Velgrynd and I faced each other, and unleashed our attacks looking to end this battle.
The battle was turning into a stalemate of sorts.
At a glance, it looked like a furious exchange between us, but I had a fair amount of breathing room.
Analysis of Velgrynd’s abilities was complete, and just looking at the compatibility between us, it was clear that she’s not a threat to me.
I am certain of it.
At this point, I received a telepathic message from Diablo.
(Kufufufufu. It looks like a “Rat” has crawled its way into our fight.
It has been cornered onto the flagship, what are your intentions sire?)
From just his tone, it sounded like getting rid of it was easy.
The “Rat” was sneaking around among the battles the Devil Lords were in, observing the battle between Carrera and the guy in uniform from the shadows.
Also, it seems like he ate one of his dead “comrades”, looks like he had an ability of the “consumption” type.
Up til this point, on my orders, the surrounding space was within a field that interrupted teleportation.
If the “Rat” wanted to escape, his only option would be to move outside of the field that was set up.
Therefore……… his destination must be safe spot, which also means that’s where his allies would be.
Someone who moves around stealthily huh.
If I got rid of the “Rat”, the link to whoever is behind the scenes would be cut off.
In any case, I shall set a trap for the “Rat”.
Although I have no way to confirm who is behind all this currently, it’s a good idea to cut the threat at it’s roots.
(Let the “Rat” scurry for now. It’s probably trying to escape via teleportation, so I want to know it’s destination.
(Understood!)
To get all who are involved, including the “Rat”, in one fell swoop.
I gave the orders to Diablo, with such thoughts.
Even as I was communicating with Diablo, the battle with Velgrynd was still going on.
All of Velgrynd’s attacks, were nullified with the Absolute Defense of Covenant King Uriel.
The situation looked favourable for me, and seemed it would be difficult to overturn.
As expected, it looked like it was hard to fully defend with that large body. If the aim was to improve her defenses, changing to her human form was a good choice.
Although there was no change in ability, the amount of base Energy that was at her disposal was now limited.
As expected of Veldora’s elder sister, she was a beauty with azure blue hair, having difficulty pointing my sword at that was also one of the reasons…….
It’s like telling me to devour her, as Gluttony King Beelzebuth would be the only remaining option.
If I keep up these attacks, it would result in my victory, but…….
「Da-damn you! To do this to us, “True Dragons”…….
To not only take away my little brother, but to also get in the way of Rudra and my wishes!!」
Velgrynd spewed another Cardinal Acceleration.
It looked smaller, but I’m the only target anyway.
――but, this attack has already been analyzed, it won’t work on me any more.
「Wasn’t it you guys who took the initiative!?
「Shut up! My younger brother, hasn’t fallen that low to be consumed by the likes of you!
And ending up absorbed by that Demon Lord, and used to corner me like this…….」
It feels like she’s really taking it out on me.
Too bad, those don’t work against me.
But man, I’m stumped. If I continue attacking with this sword she might end up getting “erased”, but well, she *is* Veldora’s sister…….
(Hey, Veldora. Can’t you talk to her and get her to calm down?)
It’s impossible for me to nonchalantly talk to her now, since she’s actually angry for me!!
If she found out I was cooperating with you, and am totally alive and all…….)
Right.
But, man, this guy……. He’s so unreliable at critical times.
Huh? Then why am I the one doing all this jack?
I was slowly getting annoyed at something else.
(But, we can’t just “erase” her, right?)
That’s it! Let’s change the setting to one which I was forcefully consumed by you.
Then, get her into a position similar to mine.
If it’s the current “you”, it’s definitely possible, even Wisdom Lord Raphael agrees!)
…….what is this fella saying?
And from that train of thought, the bad guy is me isn’t it!
Raphael and Veldora are in cahoots! Was, what I have realised.
But, well.
Even though I understood, it definitely feels like all the troublesome stuff was dumped onto me.
Change the setting to me being forcefully consumed! The moment he said that, he was definitely aiming to push all the blame onto me.
But wait a sec? A similar position…….
Against Veldora, there wasn’t really anything I can “force” him to do.
Basically, once he is “released”, there isn’t much of anything I can force Veldora to do.
If something happens and the “released” Veldora gets destroyed, whether he decides to return to his “real body” which is inside me or not, there’s no “real” loss. (TN:people die when they are killed.. Wait, huh?)
To put it simply, there is no restricting force whatsoever.
A position similar to Veldora’s.
That also means, the fact that Veldora wasn’t forced into anything would be proven, and I don’t get blamed at all.
That’s not something within my “jurisdiction”.
But, it’s bothersome if she rampaged after getting “released”.
Since I can’t force Velgrynd, is it even possible to do something like this?
《Solution. There are no problems. As a being similar to a “True Dragon” now, there is room to spare.
Regarding that, negotiation with individual: “Scorch Dragon” Velgrynd is required.》
Hmm?
Then, set conditions when turning her into another “ability”?
I could also just let her out after the whole fiasco is over, it’s not like she “needs” to become another part of my abilities.
After my ascension into something similar to a “True Dragon”, I can feel my stats have definitely increased, there should be no problems isolating a Velgrynd or two inside me.
The objective was decided.
Now to get to work.
「Whatever the case, gotta get rid of the threats! I’m not going to let you do something like this again.
「Screw you, like hell I’m going down without a fight!」
The fierce battle with Velgrynd continued.
She’s supposed to have less power in her human form, but the battle isn’t getting any easier.
Through that, I managed to finally capture her.
「You bastard, Fuck you! Let me out, release me!!」
Velgrynd was rampaging.
If my appearance was that if a slime, this would totally be a crime. But then again, my current form is that of a 16 year old-ish bishoujo, this set a different kind of mood. (TN: slime r*p*!! Wait.. it’s y*r* instead!!)
Gotta get rid of threats.
With the “feel” of isolating the aggressive Energy, it was concluded with no problems.
There was difficulty in fully isolating her, even after fully consuming her “body”.
I had immunity to heat, so being able to feel heat at this point showed how bad this was.
Right now, this was a battle of wills.
「I’m not as naive as my little brother, you dirtbag!
This is the end for you, Demon Lord Rimuru!」
Nope, not happening.
The situation looked like it was checkmate for the Empire, the Airship which Rudra is on was attempting to escape.
「But from what I can tell, the Emperor Rudra you just talked about is leaving you behind and trying to escape.」
「Bullshit! Rudra is invincible as long as I’m still around. There’s no way he’s running…….」
Velgrynd’s attempt to belittle me failed terribly.
As she has now noticed the Airship was increasing it’s speed and attempting to leave.
「Th-that can’t be……. Why? Why are you leaving me behind……. Rudra!?」
And then, she closed her eyes as though she had finally realized something.
Velgrynd stopped resisting, and was now motionless inside my『Stomach』.
――I see now……. You, have already broken haven’t you……. Rudra――
Only that murmur seeped out.
Velgrynd finally calmed down.
It looked like she had no intention to resist, but I can’t just absorb her as she is now.
But she now looked so despondent, it felt difficult to strike a conversation.
(Oi, do what you want with me. I admit defeat, and will not resist.
To have killed my little brother, and now me too.
(Ahh, right. About that…….)
But, too bad for you. I have no idea how to stop the impending Angel attack.
(Well, that’s not it…….)
To me who was kind of flustered, Velgrynd was rushing me to finish absorbing her.
She was totally not listening to what I was saying, which was very troublesome.
(What is it that you want to say, you fiend!
I’m telling you to consume me or do whatever the hell you want to!)
Velgrynd got mad at me, she seems to be fairly short tempered.
Honestly, she’s scary. I now kinda understood why Veldora had trouble with her.
(It looks like you are misunderstanding something, Veldora is still alive!
(What!?)
After what felt like a long explanation――which in fact only took a few seconds in real time―― Velgrynd finally understood the situation.
Feeling exhausted, I continued the negotiation.
If not, then I’ll only release her after everything is over.
Then slowly opening her mouth,
(I have a condition. It’s more of a favour than a condition. Mind hearing me out?)
She said to me.
I kind of expected this, looking at the flow of the situation, I decided to listen to what Velgrynd had to say.
Velgrynd’s favour was, as expected, related to Emperor Rudra.
Emperor Rudra was slowly deteriorating because of the influence of Ultimate Skill『Justice King Michael』that he wielded, and was reaching his end.
But that also meant he ended up being lax in his judgement somewhat, as he overlooked my rise to power, which became bad luck, and ended up causing all of his plans to fall apart…….
Seeing that he seemed to have forgotten this fact, proved that Rudra has reached the point of no return.
Most importantly,
(He can no longer hear my voice. That’s why……. Rudra is most likely gone.)
Velgrynd heavy heartedly said. And,
(My favour, is for you to help release Rudra’s soul from the shackles of his own fate.
He has, for the longest time, shouldered the wishes of many…….)
She made her request.
In any case, if it wasn’t possible to stop Justice King Michael from running amok, it was kind of pointless even if they won against Guy.
Just as I was thinking that,
(Well, as long as we got the victory, we were intending to “return” Justice King Michael.
We wouldn’t need it after we are victorious against Guy.)
Velgrynd answered my suspicions.
Using Justice King Michael, one can travel to the “Heavens” via “Heaven’s Gate”.
Their plan was to head to the altar to report their victory, and “return” the skill in the process.
Ultimate Skill Justice King Michael belonged to “Stellar Dragon King” Veldanava in the first place.
(No matter how much of a “Saint” Rudra was, there were limits to how much of the skill he could handle.
Having retained control for more than 2000 years, showed just how strong his will was…….
My wish, is simply to release Rudra from this endless cycle.) (TN: a saint is something above a sage.)
Velgrynd thus ended her explanation.
At that point, Diablo’s report came in with impeccable timing.
(Rimuru-sama, one of your acquaintances, Damrada has passed on.
After a magnificent battle, Ultima has emerged victorious.
I shall send the details over.)
He reported.
With that I understood the circumstances.
Although I didn’t know the details, I had thought of Damrada to be the loyal type ――well that dandy fella (EN: ossan) was the mysterious kind. Here I thought his loyalties lied with Yuuki but it seems I was mistaken―― he too wished for the Emperor’s death.
The Emperor who *was* exalted, huh. Compared to his past achievements, I thought his current condition was more important.
While I was musing over such matters,
(Rimuru-sama, the battle between Carrera and the man in uniform has concluded.
(Did it escape?)
Moss attached a “tracker” onto it, it will not escape even if it teleports.
It is lamentable however, as it spoiled the results of the duel between Carrera and the man in uniform.)
Because of my order to leave the “Rat” be, he was indecisive on whether he should take action against the “Rat”.
But, despite both sides being injured all over, their duel was brought to a halt as a result.
Plus, Carrera accepted the “request” of the man in uniform too, which was also to end Rudra’s life.
Since it has been accepted, it shall be done.
I resolved myself firmly.
(Velgrynd, I hereby swear to release Rudra from his fate. Give me your cooperation!)
I declared.
The Contract was now established.
And Velgrynd now began her integration within me, becoming another one of my Powers (Skills).