This is a side story and won't affect the main story.
For some reason, I'm doing a bonus chapter at this point in the story.
I don't remember my own name.
What I do remember — would you even call it memories of a past life?
They're faint, but apparently, I was once human.
Apparently, I was an orphan.
I went to a place called a school, got ridiculed there, and…
Before I knew it, I'd become a fool who controlled others through violence.
In the end, I was stabbed to death by a rival.
A common story — and I think it suited the way I went out.
And so my life came to an end, and I should have departed for whatever afterlife awaited me — or so I thought— When I came to, I was drifting in a place I couldn't quite identify.
It was a world of nothing but darkness, yet somehow everything was perfectly visible.
I wasn't hungry. There was no pain, no suffering — none of those sensations existed.
I was nothing more than a drifting existence.
When I looked around, I could sense other similar presences floating nearby.
Did they carry memories like mine, I wondered?
It was something I'd never considered in my past life, but spending an eternity doing nothing but drifting was, in its own way, an unending form of torment.
To stave off the boredom, I directed my awareness toward one of the other drifting presences.
I could feel power welling up from the depths of my being.
It seemed I had become a mass of pure energy.
This darkness was saturated with energy, which was probably why the energy overflowing from within me couldn't leak out — it had nowhere to go.
How best to explain it?
I'm not well-educated, so I can't put it too eloquently, but I imagine we were something like sugar crystals forming inside sugar water.
I instinctively understood how to use this energy.
I could move silently toward wherever I directed my awareness.
I tried calling out to one of the presences, projecting my thoughts toward it.
But there was no response.
It seemed the other had no awareness to speak of — nothing but a raw mass of force with no will behind it.
I found that boring, so I struck it, and it shattered into pieces.
I remember thinking — that was a little interesting.
After that, for a while, I spent my days smashing any fellow drifting presence I came across.
Even though this was a lightless, pitch-black world, the scenery was as vivid as broad daylight.
I grew accustomed to this world, and with nothing else to do, I repeated the same routine day after day.
Until one day, that life changed.
I met a weird guy.
"Yo, brother. You're being pretty wild out here. But ain't it kinda boring going overboard all the time?"
Unlike the mindless ones, this fellow could actually speak words.
I was stunned, staring at him speechlessly.
Words — or rather, what I now understand to be telepathic communication.
Back then, I didn't even know that other willful beings existed.
I had every reason to be surprised.
"Hey, hey, why the shocked face? Some nasty guy on the surface been pushing you around?
If you don't like your summoner, just kill the bastard!
Or was the other guy stronger? Tough luck then. Give it up."
He said all this and then laughed cheerfully.
He was a jolly sort.
After that, this fellow taught me all sorts of things.
This world was the Netherworld.
Or, as it was also called — Hell.
A spiritual realm — the dwelling place of demons who possessed no physical bodies.
I was one of them.
A low-ranking demon.
Demons, I learned, were entities much like spirits or angels. They were beings in whom the power of dark spirits had been specialized toward the demonic.
Similarly, when the power of light spirits was specialized toward the holy, the result was an angel. Everything else was simply called a spirit.
None of that particularly interested me.
We didn't have names.
Even among higher beings, those who possessed names were supposedly rare.
But that was no real problem.
Through telepathy, I could tell whether awareness was directed at me or not.
Though, perhaps because I had no name, I also had little attachment to myself.
The exception to this was those who had been summoned to the surface world many times, come into contact with the material world, and developed a sense of self.
Summoning.
It meant being called from the spiritual world into the material world.
You'd gain a temporary physical body and experience the pleasures of the surface world.
Smells, textures, flavors— You could come into contact with all manner of information that governed the world.
A demon with no sense of self who was summoned would be heavily influenced by the personality of the one who summoned them.
They could obtain all kinds of information from their summoner.
Depending on the nature of the commission, they could even obtain what was essentially a "soul" — a dense packet of information.
If you collected enough "souls," you could even evolve into a higher being.
Summoning was a process where any number of demons were selected at random.
Those of an appropriate rank, close enough in proximity and matching the scope of the commission, were naturally chosen.
Being summoned even once was said to grant a great deal of information.
First, a sense of self would develop.
And through repeated summonings, one could also gain tremendous power.
The demon who'd struck up a conversation with me— "Hehehe, I've been called three times already, brother! How about you?"
I don't know what he found so funny, but he was grinning and laughing as he asked.
For some reason, I was overcome with irritation.
I punched him.
"Brother, what the hell!?"
He got angry and punched me back, and from then on, we spent several days brawling.
It wasn't quite punching — more like we were hurling our energy at each other, accumulating damage in the other's body.
But in my mind, "punching" was the most apt description.
In the end, neither of us won.
But— "Hey, brother. You're pretty strong. From now on, I'm gonna call you big bro."
He accepted it on those terms, and the fighting stopped.
Well, "fighting" isn't quite right — it was more like me lashing out unilaterally.
That was the moment I felt an intense desire rising within me.
I wanted to go to the surface world too.
From then on, my days consisted of picking fights alongside my new underling, spreading outward into the surrounding territory.
Mindless demons were no fun.
My targets were those with a sense of self — beings who'd been summoned to the surface multiple times.
Days spent in nothing but fights — combat, day after day.
But I apparently wasn't unusual, because sometimes others would come looking for a fight with me.
And before I knew it, my group had reached a hundred, and this entire region had become my territory.
At some point, I had evolved into a high-ranking demon.
I realized this when I one-shot an opponent I'd been brawling with.
A new, overwhelming power unlike anything before was coursing through my entire being.
I was invincible.
Yes — at that point, I was getting cocky.
The evolved me had acquired the Unique Skill "Integrator."
Combined with the Unique Skill "Divider" I'd already possessed — presumably since I was born — it was an extremely useful set of abilities.
The reason things shattered into pieces when I punched them was thanks to this power of division and severance.
I had a feeling it was born from the trauma of being stabbed in my past life, but that's beside the point.
Anyone who wasn't my equal couldn't resist my power.
And since I could also integrate those I'd divided, recruiting subordinates was a piece of cake.
So who could blame me for getting a little carried away?
And then, that being appeared.
The first entity in this world to make me feel true fear.
The being who carved into my soul what it truly meant to be a powerhouse.
A red-haired demon.
He appeared before us and swept us aside as easily as clearing away pests.
My subordinates, my comrades — they were all exterminated.
"Hmm. No challenge at all. How tedious."
Alongside the fear, I felt a hatred that surged from the very depths of my heart.
My subordinates! My comrades!
Driven by that fury, I awakened to a new ability.
『Confirmed. Unique Skill "Regenerator" acquired… success.』
Beyond division, beyond integration— I could feel my Mental Body regenerating in an instant.
Die!
Pouring every ounce of my emotion into the attack, I unleashed it at that red-haired demon who looked down on me.
"Oh my? You're still alive?"
My division wave was effortlessly scattered, and my Mental Body was shattered into pieces right along with it.
The difference in rank was simply too vast.
After that, I regenerated once more and swore vengeance.
I hounded him again and again, challenging him to rematches.
"Kufufufu. Interesting! You're quite the tough one, aren't you?
Very well.
My name is
World Collapse.
Yes — in that moment, I truly experienced the end of the world.
I understood that this was a power far beyond what should have been used against a "small fry" like me.
The gap between us was incomprehensibly vast.
But rather than regret, I met my end with a satisfaction I had never felt before— Or so I thought. I did not die.
Instead, I was called by Diablo, and for the first time, I manifested in the surface world.
Before me stood a single monster.
By my knowledge from my past life, it could only be described as a slime — a pitifully insignificant creature.
And yet, the almighty Diablo was kneeling before that slime.
The reason was simple.
Even a fool like me could understand.
That slime existed on an entirely different plane of existence.
It all made sense now — why Diablo constantly addressed this being as "God."
It was no exaggeration. It was the unvarnished truth.
Those who had received Diablo's baptism, just like me, were all kneeling as well.
Some were clearly far more powerful than me, yet they were treated no differently than I was.
Even they must appear to Diablo as nothing more than what I am.
And that was only natural.
『These are my former companions…
They tearfully begged to be of service to Lord Rimuru, so I granted them permission to accompany me.』
Diablo's voice echoed from the distance.
This was our one true master!
And in unison, we declared— 『We are the loyal servants of Demon Lord Rimuru!
At your command, my liege!』
We swore our loyalty to the "God" before us.
And I gained even greater power.
"Your name is
Lord Rimuru spoke to me warmly, in such a casual tone.
And the new name I had received.
My name is Venom.
A demon sworn in loyalty to Lord Rimuru.
I completed my evolution and achieved incarnation in this world.
A new physical body, and new power.
I had become a High-Ranking Demon General — an existence on an entirely different level from before.
And yet, even with all this power, I had come to realize a truth: even now, I couldn't hold a candle to Diablo.
But I will keep growing stronger!
In the capsules behind me, my former comrades sleep, having obtained new physical bodies.
They would become my subordinates.
I was assigned to lead a direct unit under Diablo's command.
Diablo's right hand was a crimson-haired female demon named
Already overwhelmingly powerful in her own right, she had grown stronger just as I had.
I couldn't hope to match her now.
But there was no rush.
I would keep growing stronger.
And one day, I would stand at Diablo's side, and offer this world to Lord Rimuru.
My name is Venom.
And one day, I will be the man who stands beside Diablo!
Later, Venom would grow enormously in power, becoming a demon feared for annihilating all who opposed him.