The reason Sōei had appeared here was simple—he truly had come to ask for help.
Although Rimuru had been reincarnated into this world earlier than Ren Kuroda, the truth was that he had spent most of that time sealed away inside the cave that imprisoned the Storm Dragon. As a result, the number of people he truly knew was actually quite limited.
Ever since Rimuru learned—through Benimaru and the others—that the Orc Lord might exist, his entire faction had entered a state of full preparation.
Rimuru's thinking was straightforward.If the orc tribe's target was every other race in the Great Jura Forest, then instead of being picked off one by one, it would be far better to unite and face them together.
The first group Rimuru contacted was another powerful race within the forest—the Lizardmen. After that, they also secured the support of the forest's guardians, the Dryads.
At first, even with the orc army rumored to number over two hundred thousand, Rimuru and his allies still believed they had a solid chance of victory once all these forces were united.
The problem was that their movements were quickly discovered by the mastermind manipulating the Orc Lord from behind the scenes.
When Gelmud realized that Rimuru had even managed to secure the aid of the Armed Nation of Dwargon's Pegasus Knight Order, he panicked instantly and reported everything to the Demon Lord Clayman.
Gelmud had already investigated Rimuru's background.Sure, the fact that Rimuru had subdued several Kijin was unexpected—but no matter how strong he was, at the end of the day he was still just a slime.
A lowest-tier monster pretending to be a Demon Lord—why would a Majin serving under a true Demon Lord take something like that seriously?
And yet, what Gelmud never could have imagined was that this "mere slime" would gain Dwargon's recognition and even convince them to dispatch their most elite force as reinforcements.
That changed everything.
The King of Dwargon was known as the greatest hero of the dwarf race. To prevent any unexpected twists in the Orc Lord's plan, Gelmud had no choice but to inform Demon Lord Clayman himself.
As one of the current Demon Lords—even if he ranked near the bottom among the Ten Great Demon Lords—Clayman still commanded an enormous number of subordinates.
Setting aside his infamous Five Fingers, Majin on the level of Gelmud were far from rare.
To truly stabilize the battlefield, Clayman also dispatched two members of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance:Footman, the Clown of Rage, and Tear, the Clown of Sorrow.
With countless Majin, two clowns whose strength rivaled Demon Lords, and an orc army two hundred thousand strong, Rimuru was quickly pushed to his limits.
At this point, Rimuru had not yet devoured the Orc Lord. Though his magicule reserves were immense, he still didn't qualify as a true Demon Lord by nature.
Even against the Orc Lord alone, he was already struggling—let alone with additional Majin and two extremely dangerous clowns in the mix.
The Lizardmen had suffered devastating losses due to the arrogance of their chieftain's son, Gabiru, with over half their population wiped out.
Dwargon's reinforcements had arrived swiftly, but the sheer disparity in numbers meant Rimuru's side still held no real advantage.
On the orcs' side, Geld, who had successfully evolved into the Orc Lord, used his unique skill Starved One to fight Rimuru's Predator ability on nearly even footing.
The Dwarf King himself managed to hold off one of the clowns—but beyond that, they desperately needed another decisive force to deal with the second clown.
Members of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance were no weaker than the Beastketeers who served under Demon Lord Carrion—in fact, if anything, they were even stronger.
Benimaru and the others had evolved from Oni into Kijin after being named by Rimuru and Ren, their power undergoing a complete transformation.
But as long as neither Rimuru nor Ren had truly become Demon Lords, even with their current strength, taking on the Harlequin Alliance head-on was still an enormous stretch.
And while the Kijin were technically Majin themselves, Clayman had dispatched no small number of Majin this time.
Gelmund might have been casually annihilated by Rimuru—but the rest were far from pushovers.
In the original timeline, this battle had ended in less than half a day.
Now, because of Clayman's reinforcements, the fighting had dragged on for two full days.
And as time passed, Rimuru's side grew increasingly exhausted, slowly but steadily being pushed into a disadvantage.
The reason was simple.
While Rimuru possessed miraculous items like Full Recovery Potions, the orcs were even more shameless.
Under the Orc Lord's ability, fallen orcs became food for their comrades—strengthening them further with every death.
After previously attacking the Oni and devouring vast numbers of Lizardmen, the current orc army was far stronger than when it had first appeared.
And with a total force of two hundred thousand, losses of ten thousand or so barely mattered to them.
During a post-battle war council, the Dwarf King finally stated bluntly that if they wanted to break the current stalemate, they needed to seek out another powerful ally.
The threat posed by the Orc Lord was simply too great—especially his unique skill, Starved One.
The Dwarf King was grateful he had rushed to assist Rimuru immediately. Otherwise, once Rimuru's first defensive line collapsed, every surrounding nation would have been next.
Two hundred thousand starving orcs, led by an Orc Lord, could easily strip the land bare like a swarm of locusts.
As the orc threat continued to escalate, the Dwarf King argued that it made no sense for Dwargon alone to bear the burden. Other nations had to contribute as well.
Thus, he proposed requesting reinforcements from neighboring kingdoms.
The Kingdom of Blumund might be small, but even a mosquito was still meat.
As for the Kingdom of Falmuth, one of humanity's great nations, its military strength was undeniable. Its Knight Commander and Archmage Razan were figures even the Dwarf King had long heard of.
And yet, the letter he personally wrote to King Edmaris of Falmuth vanished without a trace—like a stone sinking into the sea.
It nearly drove the Dwarf King mad with rage.
He even swore that once the Orc Lord crisis was resolved, he would personally lead troops to Falmuth as a "guest."
He had never thought highly of Edmaris—but he never imagined the man could be this stupid.
As a king, did he truly not understand the principle of shared fate? Did he really think he could sit back and reap the benefits once everyone else was finished bleeding?
Even tiny Blumund had dispatched adventurers—yet Falmuth chose to play deaf and blind?
What the Dwarf King didn't know was that his letter had reached Marisu City.
Ren Kuroda saw that it was addressed to King Edmaris—and didn't bother opening it at all.
It wasn't until the second war council, when the usually quiet Shuna finally spoke up, that the idea surfaced:
"Why don't we ask Lord Ren for help?"
From the sheer strength Shion and Shuna had displayed after being named, Benimaru and the others had already concluded that Ren Kuroda's power was likely no weaker than Rimuru's—if not greater.
And what were they lacking right now?
Top-tier combat power.
Clayman's Majin might be numerous, but with Benimaru and Shion leading the charge, they could easily hold them off.
The orc fodder could be handled by goblins, lizardmen, and the dwarven knights.
What they truly lacked was another force capable of dealing with the Harlequin Alliance, so that Rimuru wouldn't have to face both the Orc Lord and a clown at the same time.
"Lord Ren?" the Dwarf King asked. "Someone you know, Rimuru? With his strength… do you really think he can handle the other clown?"
Over the past two days, the Dwarf King had personally experienced just how troublesome Footman was.
He hadn't yet faced the other clown, but if she was Footman's partner, she certainly wouldn't be easy to deal with.
What puzzled him even more was that Rimuru's subordinates clearly served under him—so why did they refer to someone else as Lord?
Before Rimuru could answer, Shion jumped in immediately.
"If it's Lord Ren," she said with absolute confidence, "then forget holding that clown back. Beating her outright would be effortless for him."
As Ren's diehard fangirl, Shion naturally bristled at any doubt cast on his strength.
"Ren… right. How did I forget him?" Rimuru said, hopping off the table and transforming into his human form, realization dawning across his face."If it's him, dealing with a clown like Tear definitely won't be a problem."
That alone was enough of an answer for the Dwarf King.
Rimuru clearly believed that Ren Kuroda could handle a member of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance without issue.
After all, Rimuru still remembered clearly—when Ren released his magicules, Great Sage had detected an amount that surpassed Rimuru's own… by several times over.
"If this Ren person is that strong," the Dwarf King said, "and he's someone you know… can you contact him immediately?"
With a possible breakthrough in sight, relief finally crossed the Dwarf King's face. If the situation didn't change soon, their daily casualties would make it impossible to withstand the orc onslaught.
"Shuna? Shion?" Rimuru turned toward the two girls behind him.
"Lord Rimuru," Shuna replied calmly, "while we can't contact Lord Ren directly, we do share a connection with him. We know roughly where he is."
Shuna and Shion exchanged a glance, then simultaneously pointed to a location on the map.
When the Dwarf King and Fuze of Blumund saw where their fingers landed, they both cried out in shock.
"Falmuth?! And judging by the location—this is their capital, Marisu City!""Rimuru," Fuze exclaimed, "the person you know… is he from the Kingdom of Falmuth?"