Several men stood at the bow of the emperor’s flagship. Ludora was up front, with Kondo and Damrada behind him on either side. They were guarded by four knights in a square formation around them, ranked from third to sixth in the imperial order. Marco was also behind Kondo, along with the remaining Single Digits.
Velgrynd would always be found seated to the right of Ludora. This last replication of hers was put in place to protect Ludora if anything should happen—but she needed to focus on the battle with Rimuru, so right now she was leaning against Ludora in her seat, limp and unconscious.
Ludora, who was gently stroking Velgrynd’s blue hair, noticed the demon lord Rimuru begin to take action. “He is something else entirely now,” the emperor muttered in disgust. “That was my error of judgment. Perhaps it was the slime who we needed to deal with first?”
It was, in essence, the emperor admitting that the battle wasn’t so finished after all.
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Until just a little earlier, the whole airship was in a party mood after capturing Veldora. Now, there wasn’t a trace of that. They saw that Rimuru and his force were their enemies—the demon lord was back, and so were all of his highest magic-born. At this point, though, they still had time to act.
“I suppose I underestimated his ability to escape from the Phantom Fortress. Having their master and main power source taken away must have made them desperate to return.”
Ludora smiled at this—but given how Rimuru completely neutralized Kondo’s attack, even he couldn’t be too optimistic. Most urgently of all, Rimuru now had an army of demons with him. Such a quantity of incarnated Greater Demons was a handful in itself, but he was boosting all of their powers further. Ludora had no idea why he would do that, and that was exactly why he needed to be wary.
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“You didn’t cut any corners, did you, Tatsuya?”
“Of course not. Neither a Removal nor a Necrosis bullet worked on him. It appears defeating him will require a serious fight.”
Seeing the demon lord Rimuru like this made Kondo wonder if he had failed somehow as well. As Ludora said, it was clear he was an extremely dangerous opponent. He had given priority to capturing Veldora, but that turned out to be a mistake. They should have attacked both at the same time, not one or the other.
But that conclusion had come too late. Things were on the move. They knew that the demon lord Rimuru was no one to take lightly—hence why they used an assortment of tricks to ensnare him, so they could more fully address him later. They decided that once Veldora, Rimuru’s main supporter, was taken away, the demon lord would naturally be in a mood to give in to them. Now, however, Kondo’s decision had clearly backfired on him.
Just as losing Rimuru would incite fury in Veldora, losing Veldora would cause the exact same reaction in Rimuru. Kondo, realizing early on that the demon lord’s ire was pointed straight at them, tried to finish him off before anything else happened. He fired both a Removal and a Necrosis Bullet at him; that combination was the most powerful tool at his disposal if a Judgment Bullet wasn’t available.
But the results didn’t even scratch Rimuru, much less impede him at all. The idea that this demon lord would be rendered helpless after being deprived of his power source now seemed incredibly foolish. What they should have pictured instead was an enraged tyrant spreading his wrath worldwide after the loss of his ally. No, Kondo wasn’t cutting corners—he needed to seriously engage him, or else they were all doomed.
“Well, if you think so, these four knights will not be enough. Let’s test out Veldora now that we have him and see how he fares.”
Ludora didn’t need Kondo to spell out how much of a threat Rimuru was. He had him do it anyway so everyone else on the bow here would be on the same page as him. The Single Digits were extremely talented people; reminding them of the threat the enemy posed would serve as a warning not to let up too early.
Rimuru was a threat, yes, but as long as they kept their guard up, he could be dealt with. But Ludora didn’t want to lose any of the manpower he had gathered here. The game’s climax was coming up, and he wanted to be extremely cautious—ideally, he would defeat Guy without losing a single person. Situationally speaking, their victory was all but imminent. The Empire had just gained a huge advantage in capturing Veldora, bringing Ludora just one step away from ending this long-running struggle. Making a mistake here would be inexcusable.
That was why, out of an abundance of caution, Ludora decided to pit Veldora against Rimuru. If he had Velgrynd support him, there was no way anything could go wrong. Kondo and his team, meanwhile, could be entrusted to handle Rimuru’s remaining forces; that didn’t seem to be any problem. If possible, Ludora had wanted to recruit Rimuru for his side—but now that it had come to this, he had no choice but to exterminate him. Veldora was their main objective, and now that they had him, having the demon lord derail their plans was unthinkable.
Compared to a True Dragon, a demon lord was as vulnerable as a small mouse…and while Rimuru was admittedly a threat, Ludora didn’t see any way this operation could fail for them. A True Dragon is the strongest creature in the world, and if they had two on their side, Rimuru’s defeat seemed inevitable in their minds.
But Ludora’s mind wasn’t completely free of concern.
…Back there, why did Veldora stop resisting my thrall over him?
That was the only nagging issue. Given enough time, Ludora was bound to fully take him over either way—perhaps Veldora gave up the fight because he realized this. But to Ludora, that didn’t seem like the only reason. Through Regalia Dominion, he had received personal insight into Veldora’s rage. He could tell the dragon wasn’t the sort who’d resign himself to his fate so easily.
Doubts began swirling in his mind. Perhaps he was trying to protect something more important than himself? And if so, what could it be…?
“Ridiculous.”
Ludora shook his head, denying the idea out of hand. The mere thought that Veldora had put the demon lord Rimuru ahead of himself seemed impossible to accept.
Velgrynd, back in human form, approached Veldora, nestling up to his head and stroking his scales.
“Good boy. The next time you wake up, you will be one of us. Then we’ll give you the best care in the world.”
She could see the end of the long game on the horizon…but it wouldn’t come that easily for them.
Suddenly, Rimuru appeared.
The sight of this tactless interloper put Velgrynd off, making her feel ever so slightly threatened. The way he managed to escape the Phantom Fortress stuck in her mind.
As she pondered what to do, the situation took an unexpected turn. In a show of force, Rimuru was summoning a large number of demons and awarding them new powers. This was nothing but a provocation. He was exposing his hand in front of Velgrynd, an almost too-bold act—all but demanding Velgrynd to try catching him if she could. What’s more, Testarossa and her friends were mixed in with the demons Rimuru summoned. She didn’t know what he did or how he did it, but Rimuru evolved them into Devil Lords, a higher plane of existence.
Sensing this, Velgrynd began to grow wary of Rimuru. But that wasn’t all she found unusual. The aura emitted by Rimuru’s anger was similar to that of her brother Veldora. A mere slime, demon lord or not, was enveloped in the kind of sheer dominance a True Dragon always possesses. It was an unbelievable sight for Velgrynd, but it was the truth.
That alone demonstrated just how abnormal this whole situation was. If an aide briefed her on that, she could’ve laughed it off as impossible—but seeing it with her own eyes, she had no choice but to believe it. This demon lord, looking for all the world like a young girl, wasn’t even trying to restrain the violent waves of intense anger—waves that clearly indicated the potential danger. Any human being who didn’t possess resistance to these waves would die on the spot. And not just humans, either. Anyone you’d call “strong,” perhaps ranking below an A as defined by humans, would die without even having a chance to resist. It was Lord’s Ambition in play, on a scale overwhelming enough to compare to a True Dragon.
Well, what now, then? I suppose those Primals were helping him, too. I thought he had just tricked my brother into providing him aid, but that was beyond wrong.
If it were only Veldora, she could believe the possibility that the demon lord used honeyed words to deceive him. But that wouldn’t work against demons as sly and experienced as these. They should have reconsidered their plans once that became clear. As this bout of Lord’s Ambition showed, the demon lord Rimuru was clearly in a class of his own.
Looking back, Veldora’s growth was pretty astounding, too. Three hundred years ago, it would’ve been impossible for him to ever wound Velgrynd. In the short time since he was released from his seal, he had become an unusually skilled fighter, growing well beyond her expectations. Perhaps that, too, was due to the demon lord in front of her.
And here I was planning to go back home to rest and recuperate. But oh well. If we can’t get rid of him here, it’ll spell disaster for Ludora.
So Velgrynd made her decision. It was time to deal with Rimuru directly—and crush him once and for all. It had to happen now, she thought, or else he’d surely remain a threat for ages to come.
She was all set when it came to magicules, too. Veldora would be providing those; even after that intense round of combat, he hadn’t exhausted his stores much at all. In other words, she was free to fight at full strength from start to finish.
So Velgrynd calmly returned to her fighting stance, abandoning the “victory is ours” idea that everything was going their way. That kind of baseless pride was what put them here in the first place. If they dealt with Rimuru over in the Phantom Fortress, he never would have summoned those demons—then the fight with Veldora really would have been it. In that sense, things weren’t looking too great right now, but it wasn’t the worst-case scenario yet. They still had a good chance of victory, and as long as they didn’t make any missteps, they weren’t likely to run into too many problems.
But all the lead-up seemed to pay off anticlimactically. Contrary to all of Velgrynd’s expectations, it was only Rimuru coming at her.
Victory’s mine, then. If he had his entire army join him, it would’ve been a rough slog, but…
No matter how wary she needed to be of him, Velgrynd knew that if she and Veldora worked together, defeat was impossible.
Even so, however, this needed to be wrapped up immediately. If the demon lord’s army got in the way, it’d do nothing but prolong this battle—better to keep it short and sweet instead, Velgrynd thought. She always preferred to follow her gut instincts that way.
“Ludora! Give Veldora the order to strike the demon lord Rimuru with all his might for me, could you?”
“Mmm, you’re as wary of him as I am, then? In that case, no need for hesitation. Veldora! Defeat the enemy before you!”
Responding to her request, Ludora activated Regalia Dominion. Velgrynd was relieved to see the emperor taking this as seriously as she was—and since she knew he’d never let his guard down, victory now seemed assured. It was one demon lord against two True Dragons. Any other result was impossible to consider.
And so the terrifying battle was about to begin.
no matter how strong you are you cannot beat the strongest