Chapter 5: Charybdis

In the midst of the many new buildings in Tempest, by far the most popular were the public hot baths. They were Rimuru's pride, a luxury he had pushed hard for ever since he first became the leader of the hobgoblin village. Even as a slime, dipping in the warm waters was extremely refreshing, a sentiment shared by pretty much everyone who visited them. After a long day of work, nothing beat soaking in its warm waters.

Speaking of hard work, there was plenty of it still going on in the ever more bustling city that had grown out of their modest initial huts. Rimuru himself had plenty of things to keep him occupied, though most were out of necessities, and the issues never seemed to stop coming for more than a few moments. For example, just a few weeks ago, shortly after the visit of the beatemen, his goblin riders brought in a group of humans they had found in the forests, battling against a number of high level magical beasts. Among them were Eren, Gildo and Kabal, the three adventurers that accompanies Shizu, the woman Rimuru's human appearance was based on. With them was Fuse, the leader of the Free Association in Blumund, a small kingdom neighboring the Great Forest, who had apparently been dispatched by its government to investigate the rumors of the supposed monster nation that arose overnight. The man seemed reasonable enough, though he was a bit of a worrywart in Rimuru's opinion; in any case, they got along quite well and he was easy to convince that their nation posed no harm; he even agreed to use his contacts to spread the word about the 'friendly nation of monsters' to as many people as possible (the free vacation he spent for a few weeks in the city certainly seemed to help).

More importantly however was the larger group, an ad-hoc militia of rogues, petty thieves and other assorted petty offenders forced to join in on the defense against the increased monster incursions in the kingdom of Falmuth, a large and prosperous nation bordering the Forest in the west. They were led by Yohm, a crude but good man that genuinely cared about this group of bandits-turned-guards that had been forced by the kingdom into an unenviable position (either face jail time, or the monsters). He had helped Kabal's group and by extension had attracted the attention of Rimuru, who came up with the crazy idea of turning him into a champion, the figure who people would believed defeated the Orc Lord; he wanted it to be a hero, but according to Milim that was decidedly not a good idea: heroes in this world was a serious thing that only those chosen by the System could call themselves. Calling oneself a hero willy-nily was a sure way to invite disaster on oneself. So he settled on champion.

Somehow, after a little deliberation, Yohm accepted; Rimuru suspected he quickly regretted that, as he was put through the ringer of Hakuro's hellish training. In a few short weeks, he and his group were turned from rogues into damn near proper warriors, then given high grade weapons and armor and sent back into Farmus to spread the word of the 'champion' who defeated the Orc Lord; and possibly spread word of the helpful, friendly town of monsters located deep in the Forest that assisted generously. Thus was born Rimuru's long term plan to bridge the divide between humans and monsters; it was tiring work, with everyone working hard. Even Milim made herself helpful, mostly by assisting Kabal's group in hunting down the rampaging magic monsters in the forest; child's play for her, really, but once the influx of travelers he expected to see once his plan kicked into motion, it would make all the difference.

Speaking of Milim, he had gotten to know her quite a bit better over the last few weeks; at first he tried to get closer- well, closer from his perspective, she already considered them close- to coax as much info as possible of what she knew of the Demon Lords. However, he found she was, in fact, smarter than she let out because she was not falling for it. She would just smile and change the subject every time he tried to approach it, so after a while, he just gave up, though he did began to appreciate her more than just an idiot; during his failed coaxing, he dragged her- or rather allowed her to follow him- all over the town and made sure she was never far from something fun. Even when he gave up on prying info, he continued to do so; the way she smiled and her eyes sparked at even mundane thinks that were new to her, he found himself unable to say no. Indeed, he found himself unable to deny many of her selfish requests, though he did try to moderate it. For her part, Milim seemed to tone said requests down a bit over the following weeks; maybe it was because she had other things to do now, such as helping Kabal's party in monster hunting, but there she was, being almost considerate. She had snuck her way into the everyday life of Tempest, and no one seemed to be complaining anymore, not even him.

He began to notice little things about her too; for once, she was smart, but just could not be bothered most of the time and just did whatever came along. 'Maybe she lived for so long, even thinking became a chore to her' was what he though. She hated vegetables, and not necessary in a kiddy 'they're gross' kind of way, as she liked them just the same when they were cooked; just the sight of them raw however turned he face into one of the best triggered poker face he had ever seen. There were other small things here and there, but the most jarring happened the night before when, after a day of restless fun, she just sort of fell asleep sitting on a bench. As a gentlemen (gentle-slime), he was obliged to take her to a proper bed, so he picked her up in a piggy back ride and headed for her room. Along the way she woke up and still half asleep began talking.

-'Is this country that important to you, Rimuru' she asked slowly

-'What's this I hear? Its because its the country I built; it and everyone in it are important to me...' he answered honestly,

-'Aren't you scared? Important things...are fragile...aren't you scared of losing them?'

-...'I am scared...but, I can't let that hold me down.'

-'...me too...I've always...' she said as she tightened her hold on him, but not enough to cause him any discomfort

-'Just go back to sleep, okay.' he told her gently. He though about the thinks she said, wondering just how many things and people she could have lost over the long lifespan she probably had. Thinking about that, it made much more sense why she was so selfish; maybe it made it easier for her to let go? Or maybe she could pretend it didn't affect her too much losing something. He wondered about the things that he had lost over his 37 years in his old life, and tried to multiply it by centuries...he quickly abandoned that though before he dragged himself into a depression, though.

Next day, he had some spare free time in the afternoon, along with his councilors, so he decided to invite them all, Milim included, over for a picnic. They spent the day like that as more people began to arrive, curious what their master was doing, so the whole thing evolved into almost a festival kind of thing. He didn't complain; seeing the smiles on everyone's faces made all the work he had put in over the last few months more than worth it. He was especially happy to see Milim back to her plucky self; serious, unhappy Milim just wasn't right. He though his heart skipped a beat when, in the evening, she grabbed him in slime form and ran off into the baths with Shuna and Shion, but he dismissed that though; slimes didn't have hearts, after all. He also tried to convince himself he wasn't looking at her too much...again. This time, though

'No, I'm definitely looking...' he pondered to himself as he watch her and Shion get into a water splashing battle 'I like her, she's a fun friend to have, I admit that much...but...' he realized then that Milim had occupied his thoughts almost all the time ever since she first arrived; first as worry about all the trouble she would cause him, but now it was just in general, such as how he would sometimes work on paperwork and suddenly think 'I wonder how Milim's doing?' or 'I wonder if she'd like to try this new fun thing I though of'. Eventually, he just decided he would deal with the issue at another time; right now, he had so much work to look forward to, he was too exhausted.

After an hour of soaking, the four left the baths; Rimuru, in slime form, was being carried by Milim while she was arguing with Shuna over her hair

-'Lady Milim, you really should dry you hair first!' Shuna tried to scold her, to no avail

-'Its fine, its fine! Its not like I'll get sick or something!' Milim casually dismissed her. The continued for a little more as they walked through the street. Suddenly, he could feel Milim tense up at something; before he could react, she had handed him over in a hurry to Shuna, who was shocked as he was. Shion seemed to have picked up whatever Milim did because the two got into a fighting stance right facing the same way

'What's going on?' he tried expanding his magic sense but felt nothing hostile, only something familiar. Before he could put his proverbial finger on it, a transparent form shimmered into existence in the spot the two girls were looking at

-'Who goes there?!' Shion demanded; Rimuru had already identified the aura, and sure enough the figure was a dryad.

-'Wait, its fine. Its a friend.' he calmly informed the two; Shion seemed to recognize the figure and stood down, while Milim, no longer on guard, looked over in curiosity.

-'I am Trya, the dryad. It's been a long time, Chancellor.' the dryad name Trya, whom he remembered as one of the dryads that accompanied Treyni a while back, spoke politely

-'I remember, you were with Treyni; what brings you along? And what's this..weird aura I'm feeling all of a sudden?' he asked and wondered if said aura, which did not belong to the dryad, was what got Milim on edge

-'I bring grave news from my sister; the monster Charybdis has returned, and it is heading for this land.'

Needless to say, the news that Tempest was in the path of a monster needed an urgent meeting with everyone important in the city. He sent out a though communication to all of his councilors, Vesta and Gabiru and even Fuze to meet up in the central hall. Thankfully, he didn't made a fool out of himself by asking 'what the heck is Charybdis', as Great Sage helpfully informed him; Charybdis, the Ruler of the Skies, was a calamity class monster with no intelligence or will of its own, quite literary just a flying calamity that destroyed indiscriminately. It also had a number of monsters called megalodons that appeared with it whenever it was on the move. Worse thing was that it couldn't be killed; as a spiritual lifeform, its physical body was just a collection of magicules, and as long as its core remained intact it would continuously resurrect itself, though it would require a vessel to do so, like a corpse. Centuries prior, however, a hero managed to defeat and put its core in a seal.

-'I can't imagine the hero's seal would be undone with no reason.' Hakuro said in his usual calm tone 'perhaps it was undone on purpose?'

-'My sister said as much' Trya said from where she was sitting down, resting 'right now, she and my other sisters are doing their best to keep it at bey, but they will not last. It will eventually move on, and we are in its path. I estimate four days, at most, before it arrives'

The meeting continued for a few more minutes as they decided what to do; the main part they all agreed to was to evacuate the city so that at least the citizens would survive. The rest, however, they had little idea. Given Charybdis' implied strength in the stories, it was safe to assume all the assembled forces of Tempest had few if any chances of taking it in direct combat. Vesta was dispatched to inform king Gazel in the hope that he would honor their treaty and send help, but aside from him Rimuru could not hope for much.

'Ah, seriously, just when things were settling down too! My luck is just rotten, isn't it?' he complained to himself; trying to search his brain for a solution was pointless; even Great Sage only advised him to not engage Charybdis, much like it did with Milim

'Wahahahahaha, aren't ya'll forgetting someone?!' the person in question billowed; a pink aura enveloped her and in a flash she was back to wearing her usual, skimpy outfit. She proudly held a grin on her face and struck a pose 'Just leave it to me! I'll deal with this beast in a flash!'

'Wait...wait! Of course, I can let Milim handle it! Why didn't I think of that! Why didn't you think of that, Great Sage?!' Rimuru screamed internally.

Report: the question 'can individual Milim Nava handle Charybdis' was not posed'. the Sage informed him in a monotone. As useful as it was, Great Sage was not omniscient; if the wrong question was asked, it could not provide the right answer. He wanted to complain more, but decided to celebrate the newfound solution instead

-'You would?' 'Oh man, I could kiss her for...wait! Where the hell did that came from!?' he furiously stopped, wondering what he was thinking, but was distracted by the Demon Lord laughing even harder

-'Of course! That dumb fish is no match for me! I can fly over right now, take it out, and be home in time for dinner!' she proclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rimuru didn't remember when was the last time he smiled so broadly

'I will make you the greatest feast you ever had if you do this for me!' he wanted to tell her, previous thoughts already forgotten; however, Shuna and Shion had other plans.

-'We can't allow that, Lady Milim.' Shion told her

-'What?!' 'What?!' Milim and Rimuru screamed in unison (though Rimuru wisely did so only in his head) 'Hey, what are you on about?!' he wanted to say but was interrupted by Shuna

-'That's right, this town is our responsibility. We can't take advantage of our friendship to have you solve all out problems.'

'No, we totally can! She's the one who suggested it!' he continued his internal tirade at them 'What is wrong with you people?!'

-'Only when we are completely at a loss and out of options, only then we will ask for your help.' Shuna informed...and Milim, though disappointingly looking, backed down, pouting with a weak 'Fine...' then looked at him with pleading eyes that just begged him to say something.

'I'm done. I'm dead. Ah, it looks like i need to put up an act too, huh... 'he though as he took a deep breath, then with the most sincere smile he could muster and told her 'That's right, Milim! Have some faith in me!' He felt like if he was in a human body, this act would be utterly failed as he would be trembling like a leaf; good thing he was in his slime form. He thought he saw a flash of some emotion in Milim's eyes he didn't saw before, but it was quickly gone.

-'I do have faith in you..' she said genuinely, but he could barley make it out. Then she sat in a corner, sulking.

'I feel like crying too, Milim...' Looking over at the sulking Demon Lord, he got an idea, however 'Ah, but there is something you can help me with!' before he could even finish the sentence, Milim was already up, all traces of disappointment gone

-'What is it?! I'll do anything, just say the word!' she excitedly claimed as she got so right up in his face,

-'Ah, well, I was thinking I need to get as strong as I can in just four days, so...would you mind sparring with me?'

-'Spar with you?' she asked with a curious glance

-'Yeah; see, I need experience on how to fight against much stronger opponents, so sparring with you would be the perfect chance.' he explained his plan to her; she understood his reasoning quickly with an 'ohh, good point!' and quickly agreed.

Thus it was decided; Rimuru would train his hardest with Milim for the next few days while Benimaru organized their forces and a put together a proper strategy and the others helped evacuate the city just to be sure. Vesta quickly returned and informed him that Gazel would be honoring his deal and send over a squad of his best knights. With the plan in place, the countdown began to Charybdis' arrival.

A loud boom echoed through the nearby forest, though it did not startled the line of citizens evacuating the city; two days into the evacuation, the commotion coming from just over the hill had become just background noise. This noise was, of course, the mock battle between Demon Lord Milim and Rimuru, although to an outsider it looked more like Milim was being a bully.

It became pretty clear pretty quickly to Rimuru just how outclassed he was in terms of, well, everything against Milim as soon as they started sparing. Even when holding back to what the Great Sage was claiming to be just 'three times' of his own estimated power, her combat prowess was just off the charts. She was faster, stronger and pretty much impossible to outsmart (as far as battle went); he was sure she wasn't using her Dragon Eyes to tell what he was gonna do, but even so she was never once caught off guard by his tactics, no matter what he did. He wondered if she had just been in so many fights, she had simply seen all the tricks in the book and could instantly tell what would be coming. Even though she was wearing he power nullifying gauntlets, her punches could still topple large trees in one hit and crack a five meter wide boulder into pieces; and she wasn't shy about directing those at him, mock battle or not. He could't complain, as he was the one who said not to treat him with kid gloves, but still...one hit and he would fall unconscious, he was sure of it. Fortunately, he was just fast enough to avoid them, if barley, but it was extremely draining. Slimes didn't got tired as a rule, but at the end of each sparring match he felt weak, like when he was almost out of magicules after going on a naming spree. On the other hand, she didn't look like she had spill a single drop of sweat.

As he jumped around, trying desperately to avoid her furious punches, he continuously searched for an opening, a small mistake, anything that could help, but it was a waste; any openings were so small, he doubted he could move fast enough to exploit, and that was assuming they weren't deliberate on her part to draw him into a trap. He didn't put it past her, she was crafty. When in battle, she really felt like a different person; focused, decisive and, if he was honest, merciless. The others had joined in at first, but quickly gave up. Benimaru, Shion and Soei had already tasted what she could do once and didn't need much from the second round to leave. They even had Hakuro try his luck; he failed, but Milim seemed genuinely impressed, which must have touched the old ogre because he bowed in honest appreciation.

'This is a true Demon Lord' Rimuru though as he watched Hakuro leave 'someone who is just leagues above in power than even those who would otherwise be considered at the top. No wonder she's selfish; I doubt anyone in a thousand years was ever stupid enough to say no to her requests. Ah, dose that make me the ultimate idiot?' he didn't want to know.

In any case, today's session ended like all the others: him totally defeated, she not looking a hair out of place. 'Good grief...' 'Time out. I can't...take much more.' he said as he tried to not simply melt into a puddle

-'Awww, but I can still go! You'll never get better if you don't push harder, you know?' she said with a pout

'No, i can't get better if I DIE of exhaustion.' he wanted to tell her but decided against it; he doubted she would listen 'Whatever, I do have a few good ideas on how to deal with Charybdis, depending on what it dose...' Trya had helpfully filled him in on Charybdis' known powers; by far the most dangerous one was its magic interference, which caused magic in its general vicinity to be extremely unreliable. Purely magical attacks would be diminished next to nothing, so direct physical attacks were required. Problem was, as Trya explained, Charybdis was huge, easily a hundred meters long and covered in extremely though scales.

Using his fights against Milim as a benchmark, he had honed some of his skills into being more effective (Great Sage had honed his skills into being more effective); he seriously hoped it would be enough. Speaking of Milim...

-'I have lunch from Shuna.' he informed the pouting dragonoid. She tried to resist the temptation for a few seconds, but when food what involved her willpower took a nose dive.

And so they went about eating lunch under the shade of a nearby large tree. As she happily ate at her sandwiches, Milim looked over at him with a curious expression 'Say, you still sure you don't want me to take care of things?' she asked nonchalantly. She did that every time after their battles, no doubt hoping to get a different answer. He had already committed to the though act, so he refused

-'The answer is still no, Milim.' she just pretended to not hear him and to not have asked in the first place, munching away. Before she got too carried away again, he decided to be a little more straight with her 'Listen, I...wish I could just let it up to you, but I can't. This is the responsibility I accepted for myself, so I have to see it through.' he said as he began scratching the back of his head, not making eye contact. He could feel her eyes staring at him inquisitively. After a few more seconds, he heard her speak

-'Aren't friends supposed to help each other, though?' she asked with genuine curiosity, making him turn around in her direction, locking eyes with her. 'Were...they always that blue?' he wondered as he stared at her. For her part Milim seemed confused at why he was staring, tilting her head ever so slightly. It was enough to make him turn away before he had another weir though about her, but it was too late. ''She's...really something, having this effect on me just from that...' he pondered her words and decided that he should really stop taking her for granted; she was completely and utterly sincere when she said that; she really did consider him a close friend, maybe the closest she had.

'Yeah, they do.' he told her 'Just...not this right now, okay?' he turned around 'So don't worry, I got this!' and gave her the best smile he could muster. For some reason, it was her turn to quickly turn away; he was confused as to why. Was that red he saw on her ears? He dismissed it, though. No point in letting the imagination run wild during an emergency

Unknown to Rimuru, Milim was having a panic attack; when the boy(slime) flashed that smile at her, she could feel her heart stop for a second. If she was human, she though it would have caused her to die or something, so good thing she was a Demon Lord. Then she felt a strange heat rising up to her cheeks and ears, and an urge to turn away from him. So she did, faster than she launched her punches in their mock battle earlier

'Wha...what is this?' she had trouble with thinking straight 'Its like that feeling I had the first time I came here, but much, much worse...was it...that? I never felt that feeling before, so...is it something else?' She, being a millenia old Demon Lord, of course knew the basics of...relations, but aside from that she never really cared to learn more. Now though, she regretted it. She wondered who she could ask for advice on the issue, someone who would't laugh at her. 'Maybe Shuna? She seems really okay, I don't think she'd laugh...but...she's Rimuru subordinate, would she help me? AH, why is this happening NOW?! What...do I do?.'

Oblivious of Milim's internal struggle, Rimuru began eating himself. After a while, the girl excused herself, saying she has 'something to do' and left. 'Something to do? Wonder what she's up to. Well, as long as it doesn't cause grief to me.' And continued eating.

There were only two more days until Charybdis would arrive; he could feel the eerie aura coming ever closer, even at this distance. He needed to be prepared, so he pushed aside all other thoughts but his plans against the beast. He would win, he had to, for the sake of his city and all of his people's efforts. He did, however, keep one other though: that once it was over, he would try his best to be the friend Milim believed him to be. Any notion of pretend and convenience, he decided to throw it away; maybe it would finally solve that weird feeling he had around her all the time.

The day had arrived; Charybdis was here. Rimuru and his top subordinates were lined up on one of the roads leading out of Tempest and into the forests. They were as ready as they could be.

The main plan Benimaru came up with was to intercept the creature in the open space the road provided so that even their ground forces had a clear line of sight of it; Gabiru and the dwarven pegasus knights would distract it in the air while the rest would draw in the 13 megalodons accompanying it and take them out first so they could then focus all they had on the main threat. He felt sorry for Geld and the high orcs who toiled for months to pave the road, but it was better it be destroyed than the city. Most citizens had been evacuated into the nearby hills and were ready to leave even further at a moment's notice.

He watch the massive creature loom in the horizon, and he really did feel like just giving up and begging Milim to do all the work. Speaking of Milim, she had, despite his (reluctant) insistence came along on to the battlefield. He tried to protest again but she spoke up first

-'Ah, don't be like that.' she said with a hint of anger 'I'm just here for convenience sake!' she smiled as posed haughtily

-'Eh? Convenience?' he asked her genuinely confused

-'Yeah, id't be a hassle to come find me when you'll need me to step in, right? Oh, and I expect a 'sorry' with that 'please', okay?' she said as she ignored his befuddled look and moved to sit crossed legged under a three, bringing out something from her storage space...'are those...chips?' Indeed, they were chips.

He decided to forget about the girl for now before he popped a vein in annoyance- slimes didn't have veins but he sure felt like he did- and decided to focus on the battle ahead. Charybdis was now almost on top of them. With a sign from Benimaru, the battle commenced.

A Hell Flare shot up into the air, its black flame visible from miles; a megalodon was caught in the blast and died instantly, falling to the ground. The rest of the troops surged forth to deal with all the smaller enemies while Charybdis was distracted by the flying troops. The distraction didn't last long but it was enough; his subordinates made surprisingly short work of the flying sharks, dispatching them one after the other.

In short order, the last megalodon was fell, but as they all feared this was only the start of their struggle; the large beast make a deafening, ungodly screech before a cloud of smaller object began to fly off of it and headed straight for them at great speed. A quick glance told Rimuru they were the creature's scales; he decided this was his moment to shine. He flew and put himself between his assembled troops and the incoming projectiles, ignoring the protests of Soei and Shion to get back. Now he was ready, he was (mostly) sure of it.

'Ever since I had predated the Orc Lord, my skills improved greatly; slowly but surely, they evolved. With the extra experience I got from my battles with Milim, that evolution was now completed. Right...'

Notice: by absorbing and assimilating skill Starved, you're skill Predator has evolved...' Great Sage informed him 'Gluttony!' and with that one command all the incoming scales were gone, engulfed by a black cloud that devoured them in seconds before drawing back into his outstretched arm. Silently, he wondered just how shocked his allies must have been. He quickly flew over to Charybdis and tried to consume the beast too, but it was no use; like Predator, Gluttony could not devour enemies with equal or greater magicule content. However, he noticed that he did, in fact, caused some damage to the creature, as it began thrashing and focused its entire attention on him. A beam of energy shot out of its one eye, but he avoided it easily.

Now that he had its undivided attention, he gave his troops the order to attack. He would keep it at bay while they would dwindle away at its health, slowly bur surely. Though he started this day dejected, he now felt more confident that they could actually do this. However, nothing ever goes perfect.

While they were doing damage, it was to little to really count; it was adding up, but very slowly. Moreover, the damn thing could grow back its scales due to its high-speed regeneration, launching volleys at his allies sporadically, forcing him to stay on the defensive more than the defensive. Thus the battle dragged on. It dragged on for ten hours.

By the tenth hour of the battle, he was really starting to panic again; he calculated (Great Sage calculated) that at their current rate, it would take up to two more days to finish it off. He realized they would not last that long. They had set up a system in place before the battle began to allow troops to rotate around and rest, but that could only do so much. Worse, he suspected- and Great Sage confirmed- that the creature showed signs it would evolve soon. It wasn't too surprising, monsters evolved all the time as they got stronger, but this could not have come at a worse time for them. Then...

A gargle of barley discernible noises came from the creature '...how...dare...you..Mi...lim...' is what it sounded to Rimuru. 'Eh? What? Did that thing just...speak?!'

Confirmed: its exact words were: 'how dare you Milim.. Great Sage helpfully confirmed, but he was still confused. 'How was this thing talking? What the hell did Milim had to do with it? Was my gut instinct to let her deal with this right in the first place?! Damn you Shuna and Shion!' he wanted to shout at the two ogress, possibly scold them, but for now decided to go and see what Milim had to say.

She was sleeping. She was sound asleep under the same tree he left her under, looking completely unperturbed by their massive battle nearby. He was partially annoyed at her for that, but also could hardly blame her; she offered her help, free of charge, and they completely cut her off. He decided against shaking her awake violently and tried to do so gently

-'Milim...hey, Milim, wake up.' The sleeping girl suddenly jolted awake, looking confused at where she was before she remembered

-'Ah, no, I wasn't sleeping!' she immediately protested 'I was...er, cheering you on! With my eyes closed...yeah!' Rimuru was not buying it, but he though better to just get to the issue

-'Yeah, listen...the big tuna seems to have busyness with you, not me.'

Hearing that, Milim stood up quickly and glanced over at Charybdis 'Ah, really?' a moment later, her eyes seemed to glow, a sign he learned meant she was using her Dragon Eye ability. 'Hmm...Oh, that guy is inside Charybdis!' she reported

-'That 'guy'?' Rimuru asked

-'Ah, that beast guy who came to Tempest, Fabio or whatever...' she tried to explain. Rimuru racked his brain to think...

-'Phobio?' he realized 'He's inside that thing?!'

-'Yeah, by the looks of it hes being used as its core.' Milim helpfully explained to him. 'So dose that mean Charybdis was following his desires? To get revenge on Milim for getting his ass beat? What a pain...' he though as he looked over the creature, then over at an eager looking Milim 'Ah, she's rearing to go. Well, I ain't standing in her way one second longer!'

-'Okay, it's your turn. Just let me get everyone out of the way.'

-'Alright! I'll get it distracted!' and flew off at high speed; sure enough, Charybdis was on her tail, everyone else forgotten.

Attention everyone, this is Rimuru; for your own safety, please retreat away from Charybdis. We're gonna try something, and you don't wanna be near it his telepathic message rang through the minds of everyone assembled; as quick as they could, they began a hasty retreat and were clear within a few minutes.

-'Evacuation completed, Milim' he said as he quickly flew over at her side whens he put some distance between herserlf and the monster. 'You can go ahead and do whatever, however...I was wondering if you could do something for me...'

-'What is it?'

-'Would you be able to destroy Charybdis but spare Phobio? I'd rather not have the hassle of having a Demon Lord's underling's death to deal with.'

-'Heh, easily! I don't known why worry so much, but since you asked I'll do it. Now sit back as see how much restraint I can show!'

'Restraint? I have a bad feeling about that...' he thought as he watched she turned to face the great sky monster head on 'What is she going to do?'

Charybdis unleashed another wave of projectiles in the air, all of them headed for Milim; he quickly flew backwards to avoid them, but she didn't even flinch, just smirked and outstretched one hand, palm forward. At that simple action, every single projectile simply stopped dead in the air, their inertia completely killed off. 'What' was all his dumbfounded mind could think up at the sight. With another simple downward motion, Milim dropped them all onto the ground. Then she put her hands together in front of her. A wave of energy seemed to wash from the space between her hands, a brilliant white light emanating from them.

Warning: indescribable; collection of information failed 'Wait, even Great Sage can't tell what that is?

'Dragon Buster!' Milim's voice rang out over the forests; at least two dozen beams of light shot out from her hands, moving at high speeds towards the beast. The beams twisted and turned and made contact with it from several different angles; the effect was instantaneous: a massive explosion replaced Charybdis in the sky, creating a shockwave that could be heard for tens of miles and completely eradicating the monster. An expanding cloud was all that remained.

'What about any of that was restrain?!' he wanted to shout, equally parts awed and terrified at the ridiculous display of power. However, his view was directed at something falling out from the cloud and plummeting quickly to the ground. He realized that she had, in fact, spared Phobio, despite catching him in that insane explosion. How she did that, he had no clue, nor did Great Sage. He grew wings again and raced to catch the falling beast man before he died, then lowered him down onto a flat patch of land, kneeling to check if he was breathing.

Milim also quickly flew down to where he was, flashing a smile and a victory sign. Watching her, he had to admit to himself: she was incredible. He could not even imagine the level of skill required to pull what she did, so he didn't bother. Instead he looked up at her, awed, and was really glad she was on his side