When a Filipino got Isekai'd with a twist!
Volume 2 " only I can summon those!"
Chapter 27: "Collateral Victors"
(A week later…)
The war table was covered in maps—most of them either burned, torn, or hastily redrawn with charcoal. Circles marked former demon strongholds now taken back by human hands. Some had fresh flags planted on them, others simply had one word scribbled across them in red ink:
"BOOM."
In the war council room of the human capital, the leaders sat in stunned silence. Reports had been pouring in non-stop for seven days.
One of the younger strategists squinted at the map, then blinked.
"Wait… are we sure about this? Ten strongholds? Ten?"
Elara nodded, looking equally baffled. "Confirmed. Multiple eyewitnesses. Three people, one giant machine."
"That's not just any machine…" muttered Serena, arms crossed. "That's Kieth's Gundam. Or... what's left of it."
Princess Lyra, who had been massaging her temples for the past fifteen minutes, finally snapped. "Am I just imagining things—or did those three idiots seriously retake a quarter of the demon army's occupied zones… and somehow destroy everything in their path?!"
"Technically," Chris offered with a sheepish grin, "they liberated the strongholds. The destruction was just... a side effect."
Lyra groaned into her hand. "At this rate, we won't have a kingdom left to reclaim. Just smoking craters."
A scout burst into the room, panting. "Another report! The Half-Dwarven Kingdom has been reclaimed!"
Everyone turned to him in stunned silence.
"…By them?" Elara asked hesitantly.
The scout nodded, still catching his breath. "Yes. All three. They crashed the Gundam into the stronghold wall to break the outer defense. Then... well, everything else exploded."
King Eldrin sat back in his chair and muttered, "What kind of heroes are they?"
Just then, the communication orb flickered to life.
Josh's voice crackled through the magical static. "Yo. Mission report: Stronghold number eleven coming up. Just scouting it out. Might take us a day or two."
Cane's voice came next, loud and annoyed, "Josh, tell him to stop pressing random buttons!"
Then Vismond's deadpan voice cut in: "We are literally upside down. Again."
Static. Then silence.
The room stared at the orb in collective dread.
"Should we… stop them?" Queen Jessabel asked.
"No," murmured Goddess Lycana, appearing in a soft shimmer beside the war table. Her voice was calm, but her smile was small and sharp. "Let them be. The chaos they leave behind terrifies the demons more than we ever could."
Outside the war room, thunder rolled from the north. The eleventh stronghold was about to meet its doom.
Josh pov.
"Alright, boys," Josh muttered, peering through the cracked cockpit glass at the looming fortress ahead. "That's stronghold number eleven. Demonic fortification, spiked towers, lava moat, skull banners—because of course."
Cane leaned forward, his forehead squished against a targeting lens. "So what's the plan, oh wise Sword King? Slam through the front gate like always?"
Josh exhaled slowly. "No. This time we go stealthy."
There was a long silence.
Vismond raised a brow. "In a thirty-meter-tall, squeaky, smoke-spewing death robot?"
"Exactly," Josh said, completely serious.
Cane blinked. "You hit your head in the last raid?"
"I hit three demons with my head last raid," Josh snapped. "Focus."
The Gundam crept forward—well, as much as something that size could. Its left arm still sparked from the last encounter, its plating dented, one eye flickering like it was having an identity crisis.
Josh studied a flickering display. "Alright. Ready weapons—don't touch anything unless I say so."
Cane hovered a finger over a button. "Is this the rocket system?"
Josh whipped his head around. "No! Don't—"
FOOM!
A knee-launched missile rocketed out, slamming into a watchtower. The explosion lit the sky, chunks of demonic architecture raining down. The alarm horns blared instantly.
Cane blinked. "...Oops."
Josh screamed over the noise, "WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE STEALTHY!"
"My bad," Cane muttered.
From the back, Vismond adjusted his twin daggers and said with perfect calm, "I think it still counts as stealth if no one survives to tell anyone."
Josh groaned and slammed his forehead on the control panel. "This is my squad. This is who I'm saving the world with…"
Before anyone could respond, a huge demon emerged from the gate—a horned behemoth wielding a flaming axe the size of a wagon.
Cane's eyes lit up. "What's this red lever do?"
Josh's soul screamed, "DON'T—!"
WHOOOOOSH!
The Gundam blasted straight up into the sky, dodging the axe swipe by sheer miracle.
All three yelled in unison, "AHHHHHHH!"
"We're upside down," Vismond noted helpfully, hanging from his seatbelt as sparks and fire lit up the controls.
---
As the cockpit rattled and spun, Josh growled, "BOTH OF YOU, STOP TOUCHING THINGS! THIS ISN'T A CARNIVAL RIDE, WE'RE IN A WARZONE!"
Cane, still upside down, gripped the ceiling handle and muttered, "I envy Kieth… he could pilot this huge hunk of metal like it was nothing."
Josh, flipping switches furiously, shouted back, "for the love of god! He's a summoner! That's the perk of our dear friend—his Gundam actually listens!"
The Gundam plummeted like a comet, crashing into the stronghold's outer courtyard. It landed with such force that a wave of flame and dust erupted, sending demons flying in every direction. Its metal fist pancaked a demon lieutenant instantly.
"Alright," Josh growled, drawing his blade. "Time to clean house."
Vismond launched out the cockpit mid-motion, his daggers spinning in a deadly arc. He vanished into the chaos like a shadow.
Josh leapt down next, slicing through a charging demon mage with one clean strike. His blade glowed, humming with sacred energy.
Cane? He stayed up top, seated like a king, laughing while mowing down hordes with the Gundam's shoulder-mounted minigun.
"Who needs aim when your bullets never run out?!"
The stronghold descended into madness. Screams, steel, and magic crashed together. Towers crumbled. Demons burned. Doors exploded.
But through the chaos… they advanced. Step by brutal step.
Josh paused near the inner gate, catching his breath, his face smeared with blood and soot.
"That's ten behind us," he muttered. "Let's make eleven a masterpiece."
Suddenly, the ground split open. A molten glow rose from the earth—and from it, stepped a hulking demon general. His horns scraped the sky, his eyes twin furnaces. Each step he took cracked the ground, magma dripping from his fists.
Josh raised his sword, defiant.
Cane stood atop the Gundam, now out of ammo, holding a bent antenna like a spear.
Vismond calmly walked back into formation, flicking blood off his blades.
Josh nodded. "Let's finish this."
But as the demon roared and charged—
The demon general towered over them—twenty feet of muscle, bone armor fused with molten rock, and burning red eyes that screamed pure hatred. His roar shook the ground as he slammed both fists together, creating a shockwave that knocked aside broken towers like toy blocks.
Josh braced his legs, gripping his sword with both hands. "Alright, big guy," he muttered, "let's dance."
"Uh, Josh?" Cane called from the Gundam's shoulder. "You do see the flaming spine whip, right?"
"I see it!" Josh snapped.
"Just checking!"
Before Josh could charge, the demon general lunged forward with terrifying speed, hurling a chain of molten bones straight at him. Josh rolled to the side, the searing links smashing into the stone courtyard and melting it on contact.
Vismond darted in from the flank, his blades flashing. He slashed at the demon's thigh—but the moment his steel touched, a burst of lava-like blood spat out, forcing him to leap away mid-flip.
"No vital points. Too dense," Vismond reported, landing beside Josh.
Josh wiped ash off his cheek. "Then we take him apart piece by piece."
"Or…" Cane said, sitting casually back inside the Gundam's cockpit. "We go full war crime."
He jammed a button.
VROOOOOMMMM!
Twin mini-missiles launched from the Gundam's back vents, spiraling toward the demon's chest. But at the last second, the demon spun and deflected them with a swing of his arm, sending them crashing into the stronghold's gate behind him.
Josh stared, dumbfounded. "Cane!"
"What?! I thought that was the coffee machine!"
Josh turned to Vismond. "How is he still alive?"
"I ask myself that every day."
The demon general roared again and stomped, cracking the ground open beneath Josh's feet. Josh leapt just in time, landing on a crumbled statue. He focused his energy, his sword glowing silver.
"Cane, distract him!"
"With what?! I'm out of guns!"
"You're on a GUNDAM! Use the arms!"
Cane blinked. "Oh. Right."
He grinned and pulled a lever.
The Gundam's right fist reeled back—and then launched forward with bone-crunching force, smashing into the demon's shoulder, sending him staggering back a step.
Cane pumped his fist. "YES! Robot punch, baby!"
The demon didn't go down, though. It let out a snarl, reached for the Gundam's arm—and tore it off in one brutal wrench.
Cane: "...Okay, not my best move."
"FIRE THE HEAD!" Josh yelled.
"What?!"
"RAM THE HEAD!"
Cane shrieked, "You're insane!" but twisted the last lever.
The Gundam's thruster-boosted skull launched forward like a meteor, colliding with the demon's chest in a thunderous explosion. The two titans crashed to the ground in a heap of metal and molten rock.
Silence.
Then a groggy voice from the rubble: "...Worth it," Cane muttered.
Josh, bleeding and covered in dust, pulled himself to his feet. He limped toward the crater and spotted the demon general trying to rise—its chest caved in, barely breathing.
Vismond stood on the demon's back, blade poised above its neck. "Permission?"
Josh nodded. "End it."
A flash of steel. One clean cut. It was done.
The demon stronghold burned around them—towers collapsing, spires crumbling, the earth still glowing from lava and fire. Smoke choked the air.
Josh dropped to his knees, exhausted. "We actually did it…"
Cane's voice drifted in over the Gundam's broken comms. "Hey, uh, small problem."
"What now?"
"This thing's gonna blow in thirty seconds."
Josh groaned. "Of course it is."
---
The floor of the war room trembled.
Papers slid off desks. Maps fluttered in the shockwave. The scrying crystal at the center of the room pulsed erratically, spitting sparks.
Princess Lyra clutched the edge of the table as another distant boom echoed from the horizon. Her usually pristine armor was half-unbuckled, her face streaked with soot and sleepless worry.
"What was that?" she demanded.
A nearby tactician gulped. "Stronghold Eleven… it's gone, Your Highness. Flattened."
Serena, still catching her breath beside Lyra, blinked. "Gone as in… taken?"
The officer looked like he'd aged ten years in ten seconds. "No. Gone as in reduced to rubble. Like a mountain fell on it and then exploded."
Another officer ran in, holding a cracked transmission orb. "We got footage. Only ten seconds before the feed cut out."
The crystal flared to life—and in its glowing sphere, they saw:
A headless Gundam skidding through a collapsing tower. Cane screaming and waving a bent antenna like a flag. Josh leaping off the wreck mid-air with his sword drawn. Vismond walking calmly through flames as if on a morning stroll.
Lyra's jaw dropped. "What in the divine hells are they doing?"
Serena, slowly, with reverence: "Winning."
---
Cut To: Unknown Location – Demon Lord's Throne
The chamber was cold. Not from temperature—but from presence.
A massive obsidian throne rose in the center, surrounded by chained fire spirits that hissed in silence. Sitting atop it was The Demon Lord of Fury, cloaked in blackened armor that pulsed faintly with life.
His one exposed eye glowed with an infernal hue.
Before him floated a viewing portal—showing the ruins of Stronghold Eleven. The shattered towers. The burning spires. The Gundam's busted frame like a crucifix planted in the center of chaos.
He said nothing. Just watched.
Then—he smiled.
"They've come," he murmured. His voice was deep, layered with echoes of ancient rage. "The Sword King… the Ghostblade… and the Laughing Madman."
A shadow moved beside him. One of his generals knelt.
"My Lord, shall we retaliate?"
The Demon Lord didn't answer immediately. Instead, he reached forward, pressing a finger against the edge of the portal.
The image warped—focusing on Josh, standing defiant amid fire and ruin.
Then the Demon Lord whispered,
"Let them burn a few more fortresses. Let them feel confident. Let them entertain me."
He leaned back, his voice like thunder wrapped in silk.
"And when they reach my gates… I'll be waiting."
---
TO BE CONTINUED…