Souei knelt before Tanya and Rimuru, looking up as he made his report, “Charybdis has fully revived, I have spotted over a hundred Megalodons flying alongside it. We have launched our initial attacks to guide it to the planned combat zone.”

“Good work, Souei,” Rimuru praises as he turns to the others standing by.

“A hundred megalodons? How did Charybdis summon so many?” Gazel placed his hand on his chin as he questioned it.

Doug steps in from the side, donned entirely in a military uniform fitting of his rank as he speculates, “Corpses perhaps, and lots of them. One megalodon would require enough corpses to be worth an entire lesser dragon. But I’m not sure how they’d go unnoticed.”

“It's possible if someone had a skill that specialized in stealth that they could, in theory, sneak in a hundred corpses while we were too busy building up defenses.” Tanya muttered with her arms crossed, “Whatever the case may be we can investigate it later, our focus now should be to take out Charybdis, regardless of how many flying sharks it could summon.”

“Right.” Gazel nodded, “I believe our strategy of using our ground forces to take them out should still work fine.”

“Hopefully. We’ll lure them to the ground with the large number of ground forces we have. I’ll have the tanks redirect their focus to taking down Megalodons rather than being part of the artillery bombardment.” Tanya’s focus now turned to the large black-furred Orc analyzing a nearby tank inspecting, “Otto!”

Otto turned and quickly made a salute, “Yes, mein Kanzlerin?”

“Did you make sure that all the artillery is in position?”

Otto nodded, “Yes, mein Kanzlerin. All the artillery is ready to fire on command!”

Tanya gestured for him to drop the salute, “Good, order the tanks to focus on the Megalodons instead of Charybdis. It’s time for them to get some good target practice.”

Otto nodded and quickly ran off to relay orders as Tanya raised her head to the sky above as the roar of Charybdis echoed through the skies.

“Everyone in position! Prepare bombardment spells! Get into formation! We got one chance, let's make it count!”

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Charybdis looms in the distance above as the first Megalodons begin to near the artificial front line. In the distance behind them, artillery is heard firing as shells are seen soaring through the air before making the first impacts against the giant beast.

Doug quickly hurries to meet up with Benimaru and Hakurou who stand at the top of a nearby hill, overlooking their forces and the calamity that approached in the distance.

“Your units in position?” Benimaru asked as he approached.

Doug nodded with a tip of his officer cap, “That they are. They’re ready to take off once the order to begin is given. If I may ask, what’s the point in the artillery barrage so soon?”

Hakurou brushes his beard with his fingers, explaining, “It’s best to know your enemy as much as you can before you strike. The artillery is meant to give us an understanding of its regenerative properties before we truly start.”

“I see. I understand then.” Doug comments as his focus is then drawn to his sister dragging her feet as she follows him.

“Uugh… Can’t we start already?! I wanna blow something up!” Stella pouted as her arms crossed, turning around to look at the giant behemoth that she wanted nothing more than to hit with everything she had.

Doug sighed and turned to Benimaru who gave a subtle nod.

“Alright then, you can go. I’ll meet up with you in a minute.”

“Hahaha! Yes!” Stella was engulfed in black smoke as her form turned into a towering red dragon. Without hesitation she launched off the ground, soaring into the air before immediately catching one of the Megalodons in her mouth. In the next second, the Megalodon was engulfed in a wave of flames before Stella crushed it within her mouth, spitting out its ashes as she continued soaring forth.

“I’ll use Thought Communication to give out the beginning order. This thing won’t see its first sunset.”

After a few moments, battle erupted as the order was received. The artillery bombardment, formerly a handful of shells in the air, quickly turned to dozens firing in Charybdis’ direction.

Stella, who had been flying alone, was quickly joined by a formation of twenty more dragons all joining in behind her as they moved quickly toward the beast.

The mages in the sky, formerly standing by in their battle groups, quickly launched forth, beginning their barrages at Charybdis and the Megalodons below. In the distance, the roaring of engines could be heard as what appeared to be a bird with wings of steel and a tail of smoke soared overhead, raining fire upon the megalodons below as the hot-pink-colored aircraft dashed towards its target.

The ground forces began to engage, powerful wizards and mages casting their spells as the fighters, adventurers, and warriors of four nations fought as one to take down the single threat.

“Best if we head down ourselves, don’t you think, Young Master?” Hakurou muttered as he placed his hand on his katana behind him, quickly rushing into the battle without further hesitation.

As he prepared to rush into battle he noticed Albis slithering up to his side, transformed into her full beast form with a dark horn protruding from her forehead and an outfit that was somehow more revealing than her prior one as her lower body was now that of a snake’s.

“It is a pleasure to be fighting with you instead of against you this time,” Albis said with a smile.

Benimaru unsheathed his katana, preparing himself for combat as he smiled as well, “Yes it would’ve been a shame to burn that face of yours again.”

“You can appreciate my beauty all you want later, for now, I think you need to be more observant.” Albis suddenly launched a bolt of lightning from her horn to a spot behind Benimaru as he turned to see a scorched Megalodon laying on the ground that had been formerly coming for him.

Benimaru chucked, “You should do the same.” Benimaru clenched his fist as Albis turned to see a ball of swirling flame as he cast his Hell Flare, causing another Megalodon having come for Albis to collapse dead and scorched on the ground.

The two made a slight giggle as Suphia, the white tiger of the Three Beastketeers groaned as she walked between the two of them, hands behind her head as she grumbled, “The two of you can get a room AFTER we blow up the giant shark.”

Slightly flustered, the two nodded at each other and quickly dashed off to fight their respective battles.

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

A party of three with the first donned in blue scalemail, the second in light armor lined in direwolf fur, and the third in high-quality robes with a magical staff quickly run as fast as they can as a large Megalodon shark chases closely behind them.

“There were only supposed to be a few of these things! Why are there so many?!” Eren, a blonde-haired girl who served as the mage of the group, quickly shouted in a panic.

A man donned in the blue scalemail as well as the party’s leader, Kaval, quickly retorted, “How the hell was I supposed to know there’d be so many of the damned things?!”

“Well, do something about it!” Eren shouted.

“What do you want ME to do?!” Kaval emphasized.

Suddenly a blur of black rushed past them as they heard the Megalodon behind them get stopped in its tracks. Stumbling around, the group turned around to see a cat-eared woman donned in full black armor holding the Megalodon back. While they didn’t notice it instantly, it only took a few seconds for them to recognize the woman as Eiga.

After another few moments, Ranga launched out of the nearby treeline, launching a powerful black lightning strike from his horn, electrocuting the Megalodon to death in a second.

Eiga let go of the Megalodon as she reverted to her natural beast form as she sat down, a small horde of Blade Tigers and Direwolves beginning to emerge from the shadows of the woods.

Eiga turned to the group of Blade Tigers, commanding, “Focus on assisting those that need help. You’re agile enough to get away if one targets you so focus on helping those that can’t.”

The Blade Tigers nodded in unison and dashed off, Ranga turning to his direwolves and gesturing for them to join the Tigers, “You all do the same.”

The direwolves were quick to not be left behind, joining together with the others as Kaval’s party quickly gathered themselves.

“How many times are they going to put themselves in danger?” Ranga sighed.

“It’s probably best to just expect it at this point…” Eiga muttered.

“Whatever the case, are you ready to be out-performed, fluffy-knife?” Ranga teased.

Eiga inches in closer to him with a grin, “That ain’t happening and you know it unicorn.”

“Wanna test it, knife-cat?” Ranga smirked.

“It’s on, cone-head.” Eiga smiled and began to dash off to the next Megalodon, Ranga following quickly behind her as the two dashed off in competition.

Kaval’s party was paralyzed in shock at the moment as Suphia and Phobio walked by with Suphia folding her arms.

“You know, I expected you to go off to challenge Eiga,” Phobio commented.

Suphia sighed, “I would’ve, but I’m not getting in between whatever they have going on. I swear… The amount of flirting on this battlefield…”

“I don’t even think that counts as flirting…” Phobio muttered as Suphia slowly walked off to find something to fight.

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Weiss hovered high above the forest below, staring forward at the approaching Charybdis as it slowly began to approach the front line. Below he could hear the combat beginning and in the far distance, he could see the flashes of the artillery barrage beginning.

He had become so used to the sounds of it all that it had become second nature to him. As he saw the artillery shells fly overhead he didn't feel any shock or surprise. It was more of a familiar feeling in a battle which made no sense at all.

If he had been told a few months ago that he would be fighting a giant one-eyed flying shark in another world with a bunch of walking, talking lizards, he would’ve sent whoever told him that off the front for some much-needed rest. Yet despite that, that was exactly what he was doing.

‘On second thought, perhaps I’m still in the Empire and I’m in a coma somewhere…’

Before he could consider the possibility further he turned to his left as he saw the dark-scaled Gabiru soar down next to him, rifle in hand, “Yo Weiss! They’ve given us one hell of a target! I’d be surprised if anyone misses it!”

Weiss shook his head with a smile, “If anyone did manage to miss that thing, the Chancellor would make them hit the ground before their bullet did.”

“After training with her, it's hard to see something like this as a serious threat by comparison.” Gabiru muttered, shaking his head, “Though I am interested to see what her training has turned you into. She said you were her prime student before she came to Tempest. Clearly, it was enough for her to put you in charge, so I’m curious just what you’re packing.”

Weiss nodded at Gabiru, “It took me a bit to get used to this new equipment, but you’ll find I’m quite a good shot. How about this, whoever does the least damage to the one-eyed freak over there has to pay for the post-battle drinks.”

“Hahaha! Don’t you underestimate the great Gabiru Eidech! I shall beat you and make you go bankrupt!”

Behind Gabiru Weiss could hear his subordinates chanting “Gabiru! Gabiru! Gabiru!” in the far distance.

Though Weiss briefly focused on another detail, ‘Wait Eidech? As in Eidechse? Seriously Tanya? I thought you of all people would be more original than that.’

Weiss turned his head up to the right as he saw an older man quickly descend down to Gabiru and his level. The man rode on a mounted flight device similar to those used in the Republican Army. Tanya had made them a while ago, but it was only recently that the TRI had managed to condense the flight equipment down to a boot size thanks to his gear.

The man who had descended, Weiss remembered, was named ‘Dorf’ and was the head of Dwargon’s recently formed Pegasus Knights mage force as the mage gear they now used replaced the pegasus that they were originally named after.

Flying in close, Dorf asked, “What’s the plan here? What do you need us to do?”

Weiss, still adjusting to being in charge of an entire mage army, thought for a moment before commanding, “Charybdis seems to have some amount of magical influence around it. It's best to keep our distance and launch explosive spells at it from afar. Let the dragons focus on getting close and personal.”

“Right.” Dorf nods before accelerating upwards to rejoin his men. Turning to Gabiru, the two nod at each other as Gabiru returns to his formation.

Gathering his own men behind him he sends out the order for the mages to Engage as a barrage of spells is immediately launched from every formation. As the mages begin to accelerate towards Charybdis, he halts his unit as a bright pink aircraft whizzes by, showing only a blur to Weiss as it passes him in a second.

‘That’s the fastest aircraft I’ve ever seen. That ‘Milim’ is flying like a madman though, I can see why Tanya calls her chaotic.’

With a brief sigh, Weiss raised his hand as his unit quickly accelerated, beginning to finally engage.

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Far above and behind the battlefield magic swirled around in glistening colors, shining a bright light around the demon that hovered there, numerous magical circles of varying sizes manifested in front of them as the lights of magic swirled into them.

All the lights and magical power manifested there, however, was an illusion. All a trick of the mind manifested by the demon through her skill. No spell was being cast and the magical circles created there had no real effect. All of it was a glorified lightshow made to make others think she was preparing some big attack.

Of everyone there, only one had seen past the ruse, that being Rimuru. In human form with large wings sprouting out his back, he flew up to Tanya’s level, looking at all the lights and magicules seemingly swirling around. Unamused, he asks, “So are you just not going to do anything today?”

Tanya smirked and shook her head, “I assumed Great Sage would be able to see the truth even if your Magic Sense couldn’t. As you can tell this is all an illusionary spell from my skill. To say I won’t be doing anything would be a lie, however.”

Rimuru had assumed as much, simply nodding along, “So what’s your plan here? I assume you have something to defeat Charybdis?”

“I’ve HAD something to defeat him for quite a while. I assumed if he ever revived it would work but I was worried for a bit that he’d be stronger than I anticipated. Fortunately, we should be just fine.” Tanya commented.

“I see… If you don't need to charge up some large magical attack, then what’s the point in holding back?” Rimuru asked, placing a hand on his chin as he folded his arms.

“It’s simple. Look down there, Rimuru, tell me what you see.” Tanya pointed down at the forest below where hundreds of men of various races fought side by side against the onslaught of Megalodons and against Charybdis itself.

“I see a lot of fighting, honestly.”

“Exactly. There is no stronger friendship than that which is forged on the battlefield. When you fight side by side with someone you develop a trust and brotherhood with them, it's basic psychology.” Tanya placed her hands behind her head, continuing, “Besides, it's like what you did with Youm. Rather than us being a nation that has a person who could instantly destroy Charybdis, we’re just the nation that helped gather a coalition against it while delivering a decisive final blow.”

Rimuru nods and looks back at Charybdis, “I see. That makes a lot of sense, actually. I’m not sure how much I like lying to our new allies, but I suppose if it makes them get more of the glory I don’t really have a problem with it. Best if we aren’t too feared when we start making diplomacy with other nations.”

Tanya stretched her arms before folding them again and smirking, “Yep, and besides, this is a wonderful training exercise. Charybdis really came at a convenient time too, I was starting to consider false flag operations to pull this off.”

“A what-now?” Rimuru turned to Tanya again suddenly only to see her staring off into the opposite direction.

Tanya simply waved her hand dismissively at him, “Best not to worry about it.”

Rimuru sighed and pulled out his katana, “Well since you aren’t going to be doing much helping while you’re doing this, I’ll go provide some assistance of my own.”

Tanya nodded and once more got into a more proper position for casting her supposed ‘spell’, “Have fun. I’ll give you the order to tell all aerial units to fall back when the time comes.”

“Understood.” Rimuru nodded his head and launched off towards Charybdis, Tanya looking on with interest at the results of the battle before her.

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

‘Initial Bombardments have gone largely uncontested by the main beast, but they aren’t doing too much damage, at least not at a fast enough rate. Those scales are quite durable, perhaps the eye might be a weak point. If nothing else it could blind the thing.’ Wiess mused as he and his unit fired another volley of explosive spells at the wings of the calamity.

Hovering down to eye level with Charybdis he sighed at just how long it would take to beat this thing, mostly hoping that whatever Tanya’s special attack was, it would be enough to take it down. Whatever the case was, he needed to prioritize the survival of his unit and the other mages while still doing critical damage.

The last part was the hardest, as while they were able to bypass its main defense of magical interference by simply remaining far enough out, the damage they could do to it wasn’t actually all that much. If they wanted to go all out on it they could possibly do a good bit more, but such an attack wouldn’t be magically sustainable for long enough.

‘We should focus on keeping it distracted. Given enough time, the ground units will have dealt with the Megalodons and will provide much greater ground support. That’s when the attack will really start. For now, we should conserve our magic, an all-out attack without any supporting units to act upon it wouldn’t be smart.’

As he once again prepared to fire another shot he felt something change, as if the pressure in the air had grown more immense. Utilizing every method he had he realized the shift in pressure was from the beast’s aura. ‘For its aura to be changing so suddenly in such a strange way it must be preparing for something.’

Ordering his unit to fall back slightly with the raising of his fist, he sent a Thought Communication to all mage units { Be advised, it's trying something. Make sure your passive barriers are up; begin to fall back to the front of the beast. If something happens it's best we work as a unit. }

He got responses from all the unit leaders of confirmation. Within a few seconds, all the mages were now hovering in front of the beast as in the next instant its scales began flying off its body. Before any reaction could be given, the scales launched themselves at the mages and at the ground forces below, swirling around unpredictably as all the mages raised their barriers, blocking the attacks.

Applying his barrier, Weiss breathed a sigh of relief that the scales were not enough to pierce it. However, turning around to look down at the ground below he saw the scales soaring through, causing damage to those who lacked the defensive means to stop it.

Turning back to the mages around him, he called out { Everyone form up! Interlock barriers! Protect the ground forces! }

The mages worked quickly, spacing themselves out over a far distance as each of them funneled their power into a hexagonal barrier several times larger than themselves. Each of these barriers impacted the next one in the chain as all the barriers linked together as one massive one stretching across the battlefield.

As the scales kept coming they began to impact the barriers, leaving only a few stragglers to go over or around the barriers to hit the ground forces below. With the bulk of the scales impacting the barriers, they began to take some damage, however, the mages pushed further regardless.

The dragons, formerly hovering near the ground to protect those who needed it, quickly soared up as they saw the barriers. Spacing out between the mages, the dragons opened their mouths as magical circles appeared in front of them, magicules now flowing into the barriers, amplifying their strength.

Now with magical reinforcement from the dragons, the barrier held firm as the onslaught of scales gradually halted. Briefly breathing a sigh of relief, Weiss tensed up again as he noticed a significant change in magicule density around the beast’s single eye.

Before he could give the order for the mages to prepare themselves the beast launched a dark crimson-red beam out of its eye, clashing against the center of the barrier. More magicules were funneled from all the mages into the spot the beam impacted as it tried to rip a hole through the barrier.

The normally translucent blue barrier began to turn a shade of red near the center as it steamed up, mages pushing themselves to their limit to keep it going.

“It is getting hot!” Gabiru shouted as he clenched his teeth, trying to keep funneling all his might into the barrier.

A few seconds felt like days as the barrier held firm despite the strain it was now under. Eventually, the beam vanished as Weiss noticed the beast slowly beginning to heal its scales. ‘If its scales are gone for now, perhaps we could…?’

Weiss quickly commanded his troops { All mages in the top few rows of the formation, you’re now group A. Fly high above Charybdis and launch as many explosive spells as you can hit it with! All mages in the bottom few rows, you’re now group B! Do the same thing but from below! The rest of you, you’re group C! Prepare piercing spells aimed at its eye! }

The mages acted quickly as their barriers were all dropped. Before long firing lines above, below, and in front of Charybdis all hovered before the beast.

{ Ready! }

The rifles were all raised, pointing forward toward their respective targets.

{ Aim! }

The mages brought their rifles closer to their face, lining up their shots directly where they wanted them to go, fingers waiting eagerly on the trigger.

{ Fire! }

The triggers were pulled as the sound of hundreds of gunshots being fired at once echoed through the forest before then being drowned out by the roaring sound of explosions as the beast was lit up like a firework show.

The piercing spells aimed at its eye tore through as it shut its eye suddenly, wincing in the pain. As it did so, Weiss noticed the congregation of magical power yet again, ordering his group C, { Barriers up! }

The beast opened its now bloodshot eye as a beam launched forward, impacting straight in the center of the group where Weiss hovered. The beam lasted for less than half the time it did before as the beast shut its eye again.

Lowering his barrier, Weiss let out a chuckle, { Good work! Seems we’ve pissed it off! Its beam seems to be disabled. Group C, split up into groups A and B and continue the bombardment! }

The mages of group C nodded as they flew above and below the beast to join in the attacks there. Looking on with a sigh at the injured beast before it, Weiss couldn’t help but mutter, “It’s going to be a hell of a long day…”

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Tanya hovered in the air as she overlooked numerous projections she manifested around her. Numerous screens were moved around and adjusted as she desired with one large projection of Charybdis and the damage it had sustained in front of her.

‘64% damage in two hours? Not bad. My predictions put it at closer to 40%, maybe 50% if they got lucky. It seems I’ve underestimated quite a bit. Unfortunately, this is where our damage output will start to decline. My best estimate for the maximum damage we could pull off is perhaps 70% by the end of hour three.’

Tanya turned to another of her screens, this one labeling the magicule levels of each of the mages, tracked through the Computation Jewels, each having been designed with a magical device in them to transmit her data when she desired it. The data was especially useful now for analyzing the status of all the mages, and the results showed an obvious trend: they were tired.

‘At the current rate, the amount of damage we’re doing to it will be less than its healing capabilities not long after the end of hour three. By the time we get it down to 70%, it’ll start healing more than it becomes damaged. If we planned it out right we could fight a war of attrition with it, we’d win, but that would take over a week, and who knows how far it’ll get in that time. Best if I end it now.’

Tanya waved her hand as the projections were dismissed. Raising her rifle up and pointing it now at Charybdis, the lights around her swirled brighter and faster as numerous more magical circles appeared before her, though all equally fake.

Calling out to Rimuru she stated { Alright, I’m ending this. Order the others to fall back. }

{ Gotcha! } Rimuru responded as Tanya looked on to see mages, dragons, and Milim’s jet retreating at a rapid pace.

As Tanya pulled the trigger of her rifle, she used her [Illusion Master] skill to make a beam of light shoot out of the barrel, launching forth toward the beast. As the beam impacted Charybdis, it promptly erupted into explosions, this time real, as she utilized her nuclear explosion magic to promptly turn it into dust.

‘Health is at 20%, 10%, 5%, and it's dead. Perfect.’

Tanya began to accelerate rapidly as she activated her radiation dispersion formulas to prevent the forest from becoming a radioactive wasteland. As she flew into the cloud of smoke generated by her explosions, she found what she was looking for.

The smoke all around Tanya seemed to get sucked away as she turned to see Rimuru flying up to her, devouring the clouds with [Gluttony]. Rimuru nearly jumped back in disgust as she saw a red glowing ball of flesh in Tanya’s hands, “The hell is that?!”

Tanya held it up, “It's Charybdis’ core. I figured that if Charybdis was able to be revived after being defeated, that it needed to have a core of some kind that caused it, something that would effectively be some sort of organic magicule generator. This is it.”

Rimuru folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at her, “And just what do you plan to do with it?”

Tanya placed a hand on her chin as she looked at the pulsating core in her hand, “Well if I really wanted to I could have the core fuse with an organic being to rebirth Charybdis in some nation I want destroyed.”

“No! No! No! We are NOT bringing it back!” Rimuru shouted quickly before Tanya could consider the idea further.

Tanya shook her head, “I agree, there are better long-term uses for this thing. For example…” Tanya suddenly thrust the core into her chest, tearing right into her heart as she forced the core inside.

Rimuru, mouth agape, and hands frantically moving around trying to comprehend what she did, stuttered “W-What?! What did you-? Didn’t you say that would summon Charybdis?!”

Tanya coughed as her veins pulsated a bright blue, “In organic life forms. My body might be organic, but I, as a demon, am not. Technically speaking I’m possessing my own corpse, and though I seem to be partially fused with it, that’s not enough for Charybdis to be revived in my body.”

Rimuru squinted in concern, “You sure you’re fine though? Your veins are pulsating…”

Tanya waved her hands, “That’s just a response to it integrating. See, it's already fading” Tanya pointed to her arm as the glowing pulses faded away, making it seem as if nothing was wrong at all.

“Alright… But what was the point of that?”

Tanya placed her hands on her hips and smirked, “To take its power. Or at least some of it.”

“Oh dear.” Rimuru sighed.

“Since I was reincarnated I’ve had this trait that has caused me to slowly be generating magicules. Where this came from I have no clue, and it doesn’t seem to be an intrinsic trait of demons either. The only problem with this generation is that it’s incredibly slow.” Tanya then raised a finger with a smirk, “Charybdis is able to freely revive itself on its own. With that in mind, I speculated that it must’ve had some skill or ability to generate magicules too. My theory was that by combining its regenerative aspect with my own, I could make it stronger.”

“I see… So kinda like how I gain skills by eating things, you’re gaining a skill by shoving a pulsating ball of flesh into your heart.” Rimuru muttered sarcastically.

“Pretty much,” Tanya confirmed.

“Did it work?”

Tanya nodded, “Thanks to Charybdis, I now have the Unique Skill [Magicule Core] which lets me generate magicules at a noticeable rate. Of course, it appears Milim has a stronger version of this skill, so I’m theorizing ways to make mine reach her level.”

“I can tell your aura has already increased quite a bit. Is it really that effective?”

Tanya shook her head, “No, most of that is from the core itself. It seems fusing with it has given me quite a boost to my magicule power, not to mention the physical strength of this body. Nevertheless, the Magicule Core should provide me a powerful magicule boost.”

“Either way, everyone’s begun to head back to the city to celebrate. I think it's best if we aren’t late. Besides, you gotta give a victory speech.” Rimuru said with a smile as he patted Tanya on the back.

“I see you. Pushing the victory speech onto me so you don’t have to do it.” Tanya stared at Rimuru who nervously looked the other way.

“Whaaa? Pfft. I would never do that. Besides, this operation was your idea, and you’re the one who did the final blow. You should be the one to do the speech.”

Tanya’s eyes glared at Rimuru whose smile was unrelenting as Tanya quickly gave up with a sigh, “Fine, I’ll handle it.”

Rimuru then patted Tanya’s head with a smile. Before he could realize his mistake he looked to the right to see his now ripped-off left arm being hurled hundreds of miles into the distance, likely landing in some mountain in Dwargon. Making a nervous nod he muttered “Point taken. My apologies.”

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Tempestia was as lively as it ever was. The sun had now set over the horizon but the city was still alive with celebrations. People from four different nations celebrated over drinks and food, most of which were completely new to the people there.

The mages were the most chaotic in their celebrations. Having used up so much of their magical power, most were looking to kick back and mess around with friends. Gabiru, meanwhile, was going bankrupt from a bet lost with Weiss.

Each of the leaders also went off on their own with even Bulud, the only king present without combat abilities, taking a minor part in the celebrations. 

Sitting together at a nearby table were Milim, Tanya, and Rimuru, with the latter two staring at the large pile of sweets and snacks Milim had made for herself.

“It still amazes me how she eats this much…” Rimuru muttered.

Tanya rolled her eyes as she leaned against the table, “That's coming from the guy with a skill called ‘Gluttony.’”

Rimuru thought for a moment before muttering “I see your point.”

As Milim continued devouring her tower of snacks, already having nearly halved its size as they continued their conversation Milim quickly muttered, “Oh yeah I’ll be leaving after this.”

This shocked the two of them as they briefly looked at each other and back at Milim in confusion, “Leaving? What do you mean by that?” Rimuru asked.

“I got some Demon Lord business to attend to! I’m sure Tanya understands, right Tanya?” Milim looked to Tanya expectantly as she just looked up with confusion.

“No, I really don-”

“See I told you she’d understand. Don’t worry, I’ll come back eventually!” Milim proclaimed as she gathered her snacks and blasted off into the far distance, leaving both Tanya and Rimuru even more confused.

“Maybe she’s finally realized she actually needs to lead her own country for once,” Tanya muttered with a heavy sigh.

“I’m not sure if I should be relieved that we don’t have to handle her for a while or concerned at why she left,” Rimuru mumbled.

Tanya shrugged, “Whatever the case is, it means she isn’t around to harass the TRI anymore.”

Rimuru nodded before stopping, “You know… Now that she’s gone, there’s something I’ve been meaning to do?”

Tanya looked up as she raised an eyebrow, asking “What is it?”

“I’ve got something I’ve wanted to do in the human nations for some time. Do you think I could leave you in charge of Tempest for some time?”

“Hmm… I’ve got my own affairs I want to handle, but now that I have a fairly easy means to get back and forth between it and Tempest, I should be able to manage affairs here for at least a while. Just what are you planning to do in human countries?”

Rimuru clasped his hands together and fidgeted his fingers, “Well when Shizue died she left me with her dying wish to help the kids that she taught in Ingrassia. I’m not fully sure of the situation with them, but if it’s her dying wish, I would like to fulfill it.”

Tanya listened closely and pulled two rings out of her pocket, placing them on the table and sliding them to Rimuru. “If that’s what you want to do, go ahead. I have connections in some human nations so just ask me if you need help.”

“What's with the rings?” Rimuru asked.

“Cross-Spacetime Communication device.” Tanya explained.

“Huh?!”

“When I became a Demon Lord, they gave me what’s called a ‘Demon Lord Ring’ which allows communication with all other demon lords with the ring. However what makes it special is just how powerful it is for communication.”

Rimuru put on the ring with curiosity as he asked, “And just how powerful is it? And why did you give me two?”

Tanya leaned back in her chair with a smile on her face, “Powerful enough to bypass Unlimited Imprisonment.”

“You mean we can get Veldora out with this thing?!” Rimuru jumped up with excitement before seeing Tanya’s face and calming down.

Tanya raised her hand to stop Rimuru as she explained, “No, not that far. It can allow us to talk to Veldora, but that’s about it. I doubt it’ll help us get Veldora out. Heck getting the ring to Veldora alone might be a bit tricky, but I trust Great Sage can pull it off.”

Rimuru took the other ring and closed his hand around it, devouring it into his stomach and letting Great Sage handle the rest, “She says she found a way to do it, so we should be fine.”

“Good, now if there’s anything we need to know from Veldora we can ask him.”

Rimuru gave Tanya an unimpressed stare, “I doubt there’s much he can tell us.”

“I agree, but he is an ancient True Dragon, so we gotta give him some credit.”

Rimuru sighed, “I suppose so, he is our friend so It’ll be nice to talk to him again. Speaking of talking, when are you gonna give a victory speech?”

Tanya grumbled to herself before standing up. Rimuru gave her a smug grin as she walked up to the center of town and onto the stage. Tanya had no problem giving speeches, it was more of Rimuru’s smugness about it that gave her slight problems with it.

The town went silent as she stood up there as she began, “Good work everyone, it seems that oversized shark didn’t stand a chance! If this battle has shown us anything, it's that cooperation is the first step forward into a new era. I may be a demon, but I want peace as much as all of you, and in the end, the future we strive for is one where wars are prevented entirely. But that does not make it easy…”

Tanya’s hands were placed behind her back as she smiled, “...War is such a pointless thing. A waste of resources often over petty squabbles and old rivalries. Yet that doesn’t make it any less inevitable. How I wish war wasn’t sometimes the answer as it would make peace so much easier. But that is not the case.”

Tanya began to walk from side to side as she continued, “You see, there was a man long ago who once said something that I believe applies to the era we head into now. An era before the one of peace we desire, a necessary era of hardship that must be endured before the grassy fields of peace and harmony can be fully enjoyed. You see that man said ‘The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions… but by Iron and Blood.’”

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Thanks to various editors and helpers on the Discord who helped with things like plot decisions, grammatical errors, and other aspects of the chapter:

Terraman60

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