The Counter Attack 2

A while later, the office was jammed packed with people; the remaining ogres, Kaijin, Geld, Rigurd, Gobta, the hobgoblin Lords, Yohm, Grucius, Mjulan and even the adventuring trio were all included. Looking at them with a serious expression, he told them

-'Thank you for coming; I will get straight to the two main points of this meeting: our counterattack against Falmuth, and the revival of our fallen comrades!' he told them. They all had a look on their face that said 'I knew it'. 'Eren...' he turned to the girl, who became somewhat uncomfortable as all the eyes in the room turned to her 'I ask you to tell them the story you shared with me.' he said; though somewhat reluctant, she nodded and began retelling the story of the Dragon Princess. As she was coming to a close, he could see several people around the room, mostly the magically adept ones like Shuna and Mjulan, begin to get a hold of what he was going for. When Eren finished, the room remained silent for a while...

-'I see. Resurrecting the dead...' Mjulan said, astonished and curious; he supposed she was a witch who spent centuries researching magic.

-'Yes.' he answered simply 'And the conditions for it to happen, though low, hinge on one factor: me becoming a Demon Lord.' he let the gravity of his declaration sink in for a few moments, then continued 'Any objections?'

The people in the room began to exchange glances; he guessed some of the monsters may be using telepathy to debate his words, but he decided against intruding. After a while, Rigurd spoke up

-'My Lord, we will follow you down whatever path you go.' he said with conviction 'Whatever that may lead us to.' almost everyone in the room nodded. It warmed his heart to know just how much they trusted him; even when he declared something so absurd, they did not judge and simply trusted their lives in him. However, given the events of the past few days, he wasn't so sure how good it was, his feelings aside. With that in mind, he made a decision

-'Guys, you know, I have something to say...I, myself, was once human.' he told them. They all looked a bit confused at him, and so he decided to tell them the truth; about his previous life, his death and reincarnation, and more importantly

-'So you see...' he continued '...because I was human, I wanted to continue interacting with humans; when I made the rule 'don't attack humans', it was with that selfish though in mind. I cannot take that back no matter how much I wish...' he said sorrowfully, even ashamed 'but...believe me when I say that I never, ever wanted anyone to get hurt by that rule.' he finished, bowing slightly to everyone in the room 'this really was my...' he was about to say 'fault' but was quickly interrupted

-'Lord Rimuru, please raise you head!' Rigurd shouted with concern 'We would never accept such a thing!' he said

-'Indeed, my Lord.' Shuna interjected 'We too are responsible for what transpired. We always depended on you too much, and the slaughter was the result of that. It is our burden too..' she told him with a stern voice

-'How pathetic I am...' Benimaru muttered 'For my younger sister to say that before me. But she's right. We lost our will and faulted; I faulted, even though you left me in charge...'

-'Wait a moment, Benimnaru!' Rigur, shouted 'As head of security, this is much more my fault!'

-'No...' Geld said with guilt in his voice 'I too should have kept a sharper eye on those who came down the road...'

One by one, everyone in the room began accusing themselves of something, trying to draw blame from him...or so he though. Thinking more carefully, he realized it was just their sense of responsibility, something which he had tried very hard to nurture in them from day one. And now, here it was, bearing fruit. However, even that was because he was selfish. He tried saying as much but Hakuro interjected

-'No, my Lord; there is nothing wrong about being selfish.' the old man sagely said 'What truly caused all this tragedy was our own weakness. Our negligence allowed that rabble to get away with this in our own home. Am I wrong?!' he shouted at everyone, and they all nodded in agreement.

Rimuru looked over in awe; he was honestly ready for them to hate him, even brand him a traitor and banish him, but no.

-'Selfishness if perfectly fine, my Lord. You are our only true Master, and it is our destiny to follow you down any path you chose.' Rigurd assured him with a smile.

-'And you...don't have a problem with a former human giving you orders?' he finally asked

-'Huh? What dose that have to do with anything?' Gobta asked, genuinely confused. Everyone in the room had to offer a small laugh at his straightforwardness.

-'Monster or human, you are our Master, Sir Rimuru...' Shuna said 'It doesn't matter to any of us.'

-'...I see.' he finally relented. Looking around at his assembled companions, he realized his worries were baseless. They would, in fact, never abandon or cast him aside over something so meaningless. Even so...he swore in his heart that he would never fail them again. 'Yes...being selfish is fine...and this promise is for my sake too!' he though. 'Alright then, let's continue. Here's the plan...'

-'Wait, just one question...' Kaijin interrupted; when all eyes were on him he continued 'how are you going to go forward interacting with humans from now on?'

-'Ah that...' Rimuru said, having hoped to avoid that topic until later; he had an idea, but Rigurd took initiative

-'I think we should continue interacting with them...' he said 'yes, those humans attacked us, but we should not lump all humans into one category; Sir Mjollmile and the adventurers jumped right away to assist us any way they could. I think we should consider that.' he finished. Everyone around seemed to agree, for the most part, and voiced their opinions as such.

-'Yes, I agree. However, we will be much more cautions in the future. We will extend our hand in friendship and peace to those who do the same. To those who bear their fangs at us, we will respond in kind. Do we agree?' everyone nodded in approval 'In that case, let's start...'

For the next few minutes, they discussed the main steps they would need to take in their mission; first, the humans outside maintaining the barrier would have to go. Then they, or more specifically himself, would need to obliterate the Falmuth army, not just to stop their advance but also to enable his ascension to Demon Lord; at the last part, everyone wanted to join him on the attack, but he refused.

-'No, I will do this alone.' he told them, ignoring any protest 'I have good reason for it; in order to become a Demon Lord, I must be the one who kills them; it's the only way.' he told them, leaving out how the Sage informed him the task could be delegated. No need to let them know. He would be the one who would end them; that too was his selfish wish. 'But I leave the ones outside of town to you guys. Hakuro, Geld and the Goblin Riders, you guys take the west; Soei and his team will take the north; Gabiru and his men will take the south; Benimaru, I think you can handle the east by yourself.' he relayed his orders to each of the teams, who had a look of pure determination on their faces. Finally, he turned to Shuna and Mjulan 'Once they are all taken care of, the barrier will go down; I want you to to work together to form a new one, just in case, to keep the souls of our friends in place. Can you do that for me?'

-'Of course.' Mjulan said immediately 'I will repay my debt in any way I can.' Shuna nodded.

Finally, with all the pieces in place, Rimuru and his subordinates began the counterattack.

Taking one final look at the city as he exited the barrier, Rimuru grew two large bat wings from his back and, with newfound determination, flew off into the west, to intercept the army marching on them. He had complete faith in his people to do their part; all that was left was for him to do his.

He flew at high speeds over the clouds; as he was wearing his replica mask, his presence was completely concealed. It took only about 15 minutes of travel until he spotted his enemy. Looking down from on high, he judged the army that had set up camp in a field and prepared to eliminate them.

'Trash, all of you.' he though as he waited for the all clear signal from the forces outside Tempest. He waited, and though about how he ended up where he was now. Perhaps if he had been more careful, he would not have needed to do what he was about to do, but it was too late to regret or even care. His heart was iced over; he simply did not have the desire or capacity to see the worms below as anything but trash to be disposed of.

'Lord Rimuru...' Benimaru's voice rang out in his mind 'we're finished on our end; all magical crystals generating the barrier have been destroyed. No casualty on our end.'

'Understood.' He answered back 'Go and help Shuna and Mjulan in the town square. I will finish here shortly.'

And with that, he began gathering the energy needed for the task. Thanks to Great Sage, he had devised a perfect method to eliminate them as quickly and as efficiently as possible. It was rather simple, but deadly, frighteningly so; it boiled down to a using his Water Control to form large water lenses high up in the atmosphere, which would focus the light of the sun into an extremely thin beam . He would form smaller water droplets close to the ground to reflect and redirect the resulting beam of pure heat to whatever he deemed a target; the heat would instantly vaporize the droplets, but they required so little magic to form he could reform them over and over again at very high speeds. The only drawback was that it required sunlight to function, so it was useless during the night; right now, however, was noon. Nothing stood between him and his goal. He finalized the spell, and aimed at the worms down below.

'You humans who invaded my territory...hurt my people...you must now pay for it with your lives!' he shouted, though he doubted anyone below heard 'Megiddo!'