Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~ - Chapter 64.2: The Medical Sect of the Black Rain

Chapter 64.2: The Medical Sect of the Black Rain

At the same time, Rami spoke to them in a gentle tone.

“Everyone from the medical guild. You all have your reasons, I’m sure, but the fact remains that you left a hole in the city’s barrier and—worse—let a Demon King inside. Normally that would mean your entire families getting strung up.”

However, she continued.

“The Chiltor family bears blame too. So just this once, we’ll overlook your crimes. In exchange… you’ll lend us your strength, won’t you?”

At Rami’s words, the doctors pressed their foreheads to the ground and kept nodding over and over. She looked down at them with satisfaction.

“We will take flight into the world. Just like Haro-sama, we’ll bring ‘free medical care’ to every corner, and spread the word of that day’s miracle!”

Rami declared it loudly, and the fortress filled with thunderous applause.

—By the way, there was one thing Haro had misunderstood.

About Ink’s intelligence.

He thought Ink’s budding awareness had gotten a massive boost from devouring the “Demon King of Ashes,” but that wasn’t true.

What made Ink grow wasn’t the “Demon King of Ashes”—it was the factor from the “Flower Hero” Sheera.

Sheera’s magic has the nature of “blooming.” It makes flowers blossom even in places where flowers shouldn’t be able to grow.

Put more basically, it’s the power to “make talents bloom that shouldn’t exist.”

The slime that originally had no intelligence had started to gain the seed of awareness after becoming a Demon King—

In other words, Sheera’s magic had made that “impossible thing” bloom. The day Haro healed Sheera’s body, the Ink that had slipped inside her had definitely fed on her factor.

And the intelligence that awakened in Ink was already having a huge effect on the city in ways Haro didn’t even know about.

“Ufufu, I can hear it, I can hear it so clearly. Deep inside this head that was once pierced by thorns. A beautiful goddess’s voice.”

“Me too, Lady Rami! Ever since this head that should’ve been crushed by rubble got healed, the voice has been telling me to make Haro-sama’s miracle known to the world!”

“W-what an enviable thing! The head—should I have injured my head too?! Goddess, please grant me a divine mission as well…!”

—It was inside their heads.

More precisely, it was like a sickness spreading among people whose brains had been damaged and then repaired by Ink.

They heard the voice of a goddess.

A voice commanding them to help Haro.

“It’ll probably be a long journey. But don’t forget. That black rain that poured down on this city that day is our symbol… As long as that faith exists, our hearts stay connected.”

That strange illness would go on to fester in this kingdom like a plague for the next few centuries—

It was the origin of the heretical sect known as the “Medical Sect of the Black Rain.”

*

—Another force was stirring in the chaos.

The Demon Kings.

The ash oni who suffered the most crushing defeat at Haro’s hands… just as Haro had predicted, he’d barely managed to cling to life.

Barely.

He’d lost an arm and a leg, and half his face was so wrecked it couldn’t be fixed. His brain had taken major damage too—no telling if that body would ever use magic the way it used to.

Crawling out of the city in that pitiful state, he collapsed in the forest, black flames sputtering from his gouged face.

The oni stared blankly up at the sky. Dawn was breaking. The horizon had a faint orange tint.

The anger bubbling up inside him felt like an incurable disease now. No other emotion remained. He’d been completely outplayed, he’d lost, there was a human kid in this world stronger than him—that was the only fact left.

Footsteps crunched on the dirt, and after a while a familiar man looked down at him.

“…You got beat pretty bad, Ash.”

“Ohh, well if it isn’t the ‘Demon King of Storms’…! Making a house call, are we?”

The man with dark skin, silver hair, and a tattered coat—the “Demon King of Storms”—gave a small laugh at the oni’s sarcasm.

“I came thinking I’d have to collect your corpse, but you look surprisingly lively. How’re you holding up?”

“My limbs will grow back eventually, but the head… who knows. Can’t put magic circuits together right. Looks like I’ll have to retrain them from scratch.”

“…So you’re out of commission for a while.”

The man crouched down with a sigh.

He’d sent him to protect the “Demon King of Thorns,” but instead the protectee died and he came back with crippling injuries… Their side had taken a massive loss. “Storm” looked up at the sky like he was escaping reality too, then asked “Ash.”

“How was it?”

“Failed to recruit ‘Thorns.’ Sorry about that!”

“Not that. You fought ‘Another Star,’ right?”

“Oh, him. Yeah, no way I could win against that one.”

“…Even with me and you together?”

“Who knows! I can’t even picture you losing, but at the same time I can’t picture that boy losing either.”

—He sure thinks highly of him.

“Storm” nodded inwardly at the high praise, then said “I see” and stood up slowly.

“What about your side? You made contact, right—with the last one, the ‘Demon King of Darkness’?”

“Yeah.”

“Storm” answered the oni.

“We made an agreement. But he said he’s not syncing steps—just do whatever the hell you want.”

“Wahahaha! That’s rich!”

“Well, it’s fine. Zero teamwork, but he’s a natural-born evil spirit. He’ll probably get results fast. Says he’ll charge in as the spearhead himself, so we just back him up from behind.”

“Right, right,” the oni said cheerfully as “Storm” helped him up by the shoulder.

The “Demon King of Ashes” and the “Demon King of Storms”—at least between those two, the relationship didn’t seem like disposable pawn and owner.

—Three days later, just like “Storm” predicted, the “Demon King of Darkness” made his move.

A massive army of monsters appeared in the kingdom’s border city of Peerdam. The damage wasn’t just destroyed blocks—residents vanished all at once. Nobles, soldiers, adventurers, farmers—every kind of person disappeared from the city. It was a major incident that signaled the Demon Kings’ invasion was turning serious.

Along with the good news of the “Demon King of Thorns” being defeated, that story spread like wildfire too, and the world started getting swallowed into a whirlwind of chaos.