'Leona?!' The slime was awestruck as she saw the person of her memories in the flesh. 'I… I want to talk to her…!'
It reached for its own face with both hands as it desperately thought what would be the best way to approach her. It didn't know the faces of the people it had acquired the memories from, but one thing all of them had in common and that was Adele, if it were to assume the form of the head maid it would surely be able to at least convey some little words it had learnt.
However, before it could finally take a step forward, the high elf that was standing at the side of the main group stabbed a lonely slime that was sitting on the ground. That prompted another slime that was directly above it to drop down in order to avenge its brethren.
"Ah! Get this thing off me!"
"Pho!"
One large woman and a man rushed in to save their companion as the slime looked horrified at the slain brethren.
'No… Princess Leona would never…'
"Stay still Pho!"
"Easier said than-"
The slime was engulfing her entire face which made the slime queen raise its hand towards it as if an attempt to call its brethren away from the invaders, but none of them listened. If anything, that attack was justified for what the high elf did.
"Shit! Laura can't you rip this thing off her face?"
"What do you think I'm trying to do here?!"
The slime grabbed on each side of its head and started to hyperventilate as if giving in to the instinct of the human's biology for a split moment.
'No… trust your memories, the kind and supportive Princess Leona would never be out to hurt someone she knew.' She took a deep breath and looked forward, but what she saw was a far cry of what she was expecting. 'Why… why are you looking at me like that…?'
"What… what is this?!"
The gentle aquamarine eyes were now wearing a piercing gaze riddled with fury. Fear from the tactician made her chest tighten, a human notion of grief that was all too familiar yet it was the first time she ever felt it.
The slime raised its hands as it tried to utter a few words.
"Prin… cess…"
Words didn't come out properly so instead she tried to appear as harmless as possible by picking the edges of her skirt and raising it as she bowed in respect. However, unlike what she expected to happen, Leona raised her left hand and a light blue glow started to emanate from it. She was casting a spell.
"Krieg… help me to make this quick."
As the tactician approached slowly, the knight dashed from behind her and charged in for an overhead swing. Knowing full well it wouldn't be able to dodge it, it unleashed an appendage from its back that morphed in the last second into a thin metallic blade that changed the course of the longsword.
It then tried to smile and laugh but all it came out of her mouth was an eerily creepy giggle.
"Ehee… eee…"
Despite hitting the ground with enough force to carve the rocky floor, Krieg lifted the blade in an upwards slash which the slime avoided by morphing its entire body around the weapon as it traveled between its body.
In that short span of time, Leona closed the gap with her left hand encased in ice. If she touched its gelatinous body, it could mean a quick and painful death. The moment it noticed the hand coming for its body, the slime traveled backwards in a puddle of goo before reforming itself again. It raised its hands.
"I- don- wan-t k-kill y-"
It tried its best to convey that it didn't want to fight, but it was all for nothing. Leona was enraged, all she wanted was to kill it and it could clearly feel the killing intent behind those sharp glaring aquamarine eyes.
However, once the knight held her back in only a matter of seconds its home was blasted away by a fireball aimed at the ceiling.
'No! Stop! Don't destroy our home!'
It desperately tried to see who was casting those spells but in that moment of vulnerability, she was hit by the same spell that destroyed her home. The blast was strong enough to incinerate most of its body but thankfully its core remained intact despite its entire left side being directly hit by a fireball.
"Come on! We got to go!"
An unfamiliar male voice echoed from somewhere amidst the smoke and dust. Once the half molten slime body hit the floor it started to realize, maybe there was no chance for it to stand by Leona's side in the first place.
'I'm… just a slime after all…'
Despite not having a working human body anymore, it could still feel the dread and loneliness. A dream shattered in a thousand pieces as it sought solace in the darkness within its mind. The scattered memories inside its core were yet still filled with warmth and love, why didn't it deserve to receive the same? Was it because of how poorly it performed in its attempts to speak? Was it the choice of appearance that unsettled Leona? It couldn't come to terms with everything that had happened because it genuinely yearned for that warmth those maids had experienced before.
The damage done to its body would be child's play to recover. In a matter of minutes it would have its full body back but despite being able to do such a feat of regeneration, it chose not to and instead it remained immobile for the best part of a day.
The shuffling of slimes and the reverberations of scrapping earth could be felt from the ground but it paid no mind to it. It felt like all the effort to become something more than just a slime was all for nothing. The ideal image it sought was the same reason that its home was destroyed.
"My arm… is this… how I'll go…?" It heard a voice within the darkness. Despite having half of its face blown off by the fireball, it still had part of its ears close to the ground. "Well… at least… she's safe…"
It created another eyeball from the corner of its gelatinous body, with it, it spied a young man laying against the wall of the dilapidated home. His left arm seemed to have been ripped off by something and he was bleeding from it.
'He… he'll die at this rate…'
The slime's eyeball looked around and noticed none of the others were attempting to devour him despite being a weakened prey.
"Ah… but… I really don't want to die…" He started to sob quietly in the darkness. "Not… not like this…"
Looking at him made it remember how the bodies of those maids were once it could see. They all died with despair and fear in their eyes.
'That… is no way to go…' It thought. 'Maybe… just maybe… if I can help him…'
It started to drag itself along the rocky ground with its appendages that could hardly hold shape. Luke, who was sitting there waiting for his demise, saw something approaching from the corner of his eyes.
"A slime…" He chuckled sourly. "Never thought I'd become food for a slime."
Once it reached his left leg he simply closed his eyes. He was waiting for the painful death of being dissolved alive, but contrary to his expectations. The slime simply engulfed his torn off limb and stopped the bleeding.
Its cold touch relieved some of the aching fever pain he felt from his limb and as he opened his eyes he noticed the quivering core of the slime attached to his elbow.
"What… what is it doing…? ARGH!" He felt a strong flash of pain coming from inside his arm as he could feel an undulating sensation coming up from his arm as if he was being invaded by the foreign slime. "Oh don't tell me it's going to parasitize me!"
Suddenly a voice echoed in his mind.
'Stop struggling! I'm trying to fix your arm!'
"Wha?!" At first he thought he was having a fever dream but once he looked down and noticed the slime had an eyeball floating inside its gelatinous body, it made him try to stand up, only to fall with his back against the wall. "Ugh!"
'I told you to stay still!'
Suddenly a swarm of slimes started to jump on his body, immobilizing him from the neck down.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
'SHUT UP'
One of the slimes stuck itself inside his mouth, which despite his efforts, he couldn't bite through it.
They remained like that for a few hours and at the end of it, the slime had sealed his wounds.
"Ugh. Ptoo!" Luke sat up and spitted a thickened blob of saliva mixed with slime gelatin. "Argh… my arm doesn't hurt anymore but did you have to put a slime in my mouth?"
'You wouldn't shut up otherwise.' The slime the size of an apple rested on his lap. 'Besides, I wouldn't be able to finish healing your arm if you kept thrashing around like that. Wait… how am I still talking to you?'
He scratched the side of his head.
"Probably thanks to whatever you used to seal my wound." He touched the arm that was no longer bleeding. "If your speech is somehow tied to your, well, thinking. It's possible that any remnant product of your body may be able to transmit your thoughts through mana waves, similar to how demon beasts communicate with each other."
'You are awfully knowledgeable.'
"I studied a lot about mana and its effects on living organisms." He raised his left arm to inspect the wound. It was somehow completely sealed and felt closer to a full recovery rather than just healing magic that would usually leave scars. "Interesting… say, little slime. Do you have a name?"
'Name?'
"Yes, every individual has one."
'I… don't have a name.'
"You don't? Who taught you to speak?"
"No one. I learned with the memories of the people that had been thrown down here."
"People that had been thrown down here?"
"Yes, they were maids of a mansion belonging to the Crossford household."
"The Crossfords…!" He stumbly stood up. "I need to help Leona…"
'Huh?' The small slime fell on the rocky floor as Luke walked towards the narrow corridor. 'Wait. Are you leaving?'
"Yeah, I need to go help her." He was barely able to drag his feet and the only thing keeping him standing was his right hand against the nearby wall. "Otherwise… I won't be able to fulfill my promise…"
Despite sounding brave, the young man simply fell again on the floor. Dust was lifted the moment he hit the ground with the slimes backing off a bit from the impact.
'Oh dear… he isn't dead is he?' The slime approached him but noticed he had just passed out. 'Oh… he's just sleeping…'
It approached the wounded limb and started to prod around the stump of his arm. The skin around the wound had been sealed with light blue slime gel that attached itself to the muscle and skin tissue like an embryonic growth. It pulsated and shifted ever so slightly.
'Strange… this is technically still part of my body…' It touched the pulsating blob with one of its appendages. 'But why does it feel different?'
The light blue bulb was becoming red and then slightly purple as it started to writhe and spasm as if it was gaining sentience. There was a lingering sensation of unease inside its mind as it approached even more before engulfing the blob whole inside its own body.
Even though its human features were gone, the mere act of coming into contact with his blood made the slime feel the metallic taste of blood inside its gel as if the tasting buds of its human tongue were still swirling inside.
'What the… what is this feeling?' It felt like instinct. The moment it acquired a sample of his body, it knew what it was truly capable of. 'His arm… maybe I can grow it back.'