Final Decisive Battle Part 5
So, I worked hard like that.
I hope that all of you would understand that I was never slacking off.
Velda was surprised by my appearance.
That was understandable.
After all, I appeared with『Teleportation』that I just got a while ago.
At the same time I acquired it, Ciel incorporated it into『Void God Azathoth』.
It seemed Mai could only go to places she had been to before, but that was her limit as a human. That couldn’t be helped since a human’s ability to grasp space heavily relied on their eyesight.
However, I could grasp a huge amount of spatial information, including with Observation Magic. That meant that I could teleport to places that I could recognize.
I could learn about the situation through Diablo and Veldora-san’s eyes now. That was the reason I could easily come to this place.
I looked at Velda who was wary of my arrival and showed him a fearless smile.
It was to provoke him.
With that, it would increase Velda’s wariness towards me. In that opportunity, I prepared myself in order to bring down Velda.
Before Velda rushed into action, I absorbed the energy I had suppressed.
I was fortunate that my energy recovery couldn’t catch up and steadily absorbed it into my『Imaginary Space』. In there, Ciel-san diligently converted it into energy I could use.
Thanks to that, I greatly recovered from my low energy state and it seemed to be enough to fight Velda.
I guess you would never know what could turn out to be a fortunate situation.
By the way, I found out the reason why my energy didn’t recover when I came to this place.
The culprit was probably Veldora-san.
I think he created『Clones』and rampaged around.
It seemed he could replenish his energy through the “Soul Corridor” from me, no mistake about that.
I thought so, but…...
When I confirmed that with Ciel while being amazed, I heard a surprising answer.
《That’s right. In addition, a bit of it is also flowing into Diablo and Benimaru. More energy was used than expected for Velgrind's Skill Evolution.》
She replied in a carefree way like “And so, what about it?”
Because she said it too smoothly, I was stuck on how to reply to that.
No, no, she used my energy without my permission though……
However, even if I wanted to complain, it was true that I was helped by the low energy state due to her doing.
There was a heap of stuff that I wanted to say, but I gave up complaining.
Or rather, perchance….. Even this situation was within Ciel-san’s expectations?
No, no, no, there’s no way. I might indeed just be overthinking it.
It couldn’t be, right?
There was no way she could predict things that far and predicted what kind of plan Velda would take either.
《I have confirmed the phenomenon of energy returning to Heaven[1] when the angels were defeated in various places.》
Yeah. I knew that.
《I have predicted that the most efficient way to use the energy of the angel gathered in the Heaven is to make all of the energy go berserk. Therefore, as the countermeasure for it, I have persisted your state of energy exhaustion.》
Well, you said it so easily, but…… that, wouldn’t that be a big problem if you misread things?
Moreover, Velda might absorb all of the energy and super-powered up[2] himself.
I couldn’t possibly fight Velda in an out of gas state like that, what were you going to do if the energy didn’t recover smoothly?
《He can’t do such things as super-power up. He wouldn’t be struggling if he could power up himself that easily. Well, even if he were to super-power up himself temporarily, there would be no problem. I don’t think that My Master would lose in low energy state, but just in case, it was possible to forcibly retrieve Veldora and Velgrind back to recover about 60% of the energy instantly. So, there’s no problem.》
Ah, I see.
She declared that super-strengthening was impossible, but what about me?
Am I an exception?
…… I felt Ciel-san had overestimated me too much.
Ciel-san is the “If she says she’ll do it, she’ll do it” type.
So, she generously distributed the energy at a fast pace.
Since Veldora-san and Velgrind were also recovering their own energy, certainly, it would be the best idea to have them cooperate with me in the worst case situation.
Whether I would get their approval or not would become the problem, but I felt relieved to know that such way was available.
I felt I got to see a glimpse of Ciel-san’s scary side, but my doubt was cleared.
What’s left was only to defeat Velda.
Also, before that……
I examined the orb remaining in my left hand.
When I finished absorbing all of the energy, it seemed only the core remained.
It resembled the pseudo-core I made, but the concept seemed to be quite different.
What’s this――
「Yo! I thought it was the end but I didn’t think that I will survive in this form, you know? Although I can’t really say that I’m “alive”. Hahahahaha!」
It talked!?
I stared at the orb in surprise.
Even though it had no vocal cords, it seemed to produce sounds by vibrating the magic essences. It was a very skilled orb.
「Rudra! You are safe……it doesn’t seem so, but you were safe?」
Although Velgrind found herself stuck for words, she still asked the orb.
Hmm…… This orb, is Rudra?
I felt his character was completely different from the Rudra I knew though…..
「Hah! Well, being tenacious is my forte after all!」
No, no. Even if you called yourself as tenacious, your status as an orb was hard to be said as alive.
At the moment I tried to do a carefree tsukkomi like that――
Velda instantly closed the distance and came to slash me.
However, I didn’t let my guard down even while talking, I kicked up the sword stuck in the ground, wielded it in my right hand, and I stopped Velda’s sword with it.
「Naïve! I don’t underestimate you that much that I will let my guard down in this final stage, you know!」
I didn’t want to compliment him, but it can’t be helped as it was true.
Velda was indubitably the strongest person as far as I knew.
Judging from a brief look just now, his power was rising tremendously. I felt Guy’s almightiness and Milim’s strength, and the energy of “True Dragon” level.
I also thought whether to attack him in the gap while he was wary of me, but stopping was the right decision. As expected, this guy wouldn’t let his guard down, so I had to deal with him carefully. Besides……I had just one concern.
Since there was such a concern, I couldn’t possibly do something such as letting my guard down.
I exchanged several blows with Velda and took some distance from him.
That just now wasn’t even a warm-up, it was just a playful greeting.
In the first place, I couldn’t get used to fighting using a sword that wasn’t mine as I expected. Or rather, this sword was an excellent weapon and obviously of God class too.
From pure performance, this sword was better than my katana.
Even so, I wouldn’t cheat because the katana I was familiar with was easier to be used.
「Hahaha, You’re not bad. You’re able to handle my sword. However, you still have lots more to work on. Unfortunately, you don’t seem to be my true vessel.」
The orb in my left hand proudly said such an evaluation.
Or rather, what are you?
Because of you, I was fighting Velda with just my right hand. Since the basic is to wield the sword with both hands, I was unfamiliar with fighting only using my right hand.
「What are you supposed to be? The Rudra I know was full of himself because he was an emperor, but you’re above him on that.」
「I see. I did become an emperor, heh? Well, I guess I must have gotten “mellowed out” if I stopped at the status of an emperor though.」[3]
「I don’t care about that stuff and not interested. Like I said, what the heck are you?」
I ignored the complaint of the orb that started to talk about itself and asked the most important thing.
I couldn’t leisurely fight Velda in front of me after all.
「That’s right! You are exactly like Rudra, but I can’t think that you’re just reproduced memories, you know?」
Reproduced memories?
Velgrind’s words piqued my interest.
《Apparently, this orb has the effect of reproducing a dead person’s memories. However, even if it can recreate a personality as close as the original, the soul is a different matter. It should be no more than a copy, but――》
Yeah, it couldn’t be said as reviving someone just by reproducing their memories.
What’s important for a soul is a heart.
「It’s certainly very interesting. The Memory Orb that I made can only reproduce memories. There’s no function such as recalling soul. If that was possible, there was no need for me to do troublesome stuff like this.」
Velda seemed to be interested in this phenomenon as well.
Because he was well informed of the stuff he created, Rudra acquiring freewill itself was impossible.
「Hahahahaahaahaahaa! It’s that, you know. I was super excellent, or something like that I guess.」
Let’s ignore the boastful voice that could be heard from my left hand.
Rudra certainly died.
That was for sure, but……
《――Talking about a possibility, reincarnation may be one of the causes.》
Reincarnation? What did you mean by that?
《Emperor Rudra had his soul torn apart due to repeated reincarnations. It’s possible that torn parts of the soul gathered together and became another soul. Neither an existing soul nor a temporary soul, it has a heart with a high degree of freedom.》
His soul was torn apart every time he reincarnated and gathered as one?
It’s a bad example for an analogy, but is it like the residues of an eraser lumped together to make a kneaded eraser[4], or something like that?
Treating a soul and an eraser as the same might be a problem though.
It wasn’t something you would normally think about, but I could hardly say that’s absolutely impossible.
After all, I got reincarnated as a slime which you would normally consider as impossible.
So, because there was a person with fragments of Rudra’s soul somewhere in this world that the Memory Orb embedded with the memories was able to reproduce Rudra’s will.
In that case――
I suddenly hit on a good idea. And then, I carried out the idea as ordered by my mischievous heart.
「Rimuru, what are you doing!?」
「Hahaa, this is interesting!」
Velgrind confusedly raised her voice.
Rudra felt it was interesting.
I didn’t really do anything great.
I just threw the sword to Velgrind.
I fused the Memory Orb in my left hand with the sword I held in right hand, though.
I embedded the Memory Orb into the base of the hilt of the God Class Sword like a conspicuous shining jewel. Since I fused it so it became one with the sword, the orb part would be as strong as the sword.
If there was really a reincarnated person who shared his soul, that person should be able to draw out Rudra’s abilities by holding the sword.
I made it that way so you could depend on it.
In order to enable him to have conversation with the owner, I had also asked Ciel-sensei to remake and changed Rudra into a pseudo-Manas.
Naturally, the information of the Memory Orb had been analyzed.
「I turned it into Intelligence Sword[5]. Because I fused Rudra’s will and the sword, from now on only someone with the same soul wavelengths as him can use the sword. In other words, the person who has the qualification to wield the sword will be the proof that the person is Rudra’s reincarnation. Interesting, right?」
“Don’t do things as you please!” I thought that she would get angry like that, but Velgrind only took the sword into her embrace and stared at me.
Rudra was laughing jovially.
「Hahahahaha! Is that so, there’s a possibility that I got reincarnated? I see that would explain why I got a free will! It’s certainly interesting.」
So he laughed happily.
Listening to Rudra’s words, Velgrind gave a nod as if to agree with him.
Velda was annoyed, but he glared at with an expression as if he was satisfied with something.
He thought about the reason why his own plan failed and admitted that my――or rather, Ciel’s――deduction was right, I guess.
While Velda’s attention was on the Intelligence Sword, I unsheathed my katana and took a stance.
With this, I could fight seriously.
「However, given that the Will of the super-excellent me remained a whole, I guess the person who might be my reincarnation now would surely be a cowardly fellow. I’m looking forward to our meeting.」
「Fufu, that might be so. The last thing left from Rudra at the end was only his charisma, not even his prided luck remained…… But conversely, that person might only inherit that luck. I want to meet that person if that person exists. Your reincarnation, a cowardly and lucky person――」
Velgrind nonchalantly said.
A cowardly and lucky person――? There was someone who matched that description, but it couldn’t be, right.
Although the person in question had no charisma, that person was compensated with incredible luck though……
I’m sure that the ability that person had is called『The Chosen One』――
It’s a coincidence. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.
I ignored Rudra and Velgrind’s conversation and abandoned any further thoughts.
Fate would decide their encounter and if that person was really Rudra’s reincarnation, they would eventually come across even if I didn’t say anything.
Besides, if my thoughts were right, that person probably wouldn’t be able to run from Velgrind.
Well, it didn’t matter to me.
I guess I did do some unnecessary things, but the rest was their problem
I irresponsibly decided that Rudra and the others’ matter would have nothing to do with me.
Like that, it seemed I had succeeded in buying time.
Velda was too wary of me and only attempted minor attacks.
I easily parried them and waited until the preparation was completed.
Then, finally――
「We did it, Rimuru! I and Gaia completely locked up the Heaven to another space!」
So I heard Ramiris’ shout.
「Alright, good job! With this, we blocked your escape!」
This time for sure, I showed a triumphant smile towards Velda.
It would be meaningless if we cornered him this far just for him to run away.
Therefore, I brought Ramiris and Gaia――”Earth Sovereign Dragon” Velgaia――to the Heaven and asked them to lock this place completely.
It was impossible for Ramaris because she had her own labyrinth, but it was demonstrated that Gaia could create a pseudo labyrinth.
Under Ramiri’s guidance, Gaia’s labyrinth completely covered up this Heaven.
「You bastard, so that was your aim!!」
I could see the color of emotions for the first time in Velda’s expressions.
That agitation was exactly what I intended.
Furthermore, Ramiris and Gaia succeeded in rescuing Milim who got caught.
「Kyuiーーー!!」
「Gaia! When did you become strong like this!?」
Milim was safely rescued and she seemed to be surprised with Gaia’s growth.
「Mission completed on this side, Rimuru! Go on and send that guy flying!」
Ramiris proudly gave the “GO” sign towards me.
In addition to her,
「To be honest, I wanted to do it myself but unfortunately, I can’t win. Rimuru, please avenge me!」
Milim said so.
「Leave it to me. I’ll carve it properly into your body as the reward of laying your hands on my precious friends!」
I raised one hand to answer Milim and declared so towards Velda.
Well then, since all of the trouble was sorted out, let’s end this quickly.
When I thought so…..
A terrific explosion was heard and a corner of the Heaven was blown away.
I was surprised and turned my focus to that direction――
Just as I thought, I saw Veldora-san who became pitch black over there.
[1] There were two kanji used for Heaven 天上界 Tenjoukai and 天空界 Tenkuukai. Ciel used the first one which can also mean Celestial World, while the other people use the 2nd one which would be closer to Sky World. 天空 Tenkuu mean Sky but can also mean Heaven. I’ll just keep both as heaven.
[2] 超強化 Choukyouka. Super/Ultra/Hyper Strengthening/Power Up/Boost.
[3] Could be a pun. 丸くなった can also mean rounded. It also has the kanji maru in it.
[4] This kind of eraser: (Also known as putty rubber)
[5] 知性珠之神剣(インテリジェンスソード) Chisei Tama no Shinken (Interijensu Sōdo). Divine Sword with Intelligence Orb/Ball/Sphere.