That Time I Got Isekai’d Again and Befriended a Slime

Her hair tie, a scrap of spare cloth that had by some miracle survived up to this point, did not in fact survive past this point. It had disintegrated as well, Tanya's long locks falling down and waving about in the heat created wind.

Thump.

A muffled sound, from the largest portion of raging flame, several meters directly in front of her. Tanya's mouth set in a thin line.

Thump.

"Damn it..."

Tanya tried lifting her arms up. Her muscles spasmed, a deep, aching soreness making itself known. Cauterized wounds and scraped skin tugged harshly along her right side. On the left, her palm was red and blistering, the fingers only slightly better off.

She breathed as deeply as she could in the suffocating heat.

She was exhausted.

But, she was still alive. And that meant she had to keep fighting.

"Even after all that, you're still coming at me? You're fucking insane."

TLE was empty. She didn't even need to check.

Her internal pool of magicules, however, had not run dry quite yet.

A green glow washed over her for the briefest second, taking the edge off her latest set of injuries. She was far away from a genuine healing at this point in the battle, the bare minimum magic she could afford for the spell giving bare minimum results.

It was enough to make raising her arms possible again and closing her left hand marginally painful as opposed to incredibly painful, but that was the extent of it.

Not ideal by any means. Hardly even manageable at this point. Especially with her right arm basically out of commission, barring a truly breathtaking third (fourth? Fifth?) wind and an extra rush of adrenaline that she probably didn't have in her.

Thump.

"I'm... insane...?" Octavius's voice was warped. Wet and burnt at the same time, raspy and drowning in the crackle of the flames. "No. This is... fun!"

Thump.

His foot emerged from the fiery wall, slapping against the blackened tile.

"Two beings... fighting to the death... with all they have."

Thump.

Another step. His lower half was visible now, the flesh red and cracked, white and black with burns deep enough to kill most anyone else.

"There's nothing... nothing in this world..."

Thump. Thump.

He emerged fully from the raging flames.

Tanya's breath froze in her lungs.

His right arm was gone. Completely, utterly, the socket cauterized so thoroughly that the arm might as well have never existed. The right side of his face was meticulously stitching back together, skin and tendrils of blood slowly, very slowly weaving through one another.

But that wasn't what froze her. Not quite.

"..nothing… that could be better than this."

It was his eyes. They were shining. Not with magic, not really. It was more like... excitement. Joy. That struck her, certainly…

But what struck her even more was the color.

Octavius had yellow eyes. It hadn't registered in her mind as important, but she was aware of it. And in truth, it wasn't important. He had yellow eyes. Big deal. So did Rimuru.

But right now, with the flames reflecting off of them and the shine he had... right now, they appeared golden.

Octavius crouched slightly, the ground cratering beneath him as he leapt straight towards her.

And Tanya... hesitated.

This situation…

For the briefest, barest hint of a second, she wasn't in Xerxes.

She was back in Tiegenhoff.

And her foe wasn't Octavius Valentin, walking out of a wall of flames. Eyes glowing with a furious light, their attention on one person, and one person alone.

It was...

Then, Tanya was back.

Octavius was practically on top of her now, his arm pulled back for a deadly left hook.

Move. Move. Move!

Her barrier flickered into being. It was all she could do to bring her arms up.

Her barrier cracked, then shattered. The blow slammed into her guard.

Except…

Her right arm didn't quite make it, and her guard ended up being only half what it should have been.

She went flying.

Octavius watched her tumble and crash several meters away, his arm lowering to his side as he slowly strode forward.

"Yes… this is fun. Truly, I have never enjoyed myself like I am now."

Thump. Thump.

"Perhaps you are right though. No, you certainly were right. My desires have consumed me. And, I'd say there's nothing wrong with that. How could there be?"

Thump. Thump.

"How can giving in be wrong? My desires are consuming me, yes. Yet, I feel as though I am consuming… everything. I truly understand now. My mind, body, and soul are operating all at once; they are singing together in glorious harmony. It feels amazing. How can this be wrong, if it feels so good?"

Thump. Thump.

"Death stared me in the face, and I could only grin. Isn't that absurd? I've never truly thought about dying. Why would I? Yet, in that moment, I could feel it. It called to me. Imagine that. After all these millennia, all this time, now death has chosen to whisper in my ear. And it's all thanks to you. Truly, you are a worthy equal, Tanya."

Thump. Thump.

"I would have died, too. If that blast of yours had hit dead on. I was able to dodge, just a step or so to my left before it hit, and because of that I was spared. In the space of less than a single breath, one instinctual impulse yanked me from the edge of oblivion. Any longer, any hesitation, and that would have been it. Amazing. Amazing!"

Octavius laughed, the motion pulling at his wounds. Blood trickled down his torso and face, yet he continued to laugh.

Thump. Thump.

"And even with that, without my Greater Fire Resistance, without reinforcing my body, pushing my limits farther than ever before, I would have died. Just from proximity. Unbelievable. Again, I commend you. I can only commend you. My arm… I'm amazed. I can't regenerate it. I have my doubts that I could regenerate it ever, even at full strength. This residue, this magic that saturates the wound in in the aftermath. I wonder if even the legendary full potion could return it."

Thump.

"I've reached my limits. The parts of my body that remain exist in a state of tear and pain I have never before felt. My magicules are drained. My regeneration has never been so thoroughly tested. And, similarly, it has never failed like it is now. It is keeping me alive, but little more. Amazing. Amazing."

Octavius stopped, looming over her fallen form.

"You really are amazing. I was right. I have been right since the moment I decided to offer you not one, but two separate blood pacts. You are the one most worthy to fight me. You are one of the chosen, as was I once upon a time."

He raised his arm back for one final strike, fingers extended in a knife hand.

"It is a shame for you to die here. I'd offer you a truce, a place at my side, fighting me forever, if I believed you would take it. But you won't. We both know that. So, you will die here, with honor. Rest well, Tanya. You have rekindled my spirit, and for that, I thank you. From the bottom of my heart."

He leaned down, his hand shooting forward.

A blur of motion.

CRRSH!!!

"Gah-!"

A gasp. A pained grimace. Shock. Disbelief.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Fire crackled in the background. Crimson dotted the smashed tiles below.

"'From the bottom of my heart,' you said?" Tanya coughed painfully, her grimace turning to a smirk. "There's some irony in that, I'd say."

Octavius stared down at her in shock, his hand frozen in the air.

She'd… been playing dead. That much was obvious.

She avoided his strike. Pushed herself to the side, slightly, holding up her arm and…

He hunched over, blood beginning to trickle down his torso.

"You let your guard down. Finally."

Octavius looked down, disbelief painting his face.

Tanya was grasping at open air, her hand closed tight around something, invisible to the naked eye. Slowly, a swirl appeared just over her hand, magical mist and air crawling past and making the invisible visible once more.

The handle was revealed first. A dark grey leather gripped tight in burnt, bloody fingers. Then, the hilt. Slightly curved up on either side, with winged silver lines running along it perpendicular to the handle, curling up and back slightly near the ends.

After that, the blade. Black. Shadow given form, a deep, light absorbing color that bore no reflection and seemed to glint with no light. There was an inscription there, just above the hilt.

A set of symbols.

生存

"Being"? No… "survival".

The blade revealed itself more and more, until it was fully visible, sticking through the center of his chest and out through his spine.

"Your- sword-!"

"I stored it away at the start. And I never forgot that I had it. But you did, didn't you?"

Octavius brought his lone hand up, his fingers shaking and clenching.

"Don't."

Blue flame swirled along the blade, stopping just before his chest.

"Your heart's stabbed clear through. Do anything that even slightly resembles a threat, and I'll burn whatever remains right out the back of your torso."

Octavius let his hand drop. His head dropped slightly as well, his incredulous gaze locked onto the midnight blade and cobalt fire poised to end his millennia-long existence.

Tanya tightened her grip. "I win."

He coughed, wet and bloody. Then, a nod.

"You've… won."

A wave rushed over both of them then. A magical bond forged in blood tightened, and then faded away. A victor had been decided. The pact had been completed.

Octavius collapsed to his knees.

Tanya kept a hold on her sword, shifting her one-handed grip slightly to keep it in one place as he fell, blade stabbed directly through the ancient vampire's gnarled heart.

"Yes… you've won." He huffed a wet, gurling sort of laugh, the noise quickly shifting into a painful cough. "Amazing…"

"Don't die on me yet, Octavius Valentin."

"Of course. Of course…" Blood stained his burnt skin, red against red. "To the victor, go the spoils. Ask."

Tanya nodded.

"I need to kill your boss next. So, tell me about him. Drake. Why work with him?"

"Drake. Right, Drake." Octavius blinked slowly, having to pause between words constantly, "I owe a certain… responsibility, to Drake. He is here because of me."

"What?" Tanya frowned. "Elaborate, quickly."

"Drake is an Otherworlder. I summoned him many years ago, when my boredom had-" Octavius coughed, "…I had begun to lose myself. Out of desperation, I... oh, but Drake was weak. He barely survived the journey, and his body was ready to die as soon as he'd arrived."

Yet more blood trickled past his lips.

"I was... displeased. I'd wasted time, and power. In anger, I imbued him with a Greater Spirit of Space I'd ensnared long ago. The shapeshifter fiend, Lycaon. And then, Drake's Unique Skill, his reward for passing over… it activated. A transmogrification of the self. Drake is no longer a human."

Octavius paused, his breathing growing more labored.

"No. he never was human. His evolution merely brought this fact into reality."

"What is he then?" Tanya said impatiently, "Tell me already. Before you die, tell me."

"…Tanya. Your desires." Octavius shuddered, one eye closing tight, "Have they not consumed you… just as I?"

"Huh?"

"This desperation of yours… it is worrysome."

Tanya narrowed her eyes. "Mind you, I'm the one holding your life right now. Don't get-"

She paused.

Notice: the individual Octavius Valentin is attempting to transfer control of his Demon Lord Seed, to the individual known as Tanya von Degurechaff.

Voice of the World?

Tanya twisted the blade ever so slightly, more crimson leaking out onto Octavius' chest.

"What's this all about, Octavius?"

"Ah. You could tell?" Octavius smiled through his pain, his fanged teeth crimson stained, "I mean no harm. I assure you. I have no use for it anymore."

"I have no intention of becoming a Demon Lord."

"Neither did I. And I never became one, not truly." His other eye closed, his head drooping, "But you would be a fool to turn this down. The difference between those with a Demon Lord Seed, and those without is-"

"Like that between the world and the moon." Tanya repeated his statement from earlier. "Yes, I'm aware of what you believe."

"Believe? It is true. Accept, Tanya. You are one of the chosen in this world. Grow stronger, so that your flame is not unfairly snuffed out."

Notice: the individual Octavius Valentin is attempting to transfer control of his Demon Lord Seed, to the individual known as Tanya von Degurechaff.

"Tch."

I don't want it. The potential to become a Demon Lord, I mean. That's just inviting trouble. But maybe there's another option.

"Fine."

Notice: the individual-

Voice of the World, I request a repurposing of Octavius Valentin's relinquished Demon Lord Seed.

-=-

Tanya stumbled away from Octavius' body, a massive burnt hole through where his heart used to be. Behind her, the fire from before grew and roared, consuming the hall at large.

Combining Unique Skills, gaining power… I was being sarcastic earlier, but this works well enough.

Tanya did not possess a Demon Lord Seed. Thus, she was not a Demon Lord Seed herself.

She would never become a Demon Lord. That much was certain.

That was fine.

There were more than enough Demon Lords to go around. Too many, honestly.

She made it to the doors, shoving them open with her shoulder and biting back a cry of pain. Then, she stepped through, limping down the hallway she'd earlier traversed down to get here, her sword acting like a crutch.

Stairs…

Her vision was fading, black spots dancing about. Blood pounded in her ears, barely drowning out the sound of her own ragged breathing. Her mouth was drier than she could ever recall it being, the combination of blood loss and extreme magic-enhanced heat.

She'd put on a tough façade when ending Octavius's life, but with the rush of battle fading to nothing, now she was truly feeling every second of the conflict. Each step was painful, each movement pulling at something, yanking a burn or a cut.

The fact that she could move at all was a credit to her remarkable willpower.

The stairs are-

Right there.

Tanya slowly stepped up, heavy footfalls landing on the first, the second, the third…

Then, it all finally caught up to her. She pitched forward, collapsing on the stairwell.

Honestly, it was a miracle she'd made it up that many steps at all.

"Ugh…" Tanya lay there for a moment, before trying to push herself up

Keep moving…

-=-

Octavius stared up at the cracked and falling to pieces ceiling, his eyes fluttering open and closed as his lifeforce slowly faded.

Blood control could only keep him alive so long without the core of his being to assist. He was out of power, anyway. Willpower and magicules both.

This was to be his end. He knew this.

Octavius lay there, his breathing growing slower, the intervals between growing longer. Blood slowly leeched out all around him, sizzling in the overwhelming heat. A dark flower of crimson staining his outline. The hole in his chest pulsed, the control he had over his blood finally fading into nothingness.

He stared silently upwards, through the cracked ceiling, to the floor above.

They were too far underground for the sky to be in view. They'd need to have broken through countless more ceilings for that.

Octavius closed his eyes.

But, oh, he could imagine it.

It was a beautiful day. The sunlight carried itself down brightly, unmarred by magic barriers or cloud coverage.

Above him, the sky was clear and brutal.

He breathed again. Again.

Then, it stopped.

Then, he was consumed by the flame.

And all the while… with a smile on his face.

-=-=-=-

Footsteps pounded on tiled floors.

Come on, come on.

Mary leapt the rest of the way down the stairwell, turning a corner and sprinting down another hallway several levels below.

She's down here somewhere. Come on, where-

A tug at the edge of her Magic Sense.

Mary skid to a halt, running back and pushing through the door she'd just bolted past.

Another set of stairs met her.

Without hesitation, she ran down them, jumping down and pushing off the walls to keep her momentum as she descended. Once the bottom of the stairwell was in sight just a couple stories below, Mary slid over the railing as she'd done in the previous stairwell, dropping quickly.

As she did, a flash of yellow and green caught her eye.

Mary landed hard into a roll, popping up and running right back up the couple flights of stairs she'd elected to skip just seconds earlier.

Two stories came and went, the steps practically flying under her boots until-

There!

"Tanya- whoa!"

Mary froze, as a black blade rested against her throat.

"Oh." Tanya stared at her, before lowering her sword. Her voice was raspy. "Sue."

She coughed, the sound painful to even hear.

"What happened to you?" Mary's eyes were wide, barely suppressed panic evident in her voice and face. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Mary noted that Tanya's hair was out of its ponytail.

Seriously though, she looked like the victim of a vicious artillery shelling. Take her word for it; she'd certainly seen enough of them during the Great War to say so.

Blood soaked Tanya's right sleeve, the arm itself hanging limp, and red coated the right side of her face. The side bang on the right side of Tanya's face was gone, a cauterized gash underneath painting a clear enough picture as to how that had happened. Various minor cuts and flecks of damaged skin were visible at certain points. Overall, she was red, either from heat, adrenaline, future bruising, blood, or all the above.

"How are you even standing? Wait, you shouldn't be standing right now. Here."

She grabbed Tanya by the non-injured shoulder, quickly and gently guiding her into a seated position on the steps.

Tanya allowed this without protest, which was enough of a warning sign as anything else.

I can't heal this much with my own magic.

Mary reached for a pouch on her belt, pulling out a familiar flask.

Good thing, I didn't use all of this earlier. There's just about a half left, which should be plenty.

"Here, drink- hey!" Mary's hand pulled back, empty now as Tanya snatched the flask from her and downed it in one go. "I was going to help you. Asshole."

Tanya swallowed, before slipping the flask into a pouch on her own belt. A light shone across her body, the worst of her injuries healing in a flash.

"You were taking too long." She flexed her left hand, her burns gone. A quick roll of her right shoulder and a fingertip brushing against the side of her forehead confirmed that they had been healed as well.

"You know, I had to fight two Heads of Scylla to get here. You could at least show a little gratitude."

"Oh, relax." Tanya rolled her eyes. She raised a hand, patting Mary's head once, "I was getting to that. Thanks. Seriously."

"Hmph." Mary looked to the side. "You're welcome."

She blinked, as her gaze fell over the open stairwell.

"Actually, how did you make it up so many stairs in that condition?"

"Very painfully." Tanya said, in a matter-of-fact manner. She rose, "Now come on, we've still got to-"

"Well, this is quite heartwarming."

The tip of a blade touched lightly against Tanya's throat.

"What?" Mary placed a hand on her katana's handle. A silent gesture from Tanya had her keeping the blade in its sheathe. For now.

"General Garmstrong." Tanya held up her hands placatingly, Gamstrong's blade one bad movement away from stabbing her in a very important place. "Hello again. Odd welcome party you've got here."

"I could say the same, Tasha. Or rather, Tanya." Garmstrong tilted her head. "What a surprise. You've got a friend you never told us about."

"Alright, that's fair enough." Tanya said, "But, as much as I'd love to play this game, we don't have time for this. Until Drake is dealt with-"

"Drake has been dealt with already." Garmstrong cut her off, narrowing her eyes, "Scylla's treasonous remnants are being rounded up as we speak. The only thing left to deal with regarding today's crisis are two non-citizens of the Eastern Empire. And wouldn't you know it; I found them."

"You found us." Tanya acknowledged, "So, is this the part where we join hands and sing hallelujah to cooperation and a job well done?"

"No. This is the part where I arrest you for interfering in internal military affairs of another country."

"Is that so? Careful now, General. Remember who you're dealing with before you make any unwise decisions."

They stared at one another for a few more seconds.

"Hmph. Only joking, of course." Garmstrong stepped back, resting against her sword like a walking stick. "Your note was too vague. And if your friend there hadn't shown up, we would have been slaughtered anyway. Were you trying to make us fail?"

"No, of course not." Tanya shook her head, discretely rubbing her throat. "But I couldn't exactly slip your man Charger a novella. Handing over even the smallest note, discretely, while being cuffed in plain sight of other officers, was difficult enough."

"It all worked out, didn't it?" Mary tacked on, "What's the problem?"

"Exactly. Your city is, well mostly, safe." Tanya said, "Be happy about that, if nothing else."

"Tch." Garmstrong rolled her eyes. "Take a good look at this situation and tell me: how in the hell should I be anything resembling happy? 'Nothing else' is a correct statement here."

"You're still alive, General. Many don't get that privilege."

"Fine, fair enough." Garmstrong frowned. She moved to the side, gesturing up the stairs. "Go. Show yourselves out."

"As you wish."

She and Mary slipped by, the former seemingly unconcerned and the latter glaring openly.

Garmstrong called up to them after a moment.

"I don't know where you holed up, but don't waste any time grabbing whatever you brought here. Then get the fuck out of my city."

"Can you handle that giant winged serpent by yourselves?" Mary asked before she could stop herself. "The one along the outer walls."

Tanya paused, glancing back.

"And the Shades?" Mary continued.

"Shades? What Shades?" Garmstrong raised an eyebrow. "I had sent scouts out as soon as those barriers came down. All that's left are a bunch of rotten puddles of black blood. Those beasts are either all dead or long gone, and good riddance."

She hesitated.

"…What isn't gone, however, are the massive trails of blood painting the four main roads." Garmstrong turned, continuing down the stairs. "Never mind. That's our problem to handle. Now again, get the fuck out of my city. Don't make me say it a third time."

Her voice faded as she descended from view.

Mary's expression twisted into one of confusion.

"The barriers went down?"

But, those were connected to Eve, weren't they? Or at least, the green barrier coming that winged snake Quetz was.

Was it on some sort of time limit? Did the snakes go away? Or was Eve…

A hand landed on her shoulder.

"Come on." Tanya tugged once, before letting go and beginning to move, "We can figure out how's and why's later. We're getting out of here."

Mary let out a breath.

"Yeah, okay."

It was going to be a long walk back to the inn.

-=-=-=-

Later

Somewhere North of Xerxes

Imperial Territory, Eastern Empire

"Hrck! Hrrr- gah!"

Drake hunched over, bracing himself against a tree as he vomited.

"Hah… haaahh…"

He pushed off the tree, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand as he stumbled forward awkwardly. He only made it a couple steps before collapsing.

"N- no…" Drake groaned, the backlash of the failed ritual taking its toll on his body. Icy, frozen spikes of pain stabbed across every nerve ending, his muscles spasming and his head pounding.

"No… no…"

He could barely tell where he was. He barely knew his own name, the pain was so great.

It had all fallen apart. Years of work, countless hours of research, of refinement, of spreading his organization grasp as far as it dared to go under the watchful eye of the Eastern Empire's true leadership.

All for it to vanish into thin air in a single day.

Oh, it hurt.

It hurt alright. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually.

But the pain would subside. Eventually, it would give way. The backlash would come to an end. The loss of his organization, of his finest creation and son, and of his friends… it would all move into the backdrop.

Behind a carefully pulled curtain.

Not gone. Just out of sight.

And replacing it all at center stage, would be a furious, burning rage. 

Scylla may have been finished. For now.

But he was far from done.

~END: SCYLLA RISING ARC~

-=-=-=-=-=-

Known Skills List

Tanya:

Common Skill: Thought Communication

Extra Skill: Flames of Babylon

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra Skill: Voice of the World Communication

Unique Skill: Tetra Breaker

Mary:

Extra Skill: Magic Sense

Extra Skill: Magic Aura

Extra/Intrinsic Skill: Physical Enhancement

Unique Skill: Ability Severance