Meanwhile, inside the ruined shopping mall.
Seventeen Executors lay scattered across the floor.
The squad leader who had interrupted Altrouge was currently suspended in mid-air, clutching his throat as an invisible, massive hand made of pure blood crushed his windpipe.
Altrouge raised her small, pale hand. Her expression was absolute ice.
She closed her fist.
Squelch.
A grotesque flower of blood blossomed in mid-air. The invisible grip snapped the man's neck, and his lifeless body plummeted to the tiles.
Seventeen elite Executors. Wiped out in less than two seconds.
Altrouge didn't even look at the corpses. Her crimson eyes were fixed on the gaping hole in the wall where Rimuru had fled.
"Ruther…ford?" she murmured, tasting the false name on her tongue.
"Princess, allow me."
The Black Knight dispelled his demonic armor, returning to his form as a tall, pale man. "I will drag him back to you."
"No."
Altrouge stood in silence for a long moment. Then, she shook her head.
"Svelten. You go."
"Me?"
The White Knight, Fina-blood Svelten, blinked in surprise. Then, a genuinely creepy, excited smile stretched across his androgynous face.
"Gladly! To be honest, his original form before he put on that disguise was quite… appetizing. Such a pretty little…"
"Don't make me remind you." Altrouge cut him off, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "If you dare lay a finger on him in that way, I will turn you into a true ghost."
Altrouge instantly regretted sending him. She had forgotten that Svelten had zero interest in women and a very intense, very problematic obsession with beautiful young boys.
"Just go. Catch him and bring him back unharmed. I had to unseal a fraction of my power just now, which means the higher-ups in the Church are definitely looking our way. We don't have time to waste on the White Wing Lord right now."
"As you command, my Princess!"
Svelten bowed theatrically, dissolved into a swarm of bats, and shot into the sky, chasing Rimuru's trail.
Strout watched him leave, his jaw tight. He turned to Altrouge.
"Why not me?"
"You aren't suited for tracking," Altrouge replied softly. She looked at the Black Knight, a knowing smile playing on her lips. "Besides. Your demon sword has gotten weaker, hasn't it?"
Strout stiffened. "…He chipped away at my power. His ability isn't replication, Princess. It's theft."
"I suspected as much." Altrouge nodded, her eyes gleaming with dark fascination. "That's exactly why I sent Svelten. If his power relies on clashing weapons and absorbing energy through contact, you are his worst possible matchup."
Strout relied on extreme offensive power and the immense curse housed within his sword. The White Knight, on the other hand, was famed for his phantom-like agility and speed. He was the perfect counter to a brawler who needed to touch you to steal from you.
"Speaking of which."
Altrouge reached up and plucked the white beast, Primate Murder, off her head. She held Fou at eye level.
"Do you know what kind of Phantasmal Species he is? Or what kind of creature possesses an ability like that?"
"I don't know, Fou…" The little beast wrinkled its nose in disgust. "But to be honest, I absolutely despise human-phantasmal hybrids, Fou!"
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Because my last master," the little beast snarled, its adorable, fluffy face twisting into a scowl of pure disgust, "was a complete and utter half-breed bastard, Fou!"
…
Meanwhile, Rimuru was still running for his life.
He vaulted over a park bench, his legs pumping, when a sudden, jarring disconnect in his surroundings made him stumble.
Wait a second. Since when is Berlin a coastal city?!
[Observation: It is not. Furthermore, spectral galleons do not naturally occur in landlocked German airspace.]
Rimuru snapped his head up.
Drifting through the dense fog, glowing with a sickly, radioactive green luminescence, was a massive, rotting pirate ship. It was sailing smoothly through the air, getting closer by the second, bathing the city streets in a putrid emerald light.
"You have got to be shitting me!"
He spun on his heel, sprinting in the opposite direction.
Water.
The buildings had vanished, replaced by an endless, churning expanse of murky seawater.
Rimuru stopped, deadpan. He stared at the encroaching ghost fleet. The sheer, overwhelming absurdity of the situation sapped the adrenaline right out of him.
An Anti-Army Reality Marble. You deployed an Anti-Army Reality Marble just to catch one guy?! Are you out of your mind?!
Fina-blood Svelten, the White Knight.
Unlike the towering, armored Strout, Svelten was petite, hovering around five-foot-seven. He had pale skin and blonde hair tied back in a flowing ponytail. If Rimuru had to describe him, he looked exactly like Astolfo, sporting that same British knight aesthetic and the identical, gender-ambiguous pretty-boy vibe.
Except for one crucial difference. Svelten was canonically, aggressively into boys.
So, when the White Knight stood at the bow of his ghost ship and flashed Rimuru a sultry, predatory smile, a violent shudder ripped down Rimuru's spine. He wasn't homophobic, but being the target of a centuries-old vampire's twisted pedophilic obsession?
No. Absolutely not. I refuse!
Did Altrouge do this on purpose? Did she specifically bench the Black Knight just to subject him to psychological warfare?!
"I highly recommend surrendering," Svelten called out. His voice lacked Strout's heavy stoicism, dripping instead with a cloying, gentle malice. "I don't subscribe to the same rigid chivalry as my colleague, you see."
Rimuru clicked his tongue, his eyes darting across the painted horizon.
"There is no use looking for an exit," Svelten chuckled, twirling a lock of blonde hair around his finger. "We are inside my Reality Marble. Unless you manage to kill me or I run dry on mana, you are trapped here."
He leaned over the railing, licking his lips. "Although… if you drop that ugly disguise and show me your real, adorable little face, I might be inclined to be gentle with you."
"…"
Silence hung over the waves for three long seconds.
Then, Rimuru pulled out his Mystic Code, Boundless. Without a single word, he dropped it straight into the dark water.
Plop.
Svelten blinked, confused.
Then the deck beneath his boots lurched violently.
Rumble. ROAR.
The deafening sound of tearing water filled the air. Svelten's eyes widened as massive, violent whirlpools tore open the surface of his phantom sea, spinning with the force of a natural disaster.
Rimuru kept his head down, his voice dropping into a dangerous, gravelly register. "I just wanted to be a peaceful magus. Why did you have to push me?"
He slowly raised his head. "Of all the people she could have sent… she sent you."
Svelten stared in shock. Geysers erupted from the ocean. Three massive dragons forged of compressed, churning water breached the surface, roaring soundlessly at the sky.
Rimuru's trench coat flapped wildly in the gale, soaked with seawater. His golden eyes were gone, replaced by the cold, mechanical crimson of the Great Sage.
And his skin, his arms, his neck, his cheeks, was glowing. One hundred and seventy-three Magic Circuits flared to life simultaneously, tracing blinding blue circuitry across his flesh.
Rimuru smiled, raising a hand toward the raging storm.
"You cornered me. You deployed a Reality Marble. And worst of all, you made it an ocean." Rimuru let out a dark, mocking laugh. "Why don't you experience it firsthand? Let's see what happens when you trap a magus with 173 Magic Circuits who specializes in Hydro-mancy inside a domain made entirely of water."
"Sink to the bottom of the sea, Captain of the Ghost Ship."
….
+20 chapters on my p@tr3on: Kazuma_trash
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