Chapter 168: Et Tu-Brute?
Emerging from a golden portal of holy light the resplendent figure of the Emperor of the Eastern Empire appeared. Golden robes swirling in the wind as his blond hair fluttered around chaotically. Beside him were several of his attendants. Armoured and attired with similarly gleaming accoutrements these soldiers were utterly cool looking for me.
Being from Japan and seeing physical western armour, like what was seen in numerous anime and shows, was beyond awesome. I mean, I had seen other examples of armours, but they all mostly had a 'fantasy' feel to them. Being completely illogical to Medieval combat from Earth. Not these guys though! They were in full plate armour like a medieval knight. There were even swords and shields held in their steel-mitted hands.
The wind buffeted everywhere around them and myself as I floated opposite to them. Ciel began to run multiple different measurements on them, giving me their magicule amounts and varying other physical information, all the while helping me figure out which magic would be good to use on them. Most likely I could end this fight here and now, but what was the fun in that? I mean, I am here to deal with them either way, may as well have fun. Ciel ridiculed that thought and gave me a mental slap up the side of the head, something I winced at as a certain magic came to mind... One I hadn't used in a long time.
"Is this all they sent to face me? A slime...?" His tone pissed me off.
"Sire, it may be that they cannot even face the angels we have summoned. Thus they sent the weakest foe to us to bide time?" One of the golden knights droned on his thoughts to the increasingly annoying man.
"Mmm, that makes sense. Very well. Slime, you have the honour of dying to my hand first, be honoured." Ever since I'd seen this guy fight Guy and also saw Silviana shoot some magic at him in Walpurgis, I had known him to be an enemy. Yet, this was testing the limits even for enemy, he was more of a pest that needed to ridden of before he spread his disgusting nature to more people.
'Strongly worded, but nonetheless I agree. No fun yes?'
'Nah! We'll have fun... It'll just be brutal fun for him!'
"It does not even speak, yet it can mimic humans. You have eaten a human, be gone..." He rose his hand, light emanating from between his fingertips as the darkness in the clouds surrounding us were vanquished. All within the exact moment he called upon his powers.
Hundreds of light spears punctured through the vapor in the air, zipping towards me at breakneck speeds. Air pad beneath my feet I pivoted. One, two... Thirty, One-hundred, all dodged in rapid succession. Ciel ate them and began to analyse the power within seconds, the facial expressions of the Emperor changing to one of genuine interest. His guards weren't as calm or stable in emotional control as they took a step forwards on air platforms created by their armour.
"Fowl beast, you shall not harm the Emperor!!!"
Magicule activation on the scale of a Unique Skill and Ultimate Skill radiated. Less than a second passed as Beelzebub swept out in the form of a vacuous blackhole, purple energy from the magicules being burnt straight into infons flared out as each skill's effect was consumed and identified. Isolated, then dissected for every type of power.
'Interesting, soul magic... Use this Rimuru.'
'Sure!'
Waving my hand the blackhole instantly pulsed with white energy, the entirety of the energy drained from the abilities being turned into a beam of particles that were indescribable to me as I did not know their makeup. Ciel however sent a small bleep of info for me, it was simply magicules with the type of soul. An interesting idea, and considering the lesson Silviana had just given us a day or so ago, it made me think there was something more to magic and stuff than just types of magicules.
Whilst i was busy thinking, my enemies were being consumed, body, spirit and soul. Spaghettification ensued, the once golden armour joining the chaotic wave of ravenous energy that was Beelzebub. The Emperor shielded himself as a golden shield rebuffed the hungry maw of my skill, the Ultimate Skill of the Emperor phasing himself and his shield out of existence slightly. It was like Obito from Naruto!
'Can I strike him still?'
'Affirmative, Beelzebub can still sap away his energy and so long as that is occurring there is very little that he can do to harm you.'
'Cockiness isn't good, think of something he can do, no matter how crazy it is to do.'
'Well, he can-'
Before she could even attempt to inform me he went and did something. The golden shield exploded out in a magnificent amount of magicules all at once. Sparks of radiant energy of crimson hue splashed into the sky as an arm was dropped. Blood seeped into the golden clothing of the emperor, his right arm now a freshly mulched stump that continued to drip blood onto the ground below.
Unfortunately, before I could even catch up to that, he began to emit a massive holy aura. Sinuous strands of flesh, muscle, bone, veins and tendon wriggled around and began to expand outwards. New parts of each element that made up an arm was created anew, until, at once, it was as if his arm had never come off.
"You, shall pay for that. Monster."
"What, like your mother did last night?"
His face appeared before my own in but a fraction of a second. Left hand aglow in holy flame, racing towards me in vengeance for the mother joke I just told, no doubt. At the same time Ciel transmitted to me that Silviana had just made a sacrificial move against the enemies above Tempestus.
'What the fuck am I doing, this is combat, not a game...'
'I cannot track her situation. Kill him, then we can help.'
Heat sprang towards my face but missed as I melted down into my slime form for a second. With all of the strength I could muster, the magic I had thought about manifested in my still humanoid hand. Black wreathed my forearm as ozone burnt the hair in his nostrils and on his face. A blade of sheer onyx hatred pierced upwards through the robes of the Emperor. BLACK LIGHTNING. A thunderclap resounded for miles as the sound of combat below was quelled by this ill omen. Shockwaves rocked the entire skyline as the clouds dispersed, instantly becoming rain fall. The Emperor grinned and held my arm, his assurance of his regeneration palpable. It was my turn to grin now however, as my arm was soon cloaked in a different level of darkness.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH....!"
The form of the Emperor almost glitched as two versions of himself broke free of one another. One red eyed and evil looking, the other blue eyed and calculative. Strings of themselves soon began to disperse from their body, as if a cleaver had been taken to half cooked noodles... Only for those chopped noodles to be siphoned down the drain of a sink.
"We- can't, die like this!"
"Noooo! I have a future... You can't kill me in the past!!!"
I scoffed as I remembered Silviana resisting the time stop of Ainz a few times. Time was powerful, esoteric and terrifying... But it was not infallible to change or readjustments.
"Stop me then..."
Shrieks continued for a moment more until their vocal cords were shredded. Their eyes watching their bodies disintegrate into my stomach whilst witnessing the grin I held on my teenage-like face. Madness fluctuated from the past version of Rudra, the Emperor, before his future was consumed and most of his life from the past was syphoned away.
'That was anti-climactic...'
'He was not a fighter, hence why he summoned the angels. Silviana is having the harder fight as of this moment.'
'So she side-lined me again?'
'No, most likely, she knew that the Emperor was an issue. Knowing her, she knew that you countered him hard. Where as her own abilities would be limited against him.'
'That phase ability would have been hard to fight against...'
'Not only that, he wouldn't underestimate her, since she attacked him at Walpurgis. Where as, you, he had no clue of the power level you had achieved.'
'So i got purely lucky that he didn't treat me seriously...'
'Exactly. Your Beelzebub skill syphoned a large amount of his magicules away and left him near bone dry... From my calculations he was attempting to flee with that large flare of holy magicules, but it failed because of the interference of some entity beside yourself.'
'So, I was aided! That makes sense! Felt way too easy.'
'Exactly.'
...
Meanwhile, in the warp...
"I wonder if I just, like, flicker with his magic a little..."
*POP*
"Oh... HAHAHAHAAHA! That was fun!"
"NO IT WASN'T"
"IT WAS, totally was..."
"Barely a change."
"Ohhh, we love change!"
"No we don't...!"
"yes, we, do. hehehehehehehehe."
Chaos abounded in a cavernous space of pure tumult and madness. Books floated amidst the stygian kaleidoscope of a library. Birds flew but also swam in what would, to a mortal, be considered air. Waves of fire crashed down onto library cases, if they could be called that since many were covered in tentacles... or were they vines? But instead of bursting into flames, the books exploded into more of themselves, only to drop into waters below and burst into 'wet-flame'. Apropos this situation is, the birds swung down and drenched themselves into the liquid, only to be turned to rodents or other mind-bending creatures that would most likely only be seen in the worst of nightmares.
In the middle of the eclectic, chaotic and confusing space was... Something. It defied description, defied all logic, whilst also being completely logical. Mortals would die from a mere cackle of this, entity, if it could be called that, if it 'was' that. Blood would fade to dust in its presence and hope would turn into dread, dread into hope. Laughter radiated this hall in abundance at this time, whilst also having cries and wails. To describe it would corrupt even the most sane of minds and even then to merely hear the whispers of its existence was to expose yourself to raw emotions of trillions of years of festering power.
BUT, for those who could see this creature, if they so wish... It was spectacular and grotesque all at once. An assault on the senses. Tentacles, beaks, mouths, teeth, lips, legs, arms, vines, steeples, anything and everything was cascading amidst this creature's form. Pillars rose from some sections in an attempt to make a house, or temple, only to be overtaken by fleshy grotesque wings or talons, embedded amidst rakishly blue skin. Mouths spoke to one another, multiple times a second, beyond time, amidst it, was, it...? Confused chaos reigned supreme amongst this form. An amalgam of existences' worst forms, most intriguing forms. Everything, seemingly.
"Invasion goes well."
"IT DOESN'T!!!!!!!!"
"BUT, it does..."
"WhY, mUsT we DO THis?!? Ag-hain?"
"Fooo00ood... HuNGrY, so, hungry...!"
"We love this."
"We hate this..."
"THis is ChAngE?"
"WHAT is CHangE...."
Words became garbled as the crooning sounds of greater demons cried out amidst the blue-stained halls of libraries. Books taken by some and read whilst others cawed and scraped eyes away from their allies, as if in jest... Or just for an adjustment in pacing. Reason was gone here, what was it really? And why was it? Why did you need it...
What is change...?
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