56th Move | The Fall

AN: Now, apparently, according to Canon, the entirety of the Jura Tempest Federation spans an area 2.5 times the size of the continental United States, which is larger than Russia at about 20 million square kilometers.

Also, does anyone knows how I can get a Tvtrope of this fic? Can someone make one?

_____________________________________________

Even with how high the explosion is, the fireball is absolutely enormous! Easily in the megaton range. It's like looking at an air-burst nuclear strike, only it detonated too early.

The Mathematic did not detect any spike of radiation beyond the first gamma-ray flare, meaning the trigger is most likely antimatter.

What little clouds in the sky that existed disappeared when the shock wave washed over them like a cleaning mop sweeping away spilled water on a floor.

Time slowed down to a crawl as I witness this devasting explosion.

The ultra-dense cables connecting the Ground Hub with the Space Hub snapped. The bottom is flung down to the Hub at speeds beyond that of sound due to the sheer tension involved prior to it breaking. The tips of the snapped cable are glowing brightly, speeding down to the island faster than even the fireball, intent on destroying the Hub like a hammer of god striking down human arrogance.

Shit, that antimatter explosion definitely disrupted the magnetic field used to interface with the magmatter chain!

More than being composed completely of specialized non-proton catalyzing magnetic monopoles called magatoms, a single mono-magmatter chain is 300 million times thinner than an atom, meaning that it's quite literally invisible to all but the most energic wavelengths of light. The bond between two magatoms is 7 quintillion times stronger than their conventional matter counterpart, making them a quick alternative tensile support for mega-projects like a space elevator since all you need is a couple of mono-magmatter chains.

Another interesting property of magmatter is that they don't interact at all with normal matter since an electron can occupy the same space as a magmatter monopole. An electric field is run through the magmatter to polarize it, allowing a magnetic field to weakly interact with it.

Therefore, to hold magmatter in place, an extremely strong magnetic field must be applied at both ends of the cable, with a comparably weaker field running between the two to keep it from swaying.

The ultra-dense covering of the magmatter cable was exactly that; the material responsible for maintaining the magnetic field.

This explosion disrupted that field, causing the extremely dense outer covering to snap off with the force of a city-destroying explosion behind it.

[Mathematic] combined with [Material Science] calculating that with the speed that the cable is moving at combined with its mass, it'll enough damage that it would sink the mobile island like a capsized ship.

To avoid that outcome, the first thing I did was activate [Mekhane]'s most powerful ability: [Fundamental Force Manipulation].

[Fundamental Force Manipulation] is exactly as it sounds; it grants me control over the 4 atomic interactions within a typical 3-dimensional space. I rarely use this ability since it trades accuracy for potency, meaning that while I could manipulate a large amount of matter, I would do so without being able to specifically control what atom I wish to control.

I first wanted to reverse Gravity, only to realize at the level of strength required, it'll likely cause some major damage to Trantor. So instead, I opted for controlling the Strong Force, specifically, to remove it entirely and make the formation of atomic nuclei an impossibility.

The cable unmade itself as it traveled down, disintegrating into nothing but a cloud of free-flowing up and down quarks.

Time returned to normal, and less than a minute later—

*KABOOOOOOOOOM*

Several dozen atmospheres' worth of air pressure washed over me, blowing away anything not nailed to the ground and causing the nearby trees on the artificial land to bend over like the hairs of a brush, some of the smaller trees snapped like toothpicks while the main stage screeched across the floor of the artificial island, making long black marks as they do. The air pressure traveled further into the sea, flattening the capillary waves like someone hitting fresh dough.

I was entirely unaffected.

Due to how high the explosion was, it took a while for the shock wave to reach the bottom of the Elevator. The sound from that shock wave was so loud as that it caused all of the windows in the Hub to blow out.

Once everything has subsided, I used the Noosphere to assess the damage. With approximately 92,727 windows blown out, the damage is like the Halifax explosion, only with around 40 people dead and ~500 others injured due to embedded shards of glass and radiation poisoning.

The stage had been mostly destroyed, with the pieces of metal and other wreckage scattering in a cone configuration for hundreds of meters.

I cussed out in 23 different languages once it hit me that all of the diplomats, Princes, and Princesses from other countries were on that Elevator, most of the curses were in languages in my old world, while others are in languages I made using [Language].

"Is... is this the trigger?" My eyes became as wide as dinner plates at the prospect, shivering as a coldness snaked down my back, "is this the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand?" I stood there, motionless and completely terrified at the thought, the idea of a World War so soon.

Wait, Rimuru—

The pulsing stone inside my chest stopped for a brief moment.

I reached out across the Noosphere, searching desperately for signals of Kusanagi, finding it to be on the space hub.

A holographic panel materialized in front of me, displaying the confused face of Rimuru Tempest made me sigh in relief.

"Rimuru! Are you alright? Where are you?" I rapid-fired some questions.

"Scientia? I'm currently on the space hub waiting for other diplomats to arrive— did something happen?" The explosion probably hasn't reached the space hub.

Seeing how I'm not alone in feeling clueless, still, my face formed a grim look, "there was an attack, a terrorist attack it looked like."

Small ports on the ground opened up, and through those ports came flashing red lights alongside a synthesized voice.

<Alert, Code-Red, The Space Elevator has been locked down, please remain calm>

Metal shudders descended to cover up the windows and doors. My lips thinned in pure annoyance as I cast my gaze upon the metal shudders, its original purpose was to weather out storms since the mouth of the Bay of Ashdapor is like the Caribbean Sea: it generates large numbers of hurricanes every summer.

God damn it, I grit my teeth, I thought that no one would be stupid enough to attack the diplomats, after all, doing so is like Iraq attacking Kuwait and starting the Gulf Wars: it'll unite the world against the people responsible.

[Contessa] even suggested I do such a thing and use it to frame the Eastern Empire, but that'll lead to a World War, and I honestly don't want to kill more people than I need to.

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT! The repercussion of failing to protect so many high-level diplomats from other countries, it'll effectively nullify whatever I said before.

Speaking of [Contessa], 'did you know about this?'

.

.

.

.

To my utter surprise and fear, the Ultimate Skill was silent, causing my eyes to narrow in suspicion as I felt a cold chill run down my spine.

I know that the Ultimate Skill is there. I can instinctively feel its presence yet it isn't replying.

It seems the other shoe has dropped. No wait, it already has dropped during Walpurgis.

"Wait, a terrorist attack?"

Like pouring water over an open flame, my anger was extinguished once I realized Rimuru popped up near me with a Doormaker portal.

I chewed on my lower lips in trepidation, thinking this is the worst possible scenario.

Seeing my look, Rimuru frowned, "I see, so do we know who's responsible?"

I felt a mental switch get flipped as Rimuru spoke those words, my mouth started talking on its own as the filter I usually had was ignored.

"That's the thing! I've screened everyone going onto that first ride and no one would have the plausible motive or need to attack it, every one of them behaves like your typical noble; they wouldn't sacrifice themselves for a cause!" I told him, acting like a Corporate Executive trying to explain to their shareholders why the hell did the company's stock just nosedived, "and what's more, I don't know how the hell did they even get enough much less carry enough antimatter to sneak into the Elevator, which is the third most secure place in the ENTIRE GOD DAMN NATION!"

I yelled as I started to pace in a circle, trying to desperately think of an answer as my hands gripped the side of my head.

The outside world became meaningless as I felt tears gather, desperation fueled a need for a reason for this tragedy, some kind of explanation for the upcoming chaos. In response to the lack of an answer, the anxiety within me ballooned to a level not seen since I was studying for exams in my past life.

"SCIENTIA!"

"WHAT?!" I snapped at Rimuru, who flinched. I was too anxious to care about hurting anyone's feelings, I started to scratch my head hard enough that the tips of my fingers were coated in a thin layer of blood, "can't you see I'm trying to think of a way to prevent the next World War and salvage our reputation?!"

It was only when I saw Rimuru's look of surprise I stopped hyperventilating. Calming down enough, I massaged my forehead before looking to the side, "look, I'm sorry for the mood swing, it's just there's been a lot of stress okay?"

"It's... fine, just, we have a protocol for these things, right?"

"I— " I racked my brain for an answer, searching every crevasse of my memory before coming up blank, "no... we don't have anything with terrorist attacks since I didn't think a 911 could happen in this new world! Hell, I thought it to be next to impossible since I have technology that literally scans a person down to their molecular level, making any attempt at concealing an artifact that can actually damage the space-elevator all but futile."

"Plus, I had Doormaker automatically tuned in such a fashion that'll isolate any unusually large pockets of magicule within a manifold! This should not have happened! It's humanly impossible! [Magicule] says you'd need a Primordial Demon equivalent and those who are still free are in Hell, not in the overworld!"

My hands grip the side of my head, pulling on my hair in frustration at how powerless I feel, "Graaaaaah!"

The Mathematic tried to inject calming chemicals into the bloodstream, however, due to my elevated metabolizing rate, it was almost destroyed instantly.

"Hey, hey!" Rimuru yelled to get my attention, grabbing my shoulders, "we can weather this alright, we've withstood the attack of two other nations, and you're a Demon Lord! Not some headless chicken!"

"No! It just doesn't make any logical sense!" I feel like I can't breathe. I'm sweating profusely.

>Administering: Stimulus

"Ow!" The Mathematic automatically administered a controlled electric shock. Mentally, I grab onto that electric shock as an anchor of sorts to quickly calm down.

"You alright?"

Taking several deep breaths, "yeah..." I became almost unresponsive, everything just felt so surreal.

Seeing how I'm calm now, Rimuru turned around and pulled up a holographic panel, "Citrinitas, tell the Minister of State to declare a state of emergency within the Jura Tempest Republic, tell the Mayor of Trantor to enact Marshal Law, and get Border Security to lock 'em down, under no circumstances unless approved by me specifically are anyone allowed to leave or enter the nation."

I was having this out-of-body experience again, tuning out the world like I'm trapped inside my mind.

How did this happen? It can't be Velgrynd, she's not the type to ever go for quietness, if the True Dragon attacked, everyone in the world would know of it, and not only because of the massive spike in magicule count.

Some of the Demon Lords? Possible, but... it could be Luminous, except I have no concrete evidence— god I hate that bitch!

"Arcueid?"

Hearing her name had caused me to snap out of my thoughts, "what?" I looked at Rimuru with my mouth half-open, disbelieving what he was saying.

Where was the True Ancestor during this whole fiasco anyway? That was the first thing on my mind.

The slime pointed outward towards the edge of the platform and into the ocean.

Turning to see where he was pointing; a holographic overlay formed around my eyes, displaying a zoomed-up image and allowing me to see things kilometers away to around the edge of the island platform.

I saw Arcueid, drenched in water, trying to pull someone up.

A tiny amount of hope burned inside my mind at the sight that she was okay, opening a Doorway, I teleported over next to where she's at and saw the True Ancestor trying to pull up a heavily wounded King Gazel.

I lifted him up with the gravity portion of [Fundamental Force Manipulation], gently settling him down on a bed I pulled out from another Doorway. The Dwarven King groaned slightly as he stained the white sheets red with blood, my teeth ground themselves as [Biology] assessed the damage.

"Heavy third-degree burns, burst eardrum, fractured bones... jeez if he wasn't a Saint, he probably would've died from being so close to that antimatter explosion." Giving Arcueid an eyeful, it was only then that I realized just how damaged her body was.

One of her arms was heavily damaged, her clothes were blackened, burns covered her back, and bits of her hair were singed off— she was in a position much worse than Gazel, yet somehow she was still standing around as if nothing was wrong.

The same individual who had effortlessly withstood a tinkertech plasma torch for 3 seconds and came out unscathed, only remarking how it felt hotter like a summer's heat.

So is it any wonder that I instantly grew worried?

"Oh my god..." I looked her over, while Arcueid did her best to avoid any eye contact. Gently touching the area covered by clothing while examining her, "what the hell did you do, Arcueid?" I spoke under my breath, "Crikey, these are some serious wounds, third-degree burns, radiation poisoning, charred arm—" I gently grabbed her chin to get her to face me, "what the hell were you doing? It's like you were near the epicenter of that antim—"

Seeing Arcueid's sorrowful face made anything I was about to say get stuck in my throat, it was only then that it struck me as to why she's like this. I immediately let go of her chin, my hands slowly backing away.

"D-did you attempt to rescue— oh..." Arcueid had bits of tears near the edge of her eyes, turning away from me.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, Arcueid..." I trailed off as I engulfed her in a much-needed hug. Due to her sitting by the bed, she was a bit shorter than me, so instead of it being a normal hug, her chin was on my left shoulder, head tilted upward, "you did well, Gazel will live." 'I'll make sure of it' went unsaid but very heavily implied.

I took a quick glance again at Gazel. His wound might be serious for magical medicine but a quick application of fresh stem cells should be enough, no need to get the Shaper involved.

"No! ...I almost had the culprit! ...The bomb was literally a few feet away when I realized I can't stop it... so I pushed the nearest person out of the Elevator— I could've done so much better and now you're going to pay for my incompetence! You've already suffered enough! I don't—"

Arcueid's cry was muffled by me squeezing her tighter. The Block Form Singularity Mathematic changed itself into something soft instead of the Tron-like uniform. Despite this tragedy and the upcoming international shitstorm, I can't help but feel a warm feeling inside me when I look back and see how much the Princess of the True Ancestor has grown and how much she tries to help me.

I love her. I really do love her. I adore her with all my heart even if she's a bit of an airhead at times. So seeing her like this made my heart ache as if a knife was stabbed into my chest.

*chu*

I gently pat the back of her head as I give her forehead a kiss, uncaring if anyone saw me.

The back of my mind notes how had this been in my old world, I would've frowned upon such public displays of affection.

"It's alright, you saved at least someone, and it's all that matters."

It seems Rimuru left with Gazel to the hospital.

We stayed like that for some time, with Arcueid's head on my lap while I just gently played around with her hair. While I didn't know it at the moment, it would be one of the last times I would ever get any proper rest.

_____________________________________________

The Jura Tempest Republic had entered into a state of cold war with the entirety of the Council of the West. Falmuth has withdrawn its Embassy staff. Blumund wanted to before our diplomat to the Kingdom 'kindly' suggested they rethink the ramifications of such a move.

After the disastrous attack on the Space Elevator, all but King Gazel survived. Those princes, princesses, nobles, and diplomats from other countries died in the fiery antimatter explosion.

Those who survived in the Hub area had to be flown to the local gene clinics for repairing radiation poisoning.

Needless to say, our goal for the Elevator went up in flames. Since we do not know who was responsible, we were forced to take full responsibility as our security failed to protect those VIPs. Even if it's much more stringent than most fortresses, the public only focused on that it failed.

This is like the Hindenburg Disaster all over again, where one catastrophic failure is all the world focuses on instead of numerous other successful trips.

Trade with the West went to an all-time low with all major foreign corporations pulling out of Tempest except for Rosso Inc. Even so, countries still trade with us 'unofficially' using third-party merchants since Tempest and Dwargon hold the two money printers in the world.

Rumors of a coup in Ingrassia were proven true when after news of King Aegil's death, Second Prince Aegir forced First Prince Elric to abdicate the Throne. His coronation came a mere two days after the coup with the few remaining loyalists to the late-King Aegil executed the day after.

Second Prince Aegir became the 46th King of Ingrassia.

King Aegir's first move was to cut off all diplomatic talks with the Republic in favor of closer ties with the Council of the West. Unlike his father, Aegir was militant, expanding the national army in order to compete against Ruberios, Sarion, Tempest, and the Eastern Empire on the world stage militarily.

Tempest didn't intervene during the coup because the government was in chaos. Hardline Conservatives were calling for the impeachment of Rimuru Tempest due to the mishandling of the Space-Elevator bombing.

The media is out for blood, having no clear enemy, they started to blame everyone from Rimuru to foreigners to even me. Many other political parties other than the Modern Progressives were coming out of the woodworks campaigning hard for Rimuru's resignation using the Bombing of the Space Elevator as a catalyst.

The internet, as expected, was filled with conspiracy theories.

Unlike 9/11, instead of uniting a nation, the lack of a clear enemy and the mishandling revealing long-hidden incompetency has people divided harder than in the 2016 American election.

On one side, you have what's called 'the Blues', who are supportive of Rimuru, consisting mostly of MPPs and the older generations.

On the other side, you have what's called 'the Reds', who are calling for him to step down. The Reds consists of almost every other Party as well as most of the Conservative senators.

Some higher-ups of the Technologist Party were considering joining the bandwagon to try and steal more supporters from Rimuru before Adalman shut that down.

It was only then that I realized something was not right: an incident like this couldn't have people calling for a civil war within two weeks, especially since the Governmental System I created with [Politicial Science] modeled off the Presidential Republic should've more than made up for any inefficiencies that a newcomer like Rimuru could've caused.

No, all of these claims are overblown. Even if the media is like a pack of wolves right now who smelled a fresh kill, the people shouldn't have this big of a reaction, especially not with how new the media is.

Someone is fanning the flames.

There is a puppet master hidden behind the scene that's influencing public opinion.

Thus, I dug a little bit and discovered that at the beginning, most of the hard-hitting news articles came from sources who are tied with Rosso Inc, and those hardline Conservatives and other political parties? They were all lobbied by firms Rosso Inc has hired through shell companies.

I wouldn't have caught any of these transactions had I not already installed the all-encompassing SKY_NET Program inside the Tempest Banking System. This surveillance program is far more sophisticated than anything in my old world. Being a subsystem of the Overwatch Security System, the SKY_NET Program is essentially a much more powerful and specialized version of the PRISM.

(Of course, this usually would be a huge violation of privacy but there's no human or monster involvement. Instead, I relegated these tasks to faceless impartial dumb AIs that wouldn't judge people for purchasing things that require discretion. I would rather not have a potential Snowden situation)

Even if I don't bother dealing with politicians and the politicking that oftentimes happens in Congress, I hold enormous political swaying power. I'm like Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones; the power behind the throne since I'm the one who controls the Blueprint Auction House, the source of all of the Jura Tempest Republic's technology and subsequent wealth.

No corporation or individual dares to oppose or even mildly object to my wishes since I could easily just release a better version of their product that can be produced for cheaper as well, and I'm willing to fund entrepreneurs with a free blueprint just to get rid of a company that I do not like or is becoming too much of a monopoly. Similar to how governments have a monopoly on violence, I have a monopoly on money.

The Legislative and Executive Branch gives me a lot of legal autonomy, so accountability-wise, I may be fined several million dollars, it's all just the cost of doing business, or rather, ensuring there still is competition in the Free Market.

The people? The citizens who I raised out of poverty? Those foreign intellectuals and political exiles who were granted Residency and Asylum? They either all love me or they know that in the VERY rare moments I do make a move, it's best to speak out but not move.

These factors compounded together make making me an enemy extremely undesirable—even just having my attention is not preferable. In contrast to the fact that I only exercised this power once to bankrupt a single annoying individual who wouldn't take no for an answer, it became a cautionary tale that experienced businessmen and politicians would often tell their juniors to 'let the sleeping dragon lie'.

Usually, I would only make 'suggestions' to people that tried to take advantage of Rimuru's kindness and naivety and that would be more than enough.

So, when I fully flexed my political muscle by publically submitting evidence of Targeted Public Opinion Influencing by Rosso Incorporated to the Internet, every single news publication and other media company not under Granbell's control fell in line and started to repeat the evidence submitted by me.

Rosso Inc's stock finally stopped growing and took a colossal 40% nosedive as investors rush to get out of my line of sight, removing several billion dollars worth of value from the company with the Tempest National Bank lowering its rating of Rosso Inc from an S+ to a B.

There were news reports of Rosso Inc's employees doing a mass walkout in protest of what one online influencer dubbed 'Rosso's scummy behaviors'.

Now, any lawyer worth their salt would tell you that Rosso Inc's action isn't actually illegal and fell into more of a grey area, yet all of this still happened regardless just because of me publically submitting the evidence. Just imagine the outcry against the company had I actually sued.

In the aftermath, a thankful Rimuru would say that I radiated smugness for the entirety of what's been dubbed 'the Fall of Rosso Incorporated'.

As with everything, happiness was short-lived. As the cold war between the Central and the West has been brewing, the Thucydides Trap with the Eastern Empire was finally triggered.

_____________________________________________

Now, the Hexagon,

How...

...did it come to this? I wonder as I look at the messages given to me, a small pile of other letters on the floor to my side, how the hell did everything go so wrong?

I was working on Mobius, more specifically, on the System escape hatch using a reversed version of the Dimensional Bore when I got an update regarding a top-level emergency meeting of all high-ranking military staff and Ministers. Concerned, I placed the project on auto-complete and teleported back to a hidden portion of the Hexagon, before walking discreetly as possible to the correct room with techniques I created from [Stealth].

The meeting room was modeled after an old-fashioned European design, and was designed in such a way to contrast every other room in the Hexagon to catch people off guard. In the middle of the room was a large rectangular table, the center of which contained a large hologram showing the Republic-Empire border.

The meeting had every Minister and military officer ranked Colonel and up, the only powerhouses that are missing are Arcueid since I personally refuse to allow my oasis to participate, Veldora because he's too free-spirited, and Diablo for obvious reasons.

The meeting was about a declaration of war from the Eastern Empire.

As of one hour ago, reports of the Eastern Empire's tanks belonging to the Armored Corps led by members of the Royal Guards were rolling into Tempest through the vast plains at the Tempest-Imperial border. Multiple explosions were reported in towns closest to the border. Our analytical model projects their tanks and troops could hit Rimuru in about eight weeks' time, crossing the equivalent of two-thirds of Russia assuming there is no resistance and perfect supplies all the way through.

Then, it got worse as, during the meeting, the entirety of the Tempest Satellite Network and Doormaker went offline, presumably destroyed by Velgrynd during the first wave.

With Doormaker now offline, Rimuru had authorized the launching of several Autonomous Bombers from nearby airfields to slow the Empire's troops.

These bombers are 12-meter long black ogive wing Bomber with a wingspan of 10 meters from tip to tip, the AB-2 has a range that fully encompasses the globe all the while carrying upwards of 15 metric tons of chemical or exotic bombs or be retrofitted for a plasma streamer (the thing that melted the Ameld riverbed).

While my body sat in the meeting room, my mind was not there, instead, I was trying to come to terms that this is it, this is the World War psychohistory had predicted.

I felt old scars reopened inside my soul as I realize I'm going to need to kill many more times than the amount already on my hands, the 450,000 souls I got from the Annihilation of Corbin, the fire burning...

My fist tightened.

I'm slowly coming to terms with it, mentally at least. The idea of killing more people... the idea of killing millions... the concept of starting a world war...

...doesn't put me off as much as before.

I wonder if this is what veterans felt like when they were being called up for war once more.

As I mentally skimmed through some of my available trump cards in the Noosphere, [Planning] suggested a rather horrifying but effective solution to my Eastern problem.

With the ease of someone chewing bubble gum, I could just end the war right now with a single command: unleash the trillions of warships that I've built, or finally use one of the Hyperweapons.

The latter is definitely out, as a Hyperweapon is far too destructive for anything less than a galactic war.

That leaves the warships...

How many will die in the crossfire between my ships and Velgrynd? Before I could stop myself— billions, I answered my own question, though intuitively, I already knew the answer.

I mentally recoiled from that number.

Billions. A rather abstract number for the common people. Easy to digest since most people don't realize the true implications.

The entirety of WWII killed only upwards of 50,000,000 people. That's 5% of a billion. The bloodiest war in human history is only 5%, a meager percentage by most people.

Realistically speaking, if the Cold War went hot, only the northern hemisphere would be razed to the ground.

The total death toll will be less than a billion.

The estimated death toll from Relentless' Rampage 400 years ago was a little over 100 million.

People do not like to work with mass murderers. Just look at how isolated most of the Demon Lord nations are. During wartime, the human nations are expected to act honorably and ensure that no civilians are hurt.

I know for a FACT that the only reason we still have allies was due to nobody knowing who was truly responsible for the Annihilation of Corbin. Morbidly, a part of me is partially disturbed at how I'm revolted by the number of billions, not by the act of killing itself, as though killing 200,000 is perfectly fine but once that number reached above a certain threshold it becomes undesirable.

Then again, with the biotechnology I currently possess, the only thing that's stopping me from creating billions of humans is the required biomass. However, the lack of souls from those created humans will be an issue.

I felt what few tethers I have to my already dwindling humanity loosen even more.

I wonder if this is how Mao Zedong felt, seeing their people as nothing more than numbers. This is the same man who said how he's not afraid of nuclear war since if half of China's at the time 600 million people died, there's still 300 million more to repopulate the now vacant land.

You know this world war is a joke. A big, fat, morbid joke played on everyone.

This war, this inevitable world conflict, is all pointless.

The System is coming to an end, and I can't just release the information to the world since that will most certainly be passed off as propaganda. Fuck, I didn't even tell Rimuru that the System is ending!

The attempt to focus on something else instead of my options backfired.

I felt my body starts to heat up, so many things are coming up, the End of the System, a war with what used to be The Superpower of the World, and how a war with them could very easily spiral out of control and be this world's equivalent of a nuclear war with Velgrynd in the mix. I felt ice cubes run down my back. How am I supposed to deal with all this? I don't have enough time!

I don't want to become something even worse than Relentless.

[Biology] is recognizing how I'm undergoing signs of anxiety. Like someone having a really bad day and a small snarky comment just went in one ear, this small act is enough to blow my fuse.

No shit! Anyone would be anxious when the fucking end of the world—

>Administering: Pain Shot.

"ARGH!" My body folded like a mousetrap so fast that I slammed into the wooden table, cracking parts of it due to how hard my skin and skull were.

The pain shot was supposed to serve as something akin to a distraction, something to clear my mind.

But god damn! That pain shot hurts like hell!

At least it did its job, I mentally reminded myself and calmed down before I could act out more in frustration.

[Silenced Emotion: 90%]

Near instantly, my inner turmoil was erased. Since I almost always have [Silenced Emotion] on, it sometimes slips my mind during the heat of the moment that I have such a solution available.

Raising my head up from the cracked table, I quietly looked around the room, finding everyone staring at me, some with looks of concern while others, were surprised.

"Scientia are you alright!?" Rimuru hurriedly asked.

Taking a moment to clear my throat, I asked [Contessa] to see if it was active.

'[Path to stopping the World War]'

If I can at least stop the inevitable war with the West—

I only got silence.

Ever since that attack, [Contessa] had been silent, yet I know it exists inside my soul but either it's choosing to remain silent or something is causing it to be silent, both are equally frightening.

However, a third even more terrifying prospect exists: the breakdown of the System is starting to affect Ultimate Skills, and [Contessa]'s dissolution just so happened to coincide with the Bombing of the Space Elevator.

[Silenced Emotion: 70%]

[Strategy] guided my words, "I am fine." I turned to Ririna, "did the Eastern Empire state any demands or casus belli?"

"They demand the entire nation of Jura Tempest Republic to submit to Imperial rule, and the head of you, Commander."

I stayed silent, my lips thinned. Just as I thought, Luminous somehow convinced the Emperor that I am somehow responsible for the breakdown of the System. "For now, we'll need to alert the small towns nearest to the border with the Eastern Empire, Jistav's northern mountains should stall for enough time that we can properly mobilize even without the use of Doormaker." I spoke calmly as if everything in the past 5-minute had not just happened, "now, during wars of this magnitude, the defenders are favored since strategic weapons do not capture cities, infantry does."

After the events of WWII, United States Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson seriously cut the budgets of the Navy and the Army, thinking that Nuclear Weapons have made conventional warfare all but obsolete. He was proven false when, during the Korean War, the United States Navy didn't even have enough ships to cause a blockade.

He resigned on September 19th, 1950.

Even in this new world, the War between human nations stays mostly the same. The Empire is a bit of an outlier as Emperor Rudra has a fucking True Dragon as a concubine... after this war is over, I am going to raid the Imperial Archive for what in the ever-loving hell motivated the True Dragon to fuck one family line for millennias.

It's like each Emperor is the same charismatic person or Velgrynd is a fool.

"Jeanne, I'm going to need you to go to the border of Jistav and protect it, make sure not a single enemy troop gets past that line." Jeanne nodded as I traced a straight line from the western tip of the Northern Jistavian Mountain down to Milim's domain. Despite mass migration into the western portions, Jistav still has the largest concentration of people within the Republic. "Due to the fall of satellite communication, the citizens are going to be confused, so Rimuru, you're going to have to declare that we are at war with the Eastern Empire and enact Martial Law. Ririna, how quickly can we get the Tripods onto the frontlines?"

"Well, not fast enough without Doormaker. But, with the roads and hyperloop, we have in place, it should take a few days. We can delay the Empire's advance by bombing key infrastructures. We could slow them down even further by focusing on their supply chains." Ririna replied, "we're probably going to need to ramp up war propaganda since we literally just gone out of another war with Falmuth and Jistav. However, it shouldn't be too bad as we practically steamrolled both nations. Not even mentioning how we're the ones who's being attacked."

The hobgoblin finished it off by saying, "the stock market did crash, but it wasn't as bad as when the Sea of Broken Glass happened and is projected to recover by next week."

It was fortunate that the Geneva Convention didn't exist here, otherwise, Ririna would've been a war criminal for massacring those surrendered troops during Operation Jistavic Freedom.

Nodding, "alright, we'll also pull back some of our occupation troops in Falmuth, that way we have more in terms of raw numbers. Minister of Foreign Affairs?"

"um, here?" A hobgoblin spoke up as he looked around nervously.

"We're going to need you to call our allies in the CCTO and tell them we are in a state of war. As Article 5 of the Treaty states: 'an armed attack against one member of the Central Continental Treaty Organization is an armed attack against all, and thus shall be answered appropriately.'"

The CCTO's original purpose was more for collective defense against the Thucydides trap that will trigger with the Empire as well as serve as an economic bulwark against potential Western influences. Like NATO, we've been attacked, and an attack on one is an attack on all.

"Wait," Rubedo raised a hand, upon receiving my permission, he asked, "where's Diablo?"

Silenced descended down onto the room as the question sunk in, the Black Primordial has been missing even before the Bombing of the Space-Elevator.

"Oh, yeah, where is that bastard who was missing for the entirety of the Bombing?" Jeanne's fists smashed together as a frown appeared on her face, "wasn't he one of your most zealous subordinates? I don't see how he could've missed it."

*knock knock knock*

I opened my mouth to speak, only for knocking to be heard coming from the door.

I cracked a smile, "well speak of the devil and he shall appear.

'Come in.'

The door swung open to reveal Diablo, still wearing the same sleek and clean butler suit. Due to how he only opened one half of a double door, Diablo's body is taking up the entire thing.

"My Lady," despite how low he bowed, I wasn't able to see who was behind him, "I have returned, however, my deepest apologies as I was only able to—"

"Move!" He suddenly lunged forward as if he had been kicked in the back despite there being no one there— correction.

The one who dared to kick the Black Primordial was revealed to be none other than—

"Let me see who you pledged yourself to, Noir!" A childish voice rang out as my breath was taken away.

A cute young girl with medium-length purple hair stood where Diablo was seconds ago, she was wearing a gothic black dress with her hair done in a ponytail. Her legs are currently in the process of falling back down to the ground to show that she was the one who kicked Diablo. Save for her purple hair and her height, her appearance looked exactly like—

"K-Kathy?"

_____________________________________________

AN: in the original script, the Space Elevator was supposed to be an O'Neill Cylinder before I realized it would take Milim levels of power to efficiently destroy it in a short enough time.

Plus, Space Elevator is much more realistic to achieve in the next century or so.