Rimuru vs Yuuki - Part 1
This isn't surprising. That was my honest reaction.
I tried to think calmly as we began to trade furious blows.
In the first place, I could not understand why he would wage such a huge war one whole month later.
Who knows which side would have been victorious had he fought against us on that day in that place.
Had he sent Chloe at me at that point, I would have been hard pressed, even if I didn't lose outright.
With Velda's strength, he would have been able to take on Veldora and Velgrynd while I was being tossed about by Chloe.
Furthermore, with Kagali, Vega and a number of angels, they would probably have been able to kill Diablo and the others.
There were even some who could use special abilities like Mai's 'Teleportation,' so I don't think that this was an entirely wrong prediction on my part.
Even with Ciel's calculations, the possibility of us winning was about forty percent. Which was not very high.
Though, apparently had I been able to kill Chloe without hesitation, then the odds would have been reversed to an eighty percent possibility of winning.
And so I had assumed that they were moving carefully, out of fear that I would act without hesitation, but my thoughts on the matter changed after witnessing the assembly of angels and the explosion phenomenon.
Or you might say that I had become certain of one thing.
If that was possible, then it was Velda, whose purpose was to destroy the whole world, who had the advantage.
All that needed to be done was to keep us there and eliminate us by having the angels' energy run wild.
What was the reason that he hadn't done this?
-It was to buy time-
I and Ciel's opinions matched.
In the end, Velda had said something quite believable when he disappeared, but what if that was all an act on Yuuki's part?
I felt like everything was starting to fit into place.
"Ku, kukuku, ahahahahahahahaha! Who would have thought?
Who would have, really… That you would be the most dangerous of all.
I'm impressed, Rimuru.
I would have liked to destroy the world with my own power, if possible.
But unfortunately…
I am not strong enough to defeat you. Not only that but even that demon over there-
-You are too unreasonable. Indeed, the chill that I felt when I first met you was real.
I should have seriously gotten rid of you back then when I had the chance.
Perhaps I had gotten a little crazy somehow? Well, it's too late now.
No, perhaps if you are able to stop me, that is only the will of the world.
After that, -will make the decision, I think.
Goodbye, Rimuru.
Surprisingly, I did like you.
-so much that I really wanted to become your friend…"
I realized that I had believed those words sincerely.
I thought that through changing places with Velda after saying these words at the end, that Yuuki had been able to relate his true feelings.
But I was wrong.
At this point, he had already been starting his preparations.
Or perhaps preparations had started the moment we first met-
It was probably a sign of being a bad loser that I thought it was quite the act.
Ciel had her doubts as well but was unable to find a conclusive flaw.
She said that it was because I was so good-natured and believed Yuuki's words, that she suspected it of being some kind of ploy.
I had laughed it off and said she was overthinking it. But in case there was some meaning behind it all, we both speculated over what it could be.
The one answer that we were able to come upon was that his purpose was to buy one months time.
And that turned out to be correct. Yuuki had been inside of Velda and making the power his own.
"You, you've tricked me until the very end just to buy some time…?"
"Ahaha, you figured it out? That's correct, Rimuru. Well, regarding that, Velda was also easily fooled as well. You know what they say about tricking your friends in order to trick your enemies?"
"You can't be serious, I really did believe-"
"Haha. That's what they call soft. You really are so stupid for believing the words of an enemy, Rimuru."
Yuuki scoffingly shrugged his shoulders at me.
Seeing this, Diablo and Milim gnashed their teeth and looked at Yuuki with murderous hate. However, the aura that Yuuki emitted now was not comparable to what he had before. They were overwhelmed by it, unable to move a single step forward.
This was a frightening amount of growth-no, evolution.
Our weapons were evenly matched. Actually, I was starting to feel mine was inferior.
Veldanava didn't even budge when blocking the blows of Veldora Sword.
And Yuuki who wielded the sword was able to adeptly pass off the impact, unlike Velda.
"How did you gain so much power?"
"I don't feel like it's necessary to tell you. But I did make you wait for a whole month, so I guess I could give you something. It's quite simple, really. I just had to repress Velda into becoming my subordinate. After analyzing his power completely, I also analyzed his knowledge and understood everything. Thanks to that, I was able to easily gain the power of the awakened hero as well. It really was a stroke of luck that I was able to swipe a portion of Leon's power. After that, I just needed to change our relationship into one of complete domination. Yes, yes. It was easy to do after you crushed all of Velda's hopes and broke his spirit. And for that, you have my gratitude."