The three demons emerged from the Gate, greeted with cheers from the other officers.
“Well done! I’m very proud indeed.”
Carrera slapped Agera on the back a few times. It almost killed him.
“I have some refreshments ready for all of you.”
A set of freshly brewed tea and sandwiches was flawlessly laid out on a table. This was Zonda’s work, and it, too, was well-received.
Putting other issues aside for later, Esprit handed the red ball to Carrera.
“Here is the soul of that foul-mouthed man. His heart core is locked inside, so his ego is still there!”
“Nice, Esprit! Now we can punish this fool for insulting Sir Rimuru.”
“We sure can. By the way, Carrera, can you leave that job to me?”
Carrera tossed the ball at the interrupting Ultima. “If it’s all right with Benimaru, I don’t mind.”
“Whatever you want.”
She didn’t need to ask. Benimaru had no interest in torturing the dead, and it’s not like he could do anything with people’s souls anyway, so he had little recourse but to leave this matter to the demons. Normally he’d find it against his principles to do anything further to an opponent after the duel was over. But Garcia’s comments truly were unacceptable this time. Benimaru wasn’t going to intervene for him, and so the soul went into Ultima’s hands.
“Wonderful. Now, let’s get started! Crazed Vendetta Expiation!!”
This was a deadly poison, one invented and refined by Ultima. It wasn’t a physical one, but instead one that destroyed the spiritual body and ate into the astral one as well. There was no way for this red ball, the embodiment of a soul, to withstand it. Garcia screamed out in agony.
(Stop! Stop it!!)
But Ultima just laughed and laughed.
“Yes, yes! Look how effective this is!”
“What kind of effect is it, exactly?” asked Testarossa. She knew, of course, but wanted it spelled out for Garcia.
“Well, it applies continual, unending pain until the power housed within the soul wears off. This one had a lot of energy, so I think he’ll get to enjoy it for a long time to come. And once it’s done—maybe in about a thousand years?—he’ll be reborn as a clean, unblemished soul!”
Ultima was only too eager to explain. Garcia, meanwhile, could only weep in silence. He wondered where he went wrong, although it was too late for that now.
“Ah, yes, good for him. I’m sure he’s thanking you right now for letting him atone for his sins.”
Testarossa smiled warmly. Benimaru sincerely doubted any of that, but this time, he would offer their victims no quarter. Besides, they had Zonda’s nice little tea break to enjoy.
“You know,” Esprit said, internally wondering if they had time for this break, “when Agera started talking about not being able to win, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.”
Now that things were peaceful again, she felt safe lodging this couched complaint. She knew Agera would have some kind of plan, but she was still bitter about being so spectacularly taken advantage of.
“I didn’t say that we couldn’t win,” Agera retorted—but to tell the truth, he wasn’t entirely convinced his strategy would work. All was well now, of course, but if Blade Transform failed on him, there really was no plan B left.
“Right, but you should have at least discussed it with me beforehand! It’s fine now that we won, but if we didn’t, you’d be too dead to ever atone for it!”
For someone like Esprit who almost never left her safe zone during battle, she hadn’t been in such dire straits like that in ages. It made her all the more irritated toward Agera.
“Well,” said Ultima with a smile, “certainly, you would never have been allowed to lose there. I definitely wouldn’t allow it. Besides, Sir Rimuru might not be angry if we lose, but he would be if we die.”
“Yeah, I agree. And that’s why I was watching over you guys via Esprit.”
Carrera seemed like she was taking a hands-off approach, but if Agera’s team looked like they were on the ropes, she would’ve been the first to rush in. Along those lines, the real battle for Rimuru’s top officers was about to kick off. And maybe it was a little impertinent of her, but Esprit wanted to be prepared for what came next.
“Um,” she began, a little uneasily, “is Lady Shion well? We’ve finished our battle, but I don’t see her here…”
She assumed Shion would be just fine. Now she was suddenly worried.
“No problems there,” Benimaru nonchalantly replied. “I have a feeling she’s forgetting her mission here, but it doesn’t seem like she’s struggling at all.”
Soei nodded his agreement. “She’s overzealous as always, indeed. She should know repeating the same old attacks won’t work. She needs to consider other approaches.”
Esprit wondered about this. It was almost like they were watching her fight.
“…So you’re aware of what’s going on in there?”
It was Testarossa who asked for her.
“Well, of course. I’m staying here in case something happens to our higher officials, you see.”
Carrera and Ultima spat out their tea simultaneously.
“…Huhhh?!”
“W-wait, Testarossa. Are you saying that you know what’s going on beyond the gates without Esprit’s reports?”
“Absolutely.”
Testarossa’s smile deepened as she looked at them both. Then it suddenly dawned on Carrera.
“And… And are you watching Sir Rimuru in battle as well?!”
“Ah!”
Ultima jumped to her feet as the possibility occurred to her.
“That’s so unfair, Testarossa!”
“Seriously, that’s awful! And Diablo’s the same way—why do you always act like all that matters is what you want?! Don’t you think you could’ve invited us along, maybe?”
Carrera and Ultima were pretty riled by this. But Testarossa kept up her cool face. So did Benimaru and Soei. Intelligence gathering was one of their assigned duties, and this was a match they could never miss out on.
Incidentally, Shion was totally unaware of this—one reason why she was so eager to jump into a Gate first. If she was watching Rimuru’s fight, she never would’ve moved from the spot until it was over. Benimaru, aware of this, kept it a secret from Shion instead.
Regardless, Carrera and Ultima were clearly miffed about it. Benimaru had no choice but to explain himself.
“…So as you see, Moss’s monitoring skills are very convenient. We had him infiltrate all eight Gates so we could set up a monitor for each one.”
It apparently was working without a hitch, which meant Moss was still on the job. Benimaru gave him strict orders to remain on standby, making sure the enemy didn’t detect him.
“I see. I had tried the other Gates as well, but I can’t even touch any of them. It looks like this dimension is treating Agera as the victor.”
“Yes, and I cannot enter, either.”
Of course Zonda couldn’t. All he did was brew tea in there. But Esprit was also locked out from the next challenge, it seemed. Velgrynd’s judging standards were still a little unclear, but it now appeared that once you entered a gate, you could not enter any other unless you directly defeated the enemy inside.
“About what we expected, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. It was smart to have them go in first.”
Benimaru, Soei, and Testarossa nodded at each other.
“Right, so if one of us is having a hard time, then Testarossa will come in to support us?”
“That’s correct. I doubt that will be necessary, and I have other things on my mind anyway—but if it comes to that, I’ll be there.”
“I’d like to think there’s no need, but we do have Sir Rimuru’s orders to consider. We need sure victories here, so don’t be overeager.”
Carrera smiled boldly as she spoke. Benimaru and the others nodded, all feeling the same way. Then Benimaru frowned a bit.
“Carrera, I wouldn’t let my guard down around your opponent if I were you.”
“Well, certainly not, but why?”
“His name was Kondo, right? Well, he’s the only one so far who spotted Moss. A single bullet took his Replication out.”
“Wow… How interesting.”
Carrera kept smiling, more fascinated by than fearful of her opponent’s strength.
“Knowing you,” Testarossa said, “I’m sure I have nothing to worry about, but if something goes terribly wrong, call for help through Esprit.”
Carrera raised a hand, her attitude making it clear that she didn’t see that as necessary. Testarossa smiled back. This was typical Carrera behavior.
So the attack on the Gates resumed. One was still being tackled by Shion, so that left six—and with the exception of the one protected by Velgrynd, now five Gates were being stormed at once.
Shion, now alone, was in for a struggle. She was all smiles and excitement outside the Gate, but now there was a look of dreadful murder on her face.
Her opponent here was Minaza, a Single Digit ranked sixth in the Empire. She was one of the four knights who guarded Ludora as well, and Shion was now breathing heavily as she glared at her.
“I must praise you for making this so difficult for me!” she shouted, her voice full of raging spirit.
Minaza was far from unscathed, either. Her uniform was torn up, exposing bare skin here and there—but there was no damsel-in-distress allure to that look. She had long since stopped using mimicry to hide her true form—she had to, if she wanted to give her all here.
“Shut up! You’re the one who deserves to be praised—praised for your futile efforts! I commend you for defeating my children, but you’ve made me angry…and I will rule the day!”
At Minaza’s feet was an ominously large number of insectoid corpses. All of them had been slaughtered by Shion. And as an insector, a higher plane of existence over insectoids, she wasn’t kidding about the “children” part.
“Ha! Those little grubs are nothing to me. I’ve seen training grounds filled with far more powerful insectoids, so I’m quite used to it.”
“What did you say?”
“Hee-hee-hee! Too bad for you, but I’m a lot more experienced than I look. If you think you’re the first insect magic-born I’ve ever fought, you’re wrong!”
Shion was tired, but still had plenty of energy left. She looked down on Minaza, smiling smugly.
“Come to think of it…Razul was more of an insector than insectoid, wasn’t he? He called it his complete form, if I recall correctly, so that must have been it.”
Minaza’s expression changed. “Razul? You’re the one who defeated the guardian of the West?”
Shion sniffed at this. “I didn’t take him on alone, but yes, I dealt the final blow. He was a formidable opponent.”
“I see,” Minaza muttered. Then she turned her face down and began snickering. “So you got rid of him for me! He betrayed us, you know. We are known as Aggressors, a group of invaders from another world, but when Emperor Ludora accepted us, we finally found a safe haven for ourselves. But he refused to pledge his allegiance to us, continuing with his self-serving behavior instead. Truly the most unforgivable of fools.”
This all went straight over Shion’s head. She rewarded Minaza’s speech with a “what the hell are you talking about?” look. But one thing did bother her, so she decided to take this opportunity to ask.
“Do you mean to say that it’s not just Razul? You have your people in other parts of the world?”
Shion was curious about her friends Zegion and Apito. If Minaza knew them, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to kill her after all. She wanted to be sure before she made the attempt.
“There are many sentient species in our home world. Aggressors like us use an Underworld Gate to reach this world. There are insectors like ourselves, along with the cryptids, with whom we share many traits. That, and there are the mystics as well. Unlike demons, we are semi-spiritual life-forms, so we may freely manifest ourselves in this world, as long as we have ample time.”
Shion didn’t really care if she got an answer, but Minaza was nice enough to give one anyway. This Underworld Gate reminded her of the Gates of Hell, something near and dear to Diablo and the other demons—but it sounded like Minaza’s world featured three major races vying for supremacy. It existed in parallel with the hell the demons called home, and as Minaza described it, it faced severe poverty and food shortages. Thus Aggressors like her looked for every chance to invade this world.
For many years now, they had been apparently sending their compatriots over here in order to expand their territory. Insectoids like army wasps were apparently part of that effort.
“Of course, the full tale is a bit more complex than that. There are some races who are not so willing to bend to our desires.”
The leader of this offshoot band was Razul, whom Shion’s party defeated.
He proved that the Aggressors were far from a monolith, but then Shion recalled something else. Didn’t Rimuru pick up Apito and Zegion while they were on the run from someone else?
I think this Minaza is my enemy after all!
She didn’t have any real solid basis for this, but Shion made that call anyway. She trusted her intuition, and she was proud of the fact that it had never failed her in cases like these. And she was right, too. It was no coincidence, either. Having died and been revived once, Shion was now deeply connected to Rimuru—and now Ciel, his newfound skill. Its computational skills were now interfacing with the fragmentary information Shion had obtained so far, giving her deep insight into the truth.
“So you’re my enemy, basically?”
“Ha-ha-ha! A bit late for that, isn’t it? And thanks to all the time you’ve wasted talking to me, I can now bring my lovely children back to life again!”
The moment she shouted it, Minaza’s lower body swelled up. Several mouths grew out from it, usually hidden by the skirt of her military uniform—and each one of those mouths was now producing ominous-looking eggs at the same time.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can act as strong as you like, but fighting all my children has thoroughly exhausted you. If you think you can win against these numbers—?!”
Minaza stopped in the middle of her bragging. It was obvious why. A single flash from Shion’s Goriki-maru Version 2 snuffed out the lives of so many insectors as soon as they began.
“N-no! My children…were supposed to have been reborn as warriors with overwhelming power…with the help of His Majesty…”
Minaza’s power was similar to Apito’s Motherly Queen in many respects. Termed Voracious Resurrection, it allowed her to regenerate her children by consuming their corpses, over and over again. Combined with the ultimate enchantment Alternative from Ludora, it was further powered up, the death-and-rebirth cycle now taking much less time.
The countless insectoids she was birthing were just as formidable for Shion as Minaza thought they were. Each one had abilities equivalent to a high-level magic-born, and a few among them could even pass for pre-awakened demon lords.
But although it was a tough fight, Shion had dispatched all of them. And now that she did, Minaza would never get another whack at it. Optimal Action, part of her unique Master Chef skill, had no trouble defeating the reborn insectors in an instant.
Minaza was shocked. This high-speed childbirth process was usually enough to exhaust opponents by itself—she didn’t have to lift a finger. It was a proven strategy for her, so facing a wild card like Shion confused her. But she wasn’t a “queen” for no reason. She stood up, indignant, and it was clear she wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“You will pay for that. My children, lend your strength to your queen mother!”
“Perfect! Let’s see what you’ve got!”
Taking her children’s power as her own, Minaza shifted into battle form. Shion, Goriki-maru Version 2 at the ready, joyfully engaged her…and so the long battle began.
The fight seesawed back and forth. Minaza’s attack could wound Shion, but Ultraspeed Regeneration instantly healed her. By the same token, none of Shion’s attacks could so much as scratch Minaza’s exoskeleton. She was protected with an ultimate enchantment incorporating Legend-class armor, and even God-class gear would have trouble against it.
Minaza’s speed did surpass Shion’s, but Shion had more muscle. Minaza had the upper hand in defense, although Shion was much more adept at healing.
“Ugh! This again! You insects are such a handful. So tough!”
Shion was trying her best to crack through Minaza’s exoskeleton, no matter how small the fissure. Once she did, Master Chef would take care of the rest, and Minaza wanted to avoid that at all costs. She hadn’t underestimated Shion, but she was proving far more obstinate than previously thought—to be honest, she felt threatened.
I can’t believe it. Even in this form, she’s fighting so evenly with me…
Minaza could see Shion’s gigantic magicule count well enough, but if that was all she boasted, it didn’t explain why she was having such a hard time. Shion was a handful because despite her seemingly slipshod style, she was still pretty handy with a sword—not as good as Benimaru, but her instructor Hakuro fully attested to her skills. That made her a master of the blade, and between that and her brute strength, this was turning into a nightmarish marathon for Minaza.
But Shion wasn’t enjoying this much. She wanted to take down Minaza at once and move on, but she was proving stronger than she seemed.
She truly is a warrior among the Empire’s upper echelons, no doubt. Just as Sir Rimuru said, I cannot let my guard down around her.
Perhaps she could have considered that before diving in. But Shion was never one to think about things too deeply. Only now did she begin to wonder about how she was going to defeat this adversary. It was beyond too late for that, but at least she realized now that she needed to use her head a bit. But that alone wasn’t going to suddenly spark a brilliant idea in her mind. It wouldn’t, but Shion had Ciel on her side.
You possess great power. It took me a while to choose the best species among all the possibilities, but I have made my decision. The one best suited for you is…
Hearing this voice made Shion remember something. She seemed to recall Rimuru asking her a whole bunch of questions when he endowed her with his evolutionary reward. Shion didn’t give much consideration to her answers, just telling Rimuru that she’d accept whatever he provided—but in the end, nothing new did ever happen to her body.
But even if the rest of her friends evolved, Shion didn’t mind much. Benimaru had gone from an oni to a Flamesoul Ogre, giving him powers equivalent to a true god-ogre, but Shion was still a plain old oni. She didn’t mind this because, in her mind, she was already decently strong enough.
This alone, however, would not give her victory over Minaza. It was thus natural that Shion would seek more—and in response to that, the soul corridor was opened up.
…Battlesoul Ogre. It is a high-level chaos elemental, but one that boasts unparalleled material strength. Now, examining your skills…
I’ll leave that to you, thought Shion, throwing the ball in Ciel’s direction entirely. Then she refocused on Minaza. She was copping a bit of an attitude right now, but even so, she thought the voice sounded a little happy. It might have just been her imagination—but more importantly, real changes were taking place.
“Wh-what are you…?! That surging aura of yours… Were you just toying with me up until now?!”
Her spirit was now surpassing her body. As the voice suggested, the awakening of her new species was now in progress. Ciel managed the assorted evolutionary possibilities, selecting the most suitable ones as it saw fit.
Thus Shion was evolved into a Battlesoul Ogre, an uncommon but powerful chaos elemental—and since it was equipped with Infinite Regeneration, it was indestructible as long as any magicules remained. The attacks from this body cause not only physical damage, but also destruction on the spiritual level. And while this was a spiritual life-form with no elemental weaknesses, it held a decisive advantage over all other elements. In a way, Shion had evolved into something that could be called the natural enemy of spiritual life-forms.
The evolution also remade her body, optimizing it to be more specialized for combat. Shion could mostly pick up on this by instinct. She felt refreshed—invigorated, as if stretching out under a clear blue sky. She readied Goriki-maru Version 2.
“I’ve kept you waiting, haven’t I? But my time with you has come to an end.”
She spoke to Minaza with the utmost politeness.
“Don’t you give me that! You might have been hiding your power, but I have revealed my true form to you as well!”
Just as she said, Minaza had changed even further from before. It meant shaving time off her own lifespan, but still she yearned for even more offensive force as she tried to fight off Shion.
So the battle began…
“Those who try to take away our safe haven will writhe in pain before dying! The ultimate enchantment Alternative is released in its full force… Now, come to me! Feed upon my flesh, and use your instincts to kill—”
“Chaotic Fate!!”
…and was over in an instant.
The evil, forbidden final attack that Minaza was about to trigger was shattered by Shion’s sword before she could fully reveal it. Before Shion now was a dismembered pile of flesh, broken into innumerable pieces.
“You’re both too loud and talk for too long.”
“Wha… What did you…?”
One of the chunks of flesh lying around was Minaza’s head—or, to be exact, a bit less than half of it. She grew flustered, realizing unavoidable death was coming soon but unable to accept the reality.
Shion looked coldly down at her.
“Would you like me to help you along?”
As an opponent, Shion was the worst possible match for Minaza. Before evolving into a Battlesoul Ogre, they were evenly matched, given the right ultimate skills—but given Shion’s lack of ultimate skills, the fact they were still even meant Minaza had no way to win. But after the evolution, the power of her will had reached its pinnacle. It also evolved her beloved blade, turning it into a God-class weapon you could call Goriki-maru Divine. Perhaps it would’ve been another story if Minaza’s power was her own and not borrowed from the emperor, but against Shion right now, there was nothing she could do.
“Ngh… N-no… You’re… You’re too strong. B-but my children will…”
Minaza only said this because she presumably couldn’t see any longer. But her hopes were already dashed. Shion’s Chaotic Fate had already slashed through every living thing in this arena.
“I certainly hope so.”
But Shion had nothing but words of mercy for her.
“…How kind of you. But if you’re that kind…you will never beat our Insect Lord—”
And Minaza’s energy ran out there. With her life now a thing of the past, Shion had complete victory.
“…Insect Lord?”
That title dropped by Minaza held very important meaning. But Shion didn’t seem to care too much.
“Well, I’m sure it’s none of my business anyway!”
Showing an almost refreshing amount of detachment from the problem at hand, she didn’t even try to remember it.
So Minaza, an Aggressor from another world, met the same pitiful end as her children. She had been trying to build a paradise for the insectors under the patronage of Emperor Ludora, but now she vanished from existence just before she achieved her ambition.
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