Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Calamities Clash

{Magicule Threshold Reached}

 

{Reawakening Athena}

 

{Progress… 1%}

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“Charybdis was born long, long ago, and has died and revived many times. It is a violent Ruler of the Skies. No less is expected of the child of Veldora, the ruler and guardian of the forest. Charybdis was generated from a cloud of Veldora’s magicules.” Trya was the sister of Treyni who previously alerted us and asked us to defeat the Orc Lord who was invading the Great Forest. Now that we again face yet another threat, it would appear another dryad has come to warn us. This threat is stronger than the last, but we’re stronger than we were before.

 

 “If Charybdis has revived, it is a threat greater than a Demon Lord. Unlike a Demon Lord, this is not an opponent we can speak with.” Fuze was the Guildmaster for the fairly small yet politically useful Kingdom of Blumund, he was arguably quite experienced with judging threats, at least more so than some of the people here.

 

“You might as well call it a monster with no intelligence. It’s said that it calls shark-like summon monsters called Megalodons from the spirit world to join it in its rampage.” Vesta was a former Minister in the Kingdom of Dwargon before being revoked of his title and granted to Tempest as reparations for his actions against Rimuru and Dwargon as a whole a while ago. I wasn’t there to witness it, however I don’t think I really needed to. All that’s important is that he’s arguably the smartest one here in terms of sheer technical knowledge. At least by this world’s standards.

 

“What the heck? That sounds worse than the Orc Lord…” Rimuru, who was about the only other important speaking person here besides myself and a handful of others, was the leader of Tempest. Even if he doesn’t act like it…

 

“The situation could not be worse. Its summoned Megalodons have occupied some lesser dragon corpses that were nearby for some unknown reason.”

 

You know for caretakers of the forest who supposedly see all that happens here, I FEEL LIKE YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO NOTICE THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF SEVERAL DRAGON CORPSES!

 

“Huh?”

 

Rimuru surely you have more of a reaction than that.

 

“They number thirteen.”

 

“So there’s one beast as bad as a Demon Lord, and thirteen flying sharks that it summoned? What the hell kind of joke is this?”

 

Shuna stood up quickly, why she was here I have no idea, I’ve never seen her in actual combat, “Great Rimuru, what shall we do?”

 

“What do we do? I mean…”

 

Milim, the town’s friendly neighborhood catastrophe, who frankly could solve all of our problems in a single attack, seems to have the same basic solution that I do, “Hm hm hm! Haven’t you forgotten something important? That stupid Charybdis… is no match for me! I’ll whoop its butt in no time!” She stood up quickly and took off her casual outfit somehow without ripping it to reveal she was wearing her former, fairly revealing, outfit underneath. Now my question is… Where was she hiding the sleeves? The dress she was wearing before had no sleeves, however her current outfit does… where was she? You know what, I’m not going to question the methods of a Demon Lord.

 

“Oh, yeah! That’s one way!”

 

Shion interrupted, “We cannot do that.”

 

Why?

 

“This is our town’s problem.”

 

What? No it's not! This is clearly a calamity capable of causing massive international damage and is the strength of a Demon Lord. I feel like it's well within the category of it being EVERYONE’S problem.

 

Rimuru was visibly distraught, seemingly having the same ideas and thoughts that I was. He really needs to keep his secretary in line.

 

“Huh? But I’m his-”

 

“She’s right. It’s wrong to rely on you for everything just because you’re a friend. When Great Rimuru is in desperate need of help, we would certainly appreciate your assistance then.”

 

AND HOW HAVE YOU CONTRIBUTED TO OUR BATTLES, SHUNA?!

 

“Hahahaha, They’re right Milim… Just have faith in me…”

 

Doesn’t even sound like you have faith in yourself…

 

“Fine then, I’ll just nuke the oversized sky shar-”

“That won’t be necessary either.”

 

I swear to god Shion I’m this close to declaring you a traitor and nuking you instead.

 

“We cannot rely on you to win all of our battles.”

 

“Yes you can… That’s literally how this works.”

 

“How will we improve then?”

 

“Are you treating the greatest threat Tempest has seen yet as a TRAINING EXERCISE?!”

 

“Yes!”

 

I inhale deeply and audibly annoyed as my eye twitches profusely, “Fine. But if it ends with me or Milim killing the thing anyways, I’ll be showing you and Shuna what a real training exercise is.”

 

Rimuru again seemed distraught with Shion’s independent decision and slumped down, “A-alright… W-Well then… Begin preparations to defeat Charybdis!”

 

Everyone affiliated with Rimuru quickly stood up, shouting,  “Yes sir!”

 

After a few moments all of them had left, leaving only me, Rimuru, Fuze, and the adventurer party he came with. “Defeat Charybdis? Are you sure you understand? You’re up against a beast that even the Dryads couldn’t stop.”

 

“We can count on backup from King Gazel, since we signed that treaty. We’ll just do all we can.”

 

“You aren’t going to run away?”

 

“What good would that do? I’m the second strongest one in this nation. Third if you count Milim. If it looks like I stand no chance, I’ll run away and think up a new plan, likely involving Tanya utilizing the power of the sun, but otherwise, I should see how strong it is with my own eyes, right?”

 

“I see. You are the leader of the monsters, after all.”

 

“We’re not like humans who are done for if they lose their king.”

 

“But you know… You think much like we Humans do. It’s hard to see you as a monster.”

 

“Hmm, maybe… It might be hard to believe but me and Tanya actually used to be human.”

 

“Okay just group me in with your reveal. Not that I mind, but maybe next time ask before you reveal that.”

 

“Almost everyone in Tempest knows! You aren’t hiding it yourself! Whatever, you know about Shizu-san right? I think I’m an Otherworlder, just like she was.”

 

You THINK?

 

“I died in my world… and was reincarnated here as a slime”

 

He says as he goes into a human form…

 

“And what about the Demon..?”

 

“The ‘Demon’ has a name, you know.”

 

“Right, sorry.”

 

“This is technically my third life, but otherwise yeah, reincarnated as a Demon, happened to get lucky enough with a physical body from the get-go.”

 

“So you’re both Otherworlders… Interesting, though I can see how that answers some questions.”

 

“Yes, now let's get to defeating Charybdis!”

 

“I’m just gonna go… watch Milim I guess since I’m not invited.”

---

What they said was right, the thing truly was massive. Its sheer size in truth rivaled the city itself of course for the time being the more immediate threats were its Megalodons which were flying lower to the ground. The Orcs managed to bring it to the ground, utilizing their brute strength to slow its movement before launching an attack on it. The attack failed, however. Most of the Orcs were simply fung off of it as Geld struggled to keep it place, proving my suspicions that the Orcs are much more suited for defensive purposes, though Geld had some exceptional strength.

 

 For Gabiru however, he is much more effective offensively as he easily flies in, killing it with one ‘Vortex Crush’ directly to the head with his trident. The megalodon coughed up blood before dying with minimal external injuries. If these things can be turned into any sort of armor, then that’s a good thing, though I am surprised at Gabiru’s actual capabilities.

 

Gabiru immediately went off to fight another one while the Goblin Riders ambushed one on their own. Why these sky sharks keep feeling that the viable strategy is to just fall directly to the ground is beyond me. Either way, I’m not sure how effective the goblin riders are here. Their main strength is their mobility, in normal combat they’re much better suited for quick flanking movements or rushing in, dealing damage, then fleeing before going in again. An all out assault like that is inefficient, however there’s not many other options I suppose.

 

Souei managed to make the megalodons fight each other using some of his skills, which honestly only makes me confused at what Souei can actually do…

 

Not as confused as I am about the fact Ranga can fucking fly! I’ve no idea what series of skills allows him to do that, but somehow he is not only able to fly but also capable of carrying Shion on his back while he does so. Regardless they were at the very least effective, managing to decapitate one of the sharks with Ranga hitting the other with Black Lightning.

 

Lastly, as I expected, the goblins were unable to beat the megalodon, and Hakurou defeated it in seconds. As expected from the Kijin I have the most respect for.

 

“Tanya! Tanya! Let me fight! Pleaaaase!”

 

Milim began shaking my arm furiously, having been pouting the entire time.

 

“I’m not happy about this either, okay?”

 

“But I’m your bestie! Can’t you let me fight!”

 

“I wish I could, Milim… I wish I could… This would be over already, wouldn’t it?”

 

“Of course! So why can’t you?”

 

“Shion.”

 

“When she gets down here I’m gonna-!”

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Huh?! Why not!”

 

Milim again pouted.

 

“Unfortunately, regardless of incompetence, we cannot just go around killing Rimuru’s subordinates.”

 

Milim folded her arms and pouted as I rolled my eyes. Milim went and sat down by a tree as I continued watching them beat up a bunch of flying sharks, though it seemed all of them had been taken care of by now.

 

After a while it began to launch off all of its scales which flew all around it. I doubt I’d have too much trouble with it, but I suppose for everyone else it's an actual threat. What matters though is that it finally causes Rimuru to begin fighting as they devour all of the scales using his skill in a mere instant, once again reminding me that if I ever fight Rimuru, to NOT use projectiles.

 

After another few minutes they began attacking it with basically everything they could… for about several hours. I got bored after a while and decided to basically sit around and mess with some of my skills, experimenting with things I could do, not that I actually made anything new in that period.

 

After a while of their endless and frankly useless attacks Rimuru finally flew down to where I was finally about to relax. “Hey uh Tanya… It seems this guy has business with you.”

 

“Hm? So you finally realized that Phobio guy’s being used as its body?”

 

“Huh?! You knew this whole time?!”

 

“For the most part.”

 

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“Why didn’t you say anything?!”

 

“Because I wasn’t allowed to get involved. If you wanted me to say something you should’ve said something when your subordinates had that moronic idea.”

 

“Right… sorry. In truth I thought it was after me…”

 

“Why would it be after you?”

 

“That's uh… a bit complicated.”

 

“Whatever, call a withdrawal, I’m nuking the sky shark.”

 

“By the way, if Phobio works for the Demon Lord Carrion, try to do it without killing him.”

 

“Ugh, fine, I’ll use some restraint.”

 

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

 

Having enough of the conversation I flew up rapidly, coming effectively face to face with Charybdis while everyone else fell back. 

 

To take out this thing I have two steps. Firstly, pierce the core. If I can damage the core enough without completely destroying it, I can at the minimum limit its regenerative skills and other abilities. Secondly is to destroy its outer body, keeping Phobio’s intact.

 

To start this I’ll use a new skill to pierce it, once that skill deals its blow to the core, it will be immediately followed by numerous nuclear explosions all around Charybdis.

 

Before I could begin it began launching all of its scales at me in a fit of rage, “Tan-Tanya!”

 

“Hmm you do know my name, I wonder how conscious you are. If you are, do well to remember this.”

 

As the scales launched at me, many began bouncing or ricocheting off of my barrier, some outright shattered on impact. I couldn’t risk any of these getting in the way of my attack. The solution was simple, Magic Manipulation. Utilizing my vast amounts of magicules I’m easily able to override all of these scales and sever their connection, causing them to fall to the ground. 

 

With that the path was clear as I lifted my hand and turned my body to the right. Creating a spear of dense magical energy it began to vibrate rapidly as I quickly turned my body back as I made a throwing motion, “Go! GUNGNIR!” 

 

Instantly the magically-created spear was gone, already having pierced all the way through Charybdis in a near instant. Immediately afterwards, Charybdis faced explosions all across it as I unleashed Ragnarok onto it, albeit with each explosion being on a much larger scale than used on the Orcs.

 

As the smoke subsided and I dissipated the radiation, the smoldering body of Phobio began flying in the air towards the ground before Rimuru swept him up and began to land. Overall the process of the spear piercing Charybdis and the following explosions going off occured in less than a second, though it took me a short bit to prepare the spear and a bit longer to dissipate the radiation.

 

The Gungnir attack was a mixture of physics and sheer magical power. By vibrating the spear so much, it's capable of piercing just about anything, and its high density makes it capable of even surpassing magical resistances because of just how much magic is in it despite it being incredibly thin.

 

Rimuru then managed to successfully separate the core from Phobio, likely assisted by the core’s weakened state after I quite literally stabbed a hole into it. Phobio nearly died as well if it weren’t for Rimuru’s full potions.

---

I am once again reminded why I need to keep Tanya in check, because if I don’t, I’m certain half of civilization will fall. Each and every time she fights I swear she’s created some new highly powerful attack which can defeat her enemy. I don’t even know what attack she just did! One second she has a spear, the next second Charybdis is engulfed in several nuclear explosions…

 

No matter, I need to deal with this Phobio guy again…

 

“Hey you awake?”

 

“Where… am I? What… What did I…”

 

“Do you remember what you did?”

 

In what seemed to be a sudden moment of realization, he quickly bowed down, “I’m so sorry! I’ve done something unthinkable to Lady Tanya and I’ve caused so much trouble for you!”

 

I can only imagine what fear Tanya has struck into him to cause him to refer to her like that…

 

“Why did you do–”

 

Suddenly the dryad appeared again, now with Treyni with her, interrupting me as Treyni took over the interrogation, “How did you know where Charybdis was sealed? We won’t accept that you just happened to find it.”

 

“You heard her.” I didn’t even know he needed to find where he was sealed in order to be taken over by him, I suppose I should have.

 

“Right… You see… It was two masked harlequins named Tear and Footman…”

 

Treyni began to draw in the dirt on the ground, “Did the mask look like this?”

 

“No, the ones I met were a girl in a mask with a tear under one eye and a heavy man with an angry mask.”

 

Benimaru seemed to think of something, maybe one of them is connected to the attack on their village and the Orc Lord.

 

Gabiru too, seemed to think of a connection, “That Laplace guy also…”

 

“Laplace?” Should I know who this guy is?

 

“Laplace once showed up before me as a servant of Gelmud. He was wearing a mask like the one Treyni described. Also he called himself the vice president of a jack-of-all-trades group called the Moderate Harlequin Alliance.”

 

Well, now the dots are connected.

 

Treyni stood up again, “I see. And this person’s name was Laplace?”

 

Benimaru smirked, “Footman eh, we’ll have to remember that name.”

 

Shuna nodded, “Yes, brother.”

 

Only now I noticed Tanya has been angrily staring between Shuna and Shion on occasion… Oh right, they’re the ones who suggested she sit out of the fight… and she ended up defeating it anyways… What was she planning to do if that happened? Whatever it was, I imagine they aren’t gonna be having a great time in the next few days.

 

“A mysterious jack-of-all-trades group, the Moderate Harlequin Alliance? They pretend they’re helping you, then use you to fulfill their goals without getting their own hands dirty… They sound like they’ll be trouble.”

 

If they’re associated with a Demon Lord, then maybe Milim knows about them… I turn to Milim to ask before she quickly corrects me, “I don’t know anything about them! In fact, if fun people like that are really out there, I wanna meet them! It may be that it wasn’t Gelmud, but Clayman who’s plotting something in secret.”

 

“Clayman?”

 

“He loves coming up with schemes like that.”

 

“Demon Lord Clayman…”

 

Phobio spoke again, honestly I was starting to forget he was here, “Regardless of whose scheme I was roped into, what happened was my own responsibility. It has nothing to do with Demon Lord Carrion, so please… Take my life and leave him out of this!”

 

Tanya seemed more than willing to comply, (‘Can I-?’)

 

(‘No!’)

 

“Next time, be more on your toes so you won’t be fooled again.”

 

“Huh?”

 

He didn’t seem to understand the concept of mercy. To be completely fair, neither did Tanya in this moment, though she was at least willing to not kill him for now.

 

“You can move now, right? So you can go.”

 

“But… What I did was unforgivable!”

 

“I don’t even want your life, right Tanya…”

 

I glance over at Tanya, making sure she doesn’t say something I’ll regret. She rolls her eyes, “I don’t want your life, but incompetent subordinates should be punished. I’m sure your master over here agrees.”

 

Phobio looked up shocked, “L-Lord Carrion!”

 

“You’re a perceptive Demon aren’t you?”

 

“Pretty hard to hide that aura of yours.”

 

So this guy’s the Demon Lord Carrion… I’m more surprised Tanya noticed him and I didn’t.

 

“Yo. Thanks for sparing this guy’s life.” Carrion looked down at me for a few moments before continuing, “You’re the masked majin who defeated Gelmud, are you not?”

 

“Yeah, that’s right.” I hopped into human form now that the mention of it came up, “Are you here to avenge him?”

 

“Nah.” He turned to Phobio, “Get up.”

 

“Y-Yes, sir!”

 

Phobio was promptly smacked into the ground.

 

“Sorry about that.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“It seems my underling here was out of control. That means I was negligent in his oversight. I hope you’ll forgive him, though that Demon is right, the failure of a subordinate must be punished.”

 

“S-Sure…”

 

“I owe you one after all this. If anything comes up, you can always count on me.”

 

“In that case, I’d appreciate it if you’d enter a non-aggression pact with our nation.”

 

“That’s all you want? Very well. The Demon Lord… No… The Beastmaster of the Animal Kingdom of Eurazania, Carrion, swears on his name to never raise a blade to your nation.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

“All right. Lets go”

 

Carrion picks up Phobio and carries him over his shoulder, leaving a noticeable trail of blood leaking from his face.

 

“Uh, he’s losing tons of blood!”

 

“Well, I’ll see you again, Rimuru.”

 

Using some sort of teleportation spell or skill, Carrion vanishes, likely back to his kingdom.

 

“Now, then… I guess that’s over. Let's head home.”

 

“Yes, sir!”

 

With that, Catastrophe was averted and Tempest secured peace to the south along with a potential friendship with yet another Demon Lord while the threat of another appeared. I have no clue what’s to come, but I sure as hell hope, no, I’m confident we can handle it.