SLIME LEGION

Chapter 26: What do you mean 6?

I’m going to die.

There was no two ways about it, I’m going to die!

"It’s alright master, we’ll protect you," Carmela said, trying to cheer me up. Just now I had received a decree from my father, Lorel’s father, to head to a certain dukedom where a Dimension Rift had occurred. There were two types of gates in this world, the class one case, where monsters just kept coming out till it was closed off, and the class two, where slayers would have to head into the gate itself to find the Weaver who created it and kill them. Then there was the rare case, the Dimension Rift. This happened when those creatures keeping us trapped in this dome made use of an alternate world they were able to conquer to create a rift in this one, and this was a worse-case tier since it would require destroying the planet in that reality to close it. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

So why, for the love of me, this world, and everything that breathed, would the King send me straight into this.

I am not powerful, not to talk of overpowered, so why?!

Fuck.

And I can’t even refuse, it’s a decree.

Refusing is only an option when you’ve made peace with death, which I will never do.

Right this moment we were being taken to the dukedom, no telling how long that would take, but that wasn’t my problem now. "Moressa, say something, your silence is making this worse," I heard Carmela’s annoyed voice, but I wasn’t in the mood for their bickering. The girls might be strong, really strong actually, but that didn’t reassure me at all, not when where we were going was a world that had fallen to an apocalypse. And as though that wasn’t horrible enough, we were going in completely blind, no saying what horrors would await me in that alternate dimension. Last time something like this happened, only one out of a few thousand slayers came out, and he was not looking very alive. That was about two or three hundred years ago, no telling if it would be even worse now.

"Master," Moressa, who had been silent since we started this journey, spoke, and I glanced her way. She placed her hand on my arm, then smiled. It was rare to see her smile, and that stunned me. It didn’t look like a fake, forced smile at all. "You will be okay, even if I have to sacrifice my life, I will—"

"Stop," I said with a stern look. I knew what she was about to say, and I didn’t like it. "Never say that."

"But master, it’s why I exist, it’s the reason we are bonded, to protect you. By sacrificing myself to protect you, I’d merely be fulfilling my duty, and gladly at that."

"..." She was right, but the thought of her dying because of me, I didn’t like that thought. I hated it. "You are not allowed to die, I forbid it," I said sternly, but she gave no response, simply keeping that smile. "I’m serious, Moressa. Even you, Carmela, you are not allowed to leave me."

"But what if we have no choice? What if it’s the only way to keep you safe?"

That kept me quiet.

If it did come to that, what then?

They couldn’t let me die, since my death would most likely lead to theirs as a backlash of the ritual, and I didn’t want them to die either.

It seemed the only way to avoid that situation was if I could just get stronger.

Strong enough to protect them.

But how?

Day by day I seemed to grow even weaker. What made it all the worse was that I didn’t even know the reason why this was happening, why I was getting this weak. It couldn’t possibly be the ritual. All my siblings had carried out the same ritual and were fucking monsters, so no, it couldn’t be that.

It had to be something else entirely.

But what?

...wait.

That’s right.

"Moressa," I turned to her.

I’d been so busy with worthless thoughts that I’d forgotten something important.

"Why can’t I remember everything about my past?" I asked, and her expression changed. I could see her surprise, like she hadn’t expected that question.

"...Master?"

"I don’t want to believe you tampered with my memories, that’s why I’m asking for the reason," I said. If they had, I don’t know what that would mean. I just hoped they hadn’t.

"Wait, master, what exactly do you even remember?" Carmela suddenly asked, making me think harder.

I remembered quite a lot. But at the same time, not enough. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

"My legion, my father, a bit of my past, and... some common sense?"

Now that I said it out loud, it sounded even worse.

"But you didn’t remember me, so how many members do you remember?" I could see her eyes narrow, like she’d just realized something.

"...four."

"Four?!"

"Yes."

Suddenly her whole expression turned ugly as she glared at Moressa, but the culprit didn’t bother acknowledging her glare, seemingly contemplating whether she should say something. "Master, you don’t have just four members," Carmela said.

"I don’t?" That can’t be right, that can’t be right, it should be four, right? If it wasn’t, then why couldn’t I remember the rest? How many were there?

"Carmela!" Moressa yelled.

"WHAT?! WHY ARE YOU HIDING IT?!"

At this exchange I turned my gaze to Moressa. "Tell me everything, now," I said, and she bit her lip, clenching her fists tightly. "...We didn’t alter your memory, master. I don’t know how, but you did it to yourself."

...Wait.

"What?!" Even Carmela joined in, bewildered.

She remained silent for a while, but seeing my unwavering gaze, she began.

"About three years ago, something happened, and you suddenly lost a great deal of your memories. We assumed it was self-done, since you didn’t seem to have forgotten everything, but instead selective parts of your memories, like certain people and places. We didn’t know what the reason was, but we knew it was related to the last member you took. We thought taking in so many bonds at once might have affected your soul far more than it was supposed to. Day by day your condition grew worse, you became weaker by the day. We knew if we didn’t do something fast, worse could happen to you..."

"So you did what exactly?" I pressed.

"We tried to separate the others from you, since we could see you didn’t remember them for some reason. We just took the opportunity to..."

"Kill them," Carmela said, her voice cold.

"No, killing wasn’t even in question, we only planned to trap them in that mansion since we knew they wouldn’t see reason no matter what we said..."

"...and?"

"Something went wrong, and... they disappeared."

"What?"

"It was back when teleportation was still in practice, something must have gone wrong. All I know is, we were only able to get Carmela and... the other one," she said, looking down.

...what?

I looked dangerously at Moressa.

"What happened to them?"

"....I..."

"...No, don’t tell me. How many were they?"

For some reason I knew she was going to say they were dead, and something told me I would hate her if she said that. "Six." What?! I already had all the members?! But how was that possible, how did I get so many members in that short space of time?!

"..." I stared at Moressa for a long moment, all I felt was anger. I didn’t even know what to feel.

Somewhere deep inside me, a deep anger was building, and hatred.

It was done to protect me, but the careless move had cost the lives of people Lorel had cared enough about to make a part of him. It filled me with unbelievable anger.

But...

There was something else.

"They’re not dead," I said with a serious expression.

I can’t explain this feeling, it must be from the bond, I just knew by instinct that none of my bonds were dead.

"...master,"

"Don’t say anything else, be quiet," I ordered, and she fell silent, her fist clenching tightly.

...so that means I can’t make another bond, they’re all been made.

But where could they be?

I know they’re not dead, but I don’t feel anything, no connection, nothing that could help me find them. They could be anywhere for all I know, just not dead.

’I have to find them.’

Whatever Moressa and Evangeline had thought back then was wrong.

It was the opposite, accurately. Whatever had happened to Lorel wasn’t because of the bond. If anything, the bond was meant to make its holder far stronger. The fact that this wasn’t happening in Lorel’s case, that he only grew weaker, was still a mystery to me. Perhaps there was far more to all this than I was remembering.

But I need to find them.

Perhaps that would fix my problem.

I’d noticed it for a while now.

Every day I felt a bit weaker than I was the previous day.

Perhaps that’s the reason. I need to find every one of my bond.