Awakened Earth!!

Rimuru agreed, after all, it didn't really matter how the Western nation was destroyed; the important point was that it was destroyed. Rimuru's forces would engage with the military, destroying all the tanks and planes, while we'd be devastating their home country. This also meant that Rimuru could maintain his innocence. Essentially, he was using us so that he could appear as the innocent Demon Lord.

I knew that Rimuru, when provoked, could definitely do some pretty horrible things. I've seen it in the anime—he slaughtered an entire army that killed his friends, so he's more than capable of being cruel. Plus, Guy Crimson would get involved once the population grew any higher in the Western Nations. The population was starting to reach critical mass. This world wasn’t like the super modern world of Earth that could support seven billion people. The Western Nations had already reached their limit.

Their leaders intended to quietly release a virus that would make people less fertile—a virus created by Rimuru, of course. The leaders of the Western Nations were cooperating because, otherwise, Guy Crimson would wipe them out. It would still be possible for people to have children, but it would be more difficult—a measure to naturally bring the population down. However, Rimuru planned to use them as an example. I think Rimuru realizes that even if he stops them this time, someone else will eventually try to use airplanes or other technologies from Earth, combined with this world’s magic and skills, to wreak unimaginable havoc.

I don’t really need to tell you how ridiculously destructive bombing a city was on Earth—now imagine adding magic to the mix. The level of devastation wouldn’t even compare. In other words, Rimuru sees that he needs to make an example of this nation and create something the humans will never forget. The residual Magicules from the powerful spell I'll use will ensure that. The magicule levels after I use such a powerful spell will naturally be quite high, spawning powerful monsters. The auras of these monsters will generate a highly dense magicule zone. Rimuru's skill, probably created by Seal specifically for this purpose, will likely take advantage of the high concentration of magicules in the area to keep itself powered. Since powerful monsters with strong auras will spawn, the magicule level in the area is likely to continue rising until it stabilizes at a high concentration.

We headed out first; however, they'd send a thought communication to tell us when to start the attack on the Western nation. Basically, the army that was going to wipe out the other army was just a distraction, so they wouldn't notice the real goal, which was, of course, to wipe out the entire country and turn it into a wasteland that would never recover. It's impossible to forget such things after all; one only needs to see it with their own eyes. Since it's just a matter of taking someone there to show them the horrors of what happened. I told Sophie that she should go ahead and start gathering her 10,000 souls.

I explained that if she passed out, I would wait for her evolution to be complete before starting my own, so we wouldn't have to worry about anyone attacking us during the evolutionary process. Sophie agreed and began targeting the major cities. It wasn’t difficult for her. Of course, they still had some of their military power to guard their base, but the planes and tanks they used weren't a threat to us. Sophie was able to easily handle them using her Gate of Babylon. This was basically her storing a bunch of her shadowy darkness spears and swords in a pocket dimension and then firing them. The scary thing is, each of these swords, created from shadowy darkness, had a nasty debuff effect that would reduce the target's strength by 50%. The debuff could even stack, and it was permanent unless removed.

It was actually quite simple to remove the debuff; you just needed someone capable of casting a purifying holy magic spell. Of course, the holy magic spell needed to be specifically designed to target curses, though I learned that holy magic does have an effect on monsters. It's actually more effective against demons, as it can purify the magicules within a monster's body, greatly weakening them. However, it’s not necessarily a permanent weakness for monsters; it’s more like a temporary weakening effect. A good example of this was after Rimuru became a Demon Lord—all of his subordinates were no longer as affected by holy magic barriers, although it still did weaken them slightly. In Tempest, there was also an anti-magic barrier, but this too became less effective. The weakness of anti-magic barriers is that you can pretty much brute force your way through them. The stronger demons were able to do this—some used a skilled method to crack the barrier, while others simply relied on sheer power.

nyway, Sophie kept firing her attacks, absolutely annihilating them. Eventually, she engulfed the entire area in darkness, and a few seconds later, nothing was left—she had completely decimated the city, leaving only ruins. Sophie then landed on the ground, obviously struggling to maintain her consciousness, and was enveloped by a black cocoon. I could hear the Voice of the World—it seemed she was going through her Demon Lord Harvest Festival.

Meanwhile, Sophie, on the verge of losing consciousness, sacrificed her unique skill Shadowy Darkness in order to evolve it into the unique skill Realm Lord. The Voice of the World rang out in her head: "Unique skill Realm Lord evolved into ultimate skill Shadow Realm , ruler of the Shadows and darkness." Sophie was now unconscious. We weren’t really supposed to attack yet anyway, as I hadn't received the signal. About three days later, I did get the signal, but I waited until Sophie woke up.