Guy's POV
"What's wrong?" Velzard entered a hall with a small dinner table where I was holding my head with both of my hands.
"Six people just underwent the Harvest Festival at the same place, at the same time. As if that wasn't enough, one of them somehow teleported all the way over to the Eastern Empire." I could feel a massive headache coming.
"Huh?" Her eyes turned gold and started glowing, which meant she was probably listening to the Voice of the World. "Oh my, this IS a problem."
"What do you consider 'a problem'?"
"The Voice of the World reacted to this new Demon Lord. I quote: By the way, what the fuck."
"You're joking."
She sighed. "I wish I was. You know I wouldn't swear without a reason."
I sighed as well. "Can you bring that guy that got sent to the Eastern Empire over? I'd rather not let Rudra get a pawn like that."
"I suppose I- wait a moment." Her face got uncharacteristically terrified. "What in the world.."
"What's up?" As I finished that statement, an arrow flew over and hit Velzard.
It broke on contact, but something dared shoot an arrow at a True Dragon in her home.
When I looked, I found a skeleton covered in grey rags and ice shards that was holding out a bow. It didn't seem to have an ego, but it begs the question on how it even got here in the first place.
It wasn't made by either of our magicules, so it was from a third source.
"The Voice of the World itself is changing the Cardinal World.. What are these rules? 'Foreign World Integration Subroutine?' I didn't think my older brother had even considered that a possibility? But it seems to have already been there.."
"You're telling me another world is being integrated into the Cardinal World? Alright, that's enough inaction. Rain. Mizari."
Upon my raised voice, the two showed up.
"You are going to the Eastern Empire to bring a certain Awakened Demon Lord here."
"Understood, Lord Guy." They teleported away.
"Do what you will." I told Velzard. "I'm going to check out those five guys in that monster country."
"Got it. I'll try to find out more about this integrated world while you're gone." She replied.
And that led to the second time I visited Tempest.
...
Rimuru's POV
"Souei, what's going on?" I had just arrived at the Sealed Cave after a couple of hours of running and teleporting with the kids and Phil's unconscious body. His magicule count was skyrocketing as he seemed to fall into an even deeper sleep.
"A barrier was cast over Rimuru city, we haven't been able to contact them. However, a hundred knights left the city about six hours ago." Souei was worried. I could tell from his voice.
"I'm going there. Stay here. You and Gabiru should defend this place." I ordered Souei and Gabiru.
"What about the children?" Souei asked.
"I'll make sure no harm comes to them." They were assigned as my responsibility by Shizu. I couldn't let them out of my sight, at least for now.
"Where's Dave? I'm sure he could defend the city on his own."
"My apologies, but I-"
"Don't know." I sighed, accidentally cutting him off. "Why did I even ask if I knew you had no way of knowing it?"
Turning towards the door of the Sealed Cave, I called the kids. "Kids, come on."
The earth began rumbling, so everyone ran outside. No one wanted to be inside a cave in the middle of an earthquake, lest it cave in.
When we got outside, we saw the source of the seismic activity - a massive beam of magicules shot through the heavens.
"That was definitely from Dave."
...
Dream's POV
"Hey, I'm going to die if I stay here. I'm respawning." I told the Wither as I was ejected from Techno's body.
"No. You'll set free all of this soul mass." It replied.
"Sorry, but I don't care about a couple of souls more than about my own life. I'm leaving." I didn't really know the Wither, and I didn't trust it enough to let it seize me.
"Wait, don't-!" It didn't get to finish whatever it was saying since I burst out and away, tearing any barrier between me and my respawn location apart like mincemeat.
I felt disconnected from the world for a moment before I was pulled back in. I was no stranger to it, since that was how it felt to die and respawn.
As my body was reformed, I immediately looked around. I had spawned in the border of a forest and vast plains. I headed into the woods and immediately started punching a tree to get wood.
I had to leave Techno and the rest of the guys to avoid my demise, but I knew this world held beings far more powerful than us. Even with my ultimate skill Puppet King Somniator, it was likely some entity like Guy Crimson would show up to get me to join them.
With that in mind, I had to rush any and all gear I could aid myself with. I had to get my hands on fully enchanted diamond gear since I didn't know if I was safe or if I could even afford the luxury of running. I did have a trick up my sleeve if I needed it, but I'd rather not use it.
So I went through all the motions I had already memorised. Tear a tree apart with my bare hands. Fully, of course. Only the scum of the earth leave a log behind.
With wood in hand, I made a crafting table and a pickaxe. I didn't make many sticks since Probability Manipulation made those drop from the decaying leaves like orphan tears. 'Heh, someone has been influencing me.'
I quickly dug down to find stone and gathered enough for a furnace and an upgrade in tools. It didn't take long before I had found iron and coal.
I came back to the surface in search of sugar cane and a cow while I left the furnaces smelting. I needed an enchanting table to get at least some form of power up. My gear had sadly been used to reinforce Techno's own before the whole reincarnation thing, so I was back to square one.
I didn't know if I had enough time to get bookshelves to empower the enchanting process, so I settled with butchering the one cow I found with an axe and three sugar cane from a pond within the forest.
By the time I came back, all my iron was smelted. I once again upgraded my axe and pick, and got a shovel. I didn't bother with mere iron armour, a shield, or a water bucket since neither would save me if an actual threat showed up.
I picked up my furnace and crafting table and kept mining down. It took a couple hundred blocks as opposed to the usual in our old world, but I eventually found a massive chasm bordering stone and deepslate.
To no one's surprise, it was filled to the brim with mobs which quickly went hostile at me. Well, the ones that weren't engaged in a fight. Turns out the sudden appearance of my world's mobs here has consequences on the ecosystem. So most of the monsters were too busy waging war against each other to fight me.
The ones that didn't quickly met their end by an axe crit, which I noticed was dealing more damage than it should, and I had no idea why.
I didn't bother with it though, and kept traversing the caves, gathering all sorts of drops. Once again, Probability Manipulation spared me a few hours of grinding into about thirty minutes, by the end of which I had full diamond. I had also found a lava pool searching for the ores, which I came back to for obsidian.
It took me this long to remember I needed water to turn lava into obsidian. With a sigh, I made four buckets with the spare iron I had, which was ridiculously hard to do. 'Am I empowering these things somehow?'
I filled them with lava and brought them back up to the surface, not forgetting to grab my stations and a batch of lapis on the way back.
When I arrived though, I was greeted by a strange woman. "I was growing a little impatient with you. I almost tore this place apart to get you to come out."
Her azure blue hair was tied in twin buns with black ribbons, and her golden eyes bore straight into my soul. Her attire was something I hadn't seen before. It was a dress adorned with a golden dragon, but it was cut in half below the waist so her legs showed up on either side. Her arms had long white gloves and her legs matched with thigh length boots, both adorned with gold ornaments.
"Do I know you?" I asked, and I immediately regretted doing it. Now that I was focusing on this person, I could feel a strong aura radiating from her. It was as if she was a star giving out light to all the planets around her.
"You will. Do I have to make you follow me or will you come quietly?" She 'asked'.
"Let me think.. No." I immediately dashed at her, heightening my senses to try to find where Techno was. I had no idea how I would fare against her, but I was ready to fight for my life and my freedom.
To my surprise and mild relief, she was in between me and Techno. All that meant was that I could pull this trick off. Just before I hit her, I sent out an ender pearl I got from the caves. With the power and speed with which I sent it, it would be able to travel many kilometres.
Annoyingly enough, she glanced at the pearl. Regardless, I pulled out my diamond axe and struck at her.
The gear was stronger, yes, but it wasn't nearly enough. I had to get my hands on enchants to be able to do anything to her with my gear.
To my slight despair, the pearl was turned to ashes by some fire spell and I didn't teleport to it. She could block the teleportation.
"Well, you asked for it." She went on the offensive this time, and I barely had the time to block her lunge.
Her attack knocked me very far back, making me tear a hole through a tree in the process. "Damn. Who are you?"
"I'm the Marshal." She answered. "Burning Breath."
At her words, I immediately went on the run. I did not want to be in the way of that attack, whatever it was.
My suspicions were proven correct when her breath scorched the earth I was running on. The forest was set ablaze and the raging inferno was spreading unnaturally fast.
I dared to look forward, only to find her in my way. "Run, little mouse. See how that serves you." Her face was unamused. I was a bug to her.
Usually, I'd fight her head on for treating me like a weakling, but I remembered the powerhouses that inhabit this world. I didn't know who this was, but she was definitely a True Demon Lord or something similar.
As much as I would've liked to say that I'm also a True Demon Lord, she's probably lived in this world for far longer than I have. She could crush me in fighting experience. I only had one shot at beating her, though she'd probably see it coming.
I was left with using that trick to run. But odds were she had already set up a barrier to prevent any attempt at escaping. So now I was stuck with this freak of nature that loved arson more than Sapnap.
"Hey, chill out with all the fire." I called out. "Global warming's a pain in the ass."
She snorted. "Comedy, huh? I'll add that to the list of things you are completely inept at."
"Well, it's not my fault you don't appreciate a good joke. Haters gonna hate, I guess."
"I'm sure my sister could make a better joke than you." She stared at me with a smirk before going back on the offensive.
I leapt to the left to avoid her fist. "Oh, please. It's almost like I-"she landed a punch in my gut, shattering the diamond plate on her way and knocking me back. "Grh! Care about your sister. This is about you. And if I could watch a comedy show made by you I'd fail a try to laugh challenge."
I rolled below another strike from her. She seemed to prefer moves reliant on mobility, so all I had to do was keep dodging her assault until an opportunity came.
Eventually it did, when the barrier broke. I hadn't noticed it being placed, but Techno's still erratic aura had been cut off from my perception without me realising what was going on. Now that it was suddenly broken though, I could tell something changed.
I immediately ran away using the trick I kept up my sleeve: Minecceleration.
I focused on Techno's aura and kept going faster and faster. But not only was my speed increasing, so was my acceleration. With that, I ran.
To my surprise, she started doing the same. However, two almost Demon Lord-class entities got in her way. I didn't look back to check who they were, only focusing on reaching Rimuru city.
Slowly, the plains and plateaus I went through became one as my speed kept increasing exponentially. In a couple of minutes, the surroundings had become a blurry mess of dense green with the blue sky. I stopped using that ability once I reached Tempest..
Only to find a red haired demon there, holding Techno. "Shit."
2254 Words
A/N
Welcome back to the chaos. I had like 50% of this chapter done for a very long time but kept procrastinating on the rest. Your usual writer would be sorry. Me? Guilty as charged. Cope and seethe, idiots. This nonexistent upload schedule is here to stay.
Anyway, these last few weekends have been kind of busy for me to the point even Agent couldn't pull me into writing MHT (Or as I call it, Tensurademia), so if you're keeping up with that and wondering why the last couple of chapters have all been made only by him, that's why.
That's about it. See ya.