Chapter 237: Demon King Form

Within the lush forest cage, dangers lurked everywhere. The surrounding trees and vines seemed to come alive, stretching their clawing branches and tendrils to surround Simo and Ellen, continuously entangling and lashing at them.

The two stood back to back. Ellen cut through the incoming vines with his dagger while asking in a low voice, "What now?"

These treants alone couldn't hold them back for long, of course, but the real question was how much longer Storm Fortress could hold out.

A rebellion was currently unfolding on the fortress, all four magic towers had been disabled, and dealing with the surging Magical Tides was already troublesome enough—let alone the fact that a disciplined Magical Creature Legion was steadily advancing toward the fortress.

Honestly, he didn't think the Barnes family knights, who had lost their commander, could hold out for long.

Of course, their side wasn't entirely without danger either.

That bizarre slime always made him feel uneasy. Who knew what other tricks that nauseating, unkillable thing had up its sleeve?

Simo snorted two streams of white vapor from his nose, his voice low as he spoke, "The Barnes family's heirloom sacred relic—the Thunder Warhammer—still has one last enchantment charge. I'll clear a path for you."

"You go back. Help Dominic hold the wall."

Ellen had just twisted his neck to dodge a venomous-snake-like vine attack when he heard this. His face visibly shifted to shock.

"You—"

A complex emotion flickered in Simo's eyes—regret, resignation—but it was quickly replaced by determination.

"Back then, I was crazily obsessed with power. I even sold my soul and did plenty of dirty work for that bastard."

"Now it's time to pay up. Let me die on the battlefield like a true warrior, carrying the honor of the Barnes family."

"As for your affairs... I can't meddle anymore."

With that, he closed his eyes, gripped the warhammer's handle tightly with both hands, and pressed his forehead against the cold metal, as if conducting a final communication and resonance with this family heirloom that had been passed down through generations.

Ellen was being besieged by five towering treants, barely able to dodge and parry. Just as he was about to urge Simo to hurry up, Simo's eyes snapped open.

Tiny arcs of electricity now danced in those once-steadfast eyes. His arm muscles bulged like granite, veins protruding, as he used all his strength to raise the warhammer engraved with ancient Thunder Runes high into the air, roaring toward the sky:

"NOW!"

【Mountain Range Quake】

"BOOM!!!"

Every enchantment line on the warhammer blazed to life. Dazzling blue-white lightning, like countless wildly dancing silver serpents, instantly wrapped around the entire hammerhead.

Simo slammed this strike—condensing all his power and the sacred relic's might—fiercely down onto the ground ahead.

The moment the hammerhead touched the ground, time seemed to freeze for an instant. Then, a lightning flash brighter than the sun exploded in a fan shape from the impact point, spreading wildly forward.

Deafening thunderclaps interwove with earth-shattering roars. Where the lightning passed, the earth seemed lifted by an invisible giant hand. Countless trees, vines, and rocks were hurled into the air along with the upheaved ground, then instantly blasted into flying scorched fragments and powder by the rampaging violent lightning.

In an instant, every obstacle within a hundred meters ahead of him was completely cleared, leaving only a fan-shaped patch of scorched earth covered in cracks and craters.

"I'm leaving."

Ellen gave Simo one last deep look, then without another word, his figure flickered several times. With astonishing speed, he followed the path Simo had opened, racing out of this green cage and darting toward Storm Fortress.

"A sacred relic?" In the distance, there wasn't much surprise in Louisa's eyes.

For an ancient family like the Barnes with such a long legacy, possessing one or two sacred relics bestowed by a faith was perfectly normal.

But this meant they would now face a Extraordinary knight who had completely torn off all pretense. The threat level had just skyrocketed.

"Slime Lord, be careful. That weapon is unusual."

Unable to stop Ellen in time, she immediately raised her staff and pointed it in Simo's direction.

【Vine Entanglement】

Countless thick magical vines burst from the ground, coiling toward Simo like pythons, attempting to trap him in place.

"Hmph!"

Simo snorted coldly, ignoring the vines entirely.

At this moment, his entire body was wreathed in crackling blue-white arcs of electricity. Beneath his slightly damaged helmet, his eyes had turned milky white. His thick beard and hair stood on end, floating as if in a windless space.

But he clearly didn't have strong lightning resistance. The violent thunderous power, while granting him immense strength, was also devouring his body in recoil.

The skin exposed outside his armor was visibly turning blackened and cracking, as he endured tremendous pain.

Yet he seemed to feel nothing. Amid the entangling vines, he once again raised the warhammer, now blazing with blinding lightning, high into the air like a declaration of victory.

"In the name of Barnes!"

His voice boomed like rolling thunder. As he called out, the gray clouds of the Magical Tides gathering in the sky seemed to respond. Several thick bolts of blue-white lightning, like heavenly punishment spears, crashed down.

Their target: the area where Chen Yu and Louisa stood.

"BOOM!!!"

The lightning domain instantly engulfed hundreds of meters in all directions. The dazzling electric light turned the area a stark, blinding white. Low-rank Magical Creatures within the range didn't even have time to scream before they were reduced to charred corpses one after another.

Even Celeste's giant eagle form was struck by a stray bolt of lightning. She let out a pained cry, her feathers scorched black, smoking as she fell from the sky and crashed heavily to the ground, reverting to human form.

Fortunately, Louisa quickly shaped a magic shield around her, barely managing to withstand the subsequent electrical assault.

As for Chen Yu, he simply couldn't be bothered to defend.

His gel body rapidly heated up and changed color, shifting from emerald green to dark red, blazing with fierce orange-red flames. This unexpectedly granted him a degree of resistance to lightning.

Most of the electrical current was absorbed by the high-temperature flames on his body's surface, with only a small portion penetrating, bringing a tingling numbness.

He spread his Gel Wings, ignoring the raging thunderstorm around him, and flew straight toward the lightning-wreathed Simo.

"Heh... come on!" Despite enduring immense pain, Simo let out a hearty laugh as he watched the flaming figure flying toward him.

At this moment, in his eyes, this slime was no longer the weak, insignificant magical creature of his impressions. It was a worthy opponent—one he would fight with all his might, with the honor of a warrior!

Come on! Come on!

His heart roared.

Let the thunder of war crash even more fiercely!

Simo took two or three long strides. Lightning exploded beneath his feet, propelling his sturdy frame across the distance in an instant, landing right in front of Chen Yu.

"BOOM!!"

The clusters of lightning swirling around him instantly exploded. Violent electric currents attempted to pierce through Chen Yu's gel body, bringing an intense tingling and numbing sensation, as if even the gel was about to lose its control.

Simo wildly swung the Thunder Warhammer in his hand, slamming it down at Chen Yu with all his might. Each strike was accompanied by deafening thunderclaps and violent tremors in the ground, as new craters continuously appeared on the scorched earth.

His face gradually twisted from the continuous burning of lightning, but his gaze grew more feverish. He roared, "Dodge?! Is dodging all you can do?! Show me your real skills!"

It wasn't that Chen Yu only wanted to dodge.

Rather, he was adapting to his newly acquired slime talent—Mana Siphon.

Unlike the previous Split Proliferation and Gel Mimicry, this talent called Mana Siphon was already at Lv.5 from the start when he broke through to Gold-Rank and completed his life transformation.

In fact, the slime talents he had obtained earlier were all innate abilities of different slime populations in Zeyarila.

There were Lava Slimes with Flame Affinity, naturally suited to dwelling in scorching magma pools; Splitting Slimes with Split Proliferation, relying on incarnations to increase survival chances; and slimes with Gel Mimicry, using camouflage to evade predators...

So, aside from Devour Digestion possibly being special, talents like Split Proliferation and Gel Mimicry were all innate abilities that native slimes already possessed.

But before him, there seemed to be no existence of Gold-Rank slimes at all.

That meant Mana Siphon was very likely his unique talent.

It had the feel of an exclusive hero skill.

And he happened to want to see just what was so special about a Gold-Rank slime.

Chen Yu stopped tangling with Simo, using Shadow Traversal to instantly teleport over a dozen meters away.

He activated his will, triggering this new talent.

【Mana Siphon】

"Hum..."

Instantly, he felt his Magic Organ seem to fully awaken from slumber, becoming abnormally active. His entire gel body's sensitivity to free-floating mana in the surrounding environment increased by several dozen times.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~"

An invisible suction force emanated from him. The Magic Organ actually twisted and deformed into a madly spinning mana vortex, greedily devouring every bit of absorbable mana in the surroundings.

Coincidentally, it was now the summer Magical Tides—the time of year when mana was most active. This single inhale triggered a chain reaction.

The dense mana that had been aimlessly drifting on the battlefield suddenly found its home. It madly converged toward Chen Yu, forming streams of visible mana currents that poured endlessly into the round, plump gel body.

This commotion was so intense it even whipped up a gale, forming a small mana storm that frantically sucked in the surrounding air, the howling wind kicking up dust and debris from the ground.

Chen Yu only felt his body continuously expand and grow larger. His originally emerald-green gel, due to absorbing chaotic mana, began to change color, rapidly replaced by a deep, mysterious purple.

Simo stood before Chen Yu, witnessing this scene that would remain etched in his memory for life.

A slime originally no bigger than a human head swelled up like a balloon being frantically inflated, its size quickly surpassing his, becoming taller and larger.

It was like a mountain rising from the earth, its cast shadow completely engulfing him.

Amid the thunder's roar and the mana storm, this purple behemoth fully revealed its suffocatingly massive form.

Its eyes, huge as the abyss, slowly rotated, eventually looking down from above, its gaze locking onto the tiny figure below.

A terror born from the gap in life level and absolute power instantly seized Simo's heart, nearly suffocating him.

The Magical Creatures that had been madly charging earlier seemed to be shocked by this terrifying aura as well. They regained their senses, stopped in their tracks, cowered, and let out uneasy growls, no longer daring to approach this area.

"Th-this... a slime this big?!" Celeste struggled to sit up from the ground, staring dumbfounded at the sight, momentarily forgetting even her injuries.

Even Louisa, who was always calm, now had surprise filling her gaze.

She could clearly sense just how massive and chaotic the mana within that round, giant slime body was.

This was already stretching her normal understanding of Magical Creature Lords.

This enormous commotion even caught the attention of the knights fighting on Storm Fortress's distant walls.

"Damn it, what is that thing?!"

"Is that... a slime?! Are you kidding me?!"

"Cardos above, I hope this is just an illusion from the Magical Tides..."

Dominic and Raven, in the midst of their intense clash, simultaneously broke apart and looked toward the battlefield below the city wall.

When they saw that colossal mass standing amidst the lightning and mana storm, both their expressions turned to unprecedented gravity.

A Gold-Rank Magical Creature alone was enough to pose a serious threat to a fortress.

And this was a Slime Lord with an absurdly huge size...

The common name "slime" might no longer be able to define its existence.

In their hearts, a fearful title involuntarily surfaced—Demon King.

This was a Demon King Slime!

On the battlefield, Simo swallowed hard, his throat dry and aching.

He looked up, meeting the gaze of those enormous purple eyes.

The warhammer in his hand—once a family heirloom he had taken such pride in—now felt as light as a child's toy, utterly insignificant.

The moment this thought flashed through his mind, the purple Demon King Slime moved.

It didn't use any flashy skills. It simply, in the most straightforward way, slowly pressed down toward the tiny Simo below.

The massive shadow instantly enveloped Simo completely. The air was pushed aside, emitting a dull roar.

The oppressive pressure from that colossal body made Simo feel as if the surrounding air had solidified, making even moving a single finger extraordinarily difficult.

'NO!!!'

Simo let out one final roar. Using all his strength, he swung his most desperate strike at the purple sky pressing down from above.

"Splat..."

Ripples spread across the gel's surface, then quickly subsided, as if nothing had happened.

Then Simo's vision went black, and he felt pain all over his body as he was crushed into the earth by the massive gel.

By the time Chen Yu moved on, only flat ground remained, along with Simo—pressed into a spreadeagle shape, his expression utterly resigned.

From that day onward, he seemed to recall the fear of being dominated by slimes that his ancestors had experienced when fighting magical creatures in the jungle.