Final Decisive Battle Part 3
A tremendous impact coursed through Velda’s hand that stopped Milim’s extremely fast sword.
The strength behind the attack was beyond Velda’s expectation and he failed to parry it. The proof of the power was that the Snake Sword used by Velda got destroyed.
When he saw the broken sword in his hand, agitation was shown for the first time on Velda’s expression.
It then became anger.
「Geez, you’re really going to bother me till the end……」
While annoyed, Velda threw surges of anger towards Milim. However, Milim calmly parried that anger. On the contrary, Milim began to pursue Velda who wore an expression that said: “How unpleasant”.
Milim was unconcerned about whatever her opponent was thinking and continuously attacked Velda with strong intentions to crush him.
Her speed increased intensely with every sword stroke and began catching up with Velda’s movement.
Velda was dodging Milim’s slashes, but he gradually lost his calm.
As one would expect, not even Velda could endure Milim’s attacks unarmed.
「How vexing!」
Velda put his hands together and shouted「Divine Sword Creation[1]」.
The space between Velda’s hands shone and a sword was created.
Divine Sword “Abyss[2]”―― it ranked the lowest amongst Divine Swords and Demonic Swords, but it was still a full-fledged God Class Weapon.
Velda could create a God Class armament with his own ability.
And then, the sword dance began.
A disconnected space that would cut anything that came into contact with its circumference was formed due to Velda and Milim’s sword fight.
Milim had finally set foot into the same domain as Velda.
Milim cornered Velda inside the deadly space just for the two of them without room for anyone to interfere, where they put all they got into their deadly sword that would break each other’s『Barrier』with one blow.
While on the other hand, Velda――he felt the signs of his plan collapsing while taking on Milim’s pure will.
He had lost the superiority in war potentials and had now been cornered.
Although he couldn’t kill Milim whom is his capture target, Milim’s greatly increased strength made it hard for Velda to go easy on her.
It didn’t mean Velda was out of options, but his pride hindered him from carrying them out.
However, it seemed it wasn’t the time to say that stuffs with how things turned out now.
Even now, the pressure transmitted from the fierce sword exchanges was increasing even further.
Just like piercing through the gaps of his focus, Milim’s kick hit Velda’s stomach.
(――how troublesome)
Velda changed his thoughts as if throwing them away.
Milim was absolutely necessary for Velda’s goal thus he couldn’t kill her.
Having said that, there was a risk that Milim would eventually gain enough strength to match his if he kept fighting like this.
Moreover……
Whether they were preparing for an unforeseen situation or not, the two True Dragon sisters were glaring at the battlefield. Velzard’s support of Milim earlier was also annoying.
His attacks to disempower them couldn’t completely breakthrough Velzard and Milim’s defenses.
When he glanced to see the battlefield’s current situation, Guy and Rudra were fighting on equal terms.
Damrada and Kondou seemed to be overpowered, meaning that at this rate their defeat was only a matter of time.
(――I guess it’s time. The fight with all of the war potentials has been exhausted, the Great Heaven-Monster War is over.)
As Kagurazaka Yuuki[3]’s last wish, Velda had completely carried out the Great Heaven-Monster War.
He was at a disadvantage in the game, but the result wasn’t out yet.
That’s why Velda came to a decision.
He would unleash all of his power and achieve his goal all at once.
◆◆◆
Diablo calmly took a stance and observed Damrada.
Just with reproduced memories, Damrada could freely use the same techniques (arts) as when he was alive.
It seemed his energy had greatly increased and his Ultimate Gift was reproduced as well.
Even with simple calculations, it could be sensed that his energy was almost twice of Diablo’s.
(Kufufufu, wonderful. He’s perfect as an opponent.)
Diablo was grateful for his good luck.
He devoted himself to train every day to be of use to Rimuru, his master.
Developing a new type of magic or training their combat techniques (arts), such things were what everyone was doing if they were Rimuru’s subordinates.
However, Diablo was different.
He just accompanied Rimuru whom developed new techniques with a flash of inspiration.
However, that wasn’t something that anyone could do. That was because the terrifying power of the new techniques could greatly affect someone even when holding back after all.
Diablo was one of the few people who could participate in such experiments calmly.
Then, while he was accompanying Rimuru in such recklessness, he realized that his magic theory[4] was more refined than before and his strength changed.
Yes―― Someone’s strength wasn’t determined just by the magnitude of their energy.
How it was used is more important.
The most important thing is to eliminate wasteful usage and bring forth the greatest effect even when using a small amount of energy.
It would be a different story if someone had『Magic Power Generator』 which could amplify magic essence endlessly like Milim, but thinking with an out of norm being like her as the base was wrong.
That’s why Damrada was a perfect opponent for Diablo.
From Diablo’s judgment, if he fought both Damrada and Kondou at the same time, his winning percentage was about a bit over 50%.
He could risk his life and put everything he had to see the path to victory by any means.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t carry out Rimuru’s order with that method. That would be pointless.
However, such worries were also unnecessary as Diablo expected.
Veldora and the others had arrived with perfect timing.
(As expected of Rimuru-sama.)
Diablo was satisfied and observed Damrada.
He would be at a disadvantage if he fought both Damrada and Kondou, but if it was just Damrada alone, the story would turn out differently.
Damrada’s energy was nearly twice of his and his combat skills surpassed Ultima.
However, there was no problem at all.
Diablo is a demon, melee combat was no more than mere child’s play for him.
Magic is the basic combat technique for a demon which is a spiritual life-form.
Now that Diablo obtained an Ultimate Skill, his magic has shown further growth.
Even the size of energy is no longer a problem, he could circulate his energy with the highest efficiency to control the consumption―― he produced a fully harmonized effect.
That could also be applied to melee combat techniques.
Diablo parried Damrada’s masterful attacks while supporting his own body by activating partial strengthening.
He compensated for the big difference in energy by offsetting the power and technique behind Damrada’s fists and kicks with his fists and kicks which were strengthened with magic.
That was the completed Magic Melee Combat Technique[5] which combined magic and techniques.
Testarossa and the others were speechless while looking at the combat techniques which were probably based on a new theory.
Even the recovering Ultima was amazed and watched the fight between Damrada and Diablo with intense concentration.
For this reason, Diablo decided to show what he could really do.
「I enjoyed this fight very much. You were perfect as a training partner, but let’s end this soon. I shall show you what I can really do as my thanks for hurting Testarossa and the others.」
Diablo declared the end of the match and refined his magic power to the maximum with ultrafast magic power excitation[6].
Diablo’s energy broke free of its maximum value immediately. He had drawn an equivalent amount of energy to his maximum energy out from Rimuru’s『Nihility Collapse』. Besides that, he absorbed the surroundings’ particles and instantaneously reinforced his body. He reconstructed a strong body that could withstand handling a high amount of energy by taking in the matter from his surroundings.
That was completed in a blink of an eye.
Without any time lag, Diablo transformed into his combat form.
And that was Diablo’s Ultimate Form.
While wearing a cool smile, Diablo dealt with Damrada’s kicks.
Unlike earlier, Diablo easily stopped Damrada’s full powered kicks with one hand.
The reason was simple and clear.
His energy had doubled and it became possible for him to bring out the same strength as Damrada.
However, considering they fought each other evenly when Diablo was at half of his energy, it could be said that the outcome was already clear as day.
「As a human, you were a wonderful expert. If you still had your soul, it might become a more interesting fight. However, that’s nothing more than a ‘what if’ situation. The result won’t change――」
Diablo completely overpowered and crushed all of Damrada’s attacks.
Damrada just indifferently repeated his attacks without emotion.
But, Diablo had read him thoroughly and lost interest in this fight.
「Let’s end this now―― Celestial End[7]!!」
An annular magic circle[8] completely covered Damrada’s body surface.
Without any words.
Without any fear.
Without any grief.
Damrada just quietly became light particles and disappeared.
Then, all of the particles were absorbed into Diablo through the annular magic circle.
At the same time as Damrada disappeared, Diablo released his combat form.
Although he used it composedly, the burden of magic power excitation wasn’t low.
Above all else, Diablo poured the collected energy flowing out from Damrada into『Temptation World』he created. Although he intended to absorb the energy with different quality slowly, handling the energy of『Nihility Collapse』he borrowed from Rimuru at the same time was beyond the tolerable capacities even for Diablo.
In contrast with End of World’s main purpose of large-scale destruction, Celestial End’s main purpose is to convert the target into energy and absorb it.
If you considered the power, End of World was higher, but Celestial End was better as an anti-individual attack.
「Diablo, you――」
Testarossa called out Diablo.
「Kufu, kufufufufu. As expected, I was too greedy to steal the energy…… I’m not good enough….. It seems I’m far behind Rimuru-sama…...」
「What was that technique just now? It looked like magic, but――」
「That’s right. It’s the fusion of Ultimate Skill and magic and its evolutionary series. I learned it while cooperating with Rimuru-sama who had developed it for fun. Because it’s still an incomplete technique, a stable usage is still difficult.」
「That’s not fair, it’s just you who……」
「Kufufufufu, that’s the perks of it.」
Diablo bragged to the bitter Testarossa.
After all, this new technique style was a magic theory created in joint development with Rimuru who Diablo admired.
Although, to be precise, it was Ciel not Rimuru, but that wasn’t things Diablo was concerned with.
「Well, I shall teach you guys once this magic theory is completed.」
In the end, Testarossa and the other two’s pursuit didn’t end until Diablo promised so.
◆◆◆
Veldora was fighting against Kondou.
Velda had said the energy was equivalent to 10 awakened demon lords, but the energy didn’t actually reach that number.
From Veldora’s calculation, the power was no more than half of that.
Moreover, the quality of his Ultimate Skill seemed to have degraded, as such, Kondou couldn’t execute attacks as he imagined.
He was also given an Ultimate Gift like Damrada, but that was no more than a mass produced type of pseudo Ultimate Skill. Its crude performance couldn’t be compared with the Ultimate Skill created by Kondou’s soul.
This was the reason why Carrera, whose energy should be overwhelmingly smaller, succeeded in nullifying Kondou’s bullets.
「Tch, this doesn’t work either, huh?」
Kondou clicked his tongue while trying to shoot energy bullets.
As the result of calmly analyzing the combat, Kondou understood that he couldn’t win.
If that were the case, he had no other choice but to fight with the full extent of his power in order to accomplish Velda’s order.
In contrast, Veldora still had strength to spare.
「Kuahahahaa! You seemed to have quite a wonderful personality, but in the end, you’re just a temporary one. It’s reasonable that you are unable to demonstrate your original strength with an imitation Ultimate Gift rather than the Ultimate Skill born from your soul!」
Veldora told Kondou while laughing.
Kondou’s strength was genuine, but his current body was a temporary one. Not to mention, he wasn’t worth considering as he had no soul.
That’s why Veldora did various things such as observation, gathering information and so on
Kondou was a soulless doll given a temporary ego. Even so, he inherited his original self’s advanced combat techniques (arts) and used his Ultimate Skill even though it was a degraded version of it.
Although the concept was different to the pseudo core Rimuru made, it was a very interesting mechanism.
(Fuufuufu, If I were to analyze this mechanism and teach it to Rimuru, he will certainly be grateful to me! As Ramiris’ Shishou, it will be fun to research it together. I’d like to have at least one sample, well――)
As were his thoughts as he ignored the fight.
So, when Diablo easily ended Damrada, Veldora kept fighting Kondou without killing him.
(Hmmm!? That Diablo, it seems he has ended it quickly. Then, if I don’t end this too, the fact that I’m loafing around will get exposed.)[9]
Veldora lightheartedly thought so, but that judgment was a bit too late.
「…… I see. Then, as expected, there’s only one way I shall take ――」
Kondou decided without hesitation and executed it.
Veldora was powerful, and he had realized that he couldn’t win even before fighting.
For him to be able to deal a blow to Veldora’s main body before him while he was still alive was the result of multiple strokes of good luck……
That’s why Kondou faithfully carried out the order.
「――Overdrive[10]」
In other words, it was a self-destruction.
◆◆◆
Velda confirmed that Kondou entered self-destruct mode and muttered「That will do」.
He looked around and smirked.
「What’s so funny!?」
Milim’s sword approached Velda, but it was easily parried by Velda’s Divine Sword “Abyss”.
Velda’s skill had reached a terrifying level to the extent that he could fight several people even with the inferior Snake Sword. Now that the superiority in weapons was gone, Milim couldn’t reach Velda even though her strength had increased.
And, Chloe was also unable to demonstrate her true strength.
There was one reason.
It was because she felt an uncomfortable feeling with Velda’s abilities.
Chloe always acted carefully. She wouldn’t take action like fighting with all her strength so that she could respond in any way depending on the situation.
Her basic style was to fight while using Future Foresight[11] of Ultimate Skill『Time-Space God Yog-Sothoth』.
However, Chloe was unable to recall future memories right now. That meant that even if something were to happen, she couldn’t escape to the past.
(Is there a barrier that impedes certain abilities in the heaven? Or, is it Velda’s inherent skill?)
She verified that the other abilities could be activated without any problem and presumed that it was probably a skill that interfered with movement between space-time.
In other words, it meant that she couldn’t escape from this space with Transfer. Perhaps the only way to get in and out was by passing through the gate.
The angels who were spiritual life-form might have been able to return directly after registering the heaven as their base. However, the intruders couldn’t escape.
(I wonder―― is this some kind of trap to make us unable to escape?)
When Chloe thought so, Velda opened his mouth as if answering that.
「Hahahahaha! As expected of the pinnacle beings of this world. For you guys to oppose me this far. All right, I suppose I have to show you what I can really do soon. However――」
Kondou turned into light particles and became a small round orb.
The light particles were converging towards the center and suddenly reversed.
A small sun appeared in the heaven due to the rampage of super-high dense energy accompanied with intense lights.
「Uohhh!!」
Veldora fully released his magic power to suppress the sun and barely maintained its state just before it exploded.
However, Veldora’s complexion worsened as he suppressed the sun and felt the pressure increasing steadily.
「However―― I shall be the opponent for those who survive this explosion.」
Saying so, Velda embraced Milim forcibly.
「Mnnn, what are you trying to do!」
Milim struggled while shouting, but the jet black chains that came out from Velda’s left hand twined around and sealed her movement.
Dark Nebula[12]――the chains made with dark matter that absorbs all energy.
Even this explosion, even Milim’s raging power, was not enough to destroy these chains. It was God’s Chains that was more powerful than Gleipnir, which succeeded in sealing Dagruel in the past.
With these chains, Milim and Velda would be completely protected from the explosion. However, the other people would be exposed to a direct hit from the explosion. A raging explosion of energy equivalent to 10 awakened demon lords would spread a transcendental destruction which surpassed “True Dragons” even though just for a moment.
Since it was destruction by sheer force, energy greater than it was needed in order to defend against it.
「You fool! If only you ended it immediately――」
Velzard angrily moved.
Before the power suppressed by Velda was unleashed, she intended to cooperate to put it out.
The other people also tried to move at the same time, but――
「Don’t misunderstand my words, okay? The explosion I mentioned is the one I’ll start up over here. Rudra, I wonder why you could defy me, but that doesn’t matter anymore. I wanted to investigate the cause, but you have your work anyway.」
Saying so, Velda looked at Rudra while sprouting a wicked smile.
「It can’t be――you bastard!!」
Guy shouted.
He ignored Rudra and tried to go towards Velda, but he was too late.
「Good bye, Rudra. Star Breaker[13], activate!!」
At that moment, everyone was still as if time had stopped.
Even the explosion from Kondou’s self-destruction was expected to be strong enough to inflict a massive damage even to “True Dragons. If supposedly energy of a “True Dragon” class was to break through its limits and explode…… It was predicted to produce a tremendous destruction beyond imagination.
Moreover, the skill and magic of transfer series were sealed off in this heaven, there was no escape.
Guy, Velgrind, and Chloe, the three of them surrounded Rudra simultaneously. Velzard, who was heading towards Veldora, also turned towards Velda after seeing the demons moving to support Veldora.
And the four people desperately began to offset the energy, but the process leading to the explosion was faster――
「Rudra……」
「Damn it, things turned out like this…… I guess it can’t be helped, Guy. It seems I can’t settle my score with you……」
Rudra helplessly laughed.
And then he muttered quietly「Please survive――」.
Immediately after, Rudra was engulfed in intense lights――
「Veldora, I leave that one to you! Don’t fail, okay!?」
「Kuaaaahahahaha! Of course. If I fail here, I will be killed by my sisters!」
While Veldora’s carefree laughter echoed, a girl appeared among the four people who surrounded Rudra.
「Eh, Sensei――!?」
When Chloe opened her eyes wide in surprise, the energy that should have exploded was subsided into a small round orb on the girl’s palm.
And then the girl broadly grinned and smiled,
「Yo, sorry to keep you guys waiting!」[14]
So, she boldly declared.
[1] 神剣創造 Shinken Souzou.
[2] 深淵(アビス) Shin’en (Abisu). Both mean the same thing.
[3] 創造主(ユウキ カグラザカ) Souzoushu (Yuuki Kagurazaka). Written as Creator, read as Yuuki Kagurazaka. I prefer Japanese order name btw XD.
[4] 魔法理論 Mahou Riron. You could say his understanding of magic.
[5] 魔法格闘術 Mahou Kakutou Jutsu. Magic Hand-to-Hand Combat Technique.
[6] 超高速魔力励起 Choukousoku Maryoku Reiki.
[7] 星天円環滅覇(セレスティアルエンド) Seiten Enkan Meppa (Seresutiaru Endo). Celestial Ring of Supreme Annihilation.
[8] 円環魔法陣 Enkan Mahoujin. A ring-shaped magic circle/formation.
[9] ED Note: Veldora's new nickname: The Tsundere King of Screw-ups!
Guro: Tsundora still the best.
[10] 自己暴走爆覇(オーバードライブ) Jiko Bousou Bakuha (Ōbādoraibu). Self-Rampage Supreme Explosion.
[11] 未来予知 Mirai Yochi. Future Prediction/Premonition.
[12] 暗黒星雲縛(ダークネビュラ) Ankokuseiun Shiba (Dāku Nebyura). Dark Nebula Shackles.
[13] 星光爆覇(スターブレイカー) Seikō Bakuha (Sutā Bureikā). Starlight Supreme Explosion.
[14] ED Note: Veldora could learn a thing or two from Rimuru's timing.