Chapter 105: The Conflict Continued, Rimuru's return
The next day I awoke to the sound of 50cals blazing as explosive impacts rained against my ward emblazoned around the city. My women were fast asleep, Milim enjoying Shuna's warmth as the entire bed was tossed and turned. Our activities last night were very intense and thus they were out cold.
Within moments I had put on my dress, changing it into a normal looking cloth shirt and long pants. Slipping into the shadows I thrust through the house and out, dodging from umbral blackness to umbral blackness, the early morning sun providing all of the shadows I needed to traverse half the city in less than a minute. Moving through the city I found very little people out on the streets, soldiers moving from house to house handing out food and supplies. It was a very familiar scene for me, my past life having thousands of such dispensaries in the nuclear wastelands between shielded cities.
The amount of souls within my syphon trap increased, hundreds being absorbed every few seconds. Brassy vibrations continued to spill out from the edges of the city. Soldiers began to run through the streets, barricading the streets; several thousand per road. So full were the streets that one would think under normal circumstances that a festival of some form may be ongoing. A fireball struck the top of the dome-like shield, the blue fire rippling against it in water-like patterns. My speed suddenly increased as I thrust myself up into the sky, my feet landing on a solid platform of pressurised air.
What I saw was sickening in many ways... Men, were throwing themselves out at the bullets, many doing so in a zombie-like fashion. They were mind controlled, I could sense it and feel it in my very blood. No one would use men like this unless they hated their own country or were counting on this to weaken Falmuth. More sickening was the ignorance of the enemy leadership. My right eye twitched, my eyes feeling sore just from witnessing such an idiotic and wasteful use of people. If they were using them in intelligent ways, such as using these men as a distraction, I could respect the willing sacrifice... But this was sheer wastage, utter disregard of life.
Despite this being revolting for me I decided not to intervene. Why stop your enemy when they are making a mistake or being manipulated? Unless they were doing the same for us then there was no reason for me to stop it.
'At the end of the day, it all feeds our ascensions...'
Sighing, I watched as the slaughter continued. Blood now soaked the entire plain and was seeping into the roots of the trees. Green was obnoxiously common throughout the flora in parts of the forest where people had been butchered. Amidst all of these conflicting shades was the ever burning pyres of dead that littered the plain in small blotches, acting like pimples upon the landscape.
Then, a speckle of white dotted the distant skyline as upwards and downwards motion stirred the atmosphere around the newly added figures. Realisation came over me as I understood what was going on... Rimuru had returned with Gazel.
'Well, it is good that he is here. Either he can do what he wished to so in the anime or he can just consume the souls I have prepared for him on a platter.'
|He will not like it|
'I don't give a fuck... So much life has been wasted for this, he'll either take it or I'll give it to Shuna... If he wants to do it himself then there is no need for me to even give him any. All he needs is 10,000.'
|The 1,000,000 Limit is applicable to him as well...|
'Do you foresee him being able to snuff out the lives and souls of a million people?'
|...|
'No, you don't, neither did I. So... We shall just move forwards with the expectation he knows what I did. What he chooses after, I will accept, even if he doesn't decide to become a Demon Lord.'
There was silence from Rip-off as I watched the pegasai knights quickly blitz through the air towards the city. Soldiers pointed at them as they soon came within viewable distance for the majority of the citizens. Blue and white mixed in the air as within a minute I had gained another 2000 souls. Eventually they were so close to the city that they would smash into the shield if I didn't let them in. Needless to say, I let them in, Rimuru, Shion and Souei obvious amongst the dwarven soldiers as they weren't dressed in the plate armour.
Noticing Rimuru's irate posture I couldn't help but feel a tingle at the back of my neck, a premonition of a future argument? Who knew... All i did know, was the flavour of souls collecting into my spell. The number had swelled above ten thousand at this stage, the murder continuing as bullets were ran from warehouses in the city out to the gun-pits.
Swooping through the sky until a sufficient landing position could be found the knights, Gazel, Rimuru, Souei and Shion landed. The pegasai neighed and flinched in horror as the thunderous and tumultuous melody of brass casings striking the ground, as cordite billowed, was sucked into their senses. Knight struggled to keep their flying mounts contained as Gazel dropped to his feet, his expression serious and utterly cold. It was obvious that he was used to war.
Knowing they would wish to speak with me I removed the pressurised air and dropped from the sky, my figure easily noticeable as my silver hair flared out behind me. Rimuru looked up and tracked my descent as I cast feather fall on myself, the spell removing my momentum in a sense and replacing it with the sway-like motion of a feather falling. Within moments I was on the ground, my feet firmly planted and Rimuru within ten meters.
"Silviana-sama! We heard there was war?"
BRRRRRRRRRT BRRRRRRT BBBBBBRT
Gunfire biliously interrupted as I smiled at the tame Shion. It seemed Rimuru was a good partner for her as she was now less bitchy. Nodding I stepped forwards and spoke aloud.
"Indeed... We have been fighting for a day at this stage. The total dead is immense."
Rimuru paled within his human form as he looked extremely horrified. I simply closed my eyes before Gazel walked forwards and began to speak, the man asking a very intelligent question, at least I thought it was.
"Seeing as how you are still alive and you do not seem savage or bloodthirsty at this moment I would assume the deaths have mainly been on Falmuth's side... So i will not ask you that. What I will ask you is how have defended this long with a 1.3 Million Manpower difference?"
I chuckled and grinned at his words before shrugging.
"Magic..."
At this it was his turn to chuckle and shrug.
"I Guess that is the best I should expect as an answer... Well! We are here in an official alliance signed by me and Rimuru, so please direct my men to areas you wish to use them."
Looking at Rimuru I saw him nod, my happiness at his decision being immense as I felt a huge weight shift from my shoulders. No longer would I have to manage so much menial shit... I could simply guide the technology, military and infrastructure of the city without the political mire that was this world. So much stuff I could have already done was stopped by needless nonsense. Nodding at Rimuru I turned to Gazel's men, all of them lined up beside their mounts.
"If you could have your men run supplies for our defences that would be superbly helpful."
Gazel nodded and motioned for them to stand forwards and begin to aid us. I signalled a commander of the logistics division, the man running up and grabbing the new members. So swamped was the logistics division that the hundred or so men of the pegasai knight faded into the greater din of bodies. It was like watching a bottle of water being poured out into a river and trying to track said bottle water.
"Silviana, is everyone okay?"
Rimuru sounded concerned as he looked at my tired state, not knowing that it was for 'other' reasons... Milim was such an active woman when she wanted to be...
"As well as we can be. PTSD will be an issue afterwards but so far we have no issues. The only current issue is the dead soldiers we have to bring back and bury."
Rimuru instantly gained a dread-filled aura, his anger and frustration at not being present when his people were dying flittering out into his Magicule Aura. It was directed at me, the purple and black aura sparking in the air as his face gained a seriousness and rage close to his demon lord self from the anime. Unlike the anime he wasn't despondent, Shion's death in the anime had driven him into despair... But this version of him was instead angered, wrathful, pissed... I was running out of words to describe it.
To know if he was directing his emotions at me or Falmuth was a paradox that even Dr Paradox would have an issue finding out no doubt. My assassin self flickered in my mind, the remnants of her personality jittering inside my head from the recent unleashing. Rimuru didn't care however and quickly moved up to me, his hands reaching out and grasping the lapels of my shirt. His strength was nothing to scoff at as it could easily obliterate a wagon or even a house in one hit most likely.
"WHY!? Why did you keep this from me!?"
He lifted me up, my kitsune ears and tail flexing and swooping downwards at the same time. Physically he wasn't intimidating to me, but, he was a friend and seeing him this pissed at me made my soul hurt in a way I hadn't felt in a long time.
"You couldn't be told..."
"WHY...!?"
Shion ran up to Rimuru and attempted to talk through his anger but it was ineffective. Gazel wasn't even interfering as he saw this as an internal matter and therefor not a situation for him to jut his nose in.
"Becuase, if I told you... You would have to lose those you loved..."
His anger flipped one-eighty as his eyes widened, my hourglass eyes piercing into his eyes and showing my true intentions, for the first time in a while.
"I do not do what I do for fun, Rimuru, friend... Pissing you off and telling you to leave? It needed to be done... Separating you from the situation until this stage? A calculation on my end that will allow us to ford the rivers of chaos that present themselves before me."
"What are these rivers you are talking about?"
"I cannot say. If I speak on it, you will be doomed to follow that path, or could be..."
Silence reigned for several moments as a complicated emotional membrane filled the atmosphere. It was so intense that people dodged us more than even before, many wishing to merely focus on their own problems.
Steps resounded a minute later, my eyes staring into Rimuru's as he processed the issues and problems of the entire situation. Turning my eyes in the direction of the footsteps, i was surprised by what I saw... 'How did they get in?'
As if on que the three adventurers that had stayed with Shizu when she first came here stepped out. The eleven woman was sweating a little at seeing Gazel, me and Rimuru all at the same time. She was the daughter of a leader within the sorcerer kingdom of elves to the west and this showed as her noble bearing shown through and cemented itself in her posture and temperance. Her gait transformed into a calm and collected one, her guards also entering into their official stances, beaten into them by the military of said kingdom.
"T-there may be a way to bring them back though..."
'Oh for fuck's sakes... Really? This cliché moment?'
|Shut your fucking mouth, I like this moment in the anime!|
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