"Wait a moment!"
Suddenly, Rimuru sensed an anomaly within the Orc Lord's soul. "This aura is..."
"Hehehehe…"
"Whoosh!"
A blood-red vertical eye appeared atop the Orc Lord's head.
At the same time, Gelmud's magicule aura reemerged in everyone's perception.
"Hahaha!"
"Power!"
"So this is the power of the Orc Lord?!"
"Ahhh~ Magnificent!!!"
"…"
"Gelmud?!"
Shion, Souka, Rimuru, and the others all wore astonished expressions as they witnessed Gelmud resurrect through the Orc Lord's body.
"Not enough!"
"Far from enough!!"
"Roar!!"
Gelmud, now drunk on his sudden reversal of fate, flaunted his arrogance once again.
He looked at the dense swarm of Orc Tribe members around him, spread his arms wide, and the yellow-brown viscous fluid transformed into starving dragons, charging into the dazed Orc Tribe.
"Hahaha!"
"Become nourishment for me, become my strength!!"
Among the nearly 500,000 Orc Tribe members, tens of thousands had already been killed by Shion, Hakurou, and others. Roughly 400,000 remained.
In just a short moment, a massive number of Orc Tribe members were consumed by the Starved's digestive acid.
The magicules, all sharing a common source, were mostly drawn into the Orc Lord—no, into Gelmud's body.
[450,000 EP]
[500,000 EP]
[600,000 EP]
[800,000 EP]
[990,000 EP!!]
At this moment, Gelmud sensed he had reached the vague threshold that had blocked him for so long.
"Now's the time!!"
He began challenging a higher realm, using the vengeful souls of those previously devoured by the Orc Tribe, and those who had just died.
The True Demon Lord awakening ritual had begun!
"Uh..."
Watching this completely chaotic situation unfold, Rimuru sighed with dismay. "Great Sage, what's the success rate of this guy awakening as a Demon Lord?"
[Report: 0%]
"Eh?"
Rimuru had thought Gelmud might actually succeed this time.
But hearing zero percent still shocked her. "Not even a little bit?"
[Report: Correct.]
"Why?"
[Report: The awakening ritual triggered by kin-eating is a form of erroneous evolution.]
"Uh…"
Rimuru was speechless. "Erroneous evolution... that sounds ridiculous."
[Report: Erroneous evolution cannot lead to becoming a True Demon Lord. Instead, it results in a being similar to a Storm Great Mystic Vortex.]
"Storm Great Mystic Vortex? What's that?"
[A disaster-class monster formed from condensed magicules dispersed by Veldora.]
Unnoticed, Rin had already arrived at Rimuru's side.
"Whoa! When did you get here?!"
"I've been here a while."
"So you've been spying from the sidelines this whole time?"
Rimuru reflexively complained. Rin squinted at her without saying a word.
That look said everything.
"Sorry, I got carried away."
"Please, I beg you, don't cut my vacation short!"
Without hesitation, Rimuru dropped to her knees and performed a dogeza, begging Rin on the spot.
[Gelmud Geld]
Race: Orc Lord
Magicules: 1.8 million EP
Unique Skills: Kin-Eater, Starved, Soul-Stealer
"Three Unique Skills."
"And the race is still Orc Lord, huh?"
Looking at Geld, who had been devoured and then taken over by Gelmud, Rin recalled the original story.
In the original, the Orc Lord lost his mind due to absorbing too much power.
After being struck down by a Demon Lord, Gelmud had said, "Geld, it would have been better if you had become a Demon Lord sooner."
So, the unconscious Orc Lord had eaten Gelmud, absorbing his magicules.
From the Orc Lord's perspective, this was simply the fastest path to becoming a Demon Lord, not a betrayal.
He had only been following orders. He genuinely believed he was fulfilling Gelmud's wish.
But this time, the Orc Lord had not lost his sanity.
Under rational analysis, he never would have considered Gelmud an enemy.
This time, he was essentially forced to bear the sin of Kin-Eater.
It was the Orc Tribe that committed the act, not the Orc Lord himself.
In truth, even the Orc Lord was stunned.
Things happened so fast that he hadn't even had time to issue an order forbidding the devouring of Gelmud, who was critically wounded.
But the deed was done. He had no way to stop it.
That very hesitation and regret caused a rift in the Orc Lord's soul from self-blame.
And what the Orc Lord didn't expect was that during the collapse of his soul, Gelmud's lingering soul found an opening and seized his body completely.
"No resistance?"
Rin observed that the Orc Lord hadn't resisted Gelmud's possession at all. "The Orc Tribe truly is a loyal and righteous race. What a pity…"
"Hahaha~"
"I did it!"
Gelmud never imagined his fate would be this turbulent.
One twist after another sent his emotions on a roller coaster.
But the result was what mattered.
He had turned disaster into opportunity, exploited the flaw in the Orc Lord's soul, and taken complete control.
Not only that, the side effects brought by the Kin-Eater skill were suppressed using the energy from devouring over 200,000 Orc Tribe members through the Demon Lord awakening ritual.
"I, Gelmud, have become a True Demon Lord!!!"
Clayman? Plans? None of that mattered anymore!
If he wanted to now, he could even devour that useless Clayman.
And with this power.
He could continue to grow stronger,
Until he became the mightiest Demon Lord in the world, surpassing them all!
"You, by yourself?"
Shion appeared beside Souka. She pointed her long blade at the Orc Lord, eyes sharp with disdain. "You're just a coward who stole someone else's power, and you dare call yourself a Demon Lord?"
"You dare insult me?!"
Gelmud was filled with rage.
Almost the moment Shion finished speaking, the Orc Lord's massive body charged toward Shion and Souka.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)