The moment the plan was decided, Milim declared that she would use her ultimate magic.
Dragon Star Flame Destruction.
She wanted to use that extremely dangerous-looking annihilation spell as cover to smuggle me out.
It seemed like she just wanted to show it to me once, but since
I thought I was going to die.
No, seriously.
I really wish she'd told me what kind of magic it was beforehand.
Milim wasn't bluffing when she called it her ultimate magic. I was fine because I stopped time and bolted at full speed, but
Good lord. Pretending to die for an act… this was going a bit far.
It was the moment I was forcibly reminded—never underestimate Milim.
Still, in terms of results, it probably served its purpose in winning Milim's trust.
Milim unleashed Dragon Star Flame Destruction, feigned taking me out, and retrieved Lucia. Then, to make Milim believe I was truly dead, I released the Void Collapse Seal I'd been holding over Lucia.
That way, Milim managed to gain Lucia's trust and successfully infiltrate the enemy's stronghold.
As for me, I slipped into the shadows via spatial transport and went into hiding, waiting for Milim's signal.
Now then. With things settled down, there were a number of things to think about.
First was the change in Ciel I'd sensed earlier.
The Void Collapse Seal was one thing, but Ciel's abilities had clearly increased dramatically.
And yet, what bothered me was that she had misjudged
(Hey, is Gobta's growth speed really that abnormal? To the point it exceeded your predictions? If so, isn't the margin of error way too large?)
That was the point that nagged at me.
Back when I still called her Raphael, she almost never missed a prediction—her accuracy was nearly flawless.
In fact, to my knowledge, Raphael's only misread was in underestimating the nature of Veldora's attacks.
And now Ciel was off the mark on something as simple as growth speed? For Ciel, that seemed sloppy. No matter how much of a genius Gobta might be, it just didn't quite sit right.
So I asked Ciel about it, and she replied: "The more I calculated, the deeper the layers of information I uncovered… and in the end, the margin of error became enormous."
In other words, her abilities had improved so much that accuracy had actually decreased.
No—rather, it was— Was this… fluctuation caused by the emergence of emotion?
That thought flashed through my mind.
A poor analogy, but it was like when you second-guess yourself during a test—the more you review, the more uncertain you become.
It's a common story that your first instinct was correct all along.
And what that meant was that Ciel had experienced the emotion of "anxiety."
Humans are creatures who make mistakes.
Why?
Because humans are emotional beings.
Machines don't make mistakes. They never feel anxious.
When a machine does err, it's either because of bad input or because something broke.
Ciel had evolved and gained "emotion."
That meant what was once a perfect being had fallen into an imperfect state.
To feel anxiety, to waver, to make mistakes.
Was that a regression?
No.
It was, without question, evolution.
Ciel, despite being in a state of perfect fulfillment, had still sought out emotion.
A newborn is omnipotent within the mother's womb, but the instant it enters the world, it loses that omnipotence.
And so it feels anxious, and it cries.
Ciel was no different from a newborn taking its first breath.
It was like transferring a perfectly spherical essence into a much larger vessel.
The vessel was so vast that her own existence had become amorphous.
And precisely because of that, great waves—namely, emotions—arose in her effort to fill it.
But rest easy.
That vessel— is me.
The amorphous, incomplete vessel was my soul. And with the birth of the
Emotions are waves, and by filling the gaps in the heart, those waves grew smaller.
For Ciel, these waves—something she'd never experienced before—might be bewildering, and it could take time to grow accustomed. But for me, having my heart filled had made my own anxieties shrink.
In other words, it was as if Ciel had taken on the anxiety that would otherwise have been mine.
(No problem. Relax. Have confidence! You'll be able to read even this state, and find the right answer. So trust me. We exist to complement each other— you're not alone!)
《Master—》 At my words, Ciel fell silent.
But the waves of her emotion grew calm, filling the empty spaces in my heart.
And as Ciel was filled in turn, anxiety transformed into reassurance.
《Understood, Master! Everything shall be as you will!》 Ciel had correctly understood my words.
And so, while hidden in the shadows, she took the opportunity to re-examine her own reason for existing.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
At speeds that did justice to her title as the fastest, circling the planet over and over.
Her body felt lighter—more powerful than before, it seemed.
Her mind felt heavy, tangled in a fog with no coherent thoughts taking shape.
Just what in the world was… that?
An opponent against whom she, one of the true Dragoness species, could not even put up a fight.
A being with a body equal to the Dragoness species at the apex of this world, and a soul compatible with draconic factors.
And moreover, one who could devour even a Dragoness possessing overwhelming quantities of magicules and still stand there with composure.
Two of them, no less.
Could such beings truly exist?
No—they must. Since they actually existed before her, there was no room for doubt.
But the idea that they were Unique Monsters born by chance from pools of magicules leaked by Veldora—that was a stretch.
Looking at herself now, she felt more efficient, in better form than before.
It even seemed as though her absolute quantity of magicules had increased.
That meant the slime that had manifested her possessed a vessel with magicules that utterly eclipsed her own.
(Incredible. Such a being… as far as I know, there's only ever been one—) She continued her thoughts.
Circling high above the continent at tremendous speed.
Her velocity reached dozens of times the speed of sound, turning her into a blazing fireball that blew away flocks of angels gathering in the sky without any deliberate intent on her part.
Suddenly, the corridor of consciousness binding her closed.
It had no effect on her, but it meant something had happened to the one on the other end.
Still, she gave it no real thought.
(Hmph. As if that could be easily dealt with. What is she scheming…) she considered with just a passing flicker of thought.
There was no need for her to worry about such things—she knew that instinctively.
In truth, she felt there was neither reason nor need for her to worry at all.
She was free now.
But her heart was submerged in deep thought, still lost in a fog of uncertainty.
For the time being, she remained trapped in that vortex of contemplation.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — That report sent shockwaves of dread through the executives of the Monster Nation.
On the first day of the Great War, after the angel assault had been brought to a pause, it was already evening.
The monsters had been bracing for continued battle, but the angels had pulled back as night approached.
It was likely because the light of the sun gave light-attribute angels the advantage during the day.
They also needed to eat, and their magicule depletion was severe.
For the monsters too, a brief respite was a welcome mercy.
During the dinner hour—while the soldiers rested—the returning members delivered their report.
In the command room established inside the labyrinth, those gathered were the Guardian King and the other executives of the Monster Nation.
"Is it true that Lord Rimuru has vanished?"
"Yes… it's confirmed."
"He took a direct hit from Lady Milim's Dragon Star Flame Destruction…"
Silence fell over the room.
Then Testarossa explained the situation in detail.
"— And what was Diablo doing? Where did that guy go?"
Benimaru pressed, barely restraining his anger.
Diablo was notably absent from the meeting.
This was to be expected.
He was the only subordinate who knew Rimuru was alive.
That was precisely why he hadn't thrown himself in to protect Rimuru, but he couldn't exactly explain that.
Not because it would be "unpleasant"—but because he judged it pointless.
It was a shame he couldn't see the executives' reactions, no—worrying, yes—but keeping Rimuru's survival secret took priority.
He understood that his own presence at the meeting would be problematic.
After all, Diablo had predicted that if he showed up, Benimaru and the others would demand to know why he hadn't protected Rimuru.
In their position, Diablo was confident he would have torn apart anyone assigned as bodyguard without a shred of mercy.
That was why he had let Testarossa and the others arrive to find him in a state where half his body had been blown away.
Then, while regenerating, he said he would keep watch on Milim and left—essentially, fled.
His excuse was: "With half my body gone and my combat effectiveness reduced, the least I can do is provide intelligence."
His current state of drastically depleted magicules made the story believable, and Testa and the others accepted it.
…Well, Testarossa did seem skeptical, but she couldn't be certain. She accepted Diablo's explanation.
Incidentally, the reason he said he would "keep watch" was because the core of the plan involved funneling information from Milim to Rimuru.
Someone needed to relay the intel gathered from Milim, and that role made the operation viable.
And so Diablo, too, vanished into the shadows to continue serving as Rimuru's covert guardian— Testarossa let out a breath and spoke: "Diablo has undertaken an infiltration mission. He's filled with remorse that he failed to protect Lord Rimuru, but he says he cannot take his own life because he's received orders. His role, he says, is to free Lady Milim from her manipulation."
She laid out the lies Diablo had fed her, word for word.
Testarossa herself found it dubious, but the story did hold together on the surface. Still, something about it nagged at her.
When she'd been about to press the issue, Diablo had already teleported—ostensibly toward Milim, but in truth, to Rimuru's side.
Extremely suspicious, but since she'd let him escape, she had no choice but to deliver the explanation as given. Sharing subjective hunches and uncertain information would only cause chaos.
Testarossa held back her personal feelings and relayed the facts as they were.
Silence dominated the command room.
Geld and
Benimaru clenched his fists tight, trying to suppress the waves of his fury.
It was perhaps fortunate that
Then, in that quiet, "If I had been there, this wouldn't have—"
At his words, Testarossa closed her eyes in agreement.
Yes—that was the natural reaction. She had been close by too, and yet could do nothing. The guilt of that weighed on her.
That was exactly why she couldn't反驳 Souei's words.
She could only choke on her own helplessness.
At that moment,
He rose to his feet.
"Ridiculous. Why waste time on pointless worry?"
"Lord Rimuru could never be destroyed."
"Testarossa—do you truly believe Diablo is the kind of man who loses combat ability over losing half his body? That he would give up avenging his master over something so trivial?"
"Is it not obvious that there must be some reason behind all this?"
"Childish. All of you. Why can't you see that we are being deceived?"
He addressed the entire room in one sweeping declaration.
Then, reading their reactions, he continued: "Think clearly. And feel it. We still receive Lord Rimuru's blessing. The connection has been severed, but that does not equate to disappearance."
"Calm yourselves. Feel it deeply. We are being tested by Lord Rimuru—understand that."
"We are not so fragile that we must depend on Lord Rimuru for everything. And yet, if you insist that nothing can be done without him—"
"Then such weaklings deserve to perish. Isn't that right, Lord Benimaru?"
In a single breath, Zegion finished and waited for Benimaru's response.
Testarossa felt a faint smile touch her lips as Zegion pointed out exactly what had been bothering her.
His reasoning was an extremely convincing deduction.
And Testarossa was not the only one who felt so. Everyone present was won over by Zegion's words.
"That's right! There's gotta be a reason Lord Rimuru vanished too! We can't keep relying on him forever!"
"We have indeed relied on Lord Rimuru too much. It feels as though we've always deferred everything to him."
"Precisely. Even I started to feel anxious just because Lord Rimuru wasn't here. At this rate, Lord Rimuru would laugh at us!"
"Right, right! Well, I believed in Rimuru the whole time, so I wasn't worried at all!"
"Mm! There's no way Lord Rimuru could lose!"
Life and vigor flooded back into the room in an instant.
Watching this, Benimaru thought—yes, they had indeed relied too heavily on Great Demon Lord Rimuru.
Come to think of it, they had been dependent on him from the moment they first met.
To be called out by Zegion, a newcomer—no, he was unfit to serve as a confidant.
"My bad, Zegion. You're absolutely right. We can fight even without Lord Rimuru. No—more than that…"
"We should have been thinking about conquering this world quickly so that Lord Rimuru could return. We're not helpless children who can't do a thing without him!"
"All right—let's finish this fast and present this world to Lord Rimuru!"
Benimaru declared.
In agreement, "I can't believe I—losing my composure like this… As the one who leads the shadows, I've still got a long way to go. My apologies, Zegion. Thanks to you, I've regained my focus."
Souei nodded and bowed to Zegion.
"There's no need to worry. I'll return to my post. Lord Benimaru, leave the labyrinth to me and focus on the attack. I swear on my honor that I will protect Lady Ramiris and everyone sheltering within."
Benimaru nodded at Zegion's words.
Yes—exactly. For defense, they had the strongest guardian imaginable in Zegion.
There was nothing to fear.
And so, the executives of the Monster Nation mobilized.
As if brushing off the anxiety from moments before, their faces were filled with resolve.
And their eyes blazed with the determination to prove their strength to their master, Great Demon Lord Rimuru.
They had now reached the moment to spread their wings from beneath the Demon Lord's protection.
"I believe in you, so believe in me!" — wait, that sounded familiar… Upon checking, it was from an anime called Gurren Lagann.
I fear I've unconsciously borrowed a phrase that left a strong impression somewhere. Note to self: be careful.