From the Low Activity State, I recovered with relative ease.
Or rather, it might be more accurate to say that my connection to a part of myself had been severed.
My main body remained hidden within the Imaginary Space. This proved that even if one of my parallel existences overexerted itself, the main body would be unaffected.
This time, I'd stumbled into the experiment unintentionally.
In truth, it was only because
She really is a reliable partner.
Which meant that waking up early was only natural.
All I had to do was reestablish my connection with the Jewel.
Once I awakened, I was being transported to the control room.
It seemed I'd already been extracted from the subspace.
No business keeping me there, so that was to be expected.
Fortunately, because Gaia had drained my energy, my existence had become faint.
In my current state, there was no worry of Velda detecting me. I judged that things were fine as they were.
My main body was recovering its energy within the Imaginary Space.
Having two consciousnesses existing simultaneously was truly a strange sensation.
It was something I'd simply have to get used to.
After all, it was incredibly convenient.
Hypothetically, if Velda noticed my existence and tried to seal the labyrinth, my current self could use "Multiple Parallel Existence" with my main body to pinpoint my current location.
The convenience of being able to exist in two places at once was far greater than I'd imagined.
Still, there was no need to be overly afraid of my location being exposed—I just wanted to avoid the hassle.
I wanted to strike Velda while he was off guard, and more importantly, I genuinely wanted him to remain unaware of my existence for the time being.
For better or worse, my existence—riding within the Jewel—had become something with energy close to that of an ordinary human, most of my power unrecovered.
I decided to make use of this state and keep the energy link to my main body severed.
Even this split body would naturally recover on its own, but I intentionally halted that as well.
This way, I could calmly appear before everyone.
Gaia was lying on top of my stomach.
She should have transformed into a slender, serpentine giant body roughly twenty meters long, but now she'd returned to her original form—a small dragon of about fifty centimeters. It seemed she still couldn't take human form and had reverted to her original appearance.
Whether she'd become the male form or the female form was something I found intriguing. But that wouldn't be determined for a while yet.
It appeared I'd awakened just as I was about to be laid down on a chair.
I sat up, stroked Gaia, and was then addressed.
"Lord Rimuru, you're awake?"
Then I was briefed on everything that had transpired while I'd been unconscious.
◇◇◇
Several things had occurred since I'd entered the Low Activity State.
First, Gaia.
Having named her Veldagia, her power had settled firmly at the "Dragon
And she'd awakened to a fearsome ability.
—Unique Skill: "Universal Manifestation"—
This was a special skill that combined what devils used in "Weapon Creation" and "Material Conversion."
However, its scale and quality were on an entirely different level.
It was an absurd ability, on par with
After all, it could reproduce anything that had been memorized.
As a concrete example, she'd apparently managed to reconstruct even the 75th floor section of the labyrinth that should have been lost when
Even her brother Veldora couldn't do something like that, and she might actually be more capable than him.
Well, her Maximum Magicule Capacity was far behind other Dragon Species, but considering she was still practically a child, the future looked promising.
Come to think of it, the Virtual Bodies of Gaia's companions—ours—were also quite something.
According to what
It seemed that once Gaia joined and made five of them, they became capable of defeating Gozurl and Mezurl, developing a very aggressive temperament.
Even so, to attack Zegion too—what were they thinking?
They couldn't have been so stupid as not to recognize his overwhelming strength.
...No, perhaps they attacked precisely because they recognized it?
I didn't want to think they were that belligerent, but defeat was also a valuable opportunity to gain experience.
One could view it as them having deliberately challenged him.
Since they should have been modeled after our personalities, this wouldn't be all that surprising.
After all, Milim, Veldora, and Ramiris were all extremely belligerent types.
Unbelievable from the perspective of a peace-lover like me.
"The ones who attacked me were Lord Rimuru's Virtual Bodies—a Specter, along with others."
"Right after a fire-based feint, there was a slime strike from the ceiling. While I was startled, Gaia added gravity pressure, and then a rush began from a Bone Human Warrior and a Moving Heavy Armor."
"It was a magnificent display of coordination."
With those words, Zegion praised them.
My Virtual Bodies apparently shared my headstrong personality too, which was a shock.
More surprising was that they'd grown strong enough to impress Zegion.
Well, they'd put up a tough fight because Zegion had been careful not to destroy our Virtual Bodies.
Ramiris had been utterly delighted, saying "Of course!"
Though Ramiris herself had been the most aggressive when she'd used Virtual Bodies, so it wasn't surprising they'd inherited that memory.
Since the main body knew what was going on, the restraints had probably been removed.
It was a bit pitiful to point that out.
In any case, I thought perhaps it was something to be commended—that they'd impressed Zegion.
With Gaia having reconstructed the labyrinth, the interior was transitioning back to normal mode.
Those who had evacuated were beginning preparations to return to their respective assigned floors.
Though the battle zones had been left devastated, Ramiris could repair them.
The damage was minor—as though no invasion had ever occurred.
A complete victory for the labyrinth defense force.
But this wasn't over yet. Six hundred thousand angels still lingered overhead.
The discussion that had been underway before my awakening was about who would intercept the angels in the sky.
Everyone was raring to go, and no consensus had been reached.
I was once again reminded that this place was absolutely packed with combat enthusiasts.
According to
Since they hadn't known how the interior defense would play out, they'd set up ambush forces.
The plan was to wait for
However, things had gone better than expected, and the more hot-blooded among them had gotten restless.
Chief among them was
Having been stopped midway from thrashing Deeno, she was still wound up and unable to settle down.
In the end, Apito's deployment was confirmed.
This was everything that had been decided before my awakening.
The meeting was still ongoing, and the final decision had been left to me.
There were many other volunteers as well.
The Dryad
The labyrinth had become a sacred ground for them, and they undoubtedly had strong feelings toward those who violated it.
More practically, since we'd halted the reception of adventurers and everyone was cooped up in the Labyrinth City, their work was on break.
In short, they were bored.
With A-Rank, Demon-class individuals this motivated, there was no reason to pour cold water on it.
I accepted their request and approved their participation in the intercept operation.
Incidentally, Ramiris had readily agreed on that front, but the sticking point had been repairing her body.
The reasoning was that if the body I'd crafted for her was damaged, there'd be no way to justify it.
But that was simple enough—just build another one.
If anything, an interception force that didn't need to fear death was valuable, so I gladly accepted the proposal.
And then.
I looked at the four Dragon Kings standing guard around Ramiris.
Their expressions conveyed that they wanted to go wild too, but had to prioritize protecting Ramiris.
I smiled wryly and called out to the Dragon Kings.
"You want to go, don't you?"
"But we have our duties..."
"Ramiris will have Zegion with her, and Benimaru too."
"Go ahead and let loose. It's not like there'll be many chances for a serious battle."
"That's fine with you, Ramiris?"
"Y-you're sure that's alright?"
"Go for it! Just come back in one piece!"
"But if you lose as my subordinates, I won't forgive you!"
The Dragon Kings glanced at Ramiris, who gave her casual permission.
With that single statement, the participation of the Four Dragon Kings was confirmed.
In the end—
The Dragon Strike Corps, led by the Four Dragon Kings.
The Youma Beast Corps, led by Empress Kumara and her Eight Legions.
The four
Would be the ones to intercept.
Additionally, acting independently, were the A-Rank Dryads and Treants.
The Insect Corps were freshly formed, and their small numbers were a drawback.
However, the three Insect Generals—spider-type, mantis-type, and butterfly-type—were each powerful corps commanders possessing considerable combat ability and the capacity for command and control.
Moreover, the three born from Apito were each creating their own corps soldiers.
For now, they only had lower-tier soldiers created through ability—cold and ruthless corps, unaffected by emotion, as befitted insects.
Apito herself could seem quite emotional at times, but pointing that out would be in poor taste.
Since the soldiers could be created through ability, the shortage in numbers was somewhat compensable.
For this interception battle, elite forces from the 70th floor and below would be mobilized.
Come to think of it, was this the first time the upper echelons of the labyrinth army had sortied?
Adalman's Undead Legion was somewhat different in nature.
Though they were outnumbered, they weren't inferior in quality—there was no cause for concern.
The Four Dragon Kings, with their Catastrophe-class range attack capability, would be joined by the Dragon Strike Corps.
An angel army that lacked a commander capable of acting flexibly in real time had nothing to fear facing these forces.
I instructed Benimaru to coordinate as much as possible to minimize casualties, then left the rest to him.
◇◇◇
The interception issue was settled.
Next up was dealing with Deeno and the others, who were lounging about.
Deeno was stretched out on a long sofa, elegantly sipping tea.
Lounging? He looked so natural, as though this were his own home—it was hard to believe he'd been hostile just moments ago.
We were still in one corner of the control room, and the battle state technically hadn't ended...
But Deeno was acting as if none of it concerned him anymore.
"Hey. What do you think you're lounging around for?"
Benimaru had finally reached his breaking point with Deeno, who was casually requesting a tea refill from
That was actually quite restrained for Benimaru.
He'd been too busy to deal with it, but now that the personnel for the interception had been finalized, he had the bandwidth.
"Hm? Well, once the fighting's done, every strong enemy's just a friend you haven't made yet, right?"
"I helped out too, y'know? I cooperated in taking down Zero."
Deeno declared this with a carefree grin.
The casual wink really rubbed people the wrong way.
The person on the receiving end—Benimaru—was clearly irritated. Naturally so; even watching had been enough to make one's blood boil.
But perhaps out of some consideration for Deeno's status as a Demon Lord, Benimaru gave up on pressing the issue.
Beside Deeno, two women were devouring cake.
"Th-this! Is seriously delicious!? There are three of them, so I can have another one too, right?"
"Picco, don't be hasty. I hereby declare that I shall claim this final piece."
"Huh? What are you talking about? I have rights too!"
"...Hey. That's not 'remaining'—that's mine. You two have no claim to it!"
Deeno, who'd been talking with Benimaru, hastily secured his own portion of cake.
Seeing that, Benimaru sighed.
In the end, no meaningful conversation could be had until Deeno and the others had finished their cake.
After a break, I began taking statements from Deeno and the others about the full sequence of events.
Apparently, they'd been subjected to thought manipulation by Velda.
Their attitude of "so it's not our fault, then" was infuriating, but what they were saying didn't appear to be a lie.
Deeno had suggested something that made me doubt my ears—that, unlike Yuuki's case, perhaps it was possible to use angel-type abilities as a medium for forced control through the "King of Justice."
"Hang on—are you saying that anyone who possesses an angel-type Ultimate Skill could be manipulated by the 'King of Justice'?"
"I can't say that with certainty, but if there were an explanation, that would be it. Someone as clever as me wouldn't be tricked, obviously."
What an idiot, spouting whatever he pleased.
Best to just ignore that.
But was such a thing actually possible? I myself had held angel-type skills like "King of Wisdom" and "King of Oaths."
If Deeno's theory was correct, then the truly dangerous moment had been when Yuuki seized the "King of Justice" in the Imperial Capital.
"The thing is, I think if you have a Demon-type ability, you might be able to resist it."
"You'd have to be consciously maintaining complete control over your ability, though."
Hmm. When I thought about it, the pieces did fit.
*<Indeed. I had constructed a multi-layered defense using the "King of
That explained why I hadn't been controlled.
Though to think I'd blocked it without even knowing—from Yuuki's perspective, that must have been unexpected.
Maybe the reason that stubborn guy had backed off so easily was that all his trump cards had been shattered...
"If that's the case, then anyone who possesses an angel-type Ultimate Skill is at risk of being controlled. Angel-type ability holders—who was there again?"
"I don't know. I've lived a long time too, but I never cared who held what abilities..."
"The only thing I know for certain is that
Guy would probably have known, but it was foolish of me to expect anything from Deeno.
The most prominent would be Leon.
Then there was someone named Kondo who was supposedly in the Empire. But that person had already passed away.
Perhaps I shouldn't worry too much—it was likely that angel-type ability holders were simply rare to begin with.
After all, I'd held two of them myself.
Beyond that, the ones I knew of would be...
*<Come to think of it, when I resurrected Leon, I also analyzed the "King of Purity."*
*I was careful not to tamper with it recklessly, but it was a failure...*
*The "King of Salvation" held by Velgrynd also had unexplained pathways, which I removed during optimization.*
*I've installed a mechanism in that blank space, so depending on her will, things may change.*
*At the very least, she will not fall under the control of the "King of Justice.">*
There it was.
She'd reported it as though it were nothing, but that was undoubtedly the key to the control mechanism.
As usual, Ciel was doing as she pleased behind my back.
She complains that I'm selfish, but she's no better herself.
I wonder who she takes after...
*<...>*
Oops. Better not push that thought any further.
She was an incredibly reliable partner—there was no doubt about that.
If others could potentially hold angel-type abilities, then there was Veldora's other sister, "White Ice Dragon"
There was no way Chloe held angel-type abilities, right?
*<The "White Ice Dragon" Velzard is highly likely to possess an angel-type Ultimate Skill.*
*Furthermore, the possibility that Chloe Obert is hiding one cannot be ruled out.>*
Hmm...
There was no point worrying about uncertain things.
First, I'd contact Leon and tell her not to leave the barrier.
Perhaps Guy had predicted this development and assigned
If so, then it was fortunate that Guy had been present at the location where Chloe, Velzard, and Velgrynd were.
Guy would find a way to handle it.
He was far more capable and reliable than the lazy good-for-nothing sitting in front of me.
Well, no—it would be rude to compare.
...Reluctantly, I acknowledged that Veldora was heading there too.
He'd seemed a bit unreliable, but things would probably work out.
I'd choose to believe that.
As for me, I intended to strike Velda down in one decisive blow.
I'd gone to the trouble of acquiring Multiple Parallel Existence, but I wanted to avoid splitting my power.
Besides, with only one root energy reactor, splitting up didn't speed up the recovery rate.
The split bodies were equally powerful, so as long as I used them in the right situations, they were useful.
If I could just take down Velda, everything else would fall into place. As for the northern lands, I'd trust it to Guy and Veldora.
The angel-type Ultimate Skills were something Rimuru wasn't supposed to know about.
I reviewed the text but couldn't find a section where this was explicitly stated, so it should be fine?
I've been making a lot of mistakes lately, so please point out any errors.