Celebration 1

Rimuru managed to drag his eyes away from the Demon Lord who had just turned the great Charybdis into nothing, looking down to the person that was largely responsible for the whole mess. 'Great Sage, what do you say?'

Answer: fusion rate of individual Phobio and individual Charybdis is over 90%; it will take less than an hour for Charybdis to return to full power and reform GS informed him.

Milim saw him scowl and asked 'What's up?'

-'If we leave him here, the monster will just come back...I've got to separate Charybdis from Phobio.'

-'Can you do something like that? Even if you do, won't it just go somewhere else and start over? ' she asked with some worry; she wasn't wrong: as a spiritual being, Charybdis, once separated from its host, would vanish and reform in another place; even so, he had a plan. He looked back up at her and offered a reassuring smile

-'Yeah, no worries. I got this' 'All right, Great Sage, we can do this...' he told his partner as he placed both hands on Phobio's chest. 'Parallel activation of Degenerate and Gluttony. You control the power, I'll handle the rest.' Understood Great Sage replied

A black mist enveloped the beastman; Degenerate, a power he had gotten from absorbing Shizu, was capable of separating or merging powers, and as a spiritual lifeform Charybdis was vulnerable to its use; once its core was separated from Phobio, he absorbed it with Gluttony and quickly put it into his storage space where it would have no escape. Eventually, it would be disassembled, vanishing into nothing. The process toke only a few seconds, but it was far from simple and he felt exhausted afterwards, falling backwards to sit down; Milim watched the process with starry eyes and sat down besides him once it was over

-'How did it go?'

He gave her a thumbs up 'All done; it was a success.'

The two stood there in silence a few minutes, alone, while the rest of the troops made their way to where they were; Milim looked like she wanted to say something, but didn't. She was fidgeting a bit, but he really could't place why. Well, he'd ask later once everything settled down. He too had some things to say to her, but decided to do so later. Watching her completely annihilate Charybdis within seconds while they barley made a dent in ten hours really made him realize just how far apart they were in terms of not just power ranking, but in general. She was a Demon Lord, someone at the pinnacle of the world; if she wanted to, she could probably very easily take everything she could ever possibly want by force; that she didn't made him realize she may not be as selfish, inconsiderate or irresponsible as he first believed her to be.

Their attention was distracted by the sound of footsteps; behind them, Benimaru and a few of the others were fast approaching. After reassuring them everything was over, he filled them in on what Milim had done. They were slack jawed to say the least

-'Unbelievable...' was all Shion could muster 'but I would expect nothing less!' a cheer rang out from the troops at their victory. Milim for her part really seemed to enjoy the compliments.

-'Urg...' Rimuru turned his attention to the sound, realizing it was Phobio. His eyes were slowly opening, and he looked like in a daze. When he set his eyes on him and Milim, however, his eyes shot wide open in realization

He immediately- and painfully, by what he could tell- shot up and got on his hands and knees, prostrating himself before them 'I am sorry!' he shouted 'I humbly apologize!'; Rimuru could feel the sincerity in them. Whatever happened to get him possessed by Charybdis, Rimuru figured it gave Phobio a real doze of humility

-'All of this...I did on my own! Lord Carrion had nothing to do with it!' he hastily added 'If you want vengeance, take it with my life alone, please!' he begged. Rimuru considered how to properly respond

-'I didn't have Milim spare you just to kill you afterwards, you know...' he told the man; hearing that, Phobio cast a quick glance at Milim, shocked, then looked back down in shame 'I do however want you to answer some questions. Treyni...' at the sound of her name, the dryad in question materialized nearby; he had sensed her coming while they were talking

-'Yes, thank you.' she said with a small bow to Rimuru, then turned her attention on Phobio 'How did you know where Charybdis was sealed? Only us dryads knew the place, entrusted to us by the hero.' she asked with unusual gravity in her voice 'I do not believe you came upon it by coincidence.'

-'I was shown the place by two clowns wearing masks.' Phobio replied immediately

-'Clowns wearing masks?' Rimuru asked confused. Treyni however looked to contemplate something, then keeled down and drew something in the sand; it was a clown mask, with a winking face

-'Was one of it like this?' she asked; Phobio sat up to look, then shook his head

-'No, none of them were like that.' he began drawing next to the one Treyni made 'one was a little girl wearing a weeping mask- said her name was Tear; the other was a fat man wearing an angry mask- Footman, he said.' he explained as he drew. Out of the corner of his eye, Rimuru saw Benimaru tense

-'A fat man with an angry mask?' the orge asked with barley restrained anger. That was when Rimuru remembered, during his first encounter with the ogres they said their village was attacked by orcs led by a masked majin. He assumed at first it was Gelmud, but now...

-'A fat man with a mask...' Geld contemplated from the side 'If I recall, there was a majin like that calling himself Gelmud's agent- said he was from some kind of 'Moderate Alliance'?'

-'The Moderate Harlequin Alliance' said Phobio 'they said they took on all kind of odd jobs. Never heard of them before that though...' then even Gabiru seemed to want to say something

-'Well, I do recognize the mask Lady Treyni drew...' he said as he stepped forward 'he said he's an agent of Gelmud as well, called himself Laplace.'

-'Laplace, you say...' Treyni said in an unusually hostile tone

-'Footman, huh? I'll remember that name' Benimaru said with a calm voice

-'Hmm...' he heard Milim say 'Gelmud was the guy in charge of the whole Orc Lord project, but I never heard of any Harlequin Alliance or anything like that...' she said absentmindedly 'I wish I could've meet them...' her disappointment was however quickly replaced by a look of realization 'Oh, but what if its's not Gelmud...'

-'What?' Rimuru asked

-'Perhaps Clayman was plotting behind the scenes!' 'Clayman? Sounds familiar...'

Notice: individual Clayman is one of the Demon Lord's mentioned by Milim Great Sage helpfully allowed him from asking aloud who that was; instead he asked 'Why do you say that?'

-'He dose love to scheme like this. If anyone were to try and sneak something like this under everyone's noses, its definitely him.' Milim suggested; however, as they did not have any real evidence, Rimuru decided to ignore it for the moment.

-'Well, there's no helping it right now. We'll just have to keep an eye out for these mercenaries. For now, everyone get some rest!' he shouted to his troops, who all roared in victory and began to disperse back to the city. He turned his attention to Phobio 'And you, careful on your way home, yeah?' he informed him as he himself turned to leave

-'Wait!' Phobio called out to him as he hastily got up on his feet 'You can't just forgive me just like that!' he protested

-'It's fine.' Rimuru reassured him dismissively 'You're not innocent, but you were being used too. No one died so we can just put it behind us. Right Milim?' he asked the Demon Lord; he figured she too would still have a beef with the beastman

-'Yup, it's okay! I wanted to give you a good wallop, but whatever, it's fine now!' she proudly proclaimed 'That okay with you, Carrion?'

'What?' was all Rimuru could think before he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps. A large man with beastly features and blond hair seemed to step in view out of nowhere, emitting a large aura.

-'Heh, of course you knew I was here, eh Milim?' he said in a gruff voice as he casually strolled towards them

-'Lord Carrion!' Phobio screamed, shocked, as he hastily walked towards his master 'So this is Demon Lord Carrion?' though Rimuru as he closely examined the man; his aura was quite something; nothing close to Milim of course but easily dwarfing his own or any of his subordinates. Suddenly, he hit Phobio so hard, he swore he could hear some bones breaking. The unfortunate beatsman now laid sprawled on the ground, bleeding, but Carrion continued nonchalantly

-'You cocky fool.' then, as if forgetting completely about what he did, he turned to face Rimuru 'So, you there...a measly slime like you, starting your nation of monsters.' he said as he got right up in Rimuru's face 'You ate the Orc Lord, didn't you?' he said, but it wasn't a question

-'So what if I did? Got a problem with that?' he calmly shit back; Carrion was easily almost twice as tall though so he had to really look up to say it to his face. After a short pause, Carrion billowed in laughter

-'Fwa, ha ha ha ha! How funny! I can see why Milim likes you! Ha ha ha!' after a few more seconds, he stopped and caught his breath, looking more serious 'Anyway, I wanted to apologize for my follower acting out of control like he did. For what it's worth, he only had orders to investigate the Orc Lord, not cause all the problem he did. Of course, I still hold some fault...'

-'Heh, I really didn't think you'd send that knucklehead here...' Milim interjected 'I'd have though for sure you were more of the careful type...'

-'Ah, c'mon Mililm, I thin you have to big an opinion about me. This was a blunder on my part...' he said, looking slightly embarrassed 'Let's call it a holdover from my younger days...'

-'Ha ha ha ha! Oh, I get it now!' Milim unhesitatingly laughed at his expense, though exactly at what Rimuru wasn't sure

-'Yeah, keep laughing.' Carrion said mildly annoyed, but he had a small smile on his lips 'It is what it is. Anyways, Rimuru...'

-'Yes?'

-'Let's just say I owe you a favor for keeping my subordinate alive even after all he did.' Rimuru wanted to ask what was the point, as Phobio was currently bleeding to death nearby on the ground, but wisely shut up and listened 'So if there's anything I can do to make up, just say the word.'

Hearing the sincerity in Carrion's voice, Rimuru quickly got an idea 'Anything? In that case, I would be interested in a treaty of non-aggression between our nations.' he informed the Demon Lord

-'Is that all?' Carrion asked, somewhat surprised 'All right, deal. In the name of the Beastmaster Carrion, you have my word. Eurazania will never bear it's fangs towards Tempest.' he said as he extended an arm forward; Rimuru extended his, and the two shook the agreement. He noticed Milim smiling on the side, but looking unusually solemn for some reason. He wondered how often Demon Lords made agreements like this. Before he could say anything more, he heard Carrion move; the large man picked up the unconscious, bleeding Phobio, and hefted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

-'I'll send a proper envoy sometime later, okay?' the Beastmaster said as he began walking away 'Oh, and I'll make sure Phobio behaves next time. See ya later, Rimuru.' and disappeared in a flash

Thus ended yet another potential catastrophe from befalling on Tempest.