…?! Report. Enemy confirmed to have resistance to flame. Requesting immediate alterations to plan…
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The Great Sage came back online, sounding the same as always, even if I imagined it sounding a tad unnerved.
This was terrible. Horrible, really. Right at the climax of it all, my enemy had just checkmated me. But—why, though? There was still no anxiety or concern in my heart. As if I had hoped this would happen all along.
“Oh really?” I said, flashing a proud smile. “Because you might be a lot happier succumbing to the flames soon.”
The Chaos Eater that served as Geld’s aura was starting to make its way through my Multilayer Barrier. It didn’t hurt, but it was making me intensely uncomfortable as it wended its way around my skin. And yet—I still felt nothing but joy. It was what I wanted. He was my enemy, and he had to give me this much, at least.
I got this, I silently told the Sage, retaking control of my body. The Sage, while taking over, had allowed me to observe Geld at close range. Taking full advantage of the break, I had accelerated my thoughts a thousand times to consider what to do if the unlikeliest of events occurred.
A computer that never makes mistakes tends to see everything as a probability. It seeks efficiency, cutting away anything it deems redundant. That was why I was here. I was a ball of inefficiency, a former human with a deliberately incomplete thought process.
So don’t be disappointed, partner, I whispered in my heart as I sneered at the demon lord. You were perfect. Just leave the rest to me…
This guy wanted to consume me. That prediction came true, at least. And that meant I had an opening.
A little while back, I was a tad overoptimistic, reasoning that I should have eaten the demon lord back when I still had the chance. Right? And I was, at the core, a slime. I had exactly three intrinsic skills: Absorb, Dissolve, and Self-Regeneration. They were gone now, merged with assorted other skills, but I also had a unique skill—Predator—that was an enhanced version of them all. It suited me perfectly as a slime. Nothing could’ve worked better with my inner essence.
I doubted that my evolved Ultraspeed Regeneration was any less incredible at healing than whatever the demon lord was sporting. Which meant that if we started consuming each other, I was bound to win in the end, right?
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…Report. The probability of you executing Predator first is—
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The “probability” doesn’t matter. Quit worrying. I told you to leave the rest to me, didn’t I? Either the demon lord Geld rots and kills me, or I consume him first. It couldn’t have been any simpler, and I was ready to do it, even if my chances were exactly zero percent.
Why? Because that was my plan from the very start.
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The demon lord, apparently pretty sure of his own victory, was now trying to melt me, looking every bit as elated as I was. I could take advantage of that, pretending to be rotting away—weakening—as my body fell apart. Apart, and over him.
From my opponent’s palm, through his arm…
And by the time he noticed, the operation was under way.
Letting my instincts take the wheel, I had engaged my enemy the way that slimes naturally do. Concern now crossed his face. He tried to peel me off, but he couldn’t—I was already all over his body.
“You see now? Sorry, but all that strength of yours doesn’t mean too much now, does it?”
“Gnh… No…?! What are you trying to…”
“Heh. If you thought you had an exclusive license on consuming stuff, you’re wrong.”
Nailed him. And Geld knew it. He winced at my words.
But I still wasn’t necessarily at an advantage. We were, for the moment, at a stalemate. He was using his healing skills to resist my Predation, and I was using Ultraspeed Regeneration to keep afloat over his Rot attack. We were eating away at each other, like an ouroboros come to life. The Great Sage was too much of a perfectionist to ever come up with something like this, but it was exactly what I wanted.
Whichever side consumed the other was the winner. The rules were so easy to understand. And getting myself into this situation in the first place was a requirement if I wanted to win. It wasn’t that I came up with the idea after the Sage’s tactics failed; I just followed my instincts, and this was what resulted, really. Instead of relying on unfamiliar, unseasoned skills, I relied on whatever my instincts willed for me, at the root, and executed what they told me. The slime’s Absorb and Dissolve skills had been merged into Predator, and so I was doing what those instincts wanted for me. I am, after all, a predator.
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✦ ✦ ✦
Geld, your Ravenous is a powerful unique skill, I’ll grant you that. But you’re not a predator. You’re a scavenger. You can eat anything, which is incredible, but I’m adapted for catching and consuming. And that gives me the advantage. If we’re gonna keep eating at each other, I’ll be the one to gain new skills from it first.
My Predaceous instincts will it to be done! I can analyze and obtain skills even from living creatures, but you, Geld—you can only steal them from their corpses. And that’s what will decide this.
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It was hard to say how much time passed. We were still consuming each other. I concentrated on Predation, assured of my victory, when I started to hear the strangest voice.
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I can’t afford to lose.
I ate my own comrades.
I can’t afford to lose.
I have to become a demon lord.
Because I ate Lord Gelmud.
I can’t afford to lose.
My comrades hunger.
I can’t afford to lose.
I must eat until I am full!
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The thoughts flooded my mind. They belonged to the demon lord, I assumed.
Talk about stupid. Think whatever you like, I’ve already won.
✦ ✦ ✦
But I can’t afford to lose…
I ate my own comrades.
I committed…a terrible crime…
I can’t afford to lose.
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Look, can you forget it already?
Lemme tell you.
This world’s all about survival of the fittest. And you aren’t fit enough.
So you’re gonna die.
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But I can’t afford to lose…
If I die, I leave the sins of my crimes to my comrades.
I don’t mind if I, alone, am sinful.
I did whatever was needed to avoid starvation.
I will become a demon lord.
I will accept all the hunger in the world. So no one else has to feel this famine!
I know I can.
I am an Orc Disaster.
The consumer of all.
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Aaaaand you’re still gonna die.
But don’t worry.
I’ll eat up all those crimes for you.
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You…what?
Eat…my crimes?!
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Mm-hmm.
And not just yours…
I’ll eat the crimes of all your friends, too.
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The crimes…of all my friends…
How greedy of you.
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You think so?
Yeah. I am greedy.
Does that make you feel better?
If it does, then just rest a bit and let me eat you already.
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Ah…
I couldn’t afford to lose.
But…
I am tired. It is…warm in here.
Greedy one.
You know there will be no tranquility down the road you travel.
But you are still willing to take on my crimes…
I thank you.
My hunger…is sated.
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He was Geld, the Orc Disaster.
And now, his consciousness had vanished within me.
✦ ✦ ✦
Confirmed. The Orc Disaster has disappeared. The unique skill Ravenous has been absorbed and merged with the unique skill Predator.
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So I win.
There was no way someone as hungry as he was could beat me without starving himself in the process.
I opened my eyes, carrying the weight of him and all his orcish comrades on my back.
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In the quiet, I declared my victory.
“I have won,” I said. “Rest in peace, Orc Disaster Geld…”
I could hear the cheers from the goblins and lizardmen, along with cries of anguish and despair from the orcs. Their conquest was over. They knew it, and from the thoughts they shared as they cannibalized one another before, they knew it was all caused by Gelmud’s nefarious plans.
What bothered me most was that the person or persons controlling Gelmud were quite likely still alive. He talked about having a demon lord patron backing him up, and there was no way to tell if that was the truth or not.
I’d probably need to be careful—but careful about what? I had no idea. And I could hardly leave these orcs to their own devices. We had problems left to solve.
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The next day there was a very important meeting—one that would go down in history as the one that established the Great Forest of Jura Alliance.
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