Kondou was at an immense disadvantage. Not only did he have to fight against Carrera, who was not afraid to throw around nuclear magic, but also Rimuru, who was fighting perfectly, literally. He reacted faster, predicted things before even he could think of them, took advantage of even the tiniest, minute openings, and moved fast, very fast, almost instantly.
And not only that, Carrera and Rimuru seemed to work in perfect unison. Of course, it was Raphael doing all the work, but he didn't need to know that. All in all, it was looking grim for him. He thought he would be able to go around and restore order in the army, but all his attention was on trying to get out of this alive. Whether it was him or someone else, he had to put down the rapidly growing mutinies in the army, or in the worst case, try to retreat.
The more he thought about it, the urge to lash out against those mass mutinies grew, but that had to be done later, if there even was a later for him. It wasn't looking good that he would get out of this.
"Just die!"
Carrera shouted as she launched yet another strike of nuclear magic at Kondou. Just when he was about to dodge it, he was flanked by Rimuru. When he wanted to go somewhere else, there was another Rimuru, a clone. He was trapped on all sides. All sides except up, but that would leave him exposed more than he is now.
But it was the best thing he could do in this situation. Yes, the clones were not as strong compared to the main body, but their purpose wasn't to fight; it was to stall for time. If he were delayed by even a few seconds of fighting a clone, the nuclear magic would hit him, since he would be in its range.
So, taking the least bad option, he jumped into the air. Only to see the main body of Rimuru diving straight to him from the sky like a falcon. He was basically trapped. Now he had to face danger from above and below. He needed to get rid of at least one of them. It doesn't matter if they were killed or put out of commission; he just needed to do something to make it a one-on-one fight. He would have to use his Ultimate Skill.
[Sub-goal completed. Preparing final phase.]
Carrera launched another attack from below, completely trapping him for good. Now he was really in trouble. Depending on where he decided to shoot, he would take an attack no matter what. The question was, what attack should he take? From Carrera, he saw the nuclear magic. For Rimuru, there was nothing, just him diving. And there was no time to try to wait for Rimuru to pull something out, so he went for Carrera.
[Perfect.]
'Carrera, prepare yourself.'
A thought message was sent to Carrera.
'For what?'
All of a sudden, Kondou started to use his Golden Gun.
As soon as Carrera saw it, in an instant, she understood what Artoria said earlier.
"Yes! Finally, I can open the thing! I've been dying to find out what choice I made and what she meant by .50 Action Express," Carrera yelled, seemingly not caring about the fact that Kondou was about to shoot her with his Ultimate Skill.
Luckily, this situation was also accounted for.
Another clone appeared where Carrera was, and instantly, that became the "main body" with the one diving down becoming a "clone". As soon as the bullet was shot, Beelzebub was activated. It was an Ultimate Skill versus another Ultimate Skill, but one person had more Ultimate Skills, along with an unfair intelligence in their head that could practically manipulate skills, even to the point of making copies of skills to sacrifice them for whatever reason.
Which is what happened.
It wouldn't be so simple as just using Beelzebub to absorb an attack from something that could cause even a True Dragon damage. So, drastic measures had to be made to forcefully boost the power of Beelzebub.
But it worked, and all that was left was to kill Kondou.
"Rimuru" grabbed Carrera and threw her towards Kondou. By now, the "clone" diving to Knodou had reached him and forcefully clung to him as he fell back down. Slime was all over him, basically sticking him in place as Carrera was flying towards him, charged with Nuclear Magic.
"Here comes the sun!"
In an instant, a massive explosion shook the entire battlefield, sending tremors and shockwaves. A large mushroom could be seen everywhere, no matter where someone was. Minus Kondou being caught in it, the explosion and resulting shockwave killed even more Eastern Empire troops.
As for Tempest, the only ones that had to worry were the few that were outside of the wall, but they were also fine. Maybe a bit shaken, but fine nonetheless.
From where the explosion took place, "Rimuru" and Carrera came out of it, laughing.
"We should do that again. That was kind of cool."
But "Rimuru" was only focused on one thing. Now it was time to do a bit of manipulation.
"This means we can open it."
Carrera took out the box and finally opened it. A silver streak of light was reflected as she opened it. She could see her reflection in the gun because of how unnecessarily polished and clean it was.
"Whoa, this is…very cool"
She had to marvel at the beauty of the gun. It was large, very large, more of a handcannon instead of a handgun. It was silver with a black grip. Ambidextrous safety, and gas-operated ejection and chambering mechanism.
"Rimuru" quickly absorbed it before Carrera could admire it more. But before Carrera could start a fuss, "Rimuru" quickly released it.
"Here, absorb this soul. You'll understand."
Carrera absorbed the soul, and as she did, and saw the skills she had gained; the last piece finally clicked in place.
Carrera looked back at the gun, seeing that it had changed to gold, and picked it up.
"I have to test this out. I can't go beyond this war without shooting this thing at least once. What is this gun called anyway?"
Rimuru, who had finally gone out of auto-battle mode and was now fully in control, responded to Carrera after Raphael gave him the answer.
"It's called a Desert Eagle."
/\\//\\//\
(Imperial Capital Nasca, just outside the walls.)
Masatuki stood at the forefront of his revolutionary army. This was it, this was the moment, this was where everything would culminate for him. Deciding to fully implement a siege strategy until Artoria's own army came, Masayuki quickly found someone who was good at math, so they could calculate where to place their tanks so that whenever they shot their shells, they would land in the city, something like artillery guns. It was a little weird, seeing tanks stationary with their cannons aimed high up and at different distances, but if it worked, it worked.
"Alright, time to see if your math is good."
Masayuki commented to the mathematician who did all the necessary calculations.
"My math is good. People can lie and deceive, but math doesn't."
"Hey, I wasn't trying to judge you, but the math has to be good."
Masayuki responded to the mathematician, who was a little offended at what they perceived to be Masayuki doubting their skills.
"It is."
"Okay, okay."
Masayuki turned to one of the tank commanders and simply gave him a nod.
The tank commander quickly flashed a signal that spread to all the tanks and crews, who were ready to commence a barrage. As for them running out of ammo? That would not happen; they've hijacked the industry of the cities they captured and set up supply lines from them, and with the home advantage, more supplies than they were using arrived, which caused some problems, but it was a good problem to have.
Masayuki gave the tank commander a thumbs up, and with a final signal, the tanks started firing all at once. The sound of tank blasts sounded like endless, constant thunder. The sheer volume of the number of tank shells fired caused small tremors, but only small ones, nothing like an actual artillery gun.
The tank shells flew over the walls and landed, exploding and sending shrapnel and debris all over the place, causing more damage. The effect was clear from the ones firing. Tall buildings that could be seen over the walls here were hit, causing stone, wood, and other materials to fall. Other buildings collapsed under the intense volume of fire..
"It's working. Imagine if we had actual artillery guns."
Masayuki reacted to the tank shells actually hitting and doing damage. The math worked out. And they were lucky considering that they were using tanks as makeshift artillery guns. They were limited by gun elevation, having to use makeshift aiming methods, and the biggest one that will be known, barrel wear. The ammo was no problem, since their supply lines can keep up.
"How long can we keep this up, assuming all the tanks kept firing?"
Masayuki asked the mathematician.
"Well, assuming this extreme barrage, and assuming that ammo was no problem, we can keep this up for about…1 day in a best-case scenario. Realistically, just a few hours. I recommend lowering the intensity so that the tanks can still be used when you want to charge in and not let the infantry advance without armor."
"Just a few hours? Why?"
"Well, the tanks are not designed for such an operation. First of all, we're using high-explosive shells, which put more stress and pressure on the gun, and since the barrels are at a higher elevation, the shell spends more time in the barrel, thus raising the friction and heat. And with this kind of sustained fire, the steel will overheat rapidly and wear out the rifling. A tank that can shoot thousands of shells will probably only be able to fire a few hundred before accuracy declines badly when used like this. We can compensate for this by using cooling breaks and lowering the intensity of the barrage. If you don't, you'll start seeing barrels burst."
Masayuki stood there, fully taking in what the mathematician was telling him.
"Okay, uh, wow, I really should've thought of that. Why did no one tell me?"
Masayuki quickly ordered the tank commander to implement the recommendations the mathematician told him. And when he did, many of the tank crews let out a sigh of relief. Turns out, when they actually started firing, most of them quickly realized how much wear was being put on their tanks. This would be something to learn from, and they caught it early.
And so, they kept up the barrage, but lowered the intensity to prolong it. Another lesson to learn from. A siege is a marathon, not a sprint.
But this moment, this order to barrage the capital of the Eastern Empire, would be a stain, one of Masayuki's controversies that history would look down upon. Because of one simple question. Why?