Rimuru didn't know when the rain started to fall, but as he watched each droplet beat on Shuna's pale face he couldn't help but question himself.
'How did this happen?'
"By the time I arrived, it was already too late. There were no signs of the attackers. Someone was able to block me from using [Shadow Movement]" Behind him, Soei was explaining what had happened while he was away, but Rimuru barely paid attention.
'Why did this happen?'
Shion was shouting in rage now, but Rimuru couldn't bring himself to care. He simply stared at Shuna's face, waiting hopefully for her to smile back at him.
She did no such thing.
Everywhere was quiet now. All he could hear were his own thoughts. And the steady beating of the rain.
'Is this... Some kind of punishment? Am I being punished for daring to think that I could coexist with humans?'
"Lord Rimuru!"
He blinked, realising that the reason why everywhere was so quiet was because his aura had been blasting in every direction for the last few minutes, filling everyone with dread.
"Oh." He whispered. '[Great Sage]'
<
A white mask appeared in his hand, and he placed it over his face. With this, he didn't have to force his energy to remain calm.
Now that the energy in the air had settled, Shion suddenly hugged Rimuru from behind. "We're all grieving too, Lord Rimuru." She whispered. "But we need you now more than ever."
"...It hurts, Shion." Rimuru whispered back.
"I know, Lord Rimuru." Rimuru felt her vibrate on his shoulder. She was crying. "Even now, Sir Benimaru is still leading our forces against the humans. I can't even begin to imagine what he's going through."
'That's not it Shion.'
Rimuru felt as Shion let go of him and stepped back.
"Hakurou and I are going to meet up with Sir Benimaru, Lord Rimuru. We'll do everything in our power to protect Tempest." Shion finally declared.
"Lord Rimuru." Hakurou spoke softly. "You must remain strong. They will feel our fury before the night's end."
With that said, both Kijins left the clearing. Suphia and the others followed as well.
Eventually, all that remained was Rimuru, staring for over thirty minutes at Shuna's body that was half covered by a tarp.
'You still don't get it. None of you do. Even now, just staring at her, I can't bring myself to shed a single tear. When did I become...'
"Well damn." A new voice drew Rimuru's attention.
"Shogo." He noted.
The otherworlder strolled up to Rimuru with his hands in his pocket. "Are you still moping?"
Rimuru's mask covered face slowly turned to face Shogo and the otherworlder froze in his tracks as he felt some sort of pressure hang in the air.
Crack!
The side of Rimuru's mask cracked sharply and in an instant, and at the same time, the pressure seemed to increase a hundred fold.
"Ok, I get it. Bad timing." Shogo grit his teeth as he struggled to speak under the pressure. "But still, is this really all you're going to do?"
"Clayman took someone that you cared about... What are you going to do about it?"
Rimuru tilted his head. "Clayman?"
Shogo nodded in relief as the pressure suddenly vanished. "Yeah. I figured that you'd already know since you have that ninja Kijin of yours, but seems like I'm the only one who got it."
"What do you mean?"
"I managed to corner one of the bastards that was attacking the refugees, but as he was about to run, he suddenly paused and started fighting back. I killed him obviously but before he died he seemed to be begging Clayman."
Shogo frowned. "Then I remembered that Youm's girlfriend, Mjullan was also a former subordinate of Clayman. She wouldn't shut up about redeeming herself whenever we hung out. It seemed a lot like Clayman's m.o. To have people fighting for him against their will."
"Clayman did this?" Rimuru's voice had lowered so much, Shogo could feel the temperature drop in his voice.
"Y-yeah. Seems like it."
<
'I'm going to kill him.'
"Uhm, you good boss?" Shogo looked nervous.
"Shogo." Rimuru turned back to him, forcing Shogo to straighten.
"Y-yeah?"
"Please look after Shuna. The Goblins will be here soon to move her somewhere safe." Rimuru walked past him.
"What will you do?" Shogo asked.
Rimuru didn't answer as he kept on walking.
Rimuru didn't stop walking. The rain followed him, steady and cold, soaking into the ruined streets of Tempest as if the sky itself had decided to mourn in his place.
Or maybe it wasn't mourning at all. Maybe it was just… indifferent, just like him.
His footsteps echoed faintly against broken stone as he moved past collapsed structures and scattered debris. Fires still burned in places, stubborn pockets of orange against the grey of ash and rain. The scent of smoke clung to everything.
'This is my fault.'
The thought came easily. He didn't argue with it.
'If I was stronger… if I acted sooner… if I didn't hesitate…'
Another building creaked somewhere in the distance before collapsing inward with a dull crash.
He didn't look.
'I let them think we were weak.'
His fingers curled slightly at his sides.
'No… I showed them we were weak.'
The rain intensified.
---
At the edge of the battlefield, the sounds of combat were still very much alive.
Steel clashed. Magic flared. Screams cut through the air, quickly swallowed by the storm.
Benimaru watched it all. At some point, his blade had stained red.
Another soldier rushed him, shouting something incoherent through the rain.
The man fell apart before he could finish the sentence.
'I failed you, sister. After I'd promised you.'
"Sir Benimaru!" Crimara called out from behind. "The western flank is holding, but the barrier users are slowing our advance! It appears they have skilled sorcerers as well."
Benimaru didn't turn. "Break them. Destroy them."
His voice was calm Too calm.
Crimara hesitated for half a second before nodding. "Yes, sir!" Then she turned around and created a bow made entirely of fire that seared blue before firing off an arrow, and Benimaru watched an entire section of the army get erased.
Benimaru turned away from the Antari and focused on the battle ahead. He rushed at a particularly large man with a battle axe.
The man had been able to repel Gobta and his wolf riders not once but twice now. He must've been an adventurer rather than a soldier.
That meant that he likely wasn't drafted but hired to come here. Not that it mattered to Benimaru, they'd all die the same.
Benimaru wasn't even supposed to be on the front lines. He was supposed to be the one managing Tempest's forces not risking his life in the midst of it all.
Benimaru however didn't care about that right now. He looked down at the adventurer who was now missing both his arms and legs and didn't feel a single shred of pity.
And why should he?
The man was screaming incoherently and trying to shuffle away in fear and Benimaru simply watched him.
'Humans really are pathetic.' He found himself thinking. He knelt down next to the wailing man, placed his hand on his head in an almost soothing gesture. 'After charging into my home, threatening our lives and taking so much from us, you still dare to plead for your lives.'
The man didn't last a single second, having already melted all the way to the bone from black flames.
When Benimaru stood back up, there was a strange glint in his eyes. 'Sister, I swear it on my life. I will avenge..."
The battlefield froze.
Everything stopped. It wasn't that the fighting ended. It was that something incredibly and impossibly heavy suddenly pressed down on the battlefield.
Magicules thickened in the air like a suffocating fog.
Every soldier, human and monster alike, froze.
The source of this pressure was clear to everyone on the battlefield, as everyone's instincts drew their gaze and attention slowly to the sky.
Where Rimuru Tempest looked down on every living thing, the white mask still covering his face, now marked by a thin crack along the side.
"...Lord Rimuru." Benimaru was the first to move. He turned slowly, eyes widening slightly as he took in the scene.
Rimuru didn't respond.
His gaze moved across the battlefield once.
Taking everything in.
The dead. The wounded. The fear. The resistance.
"Benimaru."
His voice was quiet, but it carried, like he was right next to him.
"We're done here."
Benimaru's eyes sharpened. "My lord…?" The words didn't sound like a command, instead to him it felt like a conclusion.
The entire forest seemed to be trembling as the air grew excited. Haze like heat shimmered everywhere he looked. The world was literally shaking.
From pressure. That of Rimuru Tempest.
"I understand now."
The rain seemed to hesitate as his voice continued.
"Talking."
"Negotiating."
"Waiting."
Each word fell heavier than the last.
"They only work…" His aura flared slightly, distorting the space around him. "…when the other side is willing to listen."
Rimuru raised his hand slowly. The air was screaming now. Magicules condensed violently, pulling inward toward a single point above his palm.
The sky itself seemed to darken further in response.
Benimaru's eyes widened. "…Lord Rimuru." He knew what this was. Even without understanding it fully, he knew what would happen next.
Rimuru didn't look at him. "Return to Tempest." His voice remained calm. "I'll handle the rest."
Benimaru hesitated. For only a fraction of a second, he hesitated. "…Understood."
He turned immediately. "ALL FORCES, WITHDRAW!" His voice cut through the battlefield like a blade.
There was no room for argument. The monsters moved instantly. Even the wounded were carried without question.
Crimara watched the ruler of Tempest with narrowed eyes.
"Mother... Were you aware of this?" She whispered. And the she herself turned around and ran, while recalling all of her troops.
All of Maple Tree's forces retreated as well alongside everyone else.
No one dared to ask why. No one needed to.
Because everyone could feel it.
Whatever Rimuru was about to do, It wasn't something you stood near.
---
Rimuru hovered high in the sky, watching as his allies slowly left range. "Clayman's a demon lord, so that means that he's currently at Walpurgis while he sent his men to attack us."
'I could just wait for Walpurgis to end and then kill him then. But this rage bubbling up within me... No, Clayman cannot live past tonight. The only way to attend Walpurgis is to become a Demon Lord myself then.'
Back when Kaede had suggested the idea of Rimuru becoming a Demon Lord himself, she'd also mentioned the process of how it would be possible.
Even if she mentioned that she'd been told by someone that it would work it was still the only lead Rimuru had.
He needed to have a Demon Lord seed and then he needed to fertilize that seed with an absurd amount of souls.
She never mentioned the particular amount but she was ready to give him a hundred thousand souls to do It.
Human souls.
It was one of the reasons Rimuru had refused the proposal back then. Becoming a Demon Lord had seemed to be the wrong direction in every way back then.
Now? Now he didn't care.
In an instant, a large transparent barrier encompassed the entire battlefield. "No one leaves."
"[Great Sage] how many of them are left?"
<
For a moment, there was no response. Even the rain seemed to hesitate.
Then...
<
<
Below him, the battlefield had gone unnaturally still.
The human army, those who hadn't already fled, were frozen in place, their weapons trembling in their hands. Some had dropped to their knees without realizing it. Others stared up at the sky, their expressions warped by something deeper than fear.
Instinct.
Every living thing present understood one simple truth.
Something was about to happen.
Rimuru exhaled slowly. "…I see." For a moment, his hand lowered slightly.
Just a fraction.
The condensed mass of magicules above his palm wavered.
Faces flickered through his mind. Shuna.
Smiling gently as she poured him tea.
Scolding him softly when he slacked off.
Standing quietly behind him, always there.
Reliable. Warm.
Dead.
The image shattered and Rimuru's fingers tightened. The sphere above his palm stabilized instantly, compressing further. The air screamed in protest as the surrounding magicules were dragged violently inward.
Below, panic finally broke.
"R-Run!"
"They're retreating, why are we still here!?"
"The barrier! someone break the barrier!!"
Magic flared desperately across the battlefield as the human forces scrambled, spells slamming uselessly against the transparent dome enclosing them.
Nothing worked. Of course it didn't.
Rimuru's voice fell, quiet and absolute.
"[Har Megiddo]."
Space fractured into countless unseen points as invisible distortions filled the air above the battlefield.
It felt like the sky itself was twisting like water and forming strange vortexes within itself.
From the view of those below, it felt like the sun had fractured and split into hundreds more.
A soldier sprinting toward the barrier staggered, a hole appearing clean through his chest.
He collapsed before he even understood what had happened.
Then another.
And another.
And then... Thousands.
Screams tore through the battlefield. "They're everywhere..!!"
"I can't see them..!"
"Why... why is this happening!?"
It didn't matter where they ran. It didn't matter how fast.
Bodies dropped in waves.
<