Chapter 85
The sight of a person burning in white phosphorus.
It was a horrific scene, but the people burning were the ones who'd ordered white phosphorus fired into the residential districts of hundreds of thousands...
I couldn't even feel much sympathy for them.
Just the thought that we'd bought some time, maybe?
“Everyone, now let's stop the fire from spreading! Don't go near the impact zones; just keep it from spreading around them!”
It was difficult to stop the white phosphorus itself from burning, but preventing the fires it caused from spreading was doable.
At my instructions, people scattered in every direction to put out the fires.
Meanwhile, I recalled the Pride individuals that had formed the fire blankets and checked the Crusaders' movements.
The general didn't look too pleased.
“The holy knights really are something.”
Even the burns from white phosphorus healed in no time...
Holy roaches... no, holy knights.
Still, I can't stand that they're actually cockroaches.
What else could they be but undead?
If clerics and priests specialized in healing others, then the class with absolute dominance in self-healing was the holy knight—the Crusader.
“... Someone I really don't want to think about comes to mind.”
That's exactly how Kaiser fights.
The problem with that powerful self-healing is...
My current means of attack is Pride, the pinnacle of pathogens. So what kind of damn pathogen would I have to mimic to break through that powerful resistance and regenerative ability and deal damage?
“Was I really that dependent on Gluttony?”
Gluttony was sealed, and I had to face Crusaders, who were a terrible matchup for me.
“Ah, come to think of it, the Sacrificial Offering...”
Originally, the targets sacrificed for Sacrificial Offering were yeasts that had little effect on combat.
I had to keep them summoned because they were essential for Nectar production, but since they were useless in battle, I used Sacrificial Offering to improve efficiency.
But now...
“I probably shouldn't leave Sacrificial Offering on the yeast...”
I hadn't changed it, but that could've been a disaster.
[Sacrificial Offering has been used on Pride.]
I'd changed the target of Sacrificial Offering to Pride for now, but...
That meant I had to avoid attacks whenever possible or defend in some other way besides using Sacrificial Offering.
I couldn't sacrifice large chunks of the individuals I actually needed for offense just to defend.
“One problem after another.”
Watching the Crusaders retreat, recover on their own, heal even their injured horses, and prepare to charge again, I couldn't help sighing.
Just then.
[Kkyu-kkyu wishes to be summoned.]
“Not now.”
[Kkyu-kkyu wishes to be summoned.]
[Kkyu-kkyu wishes to be summoned.]
[Kkyu-kkyu wishes to be summoned.]
“No, I said no.”
What's gotten into it?
This was a dangerous battlefield, so this was a problem.
But a parent can never win against their child.
Well, I'm not its biological parent, technically.
In the end, I summoned it.
─Kkyu!
“... What an adorable slime. It's amazing you even have a slime like this as your familiar.”
The general's comment made it sound like his heart had skipped a beat.
Don't admire the slime for being cute in the middle of this urgent situation...
Well, I did feel a little calmer, too.
But Kkyu-kkyu, whom I was holding, squirmed and tried to wriggle out of my arms.
“It's dangerous.”
When I had no choice but to set it down, it squirmed its way up the castle wall, then...
─Kkyuuuuuuuu!
It let out a long, high-pitched sound.
“W-What is that?”
Just as I stared wide-eyed in surprise...
Rumble-rumble-rumble! A tremendous vibration, like an earthquake, shook the earth.
At the same time, a system window appeared.
[The Lord of all slimes issues an irresistible absolute command to its kin!]
[Kkyu-kkyu has gained control over all nearby slime individuals.]
“... What?”
Before I could even understand what was happening, countless slimes slithered out of the castle, accompanied by a rumbling that shook the earth.
“How are there so many slimes inside the castle...?”
“They must have been in the sewers. The sewers of Constance Castle are several hundred years old...”
“Ghk.”
So in a castle housing hundreds of thousands of people, there was a huge sewer system that had been around for hundreds of years...
I couldn't even imagine how many slimes had multiplied down there.
And it wasn't just the sewers.
Slimes were also crawling out of the water pooled in the moat in front of the castle.
As I stared blankly at the sight...
Kkyu-kkyu came over and nudged its head against me.
─Kkyu?
Was it asking, I did good, right...?
“Yeah, you did great.”
As I petted Kkyu-kkyu, I looked out over the plain.
They'd swarmed in an instant... millions...? No, countless slimes covered the entire plain.
The Crusaders looked at the writhing mass of slimes in confusion, too.
“... If it were me, I wouldn't want to go in there.”
When gathered in numbers like that, slimes could show considerable combat power.
But no matter how strong they were, their targets were ordinary people or classes with weak defenses.
Against a class like holy knights, with strong defenses and self-healing...
Slimes would probably struggle no matter how many there were.
Even ten thousand rabbits couldn't beat a tiger, after all.
But... if they had one unexpected strength...
That putrid stench you wouldn't even want to get close to?
These were sewer slimes that had been festering for centuries. Of course they'd stink.
And it wasn't just that they were dirty.
If even one of them brushed against an open wound...
Tetanus, guaranteed.
They were practically plague slimes, not sewer slimes.
They must be carrying all kinds of bacteria and viruses.
... You avoid shit because it's dirty, not because you're scared of it?
No.
You avoid it because it's dirty enough to be scary!
**
Thwack! Thwack-thwack!
When the Purifying Fire, which we'd assumed would fall inside the castle, instead came down on top of our charging allies, I initially thought it was a misfire.
They'd only just recovered from their illness, after all.
They'd injured a Crusader, so they deserved a thousand hours of penitential prayer, but it was still something that could be forgiven.
But when the Purifying Fire continued raining down, Commander Leonhardt realized it wasn't a mistake.
Fortunately, after several incidents of friendly fire, the rain of Purifying Fire stopped—perhaps the holy knights they'd left in the rear had subdued them—but the damage was enormous.
There was smoke, but the castle itself didn't seem to be burning properly...
The enemy soldiers were getting livelier and livelier, whatever trick the mage had pulled.
A sigh escaped Leonhardt's lips.
“... What a petty bastard.”
He murmured an assessment that Kim Segyun would probably have answered with something like, ‘Thank you for the high praise,’ had he heard it.
“An earthquake!”
Leonhardt felt the ground shake and grabbed the reins of his agitated horse.
The other holy knights did the same.
Just as they were calming their horses...
“......”
A sight that left them speechless unfolded before them.
Millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions...
Countless slimes covered the entire plain.
The wind was blowing from the castle, of all directions, carrying the slime's stench straight to them.
Leonhardt frowned at the foul stench, so strong it was hard to keep his eyes open.
“Ugh!”
A few recruits with weak stomachs were even vomiting.
And never mind the people...
Neighhhhh!
The horses, whose sense of smell was more sensitive than a human's, couldn't endure the appalling stench and twisted their bodies, snorting.
The stench was enough to terrify the proud warhorses of the holy knights, who had seen countless battlefields and been consecrated with divine power.
It was the stench of a sewer that had been festering for centuries. Of course it was.
“Even slimes! Mage! You really are playing dirty!”
Leonhardt ground his teeth and tightened his grip on the reins.
He yanked the reins hard with strength enhanced by divine power, and only then did the horse come to its senses and obey.
“Holy knights! Are you afraid of those slimes?”
“No!”
“Forward! Great knights of Thessalonica! Let us smash the gate again and purify Constance Castle!”
“For Thessalonica!”
With a unified cry...
The holy knights charged toward the plain blanketed in slimes.
Neighhhhh!
“Aaargh!”
Naturally, the slimes weren't going to just let themselves be trampled.
They actively clumped together, increasing their density, and pulled the horses' hooves deep into their bodies.
When the horses' legs tangled and they fell...
“K-Keh! Kheugh!”
Slimes forced their way into every orifice of the fallen knights and horses.
All kinds of pathogens and viruses from the rotten water they'd lived in for centuries flowed straight into the knights' bodies.
“Uweeegh!”
They tried to vomit, but more slime poured into their bodies than they could throw up.
They suffocated and died instantly.
Just like that, dozens of knights died absurdly.
“Damn it! Everyone stop! Stop and dismount!”
“Dismount! Dismount!”
As he dismounted, Commander Leonhardt burned away the slimes with powerful divine power.
“Manifest your divine power and burn the slimes!”
They weren't beings that defied the natural order, but slimes were weak against divine power because of their innate aversion to light.
Especially against Thessalonica, a church that worshiped the sun.
With divine power wrapped around his feet, he crushed and burned the slimes at the same time.
“Manifest the radiance! For Thessalonica! For the glory of Thessalonica!”
As he continued to rally them, a black fog suddenly swept across his vision.
“Where did this fog come from all of a sudden?”
Just as he thought that, a warning bell rang in his mind.
“It could be the mage's trick! Everyone, stop breathing and use divine power to boost your healing!”
But despite his warning...
“Ugh!”
“Uuugh!”
All around him, people began sinking to the ground right where they stood.
“What's happening!”
The deputy commander, too, was sweating coldly as he dropped to his knees.
With difficulty, he spoke to the commander.
“Commander...”
“What is it!”
“M-My stomach...”
“What?”
“... My stomach hurts... I can't stand it...”
“What are you talking about...”
Just then.
The moment he felt a twisting pain in his own stomach...
The commander realized what state his knights were in.
“Magiis! You filthy mage bastard!”
**
“The slimes are pretty strong, huh?”
I hadn't expected much...
Should I say I got lucky, or that they were stupid?
The slimes had swallowed a few weaker holy knights who'd fallen off their horses and rolled across the ground.
But as the holy knights dismounted and began walking, the slimes were melting away under divine power in no time.
“As expected, their limits are clear.”
Still, they were fighting hard and slowing them down. Wasn't there some way to make use of them?
They were plague slimes, hotbeds of bacteria and viruses.
As the self-proclaimed Germ Man, could I really just sit and watch?
And of course, there were a huge number of corpses over there, too...
The problem was that I couldn't use any microbes besides Pride for this mission.
“... Wait a minute.”
It was that I couldn't use microbes under my control...
Come to think of it, the engineers in the rear had been infected by Pride individuals I didn't control.
They were wild Pride individuals outside my control.
The Pride individuals had sent them thoughts and guided their actions.
“If that's the case.”
Could they guide other bacteria and viruses, too?
Of course, maybe they could share thoughts because they were all the same entity, ‘Pride.’
But strictly speaking, Pride was the pinnacle of all pathogens.
The pinnacle of evolution.
And there was no reason the pinnacle of evolution... couldn't control lesser entities.
“... All Pride individuals. Can you send thought waves to every kind of bacterium and virus on that plain?”
[To manifest a divine authority, you must obtain ‘Constellation Avicenna's Research Journal I.’]
“... Damn it, really?”
The authority I'd get as a reward for this quest was probably the ability to control other bacteria and viruses.
“Then... I'll have to make the impossible possible...”
I had a cheat item that could make that happen.
“Imperial Edict! Target: every Pride individual! Temporarily awaken the authority that's still incomplete within them!”
[An Imperial Edict is issued to all Pride individuals.]
[Imperial Edict: Each individual gains the authority to control all pathogens through thought. In exchange, they temporarily lose the ability to mutate for the duration.]
[Edict effect duration: 20 minutes (Control 250% applied)]
They'd lose their ability to mutate.
But they could still control other pathogens.
The Pride individuals affected by the Imperial Edict...
Like generals commanding an army, each one began sending thought waves to millions, tens of millions of other pathogens.
At that moment.
All the pathogens teeming inside the plague slimes.
Bacteria, viruses, and parasites...
Sought out prey and burrowed into the nearest targets.
Even at a glance through Mision...
Vibrio, Legionella, Salmonella, E. coli.
Rotavirus, adenovirus...
“Ugh, that one's a bit much.”
I saw a virus that stirred up a childhood trauma of mine, too.
I suffered so badly from that one that I still can't eat oysters.
“Norovirus...”
My Crusader friends.
I'm sorry, but...
I have to live up to my name as Germ Man today.