for puns, nya!!"

Even as they argued, the iron golem began striding toward the naked men collapsed in the center of the hall.

"Erika! Natsumi!"

At my shout, Erika and Natsumi reacted instantly. Erika fired a searing laser beam, while Natsumi unleashed a blast of magical wind, both aimed at halting the golem’s advance. Erika’s laser cleanly sliced off one of its arms, making the giant stagger, but Natsumi’s spell dispersed harmlessly the moment it touched the golem’s surface.

"Magic barely works on this thing! It’s a very high-level golem!"

"It’s dangerous to stay here, gob! For now, we need to take the villagers and escape, gob!"

"The succubi will help too, oink! We’ll carry the men outside the cave, oink!"

Under Zaza’s effort to hoist one man onto his back and Gomuro’s shouted directions as he carried four men in his arms, the succubi each grabbed two men and began retreating from the hall.

"Erika and I will hold it back somehow! Ririka, Natsumi—take the men and run!"

"Nyaah… th-these people are naked, nya… Ririka can’t get married anymore, nya…"

"Even for me, this is a bit much… ah, geez! There’s weird fluid on them, you know!?"

Complaining nonstop, the two of them each dragged one of the remaining naked men and staggered out of the hall.

I drew the handgun from my hip and fired at the golem, but as expected, the bullets sparked uselessly as they bounced off its surface.

"It is composed of iron, but relative to the local level of civilization it contains very few impurities, and its curved surface disperses impact. Power source unknown. Destroying the target with Gladius .45 caliber rounds will be difficult."

"Well, something that big probably can’t fit through the corridor anyway. Let’s get out of here too."

As Erika and I turned to retreat, the golem suddenly hurled one of its weapons—a massive axe—toward the ceiling near the entrance. The stone blocks shattered on impact, collapsing and completely sealing the passage.

"This is bad… I get that it doesn’t want to let us escape, but wrecking its own front door—what’s it planning to do afterward? Fix it itself?"

"Master. For safety purposes, I will deploy the Gungnir Mk.4 Ground Combat Armor."

"You can do that? We’re underground."

"There is no issue. The deployment container has also been upgraded."

As Erika spoke with confidence, an ominous rumble echoed overhead once more. A container shaped like an artillery shell, fitted with a spiral drilling lathe at its tip, smashed through the stone ceiling and dropped down.

A drill. Seriously?

Thanks to Erika’s excessive modifications, the fleet’s equipment felt increasingly unhinged—but right now, it was a lifesaver. As the hatch opened, I dove into the container and equipped the ground combat armor. A bulky, long-barreled rifle was placed firmly in my hands.

"I have prepared the Dainsleif Plasma Railgun. This weapon should be capable of penetrating the target’s armor."

"There’s no way I can use something like this at point-blank range!"

While protesting, I dodged the golem’s swinging spiked club—something straight out of a torture chamber—and its jagged, vicious-looking sword. Both weapons were already within striking distance as the armor finished deploying.

"However, destruction of the target using other weapons is difficult."

"There’s a traditional way the Space Forces deal with this kind of thing!"

I tossed the plasma railgun aside, leapt over the golem’s next sword swing, and latched directly onto its protruding upper torso.

"Hrrraaah!"

Digging my left hand into the iron plating, I drove my right fist forward with everything I had. Boosted by the armor’s power assist, my fist—encased in multilayered special-alloy composite plating—punched straight through the golem’s chest, tearing open a massive hole.

I yanked my arm free and grabbed one of the fragmentation grenades mounted at my waist. Still holding it, I thrust my arm back into the cavity in the golem’s chest.

"Please let this stop you!"

I flipped the switch and tore my arm out, leaping backward as fast as I could.

Two seconds later, the golem shuddered violently. Smoke poured from its joints and the gaping hole in its chest before it collapsed with a heavy thud and ceased all movement.

"Excellent work, Master. However, that tactic is officially discouraged by Space Forces doctrine due to the high number of soldiers injured after charging enemy vehicles directly."

"It’s easier than charging a tank or an armored hovercraft. Besides, it worked, didn’t it?"

It might have been an efficiency-focused tactic recommended by the game, but apparently it wasn’t very popular with the in-world characters.

As I responded to Erika, the fallen golem’s head detached and rolled away, spilling metal fragments across the floor.

"What’s this?"

I picked one up. It was a key.

Too large to fit comfortably in my palm, it was oversized and covered in intricate engravings.

As I examined it—wondering if it unlocked some important location in classic game fashion—a deep rumble shook the underground space once more. Fine sand began raining down from the ceiling.

"This is… bad, isn’t it?"

"Conclusion: this underground space is collapsing. Master! Evacuate immediately!"

But the exit corridor was already buried beneath rubble.

As chunks of stone followed the falling sand and the underground hall teetered on the brink of collapse, I rapidly scanned my surroundings.