「 ✦ Rimuru Tempest ✦ 」
"How are the preparations?"
<
I floated high above the mountain ranges, suspended near the cloud layer where the air was thin and cold. The altitude gave me a perfect vantage point of what lay below—and what I saw was both impressive and revolting in equal measure.
The monster horde stretched as far as the eye could see, a writhing black mass that had transformed the entire landscape into something from a nightmare. One hundred thousand creatures carpeting the valleys and hillsides like a living shadow. The sheer diversity was staggering—some monsters were as large as hills themselves, others skittered between their legs like insects, while aerial monsters circled overhead. Things so grotesquely otherworldly that even I felt visceral disgust looking at them.
Below ground, massive tremors revealed burrowing creatures moving through solid rock as easily as water. The entire ecosystem had been replaced by this tide of destruction, all of it heading toward what remained of Ur.
"Right," I said to myself, "Let's proceed."
I raised my hand toward the sky. Using Law Manipulation, the cloud cover above me began to disperse, pushed aside like curtains to reveal the brilliant sun. The sky became a perfect, crystalline blue, unmarred by even the smallest wisp of vapor.
Next came the water.
Massive droplets materialized throughout the airspace above the horde—each one larger than myself, perfectly spherical, positioned in a complex three-dimensional grid that spanned the entire battlefield. They appeared by the thousands, with larger droplets serving as primary lenses while smaller ones acted as mirrors and redirectors.
Using Law Manipulation again, I modified the properties of each water formation. Natural physics were enhanced, amplified, pushed beyond normal limits. Where conventional focused sunlight might reach a few thousand degrees, my modifications would achieve something far more devastating. The focused beams would reach temperatures of over one million degrees Celsius—hot enough to vaporize steel instantly, to turn stone to plasma.
"Megiddo," I said simply, and the heavens opened.
The first beam struck like the finger of an angry god. A pencil-thin line of searing light descended from the sky, passing through multiple water lenses that focused and amplified its power exponentially. When it struck the largest monster—a hill-sized abomination with too many eyes—the beam punched through its mass like paper, leaving behind a perfectly circular hole that glowed white-hot.
Then the massacre began.
Hundreds of divine lances rained from the sky, each one guided by Great Sage's perfect calculations. The smaller droplets acted as mirrors, redirecting beams at impossible angles. The effect was beyond anything I had ever witnessed—each beam was absolute, weaponized starlight that no defense could stop.
<
The droplets shifted and reformed, creating new angles of attack. Massive creatures that had dominated the landscape were reduced to smoking craters. Flying monsters vaporized mid-flight, their remains raining down as ash. Even burrowing creatures weren't safe—the beams punched through solid rock, finding them in their tunnels.
The light show was spectacular. Hundreds of brilliant white lines connected sky to earth, creating a web of destruction that pulsed as the mirrors repositioned. Each beam left the air glowing, ionized particles creating temporary aurora effects.
<
Through my Universal Sense, I detected familiar presences near Ur's outskirts. Hajime, Yue, and Shea were there with Aiko and her students. And with them was Tio, staring up at the light show with complete bewilderment.
Despite the distance, I could see their expressions clearly. Hajime's jaw hanging open, Yue's normally stoic face showing naked awe, Shea's ears flattened in instinctive submission. Aiko had her hands pressed to her mouth, tears streaming as she watched the destruction of the force that had come to kill her.
But Tio's reaction interested me most—religious awe in her wide eyes, shallow breathing. Honestly creepy.
<
What had been a sea of monsters was now a field of perfectly circular craters. The air became hazy from thermal effects, and I could see the mountain stone changing color from ambient temperature.
<
I found myself thinking of Ted, probably still getting high in his bar, completely unaware that his town was saved.
The slaughter was complete. No monster had been too large, too armored, or too well-hidden. The beams had found them all, reduced them all to the same fate—instant vaporization under Megiddo's effects.
This was Megiddo. This was the wrath of heaven made manifest through natural law manipulation.
And now, in the distance, I found my real target.
"Found you, Shimizu Yukitoshi."
···—–—⚜—–—···
「 ✦ Tio Klarus ✦ 」
It was only a few hours ago when I first laid eyes on him at Ted's Last Call.
The moment I stepped through the door of that grimy little place, my instincts screamed at me with a primal warning I hadn't felt in ages. There, sitting casually at the bar with an empty drink in hand, was something that defied every understanding I had of power hierarchies in this world.
He introduced himself as Rimuru.
I'd managed to play it cool then, engaging in casual conversation as if I weren't acutely aware that I was in the presence of something supernatural. My dragonman pride had demanded I maintain composure, even as every fiber of my being recognized the vast chasm between our strengths.
But now, watching this massacre unfold before my eyes, I could no longer suppress the awe that threatened to overwhelm me entirely.
Suspended thousands of meters above us, Rimuru floated like a deity of destruction, performing the annihilation of a hundred-thousand-strong monster horde. Beams of concentrated solar energy descended from the heavens in perfect formation, each one guided immaculately to eliminate all targets across the vast battlefield.
This was beyond anything I could comprehend.
I had lived for centuries. I considered myself one of the strongest beings on this continent, a force of nature that few could challenge. Yet what I was witnessing now made all of that seem insignificant.
Each beam that fell from the sky carried the concentrated fury of a star. The accuracy and preciseness was absolute—no wasted movement, no collateral damage beyond what was necessary. Where armies would have struggled for weeks against such numbers, Rimuru was erasing the entire horde in mere minutes.
I looked around at the others, noting their reactions to this impossible spectacle. The tiny teacher Aiko had tears streaming down her face, relief and disbelief warring in her expression. Her escorts were in various states of shock, some laughing hysterically while others simply stared in stunned silence. Shea's rabbit ears were pressed flat against her head, her instincts clearly recognizing the presence of an apex predator.
But it was Hajime Nagumo's expression that caught my attention most.
The white-haired boy who overwhelmed me before stood rigid, his artificial arm clenched into a fist. His face was a mask of conflicted emotions—awe, frustration, and something that looked almost like despair. I had heard of his history with Rimuru, how he and Yue had made it their mission to surpass him, to claim the title of strongest for themselves.
Looking at him now, I could understand if that resolve wavered. How do you aspire to surpass something that operates on a completely different level of existence?
Yue, standing beside Hajime, was equally silent. Her golden eyes tracked the falling beams with an expression I couldn't quite read, but I could sense the wheels turning in her mind.
My gaze returned to the figure suspended in the sky, and without thinking, a single adjective escaped my lips.
"The strongest."
It wasn't hyperbole or an emotional outburst. It was a simple statement of fact, as obvious as saying the sky was blue or fire was hot. Rimuru existed on a plane of power so far beyond anything else in this world that comparisons became meaningless.
Is he even mortal? The thought crossed my mind as I watched him. Perhaps he was an unknown god, walking among mortals for reasons only he could understand. It would explain the unbelievable nature of what I was witnessing.
The beams continued to fall, each one precisely targeted, each one eliminating dozens of monsters in an instant. The very air seemed to sing with power, ionized particles creating aurora-like effects that painted the sky in brilliant colors. It was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.
And then, strangely, mysteriously, I felt something I hadn't experienced in decades.
The desire to kneel.
Not from fear—though there was certainly that—but from something like the recognition of absolute superiority. This wasn't about the balance of power or territorial disputes. This was about witnessing perfection in action and wanting to be part of it.
I wanted to follow him.
The thought should have been disturbing.
I was Tio Klarus, the princess of the proud and powerful Dragonmen who had never bowed to anyone. Yet here I was, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to serve such a person.
The monster horde was nearly gone now, reduced to scattered craters and ash across the mountainside. What had been an unstoppable tide of destruction mere minutes ago was now nothing more than a smoldering wasteland, conquered by focused starlight and superior will.
As the last of the beams faded and Rimuru began his descent, I found myself trembling. Whatever came next, whatever plans or schemes or simple whims drove someone of his caliber, I wanted to be part of it.
For the first time in my very long life, I had found something worth following.
Someone worth serving.
The supernatural being I had met seemed to see right through everything. Every mask, every pretense, every illusion of strength and independence. He had smiled politely, spoken casually, treated me as an equal in conversation while we both knew the truth of what stood between us.
And now, watching the smoldering ruins of what had been an unstoppable horde, I understood with crystalline clarity what I had been in the presence of.
A true god is real... and so small.
Unassuming. Humble, even. Here was truth incarnate, standing barely taller than an average human, speaking with warmth instead of thunderous rigidness.
The strongest.