So she left, and Zegion came in. He humbly picked a wooden chair to sit on, rather than my guest sofa. The strongest dude in the whole labyrinth, but he was so polite and thoughtful as well—I guess his exoskeleton would scratch up the leather, so that's why he'd made that move. How refined.
I have to say, though, Zegion did an incredible job for us. Powerful beyond measure, he could've formed a twin barrier with Diablo even before being evolved. He was already a level above the rest of the Twelve Lordly Guardians, and this new evolution only added to that. In fact, looking at the labyrinth archives, he'd defeated Deeno without even revealing his full abilities. Scary kid. Honestly, I'm glad he's on our side.
"Zegion, you performed brilliantly for us. If you hadn't woken up in time, I'm not sure how it would've turned out."
"Oh, don't be silly. You no doubt calculated the exact time I would awaken, didn't you, Sir Rimuru?"
Yeah, sure I did!
"Not really, no. I did suspect Deeno of wrongdoing, yes, but I didn't think he'd take action just when we were the most lightly guarded."
"Heh-heh-heh… And that's why you had me wake up exactly when things would come to a head, then?"
No, man, I didn't think any of that would happen! Like, I didn't even know Velgrynd was there—like, I did, but I wasn't expecting her to enter the scene the way she did. If I knew that, I never would've thought about taking my inner circle to go talk with the emperor. That choice had us playing catch-up this entire war, and we emerged with the win only because luck was on our side. But no matter how I explained matters to him, Zegion thought everything was part of my so-called brilliant plan.
I quickly gave up on convincing him otherwise.
"Either way, thanks for being there. You helped a lot."
"No, no, I still have so far to go. I am sure, Sir Rimuru, you could have finished Deeno with a single trans-dimensional attack without my entering the scene at all. But you provided me with a stage to perform on nonetheless, and I answered the call for you."
What are you talking about? "Trans-dimensional"? What? I can't do that, dude… I mean, what kind of monster am I in his mind anyway?
"Uh, sure. Yeah…um, maybe I could have, yes."
"Ha! It would have been child's play for you, I am sure."
Zegion eagerly agreed with my half-hearted reply. I felt like he looked at me with much more than mere respect—to him, it was like getting a personal audience with his god. Not that I could really tell, given his compound eyes and all, but it was easy to imagine.
Gathering myself, I continued with Zegion's interview. He gave me his interpretation of the fight against Deeno, and while I thought Deeno had gotten
away scot-free from them, it turned out that wasn't the case. Zegion assumed he'd try to flee, and so he placed a curse on him—a scary curse, one that had life-and-death power over the guy. So that's what Zegion could do now? How did he evolve, exactly?
Name: Zegion (EP: 4,988,856)
Race: Micro-god; high-level chaos elemental Watersoul Insect Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Mist Lord
Magic: Watersoul magic
Ability: Ultimate skill Mephisto, Lord of Illusion
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Hwuh?!
I kept myself from yelping out loud.
The stats Ciel read out for me were far beyond my imagination. Zegion was now divine in nature, and I could see why. His existence points were a hair away from five million, a shocking figure second only to Benimaru. His element was water, but Ciel informed me he could wield the "space" element as well. As a half-spiritual life-form, he had every resistance you could think of; I saw zero weak points, and he was high-level in all of them as well. A real powerhouse.
It seemed that Zegion could construct a placeholder body for himself by gathering and condensing the water particles in the air. The magisteel I gave him had evolved to adamantite, then Crimson Steel, and it was that fantastical metal that had let him pull off that trick. I'm sure he stuck to his exoskeleton by default because that's the form I crafted for him. Otherwise, he might've shown it off long ago and ascended to a completely spiritual life-form.
He obviously had a great fondness for his current body, and I couldn't be happier to see that. Plus, given how he was geared for close-quarters combat, he was more than strong enough as he stood now. After all, that combat style wouldn't work if he went fully spiritual and shed his physical body. In fact, his
current form was about as complete as it needed to be, wasn't it?
Exactly! This Zegion is our greatest masterpiece, as crafted by myself and my master! I allowed Veldora to lead the project, but I guided him with my knowledge in key sections, so there is nothing to worry about.
Um? I'm not sure I understood all of that. Not that Ciel cared, bragging away as it was.
Zegion held rule over water, which meant he boasted unparalleled strength wherever water was present. This included the water vapor in the atmosphere, which meant he held a battle advantage well near anywhere on the planet that contained air. Water composes a hefty percentage of most living creatures, too, and Zegion could freely manipulate that as well. I thought that made it clear how much of a bad dude he was now. The human body's around 65 percent water, in fact, and any human trying to take Zegion on was basically committing suicide.
But that was only the beginning of the danger he posed. Zegion's ultimate skill Mephisto included a wealth of high-level skills, such as Hasten Thought, Universal Detect, Lord's Ambition, Dominate Water & Lightning, Dominate Dimensions, Multidimensional Barrier, All of Creation, Spiritual Domination, and Fantastical World.
Quite a few of those were fearsomely lethal, but nothing on that list had caused the curse placed on Deeno. That was the work of something called Dream End—the curse was an Art woven by Zegion himself, not any skill. That meant it'd even work against Yuuki's Anti-Skill. Fending it off required a powerful will, and I doubted anyone could out-will Zegion right now.
Anti-Skill, after all, was a technique driven by three separate abilities— Dominate Water & Lightning, Dominate Spirit, and Fantastical World. He'd use Fantastical World to create an environment favorable to him, a place where he was all but invincible. This was a world-type ability, Ciel told me, and those were exceedingly rare. Not even I had one, and I bet they're pretty neat things to have.
Would you like me to set one up?
…
I wasn't sure what the correct answer was, so I pretended not to hear it.
But back to Dream End. This move made it possible for the caster to immediately snuff out the life of the target whenever they did something the caster didn't want. It couldn't forcibly restrict the target's movements, however, so it wouldn't take effect until their behavior triggered it. In this case, Deeno was free to do whatever, as long as he didn't defy Zegion's will.
"So how do you trigger this curse?"
"Well, I don't have to do anything. The moment Deeno takes a certain predefined action, it will automatically go off."
Zegion's curse was the automatic type, requiring no supervision. If triggered, he'd be made aware of it, but otherwise he never even had to think about it. The key to it all lay in what Deeno did. What was the trigger? Basically, if he ever showed the intent to kill any of my companions, the curse would go off. The moment he committed to murdering any of them, it would destroy his very heart core, and not even a spiritual life-form could escape that trap.
Now, this wasn't foolproof. It wasn't like I remembered the name and face of every single citizen of Tempest. But if he tried some large-scale, indiscriminate attack on the city, that'd be treated as "murderous intent," and I think that worked well enough as a check on Deeno. I was amazed we could restrain someone with an ultimate skill like that.
"Wonderful work, Zegion. Anything that reduces the threat to our nation is more than welcome."
"I appreciate the compliment, my lord. I still have much to learn, but nothing warms my soul more than receiving such kind words from you."
Geez. So serious. Him, Charys, Geld, and Soei. Beretta too, I suppose. I guess I had a lot of all-business types in my crew, but Geld and Zegion really took the cake. Guys with so much talent like that, never resting on their laurels, constantly putting in hard effort…and that's why they became such a threat with every new breakthrough they made. I hoped they'd continue that pursuit for a long while to come.
So, to sum up, Mephisto was one firecracker of an ultimate skill.
Deeno had no way to undo the curse on himself, I was assured, but you could never say never in this world. Maybe he had some unknown ability that'd let him slip out of it like a loosely knotted rope. But even if he did, that wouldn't harm Zegion's rep at all—it'd just mean we were dealing with a shrewd enemy.
Because, honestly, Zegion was the best all-around package I could think of. He took advantage of the brief moment Deeno was dead to place that curse on him, and I thought that was where his real scary genius lay. Having fancy-pants skills isn't a threat—being able to fully leverage them is, and along those lines, I didn't think anyone was better geared for battle and more attuned to his skills than Zegion.
Maybe call it covering all the bases? Many people in this world boasted skills that boosted their already extensive abilities, but Zegion's skill set was more about covering for what he wasn't intrinsically good at. He could use all of them well, even working them into new, original moves. Amazing. What else could I say? The battle sense he had and the level of training it took. He could bust out Fantastical World, create an advantage, and expand his tactical edge rather than boost what he was already great at. Truly top-class among my companions.
I realized now that not even a so-called fighting race like the Primal Demons could beat Zegion. He was just so fearsome. No wonder Ciel called this its masterpiece. Even the strength he showed off up to now was no doubt just a tiny glimpse into everything he had. I suppose it's a little unfair of me, though, getting to check on all my team's stats and abilities, but still.
I had given Zegion the fairly generic name "Mist Lord," but now I could see a double meaning there. Besides "mist," there was also quite a bit "mysterious" about the depth of his abilities. Or maybe Zegion took "mist" literally and steered his skills in that water-oriented direction? No way. Dr. Ciel would've said so if he did. Right?
…Of course!
Oh, great!
That slight delay in the response worried me a lot.
Hiding the concerns in my mind that Ciel was going off-kilter on me, I waited for my next interviewee. Adalmann was the next person in my chamber.
"Sir Rimuru, I hope you are well. And let me tell you that I, Adalmann, am cherishing every moment of this private audience with you already!"
Adalmann was something beyond serious. I just nodded and motioned him toward my sofa. If I didn't make him wrap up his spiel fast, he'd be at it all day, so I sat him down as quickly as I could.
"So how are you feeling now that you're awake?"
"Excellent, sir! My spirit feels enriched, and I can feel holy force penetrating every pore of my body."
He really did have a glow to him, too. I feared what I was about to discover. Name: Adalmann (EP: 877,333)
Race: Wight; mid-level chaos elemental Lightsoul Bones
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Gehenna Lord
Magic: Necromancy, holy magic
Ability: Ultimate gift Necronomicon
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Thought so. Here he was, this servant of the dead, and he'd gone all in on the light element. If I had to name the one person on my team who looked the most like a demon lord, it'd have to be Adalmann. Seeing him boast the light element was almost too sweetly ironic. Still, given that he could use Holy-Evil Inversion to twist his elements any way he wanted, maybe it wasn't worth being surprised about at that point. It felt like the exact opposite from the element he should have, but no point fretting about it.
There was a lot of other stuff about him to occupy my attention anyway. He had the existence points of an awakened demon lord; his stats were so ridiculous that I was getting a headache just looking at them. But the biggest
issue was Necronomicon, his ultimate skill. Where did it even come from? I gave it to him.
I didn't need to ask. I couldn't think of any other explanation, but yes, Ciel was fiddling around again.
"And the best thing of all is Necronomicon, this power you gave me," Adalmann happily noted. "It is a font of knowledge for me, the very root of my newfound strength."
Necronomicon included a bevy of abilities—Hasten Thought, Universal Detect, Lord's Ambition, Cast Cancel, Analyze and Assess, All of Creation, Mental Strike, Holy-Evil Inversion, and Dominate Dead. In addition to things he already had, he could now also invoke necromancy and holy magic with no casting time required. In addition, his rule and protection over the dead had been boosted, giving his armies a jolt of additional force.
Adalmann was gleefully explaining all of this to me now, and if he was happy about it, so was I. I didn't want to rain on his parade.
By the way, Necronomicon is in the same family as Grimoire, the skill I gave to Gadora. I removed the items unsuited for Adalmann from Grimoire and added abilities he would find more useful.
Ciel sounded like it was fishing for compliments. That was the first I'd heard about it giving Gadora any new abilities. Amazing, certainly, but I wasn't sure I welcomed this news.
Clearing my mind for a moment, though, I recalled that Adalmann and Gadora were both researcher types. They were close friends as well, I'd heard, and they'd often go diving into magic tomes together. They were magic-obsessed maniacs, really, but they weren't hurting anyone, so I let them do as they pleased. They might discover the meaning of life or something for all I knew, and devoting yourself to your passions is never a bad thing.
As Ciel put it, Necronomicon and Grimoire were natural complements to each other. They certainly seemed to suit those two well, and yeah, I guess this was the right move to make.
That was the end of Adalmann's interview, and now I was headed down to
see how Alberto and Venti were doing. They were so awed by the idea of meeting with me that they'd initially turned down the request—apparently they needed to prove themselves more in battle before they'd feel deserving of the chance. It was beyond dedicated of them; in fact, I couldn't understand the logic at all. Who did they think I was anyway?
Still, I had to check up on the people serving me. Alberto was Adalmann's dedicated servant, and so was Venti—or call her Adalmann's pet, if you like. If their master ever died, they'd probably take the ride with him—but as long as Adalmann was all right, they were immortal.
That, Ciel told me, was why it had granted both of them an ultimate skill. It took a lot of work.
I'm sure it did. But it's your hobby, right?
No doubt this was just Ciel's gentle personality manifesting itself. Trusting in that, I looked over the stat reports.
Name: Alberto (EP: 682,639 + 600,000 for his Spirit Sword)
Race: Wight; mid-level chaos elemental Flamesoul Man
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Gehenna Paladin
Ability: Ultimate gift Immortality
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Name: Venti (EP: 984,142)
Race: Gehenna Dragon
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Dragon Lord of the Underworld
Ability: Ultimate gift Eternality
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
The effects of their evolutions certainly goosed their EP. They also canceled a lot of attacks now; their resistances were looking real sharp. It worked that way for Adalmann as well, so I guess dying once could earn you a bunch of those.
The ultimate gifts they had were largely identical, despite having different names. It included the three abilities Hasten Thought, Full Reincarnation, and Servant Immortality—there was room for more, but Ciel told me it was still considering the options. I still wasn't completely thrilled about giving Ciel carte blanche, but I was reasonably certain it wasn't the wrong move to make.
Alberto's and Venti's bodies would never perish, because their souls were in Adalmann's possession. I'd had a hunch they'd kick it if Adalmann did, and I was right—but given Adalmann's undead status, they all seemed pretty invincible to me. I couldn't help but wonder how unfair a team I had.
Alberto, by the way, still had a lot of room to grow. A weapon that broke a million EP was firmly in the God class, so if Alberto's own EP kept rising, that'd open him up to more capabilities. Given how handy he was with a blade, I didn't think we'd have to wait too long—and it was with great anticipation for the future that I saw Adalmann off.
After lunch, I went back to the interviews. At long last, it was Shion's turn. "Finally, Sir Rimuru, I am here! I am sorry it took this long!"
"Right," I said, nodding. I wasn't really waiting for her with bated breath, but I'd better not say that.
Name: Shion (EP: 4,229,140 + 1.08 million for her Goriki-maru Divine)
Race: Battle-god; high-level chaos elemental Battlesoul Ogre Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: War Lord
Magic: Divine Battlewill
Ability: Unique skill Master Chef
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel
Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
She proudly went over her new powers. Ciel was providing me a running explanation as well, but the two of them rarely agreed with each other.
Shion's strength didn't rely on skills. Her weapon was God-class, so she didn't need an ultimate skill to hold her own against someone who did. Her body itself was a threat, and with Infinite Regeneration, that threat became a nightmare. You could try to drain her energy in a fight, but her EP was as out-of-the-park as Benimaru's; that meant a huge number of magicules, so attempting to exhaust her was a bad idea. Her resistances were perfect as well, making a frontal onslaught your only option—and if that's all her opponents could try, I really sympathized with them.
"You've gotten stronger, huh?"
"Hee-hee! I'm humbled to see you think so!"
"Humbled" wasn't the way I'd describe her abject joy. But it was the truth. Just one thing—considering all the ultimates my crew had now, I was kind of surprised Shion still had nothing but a unique skill.
Did she turn you down or something, Ciel?
No. Shion is still packed with untold potential, so I am carefully observing her for the time being. The unique skill Master Chef is incomparably powerful as it stands now, so there is no special need to do anything else right away.
Hmm, yeah, no doubt about that…
Lately, I thought I'd grown adept at reading Ciel's emotions. It was just a gut feeling, but it turned out accurate pretty often—and if I was reading Ciel correctly right now, I'd say it was hesitant about messing with Shion's skills.
…That is correct.
Wonders never cease around here.
I asked why, and Ciel reluctantly gave me the answer. Amazingly enough, if Shion's skill was boosted any further, she might obtain abilities capable of killing even me. Ciel, seeing that as something to avoid, opted to shut off any further skill evolution on her instead. If a skill freak like Ciel opted for that, well, I guess
this was no joke.
It was hard to picture Shion ever trying to hurt me, but giving her skills that scary gave me pause as well. I didn't want to be saddled with problems like that, so I supported Ciel's decision.
After her stat check, I enjoyed chatting with Shion a while longer, listening to all her bragging and politely throwing in a "yes?" or "oh, neat" now and then. Shion had put in a stellar effort during our war against the imperial forces, and I thought it was nice to sit down from time to time and talk about things like this.
Looking back, I realized I was either angry or exasperated with Shion a lot of the time. I knew full well that she was always working hard, and the fruits of all that effort were starting to show up, but she really did have a penchant for going way overboard, so I couldn't help but poke at her all the time. That's why an occasional calm, pleasant conversation like this was nice, I thought.
So there I was, playing the father figure to Shion, when:
"…Oh, right! I had forgotten to mention this in my report, but I ran into Masayuki at the dining hall just now. He was looking rather downtrodden—"
…?!
"—and given how troubled he seemed, I advised him to talk things over with you soon, Sir Rimuru!"
Don't act all smug about that, Shion! There she goes, acting out of line again… and if Masayuki was in trouble, I knew I didn't want to get too involved with it, either…
But this was exactly it! She was always butting in where she shouldn't, and I paid for it in the end. I hated being dragged into stuff like this. Like, Velgrynd showing up here after she vanished was enough of a surprise, but really, if you sat down and thought about it, she had no reason to be there, did she? She was just crossing dimensions in pursuit of Ludora—she had only one person waiting for her.
And, ugh, Masayuki looks identical to Ludora, too…
It didn't take a genius to connect the dots at this point. But even though I had,
I couldn't betray the trust Shion had in me.
"We'll have to work out a time, then."
I was just delaying the inevitable, but I said it anyway.
"Oh, all set there," Shion told me matter-of-factly. "I set up a meeting first thing tomorrow morning!"
Well, I'm not all set in the slightest! You want to stage a full meeting before we've even prepared for it?
Now this was getting blown way out of proportion. These sorts of problems always happened when Shion played intermediary. You could never let your guard down around her.
But who was even gonna join this meeting? I was in the midst of my man-to man interviews, and now look at what had happened. I still had all the demons to meet with; if I didn't finish things up today, we'd have to postpone it for some other day that may never come. Would that anger them? Or drive them to violence? I just didn't know.
"All right. In that case, tell Rigurd and Benimaru to be fully prepared for the meeting!"
"Very well. I'll be on my way, then!"
Shion all but skipped out of my chambers. Bringing a head to my hand, I hurriedly called for Diablo and his cohorts.
The last people on the interview list were Diablo, Testarossa, Carrera, Ultima, and their underlings. I wasn't sure I'd get to them all, so I wanted to speed things up—but this turned out to be dangerous.
"Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I'm finally up, am I? You have no idea how long this wait has felt to me."
Way to exaggerate. I had booted him out of my office yesterday afternoon.
"Quit acting stupid, Diablo! We still haven't settled our score, so it oughtta be fine for me to see Sir Rimuru first!"
Carrera, looking pretty beaten up and ragged, was at Diablo's throat, with Ultima not far behind.
"She's right! I haven't thrown in the towel yet, either, y'know. Don't think you can weasel your way out of this!"
Ultima, too, was so hurt that I was amazed she could stand up. Wasn't their clothing part of their bodies, technically? If they were this ripped up and they didn't have the energy to restore them, it had to be a pretty serious injury, right? But they were still cheerfully bickering with one another. Demons really are built tough.
"Enough of this. Arguing in front of Sir Rimuru is simply rude."
Testarossa finally intervened, bringing some much-needed quiet to the room. She acted so elegantly, ignoring the three quarreling demons and even providing some tea for me. Her outfit was in perfect order as well, presenting a kind of dignity that was otherwise absent.
"Now, Sir Rimuru, we were told that you'd fire Diablo and name one of us as your second secretary…but sadly, we have not completed the selection process yet. What do you think we should do?"
I really don't think I said that. Maybe leaving the demons for last was an error on my part. I now had extra work coming up thanks to Shion, but even before that, I still needed to report to King Gazel. Looking back, I should've tackled my thorniest problems first, but it was far too late now. I was short on time, so let's exercise some of my soft power to get through this.
"Well, I hate to say this, but I've run out of time for a long conversation with you guys. I gotta call all your servants in, too—"
"No need for that, my lord."
"Yeah, I don't think you have to. It'd just go to waste on them."
"Right? If you want information about our underlings, I'll give you whatever you need!"
"Exactly. And no servant of mine is foolish enough to try butting into the precious time you've devoted to us, Sir Rimuru."
Diablo, Carrera, Ultima, and Testarossa replied to me with a smile. "Um, okay…," was about the best response I could muster.
Ciel, too, said there wasn't any major need to summon every single demon. Diablo and the three demonesses, it noted, had already said to "go ahead; do whatever you want with us." That still felt like I was ignoring all the other demons, but Ciel had a grasp of each of them already—which was news to me, but I convinced myself that of course it would; it had to manage all my people and stuff. So I moved on.
Anyway, the first person I interviewed was Diablo, it goes without saying. Kicking the three others out of the room, I had him sit down. He could barely stay put in his seat, so excited he was.
Name: Diablo (EP: 6,666,666)
Race: Demon-god; Primal Demon—Devil Lord
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Daemon Lord
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Ultimate skill Azazel, Lord of Temptation
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
C'mon, was my first thought.
The fact his EP was all the same number was a dead giveaway that he was gaming the system. I didn't say anything, though, since Ciel didn't.
In the end, I didn't think there was much doubt that Diablo was the most powerful person in my entire hierarchy, between that EP (fake or not) and his resistances. His Azazel skill contained Hasten Thought, Lord's Ambition, Control Dimensions, Multidimensional Barrier, All of Creation, Dominate Punishment, Dominate Charm, and World of Temptation—mostly the same abilities I had. He carefully went over these with me, clearly looking for someone to brag about them with, and Dr. Ciel gave him high marks for his understanding of them.
Though, really, Diablo was stronger than me, wasn't he? Given how I couldn't really use my skills without Ciel's help. His magicule count was immense, his level high, and the quality of his skills beyond question. He was an exceptionally omnipotent demon in every way, and why he decided to serve under me was a total mystery. He had an unquenchable thirst for battle (not to mention a fixation with me that bordered on problematic), but I enjoyed being able to count on his seemingly infinite stores of strength.
With this evolution, I now wondered how he'd do in a practice battle against Zegion. I was sure it'd turn into a great fight. He and Benimaru, too; I felt like Benimaru was always going easy on anyone he fought in training, in part because if he got real serious, it'd raze acres and acres of land and kill off thousands. But that was no issue in the labyrinth. I suppose Benimaru didn't enjoy revealing his skills much, either, but still. Water would win over fire element-wise, so I'd think Zegion would have an edge over Benimaru…but there was no telling unless they actually duked it out.
Then again, there was no need to rank my troops like this. I could just call Benimaru, Diablo, and Zegion my "Top Three," and that should keep any strife to a minimum.
That was all I needed from Diablo. As for his servants, he told me that Gadora had joined Venom as his apprentice.
"Apprentice?"
"Yes. Adding him to my team eliminates any worry that he'd betray us, you see."
I thought we were safe from that by now, probably, but still, it was a relief to hear. Gadora was already kept in place by his role as labyrinth guardian, so Diablo wasn't free to make him his twenty-four-hour gofer, but he didn't mind that. If he named Gadora an "apprentice," I guess that meant he saw him as different from a run-of-the-mill lackey.
"That's good and all, but why did you sign him on?"
"Well, he may lack suitable piety for you, Sir Rimuru, but his curiosity for magic is the real thing. He has potential by human standards, so I thought I would initiate him by interacting with his Mysterious Art of Reincarnation."
"And then?"
"Ha. Pathetically enough, he nearly died in our previous battle. That would go against your orders, Sir Rimuru, so I reincarnated him as a demon to prevent that…but oddly enough, he became a 'metal demon,' a species I am unfamiliar with…"
Diablo stopped speaking for a moment. He turned toward me. I hadn't heard of that term, either. Did I do something or what?
Oh, that was me.
What do you mean, "oh"?!
This was exactly why I wanted to hold these one-on-one discussions. Ciel had been really busy, it sounded like. I really wished it'd think these things over more. If he was a "metal demon," that sounded close to Beretta, too…
No need to worry about that. The concept is completely different.
Good? Whatever. I wasn't going to get worked up over it. Not that I needed to, but either way, I was getting sick of all this.
"Hmm, maybe it's thanks to the little push I gave him?"
I had to be honest. There was no other option. This elated Diablo, as I expected, so we wound up talking about it for a while.
Summing up, Diablo had taken a liking to Gadora as well. They had an ongoing promise that should something happen, the demon would have him join his family. Gadora was famously obsessed with magic, being the teacher of that magic-born Razen and all, and I was sure he wouldn't hesitate to become a demon to satisfy his intellectual curiosity. That's the kind of guy he was, and as long as he didn't bother me, it was best to let him have his way.
Besides, I didn't mind having that old man nearby, either, so it was all good to me. It'd be gross if he started goin' around looking like Adalmann, though, so I made sure to officially forbid any Rimuru worship on his part. No way was I gonna allow another wacky cult member in my midst, apprentice of Diablo or not.
"All right. Well, he's your responsibility now, so take good care of him."
Old Man Gadora looked pretty aged to me, honestly. It felt kind of weird phrasing it that way—but then again, Diablo was even older, old enough that concepts like "golden years" were thrown right out the window. So maybe all of this was fine.
Regardless, Diablo now had two personal assistants to watch over.
With a bow, he left the room, Testarossa quickly taking his place. She was as elegant as ever as she sat down in front of me. Mm… I had no intention of following through on it, but part of me wondered if I really could name her my secretary— Actually, no. I'd need to name Diablo my chief diplomat then, and I was sure he'd go berserk in that role. I got enough problems already. Let's stick to this.
Besides, I had other business with Testarossa. I wasn't sure how to bring it up yet, but before I could, she presented me with a sheet of paper. It contained statistics on the demons in her family.
Name: Moss (EP: 1,079,397)
Race: Demon Peer, archduke
Protection: Blanc clan
Title: Empress's Aide
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Unique skill Gatherer
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Name: Cien (EP: 286,596)
Race: Demon Peer, viscount
Protection: Blanc clan
Title: Empress's Secretary
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Unique skill Recorder
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements
That was the long and short of it, including some information that only I could read off them. Moss and Cien had seen no direct action in our recent war. They weren't exposed to any danger, and thus they were saved from the ever curious hands of Ciel.
As for Testarossa herself:
Name: Testarossa (EP: 3,333,124)
Race: Demon-god; Primal Demon—Devil Lord
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Killer Lord
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Ultimate skill Belial, Lord of the Underworld
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Compared to before the fighting, her existence points had ballooned beyond comparison. It was a good three times the figure from back when she fought Velgrynd on that airship.
"Looks like your magicule count grew a bunch, huh?"
"It did. If it had done so in time for my climactic battle with Velgrynd, I'm sure it would have been a more interesting performance. It's a pity."
Hmm, I'd hesitate on calling war a "performance," all right? Not that she'd listen to me if I told her.
My experiences here have really convinced me that in battle, quality matters much more than quantity. In this war, too, battle experience sealed a lot more people's fates than magicule counts. Testarossa had put up a decent fight against Velgrynd because they were both almost equal in experience level. She stood no chance in an extended fight, but she could drag it on and stall for time well enough, at least.
If Testarossa's magicule stores were larger, that meant she was much more capable in battle now. That was tremendously reassuring, but it also placed even more responsibility on me to watch over her and ensure she didn't go out of control. I was leaving all that to Diablo at the moment, but now I thought I should pay a bit more attention to her.
Belial, though… It just oozed a sense of danger, much like Testarossa herself. It had a pretty handy slate of abilities—Hasten Thought, Universal Detect, Lord's Ambition, Control Dimensions, Multidimensional Barrier, All of Creation, Dominate Life, and World of the Dead.
Yep, another world-type ability, and judging by the name "World of the Dead," I wouldn't subject myself to it for a billion dollars. I'd let Ciel maintain that one for me, I think. Scary.
"So if you wanted to talk alone with me, is this about something that can't be stated in public? What would that be exactly?"
Testarossa, after handing me the stats on Moss and Cien, got right down to business. I was glad she was so quick on the uptake. Mentally flipping the page, I brought up an issue of mine—the meeting we'd have with Masayuki tomorrow morning.
"I'd like to think I'm reading too much into it, but I wanted to bring something up with you. I'm actually going to be meeting with Masayuki and his people, but I'm not sure how to approach it."
"Ah, I see. Is this about how we'll deal with the Empire?"
Again, so quick on the uptake. It was surprising.
"Yes, exactly. I guess he's pretty troubled about it, and if they're asking me for solutions, I don't really know what to give them, sort of…"
I doubted Shion had thought even that far, but assuming Masayuki was the reborn Emperor Ludora, that still didn't mean they'd just let him take the throne. We still didn't know where the current Emperor Ludora—or the now transformed Michael—had run off to. If Masayuki was to name himself the leader… But then again, I was sure he'd do anything to get out of that obligation…and it'd be weird for my nation to push him in that direction.
Besides, there was no breaking Michael's Castle Guard ability as long as people put their faith in Ludora, so we'd also need to consider how we'd handle the Empire's citizens.
Worst of all, I was given, like, zero time for this. Trying to smooth things over with King Gazel would be hard enough, but this was even worse. Like I kept on saying, I didn't want to get too involved in any of it, but I doubted I'd be afforded the luxury.
"In that case, allow me to join the talks. The eastern lands the Empire calls home used to be my domain. As your diplomatic attaché, I wouldn't hesitate to help with this."
Sweet! How reliable she was turning out to be! I couldn't leave something like this to Ciel alone—I could relay whatever solution it came up with, but I'd still need people on the ground to execute it. And even if Ciel was absolutely correct, if the Empire refused to accept it, we'd have to go for something else. Unless we were gonna make the Empire a vassal state of Tempest, I didn't think we had the right to meddle in the administrations of other countries.
Along those lines, I was sure Testarossa had the mental powers to deal with whatever came up. She did well with the Western Nations, and once we came up with our direction, I'd feel safe leaving the rest to her.
"Okay, see you tomorrow morning, then."
"Very well. I am on the job!"
Testarossa's smile reassured me once again. I was feeling a tad better. That was all I had for her, so I stood up to see her out the door when: "Sir Rimuru, there was one more thing I wanted to report."
"Oh?"
"As I think you recall, the former imperial general Caligulio has filed a request for clemency…"
That jogged my memory. It was another theory issue, but I didn't see anything impossible with his request.
"All right. Why don't we deal with that right now?"
Good thing Testarossa had remembered for me. Her attention to detail was another reason I felt so secure with her. So, hoping to finish up that job before dinner, I joined her on the way to our research lab.
There were two people to go. After a quick meal, I called in Ultima.
"I was about to die waiting for you!" she said, all cutesy as she plopped onto the sofa. It made me smile a bit. I'm sure she'd make a darling little sister for someone. It made me want to break out some tea, along with a few of my favorite cookies.
"Ooh! Ooooh! You'd do that for me, Sir Rimuru?!"
"Hee-hee-hee… Hey, I can make tea, too, you know. Not very good tea, but still. Hell, I could even make some coffee…"
Or, really, I could turn on a coffee maker. When it came to fancier approaches, even Shion could do a better job. It's sad, but that's the truth. Shion was actually pretty decent at making both tea and coffee these days. I tried myself, since it wasn't nice to constantly complain about other people's cooking…but it's harder than it looks.
I'd gotten takeout pretty much all the time in my previous life; cooking a meal from scratch was something I had zero experience with. Work kept me too busy for it, and considering all the dishes and cleaning up, it just wasn't worth it efficiency-wise. So the kitchen in my apartment was just as spotless as when I'd first moved in. I'd buy a cookbook occasionally, figuring I'd give something a whirl when I was free, but of course I never did. That memory was serving me well now, at least, so I guess it wasn't a total waste of money.
Regardless, if all it involved was grinding some beans and adding hot water, even I could whip up some coffee.
"Oh, not at all! I'm more than satisfied just with this tea!"
If she was that happy about it, then so was I.
"Well, no need to say no to coffee, though. It'll take some time, but we can talk in the meantime."
I wanted some as well, so I put a filter in the maker and added hot water. This whole coffee-maker setup was the work of Kaijin, and mass-produced versions were now on the market, so the cafés were doing pretty decent business, too.
The fragrant aroma of coffee beans filled the air as I presented as suave and sophisticated an air as I could to Testarossa. I was sure this would do wonders for my rep. Making good impressions about things like this was so important.
I personally find it petty.
And I personally don't give a crap! This was a broad, advanced strategy, nothing petty about it. Besides, there was no point acting all strong around a bunch of battle-addicted Primals who lived for war every waking moment. Better to compete with them in a different genre entirely.
Ah… You have already showed your dignity to them well enough, so I feel you do not need to worry.
It's fine, all right? I didn't mean to look dignified in their minds in the first place. But it didn't matter. Let's get back on topic.
"So can I hear your report, then?"
"Certainly. First, let me give you this."
I was given a written outline of her clan's stats.
Name: Veyron (EP: 882,869)
Race: Demon Peer, duke
Protection: Violet clan
Title: Poison Princess's Butler
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Ultimate gift Artist
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Name: Zonda (EP: 301,316)
Race: Demon Peer, viscount
Protection: Violet clan
Title: Poison Princess's Chef
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Unique skill Fusionist
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Veyron's strength grabbed my attention first, but what really threw me was Zonda's unique skill Fusionist. This wasn't in the same family as Shion's wacky Master Chef skill; instead, it was designed for situational awareness and supporting allies. Via its "fusing" process, it could heal any sort of wound on anyone. It didn't meddle with the laws of cause and effect the way Shion's skill did, so that was a relief.
Next up, Ultima herself.
Name: Ultima (EP: 2,668,816)
Race: Demon-god; Primal Demon—Devil Lord
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Pain Lord
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Ultimate skill Samael, Lord of Deathly Poison
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Ultima, much like Testarossa, had grown a lot, and her magicule count had been constantly rising since her evolution completed. She was well into Million Class territory, but how much stronger would she get? I was glad to have her on my team, but too much would be a threat.
And we can't forget about Ultima's abilities, either. The ultimate skill Samael gave her Hasten Thought, Universal Detect, Lord's Ambition, Control Dimensions, Multidimensional Barrier, Detect Weakness, Craft Poison, World of Destruction… All geared for killing, huh?
Craft Poison was the nastiest of them. Combine it with Detect Weakness, and she could instantly create just the right poison to kill her opponent. But I was even more curious about World of Destruction. It was a vicious world-level ability, one that could unconditionally kill anyone and anything except for spiritual life-forms. Kind of a supercharged version of my own Merciless skill, I think. It wouldn't work against the truly powerful, so maybe it was best to have that one sealed away.
"Ultima, my apologies," I began, pouring coffee into a cup to calm myself down.
"What about?"
"So, about your World of Destruction ability…"
"Yes?"
She gladly accepted the cup I handed to her. I had to come out with it now or I never would.
"You're banned from using it."
"All right! I was just thinking that I didn't need it anyway. I guess you really can read my mind, Sir Rimuru!"
"Huh?! Oh. Um, yeah. Of course, right? Ha-ha-ha…"
I laughed it off as I internally thanked my lucky stars. I'm not sure why, but I guess Ultima wanted to stay hands-off with World of Destruction. But maybe it should've been obvious. She was such a battle-obsessed girl that winning every single battle by default probably didn't excite her.
If she was willing to accept that, then wonderful. Relieved, I sat down and enjoyed some conversation for a while.
My final interviewee was Carrera.
"Lemme tell you, my lord, if you didn't step in to help me, I'm not sure I could've ever beaten Kondo. That man was real strong. I can hardly believe he was human."
She ended her report with a light laugh.
Ciel had told me this much, but hearing it from Carrera's own mouth made it even more vivid. She had won that battle by the tiniest of margins, and her praise for him was the unvarnished truth. And she was right—Kondo was something else. Benimaru had taken out Granit, number three in the Empire's internal list, but even he was pretty wary of Kondo. In fact, he was confident he could've beaten anyone in the Empire except for that guy.
Taking out a menace like that would've been a feather in anyone's cap, really. But Carrera said it was all thanks to the power she was granted.
"Receiving my body, surpassing my limits, evolving further from that… I've done nothing but take, take, take. I want to repay the favor. I'd like you to understand that my loyalty forever belongs to you."
Carrera usually had an arrogant streak a mile long, but this was probably a more sincere side of her. I mean, a Primal Demon born in antiquity should really outclass a freshly born demon lord, but regardless of that "loyalty," I knew exactly how to reply.
"Well, keep up the good work, then. By this point, if you weren't here for me, our entire court system would collapse."
Monsters really did tend to follow the will of the strong. Anyone could arrest a criminal, but judging them required someone powerful to fill the post. I'd like to institute a jury-style system in the future so we could leave cases to the people outside of serious, vicious crimes, but that would come once our nation was stable. Tempest was still a developing country, so Carrera's strength was helping me a lot right now.
"Oh, I'd be glad to! I'll do whatever you ask of me, and I know my clan will, too!"
She seemed to relish the chance.
I then looked over her overview of her clan and their stats—to be exact, Agera's and Esprit's.
Name: Agera (EP: 733,575)
Race: Demon Peer, marquis
Protection: Jaune clan
Title: Tyrant's Master
Magic: True Battlewill
Ability: Ultimate gift Blade Transform
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Name: Esprit (EP: 552,137)
Race: Demon Peer, count
Protection: Jaune clan
Title: Tyrant's BFF
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Unique skill Observer
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
Pretty good. Like, this met the old standard for demon lords, didn't it? Agera was equivalent to the pseudo-awakened Clayman, and if I had to guess, he'd win if he fought him back then… I really felt like this business of having multiple old demon lord–level underlings working for you was wrong in some way.
I also wondered what "Tyrant's BFF" meant. Carrera had given her that title, so I assumed that's what their relationship was. Esprit was kind of like a net savvy, fashion-conscious teen in some ways, and they certainly acted like fast friends together. It was less a master-servant thing and more like two girls from
different years in the same high school. Carrera, it felt to me, treated her clan a lot different than other demons did.
But the real surprises came next. Carrera herself was insane.
Name: Carrera (EP: 7,013,351 + 3.37 million for her Golden Gun) Race: Demon-god; Primal Demon—Devil Lord
Protection: Rimuru's protection
Title: Menace Lord
Magic: Dark magic, elemental magic
Ability: Ultimate skill Abaddon, Lord of Destruction
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Resist Chaos Attack
More magicules than Diablo? It made my eyes turn into little dots. Her growth had finally come to a stop, but she was clearly on top among my troops.
But even scarier was Abaddon. Its abilities included Hasten Thought, Universal Detect, Lord's Ambition, Control Dimensions, Multidimensional Barrier, Surpass Boundary, and Dimension Rupture—nothing world-level but all suited for attack force.
Dimension Rupture, in particular, could work its way through Distortion Fields to kill off enemies. If Carrera combined destructive magic with her own power and topped it off with this ability, only a very few people could withstand it, I think. It could even destroy the floors of Ramiris's labyrinth, which further proved how crazy it was. Frankly, not even I wanted to fight her any longer.
"You're…stronger now."
My true feelings fell from my lips.
"Yes, thanks to you. That, and to Kondo for ceding this to me. I want to kill Emperor Ludora for his sake as well."
I almost said, Right, right, until I remembered. Kondo, too, was being controlled by Michael that whole time.
"Actually, the real Ludora is no longer in this world… Or, well, a lot of stuff's happened, but the Ludora you fought was actually a skill that took over Ludora's body for its own purposes."
I explained to her that Ludora was actually Michael, the manas body. She nodded, unsurprised.
"I see. And that's why that bastard Feldway called Ludora by the name Michael? Now it makes sense, my lord."
Glad to hear. I definitely didn't want her picking a fight with Masayuki by mistake. Making sure that was clear with her, I ended the interview.
…But just as Carrera was about to exit, she turned around.
"Oh, I forgot… There's this thing I needed to tell you about, my lord." "Mm? What is it?" I asked, taking a sip of coffee.
"To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to tell you…"
If Carrera was this distressed about it, it must be something big. Maybe I should invite her to sit down again—
"…but it looks like Agera was once Hakuro's grandfather."
Brppph?!
I almost did a comedy spit take there. That was avoided just in time, but if it was something that shocking, I wished she wouldn't just float that up on the way out the door.
"That… Hey! Carrera!"
"Ha-ha-ha! Pretty serious stuff, eh? It's more than I can handle, so I wanted to leave the decision on what to do with him to you."
And with that, she smiled and left the room, tossing the ball into my court. I was sure that was a smile of relief, now that the load had been taken off her shoulders.
But I couldn't ignore this news. Diablo and the demonesses said I didn't need to interview their clan members, but Agera definitely deserved an audience later.
He'd have to wait, though, as I needed time to gather my thoughts. For now, at least, the one-on-one interviews were over.
I had our meeting with Masayuki the next day, so that was all the work for today…but it wasn't like I needed sleep. So I reverted to my casual, comfortable slime form and climbed under the covers. I always found sitting in the dark like this oddly comforting.
In that case, I will now give you my report.
Um, I'm off work for today…
This report involves my master's skills. It is not work.
Ciel might see that stuff as a hobby, but to me, it wasn't much different from work. Not that it'd listen to me. I'm sure I needed to know about it, so let's give up for now. I was actually looking forward to it a little, in fact. Better brace myself—no doubt it was gonna be something ridiculous.
My latest round of skill and ability integrations went extremely comfortably for me. I wrapped them all up without being forced into sleep mode, and while it took a day and a half to cover everyone, I was still lucid and alert enough to conduct all the interviews I had scheduled. And why not? Ciel had asked me to invoke Ability Adjust in the middle of battle, and no way would it allow me to go offline in that situation. If it did, I'd be really pissed off.
So I asked Ciel in my mind to go ahead, and the data began flowing in. So what did we have here, then?
Name: Rimuru Tempest (EP: 8,681,123 + 2.28 million for his Dragon Sword)
Race: Highest-level chaos elemental Ultimate Slime
Patronage: Grace of Friendship
Title: Chaos Creator
Magic: True-Dragon magic, High-Level Spirit Summoning, High Level Demon Summoning, others
Ability: Manas Ciel
Intrinsic skills: Universal Detect, Dragonsoul Aura, Universal Shapeshift
Ultimate skill Azathoth, Lord of the Void
Ultimate skill Shub-Niggurath, Lord of Abundance
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Resist Chaos Attack
That's how I turned out.
It didn't really feel this way to me, but I was sportin' some serious EP there. Add in my straight sword, and I was pushing ten million. I was well used to this weapon by now, and it sure lived up to its God rating. It had transformed its shape, influenced by the unique traits of my species, and for now I was simply calling it my Dragon Sword. There were two holes in it for upgrading purposes now, so clearly it was evolving without a hitch. I was happy with that.
Maybe it'd evolve more if I gave it a more formal name? Ahhh, no way. Forget it. Impossible. Part of me did want to try it out, but I didn't want just any old name for it. I'd try the name change once I thought up something really cool.
But just because my EP—or magicule count—was way ahead of the pack, that didn't mean I could rest easy. Benimaru, Diablo, and Zegion were hot on my heels, and people like Testarossa and the other two demonesses were monsters in battle. Testarossa, after all, gave Velgrynd a run for her money despite having ten times the magicule energy. It proved that stats weren't as important as how well you used your powers, I suppose…and by powers, I meant your magicule count, fighting level, and abilities put together.
In the battle against the Empire, they had all made maximum use of that power. If I wanted to prepare for the battles to come, I certainly couldn't let myself fall behind. For now, at least, I was ahead of Carrera and clearly living up to my reputation, so let's focus on other matters.
The protection I received from Veldora was gone, taking the form of a "patronage" instead. Had I grown to where I was offering my patronage to others, rather than accepting their good graces?
…Anyway, I'd better quit trying to escape reality. It was fine that my stats got streamlined and all, but I had only two skills left?
Luckily, Dr. Ciel couldn't wait to explain matters.
First, I integrated the obsolete Raphael and Belzebuth—
Whoa! Wait, wait, wait, wait! What was that? What did it just breathlessly spit out? It integrated Raphael, practically my parent at this point, because it was no longer necessary?
Is that a problem?
So I wasn't mishearing this. I knew that, of course…but I never thought Ciel would go through with it. Like, could Ciel even exist without Raphael?
Yes. I am already independent, so there is no need to worry.
Ciel calmly answered my doubts.
Even Raphael, something at the core of my being, was just more grist for Dr. Ciel's mill. Its deeds were a shock to me, but as it was explained to me, this wasn't a big deal because Raphael was a shell of its former self anyway. What mattered was what was inside, and so Ciel had gone to work—no feelings, no deep emotion. The way it so thoroughly cut away all unnecessary skills was clear to me now.
If it wasn't a problem, then fine, but did it need to consume Belzebuth as well?
Of course!
I really should've had it check with me first, I weakly replied, but Ciel kept on explaining like it knew it was in the right.
To sum up, my skills had transformed beyond recognition. It was way more than mere "adjusting" at this point—I mean, adjusting skill was what it did, but it still made no sense to me.
So what were these skills now?
The first one—Azathoth, Lord of the Void—was born from integrating Raphael and Belzebuth. Veldora, Lord of the Storm, as well as the just-acquired Velgrynd, Lord of the Flame, were also sacrificed for the cause. All the related abilities were carried on, however, so Ciel claimed it was no problem at all.
That meant Azathoth contained the abilities Soul Glutton, Void Collapse, Complex Space, Release True Dragon (Flame/Storm), Coreify True Dragon (Flame/Storm), Control Dimensions, and Multidimensional Barrier.
My old Summon True Dragon was gone, but turning Release True Dragon on and off had the same effect. Besides, now that Veldora and Velgrynd were free, they could come to my side with no magical coercion, so I really didn't need it.
Coreify True Dragon piqued my interest, and that turned out to be literal. It allowed me to turn the True Dragons into blade cores I could put into the holes in my straight sword. I repeat, it took the massive energy cloud known as a True Dragon and condensed it into a little ball for my sword. I was afraid to even imagine what sort of incredible force that would unleash. I'd need their permission for this…but really, I was too scared to even picture when I might need to bust this out.
Better seal it away for now, I thought, shutting it down before I even tried using it. I mean, no way Velgrynd would agree to it—but I bet Veldora would be up for trying anything once. That concerned me, so I kept it a secret.
More to the point, the real killer abilities here were the ones provided by Azathoth itself.
Soul Glutton: a superpowered version of Predate and Glutton. Consumes the target, soul and all.
Void Collapse: the ultimate destructive force, driving a world of chaos. Requires a manas to fully control.
Complex Space: a world of chaos. A superpowered version of my Stomach and Isolate abilities; a prison cell that locks away anything that must be isolated.
Control Dimensions: gain a grasp of time and space, allowing for instant transport with a single thought. Can even impact time.
Multidimensional Barrier: a multilayer barrier kept on at all times. Provides absolute defense via dimensional faults.
That was how Dr. Ciel explained it, and now things were sounding pretty intense. It tried to do all this to me during battle, even. It's nuts.
That talk of "absolute defense via dimensional faults," though—doubt I could trust that one. This was passing itself off as stronger and safer than a Distortional Field, but there were no absolutes in this world. I wouldn't be tricked that easily.
Of course, I should've realized the moment Ranga obtained Hastur that I was due for some serious ability upgrades. So it wasn't a surprise so much as a feeling of sheer exasperation. With Azathoth in hand, I really didn't need any
other abilities, did I?
The second ultimate skill in my inventory was good old Shub-Niggurath, and those were the two skills this round of Ability Adjust had left me. These were clearly power-ups from before, but at first glance, it felt like I had lost some abilities. Hasten Thought, for starters…but I could still use that one just fine. What was up with that?
That family of skills—Hasten Thought, Predict Future Attack, Analyze and Assess, Parallel Operation, Combine, Disassemble, Cast Cancel, All of Creation, Food Chain, Dominate Thought, Dominate Laws, and Transform Element—are calculation-based abilities that have been integrated with myself. They are thus available to you at a faster reaction time than before.
I guess I should praise this as a massive leap forward. Something told me this was going too far, but think of it this way—I was probably gonna need it for the next war. Wimping out now would lead to more losses later. That was the resolve I needed here. If I wanted to enjoy peace in the future, I couldn't leave anything behind, and I couldn't show any mercy.
So that rounded out my strength, but how did I stack up with Veldora these days?
Name: Veldora Tempest (EP: 88,126,579)
Race: Highest-level chaos elemental True Dragon
Patronage: Grace of Abundance, Protection of the Storm
Title: Storm Dragon
Magic: True-Dragon magic
Ability: Intrinsic skills Universal Detect, Dragonsoul Aura, Universal Shapeshift
Ultimate skill Nyarlathotep, Lord of Chaos
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Resist Chaos Attack
That was his current state.
His resistances were perfect, of course, but worthy of note was his off-the charts existence point count. The only thing you could really do at this point was laugh. All that crap he did while he was being measured, you know…
...…
...
…
It had happened just a bit ago, right after dinner. I was about to meet with Ultima, so I'd made to stand up and leave when Veldora got in my way.
"Kwaaah-ha-ha-ha! Rimuru, I understand you've been conferring with Benimaru and his fellows? I happen to be free right now—"
"Huh? I'm busy. Sorry, but I'll play with you when things calm down a bit."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's not that. I was just wondering when you'd confer with me!"
Pardon? I didn't need to interview him. Like, Veldora wasn't my servant or anything, and if I wanted his stats, I could ask Ciel for them.
"But we talk all the time anyway. Do we need anything that formal?" "What?! Stop being such a stick-in-the-mud!"
"Yeah! You need to realize how lonely you're making my master and me here!"
Great. Ramiris was joining in now.
But seriously, we really did talk all the time. And yeah, I'd love to break out my avatar core and play with you guys, but work's more important. Besides, we were in the throes of war right now? Remember? We didn't know where Feldway was, so things had simmered down at the moment—but I didn't want to fully kick back until we at least had our troops ready to intercept the enemy.
"Stop being selfish, all right? Once things settle down, I'll—"
"No, no, no! I don't mean it like that! I've grown stronger, you see, so I wanted to brag about it to you. I know you are busy, so you only need to be with me for a few moments!"
"Yeah, he's right! You're the only one who can produce pinpoint EP readings, so help a dragon out, won't ya?"
"Hmm?"
"What I'm saying is that I can trick Ramiris's measurements to produce anything I want, and I want to prove it to you!"
Oh.
"That's completely impossible, you! I know I can't measure it down to the ones digit, but you can't fake the entire system on me!"
Okay. So I was being dragged into an utterly pointless argument. Once it reaches this point, they refuse to listen to anybody else. It's faster just to play along a bit than defy them.
"All right, all right. Let's go to the Control Center, then."
So I measured Veldora's existence points. The equipment for this was connected to the monitors all around the labyrinth, but only the main panel in our Control Center could operate it. Ciel could synchronize itself with the labyrinth, allowing me to take measurements anywhere we wanted, but that's my little secret.
I was short on time, so we quickly trundled over to the Control Center.
"Right! So I measured my master, and I came up with an EP of eighty-eight million! And that's impressive enough, but he insists he can push that figure higher whenever he wants. I want you to yell at him not to be so full of himself!!"
It was an unimaginable figure. No human could beat him, not even a Million Class–level Saint. But was the number accurate?
Yes. Veldora's existence points are exactly 88,126,579.
Pretty close. Measuring these high numbers came at the cost of precision, but since we mostly used our equipment to evaluate labyrinth challengers and invaders, there was no pressing need for a system upgrade.
But if Veldora really could cook the figures to say whatever he wanted, it proved there was something wrong with our measurement gear. I didn't want
that to go unaddressed, so it was a good thing I'd bothered to check just now. At least this brief diversion wasn't a total waste of time. Now we'd have to see if Veldora really could cheat the system.
"Well, my measurements say 88.12 million. That's pretty much the same. So are you saying you can bump that number up at will? Or is it underestimating your score?"
Either way, I wanted to ask how he'd do it and come up with countermeasures. When I asked Veldora for a sample, he smiled the biggest grin ever and removed his coat.
Oh, great, I thought. A bead of cold sweat felt like it was running down my skin, even though I'd stopped sweating long ago.
Then that laugh came roaring through.
"Kwaaaaah-ha-ha-ha! Behold, and look closely, as I unleash my true power!!"
With a loud, echoing whump, the coat fell to the floor. It was followed by the wrist and ankle bands he had on his arms and legs, all smashing against the floor and leaving cracks.
Uh…
Taking off heavy clothing wasn't going to up the numbers. I'd never let that happen. EP measures the amount of energy within you; it's got nothing to do directly with your battle performance.
But Veldora didn't get the message.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaahh!! Well?! Go ahead! Measure me with that machine of yours! But don't blame me if I breeeeeaaaaak iiiiiiiitttt!!"
Sheesh, this is embarrassing!
I understood what he was trying to do, but it was just too pathetic to watch.
I just made another measurement, but there is not even the slightest change to his statistics.
Of course there isn't!
"V-Veldora, listen to me…"
"Master, it's still at eighty-eight million…"
Ahhh, Ramiris just stabbed him in the heart with the dagger of truth!
"D-don't be ridiculous! Rimuru, be honest with me! My EP must have doubled by now, did it not?"
I gave him a sympathetic look. "I know you can hide your aura, but EP has kind of a different nuance…"
Then, as earnestly as I could, I explained that existence points were a measure of your energy store, not some kind of "battle level" from action manga. Veldora turned bright red upon realizing his error.
...…
...
…
It was an amusing story at this point, but he didn't need to fake anything. This really was an incredible reading. Nothing apart from an ultimate-level attack would scratch him.
And the abilities he'd gained were incredible, too. Dr. Ciel's adjustments had evolved his skill into Nyarlathotep, Lord of Chaos, which included Hasten Thought, Analyze and Assess, All of Creation, Control Probability, Parallel Existence, Investigate Truth, Control Dimensions, and Multidimensional Barrier. That's a wide variety, and Ciel's rearranging and organizing made them far easier to tap into.
He even gained Parallel Existence! I knew from fighting Velgrynd just how much of a pain that was, but with Control Probability in his quiver as well, Veldora really did feel invincible. In fact, he was, as long as I didn't die. His heart core was still inside me, his memories and emotions backed up inside. Between that and being able to launch a Separate Body at any time, there was practically zero chance of destroying him.
The whole EP thing was a laugh, but I truly was glad to have him on our side.
So Veldora's existence points were more than ten times mine, and I likely stood no chance against him…but I still had questions.
For one, I'd beaten Velgrynd recently. I'd used Predate on her, even. Her EP at the time was reported to me as around 26.87 million. I consumed more than 50 percent of her, by the way. Something like 30 percent was still in recovery, and that would be restored back to what I ate as well. Ciel was certainly careful with this stuff, which I was glad for.
My question was that considering all the energy of hers that I'd consumed, my EP actually seemed kind of low. It was more than enough, of course, and I think battle sense is more important, but it was still something I wondered about.
The answer is obvious. The energy you consumed was taken into your body at one point, but it was turned into your blood and flesh and then set free via Release True Dragon.
And…what does that mean?
It means that my master's maximum existence point value can be accurately defined as the sum of Veldora's and Velgrynd's EP.
…?!
I was forcibly stunned into silence.
So when I had Release True Dragon turned off, that's when I could break out my full force.
…Hmm? But, like, the output's the same either way, so maybe having more energy didn't mean anything. I was sure Velgrynd made Separate Bodies of herself because she maxed out what only one of her could produce, too. There's no limit to someone's potential force, but if you can't hit someone with it, it's a moot point. Gain enough to destroy an entire planet, and it gets hard to precisely control it, too.
Maximum power, I concluded, meant little to nothing.
I should also note that Velgrynd's estimated EP when I consumed her was 49,829,987. That was Ciel's calculation, and I'm sure it was perfect, but right now, her count had gone way up.
Name: Velgrynd (EP: 74,350,087)
Race: Highest-level chaos elemental True Dragon
Patronage: Grace of Flame
Title: Flame Dragon
Magic: True-Dragon magic
Ability: Intrinsic skills Universal Detect, Dragonsoul Aura, Universal Shapeshift
Ultimate skill Cthugha, Lord of the Fire God
Tolerances: Cancel Melee Attack, Cancel Natural Elements, Cancel Ailments, Cancel Spiritual Attack, Resist Chaos Attack
That was Velgrynd's current status. She went down by a fifth only to then go way past her initial value—more of an evolution than merely growing.
Her abilities were the same as before after a round of Ciel optimization, but I was sure she was a master at using them. Cthugha comprised Hasten Thought, Flame Excitation, Parallel Existence, Control Dimensions, Trans-Dimensional Leap, and Multidimensional Barrier. A real rogues' gallery.
I had last seen Velgrynd several days ago, so I had no idea what she was going through. Presumably, I'd see her tomorrow, and I really wasn't sure how to approach her. She'd be scary if I riled her, so I resolved never to goad her again.
My interviews—really a way to check on our current state with Ciel—had come to a much-appreciated close.