The Caretaker of Tenants From Another World - Chapter 119 (Patreon)

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Chapter 119

When Saralash sent spines of hardened slimes at Ange, everyone panicked to help, but were unable to from being trapped by slime at their feet. The succubus, however, raised both hands and somehow brought them to a stop mere inches away from skewering her. The tips turned to ice, then the length of the spines frosted over.

Ange backhanded them, shattering the spines into pieces.

While they did battle, I rushed over to check on Cresta, who had fallen despondent and in tears. Pink slime anchored her to the ground, and she couldn't so much as budge.

"Remmy? Where did Remmy go?" Cresta asked repeatedly, voice quivering and eyes distant. She wasn't all there, too much in grief to realize what was going on.

My hand clenched the three pieces of the core that was left of Remmy. I always had something to say every other time. Now, nothing. I was just as speechless, still yet to comprehend that she was gone. I'd failed Remmy.

"Akira, snap out of it!" Irapesha shouted from afar, herself and Mercutia also trapped in the same manner by pink slime. "You're the only one who can move. Find another gun, replace the crystal, and stop Saralash!"

Me? Stop Saralash?

As I searched the ground for another gun, I instead found many people with their phones whipped out. They were filming the fight between Ange and Saralash. The proof that Ange still had her magic was going to be known, and I would lose another tenant.

Everything was falling apart so fast, and I didn't know how to fix it. Was ending Saralash's life and taking away another of Mercutia's family the only way?

"Ange! Use your magic to free the others!" I shouted.

The slime that encased the netherfolks froze, and Irapesha broke out by simply flexing. She freed Mercutia and Cresta by pulling the now-brittle bindings off, but the latter had lost all will to fight.

"Cresta, I know you're mourning," Irapesha began empathetically. "We've lost so many friends during the war, but if you don't snap out of it now, then you will lose more."

"Remmy… was my best friend," Cresta whimpered.

I hugged Cresta and stroked the back of her head. She sobbed harder, soaking my shoulder in tears.

"It hurts, but I need you to stay with us. If we leave things as they are, Ange will also be taken away." I said.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

A fiery explosion rocked the side of a building, causing debris to crash down around people who still haven't escaped yet or lingered around to watch the battle unfold. Mercutia threw out both hands to conjure a barrier over them, but it left them buried in a tomb of rubble.

"There should be a much larger task force coming to stop this soon. I need you guys to damage control and protect people. Or get them to safety. We're in a lot more trouble if innocents get hurt," I explained.

"Should we not face the source of the destruction? Saralash?" Irapesha asked.

"No. You three will only get stuck again. I'll take care of Saralash and Ange, so Cresta…" I pressed the pieces of Remmy's core into her hand.

Cresta knew exactly what they were, folded her fingers over them, and brought them close to her chest while fighting back tears.

All four of us split. They went to help people, and I chased after Ange and Saralash who had taken their fight farther down the street. The slime woman had become like a sea urchin of thrashing spines that pierced anything they came across. Ange held her own, firing magic that easily defended herself from the ceaseless assault.

"Ange, follow me!" I yelled, racing past them and leaping over slime appendages like jump rope.

Puzzled at first, Ange threw caution to the wind and followed after me. Saralash chased us down, her spines smashing into the asphalt like jackhammers.

"You fool! You're putting yourself in danger again!" Ange exclaimed.

"Scold me later! Focus on getting back to where our escorts were!"

Ange picked me up and flew us both down the street while a shower of deadly spines rained after us. Most of the operatives were down for the count, but the harpy woman from earlier was just coming to consciousness. She pulled the helmet from her head and gaped at our approach, then picked up her rifle to start firing to cover us.

"Hydrant! The fire hydrant!" I pointed to the yellow protrusion on the side of the road.

We landed hard on the ground next to it, and Ange conjured a bolt of magic to break open one end. A geyser shot out at Saralash, followed by the water freezing over and encasing her in a coffin of ice.

Incapacitated and unable to move, the harpy soldier turned her rifle on Ange next.

"That was magic just now, wasn't it? Professor Markel told us you should have received an anti-magic serum. Why are you still able to cast magic?" she asked.

Ange bared her fangs. I could tell by the glow in her eyes she wanted to charm the harpy. I grabbed her hand, wresting her away from making a mistake by having her look at me instead. That glow vanished.

Our respite was short-lived. Saralash's entombment shattered. The slime woman fell on top of a car, caving in the roof. She breathed heavily and had trouble maintaining herself in humanoid form.

"It isn't over… until I or the demon dies!" Saralash shouted.

We tensed up and prepared to defend ourselves, but her eyes searched elsewhere.

"Weapons hot on the slime netherfolk!"

Several armored vehicles barreled through. A flock of airborne netherfolks, harpies and in magical-flight elves alike, had spells ready to fire from their hands.

Outnumbered and outmatched, I thought Saralash would just surrender. Instead, the slime woman rendered herself amorphous and dove into the curbside sewer grate.

The soldiers were stunned.

Saralash was gone. Just now, she was looking for something. What? When I thought back to Remmy, my heart was heavy but an idea came to me.

"Ange, take us to the nearest convenience store. Now!" I exclaimed.

"Wait—"

We ignored the harpy, and Ange picked me up high into the sky. She found the closest convenience store first, a 7-11 at the corner of the street. With a swarm of flying netherfolks on our tail, Ange booked it as fast as she could.

"Why a convenience store?" Ange asked.

"Just a hunch, but…"

"Stop! Don't move any farther or we'll open fire on you, too!" one of the soldiers shouted to us.

A magical blast screeched out, but a barrier absorbed the impact. Mercutia had caught up and erected a barrier to protect us.

"Saralash is inside, isn't she?" Mercutia asked.

"That's what my hunch says." I nodded.

Mercutia raised another barrier, this one much larger and surrounding the entire convenience store. Some of the soldiers fired into the barrier to little success, but she was able to walk right in. Ange and I traded looks, then walked in ourselves.

Behind us, numerous human and netherfolk soldiers gathered in an attempt to break through.

"My barrier has held off entire demon sieges. They aren't getting through unless I let them," Mercutia assured us.

We put our trust in her and headed into the convenience store. The automatic doors rolled open, and a bell chimed from above. Something rustled at the back of the store, so we followed the sound until we found Saralash in the beverage aisle, her lower half a puddle on the ground and upper half still humanoid, desperately pouring milk over herself.

The milk mostly flowed away from her, but some absorbed into the slime body.

"I'll end her," Ange growled, but I grabbed her shoulder and shook my head. "Why? She killed Remmy!"

"Because we're not like her. And I'm sure Mercutia wants to speak with her first," I said.

Ange bit down on her lip until she drew blood.

Mercutia trapped Saralash in a barrier to keep her from reaching for another carton of milk. I almost pitied the slime woman, because she looked so sad when her appendages bumped desperately for milk that was so close.

"Mercutia… Why do you help them? Aren't we family?" Saralash asked weakly.

"Because you've hurt their family. Can't you see how much pain they were in? How hurt Cresta and Ange were to see Remmy killed?" Mercutia fired back.

"We were doing this for you!" she shouted so strongly that her voice echoed in the mostly empty store.

Mercutia was taken aback.

"Me…?"

"It was… Captain Clarissa told us not to tell you, but it was plan all along. To ensure that you can live safely in this world without fear of demons. The rest of us, Thane and Jeriah, too, agreed to do everything we can protect you—"

"I never wanted any of you to protect me!" Mercutia cried. "Thane's gone. Jeriah's in the hospital, and he'll also be gone soon. There's an army waiting outside to take you away. I didn't want that at all… You're going to end up leaving me all alone… because you thought I needed protecting?"

Ashamed, Saralash couldn't look Mercutia in the eyes anymore. I knelt down beside the slime woman.

"Mercutia… demons are a plague on—"

"No! That might have been true, but the demon you're talking about now has a name. It's Angeline. She… She bought me this dress. She's not dangerous like you make her out to be…"

"Mercutia begged us to help you. I'm sorry we couldn't do more," I said.

Saralash scoffed. "You're apologizing to me? After I killed that girl? Save your apologies, human. If you turn me in, they will no doubt confine me in Weyera and I'll not be caged again like I once was. There is only one way this ends: I die here."

"What? No! There has to be another way!" Mercutia dropped the barrier to fall into Saralash's embrace, and she responded by lifting a slime appendage to wipe her tears away.

"Remmy is not dead," she said to me.

"What?" Ange and I choked.

"A slime is not truly dead until the magic is completely gone from the core. Have you ever wondered why she and I are attracted to milk? It is calcium. It repairs our core and allows us to take forms. Submerge her pieces in a bath of milk, and siphon the magic from my core to make her whole again. The succubus can do it. Taking lifeforce is their speciality after all."

Ange looked away.

"What… will happen to you?" Mercutia asked tearfully.

"I will be put to rest, along with this agony I've carried for years. I don't do this for them. It has always been for you." Saralash forced the crystalline core from her chest until the tethers of slime fully snapped from the body.

It dropped to the floor with a thud and rolled away.

Like with Remmy, Saralash was unable to hold her form. The bottommost part of her body began to harden and crumble like a wet sand castle. Mercutia cried uncontrollably, trying to put her friend back together.

"I love you, Mercutia. As does everyone, and especially Captain Clarissa. You were a beacon of light in the depths of our black hearts," Saralash said.

"I love you, too… " Mercutia whispered back.

Saralash leaned back as the rest of her slime body caved in on itself, staring at the flickering ceiling light.

"Playing games, she said. That didn't sound… so bad… at all." Saralash chuckled before finally dissolving away.

Mercutia, clutching tightly to Saralash's core, buried her face into Ange's chest and wailed. The succubus cradled her until there were no more tears to shed.

"It doesn't have to end this way. We can also submerge Saralash's core in milk, right?" I asked.

"No… It hurts, but I want to stand by her wishes," Mercutia answered me with resolve.

We walked out to dozens of armed operatives and their guns trained on us. As soon as Mercutia dropped the barrier, screams to get on the ground assailed our ears. Cresta and Irapesha were racing up from behind them.

"Cresta! We can revive Remmy!" I shouted.

"Y-You can?" Cresta stammered in disbelief.

"I said get on the ground!" an officer yelled.

In the span of two blinks, Cresta shredded every gun in the area. Their weapons clattered to the floor. She scampered to us, eyes filling with hope.

"You're not lying, are you? Please, tell me you can bring Remmy back!" Cresta pleaded.

"Ange, can you…?" Mercutia asked her, revealing Saralash's slime core.

"Very well, dear." Ange winced at the sight of it, but she agreed out of respect for them.

As Ange hovered a palm over each of the cores, the soldiers surrounding us grew tense.

"The succubus is using magic!" the officer hollered to the airborne netherfolk soldiers. "Don't just watch— do something!"

The mages in flight were about to channel spells until Irapesha glared up at them.

"Stand down!" Irapesha ordered.

And they did out of instincts or acknowledging where their true loyalties lie. After all, Irapesha served at the highest post of the Empire of Granieda's united military force.

Meanwhile, Ange conducted a spell to absorb the magic from Saralash's core in one hand, then transfer it to the other which hovered above Remmy's smaller and broken one. As the last flowing tendrils of magic that coiled through her arms waned, the crystalline core cracked in Mercutia's hands. The luster had all but dulled.

Mercutia curled her fingers over the core, collapsed to her knees, and cried again. Ange knelt down to hold the mourning girl.

In Cresta's hands, Remmy's core pieces had lit up like a lamp bulb. It was the color and life that Saralash gave up.

With the carton of milk I picked up within the store, I poured some onto the pieces. Very tiny, almost fuzz hair-like blue tendrils emerged from the core and wriggled in an attempt to come together.

"Remmy!" Cresta cried with relief.

"It worked. It really worked." I sighed.

The squad of soldiers parted as a black sedan rolled in. Two people, a man and woman dressed in suits, their eyes shielded by sunglasses, surveyed us and the destruction. They were both young. Compared to Professor Markel at least. But they were still older than me.

"Is Saralash inside?" the woman asked, then gestured to a soldier nearby to hurry inside and check.

The other man marched up to us and produced a device that looked like a temperature gun, pointed it at Ange and frowned.

"Wait! Ange is harmless. You're after the wrong netherfolk!" I stood firm to guard her.

"Sorry, man. I don't make the rules. Least I can do is let you put this on. Until further notice, Angeline Varcaz is under house arrest and may not leave the dormitory premise under any circumstances. Is that understood?" he asked, handing me a golden armlet with a green jewel embedded into the outer cuff.

Ange nodded and stuck out her right arm for me to put it on. When I did, the band constricted until it fit snug just below the deltoid.

The operative who entered the convenience store returned and whispered something into the woman's ear. She nodded to dismiss him.

"Who exactly are you two?" I asked.

"Old coot didn't tell you? Name's Reginald." He shook my hand with a powerful grip, then thumbed over his shoulder. "That's Grace. We're the interns— well, not anymore. With Professor Markel deepthroating a respirator, we're going to be your new handlers from now on. Nice to meet you, Akira! By the way, big fan. I am anyway. Grace? Ehh… Not so much."

Reginald slinked away as the woman named Grace stormed up to me.

"Akira, you're under arrest. Until we get this bureaucratic mess sorted out, a substitute caretaker will be assigned to your dorm. Turn around and put your hand behind your back," Grace ordered.

"Oh, joy." I groaned.