3rd POV
Another grand waves of energy began to surge through the air as the manas and the dragon started their battle.
At the first look, it seemed that Michael was on the higher ground as he launched attacks of enormous power to Rimuru without a single second of pause.
However, the reason why Rimuru didn't fought back and only defended was because he was waiting for the right moment.
As the fight against Michael began, Rimuru simultaneously sent his parallel self to the imaginary space where Velzard was in while the main consciousness was focusing on the fight with Ciel. He originally intended go there without separating his consciousness, but the situation didn't allow him.
He could just fight Michael alone, but that will take quite some time and would further increase the damage. That's why he decided to get some help.
"...Rimuru." Velzard, who was sitting on the floor with her head drooping, mumbled upon seeing him approach. She was back in her teenage girl's form sinceshe regained her sanity after Ciel's operation.
"Velzard-nee." Rimuru replied with a nod as he sat in front of her. Velzard dropped her head again, unable to hold his gaze.
"Raise your head Velzard-nee. You don't have to bow to your brother y'know." Rimuru said jokingly but she still refused to meet his gaze.
"...What's wrong? It's okay to tell me you know." (Rimuru)
"...I wanted." Velzard muttered in a low voice.
"I really wanted to beat you, not by the effect of domination. I wanted to hurt my brother just so I can win......" Velzard's voice sounded like she was gritting her teeth, trying her best not to cry.
"...I'm a failure of a family. To want the demise of sibling just because I'm jealous." Velzard said. A sniff occasionally escaped her as she couldn't hold back the tears of shame.
Then, she felt a pair of hands on her cheek which forced her to look up. What she saw was Rimuru smiling gently at her.
"It's fine. It's not wrong to feel jealous. Besides, you wouldn't have attacked me for that if it wasn't for Michael disrupting your mind." (Rimuru)
"B- but, gusu- I did. I- l- attacked you on my will. Uughu-" Velzard said. Tears started to trickle down from her eyes and she once again dropped her head only to be lifted again by Rimuru.
"I told you, it's okay. See? I'm not dead or hurt. You don't have to feel so guilty." Rimuru said as he offered a handkerchief to her.
Velzard didn't reply for a while and let out some occasional sniffles as she tried to calm herself down. Once she did, she looked at Rimuru with her eyes feeled with worry.
"...Don't you hate me?" Velzard asked in a shaky voice.
"Why should I? There's no reason for me to hate you." (Rimuru)
"But I-" Velzard tried to protest, only to get stopped by Rimuru.
"Velzard-nee, it's okay. I don't hate you. I was shocked when I found out, but that's all. I don't hate you, onee-chan." Rimuru said reassuringly. Velzard nodded slowly but she still looked uneasy.
"If you're still uneasy about it, then do me a favor." Rimuru said making her look at him with full attention.
"I'll do anything if I can apologize to you." (Velzard)
Rimuru tried to tell her again that there's no need to apologize but stopped as he decided it won't do anything.
"My other self is fighting Michael now and t want you to help me." Rimuru said. He paused for a moment and added, "Besides, I would like to fight with you instead of against you."
After he said that, he stood up and reached a hand out to Velzard which she took firmly without any hesitation. Her eyes were filled with new determination and relief that Rimuru still remained as her sibling.
"Then I'll be counting on you."
Right after he said that, the parallel self of Rimuru went back to the main consciousness which was fighting Michael with Ciel.
Velzard felt like something was pulling her out of the dark water and the next moment she was outside again with the sensation of breaking up the surface of water.
The first thing she saw upon coming out was Michael firing a ray of destructive energy at Rimuru. Immediately, she deployed her {Snow crystal} which was enhanced by her evolved ultimate skill, blocking the attack successfully.
Thanks to her, Rimuru was able to attack without pausing to defend. Michael, who wasn't able to avoid the incoming attack, got blown back with a huge gash in his stomach.
"Kuk- kugh!" Michael spat out a bout of blood, but before he could recover his stance,
"{Blades of emptiness}"
"{Infinite coldness}"
A series of attacks flew towards him in an incredible speed even for him.
Rimuru and Velzard's attack went smooth like water and sharp like a needle. The blades of the sword attacked their target mercilessly with pinpoint accuracy.
Attack after attack. When Rimuru slashed downward, Velzard will slash upward.
When Velzard attacked, Rimuru guarded her from the attack.
All Michael could do was desperately blocking the incoming deathly attacks.
The teamwork of siblings was wonderful that it almost seemed like they were one. It took Michael a lot of power and wounds to finally escape from the rain of assault.
"You... how did you make Velzard recover so fast?" Michael asked. His breathing was rough and the recovery was slow as there were too much wound.
It was also the work of Velzard. Her newly gained skill {Cthulu}, the wound made by her attacks were hard to recover and took a long time to heal.
'? What is he talking about?' Rimuru thought as he didn't understand why he was asking that.
<<It seems that he is raising question about why it didn't took long for you and Velzard to recover after absorbing her. Michael went through long recovery process after obtaining her dragon factor, which is different from what we did.>>
In short, he's not that smart.
<<Positive.>>
After hearing the explanation, Rimuru smirked and resumed attacking as he couldn't find any reason to answer him.
"{Blade of Gluttony}!"
"{Celestial severance}!"
Sound of two piece of metal clashing and explosions continued to rang around the forest until a crack of a metal echoed clearly throughout the sky, followed by a raging shockwave.
The pure strength of it swept through the forest like a rampaging tempest, making the surroundings as barren as the wastelands on the west side of the continent.
Once the shockwave died down, Michael's wounded figure was holding a handle of a sword. The blade was shattered into pieces and all that left was 3 centimeters of metal with jagged edge.
Before he could react, Rimuru moved in front of him. With a quick flick of his sword, he sent the broken sword flying from his hand and pointed the tip to his neck.
"{Frozen cell}"
Velzard's calm voice resounded in the quiet sky as she used her skill to create a retaining barrier to prevent Michael from escaping.
She also took some distance from Michael and Rimuru and was standing to the left of Rimuru in case of Michael use some tricks that will impact both of them at the same time.
It was the right decision as Michael immediately tried the suicide attack only to be stopped by Rimuru who absorbed his energy, resulting in small explosion that didn't have much impact.
"It's over now Michael. Tell your subordinates to surrender immediately and never come back." Rimuru said as he let the black shadow creep from his sword to his body, making him unable to make any movements.
"If not?" Though his body was restrained by black shadows, his voice was still full of defiance as he glared at Rimuru.
Rimuru let out his aura directly at him as a response. Michael tried to resist, but was helplessly patrified by the immense aura.
"Then I'll kill them all until there's not a single piece of soul left."
Rimuru draw his sword back and raised it upward to deliver a final blow when suddenly Michael began to laugh upon staring at the roaring aura cladded around his sword.
"Haha- kugh- hahaha! So that was it! I wondered why your aura was so familiar. He was right! Ahahaha!"
'What is this guy blabbering ing about. Has he gone crazy from the shock or something?' Rimuru thought as he looked disdainfully at Michael laughing crazily.
"No matter how much enemy you kill, in the end you'll lose everything you cherish. Just like he did." Michael let out his last curse before making Rimuru feel a little uneasy, but he soon ignored that.
"There's no need for me to hear neither your curse nor last word. Just die. {Slash of the end}" Rimuru's blade dropped down with a flash, destroying every last bit of Michael's soul, erasing him once and for all from the world.
That moment, the mighty power that threatened the fate of cardinal world was defeated.
"And that ends it all. Let's go Velzard-nee, they'll be waiting." Rimuru said as he descended to the ground. Velzard gave a nod and followed him.
At the surface, Ramiris and dryads were starting to heal the demolished forest. They had made quite a mess, but thanks to Ramiris, it doesn't seem to take too long.
After talking to Ramiris, they went down to the 100th floor where everyone was cheering for the victory.
The other places had also won against the enemies and were recovering the damage.
All of the monsters from the Jura forest had gained victory. Though some of them were wounded especially the ones who went to Milim's territory and Ruberios, there weren't uncurable damages.
Obera's force had took serious damages and their recovery was slow, but it wasn't something that was uncurable too.
All around the world, everyone was cheering for the winning of the great war.
Rimuru POV
As I was getting reports from his subordinates around the cardinal world, the door behind me crashed out from its frame and Milim came rushing towards me.
"Uncle Rimuru! I won nanoda!" Milim exclaimed as she began to brag about how she defeated the insect demon lord Zeranus.
She was wearing a black armor that had cracks and cuts all over the surface, but the person who was wearing it didn't seem to care much about it as she continued to talk about her victorious moment.
As I was listening to her story, Veldora and Ramiris also barged in and began to tell their own stories, especially Veldora who won against Dagruel.
"Dad, we won!" Kumara came running to me with a happy shout and jumped toward me. She turned into her child form midair and landed right into my embrace.
"Yes, we won. Thanks to all of them fighting hard." I said with a smile as I patted her head.
Ciel had also came out and was standing wordlessly with a gentle smile as she took my left hand with hers.
A day had passed cleaning off the remnants of the battle and the others have came to the labyrinth. Velgrynd-nee came too with Rudra by her side.
"Nice to meet you, or should I say, it has been a long time?" Rudra said as he looked at me with his usual confident grin.
"Ah, so you remember?" I replied as I glanced at Velgrynd-nee who was standing right next to him. It seemed that this man really is my brother in law. I don't really like his cocky sides but there's nothing for me to say.
It's not my job in the first place to evaluate someone who was chosen by my sister, right?
"Can you explain why is there two souls in your body?" Ciel, who was looking at the two silently with Kumara, asked. I also noticed the weirdness in his soul, and it seemed to have intrigued her.
"Woah, there's two of you? Anyways, the other soul is the original owner of this body. I 'borrowed' him since the situation was urgent." Rudra replied.
At first I considered punching him for looking at my wife like he just saw something interesting, but then, Velgrynd-nee told him about it quickly as she saw my expression get crooked.
Then when it came to what he had done, I couldn't help myself but pity this boy who got possessed by this overconfident hero.
"Then would you mind if we take him out?" I said with devilish smile as a good idea came to my mind.
"...Of course."
With that, I instantly absorbed him and Ciel quickly and precisely separated Rudra's soul and put him in the clone of the body. But before I let him out, I gave him a hyperspeed spin that left him dizzy as the payback for his earlier reaction.
Ignoring his reproachful glare, I had a talk with the boy whose name was Masayuki. After explaining the situation, Ciel sent him back to his original world and timeline.
After parting with the two I went over to Velzard-nee who gave me a usual bright smile. It was nice to see her back to normal.
"Velzard-nee, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Is the dragon castle still there?"
"Well, none of us ever returned since you disappeared and left that place. But I'm sure it's still there. Want to go there now?"
I gave it a thought for a while and replied, "Not now. Maybe tomorrow."
"Sure." Velzard-nee replied.
Velzard-nee and Kumara also chatted for a while and then me, Ciel and Kumara went to the 99th floor where the forest with colorful leaves came to our view.
It was so calm and peaceful that it made me forget about the fierce battle for a while.
We walked until we reached a house near the rocky mountain range with maple trees surrounding it.
The house was built yesterday based on Kumara's memory. With the ability of mine, it didn't took long for construction to be completed.
"So, what do you think about it?" I asked as I laid one of my hand on Kumara's shoulder while putting the other on Ciel's.
"It's perfect!" Kumara said with a bright smile as she ran into it, looking around the interior.
Me and Ciel just watched her enthusiastically moving around with a fond smile as we too slowly walked in.
"This surely is nice, isn't it Ciel?"
"Fufu, of course dear." Ciel replied with a contented giggle.
Now that the struggle was over, the time of peace have come. One day, Veldanava-nii will revive and then I can live happily with everyone.
What a happy ending of a story, isn't it?
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Hi guys!
Long time no see.
Though it's kinda late, I give you readers my sincere gratefulness for reading and liking this story and helping me reach the 100+ followers! I had no idea that this many people would like my story when I first started. How should I say this; it was really unexpected and surprising.
Again, I'm so thankful for all of the supports you guys gave me. It really means a lot to me. Thank you so much!
Also, this story almost reached 50k views and 2k votes, yay~ And so.... I would like some praises! > <
Anyways, as always, thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed reading!
P.S
The reason for the long delayed update was because I got sick and a devil called midterm attacked me. (Well, at least I'm recovering now.)
Also, this isn't the end even though the last sentence looks like it.