Chapter 33 - Chapter 4-Total Victory-Part 2

Someone was quietly meditating.

A streak of gold ran across his jet-black exoskeleton. A swordlike horn extending out of the center of his forehead shone a ruby red. The crimson compound eyes underneath it never shut; he continually took in information from his surroundings, processing it in his brain.

The exoskeleton was modified—more like tinkered with, really—by Rimuru, his master. That master's own cells, along with a healthy dose of magisteel, had helped to reinforce the parts he'd lost; now they felt familiar to him, like they were always there. They had come to possess unparalleled performance, combining strength beyond diamonds with the flexibility of a living creature— one could call it adamantite or organic magisteel. It had become a suit of natural armor for him, easily Legend class.

But his strength didn't issue from that exoskeleton. The real essence of his power came from his instincts, insatiable in their pursuit of battle. And now a new prey appeared before him.

Everything was going his way. He was the absolute monarch of this labyrinth —Zegion, the Insect Kaiser—and among the Dungeon's most powerful guardians.

And now a thought crossed Zegion's mind.

He believed that those who confirmed their desire to be here were qualified to fight him. That was why he sent the summons—his invitation into this dark space. Anyone who reached his floor was lucky indeed, for they could die with the dignity of a human being and the pride of the world's strongest.

...…

...

…

At the bottom of the stairs leading to Floor 80, there existed a room where people could rest. There was no door in the entryway; the room was wide open, in order to show there were no traps inside. And on the far end of it was a flashy, incredibly ornate door…which led to the boss chamber.

The dark vortex that Minitz walked into brought him to this very room. It was dimly lit, housing some comfortable chairs, a table with fruit and beverages, and a few other practical necessities.

Minitz wasn't the first visitor. A few others had arrived before him. He gave them quick glances, trying to remember if he recognized them at all. Before he could do anything beyond that, a few people who were conversing in their chairs stood up.

"Major General Minitz! You're still alive! I am from the twenty-sixth division of the Restructured Armor Corps—"

"Halt. This labyrinth is no place a buck private or noncommissioned officer could survive for very long. That much I know well enough already."

Minitz raised a hand to stop the man from identifying himself. He knew the names and ranks of all the high-end officers by heart, but the three people before him were completely unfamiliar. That could only mean one thing.

Even over-A rankers would have their hands full surviving in here. No matter how many gathered together, they'd likely be helpless against the magic-born insect Minitz just encountered. Only a handful of human beings in history had broken through that wall, attaining literally superhuman abilities. Thus, although Minitz didn't know this trio's faces, he could guess who they were.

"Yes, sir! You're certainly right. My name is Krishna, ranked seventeenth among the Imperial Guardians."

"Bazan, ranked thirty-fifth."

"And Reiha, ranked ninety-fourth."

"Ah. So you're with the Imperial Guardians, then? Infiltrated our army to monitor the operation, I assume?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm not sure how wise it is to give me such an honest answer, but very well. Right now, we need to talk about what's past that door."

"We were just discussing our possibilities now, sir."

"Good, good."

Minitz pressed them more, as if it was only natural his prediction was correct. He wasn't exactly a fan of this unwelcome surveillance in his force, but survival was job one right now. Rank or position didn't matter here; strength did. Instead of questioning why Krishna and his band were here, Minitz decided to concentrate on more fruitful topics of discussion.

"So what happened to everybody else?"

"Well, sir, we were all sent to the floor where the wight king was reported to be."

Krishna answered for the trio. Minitz raised an eyebrow, asking him to go on.

"There were ninety-six of us in all—our commanders were taken away from us—and we were forced to do battle against the king of the undead. I'm…afraid we're the only survivors."

"Unbelievable," Minitz spat. "Our groups were all one-man armies, capable of making sound decisions in battle without direct orders. Even if they weren't quite as talented as you, they were the best the Empire had to offer!"

This hundred-odd group had been tasked with rescuing the rest of the imperial forces. Even the rank and filers among them were over-A menaces, so they could be prepared for anything that happened down there. The ferocity of Minitz's tone showed just how hard their deaths were to swallow.

"He was a fearsome monster king, sir. And the undead knight guarding him was an elite-class swordfighter," said Krishna.

"Apart from us three, they killed everyone on that floor. If you want to criticize us for not revealing our identities earlier, I don't have any defense for that. But we're talking about an undead dragon, an undead sword master, and the king of the dead himself. It's a miracle even we survived, sir."

Bazan interrupted Krishna and Minitz's conversation. His speech was tinged with anger; this whole experience seemed to be a regretful disappointment to him, and it was clear he meant every word he said.

"You're being rude to the major general, Bazan."

"But, Reiha…"

"No, no, I don't mind. This is a dangerous labyrinth. We need to work together to survive, regardless of rank."

So Minitz offered them his full cooperation. If this trio was all Imperial Guardians, he couldn't have asked for better assistance. Now was no time for bickering.

"I'd be overjoyed to take the offer, sir."

Krishna knew Major General Minitz of the Armored Division well. That wasn't a surprise, given his position in the Imperial Guardians, and there was no reason for him to turn down the offer. All four of them silently nodded. Whatever happened after they left this labyrinth, they could think about when that time came. That was the common understanding they now had.

"So how did you get here, sir?" Krishna asked Minitz.

"I had to face off against a swarm of army wasps."

"Army wasps…!"

The quintessential lethal monster. So dangerous that they weren't even well known among the general public, since the army took action so quickly to quash any that were discovered. Any hapless citizen who did come to see one usually lost their life as a result, so the army wasps remained largely off peoples' radars.

"You took on such a dangerous foe by yourself, sir?"

"I haven't seen any other colleagues since I came in here. In my case, after I defeated the army wasps and the queen magic-born who led them, I heard this voice calling me over…and the next thing I knew, I was here."

"Ah, I see…"

Krishna was deeply impressed by Minitz's casual explanation. If a queen wasp had been transformed into a magic-born, its power was beyond all imagination —equivalent to a low-end demon lord, in all likelihood. Taking out such an opponent, along with her entire army of monster insects… It was a clear show of strength, and it did a great deal to relieve the trio's anxieties. Krishna was too nervous to notice until now, but Minitz was wounded all up and down his body,

the large hole in his chest providing ample evidence of how fierce the battle was.

"Are you all right?" Reiha asked.

"You're asking that now?" Minitz laughed. "I had potions with me. I'll get my stamina back once I rest a bit longer. But what route did you guys take to get here?"

Minitz still had the initiative here. They were all treating each other as equals for the moment, but the sheer force of personality from him still made Krishna's team follow his lead.

Under his guidance, they all shared whatever information they knew with each other. Putting it together, they found that the labyrinth likely had an amorphous, transformable structure. This reality was so different from their prior intelligence that they had virtually no baseline to work with. They were essentially groping their way through the labyrinth's passages, and their future wasn't looking too bright.

"What the hell's going on in here anyway? Because we faced off against the boss of Floor 60 from the briefing, didn't we? Why didn't the demon lord Rimuru have us enter this labyrinth from the first floor?" Bazan demanded.

It would have taken much more time to navigate this maze then. If he just wanted them to exhaust themselves, Bazan reasoned, that would've been the best way.

"Simple," Minitz replied. "You heard the rumors about this place, I'm sure. If you have the bracelet on in here, you can come back to life if you die. But what if that applied to the monsters as well?"

"Ah…"

Bazan just groaned in reply, Krishna and Reiha bitterly mulling over Minitz's words.

"Instead of making us eat up time working our way down, they'd be able to eliminate more of our forces by letting great masses of us in at once…?"

"And once you're in, you can't get out. It's virtually lining us up to be cut

down, isn't it?"

Minitz nodded. "That was the sort of confidence he had in this labyrinth's strengths in wartime, of course. I had suggested to Lord Caligulio that we should address this, but he replied that we could just occupy whatever space the dead monsters were sent to for revival and kill them again. It seemed reasonable enough at the time, so I had to back down."

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but looking back, that was a crucial error of judgment—one that made the Empire deploy more than half a million soldiers. Sending troops right in, one squadron after another, was the most foolish approach they could have taken. And it never would have happened if they hadn't misjudged the demon lord Rimuru and the abilities of those who served him.

"So were you able to find any other survivors?" Minitz asked the trio. "Well…"

That alone told the whole story. As of right now, they could only assume that they were the sole ones left alive.

"It's not that I can't believe it—I don't want to believe it," said Bazan. "If we ever make it back to the surface alive, we'll have to retreat ASAP."

"It'll enrage His Majesty, no doubt, but we're left with no other choice," agreed Krishna.

Nobody disagreed with that conclusion. With that decided, they had to start addressing the current situation.

"By the way, what's going on with this room?"

"We didn't detect any poison or whatnot in the food and drink here," Reiha told Minitz. "I'm not about to accept charity from the enemy, but it seems clear they meant to extend us a helping hand."

"And that door… Push or pull, it won't budge a bit, but do you see the numbers on top of it? Before you showed up, we were just talking about how it looked like a countdown to us."

Beyond the door on the other side of the room, there seemed to be a thick,

unspeakably evil presence wafting through the cracks. And just as Bazan noted, there was indeed a number above it. It was clearly marking time, and currently it read 200. That likely meant the door would open in just under three and a half hours—shockingly, the exact amount of time Minitz thought he needed to regain his full strength. Minitz let out a weary sigh. That couldn't have been by chance.

"It looks like the enemy wants us to fight when we're in tip-top shape," he said. "I don't know if they'll give us a fair fight, exactly, but they want us to heal, at least."

"Are they going to make us take the challenge one by one, or a couple of us at once, or what?" Reiha wondered aloud.

"Either way, they sure must be confident of their own strength," said Krishna.

"Pretty cocky move to make against a major general and the killers of a wight king," added Bazan.

"Well, let's take the offer. Kanzis will be here before long, I imagine, and the more time we can buy, the better."

"Fair enough," said Krishna. "And the more forces we have, the better, too. If Lord Kanzis is joining us, maybe we'll find a way out of this labyrinth after all."

"Right. And we have seven keys in our possession so far. I'm sure you have one of these, too, don't you, sir?" Reiha mentioned as she took out a medallion with ten crystals embedded in it. Seven of them were currently glowing. The medallion must have been the key that allowed access to the king of the labyrinth.

"Of course. We need to beat the Ten Marvels to access their king. By the time we came in, four of their keys were already ours."

"Yes. And it seems not just the wight king, but his bodyguard as well—they both counted as Marvels," said Krishna.

"They did? Then if Kanzis wins his battle, we'll have eight by the time we challenge this floor and at least nine afterward. Kind of a pale shadow of a hope at the moment, but at least it's a way forward."

If they could get a ticket back to the surface right now, all of them swore they'd never venture back in. That's how horrible this labyrinth was. But that wish wasn't about to come true. Unless they beat whatever was ahead, they were never getting out of this place alive. They had prepared for this the moment they went in, which now felt like a whole lifetime ago.

The only thing left for them to do was push on.

So Minitz and his newfound comrades rested as they awaited Kanzis's arrival. If they wanted to improve their chances, they needed to ease their fatigue as much as possible. Nobody touched the refreshments on the table, whether it was safe or not. They all snacked on their energy bars instead, replenishing their stamina for what might be the last time. This was now a matter of survival.

When three minutes remained on the countdown, Minitz stood up. He checked his medallion, only to find there were no newly glowing crystals on it. His shoulders drooped.

"…I fear Kanzis might have lost."

They couldn't wait any longer. Reinforcements were not coming. Minitz abandoned the naive expectation that any would. Calmly assessing the situation, he gave precise instructions to his teammates.

"Right. It's time. Let's finish up prep."

The Imperial Guardians silently nodded back. Taking out their pendants, they each chanted a short password.

"""Release!"""

Without missing a beat, torrents of light surged out of each pendant, and the trio was armed and ready. They numbered three Imperial Guardians, alongside Major General Minitz of the Armored Division. There might have been only four of them, but right then, they were the absolute best the Empire had.

With this lineup, reaching the end of the labyrinth wasn't a dream. That was what everyone there had to believe.

So the fateful moment arrived. The countdown progressed all the way down to zero, and when it did, the door before them opened.

Everyone was ready for this. Without further hesitation, they went through the doorway, throwing themselves into the all-or-nothing battle for survival.

...…

...

…

Beyond the door was profound darkness, a place of pure black where no light shone. Reiha hurriedly activated Floor-wide Light, an elemental magic useful for illuminating one's surroundings. What it revealed made the entire group gasp.

They were in a vast wasteland piled high with the corpses of imperial soldiers. At the very top of the tallest pile, a single monster was sitting cross-legged in meditation. It was Zegion. He wasn't seated directly on the dead but instead was floating ever so slightly in the air, proving that he was highly trained in the magic arts.

"Welcome, brave fellows."

The voice was low but clear. Every word he uttered seemed to swell into an overpowering presence. Now Minitz was convinced. This monster was the one who coaxed him here. It had to be the demon lord Rimuru himself.

He couldn't help but ask.

"Are you…the demon lord Rimuru?"

The briefing he read through said Rimuru was a slime by species. But so what? If he was a slime, he could change into any form he wanted. And more than that, this monster was emitting an absolutely overwhelming amount of energy —Lord's Ambition, they called it. This, he thought, was all the proof he needed that this was a demon lord before him.

But the question was met with a scathing rejection.

"You dare mistake…the likes of myself…for Sir Rimuru, the greatest of demon lords…?"

"What?"

Furious rage filled the space. The seething reply made Minitz realize he just

committed a terrible mistake.

"My name is Zegion. I am merely one of the Ten Dungeon Marvels, nothing more. And all of you ignorant, wriggling fools deserve nothing but death."

His words were plain, but his burning rage was palpable.

"There is only one way for you to survive—by beating me. Throw your very lives into this fight and resist me with every fiber of your being!"

That was a pretty arrogant thing to say in front of the Empire's greatest champions. But there was not a hint of condescension in his voice. As Minitz and his team realized, Zegion was simply stating the truth as he knew it—and the only way to prove him wrong was to show him their might, just as he said.

"Time to go all out," Minitz told the three Imperial Guardians. "Yes, sir."

"Mm-hmm."

"You got it."

And so the mayhem began.

Damn. Really?

That was my true, unvarnished impression.

Benimaru and I were staring at the big screen in utter amazement. The scenes shown on it a moment ago, from inside the labyrinth, were now black…and that indicated that the last of the imperial troops inside were dead. The battle was over…but the enormity of what we just witnessed had left us all momentarily speechless.

"Dude… He's stronger than you, yeah?"

That was the only thing I could begin with.

Benimaru scowled, perhaps a bit unwilling to admit it. "There is a…small chance…that is possible."

Wow. He looked super crestfallen. He followed that up with a barely

whispered "But I strictly mean that there's a nonzero chance, you see," but— c'mon, man, just admit it. Be a little honest.

"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I attempted to fight Zegion myself. He has a fearsome sense for battle, a built-in advantage over demon opponents, and resistance to nearly all base-level magic. He truly is Sir Veldora's disciple prodigy. I might have even lost myself if I wasn't paying attention. You are not truly defeated until you admit defeat, after all."

Diablo was smiling, taking the "I didn't lose, we were just practicing!" approach with Zegion. But this really wasn't a laughing matter for me. That was the case for Razul, too, wasn't it? High-end insect types seemed to be kind of the natural enemies of demons, and I'd say Zegion was among the most powerful who ever existed. (I should note that Testarossa and her fellow demonesses also challenged Zegion in the past, and they hadn't won against him yet, either. Diablo just loved seeing Testarossa frustrate herself against the dude, I'm sure.)

But hey, if those three could fight evenly against Zegion, that still made them pretty damn extraordinary. After seeing the fight I just did, that was the only conclusion I could make. But let's take a quick look back.

...…

...

…

The battle in the labyrinth ended largely as expected. Earning those two otherworlder defectors was a nice bonus, and Kumara had notched a truly laudable victory over in her domain. Pity about what happened to Adalmann's crew and Apito, but—well, given who they got paired with, that was the luck of the draw sometimes.

By the way, it turned out someone was calling all these strong dudes to gather in his chamber, even giving them time to fully heal themselves before the battle. Yep, that was Zegion. Anyone in the labyrinth he saw as worthy enough, he used Control Space to all but drag them over to him. Pretty amazing senses on that guy. He must've been observing every battle in the labyrinth as he was meditating down there, and he didn't make a move until each one was

over, gathering only the strongest survivors over to him.

It was just the craziest thing to do. If he lost after this, he'd look like the biggest dumbass in the world, and I was sure it'd get brought up at the next Dungeon Marvels meeting. Nobody complained about it, though. Losers don't get the right to complain, maybe… But more than that, everyone recognized that Zegion had the strength to back up this act. We also had word that Veldora even gave it his personal stamp of approval— "Let him do as he pleases," he had said.

From Benimaru's and my point of view, the focus really should have been on setting the stage for a sure win. If he let the enemy heal itself, then lost because of some miscue…

…Well, that was my worry, but now there were only four foes left in the whole labyrinth. Now I wondered if I was ruining my demon lord rep by micromanaging and complaining about insignificant matters.

By this point, I had long decided to indulge Zegion's selfishness. Besides, he was helping us gather a ton of useful battle data. I also wanted to see how he acted once he got real serious in battle, so I just let him do as he pleased.

The result was an absolute steamrollering. In a word, it was overwhelming.

Bazan, the brawler who fended off that death dragon single-handedly, was the first to act. From his initial blow, he struck Zegion with his full power, a sword strike that seemed to shatter the earth itself. But Zegion batted the blow away with his left hand, deliberately trying to avoid impeding his opponent's motion. The gentle push on his sword threw Bazan off-balance, keeping him from launching into a combination strike.

Zegion wasn't about to miss that opportunity. At once, he advanced straight up to the guy, planted his right leg down, and drove his right fist into his opponent's armor. I didn't even want to know how much power was in that fist, really… And the results indicated that it was as hard as a Legend-class weapon. The shining armor was shattered, and with that, Bazan's life was forfeit.

This all happened less than three seconds after battle began. Losing a teammate that suddenly must've been too difficult to parse at once.

Reiha, the wizard, just stood there blankly, and it was pretty clear what would happen if she acted like that around Zegion. If anything, she had it good, getting to die without any pain or fear. A single chop of her adversary's bare hand was all it took to cleave her in two.

Seeing her collapse to the ground, Krishna—the winner over Alberto— screamed in horror.

"Ah, aaaahhhhhhhhhh!! You killed Reiha! Die, you monster! Dimension Cutter!!"

His anger pouring into his fighting will, Krishna unleashed the skill at near divine speed. Dimension Cutter was a slashing move, one that could slice through any defense—even across dimensions. Without a spatial-control skill like my Dominate Space, it'd be impossible to counter. It was all but unstoppable, a true "sure kill" if there ever was one in battle.

But it didn't work on Zegion.

"Ha. Pitiful."

The air began to twist around him.

Hang on. Wasn't this Distortion Field? Like, part of the Absolute Defense tools offered by Uriel, Lord of Vows?! Whenever I used Absolute Defense, I always seemed to blow it for some reason, but Zegion apparently mastered it.

"Sir Rimuru granted me this technique," he told the shocked Krishna, "and it renders all attacks futile!"

Um, I don't remember teaching him that…?

…

That was you, Raphael?

And Zegion's Dominate Space ability had gone way beyond unique-skill territory. It's just as good as mine by now. No wonder he could fight toe to toe (maybe even better) with Veldora if it was strictly a martial arts contest. I could certainly see how he could block Krishna's strike with it.

So it felt like Krishna's team was pretty much doomed by now, but:

"Krishna, listen!"

The fancily dressed dude with them—Minitz, I think his name was—called for Krishna.

"This is a foe beyond anything we've seen before. I'll slow him down, so do everything you can to finish him off!"

Apparently he hadn't given up on winning yet. I'll have to admit, as an enemy, he was a decent one.

Now Minitz was raining his power down upon Zegion. We already knew about the unique skill Minitz had—Apito's defeat wasn't in vain at all. He had Oppressor, which let him mess around with localized gravitational force, and he wanted to use it to focus gravity on Zegion and restrain him.

But alas, it didn't work on Zegion. All he had to do was warp the space around him to manipulate the flow of gravity the way he wanted it. It kind of surprised me—I never thought about using it that way.

Like, since when was Zegion so freakishly strong? That question in my mind was growing bigger and bigger. Also, why the heck was Raphael even able to teach stuff to Zegion?

Understood. You may have perhaps forgotten, Master, but you have given him part of your own body. Subsequently, you are now connected by a soul corridor.

Oh, right. He was about to die, and when I saved him, I did give him part of my body, didn't I? But wouldn't that apply to Apito, too?

Understood. The difference lies in latent talent. The subject Zegion's physical specifications are beyond any measure, and thus I was able to give him a full super optimization to my satisfaction. As a result, he has acquired abilities similar to you, Master.

The job it did on Apito was amazing enough, but that still didn't satisfy Raphael, I guess. It was happy enough with the job it did on Zegion, and honestly, it was a little hard to fully grasp what that meant.

And what the hell's a full super optimization? Did he turn him into a

superhero or something? This was all so new to me. So Zegion was basically a little masterpiece put together by Raphael in its spare time? Looking at it that way, no wonder he had turned into such a freak of nature.

That's Raphael for you—always taking everything to extremes. It's done it again, this time behind my back. Now, in Zegion, we had a battle-focused magic-born with the ideal fighting form, further honed via Veldora's intense training. There was no way any ordinary person could ever take him on.

And as expected:

"Dimension Ray!"

Zegion opened up his right hand and carelessly swung his arm down. That's all it took to cut through the local dimension—or space itself, I suppose. This was another phenomenon you had no chance of resisting without the ability to manipulate the space around you.

The two imperial fighters immediately reacted, but that alone wouldn't help them. Krishna tried to cancel it out with another Dimension Cutter, but it failed, and he was cut in half. The difference in sheer muscle was bleedingly (pardon the pun) obvious.

As for Minitz, he set up a jamming force field around himself to try to block the dimensional slash… But that, too, was just pointless struggling. Against twisting, slicing dimensional space, virtually no physical ability or phenomenon could do much of anything. The look of surprise on his face was really hard to describe, but if I had to, I'd say it was the face of someone who just tasted defeat for the first time in his whole life. So he set off for the afterlife, likely not even given the time to admit defeat.

...…

...

…

So less than a minute after battle began, all the challengers were dead. And well, that concluded my lecture on how incredibly goddamn strong Zegion was. The leaps and bounds Kumara made surprised me enough, but that was nothing compared to our insect friend here. For all I know, he might even outclass me

by now.

Like…oh, man. I think he's starting to overstep the bounds of life itself or something. He's become a truly transcendent being, hasn't he? Stronger than even Hinata when she's fighting for real. By my calculations, even Apito could rank up there with Carillon or Frey strengthwise, but I don't think Apito could last three minutes with Zegion. The moment he got serious, the fight would end instantly. It's hardly even a fight with him, even. It's just a one-sided massacre.

Why did I even put someone so powerful in the labyrinth? Because aren't his talents kinda going to waste down there? …But then again, this is a secret weapon, isn't it? Something I could never afford to unleash to the open world.

Still, though… I knew there were lots of powerful people hiding out around the world, and I didn't think I let my guard down at all…but I had no idea there was so much off-the-charts strength right under my nose the whole time. Like, I always thought they looked pretty strong, but this was far beyond my imagination. Truly, there's no fathoming the mysteries of the world.

But enough about that. We've got other things to reflect on right now, don't we?

Thanks to this, I learned the hard way that leaving things up to Raphael can result in some pretty zany nonsense. Now wasn't the time to whine and moan about a little hard work. We were gonna need to have a long talk later to see if it had done anything else I ought to know about.

Still, even with those thoughts in mind, I was relieved that the battle in the labyrinth ended without major incident.

And so out of the more than seven hundred thousand troops who participated in the ground invasion, we had finished taking care of five hundred thirty thousand.

This was practically genocide, I know, but for me, all it meant was that I had gained over half a million souls. That meant seven hundred seventy thousand in total, and that meant I could now evolve seven of my top officials. Once the remaining ground battles were wrapped up, I'd need to consider who to give

the nod to.

And as for that ground battle, we weren't letting our guard down yet.

"Now the imperial force numbers less than two hundred thousand troops. That's a pretty big army, but it seems tiny compared to before, huh?"

"Indeed. Two days have passed since their final deployment into the labyrinth, but no moves since then. We don't see any signs that they're ready to send any more down. Of course, if the enemy commander keeps prodding the labyrinth after all this, he'd have to be beyond incompetent."

Benimaru was right, I suppose. With all the strength they lost, I doubted they'd be kicking any more soldiers through the labyrinth gate. Now it was our turn to confront them instead.

Without any over-A rankers on their side, the enemy force was nowhere near the juggernaut it used to be. It was a big army, yes, but we could probably take them on easily. I thought we could anyway, but—ah, there was always something to worry about.

"So now what? The other side's still got us beat in numbers and quality, right? If we hit them with the Second Army Corps, that's going to cost us casualties no matter what, won't it?"

We could just hole up in here and wait for them to run out of food. That could earn us victory unscathed. With the food stores we have in the labyrinth, we could duke it out for another year. Cultivation was possible to some extent down there as well, and if push came to shove, we could always ask Ramiris to give us more farmland. That would be the firm, cautious approach, I think.

"Well, we've already cut off the enemy's supply lines," said Benimaru. "Strategically speaking, we've got the upper hand. Now that we've come this far, it's really more cleanup duty than anything—"

"Hmph! As you said earlier, you're not going to let the invaders leave alive, then?" Shion cut in. "That's just what I hoped to hear from you, Benimaru! What valor!"

Shion's interruption made Benimaru snicker. Apparently, she was right.

"No, it is best not to let the Empire harbor any more useless ambitions. It's all the more reason why we need to kill all the intruders."

Benimaru was starting to sound like Raphael now. Annihilating the majority of the imperial army wasn't enough to satisfy him; he was committed to killing every single one of them without prejudice, just as originally planned. He's so merciless, isn't he? And at this point, I saw no reason to oppose him.

But… I mean, I was ready for that. I was sure the Empire's subjects would hate me for all this, even if just out of spite. I just hoped it didn't give us a bad rap with the Western Nations…

Report. I have a suggestion I would like to test.

Oh?

Sounded like Raphael had a plan of its own. The fact that it didn't just tell me about it first thing let me know that maybe my friend wasn't too confident it would work.

Is this something we could do right now, then?

Negative. It will require time and preparation, so it is better to attempt after the war is over.

Okay.

Certainly, I didn't want to start any more wacky experiments during wartime. I didn't know what Raphael wanted to do, but either way, I was the one who'd have to execute it. We could talk about it later.

I turned my attention back to Benimaru. I had accepted his proposal to kill them all, but my only other important request was that there be no casualties on our side.

"But is that even possible without anyone dying?"

"If we in your officer corps come out to battle, Sir Rimuru, I'm sure of it."

Confident as ever. And Diablo, Shion, and even the typically calm Geld were nodding eagerly at Benimaru's assessment.

"Okay, so what exactly will you guys do?"

Benimaru began explaining.

"First, Sir Rimuru, we cannot leave you unguarded."

Everyone nodded their agreement.

"Do you have to be that careful? I mean, we killed everyone in the labyrinth except for Lucius and Raymond."

We were still treating them as prisoners of war for now. They didn't seem likely to betray us, so we didn't throw them in jail or anything. They were on standby on Floor 60 just in case, kept under Gadora's supervision; he had been showing them the battles on each floor of the labyrinth to help stave off their boredom. That included recordings of the two of them as well, but what amazed them the most was how each of the labyrinth guardians fought.

"You see now? You were smart to join my side, weren't you?" "You were, right? You oughtta be grateful."

"…At least thank him for giving you three meals a day."

"Hey, c'mon, guys. We went down the same road they did, remember. We should know how they both feel."

Gadora and Shinji's gang were all helping prop up their spirits, even. I didn't think we needed to worry about anything with them.

Now I wondered if any imperial forces snuck into our capital city before the war began.

"Soei, were there any intruders in town?"

"We've already taken care of them."

Yeah, I'm sure there were—but if that was the answer Soei had, the problem was already in the distant past.

Report. We have successfully eliminated every single person who entered the labyrinth. Only one individual, the subject Krishna, was confirmed to have used a Resurrection Bracelet, but since he is currently outside the labyrinth, he will no longer pose a problem.

Oh, so Krishna survived? He was a pretty strong dude, sure, but if Raphael had

already kept tabs on him, I had nothing to worry about.

"Yeah, well, I guess the labyrinth's safe now, so I suppose I can relax a little bit, huh? Besides, those Imperial Guardians like Kanzis and Minitz—people in their class would be stronger than me before I became demon lord, right? From what Chloe told me, I hadn't evolved into one in her time line, so it wouldn't be a shock at all if they killed me, would it?"

In that scenario, Diablo wouldn't be there for me, either—I hadn't summoned him by then—and Veldora wasn't fully revived, so even folks like Zegion would be their pre-evolved selves. In terms of war power, we'd be way weaker than we were now—it wasn't even a comparison. If the Empire attacked us in that situation, it wouldn't be strange at all if we were too helpless to resist and I kicked it.

…That is not possible.

No, I really think it is, y'know?

Like, I get how much of a sore loser you are, Raphael, but that's a really petulant thing to say. Besides, you were still just the Great Sage back then.

…

Heh. You lost that debate, huh? My first win in a while.

Not that there's a winner and a loser in this kind of argument, but still. "Yes… Perhaps you're right, Sir Rimuru."

Benimaru agreed, although he didn't seem to like it much. But Shion refused to accept it.

"No! There was no possible way you could be defeated!"

There was, actually. History proves me right. Well, that history anyway. We're on a different one now, but with someone like Shion, trying to debate theoretical time lines is an exercise in futility.

Giving up on that fool's errand, I got us back on topic.

"…Well, there's no point debating it now. The key takeaway here is that the Empire had a lot of strong dudes in it. They might still have a bunch left, too, so

we're all gonna have to remain careful. And I appreciate your wish to keep me guarded, but I don't want you guys getting hurt because of it."

The labyrinth seemed more than safe enough by this point. And when it came to the ground war, I thought the sooner we put that behind us, the better. That was why I said that, but my phrasing had a lot more power than I thought.

"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… If that's what you say, Sir Rimuru, then I will gladly go out to fight as well. Allow me to end this battle in a single instant!"

"No trying for a head start, Diablo! I'm not going to give up this opportunity to have Sir Rimuru see my treasured troops in action for the first time!"

"Please, my lord, wait! Testa and Ult have been given chances to shine, but I haven't been given anything yet. That's so mean! Please, deploy me as well while you're at it!"

Diablo, Shion, and Carrera (who had just flown in through the doorway) were all making a huge fuss about going out there to fight.

"You three…"

Even Benimaru was taken aback. Geld was laughing about it, too.

"All right, all right. I'll stay here, so you guys can handle the final battle for us."

In the end, Benimaru agreed to let Diablo and the others go to war.

With that question settled, now we needed a workable strategy.

"Let's take a look at our numbers. Our main force is my Red Numbers, totaling thirty thousand, along with seventeen thousand elites from Geld's Yellow Numbers and Orange Numbers. In terms of quality, they're probably all on par with the remaining imperial troops, and I'm connected via Thought Communication with their commanders and captains. They'll be able to take flexible tactical action out there, so if we restrict their zone of activity, that should let us fight evenly with them or better. How many people are among your 'treasured troops,' then?"

So forty-seven thousand in all? And they averaged a B-plus in rank, which was more than sufficient. But they'd be going up against an Empire force almost four times as large. No matter how much of an operational advantage we had, defeat seemed pretty likely to me…

"Ten thousand. And by the way, only those who kept up with my training remain on the team, so you can treat all of them as ranking at least a B-plus."

This was Shion's elite guard—or her fan club, as we usually called it. It was something of an enigma, an entity set apart from Team Reborn that was captained by Daggrull's sons. Apparently, it was bigger than I thought.

"There's really that many of them?"

Like, man, it sure grew while I wasn't paying attention. I knew that Gobzo was a member, but I could only imagine what kind of other clowns were in there.

"There are, Sir Rimuru! I've been secretly training them to serve as a worthy

elite guard for you!"

Hmm… They're your fan club, aren't they? Not mine. But whatever. The more reliable allies we had, the merrier.

"But even this leaves us at a dire numerical disadvantage, so I'll be expecting a lot out of all my close officers here. First, we should confuse them with a large scale skill, then strike them when they're open. They won't just sit back and watch, of course. Assuming they advance upon us, the first question is who should tackle them first…"

Usually, Benimaru would have been taking that role, as far as I knew. A wide ranging attack like Hellflare would be perfect for the job, but unfortunately, Benimaru had to stay here and guard me. So who else, then?

"Isn't this where I come in, my lord?" Carrera asked.

Hmm. Yeah. She did seem qualified. I glanced at Benimaru. Our eyes met, he gave me a small nod, and with that, I decided to give Carrera her wish.

"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh! I think I can—"

"Right, Carrera, it's up to you. Use some of that flashy magic of yours to teach the imperial force a lesson they'll never forget!"

"Absolutely, my lord! You can count on me!"

Oh, was Diablo about to say something?

"Sorry, Diablo, what were you saying?"

"N-no… Keh…heh-heh… Keh-heh… It was nothing of importance. But good for you, Carrera."

"Oooh, I'm sooo happy!"

I could almost see the sparks flying between Diablo and Carrera. Was he about to nominate himself or something? If so, then my apologies—but did Diablo have that kind of large-scale magic at his fingertips? Surely he had to. I guess being around me all the time like this was driving him to show off as much as possible. Now I felt just a little bad for him.

Hopping out of my chair, I transformed from slime to human form and stood

before Diablo. Placing a hand on his shoulder, I tried to sound as persuasive as I could.

"Sorry about that, Diablo. You know, I was actually hoping you might volunteer to kill off the enemy commander for me!"

"Huh?!"

Diablo's lips curled into a grin. He looked happy—really happy. Great, then.

"Like, there still might be unknown menaces in their army, right? It looks like the Krishna guy from before managed to resurrect himself, for example, but it oughtta be easy for you to trace him."

Given his stalker-ish behavior from time to time, I bet Diablo was good at that kind of thing. "Of course, Sir Rimuru!" he replied happily. Aha. I knew it all along.

"Yes, it is still possible that powerful fighters lurk within the Empire. If we want them to come out of the woodwork, we'll need to show off our full powers right here, on this battlefield. Carrera, Diablo, I'm counting on you!"

"I swear I'll do my best, my lord!"

"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… A direct edict from you, Sir Rimuru, makes my heart soar with excitement!"

Well, super. Carrera was glad to be playing a part, and now Diablo was all motivated again. That oughtta make it easier for Geld and the rest to do their jobs.

"Now, make sure you keep the other troops intimidated enough so nobody interferes with Carrera's magic. If someone does try to mess with her, Shion, have your troops deal with them."

Benimaru, taking over for me, began rattling off his orders. I was sure I could safely leave the rest to him now.

"As for the formation, I'd like Geld up front and Shion using hit-and-run tactics, as we discussed. We'll count on the Red Numbers to provide pursuit duty, but as for who'll be in charge…"

They needed someone who could connect via Thought Communication to

Benimaru and immediately execute his will as needed. Thought Communication could also be used to relay orders to every ally on the field, but any mistaken action out there could end our life. A commander who could make little corrections as needed was absolutely vital. I think Gobwa could handle that job nimbly enough, but maybe him giving orders to Shion and Geld was asking a bit much?"

"I think that Gob—"

"One moment!"

The door to the Control Center burst open, interrupting Benimaru. There we saw Momiji, representative of the chief of the tengu. She was also Hakuro's daughter, so she was pretty close with everyone in the room. But giving her such easy access to the Control Center, after we tightened up security so much…

"Um, Lady Shuna was gracious enough to let me in."

Aha.

Shuna had been handling lots of small details for us this whole time, bringing us meals and preparing tea, and I guess Momiji had been helping her out. Fair enough, then. Let's hear her out.

"As Benimaru's wife, I think it is time for me step up and take his position on the field!!"

"What are you…?!"

We couldn't just have anyone take Benimaru's place here…but Momiji would be fine, wouldn't she? She had the power, for sure, and her temperament was such that she wouldn't let Shion or Geld give her cold feet.

"Well, why not?"

I opted to accept the offer.

"Indeed, I would gladly welcome Lady Momiji as a worthy ally!"

Shion didn't seem to mind, either. She knew that Momiji was Hakuro's daughter, so she must have been treating her with a soft touch.

"I'm for it as well. The Red Numbers are a meritocracy of worthy magic-born. Instead of Team Kurenai going it alone, I would much rather ask for help from our tengu friend."

Geld was on board, too, and nobody else seemed to be voicing any disagreement.

"Well, unless there are any concerns, you mind if I let your fiancée take this job, Benimaru?"

"N-no, but…"

Oh, is he against it? Yeah, maybe he doesn't want his future wife out fighting in wars.

"Ah, worried for your wife?"

"Well, yes… Wait, no!"

Darn. I almost got him to admit it. But he wasn't off the hook yet. "Benimaru!"

With a loud bang, the door flew open to reveal Shuna, standing up straight and admonishing her brother.

"Lady Momiji has been preparing your meals for the past few days, I'll have you know! All she wanted was for you to have a good meal, so she asked me to teach her how to cook. That's such a gallant thing to do, and I don't want that to go to waste!"

"She… She has?"

"Yes."

Momiji nodded. I had actually noticed this. Compared to Shuna, the meal quality wasn't quite up to the usual standard. That's why I felt it was perfectly fine to give Momiji her wish.

"But kitchen work and battle command are two very different—" "Benimaru!"

"Ugh…"

Benimaru can't resist his little sister, either, huh?

"This is your fault for being so indecisive in the first place, you know. No wonder Lady Momiji is so anxious. If you're a man, you need to make it clear who you love already!"

Yes. He did. I was curious which one Benimaru would choose—Alvis or Momiji —but then again, was now really the time for that? I honestly began to sympathize with him. If I were him, I probably wouldn't want this talked about in front of everyone, either.

"No, Lady Shuna. Victory is something I must seize with my own hands!"

Now it was Momiji making the emotional declarations. Yow. Now Alvis had a huge disadvantage. Momiji was clearly doing a better job laying the groundwork. Was this battle over?

But just then:

"You won't get away with this."

Alvis, of all people, showed up, slipping right out from behind Shuna. "I have just arrived now with reinforcements from Eurazania."

I didn't ask for any, and I'd heard nothing about any…but in Alvis's hand was a letter from Milim. It contained a single sentence: Do your best! Hmm. Who was it meant for? Pretty open-ended message there.

But hang on. How did Alvis get inside the labyrinth?

"Lady Milim provided the magic. You developed it for her, didn't you, Sir Rimuru?"

Ohhh, right. Milim had gotten telepathic permission from Ramiris to send military forces directly into the labyrinth, huh? That was a pretty reckless decision on Milim's part, but then, anything was possible with her.

So now we had a force of twenty thousand led by Alvis—not just lycanthropes but also a bunch of harpies, reportedly. A few choice representatives from the Beast Master's Warrior Alliance were even along for the ride.

Even Benimaru had to give this a resigned grin. As long as Milim's will was

involved, there was absolutely no way we could send Alvis's troops back home. Besides, if I did, Momiji would never, ever give Benimaru a moment of peace.

"All right, all right. Momiji, I'm giving you my force. Take care of it for me." "With pleasure!"

She looked happy—and with that, the battle between the two women began. "I hope you don't drag me down at all."

"Hee-hee-hee! What kind of talk is that, hmm?"

I was already picturing the sparks flying between them. Was this really okay? I was a little concerned about that.

So despite all the interruptions, we had a general idea of who we were going to deploy. I should note that Alvis's reinforcements were completely dependable fighters. We were still at a numerical disadvantage, but I think this gave us a lot more wiggle room. Geld would be in the front row, Momiji taking up the rear. The cavalry, so to speak, was on the wings—Shion on the right and Alvis on the left.

This all helped me relax a little, but we still had a battle to fight. Pulling myself together, I sent the orders for each division to head out.

Shion and Geld, waiting for this moment all week, immediately sprang into action. Momiji followed suit, and suddenly the Control Center was busier than ever.

On Floor 95, currently serving as Floor 100, there was a vast open space—not enough of one for military training, but if we were just housing troops, it would suffice. With that in mind, the members of Geld's Second Army Corps and Benimaru's Fourth Corps were put on standby in and around Floor 100. They'd be coming down in about an hour, so I decided to go out and give them a little morale boost—that, and they needed my teleportation magic to get them down here anyway.

"Sir Rimuru, do you have a moment?" Soei whispered into my ear as I prepared to set off.

"What's up?"

"I've just received word from Moss that signs of battle were detected in the direction of Blumund. After an investigation, we found that Lady Treyni is engaged in battle with someone."

"What?!"

Come to think of it, I hadn't seen Treyni for the past ten or so days. She mentioned going out to "greet" someone, and she hadn't been back since. Was she fighting this whole time, then?

"I'm sorry, Soei, but can you go and help her out a bit?"

Soei seemed to hesitate for a moment. Maybe he worried that this kept me too unguarded. Everyone really worries too damn much around here. They didn't have to be so touchy all the time, you know? Benimaru was still here, and if something came up, we could always tap the Ten Dungeon Marvels. I was a lot more worried about Treyni than myself at the moment.

After exchanging glances with Benimaru, Soei nodded. If Benimaru was here with me, Soei must've been willing to accept my orders. I was glad but also a little irritated. Was he that concerned about me? Like, I know I was killed once, according to Chloe, but I'm evolved now. I'm a demon lord.

…But that's the equivalent of "I'm retiring in a week," isn't it?

Still, there was no point being all anxious. If something popped up, I was sure Raphael would let me know anyway.

"Very well. I will leave at once."

"Thanks."

Soei promptly disappeared. His Instantmove skill was as brilliant as usual.

If Treyni had been fighting all this time, her opponent must have been at about her level. Once Soei joined in, I was sure victory would come soon after. It did bother me, and I'd have loved to know who she was fighting, but my hands were tied at the moment. I had to finish the fight in front of me first.

One hour later, a massive number of magic-born were crowded together on Floor 100's vacant space. As soon as I showed up, everyone stood still and

quieted down. It was a little scary, frankly, how under control they were. Morale was high, and motivation definitely wasn't a problem.

"Um… Right! Soldiers, this one battle is all it will take to drive the imperial army out of our federation. Our goal here is total victory, and I want every single one of you to come out alive and share the glory with us. That is all!"

Not to sound modest or whatever, but I really suck at speeches. It'd be nice if Raphael could just write 'em and read 'em out for me, but that's the exact kind of time that it starts pretending not to hear me. I tried my best to convey my message in my own words, and surprisingly, the magic-born seemed to accept it. From what I heard later, it received praise from both the old guard and newer magic-born in their army.

"Y-yeaaaahhh! Sir Rimuru's speech was amazing!"

"I can die now. I've got no regrets left in life!!"

"You idiot! Dying means you've been killed!!"

They told me this was the talk around the army later, but I wasn't aware at the time, so I just took all those silent rows of troops and teleported them to the ground floor.

Well, things were pretty darn lonely down here again. Shion and Diablo were out fighting this time, so it was only Benimaru and me now.

"We can win, right?"

"No problems there, no. I didn't see any movements from the imperial soldiers, but there's a flurry of activity among the leadership, it looks like. That straggler Krishna must've reported on events in the labyrinth. If I were them, and he told me he was the only survivor, I'd be out of there in a hurry… Well, I wouldn't put us in this situation in the first place, but you understand what I mean."

His classic fearless smile was on his face. I had to agree with him. Being out of contact with my people gets me nervous enough as it is, so I probably wouldn't let it happen unless we came up with some countermeasures. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this plan of ours to be nearly as successful as it turned out to

be.

"No matter what it is, it never pays to be greedy, huh?"

"Indeed. War and looting go hand in hand, but it's forbidden in our military, at least."

Excellent. In war, the side to lose their composure first usually loses, but once your desires get stoked a little bit, it's easy to get too heated up. We took advantage of that habit in this campaign, and it worked scarily well. It's a good lesson for us, too—better not fall in the same trap they did.

We were on our way back to the Control Center, discussing this, when a possibility occurred to me.

"Hey, you and I are the only ones here, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, if—if—there happen to be any enemies still hiding in the labyrinth, they'd never let an opportunity like this go to waste, would they? What do you think of that?"

"Oh, come now. There's no way anyone could time a move so precisely like that."

Yeah. I was getting too suspicious. Even Raphael had signed off on the labyrinth's current safety. Being paranoid all day would accomplish nothing, so I decided to leave the thought at that. Continually dredging up the same thoughts in your mind is a great way to make yourself anxious, after all. But I just had a bad feeling for a little while…

…?

Like, you know. It's not that I doubt Raphael. I just couldn't help but wonder if it overlooked something.

Understood. All potentially suspicious subjects have been identified.

Yeah, that I trust in. But what if it's someone I know really well? Like Elen's gang, for example. I trust all of them, so if they ever betrayed me, I'd suffer a whole lot for it.

But these were still all just what-ifs. There was absolutely no reason for Elen and her friends to turn traitor; we'd built up a lot of trust in each other by then. I could firmly say that they were perfectly fine.

But how could we assume that the same's true for everybody else, too? …

I knew my staff officers were fine. Folks like Mjöllmile were cutting out sleep to give their all for me. There was no way I could start doubting him.

Apart from them, I supposed there were the people I'd gotten to know outside my own government—the assorted visitors who'd come to stay with us since the Founder's Festival. For example…

"Rimuruuu!"

I saw a group of people coming from Labyrinth City. Oh, no way.

The guy waving up front was Masayuki, someone I knew well, and he had two others with him—a warrior and a wizard. Jinrai and Bernie, right? I think those were their names. Those two still kinda held a grudge against me, so we hadn't talked much.

"I sincerely doubt it, but you don't think Masayuki might start targeting me, do you?"

"Oh, no. That's really worrying too much, I would say."

"Yeah."

Benimaru dismissed the concern. I sure didn't wanna start suspecting Masayuki. And by the way, hadn't Gadora mentioned that Masayuki was the spitting image of Emperor Ludora or something? …Nah. It had to just be a goofy coincidence.

Understood. After careful examination of the Empire's history and other assorted elements, the chances of the subject Masayuki and Emperor Ludora being the same person are zero percent.

Right. Of course.

Feeling a bit relieved, I called out to the guy, "Hey, Masayuki. Something up?"

"Something up? Kind of a lot, man! You naming me an army leader out of nowhere has given me a ton of trouble! Even the vampires were asking me if they could temporarily join in—I don't even know what to do with them. And there's just been a huge amount of activity down here, you know? Everyone in the city's starting to ask what's going on."

Having so many volunteers at once, Masayuki explained, made it hard to deal with them in any organized fashion. And us sending out an army like I just did must've made all those volunteers clamor for some action of their own. I didn't think he was exaggerating at all—the disheartened look on his face told me that much. Plus, if Masayuki was trying to trick me, Raphael would've warned me about it long ago. So nah, no point doubting him.

"Well, most of the volunteers are still staying in the towns they live in, right?" "Yes, but…"

The city of Rimuru, formerly on the surface, was now evacuated to the Dungeon's provisionary Floor 101. The sun and stars were as visible as always down there, so a lot of people were surprisingly oblivious to current events. The war was already underway, but some citizens must've thought we were still in a standoff at some distant vista.

The twenty thousand members of the Volunteer Army were entrusted with maintaining security in the city during this state of emergency, but thanks to the pervading calm across Floor 101, they didn't have much to do. Masayuki himself, however, was still real busy, it looked like.

His main problem at the moment had to do with the researchers living in Labyrinth City. They were primarily meant to be office staff, but most of the people Luminus sent were Calamity-grade threats in a fight. Overcomers was the term for them, apparently, but they all had a lot of free time on their hands. Many had come to directly speak with Masayuki to see if they could get a little action in this war, like it was some kind of fun carnival. Bacchus, sent in from the Crusaders, and Jiwu, one of Masayuki's old party companions, were currently soothing them over, he said—but they couldn't keep them under control forever, so he was begging me to do something about it.

Maybe, the paranoid part of my mind told me, they were trying to instigate

Masayuki into starting some big commotion so they could come after me. It was possible, but if so, I really thought they would've taken action earlier. That possibility didn't seem too likely, either. I really am thinking too much. Deep breath.

"That sure does sound rough…"

"Yeah, doesn't it? So please, lend us a hand here!"

"Don't worry. This war's gonna be over real soon, so just keep giving 'em the runaround until then, okay?"

"No, no, you can't just make it sound easy like that, Rimuru…"

Masayuki kept complaining, a hangdog look on his face. But nobody should underestimate my ability to ignore serious problems tossed in my lap. This sounded like a lot of trouble, and I just didn't have the time to get involved. All this paranoid doubting had tired me out, and I really wanted to get back to my Control Center. Then Shuna could pour me some tea, maybe prepare a slice of delicious cake, and all would be well.

"You're trying to run from me, aren't you, Rimuru?!"

"Ha-ha-ha!"

"Don't 'ha-ha-ha' me!"

Okay, maybe this was a pointless argument—but I was demonstrating a master class on giving people the runaround. Masayuki should really learn from this so he can reach my own lofty heights. That was what I was hoping for, and that was why I was currently shoving him away from me.

"If that's your only business, I need to get back, all right?"

"You're positive the war's going to end soon?"

"I'm hoping to wrap it up today, actually."

"Well, we haven't done anything, so it hardly even seems real at all, but now you're really fighting…?"

I could empathize with that. That's kind of my ideal, not letting the general public know at all.

"Pretty much, yeah. So take it easy, okay?"

With a grin, I did my best to convince Masayuki to see things my way. That oughtta solve the problem. Now to duck back inside and enjoy some strawberry shortcake—

"Whoa, whoa, wait a sec! Masayuki's lookin' out for you, so I've been holding back, but we haven't given up on defeating you, all right? And now you're forgetting all about that and trying to take advantage of him? What kind of a joke is this?"

Just when I thought the problem was solved, a new one arose. Jinrai, a man I assumed was just along for the ride with Masayuki, chose this moment to pipe up.

"Aw, c'mon, that was just a misunderstanding. Take advantage of you? There's no need to make it sound so disgraceful…"

I attempted to make excuses but wasn't doing a good job at it. I was trying to take advantage of him, after all. But then I received some unexpected backup.

"Jinrai! That's out of order. Rimuru's working so hard for everybody in town right now!"

Now Masayuki was trying to appease Jinrai. Thanks, man. I'll let you have some cake later! And as I flashed him a grateful smile, Jinrai immediately stopped complaining. I'm sure he wasn't happy about it, but at least he was tolerant enough to bottle it up. He was a lot more mature than his face suggested.

So that was the end of it. Or so I thought. But life's never that easy.

"No, Jinrai's right, Masayuki! Heroes and demon lords are fated to clash with each other. So quit holding back forever, and let's just take this guy down as soon as we can!"

Bernie, usually observing from a step behind, chose this moment to get all worked up. With a sigh, I pondered how I'd calm him down.

"If you won't do it," Bernie continued as he began casting a spell, "then I will!" Cut me a break, I thought. Then things got serious.

"Holy Field!"

You're kidding me, I almost caught myself yelling. That spell was extremely tough to handle, much less solo. I knew Bernie was an otherworlder and probably decent at magic, but I didn't think he held sway over that kind of advanced holy stuff. Like, was he even serious—?!

Murderous intent detected. The subject Bernie is an enemy!! Then I finally realized what was going on.

I thought it was impossible; I kept trying to believe that I was worrying too much about it. But the enemy was right here, in front of me, the whole time.

And then someone moved even faster than I did. There was a clear, high pitched tiiiing. It was caused by the collision between Benimaru's sword and Bernie's blade of light.

"Bernie, what are…? You can fight with a sword?!"

Jinrai was evidently surprised. It must have been the first time Bernie wielded a sword in front of Jinrai and the others, which meant he had been hiding it from his supposed friends for who knows how long.

"Pfft! I'm not stupid enough to reveal my hand that easily!"

The look on his face said it all to me. If he was gonna do this, he wanted to throw every skill he had toward the effort.

"Dammit! So you tricked both me and Masayuki?!"

"Tricked? Stop making it sound so mean. I just used you to get closer to the demon lord."

"Y-you used us?"

"Yeah. Masayuki was a helpful connection. Thanks to him, I've been granted a golden opportunity. Much appreciated!"

He was crossing swords with Benimaru, but Bernie was chatting with Jinrai like they were chilling at the bar. I was listening in as well, so maybe I shouldn't talk, but it looked like he was hiding one hell of a lot of skill.

"Benimaru, let me help you—"

"No, I'll take care of him. Keep a close eye on our surroundings, Sir Rimuru."

I was about to join the fray, but Benimaru stopped me. Trusting him to his word, I stepped up my vigilance.

Even in the midst of this, Bernie and Jinrai kept talking.

"Masayuki was just a 'connection' to you?! D-don't give me that crap!"

"Come on, like you never thought of it that way. You know he's really not strong at all, right? He's just bluffing his way through life."

That made the blood drain from Masayuki's face. Oops. Busted! But I probably shouldn't joke, because this was a life-or-death situation for him.

Then Jinrai surprised me all over again.

"Well, so what? I don't care if he's bluffing or not—Masayuki's an incredible man! He's never failed us—not even once!"

Oh, he knew? I guess he saw the guy for what he was after all… A bluffer, yeah, but definitely a lot more than that. I should probably rethink my opinion of Jinrai, although Masayuki was giving him a hurt-puppy-dog look now.

Bernie, it seemed, wasn't a fan of this reaction.

"Pshhh! So you knew, and you still stuck with him? And you actually respect this total loser? Don't make me laugh!"

The irritation was glaring in his raised voice. But I was the really annoyed one here.

"What's so bad about bluffing? I'm bluffing my way through my life, too!" "R-Rimuru…!"

"Well, aren't I? I used to be an anonymous face at the office. I wasn't living in some world full of Heroes and demon lords, but I still tried my best every day, because I had no other choice! And I wouldn't want oblivious idiots like you to laugh at me about it!"

Masayuki silently nodded.

"Y-you…" Jinrai glanced at me. Even he was looking a little confused now. I kept going.

"I mean, isn't it obvious? If I don't keep telling myself that what I'm doing is right, I'd never be able to be king of this realm or whatever!"

Fired up from shouting, I walked over to Masayuki's side—slowly, so I didn't alarm Bernie while he was crossing swords with Benimaru.

"Everybody's doing their best just to keep living, you know. That's why I'm doing what I can to create a world where we can all live happily together. Masayuki's done a lot to help out with that. He's done so much for me! And I'm not gonna sit here and allow you to make fun of him!"

I stood in front of Masayuki as I admonished Bernie. Hearing that, Jinrai deeply nodded. So did Masayuki.

"Bernie, were you planning to use me like this from the beginning?" He spoke directly to Bernie, his past panic now vanished without a trace.

"That's what I said, didn't I?" Bernie replied, keeping his distance from Benimaru—who, in turn, was in front of me, sizing him up. Under the effects of the Holy Field, Benimaru wasn't able to tap his full powers, so instead of trying to finish Bernie off in one fell swoop, he was taking more of a wait-and-see approach.

"Did Yuuki order you to?"

"Huh? …Oh. Right. Heh… Well, I could explain all that to you, but what's in it for me?"

He was still lording it over us, but at least he was still talking. Maybe, with the Holy Field in place, he had no doubts about his superior position?

Negative. He has some sort of aim in mind… Data confirmed. There is another subject who is a member of Masayuki's party. After searching for data on this subject, her presence was not found in the labyrinth. However, there is no record of her ever leaving it. This is…

Raphael was spitting out data with frightening speed. Judging by how it wasn't bothering to organize any of it for me in advance, it must've thought this was a pretty major emergency.

If I recall, there was one more member of Masayuki's gang—Jiwu. She was

helping Bacchus smooth things over with the overcomers…

Confirmed. A mass murder has occurred in the laboratory on Floor 100. The subject Bacchus and several overcomers have been slaughtered. Their souls have been put in protective custody as an emergency measure—

That's serious news!

I wouldn't know about Bacchus, but each overcomer down there was supposed to be an over-A monster. It was really hard to believe she could kill so many of them in the tiny sliver of time since she left Masayuki's side. Defeating an overcomer taking pains to defend himself was an extremely difficult task for anyone—they all had Ultraspeed Regeneration and an artist's palette of other special skills. With Benimaru's firepower or Zegion's incredible evolution, I could see it…but no way any of the other Dungeon Marvels, Kumara included, could pull that off.

And that wasn't the only issue. If we weren't receiving any response from Jiwu at the moment, that couldn't be ignored. I mean, Raphael was keeping tabs on every single thing going on in the labyrinth, wasn't he? If he couldn't find her inside the labyrinth, that meant Jiwu was—

(Mr. Tempest!!)

That voice reached my mind a split second before the Thought Communication came along. The next moment, I used Mind Accelerate to slow down time for me. Did I respond first, or was it Raphael? Either way, it wound up saving my life.

"Die!"

A black flash of light closed in on my chest.

Someone, probably Jiwu, had taken a shot at me from what seemed to be a perfectly concealed hiding place. I had fallen on the spot and rolled away, putting aside all dignity and royal personage, and that helped me escape that deadly blade.

It was all thanks to that warning—one issued by Chloe, the little girl, who was wearing a mask. She was back to her old habits with that "Mr. Tempest" stuff,

but there was no time to poke fun at her about it.

Really, this was a pretty bad situation. I had been doing my best to keep a watchful eye on the surroundings, and Raphael was staying vigilant as well. If she had managed to get through that security net, there could've been only one way. The assassin must've had an ultimate skill, too.

I had finally gotten my eyes on the assassin just now, and it was definitely Jiwu. Her face was expressionless as always, but the atmosphere she presented was a total one-eighty from before. She was cold—and sharpened. It wasn't an exaggeration to call her a whole other person.

"What a surprise. You've been tailing me in secret?" Jiwu said to Chloe.

Her assassination attempt had failed, but Jiwu wasn't upset about it. She pointed the black blade extending from the pendant in her hand at Chloe.

"If you're all going to fight out in the open like this, of course we're going to notice."

"You're a talented little girl, aren't you?"

"I don't need you telling me that. And I'm not a little girl!"

With that, Chloe transformed into an adult woman. She took out Moonlight, the God-class rapier, and focused it straight at Jiwu. Now we were graced with the presence of Chloe the Hero, in all her masked glory.

"Pshhh! We had the perfect chance served up, and you just had to ruin it. Way to blow everything, Jiwu!"

Bernie clicked his tongue at Jiwu.

"I'm sorry," she calmly replied. "I was trying to make sure nobody interfered with us, but I didn't realize there was this ambush going on."

These two are definitely acquainted. They must both be assassins, quite skilled ones, sent by someone who wanted me dead. Both an even match for each other, too—which meant Bernie might very well have an ultimate skill of his own.

He glared at Benimaru as Jiwu and Chloe raised their swords against each other. I was standing in front of Masayuki and Jinrai, protecting them as I saw

what unfolded.

"Well, no helping it now. If we've blown our cover, there's no reason to hide our full abilities, either."

"I agree with you on that. We need to rub these enemies out as soon as we can."

Bernie and Jiwu focused their strength into the pendants that were the sources of their weapons. They reacted by shining even brighter than before. It looked familiar to me.

"Ah… So you're both Imperial Guardians?" I said.

Once he was fully equipped, Bernie nodded his assent, rolling his eyes as he did.

"Guess you've already started fighting my compatriots, huh? But you better not shuffle me in with the other Imperial Knights."

He wasn't kidding, either. In fact, he seemed to be hiding some pretty extraordinary abilities.

"Enough chitchat. Let's just kill them already."

Jiwu had a unique set of armor on as well—its design was similar to what I saw before, but this set was jet-black, with a sheen like lonely stars floating in the darkness.

Legend-class armor, I assumed, and probably just a hair's width away from God-class.

Bernie had the same gear. His armor was yellow in hue, but performancewise, it was on par with Jiwu. And I was sure the skills of the wearers were similar to the specs of their armor.

"Jiwu… You feel that way about me, too…?"

The forlorn question from Masayuki was greeted with a cold stare. "Of course. I only protected you because that was my mission," Jiwu replied.

It was a frank, direct statement, nothing more to it than that. And if I could recognize it as such, I couldn't imagine how much it hurt Masayuki. I really

wanted to offer him some condolences, but now wasn't the time.

"Benimaru, watch out! She's super strong. I'm positive she's hiding an ultimate skill."

"An ultimate? You mean beyond a unique? Will it take more than hard work and perseverance for me to survive, then?"

"Yeah, honestly, I don't think you can win."

"Goodness. If you put it that way, Sir Rimuru, it's all the more depressing."

That was my pure, impartial evaluation, but Benimaru just gave it a wry grin. He still seemed pretty chill about this—maybe he had some ideas of his own? Ultimate skills could only be defended with other ultimate skills. That was the absolute law of it, and I didn't think there was a way to get around that—but then again, this was the labyrinth. Even if worse came to worst, neither of us was going to die, so I decided to let Benimaru handle his own affairs.

The same applied to Chloe. I mean, she's basically the most powerful Hero in the world. She totally overwhelmed Veldora, even, and that was without an ultimate skill. Admittedly, that was more the out-of-control Chronoa than Chloe, but either way, she's got tremendous skill in a fight. Plus, now she does have an ultimate skill—Yog-Sothoth, Lord of Time.

I really didn't see her losing to Jiwu. If there was any concern, it was over whether she could actually control Yog-Sothoth, I suppose. So just for extra insurance, I sent an order over to Raphael.

Acknowledged. Beginning analysis of the enemy's possessed skill. That should work, right?

Thus, for now, I decided to watch the battle unfold, preparing myself to step in at any time if need be.

Bernie was the first to react.

Grasping his pendant, he funneled his strength into it once more. Then the pendant itself morphed, changing shape and turning into a spear.

"I've never shown you this before, but spear combat's actually my specialty. Let me give you a little show before you die."

After contemptuously declaring that to us all, he dropped down low and readied himself for combat. Then, without any spellcasting, he invoked some magic on his spear. This was Thunder Rain, a lightning-type magic—a ranged attack, essentially, but all its energy was focused entirely on that spear. Pretty neat move, for sure, but not as much of a threat as I was imagining.

Benimaru fought back, infusing Dark Flame into his own blade. The black flames entwined themselves around the crimson sword, giving off an enigmatic sparkle. Another fine move—one that put him so high among the monster hierarchy that his command abilities seemed like just a nice bonus in comparison.

Then they both acted simultaneously.

I thought Bernie was only a magic-user, but his spear skills were incredible. All that bragging earlier really wasn't just for show. Still, though, I was able to follow his movements with ease. What bothered me, though, was that Predict Future Attack still hadn't activated for me. Which meant…

Report. The subject Bernie's skill is preventing any interference. Ah, I thought so. There was probably some kind of block on Jiwu, too, that

prevented me from keeping up with her moves earlier. Both of them might've had a skill that protected them from any outside interference, which was pretty helpful for them…but what interested me more was what other sorts of skills they might have.

Benimaru and Bernie were waging a pretty even battle. I saw no distress at all on Benimaru's face; he was keeping up with Bernie just fine. Bernie, meanwhile, was starting to look a tad irritated. Benimaru had more core strength, and that was giving him an edge. With the difference in equipped battle gear, I still thought this was Bernie's fight to win, so I could get it if he was frustrated.

"Got some fight in you, huh?"

"You're certainly a disappointment."

Benimaru's reply made Bernie visibly scowl. That must've been an affront to his pride, because now he was glaring at Benimaru like he'd killed his parents.

"How's a monster get off saying that to me? You gonna keep saying that once you get a taste of this?"

With that shout, Bernie spun his spear around and attempted to get out of Benimaru's range. Keeping himself both defended and at the ready to strike, he stepped back in order to attempt a finisher. But Benimaru wasn't about to let him. He easily closed the distanced at once, expertly anticipating his moves.

It was quite a sight. I knew Benimaru had been doing a little clandestine training of his own lately, but I had no idea he had grown to that level… If you asked me, I'd say his skills were even better than Hakuro's now. I mean, I thought Alberto was pretty fly with a sword, but there was no doubt in my mind that Benimaru surpassed him. And the way he controlled his Dark Flame! He wasn't letting that stuff sweep him away at all. It was truly his own to handle, and I was amazed by it.

The unique skill Born Leader granted him complete control over his own power, and you couldn't not have been impressed by it. I asked him not long ago whether Zegion was stronger than him, but looking at him perform now, I wasn't so sure who was on top of whom any longer. Depending on how things went, the goddess of victory could've smiled at either one of them.

"W-wow…"

"Lemme just tell you right now, trying to fight power that strong's just suicide, all right? And Rimuru's even stronger than that, so maybe try not to mess around with me so much going forward, okay?"

"S-sure thing, Masayuki…"

I could hear Masayuki and Jinrai talking behind me. From their perspective, Benimaru and Bernie probably looked like a bunch of vague blurs in the air, jumping around in unpredictable directions. I'm sure they could tell how awesome they were anyway, but too bad for them, I guess.

Personally, I had been using Uriel's Absolute Defense to protect them both from any stray bullets—or I suppose, stray explosive shock waves. But that was actually a lot tougher than it seemed. Bernie's ultimate skill was applying itself to all his attacks, so if I wasn't careful, he could absolutely bust through Absolute Defense. I mean, it was really Raphael's problem and not mine, but still.

But enough about the pair behind me. I was more concerned about how Benimaru's fight would turn out. Apparently Bernie's finisher required him to be a certain distance away from his target to work. He'd been trying to push Benimaru away from him for a little while now, no longer trying to hide his frustration. Benimaru, meanwhile, was the very picture of calm composure, coolly cornering Bernie and ever so gradually starting to land real wounds on him. At this rate, I thought his victory was just a matter of time—but that turned out to be wishful thinking.

In the face of Benimaru's onslaught, Bernie found himself thrown off-balance. That momentary opening allowed Benimaru to slash him down with his Dark Flame–infused blade. That should have been fatal, but Bernie just smirked at him.

"You can't beat me!"

His face was bright as the sun, as if being cornered up to now was just a front —like he'd anticipated all this, or that we were all dancing in the palm of his hand, even. It was clear what had happened. Only an ultimate skill can counter an ultimate skill, and thanks to this ironclad rule, Benimaru's attack was

canceled out.

Now Bernie was the victorious one, while Benimaru's face twisted in frustration. He must've thought that if his unique skills didn't work, his baseline swordplay would… But reality was crueler than that. His sword did reach Bernie, but once again, his armor blocked it, preventing the blow from being fatal. Even worse, whatever damage it did deal, Bernie promptly cast recovery magic to heal up.

At this rate, the only way for Benimaru to win was with a killing blow. He was the better swordfighter, but Bernie had the ultimate skill, making this an extremely uphill battle for him. He was—really, for the first time I knew—in a really tough situation, and before long, Bernie had him on the defensive.