An Unborn Hero

Approaching the southern border of the demonic forest, a group of slimy blobs watched their escortees with interest. They had been ordered to gather whatever information they could, after all. Every empire, kingdom and republic on the planet wanted to get their hands on the magic with which the Flinellian [King] had earned a legendary achievement, but having the hero's party themselves pass through in order to invade the forest from an unexpected direction had given this particular jellax republic an opportunity the others lacked. They'd even snuck a [Priest] with [Sense Soul] into the escort group, to watch Mystery herself. Given that jellax generally didn't bother with clothing, it didn't even need a disguise.

Not that it saw very much. The blobs of slime might not have been as offensive to Mystery's Earthen sensibilities as the zycrian, but that was mostly because there wasn't really anything to be offensive. They were literally just blobs, with no interesting features. They didn't even make any noise, communicating instead by bumping into each other, merging their slime, and with it their thoughts. As a result, Mystery was resting in her foetus, ensuring she was at her best and fully recharged at the point her party stepped into the forest.

"What is everyone planning to do once this is all over?" asked Grace, mostly to take her mind off the fact they were deliberately walking into a forest full of demons, while carrying with them someone who was literally a beacon, yelling out to all demons in a massive radius 'here is the [Hero]; come and kill her'.

"Go back to adventuring, I guess," answered Rose. "I was worried about outgrowing my parents and needing to find a new party, but now that they have experience of fighting while transformed, and with my mana capacity growing... Well, we'll see."

"I'm going back to enchanting," answered Hayedalf. "I don't know if I'll live in the capital again, but I'll certainly be visiting. The [Royal Knight] had a quiet word with me before we left, complaining about how inefficient it was getting people who weren't me to investigate the kingdom's Artefacts, and please would I consider coming back. They'd needed to make another modification to the Recorder while we were in Karn's Vigil, and he was complaining about how long it took."

"I'll follow Hayedalf," answered Kellela. "I'll find a research project to hold my interest wherever we are. Maybe something more practical than theoretical, though."

"And I suppose I'll return to the Vale for a time," answered Rrillandral. "While I would greatly enjoy the chance for a long, detailed talk with Mystery, it would be logistically helpful to wait a couple of decades. I don't think Kellela and Hayedalf would want me hovering around their home for a few years."

"Heh. All going back to our old lives," smiled Rose. "Changed, yes; I'm not going to be making excuses about being iron ranked anymore. But nevertheless, still the same. So I guess you'll be resuming your princessing, waiting for your dad to find you an engagement?"

A range of expressions flitted across Grace's face as she considered that and decided she didn't much like the idea. Life in a gilded cage had been so much more enjoyable before she'd experienced the outside world. "You mentioned worrying about if you'd need to change up your adventuring party. Hypothetically speaking, how would you feel about that party containing me?"

"That would be awesome!" exclaimed Rose, beaming the most politically naïve smile Grace had ever seen. There wasn't a hint of selfishness in it. No thoughts about what she could gain by having the kingdom's eldest princess in her party. Not a trace of calculation as she considered how to bend the situation to her advantage. Just someone honestly looking forward to spending time with a friend.

"Dammit," quietly muttered Grace. "With you pulling and Gordon pushing..."

"Pardon?"

"Never mind. It's nothing."

Kellela, who'd been in earshot of Grace's mutter, smiled a gentle smile of her own, glad the pair were getting on so much better than back at the farm. And not only because of Mystery's assurance that trust in each other and a strong friendship were important qualities for magical girls; that went for any adventurer. It had been one of the few things Mystery had said that wasn't completely contrary to common sense.

A few of the jellax escorts, chosen for their information gathering skills, obviously including [Sense Sound], made notes of their own, too.

"Well, it seems that we're here," stated Rrillandral as the party reached a gate set into a tall wall built along the entire jellax border with the demonic forest. Not everyone bothered; periodic watch towers—each manned by a group of highly mobile adventurers—worked just as well against the weaker monsters, but jellax were not known for their mobility.

A few seconds passed.

"Uhh... Please could you open the gate?" asked Rose. "Or are we supposed to jump over?"

"Apologies, but the other side of the wall is dangerous, and we understand not all of you have combat abilities. You should take steps to protect yourselves before we open it," responded the jellax spokes-slime, using [Telepathy].

"Huh? But the outskirts only have weak monsters like goblins," pointed out a confused Rose. "And if there was anything bigger, your watchmen would see it."

"They just want to watch us cast [Magical Girl Transformation]," sighed Grace, which was perfectly true, but rather impolite to say out loud. Not being the [First Princess] anymore, and fantasising about a future for herself that was getting dangerously close to elopement, she found it hard to care. "There's no reason not to indulge them. After using the spell to defend the kingdom like that, especially after earning a legendary achievement for it, Father needs to spread it or else Flinel will end up a pariah. Consider giving them a head start payment for letting us use their border to enter the forest."

"A pariah?" asked Rose. "Why?"

"Because they have a really big, shiny, magical sword that their neighbours don't have."

"So?"

"... This is going to take a while. I'll explain later, while we're walking."

Kellela gently slapped her stomach a few times, signalling to Mystery that it was time to emerge. Not that any of them needed her help to transform, but she'd made them promise to let her watch.

"Okay, positions everyone," Kellela called, clapping her hands. "We might as well put on a show, so let's do the big group sequence we practised."

Mystery squeed, despite the way they hadn't even started.

"For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Aster Blue, transform!"

"For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Lotus Pink, transform!"

"For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Jasper White, transform!"

"For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Voidfruit Black, transform!"

"For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Leaf Green, transform!"

There was dancing. There were lights. There was posing. There was a short and inaccurate poem about how good would always prevail over evil. There was heavy blushing.

ding

Your proteges have performed a spectacular group transformation sequence. [Magical Girl Transformation] advances to level 23.

From the jellax, there was intense confusion. Thankfully, their lack of anything to display an expression with made them a lot easier to deal with as an audience than humans. The confusion was expressed simply by them being even less animate than usual.

A few more seconds passed in silence. Mystery was squeeing even harder, but with [Telepathy] off, no-one heard her.

The gate opened, still without anyone saying anything. The party of magical girls walked through in silence. The gate closed behind them.

Their escort party flowed together into a single, larger blob, to hold a group conversation. There turned out to not be much conversing, because each of them was already thinking exactly the same thing.

"What?"

In the depths of the forest, Xry'kl was staring at Xander, who was standing completely motionless.

"Has he moved at all in the last week?" he asked. "He hasn't died and frozen in place, has he?"

"Don't ask me," answered Dreobeth. "Go poke him or something."

"No way!"

Miasma rolled off the egg of the demon lord in vast, angry waves. An entire army, destroyed, and not one of the slayers of its servants had perished. The nascent demon lord cried out for revenge, to punish those that insulted it, but no-one responded.

Or, more accurately, Dreobeth had succeeded in convincing his fellow spawn that for the sake of their continued existence, some creative interpretation of their instructions was required. They would get the revenge that was demanded, but they would do it without charging out of the forest straight into the obvious waiting ambush. With the demon lord insufficiently developed to give precise orders, they needn't make the same mistakes as usual.

He just thought it a pain that so many of them wanted to make the same mistakes. That they didn't even view them as mistakes. How could anyone be so selfish, so self-centred, and yet so self-destructive? The arrogance didn't help. Despite two arch-demons being dead already, too many others seemed convinced that no human ambush could threaten them.

The miasma changed.

There was a moment of perfect stillness as the flows of mana ceased throughout the entire forest. The demon lord held its breath, the egg briefly nothing more than a decoration in the middle of the decayed clearing. And then it screamed. Miasma burst from it in a tidal wave, rolling over everything in the forest.

The demons had thought their master angry before, but it had been nothing compared to this. Merely mild vexation, where now there was apoplectic fury.

Xander moved.

"The [Hero] approaches," he declared. "It is time."

A single jellax jiggled some distance away from a larger coalescence of its kind.

It silently continued to jiggle for a while before rolling back and rejoining the larger blob.

"Nothing happened," it declared. "We are missing something. Are we certain the image we have is accurate?"

"The information came directly from the Flinel palace," replied another, although in their merged state, it was somewhat difficult to tell the slimes apart. "Their princess wasn't aware of them having already shared it, but her statements while travelling through our territory made it clear she expected them to at some point. It's possible they provided false information, but I don't see what the advantage would be for them. They would be better off saying nothing."

"Perhaps a species limitation?"

"It's possible. The information we have been provided did note the [Age Correction] and [Gender Bending] sub-skills, along with the requirements for the target's hair colour to match."

"Information from our operatives in Flinel confirms a serious and abrupt shortage of blue hair dye, which matches that information," added a third of the slimes. "As your mass is blue, perhaps you should attempt the Aster Blue form?"

"I did, but my mass is not hair. Perhaps I should try again with a... wig..."

To the jellax, who generally wore no clothing whatsoever, a wig was a concept as alien as magical girls were to the world as a whole.

"It is worth an attempt. However, I hold out little hope. Given what the information describes of the enforced costume, it's likely we'll require a new variant better suited to our shape. And the sooner we succeed, the better; if the spell turns out to be restricted to humans alone, the human kingdoms will gain an unacceptable military advantage. There is no way we can take the claim that the spell is useless for offensive purposes at face value."

"Let us try with a wig first."

In jellax territory, a wig took some time to obtain, but nevertheless, the guinea-slime was soon back on its own, a domed blue blob, a wig that had obviously been designed for someone with a head balanced precariously on top.

Unjoined to any other jellax, no-one could hear its voice, but that didn't prevent it from speaking. "For friendship and justice, demon slaying magical girl Aster Blue, transform!" it shouted in the privacy of its own slime, while keeping in mind the image of a famous jellax fictional hero from one of their more surrealist authors.

Its slime glowed, and a few seconds later, the goddess responsible for Mystery's summoning was proven wrong. Her world did have slime-girls. Standing as tall as the original Aster Blue, clad in the same magically protective blue satin, kitten heels, gloves and stockings, was something that looked almost human, except for the colour and translucency of her 'skin'.

The world's first slime-girl looked down at the blue tubes that poked out the ends of her gloves.

"Eww! I have fingers! Why do I have fingers?!"

Mystery (Human)

Age: -9 months

Occupation: Hero (L)

Skills:

- Soul's Eye (U) (40/100)

>> Sense Vitality (U)

>> Sense Soul (R)

>> Sense Mana (U)

>> Sense Light (C)

>> Sense Sound (C)

>> Pierce Illusions (U)

>> Sense Miasma (R)

>> Multi-focal (R)

>> Sense Spirit (R)

- Astral Projection (U) (24/60)

>> Sure Navigation (U)

>> Uncontainable (U)

>> Tether of Will (L)

- Robust (C) (28/50)

>> Hardened Soul (R)

>> Secured Mana (U)

>> Pain Tolerance (C)

>> Strengthened Will (U)

- Stealth (C) (3/20)

>> Camouflage Vitality (R)

- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (23/30)

>> Age Correction (R)

>> Gender Bending (R)

- Light (C) (12/20)

>> Heterochrome (U)

- Increased Attributes (C) (11/20)

>> Mana Storage (U)

- Investigation (C) (5/10)

- Cosplay (U) (11/20)

>> Skit (U)

- Mana Absorption (U) (11/30)

>> Drain Mana (U)

>> Conduit (U)

- Translate (U) (10/20)

>> Two Way (U)

- Telepathy (U) (15/40)

>> Reciprocity (U)

>> Empathy (U)

>> Guarded Mind (U)

- Lightning Bolt (U) (3/10)

- Fireball (U) (4/20)

>> Multishot (U)

- Wall of Light (U) (1/10)

- Energy Resistance (U) (7/10)

Achievements:

- Early Bloomer II (R)

- First Skill (C)

- Adept (U)

- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)

- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)

- Astral Explorer II (E)

- First Spell (C)

- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)

- Famous Spell Forger (E)

- Demon Slayer III (E)

- Monster Slayer V (E)

- Curiosity (U)

- War Veteran (U)

- Royal Audience (C)

- Diligent Hero (L)

- Studious (C)

- Pioneering Guider (E)

- Royal Pervert (R)

- I Couldn't Stop Breaking The System, And Now I've Been Smited (E)

- Royal Corrupter (E)

- Blessed of the Forest (C)

- Artefact Wielder (R)

Artefacts:

- The Vale's Finger