As preparation for Charybdis, I had made a plan I titled "Operation Magic School Bus." It was a plan I was probably not going to enjoy but it was the only viable way I could think of to defeat Charybidis without Milim's help. I had checked with Sage and she had confirmed that I could not use Gluttony on enemies that are stronger than I am, so just attempting that was a no go. That is why Og Rimuru had a bit of trouble when eating the Orc Disaster.
However, as Charybdis would no be fully integrated with their host I could potentially eat and defeat them by getting to their core. I knew the rot properties of Gluttony could work if only for a little bit. So instead of trying to consume all of it I just had to make a hole to get inside.
I still had Milim practice holding back in case I got stuck. If there is anything we should all learn from batman is to always have contingency plans. Especially if you are jumping inside a giant flying Dragon-Shark.
A few moments later Trya appeared next to me with a panicked face.
"Rimuru! Charybdis has been revived, and he is heading directly to this city!"
"Calm down Trya. I promise to keep the city safe. Could you please call an emergency meeting?"
…
With everyone in the meeting room, we began to discuss ways of dealing with Charybdis. I offered my plan to deal with Charybdis but we still had to deal with the Megalodons that came with. Due to their magic resistance, they would be a pain to deal with but thankfully we had a surplus of physically strong Kijin as well as Dragon newts and high orcs.
I sent Souei to deliver the message of the impending attack and of our plans to Gazel. And to finish up this meeting I had given them the order to not die. Even if I could bring them back using Eros I would rather they didn't. Lastly, Milim's job was to supervise that nothing went wrong. If for some reason Any of the teams fighting the Megalodons found themselves in a position that could end with all of their deaths she was free to step in. And once again, If "Magic schoolbus" went wrong she would also step in.
We were going to meet Charybdis halfway here in order to minimize any possible damage o the surroundings of the city.
…
We were now standing in front of an approaching Charybdis.
"Come on, let me join, let me join. Pleaseeeeeee?" Milim was trying to use her skill puppy eyes but it was ineffective.
"I'm sorry Milim, but this is not a game. We have to make sure that we are able to fight threats like this. Plus my people need some actual experience fighting against actual threads. You already know you can step in if the worst-case scenario happens." I patted her hair and handed her a Jar of honey. "Here you go, just make sure to stay focused on the fight."
With that Milim's sadness was replaced with joy. Shuna approached me from the side and asked me.
"Are you sure that you will be ok in there?"
"Yes, don't worry. Let us begin our fight."
Everyone who was here prepared themselves and shot forward with a high speed. The pegasus knight would give areal support to the ones who were fighting on the ground. I sprouted my wings and used perfect replication to create a few weak clones whose job was to use gluttony on the scales Charbidys shot to protect the ones fighting on the ground.
I returned to my younger form to be able to fight at 100%. I currently looked around 13 years old if I did not age myself up with the black mist. Eating this Charybdis would probably help me grow more so I could e closer to staying in battle form all the time. Lifting myself off the ground I flew towards Charybdis at the fastest speed I could creating another clone with a bit more durability to distract it once I was near. Landing on its head I tried to feel the approximate location of Phobio.
Noticing the foreign entity on top of itself Charybdis tried to attack using its scales to attack me but it was too late.
"Found you"
Using a concentrated attack of Gluttony infused with Rot in a small area of its head I was able to create a large gash. The rot in it prevented the Ultra-speed regeneration from healing as fast as it should. Then, using a combination of Dark flame and corrosive breath I further increased the time it would take for it to heal. Thanks to Great sage I was able to use my skills even with magic jamming, as all it did was disturb the flow of magicules Sage was able to analyze and activate skills even with an irregular flow of them.
Using this method I slowly dug myself down through its flesh. 10 minutes later I was halfway to where Phobio was. The skin and flesh above me had healed and closed so I had to constantly keep using my skills. I had to be thankful for thought acceleration and parallel processing as they were the only things keeping me from getting trapped inside. Slowly but surely I kept on slowly moving forward.
Once I had finally reached Phobio I was mentally exhausted. Reaching towards him I created a partial clone that was only the upper body that stuck out of my back. I still had to keep on using my skills even now. At this moment I deactivated my outside clones and let Sage focus completely on removing the core from Phobio. I had to assist with this so using parallel processing I let one part of me continue to prevent the skin from healing whilst the other part of me assist in the removal of the core.
Working as fast as we could without making mistakes we proceeded to slowly consume the core that was in his chest. Now that we were not devoting our full attention to stopping them from healing I could feel the wound slowly closing in on me. Thankfully though we were finished before it was too late.
[Notice. The magical core of the individual Charybdis has successfully been separated from the individual Phobio. Consuming the magical core of the individual Charybdis… Successful. Analayzing core… Partially failed. Isolating and holding off on analysis until after the body has been consumed.
Use gluttony on the body of Charybdis?]
"Yes"
Now that the core had been removed the body would offer no resistance. So my body turned into slime and began to expand and consume everything around me. With its gigantic size, it took a full minute for it to be fully consumed with the exception of Phobio. Now that there was nothing holding us up in the air we began to freefall.
"Curse you Miss Frizzle for ever giving me this idea"
I was too mentally exhausted to be able to properly stop myself mid-fall so I let Sage take the wheel. She turned back into a Kijin and picked up Phobio from the sky and I was then able to take a look around. All of the Megalodon appeared to have been defeated for a couple of minutes now. From what I could see maybe I had worried a bit too much for their safety.
Once we reached the ground Sage dropped Phobio to the ground and carefully laid down my body. Once she was done I was back on the wheel.
I was quickly surrounded by a lot of people. It looked like a lot of them had been really worried for me since I had spent so much time inside of it. And once my clones disappeared their worries had increased. I appreciated their worry but all I could say was
"Thank you, but I am too tired to be able to think anything. I got a massive headache and, I think, I technically don't have a head. Just give me a few minutes. Also, Milim, tell Carrion that he owes me one. That dude Phobio was the cause for all of this."
Once I said that I closed my eyes to rest. I didn't "fall asleep" but just let all the stress from being on the equivalent of a room with shrinking walls go away. Having to be focused with your whole mind on something for such a long period of time in a stressful situation would make anyone want to fall asleep for days.
'I need to ask Shuna for a massage once we're back'