"..."
Suzuki stood frozen in absolute silence, completely at a loss as the searing heat began to warp the air around him. But Rimuru reacted instantly. The slime formed a pseudo-arm, violently grabbing the back of Suzuki's shirt and physically hauling him away from the erupting inferno that was once Shizu.
"HURRY UP AND RUN, SUZUKI! WHAT ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE FOR?!"
Rimuru was panicking, too. But the moment he saw that Suzuki was about to be incinerated by the initial blast, the slime's survival instincts kicked in, pulling his fellow Otherworlder to safety.
If Shizu ever regained her senses and realized she had severely hurt Suzuki—or worse, killed him—what would happen to her already fragile mind? Rimuru knew that she would never be able to look at herself in the mirror again. She would see herself as nothing more than a monster, proving the fears of the humans right.
...What the hell am I doing?!
Suzuki violently bit his lip, wanting nothing more than to beat the absolute shit out of himself. He had been subconsciously trying to escape. He had been planning to turn around, walk away, and dump the entire tragic burden onto Rimuru's shoulders, completely taking advantage of the slime's genuinely good nature.
I am really a selfish piece of shit...
It was even worse because Suzuki knew exactly how much agony Shizu was in. With Ifrit, the Great Spirit of Fire, trapped inside her frail, aging body, every waking moment of her life was an agonizing battle. It was like her internal organs were being endlessly scorched from the inside out. For someone carrying that much pain, death was probably a salvation.
Yet, even though just breathing was painful for her, Shizu had dedicated her life to helping others. She protected those who were weaker, even though she was the one who desperately needed a savior the most.
Why did she do it?
Suzuki couldn't say for sure, but he guessed it was because she desperately wanted her cursed life to have some kind of positive meaning. She was just a genuinely, fundamentally good woman.
And for someone like that... how could he even entertain the thought of abandoning her and leaving it all to the plot?!
Was he really going to just stand by, let her die in agony exactly like she did in the original story, and let Rimuru consume her corpse?!
WHAT KIND OF PATHETIC COWARD AM I?!
The realization of his own callousness made him feel like the lowest scum on the planet.
Still, he couldn't deny the terrifying root of his hesitation. He was desperately afraid of losing the safety he had built. While other transmigrated heroes chased grand dreams of conquest or saving the world, Suzuki just wanted a stable, predictable future. He wanted zero drama.
He just wanted a boring life. A life where he worked minimal hours, amassed enough wealth to be comfortable, and spent his time safely with people he cared about.
In his previous life, he had been an orphan. He had already survived the worst, most chaotic miseries modern society had to offer. He hadn't asked to be reincarnated. He never tried to act superior or play the hero. He had actively lived a low-key, gray life to avoid exactly this kind of world-ending trouble. He craved predictability—something that gave him peace of mind, not a constant barrage of life-or-death jumpscares!
But the universe didn't care about his plans. Some troubles were simply inevitable.
As he watched the flames swallow Shizu alive, listening to her agonizing screams as the spirit hijacked her consciousness, a desperate thought pierced his panic.
Is there anything I can do? Can I actually save her without her dying?!
[Affirmative. You possess a viable method.]
...What?
Suzuki snapped out of his dazed terror. The cold, mechanical voice of his Manager system was like a single, indestructible thread of spider silk dropping down into the depths of hell, offering him a miraculous way out.
Beside him, Rimuru looked between Suzuki and the roaring pillar of fire with a deeply complicated, grim expression. If Rimuru hadn't acted to save his friend, the slime knew he would be standing frozen just like Suzuki, completely paralyzed by the sheer impossibility of the situation.
"Suzuki!"
"Rimuru-danna!"
"What in the world is happening?!"
The blinding, oppressive heat was rapidly spreading across the forest canopy and creeping into the goblin village. Every single monster in the settlement could feel the apocalyptic aura.
Yet, as the villagers and adventurers gathered, staring into the center of the clearing, their minds went completely blank. They were staring at an entity of pure, mythological destruction.
"A-A GREAT SPIRIT?!"
The figure hovering in the epicenter of the inferno was no longer the beautiful, kind-hearted grandmother they knew. It was a towering, demonic entity made of pure, raging plasma that threatened to instantly reduce anyone in the vicinity to ash.
Nothing could naturally escape this level of absolute thermal energy. Free from Shizu's failing suppression, the awakened Ifrit unleashed its pent-up rage in every direction!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Gigantic, swirling spheres of condensed fire materialized in the air, raining down upon the village like a localized meteor shower!
BOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOM!
"BE CAREFUL!" Rimuru screamed, expanding his squishy body to shield the others as he desperately deployed a massive barrier of water.
Sizzle!
The sheer heat of Ifrit's flames hit the barrier, instantly flash-boiling the water into superheated steam that threatened to melt their skin anyway.
Anrietta forcefully grabbed Suzuki's arm, pulling him further back. Her elegant elven face was pale with shock as she stared at the apocalyptic entity. "H-How... how can a Great Spirit manifest in a place like this?!"
"That's... that's Shizu-san," Rimuru said, his voice heavy with dread. "It's a spirit that was trapped inside her. It's completely taking over her body."
"NO WAY!"
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
"SHIZU-SAN! PLEASE WAKE UP!"
The trio of idiot adventurers—Kaval, Eren, and Gido—screamed into the roaring flames, utterly refusing to believe it.
Unlike Suzuki and Rimuru, who had only known her for a few days, this trio had been traveling under Shizu's protective wing for a long time. She had guided them through the lethal Jura Forest, single-handedly shielding them from countless deadly monsters. If she hadn't been by their side, their sheer incompetence would have gotten them killed weeks ago.
Hearing that the kind woman who had protected them was currently mutating into a berserk Fire Spirit completely broke their minds.
And the worst part? The horrific realization was dawning on them. Because they had constantly caused trouble along the road, forcing Shizu to constantly exert her magic to save them... there was a very high chance they were the direct reason her body had finally weakened enough for the spirit to break free.
"Master! Please do something!" The trio fell to their knees, looking at Rimuru with desperate, tear-filled eyes. They knew they were too weak to help. They had to rely on a miracle.
"I..."
Is there anything I can do?! Rimuru screamed internally, desperately consulting his own unique skill. Great Sage, please tell me there is a way to separate them!
The Great Sage's hyper-computational matrix immediately went into overdrive, calculating the infinitesimal probabilities of the slime safely extracting the spirit without killing the host. But it knew the biological limits of Shizu's mortal shell. She was old. She was failing. The probability of survival was—
"I will do it."
"Huh?" Rimuru blinked, turning around.
Smack!
Suzuki violently slapped both of his own cheeks with his palms, leaving stinging red handprints. The sharp pain cleared the last remnants of cowardice from his mind. He took a deep breath and smoothly swept his dark hair back with both hands.
"Suzuki...?" Anrietta gasped, utterly shocked. She had never seen this fiercely determined, borderline reckless expression on the pragmatic merchant's face before. She reached out to stop him, but she was a fraction of a second too late.
Suzuki had already moved.
What was his grand, tactical plan?
It was horrifyingly simple: Suzuki planted his feet and charged straight into the center of the apocalyptic inferno, letting the blinding light, the searing flames, and the overwhelming heat swallow him whole.
"SUZUKI! NO!" Rimuru screamed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Sensing a human directly entering its domain, the enraged Ifrit roared, concentrating the ambient flames to instantly incinerate the intruder.
Suzuki's clothes immediately caught fire. His skin blistered, the agonizing pain threatening to shut down his nervous system. Yet, as his flesh burned and his movements slowed, his mind remained terrifyingly calm. He didn't stop moving.
⟪ Warning. The host's life force is rapidly deteriorating due to extreme thermal damage from a Great Spirit. ⟫
⟪ Unique Skill [Self-Made] activated. Forcing extreme cellular adaptation to process high-temperature thermal energy... ⟫
⟪ Adaptation confirmed. The host has successfully acquired [Fire Nullification]. ⟫
⟪ Initiating hyper-regeneration. Restoring the host's physical body to peak condition. ⟫
As the mechanical voice echoed in his mind, the horrific burns across Suzuki's body instantly vanished, replaced by flawless, heat-resistant skin. The flames simply washed over him like a warm breeze.
He closed the final distance, stepping directly into the epicenter of the firestorm. Reaching into the blinding core, his arms wrapped securely around Shizu's small, trembling body, pulling her tight against his chest.
"It's okay," Suzuki whispered directly into her ear, his voice calm and absolute over the roar of the fire. "I've got you. Everything is going to be alright."
And in that exact moment, as the Great Spirit raged against him, Suzuki's eyes glowed with absolute authority as he activated his ultimate conceptual skill.
"Etymologist."
---
By the way, I have edited all the chapters of this story to make them easier to read.
You can check on them now.
Please enjoy!
Also, I have returned, and thank you for waiting~!