Warzone II

Gelmud and Laplace are forced to flee as they're outgunned as Dryad aside, her spirit is an Upper-Tier Spirit. Double the threat!

Back at the battle, it's clearly a one-sided battle that half the army is gone, the Orc Lord now showed up.

'Its literally one-sided I don't know whether to laugh or not...' Rimuru sweatdropped, scratching the back of her head.

The Kijin and Ranga are doing most of the work.

'Hey Great Sage, if making the Kijin A-Class is this scary already, what am I?' Rimuru inquired of Great Sage. 'Ranga alone can wipe out a town!' yeah, her Alpha Wolf conjured giant tornadoes for crying out loud...this was through his 'Gift' when she incorporated Storm, Veldora's element into his naming.

/Regarding master's inquiry, you can wipe out a city in three minutes by yourself and not even winded, and proceed to level half the country by yourself./

'Ehhhh?!'

/That is how powerful you are now after you worked hard in Veldora's Cave and absorbing the magicules here./

'...good thing I'm a good guy.' Rimuru gulped at the power she possessed and she knows full well how to enjoy herself, if she bothered to try. 'How many are left?'

/...39732 and counting...39500...ALERT: Orc Lord is appoaching...37650.../

'That's my cue!' Rimuru grinned. 'I'm at full power which helps!' she let herself descend to the ground and she faced the Orc Lord himself upon landing in front of the Orc Lord. I found Orc Lord! Less than 38000 orcs left! Leave Orc Lord to me!

Understood! her Named answered.

'Heeey! Gelmud, you can see this using scrying, can't you?' Rimuru called out mockingly. 'You're losing reeeeeal bad! What you get for pissing us off!' she grinned darkly. 'After we mop this up, you're next!'

xxx

Elsewhere, Gelmud shook in anger at the insult, causing him to throw the crystal ball to the floor, smashing it.

'Grrrr! How can they be so useless?!' he fumed, stomping hard on the shards. 'What the hell are the orcs doing?! I remember setting Geld on a large ogre village, they're clearly alive and kicking! And that large beast!' he mused, seeing Ranga in the battlefield. 'Nobody told me a beast like that existed in Jura! What's going on beyond my notice?!'

He was now shaking in both fear and anger.

The Demon Lords he gathered for this show are watching and are clearly seeing his plans fall apart, as he had invited Milim, Frey, Karion and Clayman to watch his show. Failing to impress them was the frightening part, and what makes him angry is that he's losing his puppet soon!

"This is bad...I must do something or my plans will fall apart after coming so far!" and in a panic, he flew towards the battlefield at high speed. "I better fix this...or I'll be killed! Killed by...that person!"

His thoughts fell onto a castle by a cliff, supported by natural limestone pillars...and of the man dressed in a classy white suit residing in it.

Minutes after Rimuru insulted him, he arrived landing like a meteor between her and Orc Lord.

After the smoke dissipated, he began spewing diatribe.

'What's going on here?! How dare you interfere with my, the great Lord Gelmud's plans?!'

Rimuru raised an eyebrow before wearing a dark smile, before she kicked him between the legs. Hard.

While the monsters who know him were pissed upon seeing him again, the men present cringed at what she just did as they heard that sickening squelch in a now quiet battlefield...the sound made when she smashed the only eggs a man can ever have.

'UWAAAARRRRGGGHHH!'

'Ooh, that hurt over there.' Benimaru shuddered, feeling the phantom pains already.

'I heard that...' Souei cringed.

'...what's so great about you?' Rimuru sneered as she removed her leg, making Gelmud fall onto his knees, pigeon-toed, hands over his precious. 'You're weaker than even your Orc Lord.' she said in an icy, derisive voice. 'You've caused us so much trouble that punishment should befit the crime, don't you think?' and she stomped on his head hard.

'Aaarrgh!'

She was showing no mercy at all.

'Ooh, I know!' she kicked Gelmud towards Orc Lord who caught Gelmud. 'Orc Lord, you hungry right? Eat him!'

The Orc Lord actually contemplated her words. His sanity erodes under the effects of Starved, only capable of understanding what benefits starved at this point.

'...hungry...'

'W-wait! No! It's me! Gelmud!' Gelmud sputtered, but too late. Orc Lord's mouth opened and ate him head first. 'GYAAAAAHHHH!'

'Befitting end for the bastard who set hungry orcs on us.' Koushiro said coldly. 'Now then...the rest is left to Rimuru as she wants.'

'Yes...kill the Orc Lord and all this is over.' Hakurou agreed as after Orc Lord ate Gelmud...Orc Lord's magicules increased and is starting to overflow. The aura enveloped him into a cocoon of magicules.

Confirmed. they all heard the Voice of the World. The Orc Lord Geld's magicules have vastly increased. the cocoon soon vanished, showing a much-taller, and a somewhat physically-fit giant orc. Successful. He has now become Demon Lord Seed, Orc Disaster Geld.

'Demon Lord Seed...just like me.' Rimuru frowned. 'I better end this quick before he masters that power.'

'UUUUURRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!' Geld howled. 'I am...Orc Disaster!' he boomed. 'The one who will devour all in this world!' came his declaration. By that, he gained some mental lucidity now or maybe all of it?

'Everyone, back away!' Rimuru commanded. 'This is a showdown between us now! We Demon Lord Seeds!' she said, flaring her own magic pressure upon her declaration.

'Rimuru's a Demon Lord Seed too?!' Koushiro's eyes popped out.

'S-so she says...' an oni gasped out.

The two races were wide-eyed in shock at her declaration. Even more so with how strong she actually is.

She suddenly vanished...and punched a hole into Geld's massive torso and she was behind him! What was left of his torso was a bit of his collar and thin strings of flesh from his sides connecting his upper half to his hips!

Even the Orcs are now shocked.

However, yellow gelatinous tentacles formed to regenerate Geld.

'I'm...hungry...'

Apparently, healing himself just makes him hungrier.

'Give me...your bodies!' he raised his hand to cast a spell. A red orb ball and shot it at the coalition army. Rimuru appeared in a blink to catch it and devoured it herself, increasing her own magicules in turn.

Absorption...is a Slime's schtick!

Rimuru summoned her created spirit, Shiva. 'Absolute Zero!' Shiva raised her left hand to her lips and as if blowing a kiss, blew a torrent of icy winds so painful Geld howled in both cold and pain from cellular freezing that killed cells. Geld struggled to move as he healed from it.

'Maybe tearing him apart is better...' Benimaru croaked out.

'The idea is to make him spend as much energy as possible.' Rimuru told him. 'Because I cannot truly kill him if he has power left. To be fair he's making me spend too as Demon Lord Seeds can regenerate. Its not easy to kill us.' she explained. 'However, I have an advantage. I'm a Slime and what can slimes naturally do...?'

The Oni and Kijin thought about her words before they realized it.

Indeed, Rimuru has a racial advantage.

Slimes absorb, dissolve and regenerate. Their primary sustenance, are magicules to begin with which means she constantly recovers!

'Then...!' Benimaru lit up. As if to confirm his words, she nodded.

'Yup!' and Rimuru was gone again, Shiva at her back, conjuring an elegant ice hammer and fought Geld. Their forces sending shockwaves at their wake, forcing everyone to back off. Geld was at a disadvantage as Shiva was relentless in her attacks, forcing him to use his tentacles to grab her hammer and corrode it, but she let go and simply recreated another, and bashed him on the head.

Once Geld was starting to slow down, Rimuru became a slime puddle that increased in mass and wrapped herself around Geld.

An ever-growing, ever-spreading blob wrapping around you, with no way out, is downright terrifying. Geld knew the horror of terror. Especially as how it's his turn of being eaten alive.

'Now, which is faster? Your devouring, or my predation? If you're the hungry, then I'm the eater!'

Upon eating enough of Geld, she saw his memories.

It was an arid land.

Crying, skinny, orc children.

There stood two orc adults. Geld himself, and a sad-looking one behind him. Even then, the markings on Geld's face made his destiny determined at the start. That he was to be Orc Lord. Gelmud just sped up the process, it seems.

'Are you guys hungry?' Geld asked kindly to the children, before tearing off his own arm and gave it to them. 'Here you go...eat, and grow big and strong.'

It's clearly a famine. Starvation is inevitable, Rimuru thought. Things got so bad even portly beings went skinny.

'My King, please stop this...' the sad one pleaded. 'If we were to lose even you, nothing will await us but despair.'

Geld's grief, was palpable even in this memory world.

'The child born two days ago died this morning.' he said somberly. 'And the child born yesterday is at death's door.' Geld looked at his arms. 'My body will always regenerate parts I tear off, but this...' he shook in sorrow. 'If this is not already despair, then what else can it be?'

'My king...'

'I will go to the forest in search of food.' Geld told him.

'B-but the forest has the divine protection of the Storm Dragon!' the younger man protested in worry.

'The Storm Dragon has long since been sealed away.' said Geld, confident of his safety. 'I must seek even the slightest blessing.'

Geld wandered alone for days, under the scorching sun of day, and bitter cold at night, wearing him down.

'Hungry...I must eat something...anything...' he whimpered, his mind broken and delirious with exposure, hunger and thirst. He finally collapsed.

It was then he met Gelmud.

'I will give you a name and some food.' he offered.

'Who...are you?' Geld croaked out feebly, moving his head to look at the majin before him.

'I am Gelmud. Think of me as your father.'

And then two wills met. Rimuru and Geld.

'He told me that anyone I ate as Orc Lord would not die, under the control of Starved.' said Geld softly, but his soft voice was laced with grief. 'It appears he was using me as his pawn in his evil scheme...but I had to take the risk.' he told her. 'That is why I must eat. Even if you are a slime that eats, I cannot afford to be eaten.'

'Its already a lost cause from the start.' Rimuru told him. 'You suffer alone. You're forever tormented for a brief relief in others. A briefness so brief it doesn't even last six hours after a meal.'

'Even so, I must do it.' Geld continued as in the outside world, they were still fighting. Rimuru was now a large mass of slime and Geld was a frightening, half-eaten monster, not even given a chance to heal. He was just hanging on by sheer will. 'I ate so many people...I even ate Lord Gelmud...I even ate my own brethren.' the last one pained him the most. 'They're hungry...I cannot lose...'

'In this world, it's eat or be eaten. That is the world of us monsters.' said Rimuru softly. 'You will soon die. You will lose.'

'I can't...if I die...my sins will fall on their shoulders.' Geld argued. 'To ensure they won't starve, I must take all the world's hunger upon myself.'

'You will still lose either way.' Rimuru insisted. 'You will die soon. But rest easy...I will take it on for you. Your pain. Your sorrow. Your sins.' she promised him.

'Devour...them?'

'Yeah. I will also take on your people's sorrows.' Rimuru promised him kindly. Geld cried as he was now bones in the real world.

'That's...greedy of you.'

'I should be...because I too, eat.' and she conquered his will, and created a paradise out of his nightmares of the arid land. A grassy meadow. Thick forests with a lake lying ahead. The forest of Jura as Rimuru remembers in her travels before she came upon Oni Village. The joyous laughter of children can be heard.

Geld's eyes welled up in tears at the sight of the promised land before him. 'Greedy one...' he stammered out, choking his sobs. 'One who devours my sins...I thank you...its all over...I'm...satisfied...' and he was gone. In the real world, his body is gone as the sun rose from the east, and what's left is now a tower of slime. The orcs collapsed when Geld died, the effects of Starved vanished and they all regained their sanities...howling in horror at what they have done.

The slime tower shook, wobbled and twisted into a twizzler...before bursting to show a longer-haired, and much older Rimuru, appearing mid-adolescence of around 5'3 in height, with a frail-looking shapely-slender figure with a pair of Bs on her chest. Her clothes stretched too tautly that they ripped she had to quickly compensate with magic, and her sandals too small now for her feet. She also obtained his Demon Lord Seed, making her all the more powerful now. Her almost two million magicules doubled as a result.

'Sleep well...Geld.' and she slowly floated down to look at her people as they cheered that she won. 'It's all over now.' she told them.

'You've done well, Rimuru.' Koushiro praised her. She was now as tall as his daughter. 'Demon Lord Seed...huh?'

'Yeah, that's what teacher told me...is it good?' Koushiro's face fell. Well, she has to keep getting lessons from Great Sage...the more the better.

'Er, its very much good.' Koushiro said feebly. 'Ask your skill. Let's go meet up with the Lizardmen.'

xxx

'I see...so that's how it ended.' Lizardman Chieftain mused as two Demon Lord Seeds battled and its Rimuru who won.

'Yes.' said Koushiro. 'The battle was almost one-sided...' he said as they glanced at Rimuru who was weaving waraji out of reeds they took before coming here. 'Rimuru made it look so easy.'

'Well, racial advantage aside, I had another.' said Rimuru. 'Under Starved Ones, the stronger you get, the more intelligence and sanity you lose in turn, forever a slave to hunger thus he's not a really good fighter even a little kid is better than him if there's no power disadvantage.' she said. 'Had Orc Disaster been sane and his mind lucid enough, he would figure out how to use his massive powers in turn giving me a hard time even if I'll still win after considerably difficulty.' she said. 'But I would lose to Demon Lord Seeds who are better than me in fighting. I'm mostly a magic-user, not a warrior like everyone else.' she said.

'Fighters have an advantage over magic-users. They can move anytime with a weapon or skill, while we magicians need time to be deadly.' she told them. 'In the time magic-users prepare to cast, a swordsman can use that time to run at us and lop our heads off before we can fire a spell.'

To be as good, she would have to study Shizu's memories about fighting skills and resolve to exceed her in skill by ten times or more through training, under hard at work with Great Sage later when business is over.

And train with wielding Shizu's long sword.

'Well, spell-casting does take some time.' Benimaru mused as he took time to cast his Hell Flare. It's a skill but still magical in nature. Rimuru uses actual magic spells so she was slower than he by a few seconds in execution. He could admit that much. Those seconds they needed to prepare are all Hakurou needs to defeat them!

The two sides decided a meeting must be held over war aftermath.

So representatives of each race gathered together the next day.

'Now then, Chairman Rimuru Tempest,' Treyni spoke and what she called her was quite a shock. 'Please begin the conference.'

'Er, why am I the chairman?!' Rimuru sputtered in protest.

'As of this moment, you are now the strongest being in this entire forest.' said Treyni. 'Thus everyone would listen to you more.' she explained to Rimuru's clear shock. To her horror, everyone agreed!

'Come on, you can do it.' Souei encouraged Rimuru momentarily went gooey in her human form before bucking herself up. She has to think of it like back in school days, when sometimes, she's group leader...yeah, that's it...

'A-ahem...there is something I must show everyone first.' Rimuru told them after forcing composure on herself. 'In one's actions, there's always a motive behind it.' she said. 'I can project what I've seen...a piece of Geld's memory that led to this conflict.' she looked at the Orcs who looked really down. 'You all came from Orbic Kingdom, a place in Jistav Country that bordered into Dragon Territory, right?'

'Y-yes.' said the young man Rimuru saw in Geld's memories.

'Famine struck. For a year there's nothing that grew in an arid land under scorching sun.' Rimuru continued as she projected the lands she saw through an illusion. 'And for protection, you must pay steep taxes. Make it in time, or lose that protection but in your case, you lost both safety and expelled out of your homes because you could not produce your taxes in the land you were assigned to.'

She showed what she saw in Geld's memories...though she edited some parts a bit when their two wills conversed.

The memories made the orcs weep in sorrow, and for everyone else to understand that this made the orcs ripe for the picking for exploitation. Geld was actually, a kind king who was willing to mutilate himself for starving children before he was lost to corruption. He knew what he was getting into by fully-becoming Orc Lord and fully-aware Gelmud's using him before he lost his mind as what ELSE could he do? As long as he eats, his people will never feel hungry! He would be the one carrying their hunger and their sins!

However, Rimuru took over his sins, that comforted his spirit.

'As I promised Geld, I will shoulder his grief and sins.' Rimuru ended the illusion. 'However, nobody will be satisfied with just that. Some things must be done. Everyone through the Dryads must know the truth about the Orc Disaster so nobody will ostracize the orcs for things beyond their control while fully willing to make amendments. Treyni, are there survivors of other races?'

'Yes...about 40000 goblins, including the ones Gabiru has recruited among that number.' said Treyni. 'Only Western Jura endured Gelmud's atrocities. Eastern Jura is full of stronger and more developed monsters in terms of living standards and fighting ability, he could not afford to offend them because it is as you say, he is weak, and in control of an army that was losing sanity over time. He is clearly no army commander. What can that do, against B to A-Rank tribes?'

That shocked the races within the throne room. They're THAT weak compared to their eastern counterparts?!

'How inferior are we to them?!' Gabiru shook, his pride smashed at her words.

'I believe...one village of 600 eastern oni is worth 5000 Hakurous from the Kijin in fighting skill. The only common thing with you now are your magical energy levels.' that shocked them all. Hakurou is their best warrior!

'EHHHHHH?!' the oni and kijin gawked at her in horror as the eastern tribes are stronger than them? HOW?!

Hakurou now looked veeeery thoughtful...considering EVERYONE in the village is his student...yeeees, he'll make it ten times harder as he's not getting any younger...

'...I guess we all have to work hard...' Rimuru croaked out. 'I'll get challenges I can't win even with all my power...and if they win against me, they'll grow big-headed and offend those who are actually better than me at being a Demon Lord Seed thingy and bring misery onto themselves...so I'll have to ask Treyni-san to tweak the truth a little. That two allied monster armies succeeded with considerable casualty sounds a lot better at this point.' she requested and the older woman nodded as yes, that makes horrifying sense now. 'We'll have to plan that out here so its believable and nobody's gonna suspect anything.'

Arrogance brings karmic misery back in turn.

'Final problem...yeah, the Orcs are willing to make amends, but we got over 35000 homeless orcs now, and no food either. Because all this, started with food and homelessness in the first place.' Rimuru choked out. 'Yeah we have farms, but all that won't last even a week and crops takes time to grow! How are we gonna feed everybody? 10000 lizardmen's fish ponds, 300-something Oni and Kijin combined with our farms can't feed everybody and last I checked, goblins don't farm!' she told them. 'We must solve the issue of residence and sustenance to truly declare this Case Closed before we work on a favorable sentence!'

Everyone fell silent.

Yeah, that, was troubling.

'Need I add that we too, are homeless as our village just got trashed, Koushiro?' Rimuru reminded Koushiro who looked horrified, even worse as he almost forgot about it.

'Oh, shit...' Koushiro swore with a face-palm. 'I forgot because we're all pressed for time while living in Veldora-sama's cave...' he groaned. 'Our money should still be safe so we can buy supplies in Dwargon...its the rebuilding that'll be the hard part!'

'And that's where the Orc's sentence comes in.' Rimuru said. 'I know of an ideal place we can live in and build farms in...yanno where I'm getting at? Plenty of water, level ground suitable for farming and surely not far from the farms, will be our new home. It's also not far from Veldora's Cave.'

It didn't take everyone long to figure out her sentence to the orcs.

'It's the least we could do.' said the young orc. 'As my father's son, on behalf of the orcs, we accept your judgment.'

'Very well! Come here, you.' Rimuru beckoned him to come closer. The young orc obeyed. 'The sentence of the Orcs is that you will help build the settlements of survivors of tribes troubled by this case. We will build a large city and a large farm enough to house everybody involved in our case. Your sentence will only end once everything is fully-functional and you too, will be allowed to live in the city afterward. And as we're all monsters, who cares about taxes? Only humans bother with taxes, and we're not starting any day soon! We'll start planning with architects before we put this to work.'

She named him Geld...the second, and evolved him to Orc King, gifting him too with the same amount of magicules to be equal to Koushiro in strength at least.

As for food, Treyni will cover the costs due to the natural ability of Treants. The Dryads can distribute food with the help of the Tempest Wolves and their Shadow Travel ability...and Souei's clone traveled to Dwargon to approach Kaijin while the rest went home to begin planning.