Chapter 127. Dispatch #5
The body of the Overlord melted away like candle wax from the heat emitted by the Black Magma Slime.
The creature couldn’t move an inch, and helplessly succumbed to the magma.
Just like that, Pururu died.
No, the Overlord “Bururu” died.
【Mysticism】─😱 Pururu is dead!
【Yumi】─Goodbye, Pururu.
【Mir-Stin】─My lewd content generator… I won’t forget you, dark one…
【Bubble Bubble】─May you find peace in the heavens.
【Luna-chan】─What a pathetic death. o_O
【Rizenova】─It was a fittingly insignificant end for Lord Pururu.
【Pururu】─It wasn’t me; “Bururu” died, damn it.
Nothing remained of the Overlord’s corpse.
The magma had melted even the bones, absorbing them.
‘Did I place too much hope in the invaders? What a waste of time.’
Because of this event.
I no longer felt inclined to trade with the Invader race.
I had no desire to deal with a race with that kind of mindset.
‘Even as invaders, if they had proposed a sacrifice that suited my tastes, I might have given it a little thought.’
Of course.
Offering life as a sacrifice wasn’t an unreasonable thought.
Their world, too, was one of survival of the fittest.
It’s only natural for the weak to become prey for the strong.
Even so.
Offering intelligent beings that look like me as sacrifices crossed a line.
The fact that they’d seen my appearance through Iris and still spouted such nonsense was practically mocking me.
‘If they had offered creatures like Poison Apple or Pig King, I wouldn’t have cared much… but cannibalism is out of the question.’
Strictly speaking, they weren’t my kin.
But I still wouldn’t eat a race resembling humans.
Naturally, I didn’t want them as sacrifices either.
The reason was simple.
I found it physiologically repulsive.
Because of that, I had a principle: I’d rather starve than resort to cannibalism, and I never took a life without cause.
And my definition of cannibalism was broader than most.
According to my standards, even goblins fell under that category.
Anyway.
Had they offered animals or livestock the Overlord had hunted, I wouldn’t have executed them so swiftly. After all, I also devour other monsters in the labyrinth.
‘I’d heard the Overlord was intelligent, but apparently not clever enough to assess the nature of their opponent. Well, I suppose that’s expected without mind-reading abilities.’
…And perhaps.
All of this might have just been an excuse.
Outwardly, I acted cool and rational, but maybe deep down, I wanted to side with the survivors.
After all, they say blood is thicker than water.
‘If only there had been more natives, there wouldn’t have been any need to ponder; I would have made the choice right away.’
Up until a moment ago, I was weighed down by the need to seek profit.
But now, my heart leaned in one direction.
I couldn’t tell if the survivors were truly good or evil, but I was sure the invaders were evil by my standards.
Oh. My criteria for evil aren’t anything special.
I don’t care about laws humans have established.
I judge based on my own subjective standards and define as evil anyone who rubs me the wrong way.
Ultimately, every living creature views the world through its own lens.
Each is the protagonist of their own life, so it’s only natural to define justice according to their own standards, not the world’s.
Therefore, it was only natural to define good and evil from one’s own perspective.
At least, that’s how I see it.
In any case.
Thanks to this incident, we earned the trust of the natives.
─“It’s… it’s impossible… To kill the Overlord in one blow…”
─“…Am I dreaming right now?”
─“What kind of creature is that, harboring magma inside its body…?”
Amidst the astonished people.
Amuteroso, the search team leader, who had also been flustered, quickly composed himself, cleared his throat, and shouted in a loud voice.
─“See, didn’t I tell you! The people I brought with me are divine messengers, and the one on the screen is a god!”
【Pururu】─Looks like he’s accepted Gauntlet as his god now.
【Mir-Stin】─He probably accepted it when Iris killed the lord.
The crowd buzzed at his proclamation.
─“…Is that man really a god?”
─“I still can’t believe it… but if he isn’t a god, how else can you explain what just happened? If those people are divine messengers, it makes sense that they could kill the Overlord like a bug, right?”
─“So gods really exist?”
─“Then why didn’t they help when our planet was invaded?”
─“Didn’t they say this god isn’t from our world? I remember something about a wandering god from another dimension.”
─“Wait… Does it even matter if that man is a god or not? The important thing is that he has more power than the invaders.”
─“Indeed. What matters most is that these beings, regardless of whether they’re gods, are offering to help us. If they save us, I’d gladly worship them as gods.”
─“We can’t be sure who they are, but at least we’ve confirmed they’re not on the side of the invaders… trusting them might not be such a bad idea.”
─“Not a bad idea? We have to trust them and accept their offer! We’re in no position to refuse.”
─“I’ll believe them. What’s a god, really? It’s just someone with great power.”
Gradually, the people began to acknowledge us.
Finally, it seemed like we could have a proper conversation.
The Overlord’s appearance wasn’t completely useless after all.
***
There were currently four Overlords left.
As for Lords, roughly around 20.
Naturally, they weren’t gathered in one place but were scattered across the planet.
Judging from what the natives said, the Overlords were all A-rank, and the Lords seemed to range from B-rank to C-rank.
‘Since there’s no creature stronger than the Overlord, the hunt should go smoothly… And with the Black Magma Slime’s ability, scattering across the planet won’t be a problem.’
For reference, the Overlord we just killed was said to be the most intelligent and relatively gentle of the bunch.
In other words, the remaining Overlords wouldn’t be open to negotiations.
In any case.
I decided to exterminate the invaders.
Coexistence between the two species seemed impossible.
There was a way to dominate the invader race.
But the natives clearly weren’t fond of that solution.
‘If I were in their shoes, I’d probably feel uneasy living with invaders too. They’d always be afraid peace would eventually break.’
The natives wanted a complete, fundamental resolution to the current situation.
In other words, they wanted the eradication of the invader race.
【Pururu】─Forcing people who don’t get along to act friendly is never a good solution. Bad move.
【Yumi】─Speaking from experience?
【Pururu】─Yeah.
【Bubble Bubble】─Anyway, the decision’s made. We’re going to wipe out all the invaders.
【Mir-Stin】─We’ll uproot those invaders!!
【Mysticism】─Kill all the bad aliens!! 😡
Unfortunately.
Uprooting them entirely was impossible.
The invader race didn’t exist only on this planet.
The Overlord had revealed that he directly ruled over many planets.
According to Iris’s speculation, the invaders might exist in other dimensions as well.
Therefore, we decided to only exterminate the invaders on this planet.
It was impossible to wipe out those on other planets due to time constraints.
And crossing dimensions to hunt them down was even more difficult.
What if they invaded again in the future?
I instructed the natives to send an SOS request to the altar in that case.
Once I received the message, I could immediately use a Designated Dispatch Ticket to send monsters to help.
Later.
As I continued talking with the natives for a long time.
［Explorer, I’ve completed the encyclopedia entries.］
The Centaurides finally finished documenting the Lords and Overlords.
I checked the encyclopedia and saw that,
The Lords were designated as A-2, and the Overlords as A-3.
“Good job.”
“You did well.”
［Thank you!］
【Pururu】─Why does Merino keep chiming in like that? Anyone would think she was Geon’s wife.
【Mir-Stin】─Wasn’t she?
【Bubble Bubble】─No, she’s not.
After confirming the encyclopedia entries.
I turned to Iris again, and one of the people beyond the dimension carefully asked me a question.
─“Excuse me, but… didn’t you say the divine messengers can’t stay in this world for long… So, how do you plan to deal with the remaining four Overlords and the Lords?”
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll hunt them all within a few hours.”
─“…Excuse me? You’ll hunt them all in a few hours?”
The person who asked looked incredulous.
The people around them had the same expressions.
Some of the assistants shared similar reactions as well.
【Mir-Stin】─Is that even possible?
【Pururu】─Geon. No matter how you look at it, hunting them all within a few hours is impossible, isn’t it?
【Mysticism】
─Right. It seems impossible. 😟
【Yumi】─I know the Black Magma Slime is strong, but catching all the invaders within a few hours seems a bit…
【Rizenova】─It’s possible with Black Magma Slime.
【Bubble Bubble】─These guys still don’t understand how incredible SS-rank is.
【Luna-chan】─They learned about monsters through a screen, after all. o_O
Doubts began to spread among the natives again.
But I didn’t mind.
I just had to show them with actions.
A few hours later, they would see a clean, invader-free planet and be left speechless.
“Anyway. We’re going to start the hunt now, so why don’t you all rest in the bunker for a while?”
Leaving those words behind.
I sent Iris and the Black Magma Slime outside the bunker.
Then I asked the Black Magma Slime.
“Black Magma. Ready?”
─［Yup!］
“Make sure to only kill creatures related to the one we killed earlier. You can’t melt down buildings like before, alright?”
─［Got it!］
The Black Magma Slime could selectively attack only the targets it wanted.
As long as I designated the enemies.
Even if it didn’t consider the others allies, it could still release harmless magma around them.
By utilizing that ability to its fullest.
I planned to cover the entire planet with Black Mamga’s magma.
There was even a record of an S-rank slime covering an entire country in Elemencia in a few hours, so an SS-rank slime could surely cover an entire planet in that time.
And Black Mamga seemed confident too.
“Good. Let’s start.”
─［Let’s go!］
─［I’ll climb up high to film it.］
【Mir-Stin】─Oh? Black Mamga spoke!
【Pururu】─It speaks occasionally.
Iris quickly took to the sky.
Following her, the Black Magma Slime leapt high into the air.
At that moment.
The black surface of the slime cracked.
Like a volcanic eruption, the magma inside surged out violently.
The magma that filled the sky expanded endlessly, pouring down to the ground like a waterfall.
Before long.
The magma, defying gravity, spread in all directions and instantly consumed the horizon.
Thus began the eradication of the invaders and the purification of the planet.
─［Arriving in space.］