The One Behind The Conflict

I was watching the battlefield from above, taking in the situation unfolding on the ground. Flashes of light ran from corner to corner, blowing away dozens of orcs at once. A loud roar rumbled in the sky as a black dome-shaped something appeared, then disappeared after a few seconds and left nothing but a bunch of glass fused into the earth. 

All the orcs there must have been burned into nothing, in another area tornadoes swirled across the field, sending gale-force winds in all directions and burning the orcs alive with bolts of lightning. It looked like one of the black-armored orcs had either been incinerated or torn apart. 

These guys are going all out, well better find another General to get rid of. I found another one surrounded by a big number of orc knights so I went and clashed with them

The battle had been raging for around two hours. 

Benimaru had popped off four of those dark-dome attacks. Not even he could deploy them in rapid succession, but I guess they didn't sap that much of his energy. Ranga's attack, meanwhile, was proving more of a one-and-done thing. I guess he put his all into it, which explained his current comparative silence. It certainly helped cow his opponents into submission anyway. 

As I saw a bunch of orcs running around in a panic, trying not to get caught in Shion's attack range, it was then that Rimuru woke up from his daze and decided to help me locate the high level commanders of the orcs and either inform me or hakuro to eliminate them.

At that point in time, the orcs had suffered about twenty percent casualties. Over forty thousand had lost their lives. And it wasn't until then that the enemy's nerve center—the orc lord—finally took action. 

The orc lord, a pig-headed monster who redefined ugliness, came to the front. He had two orc generals with him, both clearly a level above the orcs from before. Their dull, yellow eyes were brimming with hatred, and I could see their auras all the way from up here. 

Benimaru, Shion, Hakuro, and Ranga were now lined up together to engage them. Even Soei was there, now next to Benimaru. They were clearly ready to rock. 

I decided to join the fray with rimuru as we descended to the ground.

Just as we were about to touch land… 

…there was a sharp, ear-piercing sound. As it rang in my mind, Spreading my senses I noticed something flying toward the area at high speed—aimed right at the middle of the marsh where the two armies were fighting away.

It was a man, dressed rather oddly and with a strong aura. One of those upper-level majins I'd been hearing about. I landed on the ground, following his trail, Rimuru, Ranga and Benimaru sidling next to me.

The man gave us a sideways glance. "What in blazes is going on here?!" he shouted, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. "Who dares to disrupt the plans of the great Gelmud himself?!" 

So the mastermind showed himself, and the way he revealed who he was without anyone asking indicated he might be a bit of an idiot, too. If I had to guess, this was the guy setting the orc lord on the general populace. And now that his plans were going awry, he looked seriously pissed. 

"L-Lord Gelmud!" Gabil stammered as he ran up to him. "I never would have expected you to come to my aid at a time like this!" 

Gelmud just looked at him the way someone would look at a giant pile of garbage. "You worthless wastes of space!" he spat out at the orcs all around him. "If you had just eaten these stupid lizards and other fodder and evolved into a demon lord, then I, the great Gelmud, wouldn't have to be here right now!!"

If I recall correctly, Gelmund was the name of the majin that named the original goblin rigur, looks he was naming monsters in the forest to manipulate them.

"Eaten these…lizards? Ha…ha-ha-ha! Talk about your gallows humor, eh? You'll find I am still perfectly hale and hearty, Lord Gelmud. Ever since you granted me your name, I have done my best to exercise the full potential of my abilities…" 

Ah, so it was him. But naming a monster just so the orc lord could consume him? That…made an awful lot of sense, actually. Eating a named monster with enhanced skills and strength and all that, would make the orc lord that much more powerful. 

But why not name the orc lord himself, then? or maybe he isn't strong enough. 

"Huh? Oh. You, Gabil?" Gelmud asked while I was pondering this. "I wish you could've fed yourself to the orc lord sooner than now… As blundering and worthless as you are, you still bother to haunt this world? Well, so be it. Now that I am here, I might as well help you shuffle off to your grave. Gabil, I hereby command you to become the orc lord's strength. Your death will be the greatest thing you have ever done for me!"

He was gesturing wildly at the orc lord now. The orc lord didn't budge. He simply looked at Gelmud with his sunken eyes and opened his mouth. 

"Evolve…into demon lord… What is that…?" 

"Dahh! Your brain must be the size of a walnut," Gelmud mustered. "It seems all that prey has avoided your brain entirely and gone straight to your muscles. We are out of time. I am forbidden to meddle in this…but I have no other choice." 

He turned his bloodshot eyes to Gabil now, showing an open palm. Then, without any further warning, he shouted "Die!" and launched a bolt of magic. 

"Look out, Sir Gabil!" 

"Get, get down!" 

A small detail of lizardmen scurried toward the awestruck Gabil to protect him, forming a living shield as they warned him of the danger. That single magic bolt was enough to send five high into the air. But it didn't kill any of them. Whether the force of the blast was dissipated among all the bodies or the lizardmen were really just that tough, nobody was dead from it. Seriously injured, yes, but very much alive. 

"Wh-what are you…?!" Gabil exclaimed. "Lord Gelmud, why did you do such a thing…?!" 

So he was using and abusing Gabil all this time, and now that things weren't going perfectly according to plan, he was gonna kill him? I hate manipulative people like him.

Gabil's face twisted itself in despair, betrayed by the one person in this world he believed in. 

"S-Sir Gabil, it's too dangerous!" one of his injured troopers advised him. "Please, get out of here as quickly as possible." 

He certainly had some good people under him—or maybe it was more like Gabil wasn't that bad of a boss to them. Judging by the state of things when I arrived, he hadn't used the goblins as the throwaway pawns I expected him to. Perhaps he was using them as a first-line tactical defense, but I could see he had a good reason for it. 

"You cocky inferior races… If you wish to die that badly, I'll kill the lot of you right now! Perhaps you'll finally be of service to me once you're in the orc lord's stomach!!" 

Gelmud began focusing his aura above his head, attempting to launch an even more powerful magical bolt. Or was it magic? Because he took almost no time to cast it. All he did was close his eyes and gather his magic at a particular point in the air. Not that it mattered. 

Rimuru walked ahead, in front of the lizardmen—and in front of Gabil, who was now digging down to protect his men.

looks like rimuru took a liking to gabil and wanted to help him.

Gabil looked up at him in awe. I doubted he understood what was going on. Things had vaulted beyond what his brain could process.

"Sir Rimuru, I…" 

He held Benimaru back with an arm and took a step forward. Gelmud paid no attention, still focused on the gigantic magic bolt he was conjuring up. 

"Ba-ha-ha-ha! Let me show you what a high-level majin can do to you all. Time for you to die! Death March Dance!!" 

Gelmud had an expression of crazed joy. He intended to do us all in at once. 

The bolt, when he finally launched it, split into countless smaller bolts in the air, all arcing toward us. Each one was about as powerful as the first bolt he produced, and now tons were raining down upon us, one by one, as if forming an orderly line. Gelmud, I'm sure, was expecting us to be helpless, perishing with nowhere else to run to. 

Sadly, though, we didn't even need to do anything. Rimuru slowly brought a small hand forward, and that was all it took to absorb all the bolts with his Predator skill. and from the looks of it this wasn't magic, but an Art—one where he could roll his aura energy together, mix it with magicules, and give it destructive power. 

His strongest attack blocked with one move, what a sad excuse for a behind the scenes manipulator.