The Strongest Wingless Gargoyle Volume 1 Chapter 3

My name is Beria and I'm a woman; you'd be a fool to take me lightly because of that however, as I am one of the 12 demon lords.

Despite my appearance, I'm an ancient vampire and have reigned as a demon lord for a long time, even when compared to other demon lords.

Monsters. Demons. We are existences that only grow stronger through war.

After going through severa, the strongest that emerge, gaining the recognition of those below them and their peers, are declared demon lords.  There are currently 12 such individuals.

The Four immortals, the strongest beings among the demon lords, possess overwhelming power and influence; and they loom over others like insurmountable mountains, casting great shadows.

Our strength is absolute, not overshadowed by any other.  Sadly, there will always be hot-blooded idiots who see us only as stepping stones and not as the giants we are.

Like that Larne.

I met Larne only once, at the demon lords conference in the past.

An arrogant werewolf who insolently looked down on others.

The kind of demon lord that didn't even try to hide his greed.

He governed his people with fear and gave no mercy to any who disobeyed him.

The population engulfed under such reign was pitiful of course, however, since the one who ruled the territory was a fellow demon lord, I restrained myself from meddling in the other's affairs as much as I could.

Even so, three years ago, Larne had suddenly declared war on me.

His aim? My seat as one of The Four Immortals.

For me, things like a t.i.tle are of little import, but I'm not going to just sit still while somebody invades my territory.

This resulted in a full scale war, even though not having a battle would have enthused me.

I regarded myself as a comparatively gentler person among the other demon lords.

As long as one does not harm my territory I'll observe them only as my neighbor.

Of course once one goes beyond my limit, I'll beat them up mercilessly……

This might be somewhat lazy of me, but I could barely even control all aspects of my territory.

Thus, I don't need Larne's territory.

Rather than territory, I wish for capable subordinates.

Each one of The Four Immortal has their own faction, except me.

Most of the demon lords belong to one of these faction. In fact, I have already made two amicable demon lords my allies.

Larne was a man qualified enough to be a demon lord; and if I could, I would've take him under my umbrella even with his rather questionable character.

Killing Larne and forcibly replacing him with a new demon lord is bound to be meaningless if the replacement demon lord isn't of sufficient strength.

We are talking about hot blooded demons here, if a demon lord can’t defend himself, he'll be killed.

That's why I want to avoid war as much as possible.

In such a situation, with intention of avoiding a war, I tried to offer a peaceful treaty, but Larne refused.

Holding a ray of hope, believing that maybe, by any chance, but……

As expected, war hadn't been avoided.

Honestly, looking at his character, having any expectation is pointless.

The treaty wasn't even considered, derided only as pitiful.

There is a vast differences between my war potential and Larne's, it was inevitable for him to get cornered.

The subjugation operation finally reaching its final stage.

Larne's castle as the last fortress was the only one left.

Even though I have driven him into a corner, Larne has still been a demon lord for a long time, and as his true strength is unknown, I had to personally face him with caution.

I had encamp before Larne's castle's gates.

The preparations for sieging the castle were advancing as planned.

And like that, when the so called preparations finally reached their final stage, an eccentric being came before my camp.

As my subordinates and I were taking a rest to restore our energy in front of Larne’s castle, before sieging tomorrow, a gargoyle had abruptly leaped towards us.

The gargoyle's eyes was dim, it seems that he was under the influence of slave magic.

He was too imposing to be considered a scout; I gave order to shoot him down.

Even if the enemy's purpose was unknown, there was also no reason to leave such a danger alone. Fire magic, [Fire ball] (Pr: I was tempted to leave this mispelled as file ball), was used to shoot at him by one of my subordinates.

An explosion occurred, shrouding the gargoyle in smoke. Enough so, that I couldn't see it anymore.

To waste his subordinates without a second thought…I detest such actions.

Anger toward demon lord Larne welled up inside me.

One might call me naive, but I don't like slave magic.

Soldiers who pushed forward vigorously without being controlled by their emotions were indeed very convenient in war, however, it is still a troublesome task for the side that’s fighting.

Battle only has meaning if both side are equal, risking one's life against such mechanical living beings was absurd.

To live and to die, it has to be decided by one's own will.

(TN: this paragraph is kind of confusing. But I think this was Beria's ideal, as an ancient being, she despises the idea of having an unequal battle even if she was the one who makes profit from it) (Pr: pretty much sums it up)

The smoke from the magical explosion gradually began to clear up.

Receiving the attack head on, most likely the gargoyle was broken into pieces……

I'm sure that everyone must be thinking the same.

I also thought so too, but……

Impossible…what is this!

That in which I saw before me was unbelievable.

As the smoke receded, what came to sight was the gargoyle flying flying unfazed, totally unharmed.

There was no sign that he invoked defensive magic before receiving the attack.

Gargoyles have some level of physical defense, but their magical resistance was average. Somehow they could resist water and earth magic, but their resistance to fire magic was low.

And yet……, why he is unhurt?

However, I didn't not lose my composure with just that.

No matter how strong the gargoyle was, he was no demon lord.

But, in the next moment. My composure was easily blown away.

The gargoyle began to invoke magic, looking down on us from the sky.

The next moment, an immense wave of magical essence began to flow towards the gargoyle, saturating the camp with distilled magic power.

Huh? Li, Lie……what's with this amount of magical power, it's similar or even above mine!

Judging from the wave of magical power, the gargoyle was chanting water magic, Tidal Revive.

Water magic of the highest rank, level 7, a level of magic few demon lords dare say they are capable of casting.

Bad, This is really bad!

If he was allowed use such magic, my army would instantly be destroyed

I rushed towards the gargoyle in a panic, attempting to stop the magic invocation.

Besides me, no one in my army was capable of stopping the gargoyle.

I changed the attack plan in a hurry.

I'll deal with demon lord Larne first to immobilize the gargoyle

If demon lord Larne as the master died, the slave magic binding him will be released .

To avoid fighting the gargoyle, I headed to take care of Larne first.

Even I won't leave unscathed if I were to clash with that gargoyle.

I can't fight directly with such a monster (TN: monster as in strong, not 'monster' like wyvern, griffon, etc) (Pr: We Griffons are civilised beings, how dare you slander us, those monsters you saw earlier were inbred BEASTS!)

After getting thrown around by my hair, having my stomach pierced by a stone needle and mud spat all over my face, I somehow managed to burn his wings and incapacitate him.

After he lost his mobility, I rushed into the castle and killed demon lord Larne in a haste, before the gargoyle could return to the front of the war effort again.

To be frank, Larne's power pales in comparison to that of the gargoyle's.

As demon lord, by no means was Larne weak; the gargoyle was just so much more.

Before Larne died, I asked him about the gargoyle, but he didn't seem to know about such a gargoyle.

What is this? Why doesn't the owner know!

In the end I was able to win the war, but that gargoyle's strength was on par with any of The Immortal Four.

I was really relieved I personally came here.

What on Earth is that gargoyle?

If I wasn't here, my troops would have been faced with total destruction.

After I gained control of Larne's castle, I commanded my subordinates to search for the fallen gargoyle, but I was too late, as according to them, he escaped south immediately after Larne died.

Leaving such a dangerous gargoyle on his own is a major problem, but it wasn't an avoidable one.

I ordered my troops to give chase to the gargoyle, with clear instruction to deal with the situation delicately.

For now I could only wish that the gargoyle that had regaining its ego was a good natured being.

If possible, I want such as strong being as a subordinate, but……

It would suck if he resented me for burning his wings off…

I couldn't help but feel insecure about the situation, I had to hasten the arrangement of post war issues.

"Beria-sama, the persons that wish to be employed as our troops are gathering at the entrance."

"I, I will go there shortly, please wait a moment"

Uuu……, my face is a complete mess… and my hair. The mud; and the hair pulling did a number on me.

I scrubbed my face hard with a towel, but even that couldn't fully clear off everything. (Pr: Even the mud is magical, what a world to live in)(TN: LOL)

That gargoyle…I can't got out in public like this!

By no means was I going to face my subordinates with a face stained with mud.

I reluctantly decided to seek my maid for help.

Sure enough, the maid was astonished on looking at my face.

"Beria-sama?" She called out doubtfully.

Kuh, this humiliation……

Four hours later, Beria arose the victor in the confrontation between her and the mud and stood proudly before her troops, as their leader.

(Pr: Unbeknownst to her, the mud was not vanquished, but had escaped, planning his revenge from the depths of the sewers, revenge he would surely have. MWAHAHA!! HA HAHAHA HAAAA!)