Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

95 – THE VOICE

Seize Kingdom, a large country in the western region of the Central Continent, had been within the range of the large-scale summoning magic circle that had called up the Unseelie Lord. It had been attacked by hundreds of thousands of dark pixies. But as befitting the title of being a large country, they had succeeded in raiding the Origin point within their border, defeating the prison escapists and destroying the magitool that served as the Origin. Peace had returned to them for the time being.

The assaults by demihumans and monsters all over the world, as well as the battle between the Unseelie Lord and the Dark Lady Whitehare, had brought down over half of all the human countries. But chained by the pride of being a large country, the citizens of Seize Kingdom had still not yet been evacuated.

Yet they had heard the rumors, all the same, even when no one knew where it had come from.

The people had heard that there were signs the countries with weaker militaries were going to abandon their Saplings in order to avoid being dragged into the war. The people had spoken of their unease, their worries about the status quo to their lords and ladies, yet at the same time, they still prioritized their livelihood above all else. Their dependence on the Saplings were far more powerful than their concern of what was happening on other continents, and they would not let the Saplings go even when ordered by their own ruling nobles.

On top of the castle walls of the capital of Seize Kingdom, the general of the army, the man who had been dealing with the dark pixie stragglers, was taking a cigarette break. Then he took in the sight in front of his eyes and gaped, the tobacco pipe dropping from his mouth.

“…what the fuck is that?”

A green mountain was moving toward the city.

But as it got closer and closer, he realized it was no mountain. It was a massive slime. The people of Seize began to panic.

“A slime?!”

“How can there be one so enormous?!”

“What happened to the towns on its path?! Why hadn’t I heard anything about this?!”

“The outer towns seem to be unharmed…”

“That’s no illusion! It’s actually there! It’s coming!”

“Ready the artillery! NOW!!!”

As the mountainous slime came within several kilometers of the capital, the magic artillery set up on the walls fired.

*boing!*

“””…eh?”””

The enormous creature several hundred meters tall and several kilometers wide jumped, passing over the dozens of cannon shots. The ground shuddered as it landed.

Seeing the green mountain begin moving again, the general roused himself from his shock and once more shouted his order.

“…f-fire! FIRE!”

The slime continued its inexorable advance, at times flattening itself, at times twisting and warping to open holes for the projectiles to pass through harmlessly, and at times repeating its jumps.

Regardless, the bombardment continued to hit its target more frequently as the slime got closer and closer to the city. The moment evasion was no longer possible, the colossal slime suddenly split into hundreds of millions of small slimes, flooding toward the city as though a green tsunami.

The humans now realized the enormous slime was simply a congregation of small ones. Perhaps they had stayed separated on their way here, and it had been the reason why the outer towns hadn’t noticed them.

Why had they come here? Why had they merged into this… ‘king slime’?

At any rate, the humans found themselves not quite caring at the moment. They had been worried about the enormous slime, but now that the congregation had split, the barrier would surely repel the small creatures.

But the humans had underestimated the slimes. Once more, they were struck dumb by the impossibility in front of their eyes.

“””…huh?”””

The slime horde simply passed through the barrier as though it wasn’t there. They squelched, affixing themselves onto the walls and melting through the stone, and they flooded into the city.

A chorus of screams echoed as the soldiers and the townspeople were washed away by the tsunami. One of the soldiers watched a slime jiggling on his palm, and he realized what they were.

“…jelly slimes?”

Jelly slimes were a type of monster. They were calm by nature, and they could eat anything, including raw garbage, and so were quite prized by humans. Yet it was also the reason why there had been a period of time when they had been overhunted, and now jelly slimes were considered an almost-extinct species.

Where had they been hiding, and in such number?

Jelly slimes were much too weak to be considered a threat. Their lack of magic power was the reason why the barrier hadn’t caught them.

*boing!*

On top of the clock tower, a jelly slime with a color somewhat darker than its brethren jumped. The horde of slimes that had been indiscriminately cleaning people’s houses and laundering clothes of panicking citizens all stopped what they were doing to instead head for the palace.

—over here—

—quickly—

Several hours later, the capital city of Seize Kingdom had had its palace buried in the horde of single-minded slimes, its Sapling destroyed with barely any resistance. The jelly slimes then immediately left with such order as though following a leader, and they disappeared without a trace, leaving behind the dumbfounded townspeople without a single hair on their heads harmed, and a squeaky clean city without a single speck of dust.

*boing!*

***

The large country of Seize had fallen, and it hadn’t been the only one to be brought down by such circumstances. The same thing had happened to the small country of Harcinq to the north of Seize, only the culprit hadn’t been slimes. They weren’t even monsters that could be deterred by the barrier.

Harcinq had been attacked by dogs, cats, and similar near-magicless creatures, as well as animals resembling pigs and chickens that were being kept as livestock.

And not only that, wild rabbits, boars, monkeys, and many more had also come from their homes in the mountains and forests to join the attack. Aside from being normal animals, they shared no other commonality, though if somebody had looked, perhaps they would have noticed that the creatures were all munching on something.

Millions of animals entered the capital city, heading for the governor’s castle.

“Stop the damn beasts, now!”

The soldiers were running toward the donkey that was leading the horde, bows and guns in their hands, when they suddenly tripped on flat ground. The flock of animals went past them unimpeded.

One of the soldiers picked up the strange object on the ground where he had lost his footing. He tilted his head in puzzlement.

“…a banana peel?”

—over here, over here—

—no adults over here—

Even as the animals approached the castle, the soldiers still resisted, desperately trying to repel the chickens and wild rabbits. Some of the animals were wounded by spells and weapons, but after they retreated to a certain location and ate something to recover, they continued to head for the castle once more.

The townspeople weren’t unscathed, of course.

A three-year old girl was wandering, seemingly to have gotten lost in the chaos, when she stumbled and skinned her knee. As she cried, a monkey passing by gave her what he was holding in his hand.

“Ook.”

“…banana.”

The little girl took the tiny banana from the black-and-white monochrome monkey and ate it. As her scratch healed, her tears instantly stopped to give way to a beaming smile.

“Thank you, mister monkey.”

“Ook.”

The monkey shook his head as though telling her not to mind, and he gallantly leaped on the back of a donkey passing by to ride away. Several hours later, Harcinq’s Sapling was liberated.

—hang on—

—just a little bit more—

***

“—[Gospel]—”

My Gospel and Fiorfata’s Curse clashed. The blast covered the palace of the large country Dixhut below and wiped it out of existence.

“…urgh.”

I wanted to say I managed to cancel out its attack, but I’d be lying. It took everything I had to deal with its half-hearted effort, and I still received several thousand in damage.

“…got it!”

Our attacks just now had destroyed the Sapling of Dixhut, and it had been revived somewhere else. As always, the World Tree once more sent me a white magic stone, and not only that, it also sent me some mana to help me recover at the same time.

[Shedy] [Race: Bunny Girl] [Archdemon Lv. 66]

・The demon of Laplace. One who had ascended beyond an Archdemon.

[Magic Points: 213,500/220,000] 30,000 ↑

[Total Combat Power: 235,500/242,000] 33,000 ↑

[Unique Skill: <Causality Alteration> <Dimensional Manipulation> <Consumption> <Materialization>]

[Racial Skill: <Fear> <Mist Form>]

[Simple Identification] [Human Form (Wonderful)] [Subspace Inventory]

[Dark Lady]

—watch out—

“!!”

I immediately gathered magic into my hand and parried Fiorfata’s magical blast.

That was close… while my body didn’t require sleep or rest, I’d still been fighting for several days straight without stopping. I was beginning to slip. Thankfully, as I gained more magic power, things were slowly getting easier and easier.

…and ever since I passed level fifty as an Archdemon, I started to hear a faint voice. With every level I gained, the voice got just a little bit clearer.

This wasn’t the voice of monsters… whose was it?

But it wasn’t the time for me to be distracted by my musings. Around thirty percent of the Saplings still remained. Even if I could free them all, I still didn’t know if I could even win. All the same…

“I won’t give up!”

—just a bit more—