Aghanim's Rubick Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

The smaller sharks were soon whittled away, dragged to the forest floor and slaughtered by my armies. They were careful, but injuries happened regardless. No deaths, thankfully, but someone did lose an arm. Thanks to Susuru and his magic with health potions, it was swiftly regrown. Still, that was the easy part, at least according to Milim.

Now alone, a siren-like roar sounded from Charybdis’ large form. As if it was a warning, its scales bristled, shooting forward like rounds from a cannon. The Army of Claszureme tensed, barriers and spells deployed alike in anticipation. The Anti-Magic field would make the scales punch through regardless, but if it made the scales travel even a split second slower, it was worth it.

However, such preparations proved unnecessary. The scales flew up high, blotting out the sky with their number, before they paused, hanging in the air for an instant, before they all tilted, aiming as one in a singular direction.

Mine.

Before they had even started to rain down, I was moving. Arm outstretched, a burning green dome surrounded us. Then another. Then another. I wasn’t going to bother block these projectiles. No, instead I was going to incinerate them, burning them to nothing with my plasma. That was, of course, if they could get through my first defence.

Like a great maw, the jaws of a large creature, reality itself split in the sky above me. The dark purple of the void shone through, the largest gateway to the thing I had ever opened. I heard Lucifer take in a sharp breath, catching a shiver from Milim next to me from the corner of my eye.

That was all that had time to occur before the rain started. Each scale the size of a horse, falling to the earth with a terrible momentum. The vanguard of them reached the portal, disappearing from this world as it passed through, the whole mass taking on a shape akin to a wedge. More and more passed through, the great tear in reality swallowing everything. As it did, I furrowed my brow.

“My Lord?” Lucifer asked from my left, hovering near my elbow, “Is there a problem?”

“No.” I answered, “That is the problem. There are more than enough scales for the Anti-Magic field to affect my spells, yet there is nothing. I am not feeling any strain at all.”

“As expected of my Lord!” Lanaya cheered, laughing, “Even a monster of legend is no match!”

“Ooh!” Milim reacted next, “Then you’re just like me, Rubick! When you get strong enough, you can start to just ignore things like that!”

What?

‘Just ignore it?’ what the hell kind of explanation was that? I thought skills were fiat backed by the will of creation or something, spoken through the Voice of the World. How can strength be enough to just ignore something like that?

That merely redoubled my desire to study this whole Skill business in more depth.

“I see.” I responded, pretending that was true, “Does that mean that I should be able to cast magic on Charybdis itself then?”

“Of course you can! You are my Bestie after all!” Milim nodded, a grin on her face.

I frowned, not sharing her certainty. Lucifer spoke next.

“There are tiers of existence, my Lord. Once you arrive at a higher one, the abilities of lower tiers cease to have any effect on you.” Her voice was reverent, red eyes still locked to the rift in the sky.

Gazel didn’t speak, merely looking at the magical phenomena with a severe, calculating expression.

Deciding to test what I was being told, I extended my senses, feeling the spark of life in the scales that were being shot by the massive creature. Holding onto their location in my mind’s eye, I flexed my will, just as I did when I first met Lucifer, Snapping my fingers as I did so.

Instantly, the wind that had been roaring from the movement of so many massive objects died down, Above us, past the ominous purple glow, the scales hung, sharp edges still pointed eerily directly at me. I had assumed that it would take more power to stop each one than it really had, so instead of just the couple dozen I had been aiming for I had actually stopped them all. Suspending them motionless, as if someone had hit pause on a remote.

A cheer erupted from the Army, galvanised by this display of power. The cheer grew in fervour as I swung out my arm, a wave of dark green plasma racing from the forwardmost scales and spreading throughout their entire number, burning them to nothing in mere moments.

“Brilliantly done, My Lord!” Lanaya cheered, “Allow me to show you my resolve as well!”

She crouched down, tensing her legs in preparation. I idly noted her movements while bringing my arm back to my side, a strange feeling of disappointment filling me. This was a legendary disaster class monster? This was a being that could bring countries to their knees? Even if the Anti-Magic field had worked on me, I had already come up with several ways to defeat the beast.

The easiest one was also the simplest, merely accelerating an ordinary pebble through the void would grant it enough speed to cleave the thing in half.

My despair was broken by an immense blast of wind, my bodyguard blasting off from her position as she jumped several kilometres in the air.

She was wildly off-course, completely missing the large form floating above us. However, she soon flipped in the air, kicking off with extreme force as she readjusted herself and flew right at Charybdis’ face. This was the plan that Oda had arrived at, using Lanaya’s skill, ‘Certain Outcome’ to guarantee that she could kill the thing, seeing as it was a skill that did not rely on active magic to function.

According to Milim, Charybdis could regenerate so long as it didn’t sustain a large amount of damage at once. Certain Outcome allowed Lanaya to force a desired result from her action, as demonstrated by her being able to kick off of air as if it were solid ground. As she struck out her sword, the metal gleaming in the dying light of the afternoon, the deadly application of her skill soon became evident.

She clove through the body of the great beast, the blow bisecting it in two cleanly despite her oversized sword not being long enough to cover a tenth of the distance required. With another flip, she passed through the monster again, speeding up as she did so. In the space of a minute, she struck multiple times, each blow travelling the full length of her target.

The effects were deadly.

With a spray of blood, Charybdis separated into many, large rectangular chunks, the cuts were clean, perfect in execution, despite the enthusiasm they were delivered with. As the legendary beast spread open like a macabre crimson flower, I noticed a dark shape emerging from the flesh of the creature. Now knowing that the Anti-Magic field was not effective, I flew up to inspect the form I notice.

Lucifer followed, as did Milim, leaving Gazel in his stunned awe being watched over by Susuru. AS I approached, my brow furrowed, the figure becoming clearer and clearer. Reaching out, I punched through the thin film of membrane cocooning the body, ripping him out from its protective embrace.

Hanging there limply, my hand clasped around his neck, was that emissary from Carrion that I kicked out.

“Oya?” Milim tilted her head, “Is that one of Carrion’s guys?”

“He said as much.” I answered, “I must say, this is the weirdest declaration of war I’ve ever heard of.”

“Hmm.” Milim scrunched up her nose, “I don’t know, it doesn’t really seem like Carrion. He would just come over and punch you directly, not be all sneaky like this.”

“Does it matter?” Lucifer voiced my thoughts, “Someone claiming to represent him has participated in what was obviously a targeted attack against my Lord. It must be answered for.”

“Exactly.” I nodded, turning to start floating towards my celebrating army, watching at the great Beast started dissipating, “I will call on Carrion to answer for this. Once I have his reply, the punishment will be decided.”

“I don’t want you to go to war.” Milim pouted, “You will have less time to hang out with me.”

“Don’t worry Milim.” I smiled, my disappointment from how easy the battle was still lingering in my breast, “If someone makes themselves my enemy, I will be sure to destroy them quickly.”

“As expected of my bestie!” She cheered, causing my smile to widen.

Still, that left a question. Charybdis was a legendary creature, capable of destroying multiple countries. My army could have easily handled this, hell I myself would have been enough to end its threat alone. Something about that stuck out as odd to me.

As we approached the celebration, I had to wonder. Was my strength and the strength of my army that overwhelming? Or were the stories exaggerated? Either way, I needed to find an answer soon.

---ARARAR---

Susuru sighed, leaning back in his chair and stretching, more out of habit than anything else. His new slimy body allowed him greater comfort than his old one, small things like aches and pains a thing of the past. Of course, his new life came with its own stresses as well.

The major one, Rubick, was currently in a meeting with King Gazel. The Dwarf had seemed a bit shell shocked after the felling of Charybdis, almost scared of the Grand Magus. His Pegasus knights had been present in the battle, but had hardly had to do anything, the Army of Claszureme and Rubick killing the beast almost entirely on their own.

He hadn’t missed how his friend was feeling after the battle and it didn’t take him long to realise the reason behind it. Rubick never wanted to be a king or a ruler, instead at his most happy when he could tinker with magic. However, now that he was put in the position of being those things, he wanted to be the best he could be.

Admirable, but ran into a problem when confronted with the truth that his subordinates are really powerful. He became a king to protect them, so what did that mean when they demonstrated they could easily protect themselves?

It must be difficult to work through.

Of course, Susuru had his own things he needed to work through. His friend was almost too good at looking cool, the image of him thrusting his arm out and burning Charybdis’ attack to cinders had imprinted itself on the slime’s mind, the scene like something out of a movie. It reminded Susuru of home in that way and at the same time, reminded him of his promise toward Shizu.

The students, kids who had done nothing wrong, yet were brought into this world and cursed with powers that would eventually kill them. Shizu had made him promise to help her save them, but had not sent any messages after she went back to check on them. With Rubick’s power up after the Orc Lord, Great Sage had been greatly upgraded as well. Susuru was sure that if he could examine the children, he would easily be able to come up with a way to save them.

‘Affirmative.’ Raphael, Great Sage’s new form, whispered into his mind, ‘Such a thing would be within my capabilities.’

‘Careful Raphael.’ He thought back, grinning, ‘That sounded dangerously close to pride.’

‘Negative. It was merely a statement of fact.’ Came the reply, causing his grin to widen.

To tell the truth, Rubick’s advice still burned in the back of his head, about trusting something that could think for itself with access to his head. However, Raphael and Great Sage before her had done nothing untoward to him, helping him massively several times. Rubick was just worrying over nothing.

Still, back to the topic at hand. His message to Shizu had gone unanswered. He was sure she was busy, but this long without correspondence was beginning to be suspicious.

He resolved himself, his mind would not let him rest easily until he met with the woman and helped her with the kids himself. He needed to speak to Rubick, to get permission to go to Shizu and help out.

He would keep his promise.

---ARARAR---

“Sure.” I responded, causing the Slime to deflate from his impassioned speech, “I have no problems with that. You know you get vacation days, right?”

“Yes, I remember the contract. But this isn’t an emergency or for health reasons, so…” He started to mutter, causing me to furrow my brow.

Suddenly, it came to me with a noise of realisation, “Ah, right, of course. You were a Japanese Salary man, right Susuru?”

Susuru stiffened, looking towards the placidly observing Lucifer, before he spoke, “Ah, yeah? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Different countries have different expectations for how vacation days are spent.” I explained, “If you were sick or hurt, I wouldn’t take that down time out of the pool, man. The vacation days are an entire month you can use however you want, to check on friends, relax, train, whatever. Just let me know beforehand.”

To be honest, the contract itself was complete overkill, but he had insisted on it. Of course, once he had one, every one had to have one too, so that had turned into a whole thing for a few weeks. I still remember Lanaya and Hanako outbidding each other on how many vacation days they wanted, going lower than the other one constantly until I had to sit them down and explain everyone got a month, no matter what.

Susuru, in the meantime, had his mouth open in shock, “What the hell? What’s with this lax management style?! Are you an angel or something?”

“The angels of this world are hardly the type to give vacations.” I scoffed, before grinning at the slime, “No, Susuru. I am something far rarer and far, far scarier.”

He leant forwards as my voice deepened for gravitas, before his face fell flat at my finisher.

“I am a reasonable boss.” I laughed at his sour expression.

“I had heard stories, just never expected to meet one.” He grumbled, “Are all Europeans this easygoing?”

“No, this isn’t a Dutch thing. It’s a Rubick special, be grateful.” I joked, before my attention was drawn to the clearing of a throat, “Yes Lucifer?”

“You and Susuru are from the same world, my Lord?” She inquired, before continuing at my nod, “I see. That explains where you discovered your style of ruling over others. Truly, binding those loyal to you with ties of gratitude, not obligation, is devious my Lord.”

Susuru and I exchanged uneasy looks at that, as I nervously scratched the back of my neck. It’s one thing when I was joking around with the guy, but when it was laid out as some elaborate Machiavellian scheme, it sounded so sinister.

“Well, there were a nation of people that had a saying, back there.” I spoke, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

The demoness tilted her head at that, turning the words over in her head, before she placed a fist in her palm in realisation, “I see! Yes, vermin are attracted to sweetness rather than the bitter taste of reality. Truly, your words are full of wisdom.”

I sighed. I suppose I should have expected that, teaching a Demon of all things the principle of reciprocity was not something that would be that easy. I was broken from my despairing by a laugh from Susuru.

“You have it tough, huh Rubick?” He grinned.

“That I do.” I commiserated, before straightening, “We went off topic. Susuru, I’m also worried about Shizu. Please go and check on her and if she is in any trouble, bring her back to Claszureme. You have my permission to tie her up and drag her back if you have to, I will take responsibility. She struck me as the type to refuse to ask for help until she absolutely had to.”

“Sounds like someone else I know.” He responded.

“Shush you. Take this.” I tutted, leaning forwards and using the copied sub-dimensional storage I stole from him to drop a nondescript pendant into his hand, “Rip the stone from the chain and no matter where you are, I will come and help you.”

He squinted at the necklace, “Are you expecting trouble?”

“Yes.” My blunt assertion seemed to surprise him, but that gave way to understanding as I explained, “First the Orcs, then Charybdis? I’m not waiting around for a third time. Someone out there is fucking with us, and I don’t appreciate it. I’m not saying this and Shizu’s lack of communication are linked, but it’s better to have it and not need it right?”

“Right.” He nodded, tension draining off his shoulders, “To be honest, this is a massive relief. Having the ability to call you in a pinch will be reassuring.”

“I promised to protect everyone in Claszureme. That includes you and Shizu.” I stated, “I’m just fulfilling my promise.”

“Take the compliment you prick.” At that, I had no other possible response but to laugh.