by Fuse
A white-hot ball of energy scraped past my cheek. The speed amazed me. Even with Raphael running at full speed, I still couldn’t fully avoid it. If I even thought about a counter, it’d leave me open enough for a lethal strike.
The only thing I could do, then, was try my hardest to keep up with Milim while I concentrated on breaking her mind control. Even so, my Detect Magic was telling me about events in the circle. It was almost scary, the way I could juggle all of that. Too bad I couldn’t bask in it right now.
Shion was fighting Clayman, but it was two on one with that black-robed figure in the mix, so I couldn’t say she had the advantage. Ranga, meanwhile, was pitted against Nine-Head, and I thought he was winning, but then those three tails on the fox spirit transformed into two magical beasts. All of a sudden, it was three on one.
I, meanwhile, had Milim to deal with. There really was nothing I could do. Nothing, besides pray that everyone stayed alive until I could finish running Analyze and Assess on her.
So, uh, you guys take care of yourselves! Got it?
Beretta quickly set to action, asking Ramiris if it could join the battle. Ramiris, for her part, wasn’t about to turn her toy down.
“Whoa, Guy! I’m with Rimuru, all right? So I want my Beretta to be part of that, too.”
“No,” he coldly replied, paying her as little attention as possible.
“Why not?!”
“Mm? Mere attendants aren’t allowed to join a battle between demon lords. This is a dispute between that slime and Clayman, is it not? You have no reason to join in.”
“What’re you talking about?! Milim’s in there, ain’t she?”
“Oh, she’s fine.”
“So what’s with that? Why’s she fine, and I’m not?!”
Guy rolled his eyes, tiring of this. Ramiris was always something of a loudmouth. Once she got started, it was hard to make her stop.
She had never brought attendants to a Council before, so Guy realized she must’ve had some reason to do it this time. Considering Milim’s involvement, letting Ramiris join in would just add to the chaos. He had isolated the battle zone in part to prevent this.
“Because Milim likely has her own motivations for this. Now will you shut up?”
“Oh, so you think there’s not a thought in my mind about it at all?”
“Is there? Besides…” Guy gave Beretta a look. “Who has your attendant sworn its loyalties to? Your other companion seems ready to devote her all to protecting you, but I’m not so sure about this Beretta. It’s faithful to you, but not completely so. You want me to trust someone so suspicious?”
He had spotted the truth. Beretta’s loyalties weren’t only to Ramiris. And as one of Ramiris’s closest friends, he wasn’t willing to allow an attendant who was weighing its master on the scales against someone else.
“My master is on the balance, yes,” Beretta freely admitted.
There was Rimuru, its master. Rimuru, its creator, but also Ramiris, its current leader. She was a ridiculously optimistic, rash, curious, even cowardly demon lord, but Beretta had grown to love her. It didn’t even mind all that abusive manipulation. Rimuru had wished for Ramiris to be protected and for Beretta to serve her as well. There was no contradiction at all in its mind.
There was just one thing: Beretta wanted to repay the favor to Rimuru. It was once a demon, and Rimuru had granted it both a new life and a new mission. It felt a need to make up for that.
“And if Lady Ramiris wishes to save that figure as much as I do…” It spoke to Guy without any fear.
“Hoh? Audacious enough to address me, are you? Interesting. May I trust this golem at its word, Ramiris?”
The fairy gave him a look that indicated no answer was needed, but she gave one anyway. “Oooh yeah, yeah, of course! So you go help out Rimuru in my place, all right, Beretta?!”
“Hmm. So it will take action if you wish it to, then? You’ve obtained quite a good attendant for yourself, Ramiris.”
“Nah, nah, not obtained. We’re friends! Me, and Beretta, and Treyni, and Rimuru, too!” She smiled contentedly. “Like, everyone, a whole, whole lot!”
Guy wasn’t quite sure what Ramiris was trying to say, but if she was fine with that, so was he.
“Well, all right…” He reluctantly extended a hand to open a hole in the barrier.
“…I thank you, Rouge,” Beretta said.
“Sure. Don’t call me that. I’ll allow you to call me Guy. But I refuse to allow you to recognize another master apart from Ramiris from now on. Is that all right?”
Granting this honor meant Guy saw Beretta as strong enough to live up to his own standards. Now, he was asking it to pick a master. If it attempted to weasel out of the question, he intended to smash it up on the spot. But it immediately agreed.
“In that case, Guy, I will swear my loyalty to Lady Ramiris exclusively from now on. So please allow me to be of service to Sir Rimuru at least once.”
Guy was a tad surprised. Demons, as a rule, wanted to be recognized by their masters for their strength. Beretta, meanwhile, didn’t seem to see strength as too important. Its standards had gone all haywire. It was a nonconformist.
“You are fine with that?”
“Yes. Sir Rimuru has servants stronger than myself.”
That made sense to Guy. But it also confused him, someone this powerful admitting to not being the strongest out there.
“I also enjoy conducting research,” Beretta continued. “The research I do with Lady Ramiris on a daily basis is truly like a dream… Oh, pardon me. My serving Lady Ramiris is part of Sir Rimuru’s request. There is no need to worry about that.”
The words reminded Guy of a demon he knew, the very definition of strange, one who pursued only what personally interested him. If they were part of the same lineage, perhaps demons with dispositions like Beretta’s shouldn’t be so unexpected—but the demon in Guy’s mind rarely birthed other family members. Only an elite few were aware of him at all.
“Let me ask—what is your lineage like?”
Beretta winced underneath its mask and laughed.
“…I was one of the least of the greater demons. However, I think you will find very few demons in the same family tree as I.”
A small lineage. That has to be it, then. Beretta’s hair was gray, the color gone from it, but once upon a time…
“I see. No wonder you didn’t fear me. That family always was self-centered, curious. So someone like you admits there are stronger creatures than yourself?”
Guy shot a passing glance at Shion and Ranga fighting away, then turned back toward Beretta. Yes, Shion and Ranga were powerful—but he didn’t think Beretta was at all behind them.
“I thank you for the honor, but I still have far to go. As long as the two of them serve Sir Rimuru, if I miss this opportunity, I may never have another one.”
“Yes, true. I understand how you feel. You may go.”
The barrier already had a hole large enough to wriggle through.
“Excuse me, then.”
With an elegant salute, Beretta plunged in. Guy cracked a smile as he watched it go. He had an idea who this would be.
…So that’s it. You’re on the move as well, Noir?!
This was an old friend, one who went away from him ages ago. If this was the type of people he was serving now, the slime fighting Milim in front of him must be quite the fascinating figure. A nonconformist serving a nonconformist.
He basked in joy as he watched the battle, even as he thought he could see its conclusion already.
Rimuru was his name? I will have to remember it.
Oh, crap. I’m screwed.
Who’s screwing me? Milim, of course.
Dealing with Milim as a foe made Clayman’s anger seem like a toddler’s tantrum. She hadn’t taken the battle form Phobio saw yet, so she still wasn’t going all out…but her strength went beyond all common sense. I was already exercising everything I had. Raphael, at least, was really humming along
for me—seriously, if I didn’t have that skill, I would’ve been dead already.
So I was fully booked with Milim, but my fighting companions were working hard as well. I had thought being outnumbered might sink us, but now I wasn’t so sure.
Ranga had summoned two star leaders, fellow commander-level starwolves, boosting his team so it was three on three. I guess it was possible for him to summon up to three at once, but Gobta was using the third one right now, so that was all we had on hand. Still, I think it was enough.
Nine-Head boasted a massive amount of magical energy, but it didn’t seem too experienced in battle. Ranga held the upper hand from start to finish. The two magical beasts Nine-Head summoned, however, were trickier than I thought. Analyze and Assess told me they were a White Monkey and a Moon Rabbit, respectively. They were both intelligent and capable of attacking in tandem, which made them fiendish in battle. The Moon Rabbit could control gravity, weighing down everyone in the battle zone. It allowed the White Monkey to pummel their foes and Nine-Head to finish them off.
That was their standard path to victory, but Ranga saw right through it, breaking down their teamwork. If he used one of his stronger finishers, he could’ve wiped them out instantly, but he was hesitating since Shion might be caught in the cross fire. He had the upper hand, but landing a decisive blow was proving elusive.
Shion, meanwhile… Well, she was hanging in there, out of pure fighting spirit more than anything. The black robe was hiding an elaborately built magical puppet, and I’m not kidding when I say it looked stronger than Clayman.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! How do you like Viola, my greatest work of art? Beautiful, is she not?”
Clayman was boundlessly confident, and I could see why. A real tour de force, although beautiful wouldn’t be my choice of words if asked. Not with, you know, all those swords and spears flying out of her. Each one of those projectiles was a Unique-grade weapon, as was her armor, but this kind of kitchen-sink approach wasn’t what I would call beauty, really. Whether it was heat, electricity, blizzards, crushing, resonation, or anything else, she had a seemingly limitless supply of every attack type in the world, and she was lobbing it all at her foe.
It was nothing to Shion, however. That was thanks to Ultraspeed Regeneration, which sucks if you’re fighting someone who has it. No matter how much damage she took, Shion could instantly heal back up. Clayman and Viola working together prevented her from going on the attack, but that was just helping fill up Shion’s anger gauge. Once that blew up, things were gonna get scary.
As I thought about that, Shion had someone join her.
“I apologize for making you wait. Sir Rimuru, please utilize my power.”
Whoa, it’s Beretta! I don’t know how, but it must’ve broken into this battle zone.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Beretta!”
“Yes sir!”
“This needless meddling… I was just about to turn these fools into a pair of bloody husks!”
Shion was acting like a sore loser, but I’ll just ignore that.
“Well, don’t let up. Smash them!”
“““Yes sir!!”””
We were now fully back to the original script.
No losing now. The path we took here got a little hairy midway, but with things as they were, our victory was unshakable.
The only problem was Milim. She still wasn’t going all out. If I could free her, we’d win for sure. My qualms about the future settled, I focused my full consciousness on her. The noise surrounding me disappeared. I sharpened my mind, looking at nothing but Milim. Now, much more clearly than before, I could see the path her fist traced in the air.
I focused, using every cell in my body for my calculations. If I lose this, it’d all be meaningless. I had to do whatever it took to release the curse Clayman placed on her. Come on, Raphael. Analyze and Assess every inch of her for me!
What was that? I’m berating my foes for relying on other people, but using Raphael to solve all my own problems? I don’t know where you’re getting the wrong idea. Raphael is my power.
There isn’t a single iota of guilt in my mind!
So, uh, yeah, go ahead.
Understood. Conducting Analyze and Assess… No results.
Huh? Huhhhh?!
Um, what do you mean by that? You can’t seriously mean that you can’t figure out the silly curses Clayman placed on her?
No curse-oriented magic found. This is—
Dude, how useless can you get?!
Whenever this happened before, I figured it was because I wasn’t concentrating hard enough, but after all that effort, nothing. It couldn’t even discover any curse at all. Guess I can’t trust Raphael in a pinch.
This was bad. Really, really bad. Not to sound all depressed, but the chances of me winning in a knock-down, drag-out brawl with Milim were laughably poor. Well, so be it—I’ll just have to hold out until Shion and the rest defeat Clayman.
My mind made up, I confronted Milim. I had gotten stronger. She might be both under someone’s control and not really trying yet, but I was certainly holding my own against Milim. In the past, I’d be eating dirt before a minute elapsed. Right now, we were at minute thirteen or so, and I was still fighting at a full clip.
Hey, maybe she’d snap out of it if I just gave her a good sock on the noggin?
The thought crossed my mind for just a moment, but I dunno… Striking Milim kind of goes against my personal rules…
Suggestion. An energy absorption attack using Belzebuth.
Oh? Ohhhh! That could work!!
I immediately tried it out. Any direct strike on my body would cause damage, so I was mainly parrying her moves. I would be applying just a little bit of force from the side, enough to adjust the paths of her punches and kicks. As I did, I’d use Belzebuth to vacuum up her magicules.
This turned out to be pretty effective. Milim reared away from me, a scowl on her face. It was a teeny-tiny amount of damage, but it worked. All of Milim’s attacks were protected by her own draconic aura; if I could take that out of the picture just by touching it, I’d gradually be able to sap her stamina.
Would I win with this, though? That was another story. If I was focused on “winning,” I’d need to bust out my full strength, leaving nothing behind, and even then there was no guarantee. Even if I pulled it off, I’d wind up revealing all my hidden abilities to the demon lords watching us. In the big picture, that’d be a defeat.
Right now, all I could do was chip away at her like this as I waited for her curse to be undone. Let’s hope that Shion can finish off Clayman sooner rather than later.
I couldn’t say how many back-and-forth exchanges we went through.
I say exchanges, but it was entirely me defending. The rules were intense—one mistake, and you’re out—but I was still fending her off.
A roaring fist from Milim surged past my right cheek. If I didn’t focus, I’d never be able to dodge it. A single hit would shatter my body, no doubt. I had Infinite Regeneration, a healing skill more powerful than even its Ultraspeed cousin, but abusing it would drain my magicules too quickly. I could probably regenerate myself after being reduced to goo, but keep that up long enough, and I’d run out of stamina first.
So focus. Focus. Read ahead of Milim’s moves.
Her right fist had changed in shape. A dragon-fang lash disguised as a punch. It’d glance past my cheek once again, then decapitate me with the nails on her fingers, like the teeth of a dragon. The correct way to deal with it was not to dodge but to take it from the side.
So I took it, pushing myself with my left hand from the inside out. I could feel a burning pain sear through that hand, an explosion of energy that left it heavily damaged. And that was me avoiding the attack. Trying to take a full-frontal blow from her would’ve been crazy. Absolute power, on this level, was a kind of finisher in itself, crushing its opponent. I had just learned that the hard way, but if I didn’t sacrifice my left hand, I would’ve been mortally wounded.
I was fine with that, but I was really starting to resent the sheer unfairness of this.
Then, as if reading my mind, I had an unexpected chance. Right there, as Milim lost her balance, she forced her remaining left hand to snap off a punch.
Here we go!
Report. It is believed to be a trap—
Huh?! I thought, but it was too late.
Leaving Raphael’s composed guidance in the dust, I began my attack, grabbing Milim’s left hand and attempting to throw her. If she was off-balance, I thought I should be able to pick her up on my back and slam her down.
But if that was Milim’s trap…?
Her hand stopped dead in the air, a carefree grin on her face—a total “gotcha now!” smile.
Oh, craaaaaaaaap?!
I was attempting to twist my body in front of Milim, both hands reaching out for her left arm. I could see all of that with Detect Magic as if watching it on TV, but it left me totally open. Cornered. Game over.
Her fist moved again—and just before she smashed it right against my head, something cut in between us. A dull thud rang out.
“Gnhh?! Where did that come from? That was just mean.”
I was greeted by a dark-skinned man with blond hair. Looked a little bit like me, actually… Wait, Veldora?!
He was curled up on the floor, grabbing at his head and looking like he was in at least some pain. But if taking a punch from Milim only did that to him, I didn’t see much need to worry. I took the moment’s delay to rebalance and steel myself toward Milim.
“Hey, Veldora, why are you in here?!”
“Grrnnn, what a cruel blow…”
“You’ll be fine, all right? What’s happening in town?”
“Nothing. That man, Diablo or whatever it was, came back, so our defense is as strong as ever.”
Huhhh? Diablo was back? There’s no way they could’ve captured Farmus that quickly…but let’s focus on Veldora for now.
“So what are you here for? If it’s to whine at me, then go away.”