CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 39—FIRST GREAT UNHOLY WAR

Chapter 39—First Great Unholy War

Wob! Wob!—They brought the crates outside the house.

Slime#47 placed them on the ground and finally glanced around the area with peace.

Before this, he’d been mana drained and too tense from the fight to notice anything.

He noticed the oak trees, the paddy fields, the rice fields, the vegetable plots with a scarecrow in each, the cattle farm, and another slime-farm complex on the left side of the house—mirroring the one he’d already seen on the right from the balcony.

"So this dwelling is the center of the agricultural lands," he muttered, recalling the layout.

The house sat right before the entrance to Slime#47’s farm complex, with farmlands stretching on both sides.

Behind the dwelling, a single road trailed outward, leading toward the fields and the other areas beyond.

They then went back to the slime farm complex.

"What am I supposed to do with this chaos..." Mama Slime sighed, overwhelmed by the mess of slimes—munching stones, and bouncing on shattered wooden fences.

If unlucky, one sharp, broken wood could pierce their cores and kill them—such was the fate of unintelligent beings.

’They’re literally bouncing on their own graves,’ Young Slime mused with pity.

She bounced to gather them into one place. Little Slime glanced seriously at the two slimes in front.

Slime#47 tried to ask Elder Slime something, but was cut off when Old Slime said, "It’s a Sealed artifact."

"Sealed," Young Slime muttered, feeling no shock. ’As expected,....they are eldritch’s cousin.’

"Sealed?" Little Slime tilted his body, not understanding.

Old Slime noticed and picked Little Slime up, throwing him near the other slimes gently—Thud!

He sulked hard, understanding they didn’t want him listening.

Young Slime grinned, watching them.

"So, Elder," he asked, "Sealed artifacts are different from rituals?"

Old Slime replied sternly, "In rituals, unholy creatures try to enslave a person; one can resist with a strong will; Artifacts reduce ’Will’ stat and control a person."

"Reduce the will?" Young Slime snapped. He remembered the agony of raising that stat—hell no, he wasn’t doing that again.

"Yeah," Old Slime nodded. "These artifacts might not be as strong as unholy creatures themselves, but they have their own benefits; Afterall the artifacts are more powerful than weapons."

Young Slime frowned. "So weapons aren’t the same thing as artifacts?"

Elder Slime nodded and pointed to the cloak’s crate. "Weapons can be mass-produced; artifacts are unique." He paused for a moment and continued, "To put it simply, no two artifacts share the same skill, while weapons can."

"So that’s how it is," Young Slime nodded, understanding the difference. He then asked, "Do artifacts corrupt like unholy creatures?"

"Yep, they do. Just wielding them corrupts the user," Old Slime answered plainly.

’Yeah....No wonder he didn’t put that cloak on,’ Young Slime realized why the slime farm owner avoided it.

Elder Slime warned him sternly, "Be careful. Artifacts are powerful. Using one once tempts the user to use it again and again, causing loss of consciousness and achieving its goal of turning the user’s body into its puppet." He didn’t want Slime#47 to use the sealed artifact.

"Is this different from enslavement by unholy creatures?" Young Slime asked, feeling they were similar.

"There is a difference," Elder Slime said. "Unholy creatures modify one’s will to serve them, while artifacts take full control over one’s body by wiping out their consciousness."

’Artifacts seem more dangerous than rituals,’ Young Slime compared the two.

"Control... corrupt... tempt...mainly sealed..name," he muttered, as his voice rose, "Wait....Are those damn things alive?"

"Yes...You guessed correctly," Old Slime nodded grimly. "All sealed artifacts have unholy creatures sealed inside them—made from unholy creatures."

Slime#47 asked, sensing something wrong, "Were they created with intent to destroy people?"

Old Slime understood his suspicion and said sadly, "No... they weren’t born from malice like you’re thinking." He shook his body. "They were the last hope of living beings."

"Against what?" Young Slime questioned, feeling shocked. ’Last hope... This is different from what I imagined.’

"These artifacts were our last weapons in the First Great Unholy War," Elder Slime said quietly. "The war we barely survived."

"Thanks to them, we bought time for ourselves." He continued.

He then glanced at the sky and continued, "I don’t know when they will start it again."

"War? And we’re losing?" Young Slime’s voice cracked. He’d just won his own little battle—only to learn the world was already dying. ’This world fought against eldritch creatures before and lost... they only bought time.....time’

He glanced at the old slime. He’d believed he was a reincarnator, but he wanted to check the history himself. ’For now... I can only believe him. After all, he taught me many things.’

He asked, voice tight, "How long do we have? Months? Years? When does the war hit us?"

Elder Slime glanced blankly and said plainly, "I don’t know."

"What?" Slime#47 snapped, expecting a definite answer to prepare.

"The last thing I heard about the First Great Unholy War was Demon King Tebura, Hero King Akira, and Saint King Luna joining forces to launch the sealed artifact-03-475."

"What did it do?" Young Slime asked, emotions skyrocketing. "That artifact..."

"That artifact sealed the memories of all beings about the unholy creatures. But it seems they’ve resurfaced now," Elder Slime said, glancing at the cloak crate and sky.

"That’s it? All it did was seal memories?" Slime#47 roared, feeling sealed artifacts should be stronger.

"No, it did more—it wiped out unholy creatures from the Divinara continent and placed a barrier to stop their entry," Old Slime said with a sigh.

’It’s broken now,’ Young Slime understood, recalling the spider eldritch and octopus eldritch.

"What about gods? What are they doing? Did they fall?" he asked, remembering the gods’ existence.

Old Slime explained, "Gods are stopping even more powerful unholy creatures. If a god-level unholy enters Divinara, we’re done—no stopping them."

"Why? Are there no beings rivaling gods here?" Young Slime asked.

"There were, but they left to fight god-level unholy creatures. The ones we fight are leftovers or war deserters who sneaked in," Elder explained, but it made slime#47 even more tremble.

’So, just army deserters trouble Divinara? How pathetic,’ Young Slime mused, feeling powerless and impressed by the power of eldritch. ’So that spider and octopus are just... deserters...’

If he couldn’t get stronger, he’d be doomed. Sure, he’d time loop power, but how many loops? He wouldn’t bet on it—every loop must count.

End of the Chapter.

End of Arc 1—Slime Farm.

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