Black Iron Magician

「There are many things I want to tsukkomi. Level 8, huh…」

Lily’s words shocked the girls. Even though a former, that slime was one of the Great Eight Demons, the pinnacle of the Demon Kings. Even though it took three people, they thought that they could fight it to some extent. However, that was arrogance and their fierce battle was only a warming-up. Moreover, the word ‘clone’ just made them feel like it’s just an imitation.

「No, more importantly, her bloodlust just now was obviously aimed at me, right? I can’t stop getting goosebumps!」

「We were suffering from it too, you know?」

Touko is trembling in a different sense.

「As for phase 2, it won’t attack unless you get close to a certain distance, so you don’t have to worry for now. … Let’s see, I guess it’s a good opportunity. I will tell you about this slime while we are at it.」

Lily turns back and turns her body towards the girls. They want to ask if it’s okay to expose her back in front of that slime, but they endure it.

「S-Sure… I also don’t really understand about that phase you are talking about, so please do.」

They considerably got used to it, but they still feel uncomfortable with this Lily. She’s extremely reliable and they feel complicated.

「First, let’s talk about why this guy is here. In the old days when they were still adventurers, Black… Deris and Nell once fought against the armies of the Great Eight Demons.」

「「「――!?」」」

The girls were surprised once by the relation with the Great Eight Demons, and twice at the fact that Lily didn’t call Deris ‘Goshujin-sama’. Without minding their reactions, Lily goes on with her story.

「They fought three of the Great Eight Demons, from the sixth to eight ranks, and this Aralkar was one of them.」

「T-They even defeated three of them?」

「Yes, each of them fought one. At that time, there was another person in their party, so it was three people.」

「「「………」」」

Apparently, instead of fighting together like Haruna and others, it seems that each of them defeated each of the three Demon Kings. Just what is the point of having a party?

「Nell fought against Aralkar, who was particularly troublesome among them. It’s a good thing that this one is just a clone, but she was quite strong with her main core. Well, you could say that she was troublesome. Anyway, even with Nell’s power, she was not an easy opponent to defeat.」

「Even Shishō…」

「Senpai! The word clone has come out several times since a while ago, what’s that?」

Haruna raised her hand.

「There’s a small core inside this Aralkar’s body, right? There’s only this one spare core now, but she originally had several cores. Several cores were piling up with the main core, which had Aralkar’s will, in the center. It’s easier if you imagine grapes, I guess?」

「… In other words, the core inside that slime is a spare, not the main core?」

「Yes, that’s why I called it a clone.」

According to Lyly, the core holds various important organs such as the heart and brain for a slime. Unlike other slimes, which normally can only have one core, Aralkar had many cores inside her body in addition to the main core. And the one the girls are seeing before them is a clone, a spare core that’s wrapped by a part of Aralkar’s body. Even though it doesn’t have Aralkar’s will, it will fight back when attacked, and above all, it will protect the core. It means that it has the instinct as a living thing.

「Ugh, she could split up into so many of this ridiculous thing, huh. The Great Eight Demons are bad news…」

「But still, the number of cores is finite. If you destroy many of the cores of the clones, you will eventually reach the main core. And that’s exactly what Nell did.」

The 『Pandemonium Mother』 Aralkar was a Demon King with an extraordinary regenerative ability and had an overwhelming number with just her alone. As long as she had her core, she could keep increasing the slime body. The detached body could move on its own for a while, and if she put in the spare core, there would be no time limit and it could even regenerate and transform. Using this power, Aralkar created an army of her clones and fought against Nell with sheer numbers. However, as a result, everything else was burned down, leaving only this one core.

「It seems that she actually didn’t plan to leave even one core. But for some reason, only that spare core escaped Nell’s attack and survived. The core with Aralkar’s will is gone, but since it doesn’t self-destruct, you can assume that it’s alive on its own… It has the minimum instinct as a living thing to defend itself, but on the other hand, it does not have an established ego. That’s what Aralkar is now.」

「………(Pshhhh)」

「I’m sorry, Lily-shishō. Please make it easier to understand…」

Haruna was desperately using her Calculation skill, but Touko abandoned her thinking.

「You can think that it’s ridiculously strong as an individual, but its thinking level isn’t that different from the normal slimes. What we have here is a remnant of Aralkar, and she’s already dead.」

「「H-Hee…」」

「Um, I’ve been wondering it… The phase that you mentioned earlier, could it be…」

Probably realized something, Chinatsu crossed her arms and made a gesture as if she was thinking.

「Chinatsu sure is sharp. Nell brought back this survived core and trained it as a monster for training. As long as the core is safe, it will regenerate immediately no matter how much you burn it. She said that it’s a waste to kill it. Also, that phase thing is probably Nell’s hobby, I guess?」

「I knew it…」

「Because its thinking level is low, Nell forcibly made it understand that she’s superior. Well, that’s Nell for you. She really trained it with her power.」

Nell adjusted the slime to her liking. She made it remember that when the iron door is opened, it’s a signal to start training. Phase 1 is literally a light attack for warming up. When the core is touched, it will move to phase 2 and go into a quite aggressive form. It’s currently in that phase. By the way, the core won’t break even if it receives several attacks from Touko, but it seems that the basic rule is to touch it softly in order not to destroy it.

「T-That’s amazing, huh.」

「Well, it’s Nell after all. And then, if you touch the core when it’s in this state, it will move to phase 3, the final stage of training. Aralkar will launch its greatest attack, and if you can negate it, the training will be over. After that, it will repair the training ground and go back inside the iron door on its own.」

「Amazing! It’s trained completely!」

「Haruna, are you surprised by the latter part?」

After finishing her talk, Lily began to crack her knuckles and turned her body toward the slime again. Is she going to show the process she mentioned earlier?

「… Speaking of which, Touko. Do you know the saying that you are out if you piled up two yellow cards?」