Now, I was starting to regret turning down Milim's offer.
Really, I wouldn't mind if we swapped positions right now. But that'd look so lame.
I should give this the ol' college try, at least—if we just can't do it, I'll think about it then.
Really, those two would be the end of me.
To kick things off, I fired a bolt of magic fire, one of my new moves. The moment it struck
Charybdis, a searing Dark Flame burned and wrinkled its skin.
Just as I thought—it worked.
A regular old spout of fire would've been snuffed out by its magic resistance.
Dark Flame would've been no different, its magical energy dissipating the moment it made contact.
To get around that, I'd either have to make physical contact with it and attack, or—as I did now—cover my magic with something
else until it made contact.
That's why I tried loading a magical bolt with Dark Flame and shooting it. The result was a success, making Charybdis writhe in pain from the intense heat…
So I kept attacking, spurring myself forward. I tried a few different moves, gauging the dragon's response.
It seemed like Dark Flame and Dark Thunder both worked well against it.
Fire-based attacks worked across a broader range of its body, and the lightning seemed to affect its magical neural network a
little.
Fubuki did well to fuel my flames with his energy, further increasing the painful effect.
He flew around the dragon, too, unleashing various magical attacks coated with his intense fighting spirit.
The intense fighting spirit fought against the magic resistance, and the attacks hit home with full force.
It was a good idea, actually, and I was enlightened.
I followed suit, coating my attacks with my fighting spirit, and as it turned out, mine wasn't as intense as his, but it still did the deed.
Along with that useful info, however, I learned a few things I wish I didn't have to.
Rimuru: 「This dude has Ultra-Speed Regeneration, doesn't it?」
«Understood. Judging from the recovery speed of its physical structure, it is not incorrect to assume the individual "Charybdis" possesses the extra skill Ultraspeed Regeneration.»
Confirming this, I used Thought Communication to let everyone else know.
Then, with a now-ample amount of info in hand, I figured out how I would get the Pegasus Knights involved.
◇◇◇
The battle continued…for over three hours after that.
Fubuki, for the most part, threw casual magic attacks; attacks way weaker than I had expected.
Milim had grown so bored with sitting on the sidelines that she fell asleep, but I was fighting for my life.
We had to damage Charybdis quicker than it could heal itself, or else we'd never get anywhere.
All of us plunged ourselves into this desperate struggle, drinking mighty swigs of healing potion with abandon as we fought.
Rimuru: 「C'mon dude, would it hurt to show your hands a little?」
I questioned Fubuki. He had a bad habit of taking things easy.
Although he liked to slack off for the most part, he was fruitful when he put his mind into it.
That's why I pushed for results.
Fubuki: 「Well, yeah. Actually, no, you're right. Even so, I can't go around flaunting my power when there are multiple people to watch out for.」
Rimuru: 「You just don't want to go through the pain of appealing all of those you know, right?」
Fubuki: 「Well, mostly that, but…」
Rimuru: 「This is a pretty serious situation. It won't help knowing that it can be resolved easily.」
Fubuki: 「…Fine, but you'll do most of it.」
Finally, the desired result! That's what I'd like to hear after three long hours of back and forth.
Rimuru: 「Well, I can work with that.」 I happily declared.
Now, all we needed was a strategy.
Since his strength is the missing factor, he'd be the one making up any plan we were going to use.
Fubuki: 「Hey, take a closer look at the dragon or whatever it is.」
There was nothing to really 'see' from my part.
So, did he mean something else?
Fubuki: 「Try carefully reading the magic waves of that thing. You'll see what I mean.」
I immediately had the Great Sage
perform an analysis.
The result:
"Gnh. Grnhhh…aahhh… Y-you… Mi…"
Hmm? Did I just hear something?
"Curse youuu…uuu, De-Demon… Mi—Mili… Milim!!"
Huh?! Milim? Demon? Did it say Milim just now?
«Understood. A small, slight presence of life is confirmed to be within the body that Charybdis is occupying.
It is believed that the damage it has taken has led to biological distortion, perhaps because it did not fully assimilate with the body's magical core. In addition—»
I listened to the details.
According to the Sage, Charybdis used the bodies of other magic-born in order to create its own physical form.
These bodies would normally disappear and be assimilated, but if the magic-born involved held strong enough feelings or anger or disgust, the assimilation might not fully complete itself.
But that was of little importance now.
Fubuki: 「What do you think? Since there's something in there, it must be piloting the core. How about we pick out some fools?」
Ah, I see. That's how it is.
Rimuru: 「Honestly, let's get this over with.」
I smirked.
Rimuru: 「What's the plan?」
Fubuki: 「I'll make a path for you. You have one job.」
Rimuru: 「Is that so? Let it begin, then.」
With a determined gaze, I waited for him to give the opening.
I wanted whoever that caused us this much trouble alive, and he also had the same thought train.
Seeing that, I didn't need to make it clear that whatever he was about to pull off shouldn't kill the core.
I didn't even know if it was possible, but maybe, just maybe, he'd be strong enough to make a hole deep into its control core.
I knew it was a pretty crazy thing to ask, faced with a
monster like Charybdis and all, but I had a feeling Fubuki was up to the task.
It was a small, fleeting light I was willing to hold onto.
I trusted him that much. With all he's done, it'd be rude to further doubt him.
There was also this annoying thought that I simply wanted it all done with, hence, the trust.
I made sure to eat up that feeling with Predator, enhanced with my corrosion effect, making sure it became history.
And now that that was squared away, the rest would happen pretty quickly.
Rimuru: 「Okay, guys. Things are about to get real feisty. Retreat immediately!」
My shouting was enough to make Dolph, captain of the Pegasus Knights, call out the order to retreat, albeit grudgingly.
We were in a state of total exhaustion, it was true. Things would gradually get worse for us like this.
Perhaps he figured my strategy was to wait for the remaining knight corps to show up before reengaging.
"Gnh, Grrrhhhhhh! D—Demonnnnnn!!"
Noticing Fubuki's presence, Charybdis arched its body and glared straight at us. It was already too late.
Rimuru: 「The way is clear. Make this count, Fubuki!」
Fubuki: 「Yeah. Here's to hoping you get the job done. 『Holy Cannon』!」
A magic circle was formed before his outstretched arm, not too small, not too big.
It was about the size of an average car tire.
He filled it with a dense amount of foreign energy, and then it happened.
This was the energy he used to eliminate the monster back in the cave.
The fuel for that white light magic, or so I dubbed it.
Ignoring all that, what followed next was beyond my expectations.
A fantasy stream of white light rushed from the magic circle.
«…?! Cannot analyze. Collecting data… Failed.»
The Great Sage within me sounded a bit surprised. Maybe I was just imagining it, but still.
It failed to identify the exact nature of Fubuki's attack, but the results were pretty obvious.
The sight before me was forcing me to rethink the meaning of the term holding back.
A stream of the white light crashed right through Charybdis's body.
It began to eat away at it, giving the dragon no time for Ultraspeed Regeneration to work.
It was no match for the magic, and a big hole was formed on its head.
It was my turn to deal the finishing blow.
All I can say is, thank heavens, this was an airborne target. If it was on land, it would've reshaped the entire geography of this forest.
That was the sheer enormity of the attack. We had spent the past three hours gradually whittling away at it, taking out 30 percent of its energy, and now it was wounded beyond repair in the space of several seconds.
This dude, how much more strength is he concealing?
Pushing all the thoughts aside, I made my way to the head of the creature.
It wasn't quite dead, but it had been fatally wounded.
It was currently heading for the ground.
If I didn't finish this in time, the forest would acquire massive damage.
Fubuki had done his part, so he headed out to meet the onlookers.
I made my way to the head of the falling Charybdis.
Sure enough, there was a massive hole leading to its nucleus.
All I had to do was eat up a little of its insides to reach the core.
I transformed into my slime form, activating 『Gluttony』.
All the parts of my slime cells were dedicated to devouring every single fiber of this being.
The magic attack had somehow halted the regeneration of this big fish, so the consumption rate was heightened.
Time flowed unnecessarily slow, but I had done it.
Finally, the person controlling this whole was in sight.
Rimuru: 「Phobio, huh.」
This guy was about to get himself a handful of stuff once he got out of here.
Analyzing Phobio's status, I found that he and Charybdis were 90 percent fused with each other.
Without quick action, the beast would just resurrect itself again. That's why I needed to do this.
The task at hand involved fully separating Phobio from Charybdis.
My 『Deviant』 unique skill allowed me to synthesize and separate things, and it'd be the latter that I'd use for this job.
However, just doing that alone would cause Charybdis, a spiritual life-form, to float away out of my hands.
That's where my other unique skill, Gluttony, would come in.
Even with my Sage and all, I wasn't able to fully combine unique skills together.
Under its control, however, I could run them in parallel to one
another.
It would be a delicate sequence, a bit like performing surgery, but I was capable of it.
If I screwed it up, I'd have to take Phobio's life as well, so this could have repercussions on my relationship with Carrion.
I really wanted this to work, if I could help it.
I focused on the job, devoting all my strength to it. First, I separated a little; then I consumed the bit I took off.
The Sage took care of controlling the two disparate skills for me, so I had to do the actual job all by myself.
The weight of it all was upon me, but…
«Report. The magical core of the individual Charybdis has successfully been separated from the individual Phobio.
Consuming the magical core of the individual Charybdis… Successful. Analyzing core…
Partially failed. Isolating and continuing to analyze. The following skills have been obtained—»
Success.
It felt like that took forever, but I had completed it before everyone who evacuated out for Fubuki's attack had come back.
A torrent of information streamed into my head. I didn't like the "partially failed" bit of the Sage's report, but now that everyone was back, I filed that concern away for later.
Given that it was isolated or whatever, I was pretty sure
there was nothing dangerous about it.
All I had left to do was to completely devour this whole dragon and give some healing potion to the weakened Phobio before I forgot.
With all resistance completely lost, the consumption naturally went by.
We were so close to crashing, but my slime cells had already made it to the outsides of the beast.
Eating it all up, the 150-foot-long frame was no match for me, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared.
I quickly switched back to my humanoid form, sprouting some wings and making it back to the sky with an unconscious Phobio.
I gave Phobio a swig of my very own, handmade Full Potion, quickly stabilizing his physical condition.
Now, to wait for him to awaken.
Thus, Charybdis, the threat that landed on our doorstep, was fully slain.
○
(Fubuki's POV)
"Would you be able to explain to us what happened?"
That was the first thing knight captain Dolph said when he saw me.
Fubuki: 「Hmm. Yeah. I guess you'd want an explanation, wouldn't you?」
By that time, Rimuru had returned from his feast.
Fubuki: 「What you saw just now was an ancient technique taught to me by my ancestors. He warned me to use it only during times of need, and I figured it was a pretty serious situation.」
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! You certainly enjoy jokes, Sir Fubuki."
His eyes weren't laughing.
Rimuru: 「With the cool power display, I expected much more from you…」
What? I'm not really the best of liars, you see.
He was clearly miffed at me, and I could understand why. I didn't have much excuse, really.
"But if you had a magical weapon capable of outputting so much force, I wish you could have informed us of that in advance! We'll be expecting a more
official explanation later on."
Well, I don't think that's a problem.
Rimuru's a great liar. He could probably cook up a lie and deceive the whole world with it.
"Still, whatever you did managed to eliminate Charybdis, a being that could have been a true disaster to all living races.
It is a stroke of good luck, indeed. If you excuse me, then I need to report to His Majesty."
He relaxed his scowl a bit and bowed.
Fubuki: 「Yeah, thanks for the help.」
Even though they hadn't done much, it was always good to hold back a little.
"Provide your thanks to His Majesty, not to me. Also, if I may speak only for myself…" Dolph came a bit closer, lowering his voice.
"If you are going to report to the king, could I ask you to travel to Dwargon to make the report personally? His Majesty is still rather distressed about how your last visit turned out. The exile and refusal of board he sentenced you to has already been lifted, so…"
This was probably less Dolph's personal invitation and more his interpretation of Gazel's feelings, I imagined.
Rimuru: 「All right. In that case, tell King Gazel that I would love to accept an official invitation. I look forward to visiting again and giving my report.」
"Excellent! I am sure His Majesty will be overjoyed. Kaijin, Garm, and the rest are also welcome to return at any time. They could join you if they chose to."
Dolph was already excited about the idea. I'm sure Kaijin and the gang would like to visit home sometime.
After that and a few other small pleasantries, the Pegasus Knights were busily hurrying their way back home.
◇◇◇
Just as we were about
to head home…
Phobio 「Ngh… Where—where am I? What happened to me…?」
Fubuki: 「Don't ask me, jolt! *Sigh,* Honestly... I've already lost, haven't I?」
I heard confused muttering.
Phobio had awoken.
It put Benimaru and Shion on their guard, but Phobio wouldn't have had any energy to fight right now.
His wounds were fully healed,
but his magic power was exhausted.
Plus, with Charybdis fully extracted and eliminated from him, he was back to "merely" being a high-level magic-born—
nobody we couldn't take if it came to that.
Rimuru: 「Hey there. Are you up? Do you remember what you did?」
Then he jumped up and, incredibly
suddenly, and he prostrated himself before me and Rimuru.
I guess he remembered.
Phobio: 「I—I am sorry! I mean, I deeply apologize to you! I've done something horrible to you, Sir Fubuki…and I've put so much trouble upon all of you a second time!」
The pallid magic-born before me was a lot more impulsive with his emotions than I had thought.
It seemed unnatural, in a way, someone like that causing so
much chaos.
Even with all that, I wasn't about to take it easy on him.
Fubuki: 「Treyni, Investigation Technique (no #3).」
Treyni: 「Got it!」
In an instant, several tree vines or whatever tied him up, leaving him hanging upside down.
More were focused on his throat, ready to do the deed anytime soon.
Benimaru: 「...」
Treyni: 「How…did you know where Charybdis was sealed away? Because I highly doubt you merely "stumbled upon it." Speak.」
She questioned him with a cold, deadly tone, releasing a bit of her aura.
Her glowing eyes pierced his soul.
Rimuru: 「Whoa! Hey, take it easy! I'm sure he's ready to let up after all that's happened! Right?!」
Phobio: 「Yes Sir!」
He agreed immediately, not even sparing a second.
Rimuru: 「See?!」
Fubuki: 「...Fine. I always wanted to try it out, though…」
I nodded at Treyni, and she released him, although it came with a pout.
She really looked forward to it too, huh.
To his credit, he didn't hide any of it and fully explained what happened to him—the request he made to the two masked agents of the Moderate Jesters.
Treyni: 「A pair of strange-looking masked clowns? But that location is secret—only we, the dryads, knew where it was, and it was the hero herself who told us.
A formidable foe, indeed, if they were able to track it down… And masked, you say?」
This seemed to trouble Treyni in particular. She seemed to know them.
Treyni: 「Was one of the masks asymmetrical, perhaps? Drawn to look like they were making fun of you?」
Phobio: 「N-no. There was a girl whose mask made it look like she was crying, and then
a fat man with an angry mask. They called themselves Teare and Footman.」
Not the guy Treyni knew, then. But…wow, mysterious masked magic-born, huh?
…Wait a sec.
Rimuru: 「Hey, I think Benimaru said there was one there during the attack on their homeland…」
Benimaru: 「Yes. I just thought of that myself. A rotund magic-born wearing a mask of
anger. That was one of the people controlling the orcs!」
Geld: 「Indeed. One of the orc generals working away from my command was accompanied by a high-level magic-born bodyguard hired by Gelmud. That man's name was Footman.」
Then—
Gabiru: 「And come to think of it, when Sir Laplace rescued me, he said he was in Gelmud's employ as well…
He said he was the vice president of the Moderate Jesters, which he described as a jacks-of-all-trade group.
And the mask he had on… It was just as Treyni described.
Asymmetrical—and with an arrogant expression on it!」
Gabiru dropped the bombshell.
Events from across the land were suddenly being connected together.
Trenyi: 「…I see. The man was called Laplace, you say?」
Benimaru: 「…Footman? I will be certain to remember that.」
Treyni's eyes were filled with a dangerous light, and Benimaru wore a defiant smile.
I was surprised to hear that Treyni had made contact with these guys as well.
Given her penchant for popping in and out of existence all over the place, they must have crossed paths somewhere.
The Moderate Jesters…
I didn't like the sound of clowns running chaos in my land, but for the moment, I guess I'll stay quiet about it.
A mysterious band of jacks-of-all-trades. They sounded
like trouble, so I decided to ask Milim if she knew anything.
Her response was: "Mmm? I've never heard of that group before, no. Nobody said anything about using guys like those to cause strife among races or anything. How interesting! I wish I could've gotten to meet them."
Milim, at least, had heard nothing from her demon lord cohorts.
She didn't know many details about the whole orc lord operation, I suppose.
Gelmud was the main man behind all that, apparently—Milim just got the outlines of it, not the little details like hiring a bunch of jokers to help push things along.
Milim: 「Fubuki…」
Fubuki: 「Mmh?」
Milim: 「Maybe it was Clayman scheming behind the scenes with this, not Gelmud. He had the connections for that. He loves those kinds of dirty schemes.」
Fubuki: 「A demon lord?」
Geez. This girl… She was exposing him like it was no big deal, but what the heck?
The guy was still just a suspect; we didn't know if he was the real criminal here yet—but as Milim put it, Clayman was the kind of guy who'd arrange something
like that.
Looking back at Carrion's straight approach, along with Milim's direct confrontation, I guess she has a point.
I had thought this whole affair was over, but there were still plainly some issues left to tackle.
Treyni: 「Something does bother me. This Laplace… He said he was not among the monster tribes.」
Ahh, more work for me, it seems.
But hold up.
In this world, a monster tribe could still be defined as pretty much anyone who was hostile against the human race.
Saying you weren't a monster was
another way of saying you were allied with humans and so on.
Assuming you weren't lying. But if they had no quarrel with the human race, that seemed feasible enough to me—there were bound to be other magic-born who took my
approach.
And if it's true that these geniuses were messing around my territory, then they'll have a terrible event coming for them one day.
Fubuki: 「I see… He said he wasn't magic?」
Treyni: 「Yes, my lord. He might have human supporters backing him.」
Humans… These guys never keep their priorities straight.
Always ambitious, too ambitious for my liking.
I guess there were more factors that pushed me to the edge in that other timeline than I expected.
Let's simply hope it all goes differently here.
「.....」
Hmm? What's up?
「I've tried to ignore it, but there's been a detected presence. A strong one at that.」
Oh? Is that so? How strong?
「As strong as a demon lord.」
Really? Is that it? You're becoming rather sloppy nowadays, aren't you?
You could've explained it to me in better detail.
I mean, what's the power range?
Isn't that just a bland piece of information?
「.....」
Seriously, this is the worst.
「Notice. The individual detected is of no threat to you. However, their power level is on par with the individual Rimuru.」
Ahh, now she's back to that monotonous tone.
C'mon, aren't you being harsh on me?
「Heh.」
Huh? Huh?!
I did a double-take for that one.
Was that smugness I sensed just now? Because I'm pretty sure it was!
You know what, let's push it aside.
If he's as strong as Rimuru, then I think I can grasp the details myself.
Well, thanks for the info, I guess. If that's the person we're dealing with, then I'm sure Milim's already aware of them.
Since she's quite about it, I don't think they're of any threat, as Reina-san said.
Okay, let's wrap this whole charade up.
◇◇◇
We now had a fairly ample amount of info to work with.
Putting it all together, one truth became clear about this incident: These Moderate Jester guys liked approaching their targets with claims of offering help. It allowed the Jesters to achieve their goals without dirtying their own hands.
Fubuki: 「Sounds like they used and abused you, huh? Well, since no real damages were done, I guess I can let you off free of charge.
Try carefully reading the environment the next time you deem it cool to take on any offer.
I'm pretty sure they manipulated your emotions to get what they wanted.」
Phobio wasn't exactly free of fault here, but given that the real culprit was elsewhere, it didn't seem right to punish him.
I didn't want to stir up and add
trouble, besides.
If he swore that he wouldn't bother us anymore, I was glad to let him go free.
Phobio, on the other hand, wasn't having any of it.
Phobio: 「Huh…?」
He was still prostrate before us.
Phobio: 「I, er, I don't deserve to be forgiven. I accepted this offer at my own discretion. It had nothing to do with Lord Carrion, so please allow me to pay for this with my life…」
It was weird, seeing him act so bold and brave while bent over in front of us.
Rimuru: 「N-no, really, we have no reason to kill you. Right, Milim?」
Milim: 「A little wallop would've done the trick, but if Fubuki's not against him, sure. Consider yourself forgiven!」
That's another way of saying you're up for the idea…
Rimuru: 「See? So, what's it?」
Phobio: 「I understand. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.」
Fubuki: 「I'd rather prefer you thanking me using any part of your heart except the bottom.」
Rimuru: 「Pfft. Anywho, let's get this over with. What are you gonna do next?」
Phobio: 「I plan to report it all when I get back to Lord Carrion.」
Fubuki: 「I don't think that'll be necessary. Isn't that right, Milim?」
Milim: 「Yeah! Some sore loser you are, hiding in the bushes!」
"Heh. You noticed, huh, Milim?"
Milim: 「Of course.」
"Yeah, of course," he replied.
As if to answer my question, a man appeared from the underbrush.
He had an attractively rough, unpolished look, sporting a well-tailored but well-worn
outfit.
His short blond hair stood on end, his sharp eyes only adding to the intense atmosphere he presented.
Between the name Carrion and the obvious friendliness they shared, I could guess the identity of this wild-looking man projecting his inner strength in the quiet.
He was nowhere near as large as Charybdis, but he presented exactly that sort of overpowering aura—if not more of one, like he'd blow you away with a thought.
So this is Carrion, the demon lord, huh?
Meh, Arion could probably kick his ass dry.
I'm honestly disappointed; knowing Guy, he would go for better options.
Unless there's a stupid election system responsible for voting in individuals and dubbing them demon lords.
Has he fallen to that extent? How sad…
I'll make sure to rub shit on his face the next time we meet. A little bit of headache would probably set his head back to how it was supposed to be.
Carrion: 「Hey. The name's Carrion. Thanks for helpin' this guy out without killing him.」
Thus, the demon lord Carrion greeted me, looking me straight in the eye.
The air grew suddenly tense.
Hah? You wanna intimidate me? Ha! Tough luck, kid. I was busy kickin' true dragon's asses back 'n the days.
Go find your fellow doggies to fight over the leftovers.
My subordinates could probably kill you by mistake.
Fubuki: 「Oh? Didn't think the man himself would show up. Fubuki Tempest at your service.」
Rimuru: 「Rimuru Tempest. You being here made this way easier.」
Hmm, you know, saying stuff like that could get things real ugly.
Carrion: 「Two magic-borns such as yourselves going up and about building a nation I see.
I was told the orc lord killed our mystery magic-borns, but I guess that report wasn't too true, huh? You're the masked magic-born that killed Gelmud, aren't you?」
Rimuru: 「Yeah? Here to get back at me, or…?」
I doubted it. Carrion grinned at the question.
Carrion: 「Ha-ha-ha-ha! Funny. No wonder Milim likes you.」
The laughter instantly dispelled all the tension. But once he was done guffawing to himself, Carrion's face stiffened.
Then, he did something none of
us was expecting. He admitted he was wrong.
Carrion: 「Well, sorry one of my men went berserk on you. Guess I neglected to supervise him well enough, and I hope you'll forgive me for that.」
He didn't bow his head or anything, but he did apologize in the only way he could. Plus:
Carrion: 「You could say I owe you one now, I s'pose. Let me know if you have anything I can help ya with.」
Oh, he's done it now. No takebacksies, as Milim called it.
Fubuki: 「I will certainly take that opportunity.」
I grinned and looked towards Rimuru, who seemed to know what I was thinking.
Well, I think he does.
Rimuru: 「In that case, it'd be nice if you could sign a nonaggression treaty with us.」
Carrion: 「…Is that all you need? All right. By my name as demon lord—or should I say, as the Beast Master Carrion of the Beast Kingdom of Eurazania—I swear I'll never turn our blades on any of you. That assumes, of course, you promise the same to us.」
He accepted it easily.
Another sign of his incredible capabilities. I found it quite admirable.
And that pretty much wrapped up the day.
Carrion let his fists do the talking with Phobio, putting him near the brink of death once more, but we all have our funny traits like that, I suppose.
He lent his limp subordinate a shoulder as the two of them shuffled away and teleported themselves back home.
It was time for us to return home, too. The day had its ups and downs, but things were finally starting to settle down a bit.
—————————————————————————————————
Word Count: 「4860」.