Two days later, Milim came back for another visit during the early morning.
Apparently, she had felt that being away from Tempest for more than a week or two since meeting Rimuru was simply too much for her new bestie to bear being without her. And naturally, when she came back- trouble followed in her wake.
Which Rimuru found out firsthand when she attacked someone in Tempest.
He found out a bit after he had showed up at the scene that the person that she had attacked was a subordinate of another demon lord. Someone by the name of Carrion, who was the ruler of the of Beast Kingdom Eurazania.
Which wasn't good since the incident could lead to hostility between the two countries.
And after healing the guy and sending him on his way, he had expected that to be the end of things.
But unfortunately, it wasn't since a few hours after the incident took place, he received word from Toreinī younger sister that a powerful, catastrophe class monster named Charybdis had resurrected unexpectantly and was heading their way. If it reached Tempest, then they could expect the number of casualties to be up in the hundreds of thousands.
Startled and understandably upset by what it could mean for himself and those under his protection.
Rimuru quickly summoned everyone needed to take part in a meeting that would decide what they should do since he wasn't sure that his people had amassed enough power or strength to beat it.
After explaining that the beast fed on the souls of those that it killed to gain more power...everyone then began to brainstorm what to do to keep it away from their home and it's many, many inhabitances.
Rimuru had initially wanted to evacuate everyone from Tempest and send them somewhere safe. But Shion decided for him that they should stay and fight.
Milim had wanted to participate in the battle, which he was sure would have helped them quite a bit considering the fact that she was an incredibly powerful Demon Lord. But she was shot down automatically by both Princess Shuna and Shion despite the fact that he had wanted her to help.
Needless to say, they were running out of options fast and he was scrambling to figure out a way to win while minimizing their losses when Ichigo's friend, Souei's newest subordinate, Renji finally spoke up with the idea of just sending Ichigo to take care of the beast.
His idea of course made absolutely no sense to any of them. Not even Rimuru.
But the lord was willing to hear him out irregardless since he was more than a tad bit...curious to learn more about whatever reason the man could give him as to why they should send just one simple girl to fight their fight for them.
True, she was technically one of his subjects now. And as such she did have a say in what was happening. But to Rimuru, putting the heavy burden of wiping out a beast like Charybdis squarely on her shoulders wasn't an ideal plan of action to him.
Casting a glance, the girl's way to see how she was taking being put on the spot so suddenly, and especially about such an important matter- he felt surprised by the fact that she wasn't reacting to her friend's suggestion at all. There was no, gasp, no shocked or fearful facial expressions. Nothing at all to indicate that any trace of fear or even anger.
It was weird.
Really weird.
Finally finding his tongue, Rimuru asked. "And why should we trust the fate of Tempest and the forest of Jura to a mere girl? What is so special about her that we should put all of our trust and faith in her to save us?"
Renji took a second to cast what looked like an apologetic look towards the girl before saying, "Sorry kid. But we aren't the only ones who stand to lose everything here."
Rimuru frowned as did several of the others who were patiently awaiting an explanation of some kind.
"It's fine Renji. I understand." She said with a smile.
It took a moment for Rimuru to pick up on the fact that the reason that Renji had apologized to the girl was so that he could get her permission. And now that he had it...he was going to tell them.
Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Renji began speaking.
"Ichigo is an insubordinate brat at times. She likes to bend the rules if it means helping or even saving someone's life. But...she's also the single strongest individual that I've ever known. You pit her against that thing, and she'll destroy it within moments. She won't care what she has to do to stop it. She'll risk her life, her wellbeing, and her entire soul to just kill it."
"Okay well, that doesn't explain why we should send her to do it." Rimuru said as he reached up to massage his temples.
Renji rolled his eyes at all of them and then held up his hand with several of his fingers up and started talking again. "Because she has the ability of Absolute Regeneration. She could have her head torn from her shoulders and her body ripped to pieces and would heal instantly. It makes her very, very difficult to actually kill since everything meant to kill a normal person will have absolutely no effect on her. In many ways, it's akin to being immortal."
Rimuru's eyes went so wide that it was a wonder that they didn't fall out as he glanced back at the girl and saw her nod in confirmation as Renji went on. "She also has an ability called, Rapid Evolution. You pit her against an incredibly strong opponent, and if she isn't able to stop it right away- she'll evolve to the point where she can. It happens over and over again at an impossible speed until she reaches the desired level needed."
"She also has an ability called, Speed Demon. She can be wherever she wants and move however fast she desires to. And it all happens far too fast for anyone else to register it. That thing won't be able to defend against it or the others. But aside from those abilities, she also has an ability called, Wings. So, she's able to fly too. It makes using air attacks easier and she's...very fond of those since she can be as destructive as she pleases without really needing to be concerned about the ground taking a ton of damage."
Rimuru kept his eyes on the girl as she kept nodding her head and felt his mind screeching at him in utter disbelief as everyone in the room started shouting all kinds of things back and forth. But in the end, it was unanimously voted that Ichigo would destroy Charybdis.
It was also decided that a small ground force would be accompanying her to the battlefield to observe while the rest of their forces hung back and waited for reinforcements, just in case. And with that all figured out, the meeting concluded.
The second that everyone had filed out of the room with the exception of a select few, Rimuru jumped to his feet and stormed over to Ichigo and took hold of her arm and snapped at her. "What the hell are you doing hiding abilities like the ones mentioned during the meeting from me?"
To be honest, he was upset and more than a tad bit shocked. After all, those were some frigging neat abilities. But he wasn't really angry about being left in the dark given the girl's past difficulties.
"I have my reasons."
"What reasons could you have to deceive us about your combat abilities?" Benimaru demanded while Souei nodded soberly next to him.
"Yes, you should have said something from the beginning." Shion said in a chiding tone.
Next to her, Renji looked a bit upset and reached out to take hold of Ichigo's hand as the girl drawled out, "It wasn't necessary for you to know."
Rimuru looked as if she'd just slapped him and released his grip on her arm in shock as he stammered out in an incensed tone, "N-Not necessary? It wasn't deemed necessary. We have people and beasts of great power coming out of the woodwork almost daily of late and it wasn't necessary for us to know that you had any combat ability at all. Are you insane?"
"You watch your damned mouth!" Renji suddenly roared at him. The man's expression had gone from simply upset to enraged in almost zero point two seconds.
Rimuru suddenly felt all of his anger at the girl drain away a bit as he stared at Renji's rage filled form as the man growled out, "All of you should watch your mouths when you speak to Ichigo. She may be under your rule and live as one of you- but she isn't under any sort of obligation to share sensitive information that is detrimental to her wellbeing with any of you!"
Shocked by the way he was shouting at them, they weren't sure how to respond as the man went on to snarl, "You act like just because you now know that she has power, that you're for some ungodly reason entitled to it! Well, you aren't. It's her power to use. Not yours, so back the fuck off!"
"Renji you go to-" Souei started to say when the red head snapped at him.
"Shut up, Souei. None of you have any right to be upset with her! But you've now given her every reason to never trust you with anything again. She'll fight your fucking enemy, but after that...all of you leave her alone!"
Ichigo felt Renji's hand tighten around her own and gave him a small squeeze back in understanding as her friend began to pull her to the door to leave.