by Fuse
Not that I needed to tell it that.
Instead, now seemed like a good time to look a little cool around everyone else. “Leave the rest to me. You three go back down and rest,” I declared, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“B-but… We can still help you…”
I stopped Soei before he could continue. “Look! It’s already regenerating its scales. That wasn’t a single-use skill—it’s something it can launch again and again. I don’t know if I can protect you all from a second round of that. We should be glad that we made Charybdis attack us at all, really—if we didn’t know about those scales and left the Pegasus Knights to handle it, the casualty list would’ve been huge. You can be proud of yourselves today, people!”
Soei retreated back, apparently convinced.
“I wish you good luck!”
“Be careful, Sir Rimuru.”
“You may summon me at any time, master.”
Ranga carried them off after they all said their farewells. Now, then. I just gave them that big-hero act, but being faced with this huge freak, I wasn’t exactly feeling serene. No point whining about it now, though. I’ll just have to do what I can.
It was time to face off against Charybdis.
I wasn’t kidding, though; we were really lucky we got to see Charybdis’s Tempest Scale before the Pegasus Knights showed up. The scales that didn’t quite fall in range of Glutton were causing serious damage in virtually all directions. If we took the brunt of that shot, defense just wouldn’t be possible. We’d all be mincemeat.
None of our forces took a direct hit from the scales, thankfully, but the nearby forest had been heavily damaged—or really, violently reshaped. The amount of power behind it was just ridiculous.
Well, better do my job, then. The first question to tackle was how many seconds I had until another Tempest Scale barrage came along. I could already see the Pegasus Knight reinforcements off in the distance. They were stopped, apparently just as awed by that last attack as we were. Presumably someone would explain what’s up while I was engaged with Charybdis.
It was my job to keep that dragon engaged with me and reveal as many of its attacks as possible. After that, we could keep ourselves at a safe margin and gradually chip away at the guy together. It’d be a marathon, but we’ll just have to slog through it.
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.
So our mission to conquer Charybdis was now fully under way. 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… Or at least, act a little irritated, maybe? It’s so big that I wasn’t sure that bolt did much damage at all. Can’t give up now, though. Enough of them, and the damage is bound to pile up over time.
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.
Along with that useful info, however, I learned a few things I wish I didn’t have to.
“Uh…hang on. This guy has Ultraspeed Regeneration, doesn’t it?”
I whispered it out loud, even though I knew nobody would respond.
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.
Oh, wait, someone did respond. Or I should say, I learned something at that moment that I fervently wished wasn’t true.
Basically, Ultraspeed Regeneration was what made Charybdis’s scales grow back at such high speed. Once that process wrapped up, I was sure there’d be another Tempest Scale blast—even quicker than before, if it didn’t bother aiming at the storm this time. Perhaps as soon as three minutes—but if I could damage parts of it enough, maybe it wouldn’t be able to release scales from those sections of its body.
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 ten hours after that.
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.
I’d say we were about 30 percent of the way, maybe? We were all in on the effort. Anyone who could fly was up there, along with Ranga and Soei via Shadow Motion, while Benimaru and the dryad sisters lobbed magical attacks from afar and Shuna and the rest provided support healing and protection. Beams of searing light and sharply honed scales zipped to and fro across the battlefield, magic and skills flying past the other. It was an incredible, yet terrifying spectacle to see.
All of us were working together and giving it our all, and we were not quite a third of the way there. We were all keeping a safe distance, so none of us had dropped out yet. I think there might have been one dropout, actually, but maybe I was just imagining it. But even the most well trained among us were gonna have trouble keeping this pace up forever. We weren’t going to be afforded a single mistake—lose focus, and not only you, but our entire strategy would go up in smoke.
It seemed hopeless. But nobody in our army dared to give up. And just as I was racking my brain, figuring out what I should do:
“Gnh. Grnhhh…aahhh… Y-you… Mi…”
Hmm? Did I just hear something?
“Curse youuu…uuu, Mi—Mili… Milim!!”
Huh?! Milim? Did it say Milim just now? I immediately had the Great Sage perform an analysis.
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.
And now its rage was aimed at Milim, not me. Hmm? Wait a minute. So did this monster head straight for our town because some magic-born out there had a bone to pick with Milim?
Oh, great.
This didn’t have anything to do with us! And here I thought it was picking up some kind of magic waves from Veldora inside me. Talk about overthinking.
And…hang on. So it’s no problem at all if I shove this on Milim’s shoulders, then?
The shocking truth hit me.
The moment I woke her up, I sent Milim a Thought Communication.
Hey, uh, Milim, I think this guy’s got a score to settle with ya, after all…
Ooh, I heard it. Looks like Charybdis is using Phobio, the Black Leopard Fang, as its core body. You know, the guy who was here before?
Despite being a long distance away, Milim had still
picked up on Charybdis’s thought waves, using her Dragon’s Eye to accurately discover its identity. Its analytical abilities were ahead of even the Great Sage’s, but I should have expected nothing less from her, I guess.
I suppose you’re right. And here I was keeping you idle because I thought this was our guest to handle.
Ooh, does that mean I can tackle it, maybe?! she excitedly asked, not bothering to wait for my full explanation.
Just as I expected, she pounced on the offer. Nice. I knew she was champing at the bit for this from the start, but still. Gotta hand it to her; I’m impressed she had the patience to wait for so long.
Okay. You take my place. Sorry I got between you and your friend here, I guess.
I made sure to emphasize that. This was Milim’s guest, not mine. Now I could take Charybdis, this unfathomably hideous calamity of a monster, and palm it off on Milim.
Oh, and one more thing:
Also, uh, Phobio was working for Carillon, wasn’t he? You think you could maybe spit him out of that thing while you take the monster out? I’d like to rescue him alive, if possible…
This was important. I knew it was a pretty crazy thing to ask, faced with a monster like Charybdis and all, but I had a feeling Milim was up to the task. Plus, if she killed a servant of the demon lord Carillon, that’d just create new problems for us. I had another motivation, too, but that one was so pie in the sky—I could save it for later. For now, I just wanted Phobio safe.
Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! You got it! That’ll be a cinch for me. I’ve learned how to hold back my power a little lately, too. Lemme show you how good I’ve gotten at it!
Milim gladly accepted, relishing the chance to boast about herself. She’d learned how to hold back, though…? Like she had any idea what that meant. For some reason, that made me a bit concerned. I opted not to voice that concern, though, as I let her take care of the rest.
And now that that was squared away, the rest would happen pretty quickly.
“Okay, guys! Retreat from the area immediately!”
“What are you talking about, Sir Rimuru? We have hardly given up yet.”
“Please, just do what I say! Believe in me! You all have to get out of here!”
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.
“It’s all yours now! Good luck!” And with that, Dolph sent his cavalry back. My own friends didn’t voice any such objections, of course; they had picked up on enough of my Thought Communication to get the picture.
And so, once I was sure everyone except me was gone, I sent the signal.
Okay, Milim! All set here!
“You got it!”
She had already flown into the air, not bothering to wait for the signal. Her dragon wings were stretched high behind her, a self-contented smile on her face. In another moment, she was next to me.
“Gnh. Grrrhhhhh! Mili— Milimmmmm!!”
Noticing her presence, Charybdis arched its body and glared straight at us. It was already too late.
“Well, here we go! Here’s what ‘holding back’ looks like for me! Drago Buster!!”
A fantastic stream of bluish-white light rushed from Milim’s outstretched arms.
It was a light of destruction that made everything disappear.
…?! 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 Milim’s attack, but the results were pretty obvious.
The sight before me was forcing me to rethink the meaning of the term holding back. Several streams of the white light had pooled together, crashing right through Charybdis’s body. It began to eat away at it, giving the dragon no time for Ultraspeed Regeneration to work. The 150-foot-long frame was no match for it, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared.
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 X number of hours gradually whittling away at it, taking out 30 percent of its energy, and now it was destroyed beyond repair in the space of several seconds.
Truly, Milim’s strength could only be described as beyond imagination.
Charybdis was gone, and a little piece of its body fell to the ground. Or not a piece, actually—this was Phobio, that magic-born it was built around. Milim kept her promise. She called it holding back; I would call it a masterpiece of work.
I flew over to the magic-born, grabbing him before he smashed against the ground. He was alive, if barely, which meant I got what I wanted. I decided to get to work immediately, preferring if nobody else had to see this.
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.
“What are you doing with him?”
“Just watch,” I said, dodging the question as I began. “We can’t let Phobio go free, right? I figured we better take care of him right now. Fully.”
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, Glutton, 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 Carillon. 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 battle against Charybdis was starting to seem like someone else’s problem by now—and I knew the reason why. It was Milim. She had dozens of times more magical energy than I did; a demon lord with untold amounts of power. Having her around meant I wasn’t nervous at all about facing Charybdis. I knew in my mind that we were all in mortal danger, but in one corner of my brain, I was spoiled by the fact that I could always call on Milim for help. There was no real sense of danger to me.
This, on the other hand, was different. I couldn’t leave this job to anyone else. Mess it up, and it could be the spark that touched off a whole other crisis. That was why I didn’t want anyone else watching—I wanted to take full responsibility for whatever happened.
Of course, I had Milim right next to me, curiously taking in the proceedings, 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 Milim’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 give some healing potion to the weakened Phobio before I forgot. I gave him 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.
“Would you be able to explain to us what happened?”
That was the first thing knight captain Dolph said when he saw me.
Hmm. Yeah. I guess you’d want an explanation, wouldn’t you?
“Well, um… You know. This girl here, she’s actually the demon lord Milim, so…”
“Ha-ha-ha, you certainly enjoy your jokes, Sir Rimuru.”
His eyes weren’t laughing.
“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.”
He was clearly miffed at me, and I could understand why. I didn’t have much excuse, really.
“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 will excuse me, then, I need to report to His Majesty.”
He relaxed his scowl a bit and bowed.
“Thanks for all your help. I will provide my own explanation to King Gazel shortly.” I returned the gesture.
I meant that. This was a demon lord–class monster, and the dwarves didn’t hesitate to step up against it. Without their support, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed that Phobio was the magic-born driving its rage. Chances are that I would’ve asked Milim to kill it anyway, but then she wouldn’t have “held back”—she would’ve atomized it all the way, and I wouldn’t have lifted a finger to stop her, no doubt.
It was that small sliver of extra time that helped us notice the ever-so-slight discrepancy between Phobio and Charybdis.
“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…”
