The battle had begun. When things failed to unfold the way he had expected, Clayman’s face had openly shown his panic, but he quickly regained his composure.
That confidence of his probably came from believing he had Milim completely under his control.
Guy and Vertis, who had known Milim for a very long time, simply watched the situation at ease.
If Milim were truly fighting seriously, most of the demon lords gathered here would be swept away by the aftermath alone.
As if Clayman himself had never intended to leave everything to Milim, he wrapped his body in a pitch-black aura and brought his subordinates forward.
He had a giant fox with him, along with majin equipped with Unique-grade gear.
"A Nine Head? That’s a rare species..."
Just as the name suggested, a Nine Head was a beast with nine heads, and as its name implied, each tail could subjugate one magical beast. But that one only had two tails. Among Nine Heads, it was still a juvenile.
In response, Rimuru’s side met them with Shion and Ranga, but Rimuru’s greatest threat was still Milim.
Even a plainly telegraphed punch carried certain death behind it, and even with accelerated thought, all he could do was barely evade.
Since Milim had hardly ever needed to control her strength in all her life, all she could really do was throw rough punches and rough kicks. Even so, that alone was more than enough to threaten Rimuru’s life.
"Guy! I’m on Rimuru’s side too, so I want Beretta to join the fight!"
Ramiris noisily made her proposal to Guy, but the answer he gave her was cold.
"No."
"Why?!"
"Hah? In a fight between demon lords, why would I allow some mere subordinate who isn’t a demon lord to join in?"
"Then why does Milim get to?!"
She’s loud, Guy thought.
Just like the fluttering wings of a tiny bug could be strangely irritating, once Ramiris started making a fuss, she never stopped.
Up to now, Ramiris had never once brought a subordinate with her. More accurately, she had never had one to bring.
If Ramiris got involved here too, things would become a little troublesome. Thinking that, Guy had deliberately isolated the two of them behind a barrier.
"Besides..."
Guy shifted his gaze to Beretta, one of the subordinates who had come with Ramiris.
"Who is the one that creature swore loyalty to? One of them is doing everything it can to protect you, but that one isn’t. It has sworn loyalty to you as well, but not completely. Can you really trust something that suspicious?"
Guy had seen through everything. Beretta’s loyalty was not directed solely at Ramiris.
Guy had no intention of easily tolerating someone who had sworn loyalty to two masters.
"As you say, I am indeed weighing my masters against each other."
Beretta did not deny it either. The one who had summoned him was Rimuru, and the one who had given him a body and a name was also Rimuru.
But Beretta’s master now was Ramiris.
"Before I am Ramiris’s servant, I am also a demon who wishes to repay Lord Rimuru’s grace."
"And if, just as I wish for it, Lady Ramiris also wishes to save him—"
Guy rather liked Beretta, who did not shrink in the slightest even while standing before him.
"You want to join the fight?"
"Yes."
At Guy’s reply, Vertis gave a light wave of his hand, and a small hole opened in the barrier.
"Thank you, Rouge."
"Don’t call me that. I’ll permit you to call me Guy as well. And from this point on, I will acknowledge no master of yours other than Ramiris."
"Then, Guy, I swear that from now on I will devote all my loyalty to Ramiris. So just this once, please allow me to be of help to Lord Rimuru."
From Beretta’s attitude, Guy felt that he was somehow different from the rest of their kind.
Demons normally desired a strong master and wanted that master to acknowledge them for their own strength. But Beretta was different. To him, strength was secondary.
For a demon, that made him practically a heretic.
"Wait. Let me ask you one thing. Your color?"
All demons were assigned a color at birth. If Beretta belonged to that lineage, then even a personality so unlike a demon’s would not be strange.
"I believe there are very few in my color line. That person hardly creates any direct subordinates, after all."
From that answer, Guy became certain.
"That line is full of creatures who do whatever they please and live only for their own amusement, master and servants alike."
Guy realized that the person Beretta meant was, like himself, one of the seven demons. And not just that, but Primordial Black.
Even after Beretta joined the fight, the tide of battle did not turn in their favor.
Rimuru remained wholly focused on evading Milim’s attacks, while Rimuru’s subordinates fought against Clayman’s.
"Still... in that short span of time..."
Even if Milim was not fighting at full power, the fact that Rimuru could watch her attacks and dodge them at all showed just how much he had grown compared to before.
"I didn’t think he had that much combat experience..."
Milim attacked, and Rimuru dodged. As that exchange continued—
Milim caught her foot on a stone and lost her balance, and Rimuru seized the opening to destroy the jewel attached to her arm.
[Notice. Estimated trap—]
"Ah..."
By the time he realized too late that it was a trap, Milim was already grinning, one hand clutching his collar as her fist came flying straight toward his face.
Just as Milim’s punch was about to land squarely on Rimuru, someone cut in between them.
Bam!!
Even though the sudden intruder took Milim’s attack head-on, he brushed it off with a casual complaint that it hurt.
The one who had appeared so suddenly was a man with brown skin and blond hair. Somehow, the shape of his face resembled Rimuru’s.
"Veldora? Of all people..."
Among the demon lords gathered here, there were several who did not get along with Veldora. More than that, the maid who had come as a subordinate of the vampire demon lord was glaring at him as if she wanted to kill him on the spot.
Watching the one person who absolutely should not have come appear in this situation, Vertis felt a headache coming on.
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