72nd Move | Dual Duel

AN: as I'm writing this, I don't know whether or not the previous chapter will be controversial or not so let's just assume yes. On the Wiki, there was barely anything on Granbell and Gazel, so I thought why not innovate?

Update: I don't really like how the duel between Granbell and Gazel went, but at the same time, I've made it integral to the story, and erasing it causes some major problems for the future.

_____________________________________________

*CLANG*

The clashing of metal and sparks went flying between Granbell and Gazel.

*CLANG—CLANG—CLANG—CLANG—CLANG*

To a human observer, the Hero and Saint's swords were moving at such speeds that they were a blur as multiple shockwaves were released every second, blowing back dirt and other nearby debris.

Obviously, this clash attracted the attention of nearby soldiers, and since Gazel knew none could stand up to Granbell, he took a breather to yell at them to stay back before continuing.

Despite his hatred of the man, Gazel could not help but feel a bit of begrudging respect. He's enjoying this fight more than he had any right to.

It wasn't the joy of accomplished revenge, it was the joy of fighting, the joy of an athlete as they exercised: it was the joy of knowing your life is on the line.

In order to even have a chance of defeating someone who's an evolutionary tier higher than him, Gazel had to focus solely on the Hero. The sweat on Gazel's face formed a reflective mask from the exertion.

This feeling... Gazel went on the offensive even as Granbell casually deflected it. The Dwarf King used his signature Art [Gravity Blade] and vertically slashed out an invisible sheet of ultra-strong gravity.

When was the last time Gazel felt his heart beating his fast? Before becoming King, the young Gazel wanted to be a hero. He would adventure across the lands from deep within the Jura Forest to Ingrassia, there was rarely a place that hadn't heard of the adventurer Gazel Dwargo. After his father died he was forced to take the mantle of Kingship.

He still wanted to be a hero, but after his brother plotted a coup with aid from the Eastern Empire, his ideals shattered.

Gazel could still remember the light dying in his brother's eyes as he gave him a death worthy of a Dwarven Royalty— strangulation, for no Royal Blood should be on another Royal's hands.

The Voice of the World spoke to him on that battlefield as he choked his brother. It gave him [Dictator]— a word under the same umbrella as 'Tyrant', an apt name considering its ability.

Being able to read others' thoughts allowed Gazel the option of truly becoming a tyrant, an unparalleled dictator as he could stamp out any dissent.

Instead of falling down that dark and easy path, Gazel picked up his ideals and glued them together with pragmaticism. He would be a hero yes, a pragmatic one, a utilitarian one.

As he reigned as the King of Dwargon, Gazel learned the best way to help people is by creating laws and enforcing them. Is there a rampaging monster in a nearby country? Organize the army. Is there a drought? Give assistance in the form of food and water mages. Is there a group of people suffering due to being seen as second-class citizens wherever they go? Offer them refuge.

He had done more good in one year as King than he had ever done in the decade he'd spent trying to be a hero.

Thus, he rarely picks up his arms to fight anymore, physically speaking at least.

Gazel's sure-fire attack, the sheet of gravity traveled at the speed of light, expanding beyond its original size and cutting into Granbell's right forearm and his body, causing Gazel to draw first blood.

The blade continued its travel, cutting into the earth before finally weakening to a mere breeze.

But now, he's almost thankful for Granbell volunteering himself as a target, akin to how Margaret Thatcher would thank Argentina for attacking the Falklands despite them being enemies.

Except, Granbell spouted a happy expression, much to Gazel's confusion.

"Impressive," he complimented, "You're definitely S-rank level despite being merely a Saint. But you're going to have to be better than that!"

Like night and day, Granbell grew serious as he launched an offensive with his sword.

Unlike before, Gazel can barely react to Granbell's whirlwind of attacks. Cuts and bruises quickly formed all over Gazel's body.

A stab cracked Gazel's chest plate.

A slash bites deep into Gazel's right shoulder, forcing the Dwarf to use more of his left hand.

A swipe took out a chunk of Gazel's left ear.

The damage would've been worse had Gazel not reinforced his own armor and skin with Earth Spirit magic.

"You're still weak," Granbell said as Gazel struggled to get up. His tone did a full turn from somewhat friendly into downright hostile, "Is this truly the King of the Dwarves?"

If they were having a normal conversation, Gazel would've asked what happened concerning how quickly his tone changed.

Granbell launched the battered Gazel through the campsite like a soccer ball with a single kick. Tents, weapons, and dwarves were all disassembled as a several hundred-pound Dwarf cannonballed through them.

"How are you supposed to enact your revenge if you're this weak?" Granbell casually walks through the devastation, cries of pain and people can be heard in the background as he steps over fallen dwarves, puddles of blood, and broken wooden planks. "How much did you underestimate me?"

Walking towards where Gazel had fallen, Granbell found a dozen soldiers and half a dozen mages between him and their King.

"Stay back!" One of the soldiers pulled out his sword and pointed it at the Hero. Immediately, some of the mages got up and readied their staff.

More and more soldiers surrounded Granbell from all sides.

Yes, Granbell thought upon seeing the sight, just like this, you are playing into my hand.

"Admirable, to inspire such loyalty..."

Once the King became lucid enough after receiving healing from a Holy mage, he yelled to the rest of his men "Leave me! Evacuate the army! I'll hold him off for as long as possible, evacuate to Dwargon! The attack on Siltrosso is a failure!"

"...these men, the lives of these men..."

"No, Your Majesty! Leaving you now would mean you dying. We shall use our body to give you time to heal! For the King!" One of the higher-ranking soldiers said as plenty more readied for a battle.

"""For the King!"""

In an absolute monarchy where power is centralized into a single person, only a select number of people matter to the ruler, so everyone beyond this group of people can be ignored. This in turn creates an effect where the decision-makers of the nation become isolated from the common troubles. They become out of touch with the real world, and the peasants are seen as objects.

Dwargon is a rarity.

After Gazel gained [Dictator], he started a path of reforming the nation into a meritocracy by slowly phasing out the power inherent in Dwarven Nobility. This act gave the common people what at the time were unthinkable freedoms and upward mobility.

Having a taste of such fineries, the citizens of Dwargon know just how precious it is, more so when they know that next door lies the Eastern Empire. They will give up their lives to defend it.

It was this will that Gazel wasn't able to comprehend. The Dwarven King always sacrificed himself for his people, the thought of his own people sacrificing themselves for him never crossed his mind.

Such loyalty even in the face of death. If Granbell had been a young man he was sure he would've been touched. If he had been younger, he might've spared them.

But, reality is hardly so kind to fairy tales. More so for what's to come.

"One more step." He whispered to no one but himself.

Despite their best attempt, Gazel's forces were at best B-rank. Against an individual that had held off a thousand demons before they became a True Hero, they were pitiful at best even with their seemingly large number.

"You know what? I'm feeling generous today. I'll fight crippled. I will use only one arm and none of my famous Holy Magic, Arts, or Skills. If only you manage to slay me, the entirety of Siltrosso will surrender. A duel to the end."

Gazel stared at Granbell's face in search of deception. His intense gaze scrutinizing every inch of Granbell would've caused the normal man to feel uncomfortable, but for the Hero, he took it like it was nothing.

Upon finding legit honesty coming from a usually manipulative individual, Gazel couldn't believe it.

The Dwarven King was in so much disbelief that he subconsciously activated [Dictator].

'Let's see if you truly are powerful enough.'

Surprisingly, instead of being brick-walled, Gazel got a reading from Granbell. Ultimate Skills automatically reject other lower-tier Skills, so for Gazel to be able to hear Granbell's thoughts must mean he truly didn't use any Skills.

In a tone devoid of confidence, "You... you're serious about this."

During the first bout, Granbell was playing. He was holding back before letting Gazel get a glimpse of his true strength.

Granbell tilted his head to the side and wet his dry lips, his arms brought up to the side in a disarming manner, a peculiar "Of course."

"What are you playing at?"

The rapid changes in tone are seriously putting Gazel off.

"Nothing. Come on! I ain't got all day." Granbell gestured a 'come at me' to Gazel.

"... Stay back soldiers." Gazel readied his sword in front of him. His forces gave them a wide berth.

For the final time, Gazel stared into Granbell's eyes to find nothing other than sincerity unbecoming of someone like him.

He's really so confident.

At last, it begins.

Gazel first tried to go for a heavy downward cut but was immediately blocked. Knowing that he would be blocked, Gazel quickly readied his left hand while pushing down with the sword with his right and threw a punch at Granbell's ribs. The Hero had to twist his body into an awkward position in order to dodge.

"[Earth Smash]"

It just so happens that this awkward position ensured Granbell could no longer support the defense again. Tilting his blade at an angle, Granbell predicted correctly that Gazel would use the opportunity to push his sword even more.

*CLAAAAAAAAAAANG*

Like water moving sideways down an angled roof, Judicious slid down the Longsword of Truth. Gazel continued forward as Granbell moved at an acute angle in relation to the Dwarven King. For a brief moment just as the Longsword passed over Judicious, Gazel was very open.

Instead of taking it, Granbell leaped away just as Judicious crashed into the earth, splitting it open and creating a spiderweb of cracks as though it were glass.

Granbell landed a few meters away, at the edge of the spiderweb cracks. Digging his feet onto the ground to slow down, the man kicked up quite the dust cloud for cover.

Pulling Judicious out of that crack with a grunt, Gazel's instinct flared up and caused the dwarf to tilt his body backward.

Less than half a second later, Gazel felt a sudden shift in the air as something whizz by exactly where he had stood before. He could barely see the object as it moved even with his enhanced physiology as a Saint.

There was a hole in the veil of dust that surrounded Granbell, a hole which whatever was thrown at him went through.

Rocks.

Granbell used his foot to kick up a pebble before using the flat side of his sword as a stick—

"[Earth Shield]"

A shield made out of pure golden orichalcum materialized in front of Gazel as the supersonic pebble smashed into the metal, visibly denting it to show just how much force was put behind that one attack.

He's not taking Gazel seriously.

To borrow a phrase from the Tempest dictionary 'Granbell is still playing around even while sandbagging hard'.

The strength of the True Hero Granbell was legendary. During the Short Summer, he was one of the Triumvirates. Even today, many describe Granbell as one of the two pillars supporting humanity, next to the dead Razul. To witness it firsthand would've been awe-inspiring had Gazel not been on the receiving end.

'How pathetic.' Gazel heard Granbell's thoughts.

As though he were playing golf, Granbell used his sword to smack more rocks at the shield, each time breaking it more and more like a child breaking apart a cookie on a whim.

"[Gravity Blade]" Gazel once again slashed out his most potent and well-known attack in a horizontal manner, cutting through the almost broken orichalcum shield.

Gravity is unique among the fundamental forces. Its infinite range and indiscriminate nature force Gazel to mentally calculate when to dispel it as otherwise, this would deal some serious friend fire. Equally, since it's a disturbance in spacetime, a very strong directed gravitational wave, [Gravity Blade] would pass through most types of magical shielding as though they didn't exist.

'Shit—'

"Ahhh!" The Sword Art created a deep horizontal gash right above Granbell's stomach and inner elbow.

"That damn move..." Granbell seethed through the pain. An aura of bloodlust covered the Hero.

Granbell then readied his blade in a position a fencer would use right before they go for the finishing move.

"Let's end this. One last attack."

Gazel readied his blade in a defensive manner.

Quicker than a flash, Granbell moved with speeds completely unbefitting of his age as the distance between him and Gazel closed drastically, the Longsword of Truth outstretched and pointed forward like the nose of a marlin fish on a hunt, the target was clear— to end it with a stab in the chest.

It was over quicker than a blink of an eye.

Gazel barely had enough time to adjust his sword before the Longsword of Truth collided in a deafening roar of ringing metal.

Except, there wasn't.

There wasn't a clash of metal. No, that wasn't accurate, there wasn't a screech of metal coming from two swords clashing.

Right before Granbell had struck, Gazel closed his eyes in pure reflex like a Great White Shark just as it chomped down on a seal.

Slowly, Gazel opened them. The first thing in his sight was a bundle of grey hair. Next, he felt something wet trickle down Judicious and into his hand.

His blood—?!

Looking down, he found the Longsword of Truth piercing his left side, specifically, the blade stabbed into his armor at such an angle that it went through to the other side without ever touching his flesh.

It pierced the shirt with the cooling enchantment he wore on the inside!

It was such a precise stab that if it were a hair's width away in any other direction, he would either be dead or the blow would've bounced off his armor.

Next, he saw the tip of Judicious coming through Granbell's back.

"Argh..." Granbell softly moaned out, his sword falling out of his hand as the old man clutched the stab wound. The Longsword of Truth remained stuck halfway inside Gazel's armor like the sticks of a shishkabob.

Gazel was struggling to comprehend how he had just won. Based on the trajectory, Granbell should've slain Gazel, yet for some reason, he stabbed into a region with such precision and willingly pushed himself into Judicious it leaves no room for arguments of 'unintentional'.

A quick check inside Granbell's thoughts confirmed was aiming at that area specifically.

"Why?" Gazel was stunned, his mouth agape.

For what reason? Did he want to get killed?!

He couldn't hear the True Hero's thoughts anymore.

Granbell's hand came up, bloodied, and clung around the inner edge of Gazel's shoulder guard. A normal human would be dead instantly with their heart destroyed, but not a True Hero.

In a soft and grandfatherly tone, Granbell spoke, "You wanted revenge, didn't you? Here, take it."

"But why? Why are you giving me this?" Gazel tried to get away as if trying to escape this new reality, only to be held in place by the dying Hero as he slowly fell to the ground, his muscles giving out, the ground pushing out Judicious.

A small stream of blood came out of the edge of Granbell's mouth. Turning his head to the side to cough out blobs of blood, Granbell returned to look straight into Gazel's eyes, "My deal with Her is up. You are the most honorable person I've ever met. Your honor ensures you would rule justly, that you would uphold your promises no matter what, and most importantly, you would never hold the people responsible for the mistakes of their ruler. I hope... the blood feud between our two Houses ends with me... I hope... you would become the new defender of mankind... and that you would... safeguard my granddaughter in the coming World War..."

Gazel opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Granbell's breath became more and more ragged.

"My sincerest apology... for suddenly placing this burden on you... You may hate me, but please... let the hate die with me—"

"I accept."

The sense of begrudging respect sprouted and thrived into something more. Gazel was moved.

"In exchange for fulfilling my revenge and ending the blood feud between me and you, I accept the responsibility of becoming a new defender of humans— nay, I shall become a defender of all life. Your granddaughter will survive the war, that I promise you."

Satisfaction filled Granbell's face as his lips curved upward, smiling, "Thank you, and I... am sorry for... killing your father. Take my Sword and... one last gift before I go..."

Granbell was a master at manipulating Spiritrons. The True Hero placed a hand on Gazel's chest and formed a link with his unhatched [Hero's Egg] and started funneling in purified magicule to assess the status.

<<Error—Error— Requirement not met>>

The shell is weak. Incredibly weak, showing just how close Gazel was to naturally evolving into a True Hero. The dying Granbell speculated that without his own interference, it'll take less than two years before the [Hero's Egg] naturally hatches.

Two years is too long.

To fully hatch it, Granbell will need to—

<<The individual known as 'Gazel Dwargo' now possesses Ultimate Skill [Sariel]>>

<<Requirements surpassed. [Hero's Egg] hatched>>

<<The individual known as 'Gazel Dwargo' will now ascend into a True Hero>>

It is done. Using the last of his will, with a sword through his heart, Granbell forced a True Hero Ascension.

"What—" Gazel was engulfed in a cocoon of golden light.

With Gazel's arms no longer holding up Granbell, this caused the Hero to fall onto the rising earth with a thud.

Unlike a Demon Lord's Awakening, a True Hero's Ascension is much faster and is unable to be interrupted.

The cocoon of light was hovering just a bit above the earth, with the ground itself leaking upward and slowly covering the cocoon akin to a chocolate fountain that's just been turned on.

Earth had been Gazel's element of choice ever since he merged with an Elemental Lord of Earth, a type of spirit more powerful than even a Greater Spirit. In return for becoming a Saint, the Spirit would get a window to the material world.

Shadows encroached the edge of Granbell's sight as he stared at the beautiful spectacle. Absentmindedly, Granbell reached into the inside of his coat and wiped some blood on the talisman he had Mariabell procured from deep inside the vault.

Within that beautiful spectacle of pure, hopeful light, Granbell saw the silhouette of his wife reaching for him. Granbell tried to return it, except his hands felt like they were being pinned down by a mountain.

"Maria... Maria...!... wait for me... I... am... co... ming..." He managed out before his jaw went slack.

Granbell closed his eyes for the last time and died.

Historians in the West would often group eras in history by which Hero is active. Before Rosso became a True Hero, it was known as the Chrono Era. When He, Chronoa, and Leon Cromwell were all active as True Heroes, it was known as the 'Triumvirate Era'. However brief it was, the Triumvirate Era was known as the most peaceful time in history, it's nicknamed the 'Short Summer'.

After the betrayal of Leon Cromwell, the Triumvirate Era became the Dyad Era, lasting two centuries.

And with the disappearance of Chronoa, the Dyad Era gave way to the Rosso Era, lasting a few decades.

With the death of Granbell Rosso and the reappearance of Chronoa, a new chapter in history has begun.

The final chapter.

The End of History.

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Metropolis, the Great Tenma War, in the meantime.

*Bzzz*

The faint sound of an insect's buzz took Rimuru out of his stupor at seeing the falling angels. Looking around him, the slime saw small black dots zipping all over the place.

Rimuru then realized something. Wait, those are Talons!

Small bee-sized kamikaze drones created by Mobius. They have the physical appearance of a disk. The Talons fly using not physical wings but strong ultrasonic waves that stir up the airflow around each individual Talons, creating a miniature upward tornado-like draft that would help them stay afloat.

They have a top speed of 120 kilometers an hour and can fly for upwards of 30 minutes before the internal battery runs out and automatically explodes.

The Talons are advanced flying bombs, so they require an external command unit. Otherwise, the Talons must be bigger and more expensive.

Rimuru watched as thousands of these Talons zipped past him and down the street all over the buildings, causing him to flinch from how loud the combined ultrasonic output of these drones was. Quickly blocking out that sense, Rimuru saw the Talons approach groups of wary angels.

Some of the Angels attacked using bolts of Holy magic. The Talons were small enough that they easily dodged it like a school of fish dodging a shark, the sheer number of these kamikaze drones made targeting individual ones a foolish endeavor since as the angels focus on a single fast drone, hundreds of others will take the opportunity and strike.

Out in the Eastern Theater, the Talons carried special thermobaric payloads. Once one explodes, it would suck in other Talons near it to create a cascading effect that ends in a massive battalion-annihilating explosion.

Mobius specifically chose thermobaric payload because it had a secondary effect: wounded soldiers. Forcefully sucking the air out of a human's (or any creature's) lung is extremely damaging to a soldier's health, thus unless the Empire wants low morale and mass graves, they must spend resources healing the wounded.

It was a distasteful weapon in Rimuru's honest opinion. Efficient no doubt, but distasteful and very cruel as there's a high likelihood that even if the soldier does survive, they're crippled for life.

Rimuru observed from somewhat far away as 29 Talons converged upon a two-winged angel and exploded with a burst of gamma radiation. The explosion was large enough to engulf the width of the street.

Obviously, in an urban setting, utilizing a thermobaric explosion is asking for collateral damage. Thus, instead of using chemical explosions, these Talons use trace amounts of antimatter.

What dropped from that fiery antimatter explosion was a charred carcass, the spiritual angel dissolved like chicken wings in strong acid from the sheer amount of radiation in a single moment.

[Holmes] recognizes these angels as a spiritual lifeform similar to demons, so they're very vulnerable to high-energy radiation like X-rays and Gamma.

There is a reason why even if intangible, high-energy radiation still harms spiritual lifeforms. Scientia observed how when a gamma photon passes through a spiritual body, the photon is less energetic than before.

The amount of energy absorbed by spiritual lifeforms scales linearly to how energetic the photon is. Further testing involving demonic spiritual lifeforms entailed the discovery of a new physical constant and a universal coefficient in determining the yield of weapons dealing with spiritual lifeforms (represented by the lowercase letter 's'). It is not known why even with the possession of a physical body like normal humans, demons like Diablo and Jeanne still take an almost negligible reduction in radiation damage.

'It's not the radiation itself that's harmful, it's the imparted energy.' This realization caused Scientia to later make the 'Spirit Theory'. According to Mobius, it was her last-ditch attempt to combine the physical and metaphysical worlds.

Using [Magic Sense], Rimuru could sense hundreds of these antimatter explosions occurring all over the city.

It was like looking at a fireworks show in summer back in Japan.

Taking a deep breath, the slime was satisfied that the massacre ended, internally noting how easy it is to heal genetic damage coming from radiation, thus the rate of cancer in the future will remain low.

"Mobius, how are the Angel attacks in other cities?"

The green-haired AI materialized next to the slime, "They are under control. It appears that the Angels mainly focused on Metropolis, with smaller pockets appearing all over the Republic. The larger pockets in Rimuru City and Trantor were repelled by Jeanne and Diablo respectively. Our allies appeared to have been left alone."

Rimuru let out a sigh of relief. "Very good." He then dismissed the AI.

It would've been a hassle to help others when Tempest itself is under attack.

Then, the slime started moving all over the city, doing his part as he cut apart more angels. Rimuru moved through the skyscrapers and flying Talons like characters in a gigantic maze, only, he is the hunter and the angels are the hunted.

Sadly, the slime could no longer unleash that slash which killed a large portion of all the Angels in the city. That slash was the end result of him temporarily overpowering the limiter within Kusanagi, allowing Rimuru to use far more power than he had available to him. Now that the limiter has returned, it'll stay there until he's in actual danger.

Plus, it cost him a large chunk of his magicules.

And well, the Angels' attack seems to finally be in control.

As he moved through the city, he saw Adalman healing people through the use of Holy magic. A sense of sadness panged through the slime's heart as soon as he heard Adalman's prayer: "It is through the tender mercy of our Broken God; for that, I may be granted this miracle in healing them just as you have done. Your benevolence knows no bounds, please grant me this prayer."

Adalman wore a Pope's clothing clad in black, with an overcoat of white containing blue trims. The lich carried a tall hammer as he gently tapped it over the wounded.

Rimuru continued as more 'fireworks' popped. Like the reaper itself, everywhere Rimuru went, death followed suit. Kusanagi made short work of all angels that met the bite of its cutting edge.

*Clang*

Until Kusanagi's blade stopped as Rimuru moved to cut down a six-winged angel. The sword was stopped by the feathers of one of the angel's wings even when it was empowered by the space element.

Unlike the other emotionless expressions on the other angels, this one had a look of determination, of seriousness, akin to the leader of a country when they're meeting the head of another.

The six-winged angel moved to stab Rimuru with five of his other wings, only for the slime to quickly teleport out of the way.

Teleporting two dozen meters away, Rimuru observed this new angel and realized he was something different. This new angel had long black hair and wore expensive-looking black and gold heavy armor over his pure white robes.

The power this angel radiated was far above those of other angels. It's on par with the likes of Diablo.

<That is not an Angel>

'Well, what is it then?'

<Unknown >

Wordlessly, the Angel-that-is-not-an-angel gestured his right hand to Rimuru, all five of his fingers spread out—

"[Extermination]"

—beams of Holy magic shot out from the tips of those fingers, moving so fast that a single beam was able to hit the slime's body as he dodged—

<[Holy Resistance] ignored>

—burning through his clothing and revealing the slimy blue flesh underneath.

That was fast! Rimuru exclaimed internally, his eyes wide at how even with Kusanagi, he wasn't fast enough to dodge it.

Rimuru noted how the angel casually ignored his Resistance, meaning that he likely has an Ultimate Skill.

The angel's hand returned to normal.

<The beams are returning>

What? Rimuru's head whipped around to find that the Holy beams curved like cooked noodles and are now returning, all of them mindfully ignoring the Talons and other Security Drones as if it's alive.

Due to the delay, Rimuru doesn't have enough time to dodge or even teleport.

"Shit—" Rimuru cursed out, he felt the same fear he had right before reincarnating.

The limiter on Kusanagi was removed as it detected the slime to be in actual mortal danger. Once again empowered with the energy from a black hole, the Katana automatically deformed the space between the beam and Rimuru to create a manifold, trapping the rays of holy magic in a ball of curved space, where any attempts to move beyond a certain distance from the center will have you be teleported to the other side.

If Rimuru had the time, he would've likely asked [Holmes] whether or not the Ultimate Skill could consume the incoming beam, but curiosity killed the cat, and sometimes it's best to take the safer path.

Mild surprise colored the angel's face as he lowered his hand.

"Mind telling me who you are?" Rimuru asked as he grabbed the translucent manifold. Since any photon is displaced onto the other side when it hits the manifold's surface, this creates a mild distortion effect. Rimuru then silently willed Kusanagi to start decreasing the size of the manifold.

"You may call me Zalario." Zalario had a feminine voice as he spoke, his features softened.

Seriousness returned afterward as he blitzed towards the slime, moving at speeds that forced the slime to turn his [Thought Acceleration] to the max.

Looks like he wasn't fond of small talk.

<Zalario has an Ultimate Skill>

Rimuru then moved his hand that carried the manifold towards the coming Zalario.

"[Eight Death Palm]." It was a very simple technique that demanded extreme energy capacity. Through inputting magical energy into the palm of his hand, Zalario created eight separate energy projectiles around himself.

<You will have a 200-microsecond window>

At the last possible moment, just as Zalario's palm was a meter away from touching Rimuru's face—

"RELEASE."

A tiny portal opened up between Zalario and Rimuru.

*FRRRRRRAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSH*

It sounded like pressurized water coming from a hydrant.

The beam from [Judgement] was semi-sentient. When it became trapped, it wanted a way out so it could carry out its master's order.

As the manifold decreased, there were fewer places for the beam to go, and so the 4 beams became packed tighter and tighter before finally escaping through an opening, even if that opening could cause them to hit their master.

Like a person swatting away a fly, Zalario was flung back by several dozen meters, allowing Rimuru a moment to breathe as he created a manifold around him as if to protect him from something.

Zalario slowed down before eventually stopping a hundred meters away, his eyes shifting around before stopping on a patch of distorted space.

He raised both of his hands, "[Dual Exterm—"

Just as he was about to attack, hundreds of nearby Talons swarmed toward Zalario.

*Bo—bo—bo—bo—Bo——KABOOOOOM*

A series of small explosions eventually cascaded into a massive one that engulfed Zalario. The explosion was large enough to consume parts of the nearby skyscrapers and be seen from kilometers away. For a brief moment, the area within a hundred meters radius of the explosion became one of the most sterile places in the world as all bacteria were flash-fried by the intense gamma radiation.

For several kilometers around the explosion, what few remaining windows shattered as the wave of air pressure washed over them.

The distorted space resumed to normal as Zalario was seemingly dealt with.

Rimuru checked the hole in his coat, finding the flesh underneath healing slower than usual. In fact, Rimuru could still see the blue exterior usually reserved for his slime form.

<Time 1 12 53 to heal: hour, minutes, and seconds>

"Man, holy magic really is something eh? How much damage would I take if I tanked all five of those beams?" Rimuru examined himself in a self-deprecating manner, "Now that Zalario is dealt with, I should ask Mobius about—"

*Woosh*

The smoke around where Zalario had stood was suddenly blown away by an overpowering force, like an expansive, omnidirectional wind current.

<Activation of [Spatial Interdiction Field] detected. All spatial translocation abilities will be nullified>

'What?'

Scratches were present around the edge of the armor that Zalario wore, otherwise, he was relatively unscathed. An unamused expression was on the angel's face as he began to feed magicules into his Mythical-grade armor, repairing it.

<This being is a Youten>

'A what?'

<A subspecies of the Phantoms, which is an even further Angels. More evolved in terms spirituality than their counterpart, all Phantoms— including low-level ones— have sapience, unlike Angelic cousins. Zalario annoyed. He will now take you more seriously>

'Are you telling me he wasn't serious before?!'

<Yes >

'That was rhetorical!'

<Zalario will attack from the right>

'Wh—'

Before Rimuru could finish asking what [Holmes] meant by that, he saw a flash of bright light. It was so quick that the slime had no time to think, only move as Rimuru propelled to the left.

<Pain Nullification Activated>

It was not fast enough as one of Zalario's outstretched wings had cut off Rimuru's right forearm— the arm that wielded Kusanagi— leaving the slime without a weapon. The severed forearm quickly dissolved into gold dust, and the gravity of the situation finally sink in.

"SHIT!"

<Estimated 3 12 35 time to fully regenerate: hours, minutes, and seconds>

Jeanne was holding back every time he trained with her, and this 'Zalario' is equal to her, some kind of 'Primordial Angel', or more accurately 'Primordial Phantom'?

Quickly, he came up with a plan.

Rimuru rocketed up towards the sky with Zalario closely following behind. Kusanagi, practically bursting with energy coming from a black hole, flew past them all and into Rimuru's left hand as Scientia foresaw a possibility of the slime losing the weapon and installed a countermeasure.

Usually, it would've been teleportation, but since that's blocked the dumb AI inside the blade chose 'gravity' as an element and flew.

With the sword in hand, the slime now flew even faster.

<From 20 behind, degrees>

Whipping around like a Beyblade, Rimuru deflected Zalario's wing slash.

This exchange continued as Rimuru climbed higher and higher with Zalario following closely behind. The city of Metropolis appeared smaller and smaller until no details could be made out using the naked eye alone. Very soon, the skies themselves started to turn a darker shade of blue with the area directly above Rimuru showing the blackness of space.

By now he could even see the minor curvature of the planet.

In the span of a second in sped-up time thanks to [Thought Acceleration], Rimuru asked his Ultimate Skill:

'Can I teleport back into the city now that I'm out of the interdiction field?'

<Yes >

Needing no more incentive, the slime teleported away.

Zalario appeared like a nearly invisible glowing dot up in the sky as Rimuru materialized in the cover of a skyscraper's antenna.

"Mobius I need some help!"

In lieu of a vocal response, multiple colossal Doorways the size of multiple city blocks opened up all within a radius of dozens of kilometers around Zalario.

<Zalario is amused>

The familiar buzzing sound was everywhere. So many Talons were pouring out from those Doorways that despite it being so high up, Rimuru could hear a faint yet familiar buzzing sound.

A moving shadow covered the city as the cloud of Talons started blotting out the sun. The swarm orbited around Zalario like a school of fish as they maintained a minimum distance.

The Youten looked at the swarm with an emotionless expression. Despite what [Holmes] was saying, Rimuru couldn't see how Zalario was amused.

If anything, Zalario should be worried since if the slime used himself as a benchmark, he could not survive that many Talons exploding at once.

Then, Zalario blitzed upward, rising like a golden star as the Talons struggled to catch up.

Stopping at the bottom of the Stratosphere, Zalario looked down at the closing tide of millions upon millions of Talons, looking a lot like a rising wave of darkness.

"The potential damage... the desecration of His Creation... [Israfil | Divine Judgement — Guilty]"

Zalario marked the entire swarm.

"———[Israfil | Divine Judgement — Execution]——"

An ability of Zalario's Ultimate Skill [Israfil, Lord of Judgement].

It was an attack that was impossible to explain from a purely conventional scientific standpoint as it violates the conservation of mass and energy. Understanding it requires knowledge of extra-dimensional physics and the System itself.

Entropy is the act of energy becoming unusable within a system, yet it still exists. This attack removes energy entirely as if it vents it away into another reality through a massless door like Maxwell's Demon.

While Scientia might have a hint of what's happening, Mobius does not.

A storm cloud formed behind Zalario, and bits of lightning crackled all around the cloud. That storm cloud grew despite being at a height that no storm cloud should be able to form.

The cloud grew until it formed into a hurricane-like vortex, with the Youten at the center of the eye. Next, a magic ring formed around Zalario that paralleled the horizontal ground. This magic ring duplicated itself in a parallel fashion, forming something resembling the barrel of a gun.

Lightning shot out from the storm cloud and into Zalario as though he were some kind of lightning rod. More and more were conducting into the super phantom until Zalario looked like some kind of God of Lightning.

The Talon swarm closed in, now numbered close to a billion. Mobius was throwing her entire stock of Talon after sensing the sheer amount of magicules present, the Hume difference within that section of reality was becoming worryingly noticeable.

A simple, almost casual gesture of him pointing down at the cloud————

*KRA—KA—THOOOOM*

The lightning shot forward, using his own body as a conduit, a single bolt of annihilating lightning possessing the width of a train shot down and collided with the first Talon, erasing it completely.

Then, the lightning split and moved on to the nearest Talons and did the same thing.

Again, after annihilating the tiny drone, the lightning branched and split before continuing on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.

Like the disappearing white breath coming from a person's mouth on a cold winter day, the entire mountain-sized cloud of a billion Talons was wiped away from existence by a single move from Zalario. Right before the lightning could touch the Doorways, the AI shut them down.

Rimuru could not help but be in awe, fearful awe but awe nonetheless. He stood on that skyscraper in complete shock, everything else seemed meaningless as he stared at the sky, the once blackened sky that was now cleared, the sun's rays shining through the white clouds.

<If that amount of Talons exploded, it would likely deal serious damage to Metropolis>

Rimuru wasn't listening to [Holmes]' assessment.

"Is this... the power of a Primordial Angel? Just how much was Jeanne holding back?" He couldn't help but mutter. He saw the sheer difference, the gap between him and Zalario.

<That was likely Zalario's most potent attack. That attack is an instant kill move. required [Israfil] to complete>

Rimuru was proud of being able to kill a few thousand angels while Zalario had wiped out every single Talon that Mobius had sent him.

After his resurrection, Rimuru made sure to train as much as possible. He wants to be stronger on his own terms without relying upon others. And so he did. Every day he made sure to train at least an hour under the Yellow Primordial, and he was progressing really well according to Jeanne. Yet this single display of power from an opponent that was said to be at least on par with a Primordial showed him just how much Jeanne had been babying him.

His confidence shattered completely.

Like a child who is proud of his drawing that he spent a lot of effort on, and just as that child is about to show it off, they find out that his classmate's art far outpaces their own, making it look like it belonged in the garbage bin, this single act imprinted just how large of a difference there was between Rimuru and a Primordial.

He felt like his effort had been for naught.

"Mr. President."

Rimuru wasn't listening to Mobius' words. He was consumed by shock, like a primitive caveman looking at a floating alien spaceship, his mind demanded answers yet none could be found.

"Mr. President."

"..."

"Mr. President I need you to leave Metropolis."

"..."

"Mr. President, I am serious, I need you to leave—"

"Scientia, is this what you meant by those indigenous people discovering just how small they are once they reach the large cities in Brazil? Is this what you meant when you said you didn't want to forcefully introduce all of your technology? Since that'll remind everyone of their place?"

Rimuru lived in a bubble of rationality, where so long as one worked hard they could improve. But seeing that illogical act destroyed this perception.

<Get ahold of yourself, Rimuru>

And so he did. Surely this is a fluke, right? Surely it can't be that bad, that the distance between himself and Zalario is that enormous can it?

But before the slime could do anything Zalario appeared beside the top of the skyscraper that Rimuru was on. His six wings radiated holy light while his mythical-grade armor absorbed them, creating an image akin to a black hole surrounded by a bright quasar.

"I must admit, you are one of the stronger foes I've fought in recent memory. Being able to annihilate the assaulting Heavenly Army is no small feat. But it ends here, there's no way out."

Rimuru looked at Zalario. He was corned, yet his mind was overcharged with [Thought Acceleration] and could only come up with a single solution after coming up with dozens more and throwing those all away.

Imbue an unrestricted Kusanagi with all of his magicule, leaving him vulnerable but at least he could unleash his most powerful attack yet.

While most likely useless, it was his only option— his only lifeline.

If this were a Shonen manga, this would be when the hero prevails.

'How long do I have between unleashing my most powerful attack and Zalario responding?'

<You 200 have an estimated microseconds>

'How fast can I do it?'

<10 milliseconds>

While on the outside Rimuru appeared calm, on the inside he was panicking.

He's cornered, with truly no way out. If he had a chance at surviving, he might surrender to the enemy, but by the looks of things, Zalario is looking to execute him.

'What if I distract him and secretly charge Kusanagi?'

<It is feasible>

Alright, so it's decided, some insult to rile him up paired with some chat should buy me enough time, Rimuru thought, the dishonor within the act was overpowered by the desperation within the current situation.

The slime sheathed his sword to secretly build up the magicules.

In a tone of false confidence, Rimuru started, "So... you mind telling me why you attacked my nation before you executed me?"

Zalario neared slowly, "you're too technologically evolved."

"Really?" Rimuru tilted his head, "And that somehow gives you the justification for causing this indiscriminate massacre?"

"Yes."

Rimuru's eyes twitched. His attempt at getting under Zalario's skin failed and only ended up with him feeling angry. Biting down on that anger, the slime reminded himself that he was supposed to rile the angel up.

"Why?"

"Because God said so. God commanded me to ensure the World never advances more than its current technological capacity."

Rimuru looked appalled, "you murdered thousands—"

"God is right. God is always right. Even if we must perform evil, so long as it's done in accordance with God's Will, it is not evil, it is Right."

Rimuru was reminded of a video he saw about an interview with religious terrorists in his old world. It was eerie how it paralleled what Zalario had said.

"Tell me, honestly, how many would you kill if God commanded you to?"

That question was a knife that separates those who are delusional and those who aren't.

Zalario opened his mouth to speak, only for no words to come out. The Youten wanted to say as much as he's commanded just like the other Primordial Angels but... he hesitated to put a number on it almost as if he was afraid.

It was a brief moment of vulnerability. Zalario was a cool-headed warrior who was often hard to provoke and only fought when he was forced or commanded to. Many people have tried to distract him, but only Rimuru has succeeded.

Rimuru jumped on that moment of hesitation.

Pulling out his sword and shoving the remaining magicule into Kusanagi, the slime zoomed forward at speeds that caused everything to blur. Everything except for his target: Zalario.

Particles of magicule coalescent, and the blade transformed, now looking more like a rift in reality instead of something solid— something real. The outline of Kusanagi's blade took on the appearance of a fractal, and any movement of the katana caused more fractals to crack open in the path of the coming blade and those on the other end to heal up.

It was like a torch, a torch where the flame would trail after the torch's movement just like how the fractals would trail after the katana.

Kusanagi now looked like something that shouldn't exist in reality. It was like an optical illusion, an impossible thing akin to the Impossible Trident.

But it wasn't an impossible thing, for the katana managed to become a higher-dimensional Brane.

Kusanagi managed to replicate the very peak of space elemental magic: breaching into the domain of those curled-up extra spacetime dimensions as described by String Theory.

In essence, it uncompactified some of the curled-up extra spacetime dimensions beyond the normal three.

Normally, any change within those curled-up extra dimensions would result in a change in the physical constants, and subsequently, the creation of topological defects known as Domain Walls that separate regions of changed constants. However, the only reason that Domain Walls wasn't being created was due to magicules being responsible for the change in dimensions.

It took a few milliseconds for Zalario to realize Rimuru was moving. Feeling a sense of annoyance so great it was foreign to the Youten, Zalario moved to stab Rimuru with two of his wings.

It was a wasted endeavor on Rimuru's part. Just like how during a fight between a spearman and a swordsman, the spearman would most likely win if both sides' skills were equal, the wings had a longer reach than a larger reach than Rimuru's Kusanagi.

The wings lanced forward, mere inches away from skewering the slime before the latter slashed nothing but air—

"What?"

—Zalario split asunder.

To a human observer, the sword didn't appear to have even touched the Youten before he was divided in two with a great deal of gravitational radiation bursting from the split.

*THOOM*

It sounded like the crashing of metal as the gravitational radiation passed Rimuru's body before washing outward to the rest of Metropolis. The concentrated burst of gravity was so strong that the whole arcology that Rimuru had stood on collapsed from the top down like a hydraulic press pushing down on a Jenga tower.

The collapse wasn't isolated as it continued to spread outward, causing the entire city block and a bit beyond to simply tilt away like dominos from the source of the gravitational radiation.

As it turns out when a higher-dimensional object interacts with a lower one, Rimuru discovered the sword actually does change the physics within the space where the cut had occurred, albeit only minorly. That region of changed physics created an extremely thin bubble filament of Domain Wall, and just like Cosmic Strings, Domain Walls radiate gravitational radiation as it decay.

Looking around at the rubbles, Rimuru's [Magic Sense] piercing the fading clouds of dust and debris, the slime could see that no citizens were caught up in that attack.

An entire section of the Capital now looked like it was as if a nuclear bomb had gone off.

It was a destructive attack whose side-effect caused billions of dollars worth of damages and hundreds of thousands of people to lose their homes in an instant.

It was a devastating attack that tore Zalario's spirit apart.

But it wasn't enough.

Rimuru's senses expanded a bit further and found two huge concentrations of holy magic. His most powerful attack seemed to have split the Youten in two and pushed him back to the very edge of his senses.

Yet, the slime could sense how the two pieces of Zalario were reattaching themselves by sending out strands of something that linked onto the other piece before closing the distance between them.

<Zalario inhabits a body made from Scarletite>

Spiritual lifeforms require a body to possess before they can truly interact with the material world. Without a body, a spirit can only be seen since Essence interacts only partially with the Electromagnetic, Spiritron, and Gravitational Forces.

'Isn't Scarletite that super magical metal from so many of this world's legends?'

<Yes >

'FUCK'

He has no more magicule to spare for another strike!

He failed again!

How weak is he?!

Rimuru felt his eyes and his fingers twitching at the absurd situation.

Just how large is the gap between himself and someone like Zalario? A Primordial Demon is supposedly the strongest of the demons. Equally, the same must be true for Angels. However, a Primordial is less powerful than a True Dragon, and since Velgrynd had defeated Veldora— just, how weak is he? Could he even hope to possibly get Veldora back and avenge Scientia?

A golden glow brought Rimuru out of his thoughts.

Zalario is here.

Like a divine arbiter judging mortals, Zalario neared Rimuru with his head raised high while the slime's head dropped down, all of the strength leaving Rimuru's body.

Subtly, Kusanagi sent out small, almost unnoticeable patterned pulses of gravitational waves.

Trying to run was pointless, Zalario is much too fast for that. Trying to fight was pointless, Zalario was far above him in strength. Trying to negotiate was pointless. Trying to beg for mercy for his own people was pointless.

It's like trying to talk to the Grim Reaper.

The slime's mind went blank at the sheer speed it moved as Rimuru tried to think of a way out.

The golden glow strengthened.

His eyes, staring at the ground turned upward to look at his executioner. Zalario's face remained still as he pulled back a single wing, and stabbed into Rimuru's chest.

<Notice: [Holy Resistance] overpowered>

The golden wing stabbed through Rimuru's chest and out the other side

"Argh!"

Death felt less painful than Rimuru had thought, well compared to his last one anyway. The pain of failing everything they had built had hurt more than being stabbed through the chest, Rimuru reflected bitterly.

"[Israfil | Divine Judgement]"

Golden coloration started to spread around the area where the wing had stabbed as though it were a grey goo. The golden matter continued to eat up the slime before suddenly slowing down.

A look of surprise dawned upon Zalario. On his face was a complicated expression as though he couldn't believe what was in front of him.

The golden matter's spread completely froze.

A Doorway opened up—

"—!"

Soaring out from a Doorway at speeds comparable to an asteroid, Shizue grabbed onto Zalario's head and yanked him away from Rimuru alongside herself.

It speaks volumes of how strong Zalario's body must be if it's still in one piece even after experiencing enough G-force to turn cars into pancakes.

Speeding across the entire Metropolis until she reached the other end of the city, Shizue then slammed a disorientated Youten deep into the earth at speeds so quickly the ignited air around the duo became so hot they melted their surroundings.

Needless to say, a fireball veiled Shizue's Siberium chassis.

The Capital of Tempest shook as though an earthquake was happening. Several buildings already weakened from the assault of both the Angels and the gravitational burst toppled like structures made out of playing cards.

The Capital was a mess. Over half of it was destroyed and requires complete removal before rebuilding can start, a noticeable percentage of its population is dead, and the rest are in bunkers underneath the city. Now, while one may worry about the earthquake destroying those bunkers, her employer reinforced them so much that a single glass of water inside wouldn't even ripple when the earthquake washed over the structure.

A combined project between Research and Development and the Ministry of Magic, these bunkers were designed to survive everything short of a determined True Dragon attack.

Before the fireball could fully dissipate, Shizue moved. In milliseconds the servant was now standing over a humanoid slime with a hole in his chest. Around the hole were glowing particulates of more gold.

It was a case of Holy Degeneration. In her past as an adventurer, Shizue has only encountered such cases a handful of times, and all of them were in the presence of a Templar. These cases happen when an excessive amount of Holy Magicules are concentrated on a non-lethal area of the Monster's body.

In such cases, the residual Holy Magicule acts like acid as it continuously dissolves the Monster's body until it runs out, whether the Monster is alive afterward is a nonfactor.

Shizue then turned the slime over and found him, as expected, at death's door. Quickly, she did as she was instructed by Mobius and opened up her belly.

Within it is a bottle filled with a purple liquid that in normal times would cause the Western Church to wage a Holy War over.

The Sacrilegic Desecrator is a magical chemical that contaminates the purified magicule of Holy magic. It's like the base to the Holy Magicule's acid, neutralizing it completely. The weaker version of this chemical allows monsters to benefit from the healing of Holy magic without any of the drawbacks.

Shizue poured half of the bottle of the Desecrator over the wound in Rimuru's chest. The golden color became infected by a dark shade of grey before disappearing like wind blowing away a pile of white ash. In the span of a few seconds, the gaping hole in the humanoid slime's chest was healed up into a tint of healthy blue by Rimuru's passive internal regeneration.

Next, Shizue poured a few droplets of the liquid into Rimuru's right stump, and faster than even she had anticipated, an arm popped out.

The spiritron sensors within her eyes reported a safe flow of internal magicule within Rimuru's soul. If this was the old her, Shizue probably would've blushed considering the implication of 'Soul Viewing' but the current Shizue couldn't find it in herself to care.

Slowly opening his eyes, Rimuru blinked several times.

"An angel? Is this the Afterlife?"

The glass vial in her hands was crushed loudly, causing the slime to yelp in surprise.

"Please do not joke at such a time like this."

Hearing Shizue's chastisement, Rimuru could not help but let out a sheepish look. Scratching his face using his right index finger, Rimuru let out an awkward smile as he apologized, "Sorry."

It was then that Rimuru noticed he had used his right hand to scratch his face.

"How...?"

"The Sacrilegic Desecrator. A chemical synthesized from harvested Essence that reverses the purification made by Holy magic. It is a liquid that Lady Scientia created to combat potential Holy magic since according to Veldora, a Perfect Homunculus is part monster."

Rimuru looked sad, "I see... you bailed me out once again, Scientia."

Then, the slime looked alarmed as he got up.

"Where is Zalario?!"

"I punched him with the kinetic equivalent of several large meteor strikes; he should not be getting up for at least a few minutes." Shizue's expression then grew serious, "we must leave now."

"...Why? I— I know I'm not enough to defeat Zalario, but with you here we could stall for Jeanne and Diablo—"

Shizue scowled, "Damn it."

She then grabbed Rimuru by the waist and blasted off with a single leap. Normally jumping that high would crack the concrete underneath Shizue's feet, had it not been for the Siberium chassis, the ground looked merely untouched.

"Shizue what are you doing?! We need to at least evacuate the civilians!" Rimuru yelled out, attempting to overpower the superbly loud wind flowing past him due to moving at such high speed.

"We don't have time!"

"What do you mean we don't have time?! What is happening?!?" Rimuru tried to slip out of Shizue's clutch like any sane person who's just been physically picked up by their friends.

Being a slime allowed that to easily happen as Rimuru turned into his slime form.

Before Rimuru could slip by, Shizue squeezed the blue blob tightly to prevent any further movement, "We need to go! Trust me!"

In another timeline, had Shizue been Rimuru's servant then perhaps he would've stopped struggling and listened to her. But since learning that Shizue's request to save her students led to Scientia's death, the slime has subconsciously stopped trusting Shizue and started to blame her.

Using Kusanagi, Rimuru teleported away. Re-tuning her Siberium, Shizue stopped mid-air regardless of inertia.

"Explain to me what the hell is happening first." Rimuru declared his ultimatum.

Shizue's lips thinned, she thought that if she explained to him what was happening, then there wouldn't be enough time to leave. Air is a terribly slow medium to communicate with. It's limited by the speed of sound, meaning she can't just explain it to Rimuru in sped-up time.

"I see, so this is my punishment... I accept it."

A feeling of defeat entered Shizue's tone, causing Rimuru to fear that she may have betrayed him.

Shizue hates [Eidolon].

She absolutely hates it.

It repulsed her on a level lower than thought: she hated it on an instinctual level.

She could count on one hand the number of times she used that Ultimate Skill beyond training as mandated by her late Mistress.

[Eidolon]'s very existence haunts the Digital Lich as a symbol of her failure.

[Eidolon] is to Shizue what a child born out of rape is to the victim.

It is a mistake.

If the option was available to Shizue, she would erase [Eidolon], but since it wasn't, the servant was forced to be content with ignoring its existence. If her students were to see how the once kind Sensei truly hated something...

Shizue regrets many things.

She is unable to say goodbye to her mother.

Hinata.

Lady Scientia.

All of them she's failed in some way. Even if logically it wasn't her fault, Shizue felt like she failed her mother by disappearing as the firebomb came down, she failed Hinata Sakaguchi by being unable to prevent her fall, and her Lady died because of Shizue's selfish request.

If Shizue must use what she hates the most to save her new Master, then she'll do it.

In normal circumstances, Shizue is willing to die before using [Eidolon], but in this case, the servant is placing her unwillingness to use the Ultimate Skill behind her will to serve her new contractor.

She'll put aside her hatred, her prejudice— for as long as it's required.

As if wanting to please, [Eidolon] intelligently slotted in Ultimate Skill [Sirin, Lord of the Void].

A large black hole-like sphere with an outline of orange consumed both Rimuru and Shizue faster than any of them could realize it.

Once the sphere was gone, both Rimuru and Shizue appeared standing on a road leading to Metropolis.

Shizue teleported both her and Rimuru out of the bounds of the Capital.

Just in time too, for in the center of Metropolis right in front of the Congressional Pyramid rose a single white pillar. Moments later, the entirety of Metropolis, all the millions of people, were encased in a titanic bubble that was as black as space itself.

The two were situated right outside the edge of the sphere. So close were they that Rimuru could physically touch the thing if he just walked a few steps.

It was jarring, to say the least, the sudden appearance of such a large object did not compute with Rimuru's common sense. Moreover, the sphere radiated nothing. It didn't even radiate infrared radiation that all things with energy do.

It was like a black hole.

"What...?" The humanoid slime took a few steps back as he tried to fully take in the sphere. Rimuru raised his head upward, only, he couldn't see the top of the hemisphere, as it stretched beyond the atmosphere and into space itself, "What is this?"

His [Magic Sense] was detecting no photons coming out of that sphere, and the quadrillions of air molecules were bumping into it with none able to enter.

*Clap*

There was a single clap made by two hands coming together.

He turned to Shizue, only to find the Lich frozen in place as though time itself has stopped.

(AN: This music sets the tone really well. Play: And the Culprit is... - Tsukihime Remake)

"Shizue?"

The servant didn't move.

A bit freaked out, the slime gently pushed Shizue, only for his effort to be rebuffed and the servant to remain motionless.

In fact, Rimuru noticed how everything has been awfully quiet ever since he got here.

Taking a deep breath, Rimuru was successful.

Rimuru looked around himself. He saw a flock of birds frozen mid-flight off in the distance.

None of the branches of the trees beside the road moved. The world became still.

It was so silent that Rimuru's own ears started making sounds, a piece of his old human self.

<Time is frozen>

Except, that doesn't make sense. Having advanced knowledge of physics and human biology courtesy of Scientia and his Skills has put a damper on Rimuru's ability to enjoy anime. One of the main ones was knowing how if [The World] did in fact stop time, everyone whose time isn't frozen would be blind, suffocating, freezing, and stuck in place since if one stops time, one stops causality itself.

Causality is arguably the most fundamental element of physics, so any amount of force exerted onto an object that's stuck in time is completely irrelevant since cause and effect cannot be enacted. The object gains infinite inertia.

<Time is frozen>

Yet [Holmes] is insisting on time being stopped, which is complete bullshit since he could still see and move.

Not to mention he could still use [Magic Sense] to perceive how particles of massless photons and sound waves continue to propagate through the air medium.

<If time resumed for the air molecules near you and those photons destined your [Magic Sense], it is theoretically possible, albeit extremely difficult, to create an illusion of only>

Rimuru wanted to discredit that hypothesis except he can't. He wanted to dismiss that idea since it'll require an ungodly amount of computational power, except he's seen Zalario and more importantly: Scientia's Star Computer.

It makes a frighteningly large amount of sense. So much so that a chill went down Rimuru's false spine, another echo of his past life.

"Hello, Rimuru." A female voice spoke out to him from behind, much to the slime's confusion since [Holmes] didn't alert him of any individual.

Turning around, Rimuru saw a gorgeous woman with long black hair and eerily blue eyes, a shade of blue that was the same as the one in his slime form.

The woman had a commanding... no, a demanding presence like that of a God's, as though your attention must be on her at all times when she enters a room.

She wore clothing that reminded the slime of Chronoa...

Chronoa.

<This is Chronoa>

Chronoa is in front of him.

The one who managed to best Scientia and causes all this pain is in front of him.

"..."

Oh fuck.

"'Oh fuck' indeed," Chronoa said with mirth.