Chapter 139 - Fierce

"Eight Petals Flash!"

Consecutive slashes flew forward as Chloe dodged them all with ease. When gunshots rang out, she raised her blade and sliced through the incoming bullets aimed at her head, deflecting them with precise, fluid motions.

Kondo clicked his tongue. The fight was quickly turning against him. An unknown woman, apparently aligned with the Demon, had suddenly appeared, and she was engaging him without breaking a sweat.

He could feel it. She wasn't even trying. The absence of advanced techniques or powerful skills confirmed it. Her calm and calculated movements were more than enough.

Biting his lip in frustration, he fired another necrosis round, only to see it deflected by her blade once more. It was a surreal sight. The weapon she held remained untouched and unblemished.

A mythical-grade sword. No damage. No dents. None of his specialized ammunition had any effect at all.

Their blades clashed, sparks scattering in every direction. Kondo raised his gun again and fired at her head, hoping to catch her off guard during the swordfight.

Chloe twisted her body smoothly, turning in a full circle as her blade swept toward his side.

Kondo dropped his stance and caught the strike with his sword, gritting his teeth. The force of her swing pushed through his defense and cut into his side enough to draw blood. He lifted his gun again and fired.

Chloe moved just slightly, the shot missing her by a hair. Then, she stepped in and delivered a sharp kick to his chest, sending him crashing back.

Kondo coughed as he flew through the air. Holstering his gun, he grabbed his sword with both hands. While airborne, he slashed horizontally and shouted, "Gale Thunder!"

A surge of energy filled the blade. The attack shot forward and tore through the space between them.

Chloe jumped back, dodging the strike entirely. Her body lifted into the sky before she shot forward again, dashing toward him mid-air as he descended.

Kondo spotted a shoreline below and braced himself as he landed on solid ground. One hand clutched his bleeding side, which had begun to slowly heal. Chloe landed nearby, keeping a careful distance between them.

He glanced toward the distant horizon. Far away, the ruined fleet drifted in the middle of the ocean, barely afloat. His frown deepened as he realized how far their battle had carried them.

Turning back to face her, he raised his sword with both hands and pointed it at the hero.

Chloe responded with a nod. She adjusted her stance and lifted her blade with elegance, holding it high with one hand.

They stood silently for several seconds. Then, the sound of a nearby explosion broke the stillness.

That was their signal.

In the blink of an eye, both fighters charged. They swung with every ounce of skill and experience they had gained over the years.

Kondo turned slightly as he fought, his thoughts drifting to the ocean. Somewhere out there, he could still sense the Emperor, the one he had sworn loyalty to. The man who had once inspired him, but was now fading into something else. Something colder. More reckless. Less human.

Blood ran from his wounds. He heard quiet footsteps drawing closer.

"Please," he said, voice strained. "Save the Emperor from himself."

He dropped to his knees. The sand shifted beneath him, soft and wet, and the waves reached out to meet his hands. He sank down slowly, sitting as his strength gave way. With one last look at the distant horizon, his eyes closed.

And this time, they did not open again.

...

Apophis wasn't really enjoying his battle with the Scorch Dragon, no matter how much he fooled around and teased the female. He was, without a doubt, scared of her. The moment she realized that keeping a calm mind made it easier to deal with him would be the moment his life ended.

That was why, even now—

"What's wrong? Is my presence finally softening your mood?"

He continued to provoke her. Some might say it was counterproductive, but he would argue that it was easier to read her movements now than when she was calm.

He raised the black staff formed from miasma and swung it at the azure spear hurled toward his chest. The staff's chaotic properties consumed and disintegrated the mythical-grade projectile into fractured pieces.

He glanced at the fragments as they scattered. They hadn't completely vanished. That made him shiver.

Back then, when they had first fought, it was much easier to dispel and nullify the things she threw at him. But now—

Now, the difference in their strength was becoming impossible to ignore. The gap had already been wide when he met her true form, the one that held all of her power.

He had once taken confidence in the fact that the Velgrynd he faced now was a weaker version. That confidence, and his former arrogance, had only grown during his time as a marshal in the Empire, especially when the plan to assassinate a weakened Rimuru was underway.

But in the end, he had still lost.

He had still run away.

He had shown a pathetic sight to anyone who knew of his identity and role. It reached the point where he had no choice but to finally train his abilities, abilities he had once taken for granted.

The only reason he was still alive now was because of that training, not because of innate strength.

Scorch Dragon Velgrynd was no less terrifying than her sister, the White Ice Dragon Velzard, whom the Empire had once hoped to control. In fact, he could now say that the Scorch Sister might even stand a chance at defeating the Ice Sister.

Velgrynd fired several scorch blasts in rapid succession toward Apophis. They were too fast to dodge, but not fast enough to go unseen. That made it worse. He could see them coming but had no time to react.

In a split second, the miasma covering his body spread outward, deflecting the barrage. A small explosion rippled through the air, pushing him aside just enough to escape the deadly volley.

The flames struck the ocean surface, and the loud hiss of vapor filled his ears. He looked down to see steam rising from the water where the blasts had landed.

"You really are something else. Did you get hotter since I last saw you?" he jested, ascending quickly through the air. The black staff hung loosely from his neck, appearing casual at first glance, though it remained ready to strike at any moment.

Velgrynd hovered in place. She stared at the man and sighed.

"I'm not dumb."

Apophis felt his body go cold. Alarm bells rang in his head.

Lava burst from beneath the sea, directly under him. He twisted away, avoiding the eruption, only to find himself flying into an entire field of lava geysers rising around him.

He shot upward, planning to escape higher into the sky, but froze.

Above him, hundreds of scorch blasts hovered, all aimed and ready. Velgrynd had him completely surrounded.

He stopped all motion and stared at her.

Thinking fast, he dematerialized the compressed miasma within the black staff.

"Cardinal Cage."

Velgrynd fired the barrage of scorch magic, each projectile infused with her accelerated energy.

The lava geysers closed off his escape from below, forming a fiery wall. The scorch blasts above descended quickly, closing in like the top of a cage.

Miasma erupted around his body, forming a dense protective sphere.

Then the assault struck.

The sky turned white with heat as Velgrynd's attack made contact. The sea below hissed violently. The air trembled.

Apophis's scream echoed across the vast ocean, muffled and twisted by the explosion of heat and pressure. The cage held, but his defenses cracked. The inferno burned through.

Velgrynd remained hovering, her eyes fixed on the site. She could still sense his life inside the Cardinal Cage. She readied her azure spear, raising her arm.

Minutes passed.

Then she threw it.

The spear spun through the air and pierced the cracked sphere with precision.

"Ghaa!!" His shout rang out, a clear sign he was still alive.

Velgrynd narrowed her eyes, annoyed. She wanted to finish this quickly.

She raised her open palm and conjured a scorching flame. The temperature soared by the second, thousands of degrees heating the air. The ocean below continued to evaporate. The flame grew, expanding to the size of a city before slowly shrinking again. Yet the smaller it became, the more intense the heat grew.

When it had shrunk to the size of a palm-sized sphere, she opened her hand and aimed it at Apophis's silhouette.

With Citadel Velgrynd's permission, she activated her ultimate skill: Cthugha.

"Scorch Excitation."

A pencil-thin beam of pure heat flew in a straight line toward the cage. It pierced through the weakened sphere and struck Apophis's body.

A massive explosion followed, radiating scorching energy that caused a large portion of the ocean to vanish in steam and clouds.

Velgrynd gave a small nod to herself as Apophis's life signs disappeared completely. She turned and began returning to Rimuru's side.

But as she left the scene, a portal opened in the sky, revealing a humanoid reptile with black and red scales, his entire body burned.

"She got me good... but... why did I get Father's abilities?"

Dizziness overtook him. He fell from the sky toward the ocean.

Before he could hit the surface, a wing beat the air. Someone caught him mid-fall.

Apophis squinted up, recognizing the figure.

"Oh... it's just you," he muttered in relief before losing consciousness.

As the flapping of white feathered wings continued. In the center of the broken fleet in the middle of the ocean.

Aside from Kondo and Damrada who were the 001, and 002 respectively of the imperial guards, there remains a few single digits still guarding the emperor against the demon, Rimuru.

He almost felt pity as they raised their swords and stepping forward protecting their precious emperor.

"An insectar?" Rimuru tilted his head as he noticed Minaza, the imperial guard 006, and placed his hand on his chin deep in his thought closing his eyes.

As he does, the strongest remaining imperial guard 004 Granit also known in the past as the hero with the title of God of War jumped towards the silver demon with his great sword raised high.

"Die you demon!" Granit shouted as his blade glowed, with a force enough to cleave the sea and the monsters hidden deep within.

Rimuru opened his eyes at the man rather boredly, a spiraling smoke covered the imperial guard's body. Granit felt burns and corrosion hitting his skin as the mythical grade armor vanished from his body.

"Let me go!" He wiggled as his body slowly decays around the smoke, attempts of escape merely sped up the process reaching his bones. "Ahh-!... AHH..!"

With a snap of Rimuru's fingers, the smoke disappeared leaving Granit's head. The only part not covered in smoke began to fall down due to gravity. Rimuru let out a small snort before kicking the head like a ball towards Rudra.

"I remember now." He looked at the female insectary. "I think Razul talked about you before, yes, an insectary he was working with before in the empire before he turned traitor. Minaza was it right?"

Minaza caught the head before absorbing the corpse and taking his remaining strength boosting her own. She spread her wings and launched towards him with the other imperials.

He yawned seeing them aim at him. "This is gonna take too long."

With his complain, their bodies erupted into a rain of blood. Their bodies imploded from the inside and with no resistance whatsoever, their life ended rather easily and anticlimactically.

"No one's nearby now. Why don't you show yourself." Rimuru glared as he lowered to the main airship Rudra was standing on.

"You!" Rudra scowled as he rushed to Rimuru, grabbing him by his clothes and gripped tightly. "This is all your fault, everything! Everything is because of you! Why don't you just die already you bastard! You are just-"

Rudra kept spouting insults and other grudges he held deep within him as Rimuru stood there watching him with a apathetic expression, a hint of pity as his brows burrowed.

Rudra clenched his fist as he began punching at Rimuru's face repeatedly.

The demon remained in the spot as the flurry of blows barely did anything to him. The punches of the emperor felt more like light taps on his face than anything lethal.

Further proving the reason for his pity. 'How far you have fallen Rudra.'

Rimuru recalled the simpler times, when they would train, Rudra would argue and challenge Guy while being eager to becaome an uncle to his niece. And yet, in the end he didn't even give her the attention when the time came.

Maybe it is due to grief, maybe because he felt guilt of not being there.

No matter the case, it wasn't justifiable of wanting to push Rimuru away while not wanting to properly take care of Milim. She could have been a princess of some kind in his empire, maybe even let her do whatever she wants with no title.

That way, it wouldn't be Rimuru being called uncle but her real biological uncle.

The thought though made Rimuru slightly angry an jealous if that were to happen.

"How long are you going to pretend to be pathetic, Michael."

A/N: I'm so excited, one of the main reasons why I wrote this stories is close to coming out!  

Random thought, we've all seen many fanfic of Rimuru returning back in time as his op self. But, has anyone ever created one where he only has his memories. I feel like that would be interesting. Like he has to convince Veldora to name him, try to make the direwolves submit without killing the boss in his slime form or the fact he waits for the ogres to come, maybe even try finding Geld Sr. before Gelmud got to him. 

Just a random thought because I don't have much to say here.