A sea of flames surrounded the Emperor Slime, Benka, as he rampaged in the open plains and light thicket that was nearby. Everything he touched, either died instantly or slowly corroded away into nothingness.

Rachel, still clad in her flame-form, spoke to Eolande. "How many are left?"

Forty-two slime cores were floating next to the heavily sweating Tylwyth Teg. "I dunno... It's about a third smaller, so maybe another eighty?"

Rachel spewed flames from her palms into the general to keep him in check. "How many more can you take?"

"I'm low on mana points. Keeping up these enchantments as well as fooling that monster's senses are both really draining. So I think I can do another ten, maybe twenty if I'm careful." Eolande was smiling, but she was far from happy.

She was a double-X-ranker, for Pete's sake! This slime was only a single rank higher than her! Even if it was on the brink of becoming a Divine-ranked being, it had almost no sentience at all, but yet, it was still proving to be an incredible challenge to Eolande and Rachel. Eolande couldn't help but bite her lip as her mind filled up with images of Lone and Sophie easily defeating people and monsters at higher ranks than themselves.

She skillfully dodged a bunch of the acidic slime that had managed to avoid Rachel's pure-mana flames. It corroded the earth behind her, leaving her unharmed. Eolande focused her mind and pulled another nucleus out from the Emperor Slime's main body.

Rachel was trying her very best to keep the creature in check, but even if fire was its weakness, she knew that this was a losing fight.

Eolande was getting exhausted and running out of mana, Rachel herself was running on fumes as well more or less. If it wasn't for her Fire Gluttony racial skill, then with the mana afforded to your average S-ranked Foxkin, she simply wouldn't have lasted even half as long as she currently had.

'What would Swind do in my shoes?' The young woman couldn't help but think of the man that she loved.

To be entirely honest, Rachel felt like she was going to die here. She had already been grazed by the Emperor Slime's acid once. It was the lightest of touches and it only got on her finger, but regardless, just like with Sophie, she was forced to amputate it. Rachel was lucky that she was a master of flames, so closing the wound was of no issue.

'Just what would Swind do right now?!' Rachel was desperate for a solution. "Eolande, if Swind was here, what do you think he'd do?"

Eolande was very confused by this sudden question, but in her current state, she figured it would be best to just answer and then refocus entirely on the general. "I dunno, sacrifice himself to buy time or deal critical damage? That guy's practically the embodiment of a saint."

"Sacrifice himself..." Rachel wondered why she hadn't thought of that sooner. 'If he'd do it... then...'

Rachel ignored her fears and her hesitation. She flew through the air in her flame form and dove right into the Emperor Slime's body.

"Rachel!" Eolande screamed. She rushed towards Benka and her friend, Rachel, as fast as she could, but she wasn't fast enough.

Rachel unleashed the rest of her mana into one final gargantuan attack, originating from within the slime's body. Benka thrashed wildly in pain, but he could do nothing about the girl who had lodged herself firmly within his innards.

The heat was so incredibly intense that Eolande was forced to fly back several hundred meters. It was almost as if Rachel had become a miniature sun.

It took a solid five minutes until the flames and heat had subsided enough for her to approach. Eolande rushed towards the small crater that had formed. Not minding the scorching hot and burnt earth, Eolande made her way to its centre.

"Rachel!" Eolande barely knew the girl, if she was being honest, but seeing her do something so brave yet stupid had riled up the two-hundred-thousand-year-old Tylwyth Teg's emotions. 'If anyone was going to do something like that, it should have been me! Why?! Why is it always someone else?!'

Once she was at the centre, Eolande immediately noticed that the general, the Emperor Slime, was nowhere to be found. All that remained was the broken and burnt cores. None of them had any life in them anymore. Even the ones that she had captured were now lifeless and inert.

"E... E..." A very quiet, almost unhearable voice, penetrated Eolande's ears.

"Rachel! You're alive!" Eolande darted to where Rachel's voice had come from. A few meters away, a pure-black and unrecognisable mass of bubbles and charred flesh could be seen. Eolande had mistaken this for a small log of some sort at first, but it was now obvious that it was actually Rachel!

Eolande wasted no time. She knew what she had to do. Using the last dregs of her mana points, Eolande carefully picked up what remained of Rachel and she flew away. She flew faster than she had ever flown in her entire life. Her destination was clear. If Rachel was to be saved, the only way was via Lone's Creation Magic.

Eolande knew that this was selfish since he needed every bit of his power to fight Ythmagobla, but all that she was thinking of right now was saving Rachel's life, not fighting against the Darkness Dragon.

Sophie was nearing her limits. She had been fighting Itchy for fifteen minutes straight at this point. Her mana points were low and she was struggling to remain centred. Unlike Lone, Sophie didn't possess the Mental Pain Resistance skill, so her vast lack of mana was hitting her hard.

Itchy wasn't doing much better. At this point, she was more blood than flesh from her outward appearance. Her front left arm and back right leg were both crippled beyond repair. They were barely hanging on at all, and it was a surprise that they hadn't been cut clean off thus far by Sophie's endless torrent of Barrier Blades.

Itchy's feathered ears twitched. "Another one fell..." She felt saddened and it hurt her soul to know that two of her fellow generals, her friends, her family, had been killed.

By the looks of things, she'd be next. Itchy trusted in the strength of Bella, her final remaining companion and the strongest of them all, but the very old and very immature Unhcegila was terrified.

'If I die here, then I can't serve Ythy anymore... I don't want that...' Itchy made her decision. 'I didn't want to use this in this way, but I have no other choice. I can't get out of these caves otherwise.'

Itchy pointed her head upwards and opened her jaw. The tiny pure-purple claw hanging around her neck on a string that had endured the Barrier Blades thus far began to glow. Sophie noticed that Itchy was doing something strange, so she fired a Barrier Blade Barrage at her without minding the severe pain using more of her mana was putting her and Soph's mind through.

Itchy twisted her body while keeping her head pointed at the ceiling. She couldn't move much, but she was still a triple-X-ranker. With the cheap sacrifice of her left arm, she managed to avoid any more serious damage.

Two seconds ticked by. Sophie was prepping another barrage. She was biting her lip hard enough for it to bleed just so she could endure the mental pains. 'Soph, you'd be toast by now if you were feeling this.' A short pause was followed by the reply, 'H-Hang in there, Sophie!'

She grinned slightly as her attack was readied and fired towards Itchy. Unfortunately, the Unhcegila was finally done. A massive velvet-coloured beam of pure Darkness radiated out from within her mouth as the claw necklace shattered. This beam tore a hole right through the cave's roof and continued onwards for several miles into the sky.

Itchy didn't look back as she used the remainder of her energy to run away. She'd lost her left leg in the escape to Sophie's blades, but Itchy didn't care. Her wings were in a good enough condition as was her right arm, so she fled as far away from the battlefield as she could the moment she was out of the cave.

She couldn't do anything in her current condition. Two of her limbs had been severed while another one was severely crippled. Itchy just ran and ran and ran. She needed to heal. She had faith in Bella and in her master.

'I'm sorry for being so useless, Ythy... I tried my best... I really did... Please, please be safe,' the Unhcegila prayed.

Back in the cave, tears spilt out of Sophie's eyes as she fell to the floor, losing consciousness. The barrier she had constantly been controlling over her wrist - even during her intense mental pains - had now lost its supply of mana and disappeared. Blood gushed out of her arm as she lay there on the cold hard surface that was the cave's floor.

Swind was carefully ordering his troops. The Elven army had been widely successful. Only roughly fifty-percent of their forces had been lost while the Darkness spawn and the monster army were all but wiped out.

Sat'la truly was an exceptional general. It was no wonder that she had managed to push back and crush the armies of Ythmagobla not once, but twice now. She really stood out amongst her fellow generals.

"Mr Fep! Get back!" Swind called as he lunged forward and chopped the head off of an Assassin goblin that was trying to get a sneak attack on Fep.

Swind had been gifted two spare sets of mechanical limbs by Lone which were stored in a spatial pouch on his waist. Thanks to this, he was able to rejoin the fight as soon as he was fully cured of his injuries.

"Thanks, Swind. That was close," Fep laughed a bit nervously, all the while, he maintained Ele'hunda's form.

"Don't lose your focus-ss. The battle is-ss not yet wo-" Swind's eyes suddenly dilated and a feeling a dread took a hold of the man's heart.

Swind was new to this ability of his, but he could immediately tell that his sixth sense was screaming at him that he had to go and do something very important. It was guiding him, telling him where to go and what to do. If he didn't, he and the world tree risked destruction. "Mr Fep, you're in charge now. ss-Something's-ss gone wrong. Horribly wrong. I need to leave. Please, tell Miss-ss General ss-Sal'ta that I had to leave urgently if ss-she comes-ss looking for me."

"What..." Before Fep could even finish his sentence, Swind had already sprinted away from the battlefield. "... the hell was that about?"

Swind dashed through the plains as his anxiety was building to never-before-seen levels. His sixth sense was treating whatever had happened as a far greater problem than the Grey Elf assassin from earlier had been.

'Please, Rachel, Mr Immortus... Everyone... Please be safe. Please, mighty Primals, let this simply be a misunderstanding of mine about how my new sense works...' Swind moved as quickly as his legs would carry him.

He ignored his stamina limitations and the several system messages that flashed across his eyes. Swind was far too concentrated on following the directions that his sixth sense had given him and he was busy hoping and praying that he would make it on time to help with whatever had happened.