Ranking Up! (6)

PREVIOUSLY

[Gluttony], an inherent skill that allows its user to eat anything and grow stronger from it. An overpowered ability but it was nothing compared to the original sin.

'Find him. Find the Maiden. Find him. Find the Maiden.'

It was hilarious how the other denizens of this forest acted upon it's arrival. They had mostly flee, with the strong ones attempting to kill it and steal it's power for their own but unfortunately, that was not how it would work. After all, although the monsters operated under the system of that abhorrent Monster God, the Black Slime was a being who served under the Ultimate Evil, it's mother. Basically, weaklings who did not even fully understand the system they worked under, would not even be able to lay a scratch on it.

That was the law of the Ultimate Evil. They did taste delicious though.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'Find him. Find the Maiden. Find him. Find the Maiden.'

Sometimes, it wondered what would happen if it hadn't been born to it's mother. Would it still have that annoying whisper in it's mind-no, why did it just consider it's mother's voice annoying? She was it's mother, and the ultimate evil who would one day, bring the myriad realms to an end-but what if?

It wobbled violently. Pain flared from every corner of it's gelatinous body. No, this wasn't pain of the body, this was pain from the soul, pain that was judged upon him to be fair for it's blasphemous questioning of it's own creator.

'Find him. Find the Maiden. Find him. Find the Maiden. Fin-'

'.'

And then, the pain stopped. The Black Slime understood why immediately. For the first time in it's pathetic existence, it felt satisfaction.

Why? Because, out of all of it's siblings and family, the Black Slime, perhaps the weakest of them all, was the first to fulfill it's mother's request. And, finally it understood why it's mother had been so hasty and anxious as to send all of her children to scope throughout the myriad realms, just to find a maiden.

Oh, it did not have a heart so it could not feel emotions but even the Black Slime stopped, simply staring at the beauty of the woman in front.

Her soul was beautiful, far, far more beautiful than anything it had seen, beautiful enough for it to temporarily ignore the dangerous one carrying the scent of The Steel, growling at it. For a moment, it was tempted to just steal the Maiden for itself but banished the thought when it felt that horrible pain flaring up again.

No, it needed to send a message to it's mother, right this moment. And, finally it's mother would finally praise it for being a good child. Perhaps, it would even be the best child out of all of it's children.

But wait, if it simply called it's mother, there was the option that she would just appear, and scoop up the Maiden without so much as recognizing it. No, that wouldn't do. It needed to be praised, it needed to be wanted, it needed to be seen.

The Black Slime would have to apprehend the Maiden, of course without so much as hurting her if it wanted to live. Yes, that was what it would do. It would capture the Maiden, and bring it to it's mother itself in front of all of it's siblings, especially the oldest seven.

It trembled, thinking of such glory ahead of it's life.

When the Black Slime turned back to the woman who would be responsible for mother's love upon it, the Black Slime saw that she had somehow placated the beast-kin, who was turning back into it's more humane form. Sometimes, the Black Slime did wonder, after devouring so many things in this quizzical forest, why were most of the sane and wise creatures mostly modeled after the humans, with two legs, eyes and hands.

The gods must have been lazy unlike it's mother who had created each of her children in a different way, no matter how miniscule the difference was sometimes.

The Black Slime wondered how best to capture the woman. It had no doubt it's tentacles or acidic shot would have simply melted the little woman into a puddle but it's entire body had the acidic trait so acquiring the woman it's mother so desired, without even a single acid on her body would be extremely difficult.

Then, the world glowed white. And, an aura that every creature underneath it's mother hated, sprouted, coloring the world in it's disgusting white and holiness. The moment the Black Slime felt that disgusting purifying aura that could only belong to her children, the Black Slime wanted to demolish it, coat it in it's acidic slime so that it would never show it's light again to the world. . .and yet it couldn't.

In it's mind, it cursed, already thinking of ways to run away. How arrogant had it been?! Now that it was thinking carefully, why wouldn't the fair woman have at least something like this to protect her?!

Before it's eyes, a dazzlingly disgusting horse appeared. A horse with wings that was basically synonymous with the word holy had appeared. A fucking pegasi that had reached a high rank just in it's adolescence had fucking appeared.

It cowered underneath the intense holy aura, already feeling some of it's slime melting just from the pegasi's presence. As it was now, it could do nothing but watch as the pegasi glanced at it, before neighing mockingly like it wasn't even worth the pegasi's time.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Now, instead of it's mother's voice, it heard it's own. But it wasn't as happy, since it was so close, so damned close to getting the future it wanted, the future the Black Slime so deserved.

And so, right then and there, something broke within the Black Slime. It knew it could not win against the pegasi as it was now. It's guts, and the many magical monsters it had devoured in this forest, was telling it that if it engaged in battle, in one second, it would die.

But, mother's eternal love was right there.

Just sitting there. On that annoyingly powerful horse.

The Black Slime snapped, and so it attacked. It used everything within it's arsenal to bring the flying horse to ruins and capture the woman.

But it was not enough. At it's rank, all the Black Slime could hope for was a blunder in the horse's arrogance, a little mistake that would allow a window to which it could blast it with a concentrated beam of acidic shot.

And the blunder came. The angle, the timing, everything was perfect.

Then, the clouds split, and the winds roared.

Now, there was nothing.

. . .

. .

.

They were gone. They were actually fucking gone. Before the Black Slime could destroy the forest in it's rage, it heard the sound of a portal opening as a familiar voice rang in it's mind, only this time it was much more real.

"So, you let her go."

It couldn't even mutter Mother's name, before it disappeared, it's core broken and absorbed back into a palm whose skin was akin to that of the purest blood.

The Demon God frowned at how useless the little henchling had been. Well, for a creature created through a zombie's vomit and rotten vegetables, it was pretty useful for being able to spot the Maiden, but it just had to let her go, let him go.

"Oh well," The Demon God opened another portal. Demons sung of the world's demise on the other end, but it just sounded like elevator music to the Demon God. Oh how long has it been since it had been in that world?

She looked at the pegasi slowly crawling across the skies in the distance before glancing at the moon and just tutted.

"There's always a next time."