Rising Towards the Crescendo...

Rapid battle ensued as the blades and magics of the summons clashed with equal force from the force of Tempest. Wind was cut and projected out towards opponents as a means of lethal force, only to be countered by other magics of different natures. Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning and Space was used, all within the span of half a minute. 

Benimaru dodged a rogue slash from the teenage woman, a crisp careening sound following the over-extended movement from the teenager. As if this had been trained into him hundreds of times Benimaru arched his knees, dropping his centre of balance and waist down in a squat. Within a second his right fist had already slammed into her stomach as Gobta blocked a katana slash from her ally, the man grunting and almost hissing in frustration.

A crimson splatter sprayed through the air as she coughed out chunks of blood. Being flattened onto the ground she was stationary as blood slowly pooled in her mouth, the red liquid slipping through the corners of her mouth and carving a path through contours on her face. Soon her hair was dyed in the gory colour, her eyes staring up at the beautifully cyan sky, the light within them slowly fading away as a cruel spell slowly smothered her soon-to-be escaping soul.

"I, didn't even get, to have, se..." 

Splutters of coughing echoed out for a few seconds more as she slowly drowned on her own blood. Meanwhile, her ally was currently being attacked by the three Tempest members. Geld leveraged the weight of his war-hammer to attempt a strike, missing by a mile as the man ducked before he even got close. At the same time Benimaru sent a small ball of flame that burned as hot as a roaring forge. Same as with Geld however, he simply dodge. In fact he dodged so well that he got a solid hit onto Gobta who was coming low to the ground to stab at the slippery man.

Smacking against the cold hard mud of the battlefield one could almost see the stars buzzing above the small goblins head from the blow. A small curse escaped Geld's mouth as his tusks clacked against his teeth, his hammer sundering down once more towards his target. Dodged. Once again this foe managed to avoid it by dropping to his ass and then getting up to his feet with one quick and controlled movement. Benimaru tried to attack him but had to move aside to dodge the momentous strike of Geld.

Using the chaos of the two Tempest opponents he started to swing his sword, a huge smile creeping across his face as victory was close at hand. ZZZTTT. With a soft sound of metal scraping along metal, wires of an almost see-through nature wound themselves around the limbs of the already celebrating youth.

"Never leave your back open."

Souei with his dark blue hair slowly walked out from shadows and pulled on the string within his hand. Discordant drops of lifeblood began to drift down the supple metallic threads. As he attempted to speak the threads tightened, the amount of liquid increasing. 

"U-ug-ugh...!"

"Do i kill him?"

Benimaru stretched his shoulders a little before walking up towards the now held man, the strings of metal bearing his entire weight whilst digging into his pale white flesh.

"Yes, Rimuru-sama said to deal with them..."

Souei didn't even wait, his threads squeezing within his hands as blood and body parts thumped to the ground in a slopping thud. Geld took off his helmet as his hammer was placed into the mud. He burped a little as the aura around him subsided, the unique skill settling down to enjoy the newly received meal.

"That was quite quick."

"Indeed."

Souei slowly faded away as the distant sound of Explosions rocked the forest.

...

SCHIIING

With a quick cut i diced a Spirit into pieces, the various particles of light that once were its form sprinkling to the ground like sparklers on new year's eve. I attempted to calm myself down, my blade whipping out to the side, like I had seen many different swordsmen in anime do, to clear the blood from my katana. This wasn't the smartest move I had made, i realised a few seconds later, as a large pulse of sonic energy blasted into me and launched me backwards, my feet scrapping along the ground. Trying to stay on my feet was hard but what was even more annoying was the laughter of the mage opposite me.

These mages had done nothing but summon spirits and think themselves superior. If it hadn't been for the number of spirits they had thrown at me, I would have reaped their souls by now.

"Hahaha! You cannot overcome human MIGHT!"

A spell launched from his hands. It was pitiful. To be honest i felt sad for the woman or man he had at home, he must have had the world's cruellest handicap. I rolled my eyes and simply consumed the spell, Great Sage Digesting the information of how it was made and structured. 

"Next time, don't say your spell out loud... It makes it embarrassing for everyone involved..."

Predation expanded out in a massive clump of slime and outright devoured the man. I was right, he did have a handicap. Looking around, I could see that Yuna was bashing in the skulls of her enemies, the very nature of her aura seemingly collecting the unseeable souls of the soldiers which she had killed. I couldn't say for sure, but It felt like it was happening that way.

'Great Sage, how many have i killed so far?'

|Number of Souls collected by you have reached: 10,000|

|Interfacing with the Will of The World, you now have the option to evolve to True Demon Lord, or you can consume more and attempt to gain more from the evolution.|

'I will gain more. I have to choose to have more... Otherwise I cannot protect Tempest and I will be placing all responsibility on Silviana's shoulders.'

|Understood|

I stood in silence for a moment or two before moving forwards on the battlefield. One, two, three, ten, one hundred, one thousand... The numbers never stopped coming. getting closer to the camp just worsened the amount of death. Men cried out to their mothers or wives as they were soon consumed by my predation. Memories, conversations, emotions, all were conveyed to me when I consumed them. Tears would have come to my human form's eyes had it not been for the fact that they came to tear down my family, my people and the lives we had made.

Was it their fault that they were ordered here? No... But still, they had come and had the intention to commit to these acts. Justifications could be made, but they could be countered and debated over forever. There was simply one truth that I had come to realise after predating over 80,000 people. No such thing as Good or Evil existed, there was simply the loser and the victor. Does that mean that having morals was pointless? Of course not, but it still boiled down to the single fact that even my past world had hidden amongst its modern depths. The Victors write the Histories.

'I hate this...'

A disgusting tar-like taste came to my mouth as I watched one among many before him run straight into my predation and be turned into atoms. Memories washed by me, he was a father of seven and was fighting in this war in the hopes of gaining enough spoils to send his children to knight academies and wizard academies. The person, now gone, his children now bound to a widow who was all alone. The taste got worse.

Hundreds more charged, these being the soldiers and knights that had not seen the carnage of my abilities in person. Gone. I was closer to the King's camp now, I could see the royal flags and banners of the King of Falmuth. That taste changed, more like disappeared, my mind focussing on all of the memories I had been processing. One singular feeling seeped out from the primordial ooze that were these people memories and thoughts.

`WE HATE THE KING!`

"I hate this fucking king..."

Bat wings extended from my back as black mist slowly faded from their arrival. Extending out in a stretch these new appendages quickly flapped downwards creating uplift. I was now in the sky, my sight changed in perspective. People moved and fought below me, like an ants' nest that had been kicked and disturbed. Hundred's of thousands of people, all of them, specks.

|Total number of souls Collected: 91,953|

'I feel like this is where Midnight Sonata should play, or something...'

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