- Shari -

"Zsch"

The sound of dissolving continues to emanate its disturbing implications, causing Alec to grow increasingly distressed.

"What is this? Where does that come from?" (Alec)

"You know, you surprised me with your super fast feint, but I have also a surprise for you. The thing is, Liqu has been ready to fight again for a while now. A far call from her usual strength but still considerable. However, we didn't have the resources for her to form a whole body. And you, you forgot one simple fact. You were fighting both of us." (Shari)

I point at my chest and then at his.

The place where I touched him and naturally left a bit of slime when he cut my whole arm is empty now.

However, to the right leads a trail of slime beneath his cloak.

He lifts the fabric away but the trail only leads further to his back.

"Zsch"

"No! This isn't possible!" (Alec)

He starts to fiddle with the cloak but is unable to gain sight of the source.

"You should feel it any moment." (Shari)

"What? You- Aaaaaahhhhhhh!" (Alec)

My plan was a success.

All my preparation had only the purpose to get Liqu's core together with some mass on him.

He thought that simply cutting my limbs off would render them useless, but as Liqu was there to exert control it didn't just drop to the ground.

It would've been better to stun him with impact so Liqu can get him done as a follow-up but it worked well enough.

My panicked attacks from all sides were intended to support this, by diverting his attention from his chest.

With his stupidly disproportional strength and the heavy armor to block all sensations from this area, he didn't even notice how Liqu crawled all the way to his back.

And there she promptly started dissolving her way inside.

Alec panics now, franticly grabbing behind himself.

But he's already troubled getting past the cover of the cloak, till he rips it completely off.

His mental state preventing him from conducting more controlled movements.

However, the downside of wearing heavy armor is that it reduces mobility quite severely.

Reaching his own back with his wide frame is almost impossible.

But what is even worse is that Liqu already started sinking in.

Now that the armor is gone the fabric and skin beneath aren't much of an obstacle for her.

Alec, unable to get any grip on the core throws his thick gloves away and reaches for his back.

Sheer terror enables him to bend his arms and shoulders so much that he can reach the point in the middle of his back.

For a moment I become worried that he might be able to do something.

"Zsch"

"WAAAAAHHHHHHH!" (Alec)

However, he pulls his hand away and all that's left of his fingers are only fleshy messes where what's left of the bones sticks out.

He's at his end.

The obvious pain only grows worse.

With each moment Liqu not only sinks deeper into his flesh, but she gains more slime to accelerate the reaction.

His face contorts in horror, tears and snot stream down his eyes and he makes some further weak attempts to claw at Liqu while sinking to the ground.

In the end, all that's left is despair.

"No, no, please not. Please not! Mercy. No. Hick, no! Cough!" (Alec)

He coughs and green slime escapes his mouth.

It's streaming instead of the blood that gets dissolved the moment it flows out of the wounds Liqu causes.

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His expression is only a sobbing, hicking mess.

Then his face seems to blow up.

A moment later his eyes burst from the inside and slime instead of tears flows down his face.

"Gurgle!"

An increasing amount of slime is oozing out of his mouth.

From all his orifices more and more escapes.

At one point he becomes limp, aside from the occasional twitch.

But still, he won't lower completely to the ground.

Instead, his skin melts.

Slime mixed with flesh and blood is displacing it, the former quickly replacing the latter, while his armor drops to the ground.

In mere seconds the last remains of the body vanish in the mass, while the crude rest of Alec's form shifts and realigns.

Slowly it turns into a woman's, with a far too large chest.

Next, this form shapes a well-defined face and on this one the features become visible.

Then it raises its liquid arms and with a beaming smile and cheerful voice states...

"I am back!!!" (Liqu)

Contradictory to this expression of pure happiness and elation the people around, especially the archers nearby, show deep distress and fright.

"Ah, yes, there was something up. Can't laze around!" (Liqu)

They have mere seconds before a wave of glistening green slime reaches them.

Only a small one, equivalent to Alec's former body mass, but certainly deadly enough.

The arrows, if they would've even been accurate enough to hit, get swept away by the current.

Other weapons they don't possess to defend themselves with.

The first archer is quickly melted.

The others naturally try to escape, but Liqu is already chasing them down.

And they can't outrun her.

After a short time, she already returns.

Despite the amount she dissolved she's smaller than she should be and a great amount of excess is strewn around the field.

The close combat fighters at the carriage, desperately kept off by Dion, Zeon, Vela, and even Lorena the maid become aware of what happened.

"Nobody said we would have to face this!" (soldier)

Liqu has not much consideration for their issues and directly engages.

Albeit smaller than her usual size she completely overwhelms their formation.

None of the men has a voidstone weapon and like this no means of defense.

And Zeon is still partaking.

Against someone like him, this kind of distraction is deadly enough.

The terrified soldiers, driven by the slime-gurgling screams of their comrades, choose to flee, scattering in all directions.

With this, it's over.

The enemy commander for some reason stays.

"You've lost! Now speak! Who sent you and what was your objective?!" (Dion)

"What a mess. I heard about it, but seeing what this thing can cause... It should be forbidden." (commander)

Is he opting for declaring us as illegal war atrocities?!

"Answer the question!" (Dion)

"Ah, yes. Naturally we were here because of the girl. Our mission was to take hold of her. However, now that this won't work out I'm left with no choice." (commander)

Promptly he lifts his arm at Anvenia, pulls his sleeve away and a strange mechanism becomes visible.

From this, a bolt gets expelled at the little girl.

"Aaahhhh!" (Anvenia)

"NO!!!" (Dion)

"Stk"

I can barely move and am too spent after my fight to properly process what happens.

In one moment Dion jumps in front of Anvenia.

The bolt impacts his chest and pierces it, but he successfully shielded the girl.

The next moment, I only realize that Zeon stands behind the commander, his sword angled away from his body.

"Plock"

Then the commander's head falls to the ground.

He would've been dead anyways as Liqu was almost over him, but stops now in her tracks as her intervention isn't necessary anymore.

As fast as I can move in my poor state I rush to Dion's side.

Anvenia cries her heart out, shielded by Lorena.

I look at him, and the wound looks grievous.

"Dion?" (Shari)

"Urgh. This isn't good." (Dion)

"I... Maybe I can do something. Close up the wound?" (Shari)

"D-Don't bother. The bolt was poisoned. An expensive one as it feels. You, cough, you can't cleanse blood I suppose? I... won't make it much longer." (Dion)

"Liqu? You know stuff about human bodies. Can't you do something?" (Shari)

"No. Poison is strange. It messes everything up just by being there. And I can't make it not being there. I can dissolve everything, but that won't help much." (Liqu)

"Officer, cough... You, you have to promise me to bring the princess back home. Keep her safe. If, cough, if this rebellion takes place, the losses will be... unmeasurable. Please." (Dion)

Sigh.

I was never much of a patriot.

That my own country basically pays adventurers to kill me didn't better this.

All I ever wanted was a quiet and content life.

No problems, no imminent risk of death at every corner, no existential crisis.

But now I have here a dying man's last wish to save this very country.

It's not like I feel nothing at this.

I didn't know Dion too well, but he was at least a good acquaintance.

It would feel a bit low to say that this all doesn't concern me in this situation.

I really don't want to get involved more than I have to in this whole mess or do more than I was asked to do and put myself at risk.

However, at the moment, it only amounts to completing my mission.

And as I already took it on me to escort Anvenia I'll have to follow up on it.

So I answer him.

"I'll do whatever is necessary. You can be sure of this." (Shari)

"Th-thank... you. I... know you'll do it. And... one last thing." (Dion)

"Yes?" (Shari)

"You look... ridiculous." (Dion)

And with this, he dies with a smile on his face because of his own joke.

Well, so much for last words.

Sigh.

Okay, it's sad.

I feel discouraged and the general mood is at an all-time low.

The soldiers take it quite well.

Vela might've become a little numb after that last great slaughter and Zeon grinds his teeth, probably focusing most of his anger on our enemy.

This leaves the maid, who is completely occupied with calming an emotionally shaken Anvenia.

This situation was simply too much for such a young girl.

It seems Liqu wants to comfort the crying Anvenia.

In her own, very awkward way.

She embraces her and allows the girl to cry at her chest.

Unfortunately, there is no resistance on the slime's side, so the girl, a short moment later, cries into her chest.

"Don't worry! I'm supplying her with air!" (Liqu)

That's not the point, Liqu.

After quickly pulling a very puzzled princess out of that slime, I do my best to convince everyone that she really just meant well and wasn't going to grab herself a snack.

I even manage to prevent the maid from completely losing it.

In the end, what happened was hard on all of us.