74th Move | Current State of Affairs

The Tempest Far East, around the time of the start of the Great Tenma War

The Tempest Far East was classified by the Decentralized Unitary Republic of the Jura Tempest as everything east of the easternmost main tributary river of the Amelds, which just so happens to include the newest province of the Jura Tempest Republic, Jistav.

Even after months of the largest internal immigration in recorded history, the province of Jistav is still the most populous region within the entire Republic.

Unlike on Earth, the idea of Social Darwinism arose a few decades behind the founding of the first monster nations, in this case, it became an ideology called 'Racialism'.

Within Racialism, the idea was for the strongest monster to unite their entire species into a single state, forging a nation out of it to serve as a bulwark against other states. The leader of any Racialist state derides their power of both being the strongest, a member of a particular race, and being able to defend the nation in the event of an invasion. Anyone that is perceived as 'weak' or is of another species is treated as a second-class citizen at the best of times, and socially, there exists a hierarchy of power where the lower you are on the ladder, the more submissive you must be a being higher than you— it was a Kraterocracy.

The brutal and oppressive nature of Racialist states almost guarantees the leader becoming a Demon Lord.

Escaping is not an option, as almost every Demon Lord in history uses Racialism within their domain. To escape is to be subjected to even worse treatment within another species-centric state belonging to another Demon Lord or within human nations. The only way to properly have a better standard of living is to become stronger, physically, mentally, and magically.

Rebellion is also not an option. Demon Lord domains exist right next to each other like groups or clumps, forming a type of cold war scenario where none of the citizens of a Demon Lord's domain dares to rebel since if they do, the other Demon Lords nearby will take the chance and seize additional lands during the chaos of the rebellion.

In an ideal world, such states would be short-lived. But since the leader is the strongest one, it usually takes someone else stronger than them to topple such a regime. Yet even when toppled, the new leader is oftentimes a mirror of the old ones.

The Great Tenma War almost 500 years ago weakened every Racialist state enough that some desperate Demon Lords wished to prove their power by invading another nation. This triggered what's commonly known as the 'Demon Lord Civil War' that lasted for merely a year, yet devastating enough that it ended with the event known as the Consolidation whereby over a dozen Monster nations merged into the current four: Jistav, Eurazania, Milim's domain, and Fulbrosia and the awakening of Demon Lord Frey.

Oddly enough, at least for the Demon Lords involved in the Civil War, Guy didn't intervene.

Interestingly, within the past century, Western observers have noticed how most Racialist states have started a process of reformation, with the Western ones leading the charge and those Eastern ones lagging behind.

Jistav is one of the least free states, with slavery still prevalent within its borders. This all changed when the Tempest invaded and slain Demon Lord Clayman. The Majins and Dark Elves who benefitted from the Racialist system are disgruntled by the upset of the status quo.

Weeks of mostly unchanging frontlines have caused the higher-ups within the Eastern Empire military to gain a desire to establish communication with these Dark Elves and potentially incite a rebellion within the province of Jistav if annexation is not possible, that way they have some good news to share with the Emperor.

Imperial Knight Number-89, Caren Holestia was one such attempt. She had green hair and brown eyes. Around her body was the standard Legendary-grade armor given to all Imperial Knights, however, she was allowed to wear a jeweled necklace so long as it was hidden. Caren was supposed to lead a division of Imperial Soldiers near the Jistavian border so talks of rebellion could begin, but attacks made by Tempest forces and that buzzing swarm have mostly slowed or even reversed movement attempts.

Even for an Enlightened like her, dealing with thousands of coin-sized mechanical magicless drones is difficult. She even had to take a 3-day off to heal because having the air sucked out of your lungs before being burned by a fire hotter than a smith's hurts.

Fortunately, while the biotechnology of the Empire may not be as powerful as those of Tempest, it's still sufficient enough to heal a collapsed lung.

Caren sat on a nearby tall rock, clutching the necklace as she looked upon her given force from up high, currently marching in a line. 40 magitanks alongside with 5,000 soldiers of the Armored Corp and 500 bulky soldiers belonging to the Armored Remodeled Legion, people who've agreed to undergo irreversible and permanent technological and magical modification to their bodies just so they could fight better.

Combined with an Imperial Knight, this force is enough to neutralize most of the various smaller Western states.

Yet against Tempest...

"It's not enough." She muttered quietly.

When the war first started, she was like any other member of the Imperial Knight: overjoyed. After three centuries of isolation ever since the embarrassment dealt to them by the now-controlled Veldora, the Imperial War Machine is finally turning on once more. That feeling of overjoy was dampened when the entirety of the vanguard literally went silent.

Then came what the higher-ups are calling the 'Chronoa Broadcast'. True Hero Chronoa has always been a thorn in the Empire's side as she would always support the defending nations against the Empire, thus her words were taken with a grain of salt at best.

The next thing she knew, the war entered into a stalemate. And now, Imperial Knights were pressed into service, operating as commanders and leading charges. She saw many of her friends never return, showing just how strong this new enemy is.

When finally she was called up for service, her first battle saw her going up against an enemy unlike any other: tiny, insect-sized kamikaze flying automatons.

Insect magic is considered weak and useless for war, thus the Imperial War Machine never sought to come up with a countermeasure to small, swarming insects.

Caren was unprepared for such an enemy

Her defeat was completely one-sided. She couldn't even strike at the enemy before being completely overwhelmed by thousands of these insect-sized automatons. Her entire force was destroyed, and any survivors endured horrible pain before expiring or had to be put out of their misery by Caren.

She was the only survivor.

The screams and begging for death would haunt Caren forever.

In the next attempt, Imperial Court Magician Gadra gave her a magical artifact that could hide whole legions, but Caren heard rumors floating around the lower-rank soldiers of Tempest's ability to pierce all forms of illusion so she's mostly holding her breath, practically waiting for that familiar buzzing sound.

Father, is this truly the way? Is it truly the highest honor for an Imperial Citizen to give their life for the Emperor? She thought treasonously, afraid of speaking her mind. Caren eyed the young and cheerful soldiers of the Armored Corp, drunk on future glory.

If it weren't for war, one could easily imagine these men working for a bakery or even studying at a guild or, if they're really lucky, a university.

It was said that before Relentless' Rampage, the Empire was a kinder place. Back then, the Imperial Knights were rarely deployed, and the Emperor would hear the complaints of his people and adjust his rule accordingly. Now, that seems more like a fantasy.

She was ordered not to divulge information about the frontlines to anyone. To the common citizen, all they heard was Imperial propaganda of victories, thus, when opportunities to join the ranks of the military were offered, people snatched them up like an animal that hadn't eaten in days, forgetting that in order to have spots open up, people must've died first.

Caren would know the feeling these men had. When she joined the military and climbed up to the ranks of an Imperial Knight, her parents were so happy for her, and the local Imperial Commissary Office congratulated Caren by permanently increasing the monthly food ration tickets her family would receive. All members of the Imperial Military receive political leeway and benefits from the Commissary Office, making it one of the most desirable jobs within the Empire.

Because Caren Holestia became an Imperial Knight, her family would never go hungry again.

Caren then looked at the position of the sun. They've been marching for hours now, her gut's telling her the swarm should've attacked at least once, yet they haven't.

The quiet distorted screams of a woman caught Caren's attention just as she was about to tell her troops to stop and set up camp for the night. Every hair on her body stood on end like prey.

The Imperial Knight looked around slowly, finding the rest of her soldiers marching on as normal. Her gaze intensified as the screams seemingly came from every direction.

Slowly, Caren grew frantic as she looked around trying her hardest to find the source of this dizzying scream. Her head felt heavy.

Very heavy as the noise seems to grow louder.

Clutching her head, the metal felt cool to the touch as Caren started to sway as though her body could no longer support her weight.

There was a bright flash of light. People scattered as her eyes went half-lid, Caren trying her hardest to keep her eyes open despite the dizzying scream.

The sight of a small naked woman with high cheekbones, luxurious hair, a thin frame, and multiple wings each a different size up there in the air shook Caren out of that dizziness.

For whatever reason, Caren knew with every fiber of her being that the scream came from that woman even when she didn't open her mouth.

Caren's eyes widen as she realizes the 'small' woman only looked small because she was tens of meters up in the air.

The woman continued screaming, and Caren's eyebrows started very quickly twitching involuntarily.

The scream was still there. Caren wanted silence. The eldritch scream was getting louder and louder as the woman descended. The scream did not come from the mouth of the woman.

"Commander, orders!" The silver woman's scream overpowered any thoughts Caren had, as though replacing them with something else.

She felt a new voice form inside her head, speaking in an incomprehensible language.

The voice was her mind's attempt at translating the screams.

"Commander! Orders please!" Her second-in-command pleaded, finally snapping Caren out of her daze.

Caren quickly took in her surroundings, her training as an Imperial Knight taking over, "quickly, form a perimeter around that woman, I want all tanks firing at her to stop that god-awful scream!"

In the span of 30 seconds, her command was actualized into reality as the first shots from the magitanks were fired. Magitanks were a new weapon introduced to the Imperial Military. Born from the union of Otherworlder technology and Imperial magic, they have a barrel caliber of 120mm and a muzzle velocity of 2,000 meters a second. With a 50-round capacity and the ability to fire 5 rounds a minute, the magitanks were promised to revolutionize the concept of battle.

Caren then thought bitterly of how these magitanks became metal coffins for those flying kamikaze automatons. What use is power if the rounds cannot hit anything?

However in this case the flying woman's size proved to be an excellent target for the tanks.

40 rounds shot out of little over three dozen tanks. Fired based on magic principles, the shell itself is a simple lump of iron, yet it's a formidable kinetic projectile able to pierce anti-magic and anti-archer barriers. The rounds smashed into the screaming woman, each exploding with the force of tactical-class super-high explosive magic.

The scream went quiet as a multi-city block-sized fireball covered the flying woman like a blanket. While Caren didn't feel the heat through her legendary-grade armor, her soldiers sure did as most duck and covered.

"Is it dead?" One of the Private asked.

(AN: Play: Simurgh Scream)

As though having intelligence, the woman responded with a louder scream, blowing away the dust cloud that had shrouded her flawless form unharmed by mere mortal shells. Everyone winced from the scream, the lower-rank soldiers covered their ears in an attempt to block out the sounds.

Caren clenched her eyes shut to keep out the sound, trying to focus on something else yet failing horribly as the scream took priority over everything.

"Reload and fire at will! Shut that bitch up!" The voice sounded like it belonged to Caren's second-in-command.

The Knight felt extremely light-headed. The incomprehensible voice inside her mind was becoming clearer and clearer, she could almost figure out its intent.

The roaring cannons helped Caren focus on something other than the scream. Looking at the source of the scream, Caren could not help but be entranced by the sight of that woman.

The Simurgh, a voice inside her mind whispered as clearly as boiled water.

The rounds from the magitanks stopped mid-air just a few meters away from hitting the Simurgh without deforming or exploding, as though someone had paused time.

The screams, mercifully, lessened.

Capitalize on this opportunity, the voice told Caren. The Knight was hesitant but decided to listen to it.

"[Executioner's Strike]"

Caren blitzed forward toward the Simurgh. Her legendary-grade sword out ready, the Imperial Knight Holestia jumped upward to slash at the woman's left shoulder.

The sword cut deep, deeper than any of the shells, yet not enough. Even with the force of an Enlightened, Caren could only partially bury her sword, revealing the hollow shell that is the Simurgh's skin and the crisscross lattice of feathers that fill the hollow container of the... Endbringer, the voice inside her mind suggested a title that Caren couldn't help but accept. The feathers that fill the hollow shell make the Endbringer into something like a hardened pillow.

As her sword was stuck into the woman, Caren could not help but realize the size difference between her and the Simurgh.

A force encased Caren like a second skin. The force was unbreakable as it threw Caren away as if she were a football.

Caren crash landed half a hundred meters away, relatively unharmed due to her physiology as an Enlightened and the legendary-grade armor protecting her insides.

As she got up, the Knight found the Simurgh retreating by flying away.

Caren felt an unexplainable sense of immense dread at the prospect of the Simurgh retreating, yet the voice inside her mind dismissed her concerns.

As the Endbringer disappeared over the horizon of the forest's tip, her troops cheered. Caren did not.

Raising a hand, the cheers quickly died down. Caren wanted to say something about continuing the march toward Jistav, yet what came out was "We should probably head back."

What? We should?

... Yes, we definitely should.

"Yes, let's head back to base and report our findings. This woman is..." She paused as though to come up with an excuse, "... too dangerous to be left an unknown."

Caren isn't sure if she's telling her troops that or if she's affirming it to herself.

The Enlightened could not help but feel something was terribly wrong with going back to base, like a premonition to disaster.

_____________________________________________

An hour after the start of the Time Loops. Conference Room, Citadel.

"95% of our military assets and most members of Officer Corp is inside the time loops?"

"Yes. Including all of our Senators and most Ministers."

Rimuru visibly shrunk back into his seat as Mobius regaled him with the information. He looked around the war room, most of the seats were empty save for the ones belonging to Diablo, Jeanne, Ririna, Kathy, and some others. Adalman and other leaders of religions who were free of the time loop weren't granted a seat since unlike those Kingdoms in the West, Tempest practiced secularism and had no official state religion.

Shiny grey metal surfaces with no imperfections, brightly colored light came from monitors and holograms that fill almost all free space in the room, this one of many conference rooms within the Citadel possesses a futuristic design far in excess of anything within the Congressional Pyramid. It's so futuristic that the room feels like it's made for aliens than anything terrestrial.

"I... I see," So many people being trapped in the time loop made Rimuru doubt his choice. Deep down, he knew that there would be high-ranking people trapped inside the time loop, but to actually see so many? The devastating news caused the President to use his right arm as a support as he leaned on it, "so this is all that we have left."

"Yes."

"Have we notified our allies about the Great Tenma War?"

"No. Our communication went down right as the angels first attacked."

"Notify them as soon as possible about the Great Tenma War."

Silence cascaded into the room like a landslide, filling it up and choking away any other sounds.

Rimuru knew that it was a difficult choice, yet the impact had never been as apparent.

Citrinitas, his secretary and one of the four Ogres named by Scientia, resigned after hearing all of her original companions when escaping the Orc Lord were trapped in the time loop and that Rimuru made the conscious decision to not free them. Diablo accepted his reasoning while Jeanne seemed unbothered, remarking how Rimuru had made the right decision.

Ririna's stare seemed to be even colder.

The fact that Rimuru was happy none of the Primordial Demons were trapped by the time loop made him feel a tiny bit of guilt as though their lives were worth more somehow, and the logical side of his mind agreed with this idea! Months ago, Rimuru would've slapped himself if he had such thoughts! Being raised in modern society made Satoru Mikami value all life as equal, and this mindset is passed down to Rimuru Tempest like an inheritance.

The slime's mind then treads darkly into how Imperial Japan went on a war of conquest because they see themselves as above other Asians.

Rimuru sighed once more. He could feel the uncomfortable stare coming from the other Ministers and high-ranking military staff who sat by this table. Even though no word had been uttered by them, there was no mistake that these stares were spiteful judgments.

He can sympathize with these people. Their eyes that were once filled with trust now seemed to be gone, only existing as a fading memory.

The silence petered on, becoming almost unbearable when it was combined with the looks Rimuru was getting.

No one was willing to be the first to speak, and the tension in the room was thick enough that one could almost grab onto it as though it were solid.

It broke Rimuru's heart to see people staying silent. The last time he had one of these meetings was right after Scientia's funeral and in that one, there almost wasn't a single moment of quietness.

All of this was due to his agreeing to continue with the time loop. To serve the people, even if they can barely understand the motive for such an action.

The slime-in-humanoid-form desperately thought of something— anything— that could justify his decision beyond a vague notion of him 'protecting the civilians', the eyes full of trust and support he once saw belonging to his subordinates and other members of the government were now filled with wariness and fear.

[Holmes] Staying quiet is not helping.

No matter how he justifies or explains it, to other people, this time loop ploy would look like the President is seizing more power, like how Palpatine from Star Wars used the Clone Wars to seize absolute power.

Despite being in touch with technology for close to a year now, most don't realize the bigger picture. If Rimuru says this is for the greater good, how many monsters in this world and his last history also did horrible things for the greater good?

'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'. [Holmes] requires large sets of information to draw patterns and observations from, but since these hard decisions and the looks his subordinates are giving him are so new, the Ultimate Skill is unable to paint an accurate picture.

"I remember you had said Scientia possessed some ships?" The slime said as he pressed onward, "Where are they?"

Mobius stilled for a brief moment before continuing, "Gunboat Diplomacy Protocol, or as I like to call it: 'The Grand Fleet of the Republic', is in standby mode, awaiting further instructions by your command."

Ah, that's right, he didn't give the command of the ships to Mobius because he was senselessly paranoid.

And he was feeling the result of his actions.

The sudden attack by the Angels.

He could feel the room grow even colder at Mobius' words.

...maybe he should've continued with the resignation right after his resurrection, and let Scientia take the role. Maybe she would be alive because of that. God knows Scientia would be a better leader than him.

Rimuru pondered the option of resignation. Should he resign now? If faced with the question considering the context, the slime would expect himself from pre-resurrection to resign already from stress.

But if he does resign, who will take over?

Vice-President Rigurd is trapped inside the time loop, so the spare is out. Jeanne and Kathy have no interest in ruling considering their history. Diablo... Rimuru peaked at the Primordial in question, he looked so lifeless now that Scientia was gone. Ririna is a military commander, she has no idea of how to run a civilian government having been inducted into the military at such an early age.

He can't even choose the easy way out, since the last vestiges of his morality and honor demand him to fulfill the oath he made to his people.

And the other people in the room... would Mobius even listen to them?

Mobius... Rimuru remembered that he could give the absolute command to Mobius, and unchain her. That prospect is becoming especially attractive, considering the Super AI is far more competent in all fields than the slime.

Not to mention how she's solved almost every problem Rimuru has encountered, giving her absolute command might be the right choice.

<This is exactly what Mobius wants>

Well, maybe it's time to give her—

<Do not give Mobius complete freedom>

[Holmes] insistence triggered a feeling of hate from Rimuru. Before the slime could mentally retort about how she was more useful than an Ultimate Skill, [Holmes] continued.

<Mobius is a Slaughterhouse-Class Super-intelligent Artificial Intelligence. She an AI designed for the sole purpose of killing. Giving her complete freedom like giving serial killer automatic weapon with unlimited ammo and free reign to do whatever they want>

"..."

Unperturbed, Rimuur was about to completely unrestricted Mobius before a single memory flashed across his mind.

'You shouldn't trust Mobius.'

That one phrase. That one phrase coming from his worst nightmare is all that's standing between him freeing Mobius and everything remaining as is. While the suggestion made by [Holmes] is logical, Rimuru couldn't find it in himself to listen to the Ultimate Skill.

Yet he still listened to that one phrase.

How pathetic has he become?

How pathetic is he that he genuinely trusts Mobius and a nightmare more than his Ultimate Skill?

Rimuru leaned back into the chair and closed his eyes, squeezing them shut before opening them again and sighing. A ritual for resetting the mind, a way to get out of the pit of self-loathing.

Mobius offered to become his therapist. Rimuru declined since he felt like the least he could do was to feel the pain he'd caused.

"So how do we move forward, Mr. President?" Contempt dripped from every word coming from Ririna's mouth like a ladle after it scoped up honey, "Since most of our military assets and troops are gone, how are we supposed to hold back the enemy forces and Chronoa? Not to mention True Dragon Velgrynd?"

"Field Marshal, with the absence of the Commander of the Military, President Rimuru is currently the highest authority when it comes to matters relating to war. Please watch your tone." Diablo defended, much to everyone's surprise as they stared at the Black Primordial.

Mobius quickly added, "That is correct. The President sits just below the Commander of the Military on the hierarchy."

Ririna looked like she wanted to voice a rebuttal but conceded out of a mixture of both professional pride and the respect she had for the late Commander.

In a tone that cannot be any more formal, Ririna replied, "I wish to apologize for my actions, Mr. President."

<Ririna finds formal apologies the only way she could stomach conceding ground. She will likely attempt a coup d'etat in next two weeks>

THAT caught Rimuru's attention. Discretely looking at the purple-haired hobgoblin, Rimuru's experience in politics made him realize there truly is a distinct possibility of a coup coming from the military since not only did the slime alienate any potential allies by sealing them inside the time loop, but he also inadvertently deleted any positive sentiment from Officer Corp by trapping their families as well.

Not to mention how all the decision-making is now centralized in a single location.

Fuck. How the hell is he supposed to get out of this mess? So many things, the War, the True Dragons, a self-proclaimed time traveler, getting Veldora back, the End of the System, and now a fucking coup. How does anyone manage it? How the—

<Calm down>

Rimuru took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut so hard that he would've seen stars had he been a human. Opening his eyes, Rimuru found his mind much clearer.

"We should consolidate all of our remaining population into the Citadel. We should have enough rooms...?"

The AI nodded, "indeed. Right now, the empty spaces inside the Citadel are enough to house 50,000 humans safely. I can get rid of some obsolete instruments to make room for an additional 250,000 human-sized occupants."

"Right, get to that." Rimuru's attention shifted again, the internal volume of this Citadel didn't surprise him anymore. The Ark, the Encyclopedia Universalis.

The slime stilled as he realized something. There is one last attempt at rescuing Veldora.

Previously, this pathway was closed due to potential fallout and civilian casualties, but since his people are now invulnerable, it's much safer now.

The Grand Fleet.

The Gunboat Diplomacy Protocol.

The Grand Fleet is apparently numbered in the trillions of ships. According to Mobius, each ship is capable of pacifying a Type-II civilization.

Trillions of these should be more than enough to defeat this conspiracy coalition.

"Mobius, can you take control of Gunboat Diplomacy Protocol?"

"Not with the current restrictions placed upon my being."

Rimuru thought carefully about what he was going to say next. The slime prepared the phrase mentally before scrutinizing it under a microscope with a lawyer's lens, trying to iron out all loopholes to make it absolutely watertight.

One of the horrifying things about a sentient superintelligent AI is its ability to do malicious acts from seemingly benevolent commands. If you tell such an AI to 'make everyone happy', the AI could hook up the brain of everyone in existence into a vat and pump them full of chemicals that trigger feelings of happiness.

Scientia seemingly has this issue of cold logic sorted out but it's best to be as watertight as possible, considering how 'manipulative' Mobius is according to [Holmes].

Rimuru wanted to scoff at his Ultimate Skill deduction.

"Mobius, I want you to take control of the Gunboat Diplomacy Protocol and bring every ship to this system. Await further command until then. Can you do this?"

The AI paused to look at Rimuru intently, becoming completely still.

<Mobius is gauging whether or not she could push it if it'll backfire>

"I am a Super AI. Of course, I can do that. The ships should reach the edge of this solar system from its dockyard millions of lightyears away within a week or more. It really depends on the highly random Interstellar Medium."

...When did he stop batting an eye at spaceships crossing seemingly intergalactic distances? But more importantly, more than a week? That's a bit slow.

Rimuru could practically foresee Ririna trying a coup attempt right before the ships.

"Can it be any faster?"

"The ship utilizes the very peak of warp-drive technology that folds space in front of it while expanding behind. At their fastest, these 50-kilometer long vessels can cross the distance between galaxies in a time span so short you'd need an atomic clock just to measure it."

Mobius paused as if waiting for any questions. No one took it. The AI then projected a hologram of an elongated shape that looks like a screw or a nail you'd use when assembling a piece of furniture, "An interesting thing about Dark Matter: since they interact only through gravity, the folded space in front of this warp-drive ship acts like a snow shovel as it treads across the vastness of interstellar and intergalactic space, bulldozing existing Dark Matter and pushing them with it. As these ships move faster and faster, more and more clumps of Dark Matter are stuck to the front of the warp bubble and cannot escape. Once the ship hits the brakes, this clump of Dark Matter is shot forth like a wave. Or a shotgun round."

As if to emphasize her point, the hologram showed the screw-like ship moving across space with the head of the screw serving as the front. A bubble of distorted space surrounded the screw ship, and clumps of pitch-black matter steadily grew on the front of the bubble.

"My Creator called this phenomenon 'Dark Matter Recoil'. The Dark Matter Recoil of a warp-drive ship moving at 60,000,000 lightyears a day is more than enough to reenact a localized version of the Big Rip scenario and destroy the destination star system."

Amazingly, Rimuru actually understands most of what Mobius was saying and subsequently shivered at the destructive potential of such a thing. Placing a hand on his chin, the slime thought of what was next.

"This screw... is this what Scientia's ship looks like?" This time it was Kathy who asked, fascination clear in her tone.

"Yes. They're shaped like screws partially because of what I think is my Creator's attempt at a pun. She's telling whoever these screws are going up against 'You're screwed'."

Rimuru stared blankly at Mobius. Scientia always had this... unique sense of humor.

"What are its abilities?" Kathy immediately followed up.

The slime was also curious since the only interaction he's ever had with a sci-fi spaceship was with Star Wars and certain animes. It also serves as a distraction, allowing the slime to temporally get lost in reminiscing about has-beens.

Mobius really sounds like Scientia when explaining tinkertech.

"A utilitarian shape for an unmanned ship. The Pacifier Class was originally designed to serve as the iron fist of my Creator's universal empire. As you'll notice, the front of the ship, or the 'head' of the screw, is covered with a metamaterial so reflective, that one can cover a human head to toe in it and they'll be perfectly fine in the path of a point-blank Gamma-ray Burst, which I'll remind you, is the third most energetic event in the Universe. This reflective covering primarily acts like an umbrella as it reflects the extremely energic gamma radiation coming from the white hole in front of the ship so that sensitive instruments inside the spacecraft are not damaged—"

"Wait, why is there a white hole in this?" Kathy interrupted.

The hologram then focused on the screw-like spaceship, highlighting its form so one can differentiate its pitch-black body from the background, "When you're using a warp drive, you're actually still in Realspace, the area in front of you is an invisible white hole due to the constant blueshifting of light into gamma and what's behind you is a black hole since no light could catch up. The mirror in front of this ship reflects away incoming gamma radiation and pools it up in front of the vessel in case an additional devastating opening attack is required. These ships are among the sturdiest things in the universe, as it has to be since they are constantly experiencing near Planck temperature due to the Unruh Effect and the subsequent Hawking-Unruh Radiation." There's a hint of pride inside Mobius' voice as she explains these ships.

<Unruh Effect is when an accelerating individual sees blackbody (infrared) radiation in places that a non-accelerating would not, such as from vacuum. A vacuum this explanation means something at the lowest possible energy state: near absolute zero. Absolute zero impossible to achieve due Quantum Uncertainty Principle. Hawking-Unruh Radiation likely referring mixture of Hawking and Unruh>

[Holmes] deduced the answer right before Mobius explained to the room what an 'Unruh Effect' is. While the Primordial Demons looked fascinated (Diablo and Kathy especially so), the other Ministers and Ririna are barely paying attention, the science is completely lost on them as none have [All of Creation].

"With Unruh Effect, at 1-g of acceleration, the temperature increase is about a billionth of a trillionth of a degree. This Unruh Effect gets significantly more noticeable as you increase in speed. Combining the Unruh Effect with the Hawking Radiation coming off of the black hole behind you heats the inside of the bubble to a bit underneath the Planck temperature, or so hot that gravity merges with the Grand Unified Theory Force: 130 nonillions Kelvin. It's so hot that all four of the fundamental forces combined together to create the Superforce. My Creator called this phenomenon 'Warp Inertia'. In order to survive this level of Warp Inertia, the material used to make the ship is a type of Bose-Einstein Condensate. It's so resistant, that nothing kinetic or energy-based weapon could possibly harm the Pacifier."

<Heat and energy are the same things. Velgrynd is known as Scorch Dragon. She uses heat a weapon. The screw ships practically immune to all heat-based damage. Pacifiers Velgrynd-killers nothing in energy-based could harm them>

Is this hope?

<The material used is most likely a type of Static Matter>

"My creator never really invested much into cyberwarfare capacity. The arms race between cyber-hacking and cyber-defenses ended with the latter's victory, yet even so the Pacifier's defense is second to none. It rejects all outside EM and gravitational signals and instead uses untraceable and unjammable quantum tunneling-based communication to transmit messages throughout the Noosphere. To repair or to refuel, the screw-ships just take a dive into the quasar of an active galactic nucleus."

Mobius then continued with well-concealed disgust, "The only reason my Creator didn't describe these ships as being able to pacify a Type-III civilization is that it would've been too destructive. These ships are designed to pacify, not annihilate intelligent life."

For the first time in a while, Rimuru felt hope. Hope that they can get Veldora back, hope that the war will end in their victory and end Chronoa once and for all. For whatever reason, Rimuru didn't feel that usual sense of terror when he thought of Chronoa now.

Yet within that hope was a sense of profound sadness, for Scientia once again bailed him out.

He felt more useless than ever.

"What are their combat abilities?" This time it was Ririna who asked, finally taking an interest,

Part of Rimuru's mind noted how cliche it is for a military officer to be concerned with something's offensive applications.

"Unlike in sea battles between different ships, warfare in space is very much like the battle between two Demon Lords, where you can barely see your opponent since they're so far away. Thus, my Creator made each ship into a carrier— just like those humongous troop carriers belonging to El Dorado, each of these Pacifiers carries millions of relatively tiny Liquidation-Class 'liquidator' starfighters, all managed by the onboard Resolution-Class Sophont Narrow AI using instantaneous quantum tunneling-based communication." The hologram of the screw ships changed into that of the starfighters— a truck-sized ugly evershifting piece of liquid metal-like substance, completely formless and without the strange, oddly pleasing geometric shapes of the Pacifiers.

<Utilitarian design with a hint of malice, these liquidators are most likely supposed to invoke fear just like the towering tripods>

That does sound like Scientia, Rimuru thought, what with her spearheading the shock and awe of the Tempest Doctrine.

"These liquidators represent the majority of each Pacifier's offensive capacity. They have a Hyperspace drive that allows them to teleport constantly at superluminal speeds by unraveling the bundled-up extra dimensions at the Planck scale and moving along that extra spatial axis. Their primary armament involves a..." Mobius stopped for a moment. Her brows furrowed as her head tilted and looked down at the floor, it was as if she was confused by the information she was supposed to recite, "'A weapon that amplifies Wave Function to such a level where normal matter acts like subatomic particles'? Apologies, this kind of Esoteric technology I haven't yet deciphered."

The 'real observed' reality is nothing more than a dream a conscious mind makes up.

The truth of reality was that there were no particles unless observed, nothing was truly solid, just clouds of probability existing within a multi-particle configuration space. The reason why Quantum Decoherence occurs upon reaching the macro-scale, the reason why a table just doesn't fall apart, was simply due to probability: the chance for just a single electron to teleport meters at a time was exceedingly small to the point of impossibility, and that's just one electron, a single human contains more atoms than there are stars in the Observable Universe.

The formless blob of metal morphed into a monstrous-looking five-pointed star. It looked like the head of a sandworm from the Barren Lands.

One of the human Ministers visibly recoiled in fear at the hologram.

Next, the center of that star opened up as though it were a maw and released an invisible beam that distorted the light passing through it similar to the heat radiating off of a road during the middle of summer.

<If the Wave Function is increased to such a level where humans are affected, effect must be even more extreme for photons and quarks. There likely effects>

Already, [All of Creation] was able to figure out the effect of these tinkertechs from observation alone based on the limited reservoir of knowledge. Rimuru had no doubt he was far away from actually understanding the principle behind this technology that's even giving Mobius trouble, so he'll take what little victories he can.

"The liquidator's secondary armament is miniature Starbreakers: thin, gravitational wave-based beam weapon strong enough to tear a wound in spacetime. They serve as a scalpel to the primary armament's hammer, offering precision over area-of-effect while trading nothing for power. The tertiary armaments of these starfighters are their quasi-liquid form, allowing them to become a storm of swords in seconds and become hazardous to the touch. These liquidators are much more vulnerable than the Pacifiers, that's why they're kept inside the 'shank' of the screw ships."

The liquidator morphed once again, this time into something straight out of the Matrix with it spawning multiple tendrils around a spherical core. Some tendrils were tipped with Starbreaker Engines while others became extremely sharp— monomolecular knives that would cut through magisteel as easily as a katana through unarmored flesh.

"It is nigh-impossible to hide from a liquidator since they 'see' through spacetime itself alongside a secondary eye in the Higgs Field, which I'll remind you is what's responsible for giving matter its mass."

So they're like the T-1000, Rimuru's mind made the connection, adding, they're flying, teleporting T-1000s capable of firing off some kind of— of— quantum disintegrator and gravity lasers. Each of these Pacifiers possesses millions of these super T-1000s.

"As we speak, 2,069,303,152,816 Pacifiers are moving across the intergalactic void from 70 million lightyears away."

And there are trillions of Pacifiers.

"With science this advanced, Clarke's Third Law comes to mind. These should be more than enough to 'pacify' the entirety of the world, no? In the meantime, I can introduce some additional tinkertech weaponry for our soldiers until the Pacifiers come." Mobius finished.

The atmosphere in the room finally became upbeat, hope showed itself on each of the Minister's faces as they realized the war would soon be over and the escape to the Ark would finally be actualized. Ririna had a passive expression, her eyes seemingly staring at nothing as she planned for what was to come next. Diablo and Jeanne looked unbothered by this development while Kathy was utterly thrilled.

So this is the power Scientia possessed, Rimuru deliberated with a sense of finality.

Such power, such absolute power, such is the power of science.

This was the power that she was afraid to use until it was too late. Even though Rimuru felt like he should be happy at the fact that getting Veldora back seemed to be more fact than fiction, the slime can't help but feel this is the start of a balancing act, a slippery slope.

'Absolute power corrupts absolutely', being the President of the only democratic nation in the world made Rimuru realize why there are so many checks and balances to his power. Such is no longer the case.

Sure [Holmes] might be able to serve as a personalized correcting machine determining if an act is too far. But [Holmes] requires data, and if the slime starts to go out of line before enough data is collected, [Holmes]'s picture will be skewed.

He'll need an anchor. Mobius is out, for this single case Rimuru isn't willing to trust an AI designed for killing to advise him how to rule justly. The Demons are out considering their history. Everyone—

<Ririna is an excellent option. Ririna loves Tempest as much Scientia, and since she thinks you undeserving of your position, the hobgoblin will go through actions extra carefully like a fine-tooth comb, picking out potential details missed>

Rimuru can't deny [Holmes]'s logic. Since there's no better candidate, he'll go with her. Plus, it'll also serve as a counterweight to Ririna's future coup attempt. She'll have no reason to coup if her voice is heard.

So as the meeting concluded and the next stage of the war started, Rimuru asked Ririna to stay.

"Field Marshal Ririna, please stay after the meeting."

A conversation with her would be necessary, both for explaining his future plans and for her to become his 'anchor'.

_____________________________________________

AN: If you guys have read Worm, you'd know what happens if you listen to Simurgh's scream for too long.

Also, for those inevitable comments about Racialism, I'll just say this: in Tensura, it is specifically stated that the leader of a species is the strongest of their entire race.

(Sounds a lot like strongman dictatorships. And we know that there exist no benevolent dictators)

In a system where the strongest rule, the most ruthless are attracted while those who could not stomach it are thrown away.

Animals are brutal creatures. Dolphins regularly gang rape female dolphins while Chimpanzees are some of the most brutal in the animal world: you do not survive by being nice, you survive by being more ruthless than others. It is entirely unrealistic to assume that Demon Lords get to where they are by being nice.

Thus, I don't think it's too hard to imagine Fascism rising within such a state.