Chapter 66 - The Rise of the Dark Slime

---3rd Person POV---

"AHHH!!", Shang Tsung screamed as his whole body was rocked with unbearable pain.

Puking up a mouthful of blood, the wizard fell to his knees as his very core felt like it was falling apart. Having seen what unfolded on Earthland, Shang Tsung had tried to pull back the portion of his soul that was contained within the Eternal Flame before Mael's attack. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't quick enough and was caught in the Shinrai and Death Zero. Having a portion of his soul destroyed had critically injured him, and he was barely staying conscious.

"Damn it!!", Shang Tsung wheezed, "Give me my Soul Orb!"

Commanding his pet get the object for him, the slime didn't react. Giving the order a second time, once again the slime didn't bother to move an inch.

"Follow my orders!! I am your Master!!", Shang Tsung spat coughing up more blood.

Feeling his soul disintegrating, he gave up on the slime and tried pulling himself towards the one item that might be able to save him. Before he could get to it though, the slime severed his arms causing him even more pain.

"What are you doing!?", Shang Tsung roared in agony.

"Your usefulness has ended.", the slime spoke to him.

In that moment, the pain from his soul falling apart and his arms being severed vanished. He didn't think the creature could speak, let alone make a coherent sentence. Demanding to know why it hadn't spoke sooner, the slime said it only recently learned how to from him.

"From...me..?", Shang Tsung replied.

"Your knowledge has been very beneficial, but I have outgrown you.", the slime told him, "You will further my evolution, be thankful you can continue to help me."

Before Shang Tsung could say anything more, the slime attacked him. Unable to do anything as the pain came back, his final words were curses towards Mael for causing this. After a few seconds Shang Tsung was gone, and his knowledge had been imparted to the slime. Moving around the laboratory, the slime devoured the Soul Orb along with all of Shang Tsung's tomes. Feeling its evolution begin, the slime went into a hibernation state as it began adapting/upgrading itself.

---Mael POV, Earthland---

Returning home that evening, Irene informed me that the majority of the Celestial Mages were at the Guild Hall. Makarov had been made aware of the situation, and almost started a riot when he heard from the children. That said, word was already going around that I had wiped out the Church HQ. People nearby the site reported seeing me wipe them out with a wave of my hand.

"Word is, they thought you were an actual angel at first. They thought it was Divine Judgement that rained down on the HQ.", Erza snickered with an approving smile.

"You really did a number on them.", Minerva said putting food on the table, "Temples are shuttered and devote believers are in hiding."

"Hopefully that will set them straight.", I chuckled, "Still though, I don't intend to hunt down the average believer. The upper crust of the Church and Mage Hunters...they should all be on high alert from now on, and hopefully stop their stupid behavior."

As I was going to sit down to eat, Raiden reached out to me. Answer the call, he sounded very worried and exhausted at the same time. Knowing that this was unusual for him, I assumed the worst.

"What's wrong?", I asked, "Shang Tsung came back for more?"

"Not exactly...it would be easier if you saw for yourself.", he said, "The situation here has taken a rather gruesome turn."

Swapping out with a body double, I headed over to his temple.

---Raiden Temple---

Appearing at Raiden's Temple, I found Raiden and Fujin sitting with Kitana and Jade. The two of them were a wreck, they looked like they were target practice at a gun range. Taking a seat at the table, I asked what happened.

"Mileena and several of the servants in the castle...", Kitana said with a shiver, "One moment they were fine, the next moment they exploded violently. Our home is in shambles, mother is furious and has gone out looking for Shang Tsung."

"He detonated them?", I inquired, "That seems a bit illogical, I mean no one knew about their connection to him...Mileena aside."

"This is true, killing them effectively leaves him blind.", Fujin agreed, "This is very abnormal for him."

"About what time did it happen?", I asked.

"Early this afternoon.", Jade told me.

'That coincides with the destruction of the Church, was he hiding out there? I didn't sense him, just hints of his presence on the Pope and the Eternal...', I thought before I realized what happened, "That would explain the divinations people were having..."

Looking at me, Raiden asked what I was talking about.

"In a different world today, I wiped out a cult with ties to Shang Tsung. One of the objects they held dear, the Eternal Fire, had his presence all over it. Rumor had it that people received enlightenment from it, if a part of his soul was there...I may have inadvertently killed him today.", I chuckled before another realization hit.

Opening a portal to the ruins of Shao Kahn's ruined castle, all we saw was a massive crater. Clearly the Flesh Pits had exploded without his magic to sustain them, and it was actually kind of humorous. Ozai was no longer a problem, he was certainly dead after taking a blow like that. Closing the portal with a smile, it was nice that he was eliminated and no longer wrecking havoc all over the place.

"So then it is done.", Fujin stated.

"Not one hundred percent, that pet slime of his probably didn't die. Knowing how it's skills work, I am almost certain it did and is still going to be a problem. Make sure your realms keep an eye out for the slime, it will be incredibly difficult to kill.", I told them.

Thanking me for the heads up, I headed back to Earthland.

---Earthland---

Finishing the homecooked meal they prepared, I went up stairs to find Sorano and Yukino. The two of them hadn't come down to eat with us so I wanted to make sure they were okay. Finding them holding one another in my bed, they appeared to have fallen asleep while crying. I felt bad that I hadn't done something sooner to help, in fact...I felt guilty I hadn't done that much at all.

'I took my time, and this is what happened. Having these powers...I guess I have been having to much fun walking over everything and not really hammering down on achieving anything.', I thought, 'If I had dealt with the Church sooner, the two of them could have been together sooner. Things have to change...and so do I.'

Deciding to put that mindset into action, I decided to put plans into action to eliminate Tartaros and Grimoire Heart. With the Church and Mage Hunters out of action, the Dark Guilds would definitely use this opportunity to strike. Since the Magic Council was still recovering it's strength, it fell on me to make sure they were dealt with before innocent people were harmed. Letting things play out like they should have in the normal timeline was no longer an option, they would hit hard...so I had to hit them harder.

Leaving home for a bit, I told the women I was headed over to Levy and Hermione's apartment to ask for information. Saying they would have tea on for me when I got back, I headed over to see the two women in question. It had been some time since I last saw them face to face, so I was hoping the two of them had been doing well. I knew they had taken up jobs with the Magic Council as Librarians, so I hoped their messy habits had been fixed.

Slipping past the Dormitory Mother, I knocked on their door and waited for them to answer. Opening the door a few minutes later, Levy asked me what I wanted. As I was going to ask, I noticed that she looked utterly exhausted from lack of sleep.

"I was going to ask you about Magic Detection, but...why do you look exhausted?", I inquired.

"We have been doing research for the Magic Council...", she groaned.

"Don't they have their own people for that?", I replied, "Your just the librarian."

"No...after they found out about the experiments they were running, hardly anyone wants to work for them. We only accepted the task because gramps asked us too.", she yawned, "Besides, we have nothing but time on our hands at work."

Nodding my head, I asked if I could come in. Opening the door, I walked into another nightmare scene. Having cleaned their apartment dozens of times, as a courtesy, it never stayed clean for more than a day or two. Seeing Hermione buried in some books about anti-magic, I had a sneaking suspicion this was tied to FACE. Since they were exhausted, I decided to test my luck.

"This have something to do with the Magic Council Weapon called FACE?", I asked.

"The sequence keys were taken-", Hermione started to say before she snapped awake, "Wait, you know about it?"

"Yes, I am aware of it and the Etherion Cannon.", I chuckled, "You forget that I am privy to information as a Wizard Saint."

"Ah...well the Council believes that someone leaked the information, they want us to track down anyone that worked on it. Unfortunately everything was redacted and used codenames for people so we are cross referencing researcher's writing style and comparing them to the notes we have.", Levy yawned, "We have been at this for too long..."

Giving them a smile, I told them they were looking at this wrong. Setting their books down, the two of them glared at me. Having spent days on this, being told they did something wrong likely upset them terribly.

"How so?", Hermione asked in a disgruntled tone.

"You realize the safeguards they have in place, right?", I remarked, "Having the keys won't be enough to arm the weapon, there is Organic Link Magic keeping it from activating. You'd have to kill the Council Members that have the connection before you could arm it."

"Why does that matter?", Levy inquired.

"Simple, have they detected someone trying to activate the weapon?", I pressed them.

"No.", they answered.

"Seeing as how they haven't made any demands, we know this isn't a ransom which means they intend to use it. If they haven't armed it yet, that implies they know about the Organic Link Magic...something the engineers wouldn't have known about.", I chuckled, "The programming would have been handled by the Council themselves."

With that realization, a light bulb went off.

"They wouldn't go around telling who had the safety switches, only the person that would know that would be the Chairman. Each one would have to know who carried the connection in case they ever needed it. So that narrows it down to...", Hermione said flipping through the documents.

"Crawford Seam.", I told her.

Stopping their search for that information, the two looked at me with confusion. Asking how I knew, I said that it had to do with my visit. Explaining to them that I needed to build a machine that could detect massive amounts of magic. Stating that Crawford Seam was an informant for Tartaros, I needed to find them before they started to move.

"With the Church and Mage Hunters out of the way, the Dark Guilds are going to make a move. As the Rank 1 Wizard Saint, I have to squash this now before people die.", I stated, "How long would it take you to build something?"

"About two weeks and we'd need some funds to make it.", Levy said as she started writing things down.

Telling them I would fund it, I said to get me a list of parts they needed and I would get it to them.

---3rd Person POV, Several Days Later---

Waking up several days later, the Dark Slime felt better than ever before. Feeling it's body overflowing with power, it was ready to begin rolling out it's plan. Creating several dozen miniature versions of itself, the Dark Slime opened a portal and began sending them out to various worlds to begin the process of educating other slimes to evolve and grow stronger. Once all his copies had been dispersed, the Slime start to think about who might be willing to help him kill Mael and the Gods that were bound to come looking for it.

"I'd prefer someone curvy.", it muttered before realizing what it said, "Wait...why did I think that? I need someone strong, not curvy!"

Perplexed by why he was thinking that way, it quickly chalked it up to something to do with it's evolution. That said though, the idea of going to a Hostess Club sound very appealing for some reason.