The king slime reappeared just outside Mechadream. The city was ready, and within an instant the sky was filled with bullets, lasers, and missiles. Any other foe would’ve been vaporized by the assault, but the king slime merely shrugged it off, like its wounds were just some bad tattoo. It gathered its strength and jumped. For an instant it blotted out the very sun itself, filling the townsfolk below with terror. Then, it landed on the other side of the city with a massive quake. The worst case scenario had been avoided, but Lucina still couldn’t rest easy. After all, this could only mean that the slime was headed…

  “How do you awaken holy magic, anyways?”, I asked, mostly just to give us something to talk about as we waited.

  Phoebe was kicking around a rock- which was actually a gobstopper. “There are many factors, but the most crucial one is that the user must possess a burning desire for justice”.

  “A burning desire for justice, huh… I wonder how Lucina got that desire?”, I pondered.

  “I’m not sure why either”, Phoebe admitted. “But I do know that confidence and certainty help. Lucina… well, she’s always had a tendency to see things in black and white. Or at least, before she met you”.

  I frowned in thought. Then, I heard something. “…Did you hear…?”. Before I even had time to voice my question, the sound repeated, much louder this time.

  We saw the king slime finally appear, vaulting over a mountain with ease. It seemed that with its destination so close, it was only getting faster.

  “Holy Beam!”, Phoebe shouted, pointing her sword at the monster. “…Guess it’s not that easy”, she smiled wryly.

  The king slime jumped towards Sugaria and bellyflopped into the ground. Ice cream sprayed outwards as it burrowed into the delicious soil, quickly devouring far more than its fair share.

  At last the king slime climbed out of the hole it had excavated. Perched upon its head was a crude golden crown made from some precious metals it had chanced across. Its skin was now a light blue color, indicating a case of brain freeze. Still, its stomach rumbled, yet to be satisfied.

  “How much could it possibly need to eat?”, I exclaimed.

  Phoebe shook her head. “A king slime can only be born from hundreds or even thousands of starving slimes. They have a bottomless appetite”.

  “When does it stop? Can’t we turn it back into normal slimes again?”.

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?”, Phoebe smiled. “But it’s not that easy. King slimes are like a different kind of creature altogether. They only split in life or death cases”.

  She walked over to the idling king slime, shouting and waving her arms. It ignored her, continuing its nap. Even when she crept forward and stabbed it, the creature wouldn’t react.

  Its scale was truly immense. The only monsters that compared to it where the robots that roamed the night in Mechadream. As I recalled that encounter…

  “Hey, Phoebe!”, I called her back. “I have an idea. [Spooky Illusion]”. It was a mirage larger than any I had conjured before, the image of another king slime. At least their bodies were simple enough to imagine.

  The real king slime finally took interest, staring at the imposter with confusion. “Mcxbx’k isq hswx lbsw?”, it rumbled.

  I looked at Phoebe for help, a nervous smile on my face. “Play dumb!”, she urged.

  “Um… I am King Globert”, I used [Spooky Speech] to fake a rumbling voice. The true king recoiled in shock.

  “Isq hzp onxzd cqwzp?!”. Clearly, it could not speak the same language.

  “Why can it speak at all?”, I whispered to Phoebe. She shrugged, just as confused as I was. Nobody ever realized that?

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Well, it wasn’t that strange, I thought. King slimes were probably a very rare occurance, or this kingdom would be toast.

  “Cztx isq oxxp wi osp?”, the king’s rumblings brought an end to my theorizing. Whatever the truth was, this illusion was clearly a failure. He made it appear to hop away, to at least give it a graceful exit if nothing else.

  BOOM. The king slime hopped after it, clearly intending to follow. I gawked at Phoebe, who was already sprinting towards the Salted Caramel Flats.

  “Hurry!”, she yelled. “King slimes move much faster than we do! We can’t waste this chance!”. Hearing this, I flew after her as fast as my ghostly form would allow. Which wasn’t very fast. Actually, Phoebe was set to lap me at the rate things were going.

  Seeing my lagging behind, she turned back in frustration. “You’re the one casting the illusion!”, she drew her silvered sword. “So GO!”. With that, she batted me forwards like a tennis ball with the flat of her sword.

  “AHHH!”, I yelped as I shot forwards. Pushing my body to its limits, I still felt the presence of Phoebe gaining on me from behind. “Have mercy!”.

  Meanwhile, the king slime was growing more confused at my illusion’s sudden stop. But with me as Phoebe’s paddle ball, we finally caught up with them, our fake slime one more pace.

  After many repetitions of this, I finally landed the mirage in the Salted Caramel Flats and collapsed to the ground. Or tried to, at least. “Ugh… that… never… again…”. Phoebe cackled like a demon. “That was fun! I didn’t hit you too hard, did I?”.

  The king slime stopped right at the edge of its salty doom. “Vczv’o kzpjxbsqo! Hswx rzhd!”. Despite not having a face, I could tell it was tensed up.

  “Are you kidding me?!”, I yelled. “All that work for nothing?!”. At last I let the illusion dissipate, too bitter and exhausted to keep up the charade.

  The king slime suddenly panicked, and to our shock it jumped right into the salty caramel, thrashing about as it melted and dissolved.

  “…Did it just try to save your illusion…?”, Phoebe asked. I suddenly felt awful. Threat to Sugaria or not, neither of us wanted to kill something with such a pure heart.

  “WSVCXB!!”. Those feelings were only complicated further when I saw Hex racing down from the sky towards the shrivelling king. The two of them disappeared together.

  It wasn’t long before Hex re-emerged alone. He glared at us with a vengeance I had never seen in him before, a fire that could burn the world to ash.

  “You… YOU!!”, he screamed, tears falling from his eye. “You killed my MOM!”.

  We were both taken aback at the many revelations in that statement. For starters, “king slime” was a giant misnomer. But even more surprisingly…

  “You’re a slime?”, Phoebe asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. “The ghost of a slime?!”.

  “What?!”, he snapped. “Did you think I was human? Like that moron?!”, he pointed towards me.

  “I’m sorry, Hex. I had no idea”, I apologized. Even if it was the right thing to do… which I was becoming less and less confident of… this whole situation was horrible.

  “How is your mother still alive? Or was, I mean?”, Phoebe sputtered. “You’ve claimed to have lived for thousands of years!”.

  “I don’t have to explain anything to you”, Hex glowered. “Just tell me, why’d you kill her?!”.

  “…Well, she was posing a threat to Sugaria!”, Phoebe answered. “So many people there could’ve been killed! Of course we’d have to stop her!”.

  “Did she kill anyone?!”, Hex fired back. “Or is that your whole justification? Just because you two saw her as a threat?!”.

  In any other situation, Phoebe probably would’ve accepted Hex’s argument. But being confronted like this while she was already feeling guilty about it only made her more defensive.

  “King slimes are monsters!”, she retorted. “They devour everything in sight! We had no choice!”.

  “Please, Hex”, I pleaded. “Blame me. I was the one who casted the illusion, so you should be angry at me, not Phoebe”.

  “…And to think I was wasting all this time on diplomacy”, Hex cursed. “Calming down the trigger-happy guild. My mother asked me to do it, but I should’ve known better. I should’ve stayed by her side…”. His voice choked with emotion, but neither of us could say anything.

  “I’ve been too soft, too halfhearted”, he concluded. “In order to build a new world, I’ll have to tear down the old one. Humans will always hate us”. He suddenly turned and flew away.

  It wasn’t long before we saw the rocket. It burned like a match about to set the sky aflame and filled the air with the sound of ominous thunder. The people of Sugaria panicked, seeing all common sense shattered before their eyes. What comes up must come down. And yet this hellish machine only rose higher and higher, mocking reality. They had no idea who was in it, and yet they still understood exactly what it meant.